Marlene R. Dyck, is a therapist and life coach, who uses her many years of experience in counseling and psychotherapy to benefit clients across Winnipeg, Selkirk, and Niverville, Manitoba. We launched her informative website last week - www.marlenerdyck.com.

We wish Marlene R. Dyck the very best in her quest to help people live happier lives!

At Video Factory, the videographers provide affordable video production, wedding videography, and other related services in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We launched their beautiful website last week - www.videofactorynm.com
Here’s wishing Video Factory the best of success!

The wholesale produce distributors at Fresh Start Foods offer an extensive array of whole fruits and vegetables. They also manufacture the finest pre-cut produce in a variety of convenient formats across Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. To help them cater to a broader range of clientele, we launched their new website last week - www.freshstartfoods.com

Here’s wishing Fresh Start Foods the very best of success!

The legal professionals at Pappas Law Firm specialize in personal injury law, family law, and litigation services across Toronto and the GTA. They pride themselves in providing superior legal services in a timely, efficient and effective manner. 

To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their website last week - www.pappaslaw.ca
Here’s wishing everyone at Pappas Law Firm the best of success!

The Scooter Shop provides a wide variety of wheeled mobility products like mobility scooters, power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment. They also offer full-service maintenance and repairs of wheeled mobility products across Ellicott City, Baltimore, Prince George’s County, Washington DC, and Maryland. 
To help them showcase their products to a wider audience, we launched their website last week - www.yourscootershop.com
Here’s wishing The Scooter Shop the very best!
 

The cinematographers at Stavrovideo Productions create beautiful, lasting memories by capturing the essence of your special moments. They offer videography services for weddings and other events like bar and bat mitzvahs, baptisms, corporative events, commercials and music videos among others in Los Angeles, California. To help them showcase their work to a wider audience, we launched their gorgeous new website last week - www.stavrovideo.info

Here’s wishing Stavrovideo Productions the best of success!

The window tinting experts at JT Window Tinting provide professional tint services for home, vehicle and business windows across Los Angeles, CA. They pride themselves on helping clients choose films that offer reliability and endurance. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their attractive and informative website last week - www.jtwindowtinting.com

Here's wishing JT Window Tinting the very best!

The interior designers at Josée Lalonde Design believe your home is where you inhabit your style and offer a wide range of services including color and design consultation to decorating and home staging in Victoria, BC. We launched their new and elegant website last week- www.joseelalondedesign.com.

We wish Josée Lalonde Design the best of success!

Baila Floors provide expert residential and commercial flooring with quality installation of carpets, hardwood flooring, tiles, vinyl flooring, laminate flooring, and luxury vinyl tile flooring across Palo Alto, Los Altos, San Francisco. We launched their beautiful new website last week- www.bailafloors.com. Here’s wishing Baila Floors the best of success!

Property Preservation Specialists, LLC has licensed home inspectors who provide home inspections and computer-generated reports in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. We launched their beautiful and informative website last week - www.ppsprotect.com.

Temperature Technicians Heating & Cooling provide commercial and residential HVAC services including air conditioners, refrigeration, gas furnaces, gas piping, gas fireplaces and much more to clients across Brighton, ON. To help them reach a wider audience, Webware launched their informative website last week: www.temperaturetechnicians.ca

Webware is proud to announce that we are officially recognised as a certified Google Partner.

To become a member of the globally recognized Google Partner Program, marketing agencies must possess exceptional knowledge of Google Adwords to implement successful Adword campaigns, increasing ROI for their customers. The Google Partner badge signifies that Webware has met AdWords spend requirements, delivered company and client revenue growth, and sustained and grown its client base.

Webware’s digital marketing services are trusted by Google to get businesses more visibility and traction online. As a member of the Google Partners Program, Webware will be offering expert adword marketing services and support as a premium product. In addition, Webware will have exclusive access to Adwords promotional offers, specializations, events, and more.

Check out our Google Partner profile by clicking here.

Security professionals at Ventas Security Systems Corp are trained to meet security demands for residential and commercial alarms, and integrated security systems in Vancouver, BC. 
To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new and informative website last week: www.vsscanada.com

Arc and Crown Media Inc is a video production agency in Toronto, ON that offers a wide range of video production services across Toronto, Mississauga, North York, Vaughan, Oakville, Hamilton and surrounding areas. We launched their gorgeous website last week - www.arcandcrown.com

Tropicalaser has highly trained, and experienced technicians who provide various skin treatments including laser hair removal, skin tightening and rejuvenation, body sculpting, cellulite reduction, and micro blading services in Edmonton, AB. We launched their brand new website last week - www.tropicalaseralberta.com. 

We wish Tropicalaser the very best.

The Law Office Of Tony Ramos, P.C. offers effective and prompt legal counsel and services to clients in San Antonio, TX. We launched their new website last week - www.tonyramoslaw.com

Destined Dreams is Hamilton’s most affordable, trusted & talented home staging & redesign company. They offer professional home staging & styling, redesign services to homeowners & real estate agents across Hamilton, ON. We launched their beautiful website last week - www.destineddreams.ca.

As flooring experts in Cobourg, Brighton ON, Sine's Flooring provide hardwood, laminate flooring, vinyl, ceramic, natural stone, carpet and window coverings to help you create the space you’ve have always wanted. To help them reach a wider audience, Webware launched their new website last week - www.sinesflooring.ca
We wish Sine's Flooring the very best!

CAPCO Health Group provides health protection to meet the needs of world travelers as well as stay-at-home professionals who desire access to the best in healthcare. We launched their new website live last week- www.capco.ca
Here’s wishing CAPCO Health Group the best of success. 

Connco Electric provides professional electrical services for residential and commercial applications across Winnipeg, Headingley, Oak Bluff, Selkirk, and Stonewall. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website last week - www.connco.ca

Kelsey Rose Fitness focuses on inspiring others to live a healthy active lifestyle, by offering Group Fitness, Personal Training, and much more across Downtown Toronto and in the North York Region. To help her share her passion for fitness and good health, we launched her fantastic and informative website last week - www.kelseyrosefitness.com

Home Sweet Loans is your one-stop shop for the best purchase, refinancing, second, private, and home equity loans cross Durham, Ontario. We launched their elegant and informative website last week - www.homesweetloans.ca

We wish Home Sweet Loans the very best in their ventures.

Accent Striping and Lettering Co. Ltd. provide vehicle lettering & wraps, striping & other services to clients across Westman and surrounding areas of Brandon, Manitoba. We launched their website, www.accentautotrim.ca last week. Here’s wishing Accent Striping and Lettering Co. Ltd the best of success. 

Keegan Casidy works with over 40 mortgage lenders to provide the best mortgage options across North Vancouver, Squamish, Burnaby BC. To help him reach a wider audience, we launched his new website last week - www.keegancasidy.ca

Our email newsletter is a one-stop resource for all the latest news and content about Webware.io, a digital toolkit to make your website and business successful online.

By signing up for our newsletter, you’ll have all the information you need related to website management, search engine optimization, reputation management, and a lot more.

Why should you subscribe?

Stay updated with the latest developments in online marketing, promotions that Webware.io is running, as well as guidelines and how to guides that will help your business succeed online.

Here’s what you can expect in our newsletter:

How-to guides: If you need help picking the right digital toolkit, avoiding costly online marketing mistakes, or general advice about taking your business to the top, our newsletter provides the guidance you need.

Interesting Articles: Our newsletter includes interesting, valuable articles to keep you entertained and informed.

Industry news: Stay up-to-date on the latest news trends in online marketing, website design, online reputation management, and e-commerce.  

Valuable blog posts: Preview our blog posts by clicking here, and head straight to the ones you want to read. Our blog is updated regularly with advice that will help take you to the top, information on valuable tools, product/service details, and trends in digital marketing.

Unmissable promotions: From time to time, we’ll share our most exclusive promotions with our newsletter subscribers. Don’t miss out!

We promise we won’t inundate your inbox with uninteresting information! Webware’s email newsletter is sent out bi-monthly with only the most relevant content for you!

Webware has all the ingredients to thrust your business into the digital spotlight, by designing the perfect plan that helps get your business online and reach potential customers. For a complete list of services we provide, please click here. If you have any questions about Webware, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us here!

Sign up for our newsletter now to stay in touch with us. Sign up here!

Method Architectural Designs is a full-service, Calgary-based architectural design company with acclaimed experience and design influence. To help them cater to a wider audience, we launched their elegant new website last week - www.methodarchitecturaldesigns.ca

Fresh Life Design offers home design consultations, space planning, interior decorating & design services across Comox, Campbell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their elegant new website last week - www.fresh-life-design.com

OneCore Construction is a general contracting company based in Regina, Saskatchewan that specializes in all areas of residential construction and renovation. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website last week - www.onecoreconstruction.ca

IVY Homes Care is a home health care specialist in Nashville, TN. Check their new website launched by Webware - www.ivyhomescare.com

Corey & Associates provide accounting, tax, and consulting services across Florida. We launched their new elegant website last week - www.accountantsmallbusiness.com

 

Empowering you with their solutions, the commercial & residential electricians at HManElectric provide electrical services across Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga ON. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their brand new website last week - www.hmanelectric.ca

O'Sheas Catering is a Tacoma based catering and event planning company, offering catering services across Seattle, WA. Webware launched their new website last week - www.osheascatering.com

Warwick Johnston is an expert mortgage agent offering a variety of mortgage services to clients across Milton ON, Toronto. To help them reach a greater audience, we launched their new website last week - www.mortgagesource.biz.
 

At Webware, we create and send out thousands of email campaigns a month for our customers. After building newsletters on the usual email marketing platforms, we felt the options available out there were too complicated. So we decided to make our own. 

Today, we are announcing the launch of "Newsletter".

"Newsletter" is the easiest email marketing platform you have ever used and it's available for free to every Webware customer right now!

Say goodbye to using those other complicated email marketing tools. Webware’s Newsletter platform makes it easier than ever to send out beautiful, engaging email newsletters. Stay in touch with your customers using our user-friendly newsletter platform right from the Webware dashboard.

First and foremost, it's simple to use. With "Newsletter", you can select the customers you would like to send an email to, write your email, upload images, style your text and click send. You can use an existing template or build your own format with "click and drag" boxes. Or if you know HTML, you can customize away. 

Once you've sent out the email, you can track the success of your newsletter. With Webware’s Newsletter, it’s simple to see if your newsletter is reaching clients and how effective it is. Easily keep track of how many people have opened your newsletter, clicked on the content in the email, or unsubscribed. Easily create a follow-up campaign to customers who showed the most interest by creating a new list based on clicks.

To learn more about how to use Webware's "Newsletter" email tool, please click here. To learn more about Webware's complete digital toolkit for business, please click here. 

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Your Checklist for a Successful Website Launch

The entire Webware.io team wishes you and your family a very merry holiday season and a prosperous New Year 2018! May the New Year be filled with lots of joy, health, and prosperity.

If you need any assistance from us during this holiday season, feel free to get in touch with us by clicking here, or give us a call at 1-844-WEBWARE.

Lawyers at The Foster Firm provide legal services to clients across Miramar Beach, Fort Walton Beach,  and Alabama FL. Here’s wishing The Foster Firm the best of success with their new website - www.fosterfirm.com

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With the holidays upon us, so too is shopping season. While big brands always do well during this time of year, small businesses are in a great position to grab a piece of the spending action.

With more and more people starting their holiday shopping online to research products and services and find stores nearby, small businesses can use their website and online strategy to reach customers who are ready to buy now.

If you’re a small business looking to make the most of holiday season shopping, here’s four ways to get customers through your door, all backed by Google research.

1. Be mobile-friendly. Mobile searches for “where to buy” grew over 85% in the past two years. Shoppers are switching out in-store browsing for online browsing. Even if they eventually head to the store to make the purchase, consumers are starting their research online, and they’re using their phones. Don’t miss out on the action with an outdated, unresponsive website.
2. Help customers with their online research with store and product videos. “Shop with me” videos are soaring in popularity on mobile—growing over 10X more in watch time over the past two years. Customers want to be sure they’re buying the perfect gift for their loved one (or themselves). Shoppers want more details than product specs. When Google calculated the amount of time people have spent watching unboxing videos just on their phones, it’s the equivalent of watching the holiday classic “Love Actually” more than 20 million times. By creating a video showing customers around your store, highlighting popular gift items, “unboxing” favourite products, or demonstrating a service in action, people can get a better idea of their potential purchases. You can upload the video to YouTube and your website, and share it on social media to reach your fans.
3. Be ready to help. With their online research complete and shopping list in hand, customers are prepared to buy ASAP. Make sure your website’s online chat is up and running, your phone number/contact information is visible, and there is staff ready to answer questions, offer suggestions, and expedite shopping. Whether you have an e-commerce store or not, being on-call to help customers can make all the difference.
4. Make your business easily accessible to last-minute shoppers. Mobile searches for “store hours” peaked on Christmas Day. Even with the best of intentions and hours of online research, procrastination and busyness prevail. Ensure your hours and location are very visible on your website, and your Google+ Business Account info is up-to-date, so when customers are looking to make that last minute purchase, they know where and when they can find you. Top Google searches include: “what stores are open near me on Christmas,” and “what stores are open right now.”

Get your small business on the holiday shopping map with these Google research-backed tips. Are you missing a strong online strategy or a mobile-friendly website? Webware has all the tools your business needs to get online and be seen by potential customers. Get in touch with the experts at Webware to get your business online, today. Visit webware.io for more details.

A Webware website and digital marketing package also makes a great gift for the small business owner in your life. Get started here.

Article source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/holiday-mobile-shopping-assistance/

ASG Wood Interiors Ltd deal with modern furniture designs, walk-in closets, mudrooms designs across Halton Hills, Mississauga. We launched their new website last week - www.asgwoodinteriors.com
 

Hockey Lion makes world-class hockey equipment accessible to Canadians. We launched their brand new website last week - www.hockeylion.ca

 

Blue Air One Heating & Cooling provides installation, repair, replacement, maintenance & financing for air conditioners, furnaces, boilers, hot water heaters, filters across Linden, Clark, Westfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, NJ. We launched their new website last week - www.blueaironenj.com
 

Insurance brokers at New Amsterdam Agency provide insurance coverage to clients across Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and the surrounding areas. We took their new elegant and functional website live last week - www.newamsterdamagency.com

James Curran CPA CA is an experienced chartered accountant offering a broad range of accounting, business advisory, and tax services across Concord, Richmond Hill. Webware wishes James Curran CPA all the success with their new website - http://www.jamescurran.ca/

With the fast-paced and dynamic landscape of the internet today, many small businesses are unsure of how to take advantage of an online presence. There are so many tools and strategies to boost a business’s bottom line, it’s difficult to know which ones are worth the time and money, and which are not.

To help you discover the right channels to get your business soaring online, we’ve answered your most burning website questions.

Can I get new business from a website and the internet?

Here are a few interesting facts:

• 84% of consumers believe that small businesses with websites are more credible than ones with only a social media page
• 83% of surveyed businesses that do have websites said “their online platforms gave them a competitive advantage over businesses without websites.”
• Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day
• Google users are increasingly relying on local and hyperlocal search to find products and services

If your business has a comprehensive online strategy, the internet is a great place to reach potential clients. If you aren’t sure where to start, Webware has created the perfect package for small businesses to get online quickly and efficiently. Our Digital Services Plan includes the perfect mix of marketing activities to get your business seen online.

Does a website guarantee business success?

Absolutely not. Unfortunately, a website is not the field of dreams. Just because you build it, does not mean the customers will all of a sudden start calling and buying your products. A website is an extremely useful tool for reaching new customers but it works best in conjunction with a full online strategy.

An online strategy that will help your business succeed includes a variety of components. Your plan for online success should include a website, ongoing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), a social media action plan, Google MyBusiness integration, review monitoring, backlinks, regular website updates like blog posts, and a regular email newsletter to customers.

I’m already on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Why do I need a website?

Social media platforms are great ways to communicate with your existing customers. However, when it comes to finding a business online, most people begin their search on Google. If your potential customers are searching for a new real estate agent, mortgage broker, doctor, contractor, or any other type of business, they’re not looking on social media. Your website puts you on the search-map.

In addition, a website offers a superior opportunity to outline your products and services. There’s no clicking through a Facebook profile to find what your business provides or doesn’t provide. An instagram profile offers little to no information beyond a quick description, geographical business location, and a link to the website. A website provides your clients everything they are looking for in one place including a comprehensive list of products and services, ‘about us’ details, FAQs, and most importantly, easily accessible contact information.

Is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a one-time, set-it-and-forget-it, activity?

First things first. What is search engine optimization (SEO)? According to Google, search engine optimization is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.”

Google runs each website through a system of checks to help decide where the website should fall on the search engine results page (SERP). While no one knows the exact formula, Google considers a broad range of factors like your website’s schema markup, your business’s reviews on Google, website load speed, quality, frequency and size of website content updates, backlinks, mobile responsiveness, brand power and social signals, and more.

The perfect mix of SEO factors is constantly changing to improve the quality of search engine results for Google users. This means your website’s SEO strategy should be regularly reviewed and updated to keep up with ever-changing internet world.

What search terms should I optimize my website for?

Ranking for the right keywords for your business on Google Search is critical to your website’s success. Spending some time developing your keyword strategy could help attract the right kind of visitors to your website.

There are two types of keyword search term strategies. The first is a short-tail keyword strategy. These are one to two word phrases that describe your business and corresponding website content. Short-tail keywords can be difficult to rank for because they are broad search terms with potentially thousands of other businesses vying for the same keywords. For example: immigration lawyer, gold jewellry, interior designer, wedding caterer. Your website should be optimised for these short-tail keywords to help describe the content on your website and what your business does.

However, for a stronger keyword strategy, it’s important to also incorporate long-tail keywords as you optimize your website for search. These are longer phrases which potential customers could plug into Google. For example: the best immigration law firm in Toronto, contemporary art-deco interior designer in Montreal, delicious italian dishes to serve at a wedding.

As you create your keyword SEO strategy, keep two things in mind

1. Include words that help describe the content of your website
2. Include longer phrases that incorporate more specific keywords to help drive the right kind of traffic to your website

How long does it take to build a website?

The industry average to build a website is between 4 and 6 months. At Webware, we aim to get your business online right away. With a One-Page website launched within the first week, we launch your full website within 5 weeks.

With so many people using the internet and Google search to find businesses, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table by not taking advantage of a strong online strategy. If you’re hesitating to grow your online presence, or aren’t sure where to start, Webware is here to help. We’ve designed the perfect plan to get your business online and help you reach potential customers. Get started today at webware.io!

Even though website technology, design, and marketing services have catapulted small businesses that have opted to go digital, into increased profitability or have provided varying degrees of success over the last couple of years, there are still several similar businesses that are shackled with misconceptions about whether it will work for them or not.

Some of these faux facts have been repeated so often, that they are almost beyond the reach of critical analysis. Though they are baseless, these canards have become the foundation of numerous debates and often result in small businesses ditching the idea of creating an online presence for themselves and reaching out to a wider target market.

If you’re a small business owner who has reason to believe, you should keep your business offline, we’re going to bust three myths that may change your mind.

MYTH 1: Going digital and staying there is expensive!

A common misconception is that it takes a lot of money and skills for a business to be successful on the internet. In reality, that theory is light years away from the truth. It’s even further away if you’re working on a Webware platform. Webware provides you with everything you would need to be successful at a fair price.

MYTH 2: Website changes require HTML code experience!

Chugging down coffee and the ability to dish out HTML code is no longer a prerequisite for making changes to your website requires. Website changes can be as easy as ‘A-B’C’ as Webware has an easy to use content management system, that allows anyone to easily make changes to colors, content, pages and more!

MYTH 3: Website content and eCommerce require separate platforms!

Whoever stated that you need a separate website for content and another platform for eCommerce, has never been more wrong. The policy of divide and rule may get you a little mileage, but if you really want to conquer the market, you need to unite all your resources. At Webware, we do just that! By throwing in our blog platform as well, you get something that normally takes three platforms to do, all under one roof.

In addition, one larger site trumps two or three separate sites and gets you way more SEO juice. “One website to rule them all” … if you may.

Myth 4: SEO takes thousands of dollars to get you to page one.

This statement is a million miles from the truth and is absolutely untrue. However, Webware can get you there without you having to spend thousands of dollars. Improving your ranking is all about showing a consistent effort across multiple channels including keeping your website up to date, creating new content, getting good reviews and having others talk about you.

Myth 5: You can do it on your own

Propelling your business onto the internet is not something you can do through a DIY handbook. The side hustle that you see being promoted by Shopify, Square Space, Go Daddy, Wix and others, is that you can become an online millionaire for fifty bucks a month. Well unfortunately, if it were that easy we would all be rich! Facts are you need to wear multiple hats and it’s highly unlikely you posses all the skills it takes to build a successful online business. You need to be a writer, a designer, a tester, a user experience expert, a marketer, a customer support agent, an order manager, know stock quantities, tax, payments and much more! Can you really do it all on your own? Or is it going to take a team?

The web is always growing and changing to suit, and even to shape, the needs of consumers. Their tastes and online habits can change quickly. If you’re looking for an innovative and outstanding, yet simple to use web platform, Webware.io has all the ingredients to thrust your business into the digital spotlight. For a complete list of services, please click here. If you have any questions about Webware, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.

At Webware, we love making our customers happy. But don’t just take it from us! Here’s what our satisfied customers are saying about us:

*****

“I have been quite impressed with the team at Webware & the plan in which they follow to get my website created, active & promoted. The process to get my website up & running has been seamless and effortless. The team has been most helpful, patient & professional and they take the time to understand my needs in order to best promote my business. The communication is well coordinated & I feel I can get all & any concerns & questions addressed in a timely manner.”

Pinkus Interiors, www.pinkusinteriors.com

*****

“Great service - Everyone has been very helpful and super creative building my website, blog and social media. They created my website around me and my business. Best part is they haven’t just created and left me to figure it all out, they continually tweak, blog, message and push me to finetune all my sites. I have a super busy career and my web presence has always taken a back seat, they push me to be better and pay attention. Great experience. Thanks.”

Christine Gazzola, www.christinegazzola.com

*****

“Efficient, fully transparent and excellent customer service. They got my website done, professionally, quickly and were insanely patient with my questions and changes. Webware is a godsend in business.”

Lisa Robazza, www.lisarobazzadesign.ca

*****

“Webware has proven to be the best website and internet business development firm I have dealt with in 25 years. As a Chicago attorney I am in one of the most competitive marketing areas. Webware provides monthly reviews for blogs, social media and organic website development. Webware account managers are task masters that encourage you to participate in developing a competitive marketing program. They are the best I have found!”

Robert Hanaford, www.hanafordlaw.com

*****

“There is not enough space to fully explain the experience that my law firm has had with Webware. I have a law partner that was very skeptical that they could deliver, but thus far they have exceeded our expectations. They are setting this firm up for success in the highly competitive market of Charlotte, North Carolina. Our web presence is poised to be very aggressive and competitive on the scale of the much larger firms and I would say much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They are responsive and attentive and seemingly only work for you. I know they don't but Ms. Amrita sure does make me think so. I only wish that I encountered this company in 2007 when I opened my law firm. They take the grunt work out of marketing a successful business...Absolutely the best!”

Phillips and McCrea PLLC, www.phillipsmccrea.com

*****

“Thank you Webware...I love the website you designed for me! Throughout the entire process and beyond, the Webware team has continually been courteous, professional and available for any questions I might have, and in such a personable way.”

Vanessa Webb, www.lettersinyoga.com

*****

“Amazing company. I've worked with a few of them for my website and seo and each one was a pleasure to deal with. Any request made to them is answered promptly and properly and they pull things off that you would not expect. Shoutout to Helen, Wisdom, Reggie and the rest of Webware.io!”

Neal Grabarnik, www.primeparalegal.ca

*****

“Excellent interaction with the representatives. Overall a wonderful experience.”

Gaurav Shanker, www.businesslawchamber.com

*****

“Sooooo happy!!! Excellent communication throughout the entire process! I would DEFINITELY recommend!”

Kristen Gignac, www.kristengignac.com

*****

“This was so easy that I'm sorry we didn't do it years ago. The results have been beyond our expectations.”

Joe Smith

*****

“I was completely happy with the service provided by Webware. They are very professional and my website turned out beautiful.”

Tesia Brooks, www.empowereddivorcesolutions.com

*****

“My first experience with Brandon was at his earlier position and I followed him to Webware. I had 100% confidence in him then and now. The confidence trails down to his team. Each and everyone who I deal with from design concept to accounts are respectful, knowledgeable and they are so necessary in the growth of my businesses. Thank you for your patience in helping us (who don't have the skills) get things done quickly and beautifully. God bless.”

Angie Girgis, www.thegirgisestate.com, www.myangelictreasures.com

Click here to read these and more reviews about Webware on Google

Webware is a complete tool-kit designed to help small businesses navigate the digital world. Webware’s technology and team of experts provide SMBs with everything they need to manage and grow a successful online presence. You’ll have access to all the tools and personal assistance you need to get your business online.

Join our happy clients from all across Canada and the US. Click here to sign up for a demo today!

Increasingly, digital consumers are relying upon their smartphones for easy and instant communication, research and entertainment. To better serve your existing clients, and to expand your reach, attracting new customers; your business web strategy needs to keep pace with this, and other swiftly evolving trends.

The web is always growing and changing to suit, and even to shape, the needs of consumers. Their tastes and online habits can change quickly. While some new directions may turn out to be fads; those trends which provide online users genuine and continuing value can permanently alter the way the internet is used. To help you reach your business goals, we offer you the following must-know and must-do responses to the most relevant web trends for your online presence this year.

Mobile-first Websites

Last year, the number of Google searches which took place on mobile devices surpassed the number of searches that took place from desktop computers. The share of mobile device online searches is 72 per cent in the Food and Beverage industry. Anticipating and watching the rapid and steady growth of smartphone use; Google has taken several steps over the past years to encourage more mobile-friendly websites (like May2015 and May 2016 insert citation). In response, many businesses have worked to create websites that were more mobile-friendly. As the shift continues exponentially, businesses must continue to adapt their websites from “mobile-friendly” to “mobile-first”. Instead of starting from a desktop website, modified to also perform well on a smartphone or tablet; the user experience, navigation, layout, and content have to be tailored specifically for mobile screens. Smartphone use is rising around the world.

Having a mobile-first website is the smart way for businesses to capitalize upon this future wave.

Mobile Shopping.

According to an emarkter.com report, “M-commerce is growing faster than either e-commerce or traditional retail and is transforming the way shoppers approach all three”. Gone are the days when online shopping was something you did only at home or at the office. In this digital-first world, consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to complete more and more types of tasks, including shopping, at all times of the day. According to the Pew Research Centre, an average of 70% of Canadians and Americans now own a smartphone. Apart from the growing number of smartphones, larger smartphone screens, efficient payment options and a rise in mobile-first websites are also contributing to the m-commerce trend. Businesses, including those with brick and mortar stores, can stay relevant by adopting a mobile-first strategy. Even if your customers finish the transaction in your physical store, chances are very high that their search began online, on the move.

Hyper Local Search.

According to Google, “nearly one third of all mobile searches are related to location, and that number is growing”. Given the growth in “near me” searches, it’s no wonder that Google is always refining their local search capabilities. Instead of local search including only cities or towns, it can now include smaller locales like neighbourhoods, streets or even city blocks. This gives small businesses ample opportunity to reach nearby customers.  Google reports that 76% of people who search on their mobile devices for something nearby visit the business within a day. Twenty-eight percent of these searches result in a purchase. As long as your business and website are fully optimized for location searches, your business can directly benefit from Google’s improved hyperlocal search algorithms.

Reviews for SEO

The trend of the degree to which quality reviews boost SEO shows no signs of slowing through 2017. Google loves reviews, both on their own platform and from reputable third party review sites like Yelp. And although Google never shares their exact secret equation for rating websites, moz.com surveyed top online marketers around the world to highlight the most important SEO factors for your business. Among the “Top 30 Difference-Making Factors in Competitive Markets”, three are review related: #7 is Quantity of Native Google Reviews (w/text) #25 is Quantity of Third-Party Traditional Reviews and #29 is Diversity of third-party sites on which reviews are present. In addition, moz.com also reported that Review Signals contribute over 8% to a website’s overall rank in search results.

This data from Yotpo also highlights the importance of reviews in a big way. They tracked the number of page views for 30,000 businesses that added reviews to their websites. Over a 9 month period, the average number of page views rose from 5500 to 8000 views per month. Wow!

If stories like these have convinced you that your business needs more reviews, head over here to learn more about why they matter and how to ask your loyal customers to write those all-important reviews.

The end of distinct mobile and desktop versions

The theme of many of these internet trends is the same; a smooth, seamless experience for mobile users. And something that can really hinder this desired seamlessness is having two website versions: one desktop and one mobile. Google currently uses the desktop version to index the information of a website. However, in many cases, there is less information on mobile versions to accommodate for the smaller screen size. This can leave mobile users at an informational disadvantage and will contribute to a poor user experience. Given the boom of mobile search and their dedication to user-experience, Google is discouraging two version websites. In an effort to continue providing users the best possible experience; late last year Google began the shift to index mobile versions instead of desktop versions. Google says it is currently in the experimental phase. But, there is likely an official announcement not far down the road. If your business website is one-version, mobile friendly it is already prepared for the change. If not, now is the time to bring your website up to 2017 standards.

Summing Up

The web has changed so much about the way we buy and sell, share information and keep in touch. It is still changing. The competition to put your information ahead of others in the marketplace is on par with the importance of the quality and value of your products and services. The latest steps in how we manage SEO and the mobile web are having profound effects on building and presenting websites. Businesses that strategically respond by keeping up with, and better yet, staying ahead of these curves will profit from retaining existing clients, keeping them satisfied, and reaching new audiences with crucial information and inviting them to enter through their mobile digital door.

With the gift-giving season in full-swing, researchers are predicting the average American family will spend $929 on presents in 2016. That’s an increase of $60 from last year’s holiday season spend of $882. This makes it a perfect time for small businesses to increase sales and entice life-long customers with holiday marketing promotions.

We have created the ultimate guide for advertising your small business this festive season. No matter what your budget is, this list is sure to include an idea that fits your business needs.

1. Decorate Your Store And Website

Customers flock to well-decorated and well-lit shops. Stands out from your competition with bright, festive decorations. Your holiday decorating efforts are sure to encourage more people to walk through your doors and see what your business has to offer. 

This holds true for your website, too. If your business only operates online, you could design a holiday-themed banner or ask your graphic designer to add some festive touches to the homepage.

Studies have shown that people feel happy and relaxed when they see festive decorations, making them much more likely to buy. Getting people into the holiday spirit with bright lights, green garlands, cheery music, and sparkly tinsel could be the key to unlocking great sales over the season.

2. A Personal Touch

Adding a personal touch when interacting with your customers never goes out of style. It could be as inexpensive as sending a personalized card or email, letting them know that you care about their business. A holiday card is a great opportunity to thank your customers for their patronage and wish them well over the festive season. Go out of your way to send a holiday card or email and stand out among your competition. 

3. Rewarding existing customers

Increase brand loyalty and trust by rewarding your current customers. Offering a discount, store credit, or a free gift with purchase are easy ways to let your existing customers know you value their business. With the added incentive, your customers are more likely to tick items off their holiday shopping list from your business. 

4. Holiday Party

Another great way of wooing customers is by hosting a holiday party. Your old customers will feel appreciated while new, prospective clients can see what your business has to offer and experience your customer service. Invite your existing clients and welcome those passing by to join the festivities. While your sales are sure to increase on party day, it can also translate to sales later in the season as customers remember your generosity and hospitality. Mingling with all your customers shows a fun, friendly, side to your business and gives them a chance to get to know you and your business better.  

5. Post-Holiday Coupon Code

During the festive season, offer your customers a discount, special offer or free gift to claim after the holidays. This win-win promotion encourages customers to buy now and to come back again after the shopping season winds down. Spending can slow down after the holiday season. Enticing your customers with a post-holiday promotion can help keep your sales steady as the number of shoppers dwindles.

6. Host a Contest

One thing customers love? Freebies! Holding a holiday contest allows your customers to win some fabulous goodies from your business. It’s also a great opportunity for your customers have fun by engaging in something different.

Motivate your customers to buy your products and services by offering the chance to win a prize around the holiday season. Choose a prize you know your customers would be thrilled to win to ensure healthy participation.

7. Offer free gift wrap

Here is another chance for your business to go the extra mile for your customers and stand out from your competition. Save them time and money by offering free gift wrapping service for purchases during the holiday season. Gift wrapping for your customers could significantly reduce the time and money they might spend preparing for the holidays. Making life easier is an extremely valuable way to boost customer loyalty. In addition to taking a task off your customers to-do lists, offering free gift wrap can increase your business’ overall sales during this busy season.

8. Social Media Marketing

One of the most impactful marketing strategies to use in your holiday marketing plan is social media. There is a massive amount of information at your customers’ fingertips. If they are interested in a product or service you offer, it’s likely your customers will start with online research first. Ensure a strong social presence by posting about your holiday offers, tips for getting through the holidays from your unique business perspective, gift guides, spreading the word about any upcoming events. A strong social media marketing presence will increase your brand loyalty and can boost both foot and website traffic during the holiday season.

December is one of the best marketing opportunities for small businesses. Americans spend more than 600 billion dollars shopping during the holiday season ranging from gifts, food, decorations, home improvements for houseguests and more.  Ensure your small business is getting in on the action during the busiest shopping season of the year. 

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Don’t let another abandoned cart get away! 

Webware recently updated it’s Abandoned Cart Feature for ecommerce websites. Now, it’s easier than ever to reach out to customers who have abandoned their carts.

On the surface, an abandoned cart on your ecommerce website can seem negative. A customer was interrupted, changed their mind or encountered a problem somewhere between adding a product to their cart and completing the purchase. 

Bad news, right? Wrong! 

These customers are different from the average website visitor. A customer who abandons their cart has a strong interest in your product and is ready to buy. Knowing this, businesses can benefit from an abandoned cart. With the right tools in place, you can convert them into sales

Boost your chances of completing the abandoned transaction with a timely email. Sending a reminder about the items left in their cart, coupled with a discount code can encourage customers to return to your website.

Webware’s newest feature lets you reach out to these customers without lifting a finger.

The Abandoned Cart Feature sends an automatic email to anyone who added products to their cart but did not complete the purchase within a one hour window. It can be programmed to send 6 or 24 hours after the cart was abandoned. The email will remind customers they left items in their cart. It will also include a link to complete the purchase and an optional coupon code to sweeten the deal. 

For existing Webware customers, you can find the Abandoned Cart Feature in your Workspace under "Orders". To activate this feature on your website, send an to email harley@webware.io

Click here to learn more about Webware.

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Are you a real estate agent or agency considering a new website?

At Webware, we understand that each client we serve has unique needs. Websites for real estate agents and agencies are no exception. A great real estate website allows buyers to gain all the information they need about the agency, the buying/selling process, mortgage rates, properties for sale, neighbourhoods and more.

Purchasing a house or commercial property can be both an exciting and stressful time for buyers. That’s why at Webware, we build real estate websites that strengthen confidence and trust among buyers by using clear content, purposeful design, and access to industry specific tools.

Here’s what’s included with your real estate website at Webware:

1. Design and layout to highlight specific needs of a real estate agent website. We make it easy for your customers to find the information they are looking for immediately. The following are all easily located on the homepage:

• Search listings directory 
• Map display of customizable neighbourhoods
• Prominent contact info
• Team/agent information 
• Testimonials
• Live chat
• Clear call-to-action

2. Clear, easy to find property listings. Simple to use search tools to help your customers navigate your property listings easily and efficiently. 

3. Integration with MyRealPages. MyRealPages offers property listing display, advanced search functionality and search by map capability. 

In addition, our Digital Services Team can boost your website with services including:

1. SEO Keyword research and implementation performed by Real Estate SEO experts

2. Regular blog posts on relevant, current topics in the real estate industry

3. Social media updates to stay in contact with your network

From our experience building real estate websites, Webware already knows what your clients are looking for in their search for the perfect property and agent. We understand the features and design required to meet your website needs. Get a beautiful website for your real estate business and reach prospective customers with an effective online experience. Get started today at webware.io 

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One of the things that makes Google the most popular online search engine is its endless mission to put users first. Their goal is to give you, the user, the most reliable, accurate and up-to-date information available anywhere on the World Wide Web.  Google’s steadfast commitment to the user-experience has sparked another update to its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking factors. 

Google recently announced that starting in January 2017, websites with interstitials will rank lower in search engine results than websites without. 

What’s an interstitial?

Interstitial is the official name for a full-page (or mostly full-page), intrusive popup that prevents a website visitor from accessing the webpage content underneath. Many of them come in the form of advertisements or email newsletter signup prompts. Other types include interstitials that are required by law for age verification, “You must be 18 to enter this website” or to inform visitors that a website uses cookies. Interstitials for legal purposes will not affect search ranking results. 

Google firmly believes these annoying popups hinder users’ access to information. This is especially true for mobile devices where screens are generally smaller. This new update should urge websites to eliminate popup ads to keep their ranking high in search engine results. 

According to Google, “Here are some examples of techniques that make content less accessible to a user:

• Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
• Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
• Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

By contrast, here are some examples of techniques that, used responsibly, would not be affected by the new signal:

• Interstitials that appear to be in response to a legal obligation, such as for cookie usage or for age verification.
• Login dialogs on sites where content is not publicly indexable. For example, this would include private content such as email or unindexable content that is behind a paywall.
• Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space and are easily dismissible. For example, the app install banners provided by Safari and Chrome are examples of banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space”.

If your website uses a popup to gather email newsletter signups or likes on social media or something else, this new ranking signal is directed at you. Though it won’t come into full effect until January 2017, now is the best time to get rid of those popups to give your customers the best possible user experience.

You can read the full update on the Google Webmaster Forum here.

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Committed to success? Have a new website in the works?

With all the changes Google has made in the last year to support mobile-friendly websites, savvy business leaders are getting on board. They’re ditching outdated websites for fresh, mobile-responsive designs. 

You have invested a significant amount of time, creative energy and money into your business’s new website. When it’s ready to go live, you want as many people as possible checking it out. Ensure your Launch Day is a smash hit by creating a buzz leading up to the big event. 

Here’s nine things you can do to get great results. Tick off these items from your checklist for a website launch:

Number One: Great Content. Long before launch day, devote ample time to creating high quality content. Ideally, three published pieces on Day One gives your audience enough variety to click through and read. Test and test again. Check the functions and appearance on mobile devices before you go live. First impressions are important. Initial content quality signals the experience readers can expect in the future. You want to build a loyal following of return visitors.

Number Two: Coming Soon Page. Create a “Website Coming Soon” page to let people know about your new website. In addition to informing them that it’s on the way; a “Coming Soon” page get’s people excited about your business, services or products. Offer new visitors a place to sign up for your email newsletter and provide links to “follow” and “like” you on social media. 

Number Three: Email Subscriber List. Build your email list in the lead up to your website launch. If you already have an email subscriber list, enlarge it through your social media accounts and your “Coming Soon” page. If you don’t have one already, ask your existing customers for their email addresses. Supercharge your ask by adding a promotional boost; offer incentives for signing up for your email newsletter (email newsletters provide ongoing contact with customers). Promote the newsletter and special incentives through social media.

Number Four: Launch Day Email. Your business’s website launch is an unique opportunity to get customers excited about your business. Create a catchy-looking email to blast out on your launch day. Use an email marketing tool like MailChimp to design an attention-getting email. The email should showcase your value proposition by highlighting your best content. Encourage subscribers to visit your new website with a promotion (e.g. a free consultation, or discount coupon for giving your website a mention).

Number Five: Grow your Social Media Presence. After you’ve completed your target audience research; it’s time to setup accounts on relevant social media platforms. Your business doesn’t need to have a profile on every single channel; just the ones your target customers generally use. Instead of wasting time setting up profiles and sharing posts across 7 or 8 platforms, spend your time creating valuable content in places where your preferred customers are likely to find it.

Number Six: Mobilize your Existing Friends. If your business already has an active social media following; give your fans a heads up that your new website is coming. Share the news a few times per week in the month leading up to your launch. The average Facebook user has 338 friends. Not all your friends or social media followers will “like” or “share” your posts. But, you’ll never know if you don’t ask. Ask friends, family, other local businesses (nicely!) to like or share the news about your business’s new website on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.

Number Seven: Online directories. Your business’s presence in online directories will influence your search engine optimization (SEO). Depending on your industry, your business has a number of options, for example: Yelp, YellowPages, Google, OpenTable, Bing, Wedding Wire, to name a few key ones. Do your research and submit your business information to the most relevant sites. Here’s a list of the most popular online business directories in 2016. Online directory entries only contribute to SEO if the business’s information (name, address, phone number and website url) is accurate and consistent across all directory websites.

Number Eight: Reputation Review. If your website is launching at the same time as your new business venture, you likely won’t have an online reputation. If you’re building a new website for an existing business, now is the time to see if people are discussing your business online (and what they are saying!). A good place to start is by reviewing each of your business’s online directory entries and social media accounts. Update any outdated information. Respond to any existing reviews. In any case, setup Google Alerts to notify you anytime someone mentions your business online. Click here to learn how to get people to review your business online (and handle negative reviews). Most consumers are influenced in their online buying decisions by positive, and critical reviews.

Number Nine: Set up Google MyBusiness. Google is the gold standard when it comes to web searches. To get (and stay) ahead of your competition; take advantage of some great tools for getting noticed. With Google MyBusiness, you can customize how your business contact information will look to customers on Google search. MyBusiness uses your business name, address, phone number and website uniformly across the platform, including: Mobile Search and Google Maps. Your customers, and potential buyers, see consistent, accurate information anytime, and anywhere they search. You can also add attractive photos and manage your reviews on Google. Both measures will help you stand out from the crowd.

Launching your new mobile-friendly website is an important and exciting day for your business.

You’ve spent valuable hours and dollars building the perfect website. You want to make a great first impression on your current and potential customers. This means you need to create and implement an effective strategy well in advance. Follow this Checklist for a Website Launch and you’ll be well on your way.

If you don't have time to execute all these activities or you're not sure how, Webware helps launch your website with a bang. 

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In 2015, the United States spent over 60 Billion dollars on their pets! The pet trend is going global, with many countries across the world reporting increased numbers of household pets and pet-related purchases. With more and more pets in the home, I started to wonder, what about pets in the office? 

It turns out, I am not the only one interested in bring their furry friends to work. 

Last month, in celebration of our four-legged friends, the United States, Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom participated in the cutest, 18 year old tradition of Take your Dog to Work Day (TYDTWD). On June 24th, offices across the world opened their doors (and hearts) to employees’ pooch pals. The day came at the end of Take your Pet to Work Week celebrating all pet family members.

Awesome!

What could be more fun than petting animals on coffee breaks and between meetings? Basically, nothing. However, it turns out that pets in the office provide more than just a cuteness overload at work. There are several REAL benefits to office pets/bring your pet to work days. To help your superiors see the light on this important issue, I have compiled a list of reasons to consider an office pet or bring your pet work days. Here we go!

1. Improve employees' health. Studies show that pet ownership can affect a number of aspects of our health. Pet owners visit the doctor less frequently, saving the U.S. over 11 million dollars in healthcare spending annually. Pet ownership alleviates stress and depression, reduces obesity rates, and improves heart health by lowering blood pressure. Petting a dog releases “happiness” hormones like serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin while bringing cortisol, the “stress” hormone, levels down. Improved health means happier employees and fewer sick days.

2. Boost productivity. Taking a quick, 10-15 minute break every hour or so has proven the most efficient, productive way for humans to work. An office pet or pet-friendly office is far more likely to encourage these productivity enhancing breaks. A quick trip around the block with your pooch or a few minutes petting a kitten can recharge employees. For many employees, the ability to have their pet with them means less worry about what’s happening at home and less concern about staying later at the office. 
3. Encourage a positive office environment. Research shows that the simple presence of a pet boosts positive social interaction and increases helping behaviour. Pets can help break the ice between strangers and reduce tension between team members. A dog-friendly office promotes communication, cooperation and friendship between coworkers. And a team that gets along is more likely to enjoy coming in to work.
4. Attract employees and customers who share the same pet-friendly values. Pet-related spending is up all across the world. More and more people everywhere are embracing life with four-legged family members. An office pet or bring-your-pet-to-work policy can attract new talent and customers who share your company’s values. Etsy, “the world's most vibrant handmade marketplace” has dog-friendly offices in New York, London and Dublin. Sarah Starpoli, Etsy's manager of culture and engagement tells CNBC “People want it. People know about it when they come in and are hired”. I couldn’t agree more!
5. Improve pets’ health. Not to be overlooked, we can help our pets stay healthy with more socialization and physical activity. With the increase in importance of pet-family members, it’s crucial to keep them happy and healthy. Allowing pets in the office gives our animal friends more frequent walks and less days spent alone. 

What started out as “Take Your Dog to Work Day” turned “Take Your Pet to Work Week” has sparked a rise in pet-friendly offices.  A survey conducted in 2015 shows 8% of American workplaces allow pets in the office, up from 5% in 2013. Employers are opening their office doors to furry family members to create better workplace environments fuelled by happier and healthier employees. With all the proven benefits, it might be time for your company to consider how an office pet could positively impact life in the workplace. 

Recent research shows that businesses of all sizes use social media to market to customers. In 2016, Instagram has seen the biggest increase in users and overall confidence as a powerful marketing tool. With many businesses planning to spend more on content marketing in the coming year, now is a great time to get your business’s Instagram strategy on point. 

• Marketers use an average of 7 social media platforms.
• Instagram had the greatest increase of business users for marketing purposes. 
• Marketers are losing confidence in Facebook and LinkedIn as effective marketing tools.
• Marketers are increasingly confident in Instagram as an effective marketing platform. 
• 59% of Marketers say they will increase their content marketing budget in the next 12 months. 
• Instagram has 500 million Monthly Active Users
• Instagram has 300 million Daily Active Users

Adding hashtags to your Instagram posts is the best way for non-followers to find your business. Hashtags are words or phrases used to categorize posts making them searchable by subject. To help increase the visibility of your Instagram posts, we’ve created a hashtag cheat sheet for the top 10 small business industries among Webware clients. 

1. Home Renovation/Contractors

#homerenovation #homeimprovement #remodel #bathroomremodel #remodeling #homereno #dreamhome #woodworking #makehomeyours #homesweethome #customcarpentry #porchreno #generalcontractor #finishedbasement #renovations #livebeautifully #homedesign #propertyrenovation #build #buildingsite #DIY #transformation #homesunderthehammer #homepolish #bedroomremodel #kitchenremodel #tools #contractorsofinsta #carpentry #construction #flipthishouse #kitchenrenovation #fixerupper

2. Real Estate

#realestate #realestateagent #realestateexperts #realestateyourcity #yourcityrealestate #realestateinvesting #internationalrealestate #properties #realestatenews #realestatelife #realestateagency #luxuryrealestate #milliondollarlisting #listing #realtorlife #realtor #buyahome #views #househunting #viewhome #lovewhereyoulive #home #residential #commercial #urbanliving #dreamhome #iworkforyou #buy #sell #invest #homes #condo #recentlysold #wesellhomes #getitsold #citylife #homestaging #openhouse

3. Restaurants

#restaurant #bistro #cuisine #gastronomy #diner #appetizer #eatbreakfast #eatlunch #eatdinner #foodporn #foodie #yum #foodpics #hungry #foodgasm #foodspotting #eat #eats #sharefood #brunch #dinner #foodstagram #delicious #lovefood #foodlover #ristorante #lunch #breakfast #dinnertime #drinks #wine #canape #instafood #healthy #chefs #cooks #goingout #celebratewithfood #champagne #cocktails #beer #gourmet 

4. Window Coverings

#window #windows #curtains #curtaindesign #drapes #windowcoverings #interiordesign #shutters #blinds #curtainsandblinds #windowfurnishing #renovation #homedecor #homedesign #blindsandshutters #blindsandshades #modern #contemporary #decorating #windowblinds #interiordecoration #upgrade #designers #livingroom #bedroom #rollershades #instadecor #room #instadesign #fabric #color #prints #interiors #home #light #shade #lightandshade #textiles

5. Flooring 

#flooring #flooringinstallation #installation #floorings #flooringdesign #designbuild #residental #interiordesign #instadesign #renovation #homedecor #homedesign #materials #floorboards #textiles #tiles #cementtiles #dreamhome #hardwoodfloors #remodel #remodeling #woodfloors #homerenovation #hardwood #maplehardwood #sandandfinish #kitchenfloor #kitchenreno #fixerupper #newkitchen #newlivingroom #homereno #livingroom #interior #residential #parquet #ceramictiles #ceramictile #tileaddiction #interiordecorator

6. Skin Care Brands

#skincare #beautycare #beautyskin #beautyproduct #bodywash #facewash #sunscreen #skin #facemask #beauty #feedgood #lookgood #instaskincare #shower #bath #bodycare #nourish #metime #eveningroutine #morningroutine #tipsandtricks #healthy #glowingskin #healthyskin #daycream #nightcream #skincareroutine #beautycommunity #instabeauty #skincarejunkie #lovemyskin #skincareaddict #luxuryskincare #beautyguru #skincareguru #relax #pamper #face #wellness #skincaretips #skinhealth #flawless #cosmetics #dryskin #sensitiveskin 

7. Jewelry 

#jewelry #jewellery #jewelrydesign #jewelrygram #earrings #bracelet #ring #necklace #details #jewels #diamonds #gold #silver #rosegold #platinum #fashion #weddingjewelry #accessories #style #design #gemstones #pendant #designerjewelry #diamonds #giftsforher #uniquejewelry #finejewelry #fashionista #gem #gems #stone #stones #jewel #bling #whitegold #lovejewelry #sparkle #engagementring #showmeyourrings #weddingring #celebrate #engaged #handmadejewelry #instajewels #diamondsareagirlsbestfriend #jewelryshop #instashop #shopmyjewelry #instajewelry #jotd #jewelrylover #ilovejewelry #antiquejewelry #ringsofinstagram

8. Lawyers

#lawyers #lawyer #lawyerup #lawfirm #law #needalawyer #arrested #legal #litigation #realestatelaw #corporatelaw #criminallaw #casedismissed #bestlawyer #criminaljustice #criminaldefense #notguilty #fullservicelawfirm #knowyourrights #justice #familylaw #advice #legaladvice #counsel #legalcounsel #immigrationlaw #immigration #attorneysatlaw #lawpractice #estateplanning #injurylawyer #injurylaw #attorneyatlaw 

9. Salon & Spa Services

#salon #spa #dayspa #bodytreatments #beautytreatments #spalife #mobiletherapist #esthetician #hairremoval #browwax #browwow #archexpert #browexpert #waxing #threading #legwax #beautystudio #mani #pedi #nails #naildesign #nailart #nailstagram #nailpolish #nailsalon #salonlife #hairsalon #hairdresser #hairdressing #hairstylist #hairstudio #makeupartist #happyclient #salonowner #salons #longhair #shorthair #beauty #healthyhair #allhairtypes #weddinghair #relax #pamper #facial #healthyskin #glowingskin #lovetheskinyourein #spaday #spatreatments #spoilyourself #beautybar #manimonday #

10. Photographers

#photograph #photography #photographs #photoart #art #design #photoartist #exposure #digitalphotography #weddingphotographer #weddingphoto #productphotography #picoftheday #photooftheday #photographersofinstagram #photographystudio #studio #canvas #photographyclass #photo #photoshoot #photos #photoaday #photographers #photoshop #photogram #picoftheday #professional #professionalphotos #professionalphotographer #professionalphotography #bestphoto #bestphotographer 

This cheat sheet is a starting point for industry-specific hashtags. Other types of hashtags, like trending topics or the geographic location of your business can also be extremely useful in getting more likes, followers and customers. Click here for more on other types of hashtags. And you can learn more about Instagram here. 

Since 2012, Instagram’s user base has grown from 30 million to 500 million users! Marketing professionals agree that these soaring numbers mean Instagram is a great platform for businesses to reach new customers. Happy #Hashtagging! 

Introducing our Free Plan!

That’s right! FREE! 

Ready to build your own website? Webware now offers a free package option to our “Do-It-Yourself” customers.

Build your website, ecommerce store or blog with Webware’s Free Plan. You’ll have access to our SEO-friendly technology platform and all the tools you need to create an attractive, mobile-friendly web presence with NO monthly fee. Here’s what’s included:

• Free mobile responsive theme. Check out our themes here.
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited storage
• 5 products/SKUs
• 5 pages
• Fully integrated e-commerce
• Content management system
• Blogging platform
• Social Media Integration
• SEO-friendly
• Online Tutorials

This is a great choice for customers who want a high-quality website but don’t require access to our full-service packages. Ready to build your own website, ecommerce store or blog? Sign up for our free plan here. 

Building your own website isn't always easy. Reach out to Webware at any time for help along the way. Purchase one-time services to help you get the job done.

Learn more about Webware here. 

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Up to 62% of consumers (and growing) do their research online before making a purchase! It’s never been more important for businesses to have a well-designed, informative website.

To make a lasting impression on potential customers, here’s 10 essentials for your small business website:

1. Mobile, mobile, mobile! Your website must be mobile-friendly.

• Between December 2013 and December 2015, smartphone internet consumption grew by 78%.
• Your customers are likely accessing your website from a mobile device. 
• A responsive website ensures a smooth, easily-navigable experience and happier customers. 
• Googles cares deeply that your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, your website will be bumped down the search results pages, finally landing behind your competitors’ responsive websites. 

2. Relevant business information. People are visiting your website to learn more about what your business offers.

• 47% of website visitors check out a company's products/services page before looking at any other sections of the site. 
• Design each webpage from your customer’s perspective: Give them the info they need to make an informed decision about your product/service.
• Make sure important content is easy to find on your website.

3.  Visible Contact Info. It should be as clear as possible how and where to get in touch with your business. 

• The business phone number should be visible on the homepage. Once on a company's homepage, 64% of visitors want to see the company's contact information. 
• Enable Click to Call. Based on Google’s commissioned research by Ipsos, 70% of mobile searchers have used “The Call Button” in order to get in touch directly with companies.  
• Another convenience favoured by many is live chat support. Learn more about why it’s awesome here. 
• A Contact Us page: a feedback form, the business street address, driving directions (if applicable), or even a link to your FAQ section. 

4. Simple Design. The more “visually complex” a website is, the less likely it is to be seen as “beautiful”. 

• All elements (words, images, videos, links) on the homepage should have a distinct and meaningful purpose. 
• Avoid clutter, small/hard to read fonts, and complex layouts. 
• Include clean lines, intuitive navigation, simple font style and colour schemes throughout the entire website. 

5. Reviews. As the digital age’s word-of-mouth, online reviews are a simple, yet effective way to increase traffic, sales, and improve your online reputation.

• 88% of consumers take reviews into account on purchase decisions!
• Add a review widget like Yotpo so customers can leave a review directly on your website.
• Include a few customer testimonials/reviews on your website.

6. Quality images. Showcase your products and services in action. 

• Use high-resolution images to highlight your products and/or services
• Better quality images create a more enjoyable user experience

7.  Understand SEO basics. Search Engine Optimization is a guiding principle when building a website for your business. 

• SEO comprises several factors working together to build your website’s visibility in search engine results.
• Some factors include: website content, mobile-friendliness, website quality (speed to load pages, duplicate pages, broken links, etc), website architecture and geophysical location
• SEO dramatically affects how many people (potential customers!) can find your website in the internet maze.
• Even if you aren’t building your own website or implementing the SEO strategy, it can be extremely helpful if you understand what SEO can and cannot do for your business. 

8.  Call To Action. A visual focal point on your website that invites customers to act. 

• Common examples of Call to Action are “Buy Now” or “Signup Here” or “Enter your email”. 
• Draw customers’ attention to your offer with colours, images, or typefaces. 
• For example, a bright pink “Start Your Free Trial” button against a neutral background will immediately catch the eye.

9. Monitor load time. How quickly (or slowly) the content on your website loads is crucial to maintaining visitors’ interest. 

• Page load speed affects SEO
• Images, videos, or text that takes too long to load can cause frustration and drive customers away. 

10. Advertise your website on social media. Make it easy for anyone visiting your social media pages to get to your website.

• Add your website to all your social media profiles, business cards and other marketing materials
• Facebook updates, Tweets, Instagram posts etc., should eventually entice people to check out your website.

More and more people are fact-checking products and companies online before they make a purchase. Use these essentials to help your small business website stand out among the online clutter. 

Get a mobile-friendly website that not only looks good, but also adds value to your business. With custom designs, digital services and reasonable prices, Webware’s toolkit is the perfect solution for small businesses.

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The website for your small business is up and running, now what? Post launch, the goal of your website is to get more website visitors buying your business products or services. The marketing term for this process is called “conversion” and is measured by the conversion rate (percentage of web traffic that participates in your call-to-action). For example, how many website visitors entered their email addresses when prompted or clicked the “Buy Now” button. For more marketing terms explained, click here. 

Reviews, live chat support and email marketing campaigns are all proven ways to boost conversion by increasing customer’s trust and confidence. Here’s four awesome tools to help you increase and measure conversion rates in your website traffic: 

1. Yotpo

Eighty-eight percent of consumers take reviews into account on purchase decisions! (searchengineland.com) Positive reviews can close sales, increase overall spending and can also be a tie-breaker when deciding between establishments. Learn more about how your business can benefit from customer reviews on your website here.

Yotpo is a widget embedded into your website that allows customers to write reviews about your product or service. Beyond the review widget on your website, Yotpo offers a full review management system that goes above and beyond gathering reviews. “Yotpo leverages data science to get you more reviews”. It’s “smart algorithms” determine which products to request reviews for, when to reach out to customers to request a review, and when & how to remind customers to write a review. Check out Yotpo’s all inclusive review widget here. 

2. Zopim Live Chat

Did you know that 83% of customers require some type of support before completing an online purchase? (econsultancy.com) For both content and ecommerce websites, using chat to communicate with your customers in real time can be beneficial for your bottom line. 

Zopim is a leader among current live-chat applications available. They offer an easy to use chat widget with additional features depending on your needs. The backend dashboard allows you to setup and control triggers, view website analytics, and customise the look of your chat box. To learn more about why your website should offer live chat, click here. Check out Zopim Live Chat here.

3. MailChimp

Despite the huge influx of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, email is still the most consistently used digital communication tool. Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. (McKinsey) Your business can benefit from this by sending out marketing emails offering promotions, incentives, contests and creating a regular email newsletter. 

MailChimp is a great place to create your email newsletters & email marketing campaigns, store your email lists and track campaign results. Mail Chimp lets you easily design attractive, and effective emails to send to your customers. Check out what MailChimp has to offer here. 

4. Google Analytics 

Understanding who your customers are and how they use your website is an integral piece of the website success puzzle. Knowing things like specific demographics and page performance offers huge advantages to your business when creating marketing campaigns and increasing conversion rates. 

When it comes to website data, Google Analytics is the gold-standard for tracking and reporting on your business’s website. Google Analytics tracks and reports visitor data in a convenient dashboard allowing businesses to see new visitors to the website, returning visitors, how long each visitor spent on the website, which pages they viewed and their geographical location. You can also pull reports on specific page performance and traffic sources. Businesses can monitor marketing campaigns, conversion rates, keyword data and add e-commerce tracking. Google Analytics is a “freemium” (free with paid options) tool for monitoring the basic health and operation of any website and is a must for businesses. Learn more here.

Review widgets, live chat support and email marketing are all aimed at increasing customer confidence and trust. If your website visitors feel trusting and confident when they come to your website, they are much more likely to become paying customers. Consider adding these four tools to boost your website’s effectiveness and conversion rates.

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One of the great benefits of the Webware platform is the ease of use. It’s very easy to make changes to your website yourself – to edit your content, change images, add blog posts, even create your own web pages.

To make it easier for you to add great-looking web pages, Webware has added 14 new web page design templates! Now your inner website pages can look just as great as your home page, and you can choose from a wide variety of styles that include images, videos, product collections, forms, and more.

Scroll down to see all the new page types you can select for your website:

Collection Page

Mostly Image Pages

Menu Collection Page

Text & Image Pages

For details on the variety of page types available, see our Help Center article here.

To learn the basics of how to add a page, view this article.

Great news for Webware customers! Use our latest product update, customizable forms, to help you get the most out of your website.

Now you can create custom forms on your Webware site, to collect exactly and only the information that you care about from your customers.

There are three types of forms available on any Webware site: Registration Form, Profile Form, and Newsletter Form.  Each of these forms gives you an opportunity to find out more about the people who visit your site.  

Your site will be created with each of these forms already included and with standard fields such as name and email address.  

 You can now customize your forms by adding or removing fields, even creating custom fields, to collect the information you want to know about your customers.

For example, if you’re offering B2B services, you may want to know Company Name or Website URL.  

If you’re an ecommerce apparel store, you may want to know Gender or Shoe Size.

There’s all kinds of information you might want to collect, such as:

• Company name
• Phone
• Address
• Neighborhood or zip code
• Website
• Preferred store location
• Shirt size

For details on how to customize your forms, see our Help Center article here.

For more on the types of forms on your Webware website, see this article.

Sitara Hewitt is a Canadian film/tv actress and professional dancer, who you may remember from CBC’s tv show, Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007-2012). In addition to her acting career, Sitara also studies and practices healing therapies like traditional Chinese medicine, crystal healing, Ayurveda, meditation, Reiki, and energy healing. Her love for the healing arts has led her to be a meditation and life coach to inspire others to find and live their fullest lives.

“It is my mission to inspire each and everyone of you to discover your divinity: your perfectness, and your innate connection to all that is.”

Currently, Sitara is excited to be hosting a wellness segment for Kin Media and Fusia Magazine on YouTube. You can check it out here! She is also partnered with fitness brands and modelling for fitness photo shoots. 

Sitara had a website but felt it wasn’t communicating her brand and reaching potential clients in a way it could. On a recommendation from a friend, Sitara reached out to Webware and we were excited to build a website that truly reflected her brand values and allowed her to reach out to her community in a meaningful way. 

Sitara says, “I wanted to get a professional looking reach with my inspirational living message, so that I could help people and establish a unique, slick message of wellness in the market”.

Webware designed and built sitarahewitt.com with the aim of sharing Sitara’s wealth of wellness and healing information while maintaining a professional look and feel as she continues to grow her brand. To stay in touch, Sitara uses Webware’s blog to regularly update, inform and inspire her community. 

The end result is a clean, informative and soothing design. At sitarahewitt.com, you’ll find delicious recipes, workouts, wellness service offerings, Sitara’s health blog, and contact info. 

Describing her experience, Sitara says working with Webware to build her website was, “wonderful! They were helpful and professional and never turned down a request or suggestion of mine. Very reasonable for the price too..the site gets rave reviews!”

At Webware, we enjoyed working with Sitara to help her create a website that reflects her nurturing and positive spirit. We are thrilled she loves her website and encourage you to check it out at sitarahewitt.com .

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Are you considering an investment in your small business by building a website? The good news - An effective website can help your business reach new customers and boost your bottom line. The bad news - A poorly designed website not only doesn’t help your business grow, it can cause customers to lose confidence in your business and head elsewhere. Understanding what makes a powerful website from your customers perspective ensures a better user experience and more success out of your website. Whether you plan to invest money by hiring someone to build it for you or invest time building your own website, knowing some website psychology basics can help you get the most out of your investment. 

Here’s 4 principles of psychology to keep in mind when building your website:

Pattern Recognition

As humans, our brains are wired to constantly seek out what we recognize. Recognizing patterns helps us understand and navigate our surroundings. If we come across an unfamiliar situation, our brains may interpret it as a threat, triggering a chemical “fight or flight” response. [source]

However, familiarity lends itself to trust. If your website fits the “website pattern”, your customers are more likely to inherently trust your website and business. Upon landing on your business’s website, your customers will make snap judgements (in less than 1 second!). Instilling trust right away improves the chances of your customers staying on your website after their first impression. Your website should include the basics like your logo, obvious navigation, and banners with high-quality images balanced with easy-to-read text to maintain a recognizable “website pattern”.

Cognitive Overload

From a user-experience perspective, cognitive load is the amount of mental effort required for your customers to navigate your website. The original definition of cognitive load, first used by psychologists, defines cognitive load as the mental effort required to learn a new task. For your customers, the new task is to understand how your website differs from other websites then adjust to their behaviour to effectively use the website. The cognitive load required affects how easy it is for your customers to find the information they’re looking for on your website - and as a small business, you want to make it as easy as possible! [source]

The first step to make things easier for your customers (aka reducing cognitive load), is to know what they’re looking for when they visit your website. Are they looking for food/service menus, your blog, products you sell, information on products/services, or contact details? Then, focus on presenting the information in an easy-to-find way. To reduce the risk of cognitive overload in your website visitors, keep your website as simple and clean-looking as possible. Each piece of content on your website should provide valuable info. Using keywords at the top of your website, like in the navigation bar, help customers understand and navigate quickly.

Attention 

Human brains are designed to pay attention to anything different or unique in our surroundings. From an evolutionary perspective, humans noticing something out of the ordinary was developed as a survival tactic to judge potential threats. [source]

Though there aren’t any threats on your website, marketers can take advantage of this human tendency by creating a visually unique Call-To-Action. Draw customers’ attention to your offer with colours, images, or typefaces. For example, a bright orange “Start Your Free Trial” button against a neutral background will immediately catch your eye, drawing attention to what you want your customers to do. For your customers to be able to respond to your call-to-action, they need to know where it is. For the best results, make it easy for them to find by ensuring it stands out from the rest of your website.

Information Scent

With roots in Information Foraging Theory, information scent can be traced back to the earliest humans hunting for food. The scent of information describes our ability to judge whether or not we will find what we’re looking for by following a certain path. Humans are designed to look for cues that point us in the right direction as we hunt for information. The hunt boils down to two factors - motivation and effort. What will I gain by following this cue (motivation)? and is this a worthy use of my energy (effort)? [source]

Tap into your customers’ natural instinct to know where to look for information. Descriptive navigation tabs and meaningful subheadings initiate a strong information scent. Maintain the scent with images and further text descriptions on landing pages. Like cognitive load, the goal is to make things as easy as possible for your customers. Even if you have a lot of products or subcategories, studies show that customers don’t mind clicking several times, as long as they believe they are headed in the right direction. If the cues on your website don’t support humans tendency to follow the information scent, they’ll likely become frustrated and head back to Google to continue their search.

Conclusion

Investing time and money into your website can be invaluable for your business but it’s important to understand the underlying factors of website success. Using science-backed tactics to instil positive feelings in your website visitors means better chances of reaching new customers, increasing awareness and building sales. Time and money are both extremely valuable to small businesses; keep these website psychology basics in mind to maximize your investment in your website. 

Don’t want to waste time or money on your website? Webware’s professional team ensures your website is optimized for user-experience and setup for success. 

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Have you considered online marketing for your small business? If you have a website, online marketing is a great way to increase traffic, leads and sales. Online Marketing covers a range of business-boosting activities: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram etc), content marketing, email marketing, paid advertising to name a few. If you’re not sure if online marketing will work for your business, here’s 6 online marketing myths debunked to get you on your way!

Myth #1 My Business Doesn’t Need an Online Presence.

Perhaps you feel that your customers aren’t online (they are!), or maybe you don’t need more customers at the moment. While that’s a nice, comfy position to be in, it may not last forever. Even if your business is in a good spot today, an online presence can help solidify its future. The majority of the North American population use the internet from all age groups: over 90% usage rate for ages 18-50, over 80% usage for ages 50-64 and almost 60% usage rate for over 65 years. For many of these internet users, heading to Google search is the first thing they do when they’re looking for more information. If your business is online, your potential customers have a much better chance of finding you! An online presence increases your business’s visibility and accessibility while building trust and confidence with your customers. In today’s digital age, it is no longer a luxury to be online - your customers expect it! Read more about why your business needs a strong online presence here. 

Myth #2 I Don’t Have Money For Online Marketing.

Spending money on online marketing is an investment in your business’s future. Once you find the right online marketing strategy that works for your business, you will see an increase in traffic, and leads. You might be surprised at the results even a small online marketing budget can yield. Start small and use analytics to find what works - you’ll be glad you did! Even the most limited budget can benefit from Google’s tools to help your business communicate up-to-date business info, manage reviews and connect social media accounts to boost search engine results.

Myth #3 Online Marketing Doesn’t Work.

Perhaps you’ve had a sour experience, received some bad advice, or didn’t give the online marketing strategy enough time to work. While it’s true that not every type of online marketing works for all businesses, there is a strategy that will work for you. If online marketing hasn’t worked for you in the past, or you’re skeptical of it altogether, Google is a trusted and safe place to start. Google is continuously improving its search algorithms so it’s easier for your customers to find you - making online marketing easier for small business. Learn more about how Google can help your business here. 

Finding an online marketing strategy that works for your business starts with market research. Get to know where your customers and target audience spend time online; focus your efforts on those channels. Once you know WHERE to market online, creating quality content is more important than quantity. Understand who your customers are and tailor your content to their interests and needs. If you plan to hire an agency to help you, check reviews, ask specific questions about what methods they use and what kind of results to expect. 

Myth #4 - I can expect results right away!

As they embark on an online marketing journey, many businesses have the expectation that they will see results right away. Unfortunately, gaining solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ground is mostly about building strength over time (for example - with keywords, link building, blogging etc). A quality, online marketing strategy that includes SEO will likely yield results starting at the 6 month mark. It’s common to see small results as early as 3 months but investing a minimum of 12 months into an online marketing strategy is your best bet. Once you’re happy with how your strategy is performing, implement a maintenance strategy to keep up the momentum. Don’t let minimal results in the beginning discourage you; online marketing is a marathon - not a sprint! 

Myth #5- My business doesn’t need a website; we are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram!

Social Media Marketing is only one part of a comprehensive online marketing strategy. While using the same social networks your customers use is extremely important, they don’t take the place of a website. Even though your social media profiles will show up on Google searches, they are not contributing to your SEO ranking. Additionally, social media platforms are likely to change over time; websites aren’t going anywhere. It’s hard to imagine platforms like FaceBook and Twitter becoming irrelevant, but MySpace is a great reminder that it can happen. Lastly, your website and the content within it, are owned by you. Facebook owns your business page (and its content) and can choose to shut it down at any time. For the best chance at online marketing success, be sure to include a range of proven marketing tactics, like a website, in addition to your social media campaigns. 

Myth #6 - There’s too much competition; there’s no point in online marketing.

If your competition includes a lot of big companies with huge marketing budgets, it can be difficult to increase your search ranking for certain keywords.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a strategy that works for your business. Even if you aren’t competing with Fortune500 companies for search engine rankings, here’s 3 ways to step ahead of your competition:

• Long-tail keyword strategy. A long-tail keyword is a specific, detailed phrase (usually contains more than 3 words) to narrow search results. For example, “where to buy conflict free diamonds online” is a long-tail keyword option for “diamond”. 
• Great content marketing. As an expert in your industry with hands-on experience, you have the opportunity to provide valuable information to those looking for it. Get blogging!
• Local Search. Small businesses can leverage the power of local search by incorporating the neighbourhood or city into their SEO strategy. For example, “best fish tacos in The Distillery District, Toronto”.

People are using search in a more conversational way than ever before. Small businesses can use their unique expertise and experience to employ these strategies to get ahead of big competition.

Finding the right mix of online marketing activities to suit your small business can positively affect your bottom line. Don’t let these 6 online marketing myths discourage you from finding success!

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Did you know that 83% of customers require some type of support before completing an online purchase? One way to offer customers a valuable and memorable customer service experience is by offering live chat support on your website. Installing a chat widget on your website allows your customers to open a chat box and instantly connect with your business without leaving the website. For both content and ecommerce websites, using chat to communicate with your customers in real time can be beneficial for your bottom line. 

Here are 5 reasons why you should consider offering chat on your website:

1. Boost sales.

With the ability to answers questions right away, assist a customer through a purchase, or offer an on-the-spot promotion, live chat can help improve sales numbers. One study showed 44% of respondents agreed being able to use to live chat to ask questions during the ecommerce purchase was one of the most valuable features a website can have. 52% of customers will abandon an online purchase if they can’t find quick answers! Live chat allows you to step in and save a sale that’s about to be abandoned or help a customer decide between you and your competitor. Online chat also provides a great opportunity to up-sell products and ensure repeat customers  63% of respondents who chatted said they were more likely to return to the site, and 62% reported being more likely to purchase from the site again. 

2. Offer better customer service.

Chat is an amazing platform to connect with your customers. Chatting in real time can help you quickly identify pain points and understand issues that may be contributing negatively to your business. When it comes to quality service, customers are looking to have their questions answered ASAP. On average, customer queries on chat are answered within 42 seconds! That’s fast! Having an FAQ guide for your customer service reps can further improve response time. In addition to quick answers, the ability to chat in real time with a customer to offer technical assistance or provide a coupon code means you can diffuse negative experiences and retain customers.

3. Online chat is convenient. 

Customers now prefer live chat support to phone support. Convenience is one of its most attractive qualities; customers don’t have to leave the website to ask questions about a product or service. They don’t have to open their email or find a phone, or look you up on social media. Customers appreciate a business that values their time and they are likely to show appreciation through word of mouth advertising or repeat sales. Providing convenient service with quality information through live chat support helps strengthen your customer relationships and your business.

4. Reduce customer service expenses.

Case studies show that live chat software can reduce phone and customer support expenses. One employee can handle one phone call at a time. With online chat, the same employee could manage 4-5 chats at the same time, reducing the amount of overall customer service agents needed. Whether your customer service is handled by you or a call centre, the addition of online chat will improve the efficiency of your support team. 

5. Build credibility with your customers.

Being able to chat with an employee, or better, the owner of the business, improves credibility with your customers. Using a website can feel impersonal and adding live chat adds a friendly, small business experience that customers appreciate. Ensure your team is trained and  equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide a valuable customer service experience. Maintain credibility by providing customers with quick answers that are relevant and easy to understand. Once you implement online chat as a customer service option, keep regular live chat hours and respond to any offline queries right away.

Conclusion

A live chat strategically located on your website can help your business build a strong rapport with customers. Most live chat services offer the ability to chat right from your mobile so it’s easy for small business owners to stay connected. Zopim, LiveChat Inc, Olark and Intercom all offer live chat platforms for websites. Get connected with your customers and start reaping the benefits of online chat for your business today.

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The trend of mobile search shows no signs of slowing down soon. Following the path that Google began in April of last year, the mobile-friendliness ranking signal will be updated in May 2016 to further improve mobile search results.

According to TechCrunch, “Google’s search chief Amit Singhal said for the first time this summer [2015], more Google searches were completed on mobile devices than desktop computers”. There are 100 billion searches performed on Google each month with more than half happening on mobile phones! 

With more and more people relying on Google’s mobile search, this update to further penalize non-mobile friendly websites is the next natural step for the search giant. 

From the official Google Webmaster blog,

“Getting good, relevant answers when you search shouldn’t depend on what device you’re using. You should get the best answer possible, whether you’re on a phone, desktop or tablet. Last year, we started using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal on mobile searches. Today we’re announcing that beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.”

With this update to its search algorithm, Google continues to confirm the mobile-first industry standard. If your business website is not mobile friendly, now is the best time for a redesign. Not sure if your website is mobile-friendly? Click here to test your website.

This is great news for Webware customers! Our mobile-friendly, responsive designs will continue to be favoured by Google and give our customers great search results ranking. 

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Building a website, even if you’ve hired someone to do it for you, comes with a whole new language. Here’s a quick guide to essential technology, design and marketing terms to help you build the best website for your business. 

Technology

CMS Content Management System  

An application that manages the content on a website. It is generally user-friendly, allowing anyone to make changes to their websites without any coding experience. The CMS allows the website owner to publish, edit, delete, replace, and arrange the front-end content (what the customer sees). Some examples of content include text, graphics, photos, video, audio, and code for any apps on your website (like a review widget or chat program).

Backend

The “behind the scenes” of a website. Website visitors see the front-end of a website while the back end is hidden from view and contains the structure of the website. The back-end houses the CMS and is accessed by the website owner or their technology team. 

Front End

The part of your website that the user/customer sees and interacts with - also known as user-interface.

Code

Language used to write computer software programs and webpages. Code comprises the architecture of a website and can be written in many different languages. 

HTML

A code language that turns design into functional websites.

API Application Program Interface

A piece of code written into computer software that allows applications to communicate and share data with each other.  

WWW

World Wide Web

Browser

A program on your computer, phone, or tablet that allows you to view webpages (for example Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari)

URL Uniform Resource Locator 

A website’s street address on the world wide web. https://www.webware.io

Host/Hosting

A service that stores your website data so it can be accessed online. Data is stored on servers (a type of computer) and accessed each time someone types in your website address.

Cloud Hosting

Instead of one server, an unlimited amount of servers are connected into a “cloud”. Your website data can easily be accessed by any server on the network increasing the speed and reliability of your website. 

Cookie

When a visitor enters a website, a tiny piece of data is sent from that website to the visitor’s web browser. This “cookie” is stored in the visitors web browser and transmits certain types of information back to the website. 

E-Commerce

Electronic commerce. AKA online shopping. It includes physical purchases that require shipping and digital purchases (like a Kindle book).

Payment Gateway

A service provider and software to conduct and authorize financial transactions for ecommerce websites. 

Website Design

Responsive Design

A type of website design that allows the website to change formats based on the user’s screen size. A responsive website is user-friendly and looks professional on computers, phones and tablets alike.

Mockup

A visual model of what your website will look like when it’s complete. They have no functionality are usually approved by all parties before website development begins.

Banner

A prominent graphic on a website designed to attract a visitors attention and convey important information. “Hero Banners” or “Main Banners” are large, rectangular graphics placed front and centre on a website and serve as a main focal point.  

Navigation

How a visitor moves around your website including menus, links, icons and buttons on your website.

The Fold

Derived from the newspaper term, “the fold” or “below the fold” describes the lower half of a website that is cut off by the computer/mobile/tablet screen. The information “above the fold” is considered to be the most valuable as it’s the first seen by the website visitor.

User Experience

The description of how a visitor feels while navigating a website or app. For example: Was the website easy or confusing to use? Did the website load fast or slow? Many factors contribute to user experience and it’s an important consideration when building a website. 

Marketing

Call to Action (CTA) 

A visual focal point on your website that invites customers to act. Common examples of Call to Action are “Buy Now” or “Signup Here” or “Enter your email”.

Conversion

When your website visitors participate in the Call to Action. For example, how many website visitors entered their email addresses when prompted or clicked the “Buy Now” button.

SEO Search Engine Optimization

The free discipline of making your website easy to find on search engines. SEO means several factors work together to build your website’s visibility like: website content, mobile-friendliness, website quality (speed to load pages, duplicate pages, broken links, etc), website architecture and geophysical location to name a few.

Landing Page 

The first page a visitor comes to on your website.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

A designated page on your website to help answer your customers most common questions. This can help decrease repeat phone and email queries. 

Local Search

Specialized search algorithms to refine search results by specific geographical locations. For example, “Best Tacos in Toronto” or “Hair Salons in Yorkville”.

Web Traffic

Visitors to your website

For a more detailed list of important online marketing terms, click here. 

Building a website, whether yourself or hiring someone to help, comes with new, confusing vocabulary to learn. Keep this guide handy and know your API from your HTML! Happy website building!

Need help with your website? Visit webware.io and find everything your business needs to succeed online.

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Established in 2011 by Firoz Khan and Cory York, GCI network began as a single destination to sell gift vouchers at giftcardsindia.in. Today, GCI Network has partnered with over 300 brands to empower its prepaid products within GCI's 100,000 point-of-sale distribution network. Over a period of time, from just a destination gift card store, GCI has evolved to create its own products, technology and distribution in the prepaid space. GCI offers its extensive catalogue of prepaid gift cards to several distribution partners across India.

How did GCI take its small, retail gift card business to one of the largest gifting networks in India? 

"The cumulative knowledge on digital business at Webware has not only helped me build this business successfully, but also scale it quickly; all without compromising on the user experience. What an online business needs most from its technology solution is agility and flexibility- Webware has come true on both fronts”.

-Firoz Khan, CEO 

GCI Network has partnered with Webware from day one as it’s technology provider. Webware enabled GCI to build this robust, gift card business using their technology platform and digital services team. GCI relies on Webware to provide an up-to-date, efficient ecommerce experience for its customers. Webware also provides a host of services to GCI like daily website management, blogging, and SEO services at affordable-for-small-business rates. 

GCI Network uses Webware to extend their team with the best people for the job with minimal overhead costs. GCI has minimal IT staff and relies on Webware for their complete website and digital service needs. Webware helped GCI Network grow from a retail website offering 20 gift card brands to one of the largest gift card networks in the country, managing over $10M USD in Sales. 

The Webware team has enjoyed watching GCI Network grow and we look forward to continued success together! 

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How is your website working for your business? If it’s not bringing in traffic or sales, it might be time to give your website a health check-up. Here’s 10 common issues that signal your website could benefit from some TLC:

1. Your website is not mobile responsive. Or worse, you don’t know what mobile responsive means. A website that can be viewed on all devices is not optional; it’s essential. In this booming age of smartphones and tablets, non-responsive websites are outdated, annoying to navigate, and severely affect your rank in search results. If your website in not mobile responsive, run, don’t walk, to your nearest, trusted web designer. Read more about mobile responsiveness and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) here. 

2. You don’t know what SEO means. If you have never heard of Search Engine Optimization, that’s a red flag that you need help. SEO is an essential component of a successful and effective website. When ranking websites in search results, search engines, like Google, run algorithms to check several factors on your website. Here’s a few examples of factors that contribute to where your website lands on search engine results: website content, mobile-friendliness, website quality (speed to load pages, duplicate pages, broken links, etc), website architecture and geophysical location. More online marketing terms for SMBs here.

3. Your website has no (or minimal) traffic. Your website has very few visitors or the number of visitors is declining. This is most likely related to no SEO or poor SEO practices. Even if your industry is already saturated online (like women’s fashion), there is room for everyone and a little SEO work can go a long way. 

4. Your web traffic isn’t navigating past your homepage. If your website has a high bounce rate, your traffic is either clicking the “back” button in the browser, closing the tab, or going dormant. In any case, they aren’t being captivated by your website and there could be a few things happening:  

• content is cluttered or hard to read 
• content is irrelevant
• there is no Call-to-Action
• your website is attracting the wrong traffic    

Whatever the reason, if visitors to your website aren’t moving from the initial place they land, now is a good time for a general website review. 

5. Your website isn’t updated regularly. In addition to mobile responsiveness, updates to a website positively contribute to it’s Search Engine Optimization. Regular updates help your website and business get found. If it’s not updated regularly, you will likely notice a decline in web traffic and a drop in your search results rank. If you can’t or don’t know how to make changes to your website, seeking help can get you on the right track. 

6. Your website has 404 error pages. These are error messages a visitor will receive when a URL (link) doesn’t exist; either because it was moved or deleted. This can be an annoying and frustrating experience for your web traffic and may send them packing. Search engines, like Google, do not like 404 errors either. This will be reflected on the search engine results page (SERP) with a low rank. A review for 404 error messages and broken links should be part of your regular website maintenance plan. 

7. You have trouble finding your own website on search engines. If you can’t find your own website online, how do you expect your customers to find it? Being unable to find your website (without typing the exact business name) means it’s not fully optimized for search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a basic website practice that makes it easier for search engines, like Google, to find your website. There are several things you can do to improve your website’s spot on the search engine results pages and here is a good place to start.  

8. Your website was designed by you. Unless you’re a professional designer, designing your own website can be tricky. Web designers have studied the discipline in detail and understand what makes an effective web page. DIY websites can be time consuming, frustrating and can lack the professional polish that comes with hiring an expert. An effective website provides customers with a smooth, user-experience; something a designer has been perfecting for years. If you want your website to work for your business, it’s best to seek out a professional designer. 

9. Your website doesn’t have an online marketing plan. Even if it’s basic and simple, every website needs some amount of online marketing. There are both free and paid services to help you market your website. Blogging, social media presence, email newsletters or setup and maintenance of Google tools are all things you can do for free! Without a plan for finding and attracting potential customers, your website may not be as effective as you expected. 

10. Your website uses flash intros. Thankfully, flash intros on websites have been on a rapid decline over the last 5 years. “Flash” is a web coding technology (by Adobe) to create animation, like a video, on a website. Firstly, search engines cannot read flash technology. If your website has any flash elements, they are detracting from your “search-ability” (how easy or hard it is to find something online). Secondly, they use a lot of bandwidth and can take a long time to load. If your web developer recommends flash elements for your website, it’s time to get a second opinion. 

Your website should be contributing your business. If any of the above 10 signs ring true for you, it’s likely your website could be working harder for your business. Seeking the right help can give your website the refresh it needs to compete in this ever-changing internet world. 

Not sure where to start? Webware offers a complete tool-kit to help businesses navigate the internet. Your toolkit includes: a content website or an ecommerce website, blog plus all the digital services your website needs to thrive online. 

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As an essential component to your website’s success, your business can’t afford to overlook online marketing. If you’ve just built your website or never tried online marketing before, there can be a lot of new and confusing terminology to master. Don't Worry - Here’s a simple breakdown of the terms you need to know and what they mean.

Getting Started - General Online Marketing Terms

Online Presence- All of the activities your business participates in on the internet. Your website, social media posts, and blog are all part of your online presence. 

Online Reputation Management- To monitor and improve a business’s online reputation with a specific focus on it’s search results performance.

Content Marketing- Creating and publishing media to ultimately drive new business (e.g. blog posts, videos, photos, email newsletters, e-books). The aim of content marketing is to position your business as a leader in your industry by providing useful and relevant information to customers.

Blog- A website, or a section of a website devoted to long-form, written content. Blog content is frequently updated with new “posts”, usually written in an informal, conversational style. Used by both individuals and businesses, it’s a written way to express your knowledge and thoughts on a particular topic.

Content Curation- High-quality, share-worthy media (photos, videos, blog posts, news articles, etc) that is handpicked to tailor to a particular audience.

E-Mail Marketing- Reaching your customers through email with newsletters and promotions.

Social Media Marketing- Promoting a business and/or website through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube. 

Market Online For Free! - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Terms

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- The free discipline of making your website easy to find on search engines. SEO means several factors work together to build your website’s visibility like: website content, mobile-friendliness, website quality (speed to load pages, duplicate pages, broken links, etc), website architecture and geophysical location to name a few. 

Keyword- Tags that you assign to your website or blog that categorize and describe what it’s about. Using keywords makes it easier for your website/blog to be found through search. 

Short Tail Keyword- a short, generic search term that will return broad results. For example, “diamond”.

Long Tail Keyword- a specific, detailed phrase (usually contains more than 3 words) to narrow search results. It generally contains a short-tail keyword. For example, “where to buy conflict free diamonds online”. Long tail keywords are also useful for paid search marketing campaigns. 

Meta Keywords- Tags in your website code (website architecture) to help describe the content of the pages to search engines.

Meta Description- The text blurb that shows up in search results to describe a website.

Organic Search Results- Search engine results directly related to the relevance of the search words used; not any paid marketing effort.

Organic Traffic- Visitors to your website that you didn’t pay to find you. Their Google search terms led them directly to your website.

Inbound Link- When someone posts a link to your website from their website. This leads traffic to you and is important contributor to SEO.

Go Beyond SEO - Paid Advertising Terms

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)- The paid discipline of making your website easy to find on search engines. SEM works in tandem with SEO to increase the success of your website with sponsored listings, and pay-per-click advertising through programs like Google AdWords or Bing Ads.

Non-Organic Search Results- Search engine results that are influenced by paid marketing efforts.

Non-Organic Traffic- Visitors to your website that came through paid marketing campaigns

Impressions- The number of times an ad is viewed. 

Cost Per Impression- The dollar amount paid for each view. 

Pay Per Click (PPC)- A type of paid online advertising campaign. A business posts an ad on a website or search engine (like Google) and then pays the website or search engine each time that ad is clicked.

Cost Per Click (CPC)- The dollar amount paid for each click in Pay Per Click ad campaign.

Click Through Rate (CTR)- A measurement of success for online marketing campaigns. The percentage of people who saw a link (on a webpage, in an email, or as an advertisement) and clicked on it. Generally, the higher the CTR, the more successful the campaign.

Google Adwords- A service where you can purchase pay-per-click advertising from Google. This is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Measure Online Marketing Success - Website Analytics Terms

Analytics- Measurements of what’s happening on your website/blog to provide valuable insight on how your website is found and used. Analytics include basic things like: how many unique visitors your website had and where those visitors came from, marketing campaign statistics, and which pages on your website have the most visitors.

Web Traffic- How many people land on your website.

Unique Visitors- A count of how many new, original people visited your website/blog. Even if they visited your website 10 times in one day, they are counted as one unique visitor.

Page Views- The total number of webpages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted as separate page views.

Bounce Rate- The percentage of visitors who leave a website without navigating beyond the first page.

Engagement Rate- The amount of interaction people have with your online presence. Engagement rate measures how many likes, comments and shares on your social media and blog.

Call to Action (CTA)-  A visual focal point on your website that invites customers to act. Common examples of Call to Action are “Buy Now” or “Signup Here” or “Enter your email”. 

Conversion Rate- The percentage of people visiting your website who participate in the Call to Action. For example, how many website visitors entered their email addresses when prompted or clicked the “Buy Now” button.

Online Marketing is essential for any business that wants to grow. Whether you want free or paid options for your business, this glossary is a great starting point to understand the basics. Bookmark this page to refer back to when creating your business’s online marketing strategy.

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A quick Google search of “DIY Website” and you’re bombarded with DIY Website Builder ads and articles that list your best DIY website options. You know your business needs a website, so DIY seems like a reasonable, cost-efficient solution, right? Not necessarily. 

As the use of smartphones continues to increase, so does the value of your website and online presence. Handing the important job of building your business’s website and online presence to professionals ensures the job is done right the first time.

Here’s why we love Do-It-For-You services and you should, too!

Professional Results

In an internet focused era, it’s not enough to have a website; it needs to be great. A poorly designed and implemented website can raise red flags for potential customers. Aesthetics and usability are extremely important- How does the customer feel when they look at your homepage for the first time? How easy is it for them to navigate the website and find the information they’re looking for? Web designers know what makes an attractive, intuitive website to give your customers the best possible web experience. Your website can be a truly valuable asset for your business and a professional team means professional results.

Save Time

As a business owner, your time is one of your most valuable assets. If you’re focused on your business, building your own website and online presence can end up eating up more time than you expect. Even once your business website is built, regular updates keep it relevant and interesting. Hiring a Do-It-For-You Service means a quality designed website built for functionality with a minimal time commitment from you. It also means it’s easier to make quick changes to your website like a new homepage banner to promote a sale, or adding new products to your online store for an upcoming launch. The less time you spend building a website, the more time you have for what’s important to you. 

Extend Your Team

Building a successful website encompasses a lot of details. Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a team of professionals to handle the tasks you don’t have the time and/or expertise to manage? Designing your website, building your website, writing content, setup of Google tools, maintenance of social media accounts, reputation management are time and energy consuming tasks. Instead of you trying to build it on your own, Do-It-For-You service will assign an entire team to your website so each task is completed by a dedicated professional. Your website should be a well-crafted and accurate reflection of your business; extend your team with the best people for the job.

Stay Up-To-Date

With features, trends, and product updates. While you’re managing other aspects of your business, it can be difficult to stay up to date with the latest technology news. As an ever-evolving field, the fast pace of website technology and trends can leave even a year old website looking tired and out-dated. Hiring someone to do it for you means your website is always fresh and current. A Do-It-For-You service will make sure your website technology is in line with industry standards and updated regularly to stay competitive, so you don’t have to. 

Focus On Your Business

There’s a reason you started your business; you’re knowledgable and passionate about what you do! Letting someone else design, implement and market your website means you can stay focused on your business. A Do-It-For-You service team will be knowledgable and passionate about technology. Let them build your website and online presence so you can spend your time and energy on what you do best, your business! 

Business owners are coming to recognize the value of having a strong online strategy. Whether they want to sell online, market online or simply have a content website, most small business know that being online can help increase their bottom line. Choosing Do-It-For-Me over DIY means no missed details and no time wasted. Your business’s website and online visibility are more important than ever. Consider hiring pros for the job; you’ll be happy you did! 

Speaking of pros, Webware’s Do-It-For-You Service means professional results for your business’s entire online presence, from website and design to digital services and online reputation management. Get a custom-design, mobile-friendly website that not only looks good, but also adds value to your business at webware.io. 

Morningstar Trading, located in downtown Toronto, is a true gem in a world of mass-market furniture. Stepping through the door from one of Toronto’s busiest streets into Morningstar’s shop, you’re immediately immersed in the beauty and richness of India. With amazing woodwork, handicrafts, lavish and brightly coloured textiles, and the sweet scent of Nag Champa, Morningstar Trading helps you bring a piece of India home with you. 

John, who owns and runs this adorable furniture store, is passionate about the culture and traditions of India. He started traveling over 46 years ago to bring the vivid colours and fabrics of India to the Canadian market. After serving the fashion business for 25 years, John decided to take a leap into the furniture market. On each buying trip to India, John uses his discerning eye to bring back the best quality wood pieces, statues, textiles and other artisanal pieces for his customers. With the boom of condo development in Toronto, Morningstar also carries a generous selection of furniture designed to fit the smaller dimensions of modern condo living. 

Already a Well-Established Business, How Could Webware Help Morningstar?

After setting up and running a successful furniture business, John was eager to get Morningstar Trading online. He wanted to increase his sales and reach a broader audience. Even with the store’s amazing urban location, John felt he could still reach more customers and sell more furniture. That’s when we met John in his trendy, downtown Toronto store. 

When Webware first started working with John and Morningstar, we wanted to bring the same warm ambiance and influence of India from his store to his website. Webware designed and built a mobile-friendly website to reflect Morningstar’s vibrant personality and showcase their vast array of furniture. Webware also added a FaceTime feature to morningstartrading.ca to allow customers to call the store directly from the website. With one click, customers can be chatting face-to-face with John and his staff to ask any questions about their products.

Morningstartrading.ca helped create new business for John. They saw a dramatic increase in web traffic, foot traffic and sales after the website launch, without any marketing effort! Now that the website is live, we are working with John to further increase his traffic and sales with the addition of our Digital Services Package. 

At Webware, we love to see our customers succeed and we couldn’t be happier for John and his team at Morningstar Trading. Find a little (or big!) piece of India at morningstartrading.ca and bring the richness and romance of this colourful country into your home. 

In this internet age, it’s no longer enough for your business to have a website. Today, a business website needs a comprehensive strategy to stand out from the competition and one of the most valuable elements you can add to your website is a blog. There are several reasons to write and maintain a business blog but one particular advantage can help your business break through the online clutter. Read on the learn the most useful benefit of business blogging (and a few other ways a blog can add value to your business).

Supercharge your SEO

The number one reason to write a blog for your business is the tremendous advantage it provides when it comes to ranking your website in search results. Google has a long list of things it checks when deciding where to place your website in search results; the frequency of new, original content, and the quality of page content are two important factors. A regular schedule of blog posts that are useful for your customers and relevant to your business is an incredibly valuable way to improve your overall search ranking.

Generally, more blog posts means more website pages, which leads to a better rank in Google search results. However, if your content is low quality (for example, it’s poorly written or duplicate information), your blog may not perform the way it should. Google’s own Webmaster Forum reflects the growing importance of quality over quantity,

“Our algorithms explicitly try to find and recommend websites that provide content that's of high quality, unique, and compelling to users. Don't fill your site with low-quality content, instead work on making sure that your site is the absolute best of its kind.”

                                                            - Google Webmaster Central Help Forum

Check your blog content for grammar, spelling mistakes and usefulness. Your audience (and Google) should find your posts informative, valuable and understandable.

An Important Note about Third-Party Blogging Platforms - If your business blog is hosted on a third-party blogging platform and not integrated into your own website, Google won’t connect your blog posts to your website and you will lose out on the SEO benefits. 

For example, a business blog hosted on a third party blog platform might look like this: wordpress.yourbusinessblog.com.  A blog hosted by the website looks like this: yourbusiness.com/blogs OR blog.yourbusiness.com.

Ensure your blog is integrated with your website so that each new post actively increases the SEO performance of your whole website.

In addition to the amazing SEO benefits a business blog can provide, here a few other ways a blog can improve your business:

Strengthen Your Social Media Campaign

While sharing others’ content on your business social media pages can help you keep in contact with your customers, posting your own original content has significant advantages. Updating your social media accounts with news of your most recent blog post drives traffic directly to your website. Anytime the post is shared among your customers, those clicks lead to your business. Blog posts also provide useful content for your business’s email newsletter. Increase the impact of your social media and email marketing campaigns by including regular blogs as part of your strategy.

Signify a Healthy Business to Customers

Regular communication through your blog shows website visitors that your business is alive, well, and ready for customers.  Posting relevant and high-quality content on your blog builds customer confidence by illustrating your company’s passion and commitment to serving the community.  Over time, the quality content on your blog can help define your company as a leader in your industry.

Give Your Brand a Human Voice

Blogging is a great way to show your business’s personality. Beyond website design and content, blogging allows your business to communicate on a more personal level with existing and potential customers. To write content that speaks to your customers, check to make sure the language, tone and values conveyed in your post match those of your target audience.

Conclusion

Good quality, consistent blogging helps increase the value of your website which ultimately increases the value of your business. If you haven’t considered creating a blog for your business, now is a great time to add it to your marketing plan. From communication and customer loyalty to the powerful SEO effect, blogging is one of the most beneficial tools your business can use to get ahead.

Webware’s platform includes an integrated blogging tool that allows our customers to easily add and manage a blog on their website. Your customers will experience a seamless transition between your website and blog while you enjoy the convenience of managing both from the same platform. If you don’t have time to create original content on a regular basis, Webware’s Digital Services packages include blog writing with social media posts. 

Google provides some amazing tools to anyone with a website. These (for the most part) free tools offer businesses an amazing advantage over their competition on the most used search engine in the world. Where your business ranks on Google Search can influence how many new customers visit your business and possibly your bottom line. Use these four powerful tools to ensure your business is as visible and effective as possible across all Google platforms.

My Business

The Google My Business tool is arguably the most important tool offered by Google for businesses. The My Business Tool allows you to set up how your business contact information will look to customers on Google search. Once set up, your location, website, reviews, phone number and business hours will appear prominently in Google search results, making it easy for your customers to see relevant information quickly. The My Business Tool is used across Google, including Mobile Search and the Google Maps app, so your customers see consistent, accurate info from anywhere they search. Given the popularity of Google and it’s powerful local search, the My Business tool is a necessary component to any business’s online strategy.

Google Analytics

When it comes to website data, Google Analytics is the gold-standard for tracking and reporting on your business’s website. Google Analytics tracks and reports visitor data in a convenient dashboard allowing businesses to see new visitors to the website, returning visitors, how long each visitor spent on the website, which pages they viewed and their geographical location. You can also pull reports on specific page performance and traffic sources. Businesses can monitor marketing campaigns, conversion rates, keyword data and add e-commerce tracking. Google Analytics is a “freemium” (free with paid options) tool for monitoring the basic health and operation of any website and is a must for businesses.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console, previously called Webmaster Tools, allows for more advanced website tracking and maintenance of Google-friendly websites. It provides detailed reports on your search traffic, click-through rates and mobile vs. desktop traffic. Through the Search Analytics Report, you can group, filter and compare your data to tweak your overall digital strategy and maximize website performance. The alerts feature will notify you of any website errors that might affect your rank in search results. Google Search Console can provide your business with the tools to get an extra edge against your competition in search results.

Google+ Publisher

The Google+ Publisher tag is another valuable tool to further enhance how your business info appears in search results. Once you install the publisher tag on your website, Google will link your website to your business brand page on Google+. When someone searches your brand specifically on Google, the content from your Google+ plus will appear on the right side of the search results, providing an eye-catching and detailed description of your business. The Publisher tag allows you to show customers more than the basics of your company without leaving the Google Search page.

Conclusion

With consumers turning to the internet more than ever for information, a business in solid standing with Google is likely to have better online visibility and see increases in both foot and website traffic. These four tools comprise a solid foundation for any business looking to establish a strong online presence and manage an effective, profitable digital strategy.

Webware offers it’s customers an extensive range of services to help manage and grow their websites after the initial launch. The Digital Services Package includes the set up of Google My Business, Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google+ Publisher for your website. The package also includes blog content writing, online reputation management, website/keyword analysis and optimization to ensure your website adds value to your business. Click here for more info.

We’re pleased to announce that Butch Langlois is joining Webware as Chief Operating Officer to support our North American expansion.

Butch brings a wealth of experience to the Webware team. He is a widely respected leader in the technology industry known for leading great companies and helping shape them into successful businesses.

Joining Webware was an easy choice for Butch, because “it has the best and most comprehensive product for the worldwide SMB audience,” he says. From his experience working at Rogers Ventures and launching companies targeted at SMBs, Butch immediately recognized Webware’s potential to fill a gap in the existing digital services market in North America. “Webware is already supporting thousands of customers in Asia and we’re excited to duplicate that success in North America.”

Butch’s plan includes refining the sales model to reach as many potential customers as possible and helping them understand how the Webware platform and services team can profit their SMB. “In 2016, we aim to continue the momentum we’ve built through the end of 2015, and focus on the key elements that will allow us to achieve the 10x growth we expect to reach this year,” says Butch.

In addition to driving sales success, Butch aims to build a corporate culture where the team is excited to come to work each day and contribute to our customers’ success.

Prior to joining Webware, he was Vice President of Local Operations & Portfolio Development at Rogers Communications. He was responsible for launching Roger’s Local Digital portfolio companies: Rogers Outrank, Vicinity by Rogers, Zoocasa and Rogers Alerts.

Before joining Rogers, Butch was the President and CEO of three Toronto based start-ups securing over $25M in venture capital during the 2000s:

• Planeteye, a travel planning website that was named as a “2008 Company to Watch” in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, one of Canada’s Top 10 Canadian Web 2.0 Companies by IDC, “One of Canada’s Hottest 20 Innovative Companies” by the Canadian Innovation Exchange, and as one of the “100 Most Useful Web Sites” by PC World magazine
• Truition Inc. acquired by CDC Software. During his four-year tenure, Truition was named to the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, by achieving five-year revenue growth of 565%.
• BuyBuddy.com, a Web and wireless comparative shopping destination.

Butch is a CPA and began his internet-focused career as Vice President, Finance & Operations for Rogers New Media in the late 1990s.

We are incredibly excited to work with Butch and to learn from all his experience. Welcome aboard!

Happy New Year from the Webware Team!

2015 was an exciting and pivotal year at Webware. We changed our name, hired awesome new team members and expanded to North America. The Webware team looks forward to continued growth and innovation in the new year. 

Wishing you and yours a safe and prosperous 2016. 

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Press Release: PowerStores fuels North American launch with rebrand to Webware.io and a new round of funding

Webware.io is now integrated with both the US Postal Service and Canada Post, the most convenient delivery service options for businesses in the US or Canada. Webware customers now have access to either USPS or Canada Post’s shipping service right from their Webware workspace.

This will ease the process of shipping orders for our American and Canadian merchants. Now as a Webware merchant, you can both fulfill and track orders right from your Webware workspace, and have the confidence that your shipping rates are correct and matching your own costs for shipping. 

The correct USPS or Canada Post shipping rate will be automatically integrated into your customer’s shopping cart during checkout, based on the weight of the items and the zip/postal code entered. This shipping rate includes delivery fees and pickup fees.

Activating your postal carrier within your Webware website makes shipping easier and streamlines your e-commerce process. Simplify your shipping today – get started now!

Learn how to set up this feature for your Webware website:

Merchants in USA – US Postal Service setup

Merchants in Canada – Canada Post setup

In this digital age, the value and influence of online reviews is on the rise. Eighty-eight percent of consumers take reviews into account on purchase decisions! Reviews, both positive and negative, can influence your business’s reputation and bottom line. Monitoring what’s being said about your business online is an important part of any digital strategy. Keep reading for a detailed guide on how to make reviews work for your business.

Here’s why your business should care about reviews:

1. Trust - 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Consumers actively seek out opinions on products/services and studies show consumers highly value peer reviews.
2. Visibility / SEO ranking - Businesses with more total reviews and more positive reviews are ranked higher on search engines. For example, Google Maps and Google Mobile Search return the top three businesses nearby with the best ratings and reviews.
3. Traffic - The more visibility your business has online, the more likely you are to see an increase in foot and website traffic.
4. Conversion - 40% of consumers read reviews on their mobile while at the POS. Positive reviews can close sales and increase overall spending. They can also be a tie-breaker when deciding between establishments so ensure your reviews are accurate and up-to-date.

Ready to get started? Here’s your most important review-related questions answered:

Which review sites should my business use?

The best thing your business can do is find where your competitors are reviewed. Do some research to find which review sites your industry uses to concentrate your effort.

Some popular places to leave and read reviews:

Google Reviews - Google is the most used search engine in the world and specializes in local search. This is a good place to start.

Yelp - This app spans many industries and is go-to search tool for consumers looking for highly rated businesses.

Trip Advisor - If you’re in the hospitality business, TripAdvisor is a well-known and respected website to find reviews

Angie’s List - Mostly for North American based businesses, Angie’s list is ‘higher end’ review site for product and service businesses with guaranteed verified reviews.

Your Website - Add a review widget to your website. Reviews on your own website can increase traffic and sales.

How many reviews does my business need?

Consumers generally read between 4 and 10 reviews before they trust a business. Check out your competitors then aim to stand out from that number. However, consumers are smart and can sniff out fake reviews. If your competitors have 10 reviews and your business has 200, consumers are likely to be weary of your reviews. Aim for a steady increase of one review per month or per quarter.

Can I trick Google with fake reviews?

Absolutely not. Google is well-known for authenticity and will find, then punish, businesses abusing the review system with poor search rankings.

What can I do about bad reviews?

Negative reviews are an opportunity for your business. If you receive a bad review, reach out to the customer. At the minimum, you can apologize for the negative experience and hope they return to your business for another chance to make things right. You can also offer an exchange/refund or discount to compensate for a bad experience. If your business turns the experience into a positive one, you can ask the customer to update their original review or write a new one.

How can I monitor reviews to stay up to date with what people are saying about my business?

Set up Google Alerts to let you know anytime someone says anything about your business. This allows you to respond immediately and provide top-notch customer service.

Ready to get reviewed? How to get reviews:

1. First and foremost, DO NOT offer incentives for reviews. This is against most review sites’ policies. Incentivized reviews create mistrust in your customers and will get you booted off review sites.
2. Lightly encourage your customers to write reviews. Use your best judgement here. Ask your regulars and satisfied customers. Not everyone will write a review, but if you ask 10 people, you may get 1 quality review.
3. Display your reviews inside your establishment. This shows your customers you value their input and may encourage them to add a review as well.
4. Establish your online presence. Simply increasing your online visibility can remind customers to write a review.

Word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of advertising. As the digital age’s word-of-mouth, online reviews are a simple, yet effective way to increase traffic, sales, and improve your online reputation. With the increase in value and influence of reviews, a small business can no longer afford to have a poor online reputation. Ensure your small business is up-to-date and reaping the benefits of this essential online tool.

For immediate release

POWERSTORES FUELS NORTH AMERICAN LAUNCH WITH REBRAND TO WEBWARE.IO AND NEW ROUND OF FUNDING

Asia’s leading web building platform and service provider to disrupt North American DIY website market with do-it-for-me model 

December 5, 2015 (TORONTO, ON) - PowerStores Ecommerce Ltd. is ready to take on North America with a new name and a fresh round of capital investment to fuel its rapid growth. Rebranded as Webware.io, the company has closed a new round of funding led by Toronto-based Extreme Venture Partners and William Bissell, who made the investment in his personal capacity through his family office. Webware offers a DIY website platform that is now complemented with robust do-it-for-me set up and support services to ensure businesses become competitive in the online world.

“There are four billion-dollar web platform companies in the market, yet according to a joint Google and Ipsos survey in 2013, 55 percent of businesses in North America are still not online,” says Cory York, co-founder and CEO of Webware. “We know why. Small businesses are looking for a reasonably-priced, do-it-for-me platform and service company to take care of their online needs. And that’s what our company offers.” Founded in India by Cory York and Indrajit Chowdhury in 2012 as PowerStores, the company established a Toronto office this past summer and already has 10 employees and 500 customers there.

“The name change to Webware.io reflects the company’s ability to serve more than just the e-commerce market with a shopping cart solution,” says York. “We know small businesses have limited time and resources, and an easy all-in-one system that covers everything they should be doing when it comes to the internet is what Webware is all about. We offer a complete digital tool kit that covers everything a business needs to be doing online - website, web store, social commerce, blogging, and more.

” The new round of funding will support Webware.io’s aggressive expansion across North America as it targets more than 30 million small and medium businesses that can benefit from its services. "There is a great opportunity for digital services within the small business market right now. We're investing in the proven team at Webware to bring a new dimension to the SaaS platform marketplace." Sunil Sharma Extreme Venture Partners ( www.evp.vc )

“Small- and medium-sized businesses know they need to be online, but so many of them just don’t know where to start,” says York. “They’re hair stylists, or chefs, or plumbers. You name it. But they don’t want to be web developers, nor should they be. That’s where Webware.io can help.” Webware.io will dramatically increase hiring for it's sales and marketing team in Toronto in the coming months to support its growth plans. Qualified candidates can apply at http://www.webware.io/pages/footer/careers

- 30 -

About Webware.io: Webware.io is a complete tool kit designed to help small businesses easily and affordably navigate the digital world. Webware.io’s technology platform provides everything small businesses need to manage and grow a successful online presence, from designing and building websites and online stores, to SEO marketing services and creating loyalty programs. With services embedded into the Webware.io platform, businesses can access all the tools they need from one easy-to-use workspace.

MEDIA CONTACT: Cory York, Co-founder and CEO, Webware.io (formerly PowerStores) 416.931.9330

The holiday season is upon us! Is your business prepared? The average American consumer is expected to spend over $800 during this holiday season. SMB retailers see 20-30% of their annual business during the last two months of the year. It is essential for you to ensure that your business is able to capitalise on the high rate of spending during the holiday season. An estimated 47% of consumers prefer to shop online compared to the usual brick and mortar stores. In other words, it means is that there is big money to be made this time of the year as far as online shopping and marketing go. But how do you make sure that you and your business are prepared?

 Here is where you can start…

1) Start Planning For The Holidays Today

If you have a website or a dedicated blog, begin by updating it to reflect the mood of the ongoing holiday and festivities. If you haven't posted a new article, photo or even a mere promotion in a long time, then this is the time to do it! You can also try pinning one or two colourful banners or even populating it with holiday verbiage. If you run a webstore, then it is an opportune time to start planning what deals and discounts you can offer!

2) Step Up Communication with your Customers

The key to driving traffic and increasing sales during the holiday shopping season is knowing exactly who your customer is and marketing to them well in advance of the holiday season. Businesses that communicate with their customers year-round have more successful holiday marketing campaigns because they took the time to build relationships with shoppers. Incorporate your holiday promotion ideas into a year-round marketing strategy. During the holiday season, focus on your existing customers but also work towards improving your business’ online presence and driving more traffic to your site.

3) Harness the Power of Social Media

It's the holiday season. And as far as the web statistics go, this is the time of the year when social media outlets record the highest amount of traffic per year. Therefore, it goes without saying that if you lay out strategic plans to tap into this traffic, you can easily multiply your mailing list subscriber base within a few weeks or even days! Be accessible on every social media platform and every device. 65% of shoppers use social media to find the perfect gift, so help them find your store. Below are a few ideas for great social media posts during the holiday season:

• Gift guides
• Wish list items
• Creative ways to use your business’s products/services
• Seasons greetings from your staff
• Party planning and event ideas

4) Partner with Other Small Business Owners to Drive Sales

Just like the adage goes, there's indeed strength in numbers. And if you're just starting out (have a new blog, website or social media page), you'll be far much better placed this season if you concentrate most of your effort in pooling your resources together and partner with other local businesses in your area by promoting one another’s products/services during the holiday season. Partnerships with other local businesses will spread awareness about your business to a new audience of highly qualified buyers, e.g. if you own a nail salon, you could partner with a hair salon and offer combined holiday packages.

Now is the time to get working on your holiday marketing plan.  Try out one - or all - of these ideas to kick-start this holiday season for your business.

Webware.io is now integrated with Fedex, the world’s largest express transportation company. Webware customers now have access to Fedex’s shipping service right from their Webware workspace.

Enabling Fedex with your Webware website allows you to manage your entire online business from a workspace you already use.  Track and fulfill orders right from the same place, your Webware workspace.

Setting up Fedex with your Webware site saves you time too. You won't need to add any shipping rates or setup weight slabs (for example, 1kg = $2.99, 2kg = $4.99, etc). The shipping rate is automatically integrated into your shopping cart during checkout, based on the weight of the items and the zip/postal code entered. This shipping rate includes delivery fees and pickup fees.

Activating Fedex on your Webware website makes shipping easier and streamlines your e-commerce process. Take advantage of Webware’s newest integration and simplify your shipping today!

Learn how to start using Fedex with your Webware website. 

Exposing your small business to the online community means more than just setting up a website with your business address and contact information. It means creating a virtual version of your business, with an attractive, informative website and a social media presence. In this digital era, people use online search engines for almost everything they need. For many, Google search is the first place they go when they have a question or want to know more about something. Given the reliance on the internet today, not maintaining an active online presence can be potentially fatal for small businesses. If you are wondering how to get online, or how to take your business online, this post will explain why and how to establish a strong online presence.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Strong Online Presence:

• Visibility & Accessibility - Customers are more likely to turn to the web for research when they need information. They may either be looking for specific information on your business, services/products your business offers, or general information about your industry. Going online will give you the upper hand over your competition. The easier it is for your potential customers to find you, the more likely they will invest in your products and services.

• Build trust & confidence - A quality website, active social media, and an updated blog immediately give your business credibility to potential customers. It reassures clients that your business is established and trust-worthy. Open communication and quality customer service, through your website or social media, can help increase customer confidence and brand loyalty.

• Marketing & Ecommerce - In this new online era, the internet allows you to market to anyone, anywhere in the world. There are a number of online marketing and advertising avenues which can help extend your reach and increase both online and offline sales. Whether you’re displaying testimonials from clients or photos of your newest products, it’s never been easier to show the world what your business offers. Displaying your products or services on your website allows customers to easily learn about what your business offers.

How to Establish a Strong Online Presence:

• Website - A website serves a primary source of information about your business. The importance of local search is growing as we evolve. Most customers access the Internet, and use search engines to research everything, from entertainment to professional services. Having a website is the first step to interacting with your existing customers and attracting new customers to your business. Building an attractive, easily navigable website is a great first step to securing your online presence.

• Blog - Blogging significantly increases SEO and lands your business higher in Google search results. The more quality content on your website and the more often that content is updated, the more Google will favour your website over others. This is easily achievable with consistent, quality blog posts, relevant to your industry and business. A blog can also help establish your business as knowledgable and a go-to source of information for customers. 

• Social presence - Having your small business on recognized online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest is essential in expanding your client base. Through these platforms, customers can learn more about you and your business. Webware offers its customers a Facebook Store, where a business can sell products directly from the business Facebook page. All your social platforms should display your expertise in your industry and maintain open communication with your customers.

• Webstore - If your business sells products, adding ecommerce to your website can increase your visibility online. Online shopping is a growing force in the retail market and can help you reach a new customer base, outside your local area.

• Reviews - People often check reviews to help them decide between products or services. People generally trust their peers so good online reviews can be a gold-mine for your business. Reviews also help increase your business’s ranking on the Google Search Results page. Again, the more quality content that links back to your website, the more Google will favour it. Install a Review widget (like Yotpo) on your website and encourage customers to write reviews about your products and their experience with your business.

The Bottom Line

In today’s Internet-focused world, a business that doesn’t maintain an active online presence will go unnoticed by Google and potential customers. To avoid being lost in the internet clutter, ensure your business is easily accessible both locally and across the globe.

Your website and social media presence are opportunities to make a great first impression.  Inspire trust and confidence in your clients from day one with a well designed and comprehensive digital strategy.

We are proud to announce that PowerStores is now Webware. 

For our customers and partners, rest assured that nothing will change. We still provide the best platform to suit all of the online needs of a business, including website content management, e-commerce and online payments, blog, social media, and more. We will continue to offer both a do-it-yourself option and a do-it-for-you service, to give you the flexibility to choose what works best for you.

Why the change from PowerStores? 

We started as PowerStores, offering a DIY e-commerce solution. The name “PowerStores” implies e-commerce only, and we create much more than just online stores. Many of the sites we build and host are for businesses such as clinics, hair salons, and interior designers - businesses who do not have a requirement to sell online.

In addition, through listening to our customers, we learned that DIY website platforms don't work for the average small business owner; they are difficult to build, more time-consuming than anticipated, and rarely produce the quality of website the business expects. Not to mention, a website is only one component of a successful digital strategy. Webware offers services to help our customers maintain a strong online presence, long after their initial website is live.

The name “Webware.io” reflects the company we have evolved into, and it's a brand that speaks to all our customers. 

What is Webware?

Webware means tools to help navigate the fast-paced, ever-evolving internet. 

Our new brand describes the functionality and diversity of our product plus services team. Webware’s easy-to-use, web-based tools provide small businesses with everything they need to be successful online. 

The took-kit includes: design and setup of content or commerce websites, embedded services to enhance websites (like designing a logo, a banner image, product updates, etc), a blogging tool, loyalty program, and extensive list of add-on marketing/SEO packages. 

The Webware team looks forward to continuing to help small businesses thrive in the new digital space. From easy-to-use technology and quality-built websites, to affordable services with exceptional customer service - Webware’s toolkit continues to be small businesses' best all-in-one online solution. 

Cory York
Co-founder, CEO
Webware.io

This Thursday, November 5^th, catch Webware.io at the Los Angeles Small Business Expo.

Webware.io is a complete tool kit designed to help small businesses easily navigate the digital world. Our technology platform provides everything small businesses need to design, manage and grow a successful online presence from designing logos and building online stores, to SEO Marketing services and creating loyalty programs.

Look for us in Booth 304 on the exhibitor floor, and we can provide a full demo of our services and show you how we can help your small business grow.

Also, catch Webware's CEO Cory York, in his workshop on small businesses and the web.  Cory will discuss why a website is a necessity for your business and how to get traffic to your website with SEO and content marketing strategies.

The session will also cover Google's new SEO guidelines, how to build a website that's favored by search engines, and a question and answer session on how to be successful online. Then, watch a demo of Webware's easy-to-use digital toolkit that provides everything you need to build a thriving online business.

Pinterest has the potential to be the most valuable social media platform for businesses.  [Source]

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where u

• things they are planning to do
• things they would like to buy 
• and most importantly, things they are dreaming of doing 

The images are “pinned” to boards to keep ideas and projects organized. Images are linked back to a website or blog post, offering relevant content for the user to easily find and go back to later. In addition to pinning, Pinterest users can also “follow” other “pinners” and individual boards.

Pinterest posts are a creative journey - planning and dreaming about life experiences. Boards span a huge spectrum of interests including:

• food/drink
• crafts/DIY
• home decor
• technology
• humour
• holidays
• events
• travel

So, why should small and medium sized businesses focus on Pinterest as a promising social media marketing platform? 

Here’s some stats on how and why people use Pinterest:

As a business, you cannot afford to miss out on this amazing opportunity to reach potential customers who WANT to spend their money. Pinterest users, more than any other group on social media, are shoppers. They use Pinterest to find inspiration for their next project and are actively seeking products/services to purchase. Adding Pinterest to your social media marketing plan extends your business’ reach into an extremely valuable market segment. 

How to get Pinterest working for your business:

Create a plan 

Create boards with categories -

Curate and create pins - 

Here’s how to create pins that will help drive traffic to your website:

• Describe your pins well so they can be easily found through search. Balance “real voice” with relevant key words to provide more info about the pin. Avoid overusing keywords as this could flag the pin as spam. 
• Use eye-catching images. Pinterest has a useful guide on how to create great pins.
• Pins that link back to useful content perform well on Pinterest. For example, a freelance photographer might create a Pin to link to their blog post “How to take better photos with an iPhone”
• “Repin" from reputable sources. Find leaders in your industry and “repin” their articles, blog posts, and photos. Follow their boards and interact with them through comments/likes. 
• Use Rich Pins - These are pins with extra information. For example, a Product Rich Pin includes real time pricing, availability and where to buy. Pinners may also get notifications when prices drop more than 10%. You’ll have to apply for rich pins with Pinterest. click here for more info
• Avoid time sensitive information on your pins. Pins tend to be “repinned” for weeks and months after the original pin (engagement on a Facebook or Twitter post only lasts for a few days). For example, a one-day sale that a retail store is promoting on Facebook might get lost on Pinterest, only be “repinned” when it is no longer valid, months later.
• Create a mix of pins from your website and other sources. 
• Enable Pinterest on your website - Two thirds of all content pinned comes business websites. Ensure customers can pin your products from your website and content from your blog. 

Let everyone know you’re on Pinterest - 

Be consistent -

Use Pinterest Analytics - 

Buyable Pins - 

Conclusion

Pinterest’s unique combination of eye-catching images with useful content attracts doers, dreamers and shoppers. Pinterest’s unique user-base has the potential to make it the most valuable social media marketing platform for businesses today. Using Pinterest for your business not only increases your reach, it also helps you put your products/services in front of people who are looking to buy them. If your business hasn’t already, signup and get pinning to take advantage of Pinterest’s social media marketing power. 

Inforgraphic Sources: MillwardBrown, fortune.com

What is SEO?

Your new website can be an essential tool for your business’s marketing strategy. But in order to make the most of your website, you need people to find it!

Search engines like Google help your website get found. SEO - or Search Engine Optimization - is a way to increase traffic to your website by focusing on where it appears in search engine results. Optimizing your website or web store will make it easier to find on the web.

Marketing Packages now available

Now Webware is offering ongoing SEO services to our customers. Our team of experts will implement both on-site and off-site optimization of your business.

Choose the marketing plan that’s right for you:

Ongoing Services

Improving your site’s performance through optimization is a continual process. We offer monthly ongoing services to address your business needs and consistently optimize the online presence of your business. Choose from a monthly plan starting as low as $425 per month, or purchase 6 months upfront and we will waive the initial setup fees. - LEARN MORE

Webware is a leading cloud-based web platform designed for small and medium sized businesses. Businesses can use Webware and our expert support team to design, set up, manage, and grow a website or webstore.

Whether you’re starting an online business, taking your existing business online, or are ready to upgrade your website, Webware has all the key components for a successful digital business, all in one place:

1) Website

A website builds your brand, increases your business’s credibility and, ideally, will bring you more customers. But it’s a lot of work to build and maintain a website, even if you’re outsourcing the work.

Webware's Do-It-For-Me team will design a website to reflect your brand and give your customers an informative and easy-to-use online experience. Here’s how it works:

• The Webware expert team will start from one of our beautiful website templates, get your inputs and preferences, and build a website that fits your business brand and needs.
• Once it's built, you can run and manage the site yourself with our easy-to-use web-based tools.

With Webware, anyone can have a beautiful, mobile-friendly site at the lowest rates available, all within a quick delivery timeframe.

2) Webstore

Want to sell your products online? The Webware Do-It-For-Me Team will deliver a beautifully designed webstore, fully integrated with reputable payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe that support mobile-based transactions.

Site visitors can browse, add to cart, and make payments right from their smartphones, tablets or desktops, using our integrated, straightforward checkout process.

Then you can log into your Webware's Workspace to:

• Manage your products, orders, and customers from one, easy-to-use online Workspace.
• Create coupons to drive more sales and draw in customers.
• Add apps from our App Store for additional features, like customer service chat, surveys and reviews.
• View reports on order activity, visitor stats, and referral sites, so you can keep tabs on your business.

Webware's platform gives you all the tools you need to digitally manage your ecommerce business, from one convenient place.

3) Blog

Blogging significantly increases a website’s SEO and lands your business higher in Google search results. Whether you’re selling online or promoting your business with a website,Webware's blog platform is a great way to increase traffic to your website. It’s also a great place to link to content on your website and products/services on your webstore.

Your customers will experience a seamless transition between your website and blog, while you enjoy the convenience -- and SEO benefits -- of managing both from the same platform.

4) Social Store

Use social media to get your fans onto your website and convert them into buying customers! With the Facebook Store feature on Webware, you can sell your products on your business Facebook page.

Consumers love to research their potential purchases online and frequently ask their social networks for advice. Your Facebook fans can easily view your products on your Facebook page, and share them with their social networks. This will increase your reach and allows you to harness the power of word-of-mouth through social media.

When your fans want more information, or are ready to make a purchase, they click on the product from your Facebook Store and are taken to your website.

Social media is vital to online success - increase your web traffic and engagement with Webware’ Facebook Store.

5) Loyalty Program

Once your fans become customers, it’s important to treat them right to keep them coming back. With Webware's loyalty program, you can award points to customers who register with your website and/or make purchases. And you can decide how customers can redeem their loyalty points. A Loyalty Program helps increase customer satisfaction, customer retention and brand loyalty.

Conclusion

In today’s world, it’s imperative for businesses to have an online presence, and your website is the heart of it all.  But a static website alone is not enough. 

If you’re selling products online – whether it’s physical products, professional services, or takeout menu items – you need a secure, easy-to-use ecommerce store.  And extras like a blog, loyalty program, and social links are now critical elements to success.

And even for those businesses who are not conducting sales online, you still need your customers to find your website, learn about your business, gather the information they need to make an informed decision, and follow your call to action.

Webware's, with our team of experts, will design and setup your online business and give you the tools you need to manage it, all with minimal cost and effort to you.  For more info, start a free trial or contact us.

Our special offer to all American and Canadian Webware customers -- refer your friends to Webware and they will get a $100 rebate on their order! Plus you will get loyalty points worth $100 added to your account for every new customer you refer!

Here’s how it works:

1. Refer a friend to Webware
2. Your friend gets a $100 rebate on their setup fees
3. Once your friend signs up, you get 100 loyalty points!

Redeem your points for great website Add-Ons:

Your loyalty points can be redeemed for all kinds of add-ons to enhance your website, by improving design, updating content, and driving traffic.  Here are a few of the add-on's we offer (and many more to come soon):

• a new banner design
• marketing and SEO packages
• a custom .COM domain
• view a full list - Canada customers and USA customers

100 loyalty points gets you a $100 credit toward any Webware add-on.  That means you could get a brand new logo, or a new banner for your homepage, for free with just one referred customer!

It's easy to share this $100 offer with your friends! Get started now here: for USA customers and for Canada customers

Note: This special offer is for USA and Canada customers only

With Webware's newest upgrades to its shipping module, you can set up your shipping fees and logistics rules on a postal code level. This upgraded shipping feature can give you ultimate flexibility -- to set the shipping charges and delivery ranges that work best for your business.  

Here’s why you want to do this, and why it will save you money and headache.

1) Set shipping fees based on postal code

Large delivery services like BlueDart and DHL will charge you, the seller, different shipping rates depending on where your customer is. With postal-code based shipping, your Webware website can determine how much to charge your customers for shipping fees, based on the postal code entered by the customer during checkout. 

Your delivery service can provide you with a spreadsheet of rates by postal code, which you can upload to your Webware workspace (and we can help you with that!) So you will never lose money on shipping to far away or rural customers.

2) Offer Cash-On-Delivery to local customers

If you ship nationwide or worldwide already but would like to add a cash-on-delivery option only for your local customers, you can set local pin codes to avail the COD option. A transaction using cash-on-delivery payment option will only complete if the customer’s postal code matches your predefined COD postal codes. Customers outside the COD delivery zones will be prompted to check out with another payment option. 

With this feature, you can have your local store delivery boy make COD deliveries to nearby customers, rather than using a 3^rd party delivery service.  It will save you money and your local customers will love the convenience and, likely, faster delivery times.

3) Ship Locally

If your business isn’t ready to expand nationwide or worldwide just yet, you can now restrict your delivery area to certain zip/postal/pin codes. This feature is great for local businesses who only want to deliver within their city, i.e. a bakery who can only guarantee freshness with a one-day delivery window.

You can offer shipping to as many or as few pin codes as you like. Customers will only be able to complete a purchase if their pin code matches the postal codes you have inputted into your Webware workspace.

3) Set weight-based or price-based shipping rates by postal code

You can also determine how your shipping rates are calculated, whether it’s based on the weight of your product or the price of the product. Then you can charge higher shipping rates for heavier or more expensive products, to compensate for the increase in postal/delivery charges. Webware allows you to create up to 9 different shipping rate slabs, to cover a range of weights or prices, and to set up the shipping fees by postal code AND by slab.

This advanced method of calculating shipping fees for your customers will help you to ensure you don’t discover hidden costs charged by the delivery company, after it’s too late to charge the customer.

Conclusion

Now you can easily manage where your business ships to, which shipping method, and how the shipping fees are calculated, based on what suits your business the most. Our new postal code-based shipping feature stacks well against the competition and was created with shipping flexibility in mind.  And the Webware team will help you set it up for your Webware in no time!

If your business is ready to activate postal code-based shipping for your Webware, please email support@powerstores.com to learn how to enable this feature on your workspace.

Webware announces the launch of its most recent feature, the Facebook Store. All Webware customers will now be able to launch their Facebook store with a few clicks. Once the Facebook store feature has been activated, you can sell products from your Webware on your business' Facebook page.

Take advantage of one of social media’s most influential giants and get your fans purchasing directly from your Facebook business page. Increase your brand reach and awareness by letting your customers easily share and recommend products to their network of Facebook friends.

Boost E-commerce Sales with Webware's New Facebook Store Feature

Utilizing Facebook for your business is a great way to increase your e-commerce sales. One of the greatest influencing factors in Google's search rankings is Facebook shares. Webware's Facebook Store feature makes it simple for your customers to share your products on their timeline, with their friends.

In this digital age, consumers readily rely on the opinions of their social networks when it comes to making a purchasing decision (50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation through a social media network*). Your customers are your best brand ambassadors and with the addition of purchasing power right from your Facebook page, it’s now easier than ever to share product purchases and recommendations.

In addition, 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy the products of brands they follow online*. Make this easier for your customers by activating your Facebook store today!

*Source - Yahoo Small Business

The Facebook store feature is FREE for all Webware's customers. Watch this video tutorial to learn how to activate your Facebook store!

Or for step-by-step written instructions, view our tutorial.

This article is the third in a series about marketing on Instagram.

Do you want to boost your Instagram marketing effort? Attract more fans and engage existing followers? Host an Instagram contest! 70% of Instagram users have already participated in a contest on Instagram or would be willing to do so (according to the Iconosquare 2015 Instagram study). Instagrammers enjoy engaging with brands and appreciate companies who value customer interaction. It’s easy to overlook an Instagram contest, but it has proven valuable for small business marketing.



Why host an Instagram contest?

Hosting a contest can increase your followers, likes, and overall engagement. A creative, thoughtful giveaway will reach your target audience and increase your Instagram stats. One contest can create the same interest and engagement as months of your regularly scheduled content. It can also get your customers creating interesting and relevant content for you.

The benefits of a well-executed contest will extend beyond the length of the contest, so it’s important to create a clear plan.



Step 1: Create and plan 



Choose the target market, prize, type of contest, and theme.



Target Market: Get a clear idea of who will be interested in your contest, and who you want to participate. Once you have the ideal contest participant in your head, research what they post on Instagram and which hashtags they use to guide you. Targeting the right audience is vital to your contest success.



Prize: Give away an awesome prize. Choose something your followers are going to get really excited about. To keep the focus on your business, make sure the prize is related to you. If you’re a company with one product/service, give that away. If you have a lot of products/services, give a gift card or a dollar value to spend at your business. Webware clients can give away coupon codes and Loyalty Reward Points. This ensures your contest entrants are genuinely interested in your brand. Other options include tickets to trade shows and industry-related events. Decide how the winner will be selected (public/private vote, random selection, your favourite, etc). To continue reaping rewards after the contest is finished, you want to attract those who have potential to be interested in your brand (not someone who is only interested in winning an iPad). 



Contest Rules & Structure: Think about how the rules of your contest can help with your marketing strategy.  Here are some ideas we recommend.


1. Select an interesting theme related to your business or industry. Get creative with your theme and encourage your followers to have fun. 


2. Choose a brand or contest-relevant hashtag that participants must use to enter their posts. This is the best way to have all submissions organized in one place for reposting entries, selecting winners and for people to view all submissions.


3. Content that your customer creates for you has high value. If you want to take advantage of this precious resource, make user-generated content a mandatory qualifier for your contest. 



You can host a contest based on likes and/or follows, which means that users who “like” your photo or “follow” you are automatically entered into the contest. This is an easy way to host a contest and doesn’t require much planning. Because it’s simple to enter, it will get you likes and followers. The drawbacks to like/follow contests are that they will attract people who aren’t members of your target audience, and that contestants aren’t creating any content for you to use. This type of contest may not create future engagement on your Instagram feed or in your community. 



Other types of contests include reposting or comment-based entry. Entrants must repost your contest photo or comment on one of your posts to qualify for your giveaway. These entry methods have more interaction than like/follow contests but don’t come with the valuable user-created content of a photo contest. 

You can also use a combination of requirements for entry into your contest. For example, contest entrants must like a photo, follow your brand AND comment on the contest post. However, one of the most common reasons why contests fail is that there are too many requirements for entry. Find a sweet spot between too easy and too difficult to ensure maximum, quality entries. 



Helpful Tip - No matter what kind of contest you host, always require a “follow” for entry. This is a simple yet effective way to increase your potential future engagement. 



Step 2: Prep fans 



Once you've decided on the type of contest, a fun theme and a cool prize, let your customers and followers know about the upcoming opportunity. In the weeks leading up to your contest, give your fans the heads up that soon they can participate to win an amazing prize. Before launch, advertise the contest regularly on social media, email campaigns, your website, and in-store. Use your Instagram bio space to promote the contest while it’s happening. To create some buzz, encourage your fans to spread the word or offer an added incentive to anyone who shares your contest post.  



Step 3: Launch



Before you start your contest, ask a friend or two to go through the contest steps from start to finish. How easy or difficult was the entry process? Did you understand the rules and how to qualify? Was the prize motivating? Do you know when it starts, ends, and how the winner is chosen? This will give you an idea of how your contest is received by others and how you can make it easier and more lucrative to participate.

 On day one of your Instagram contest, give your followers all the info they need to enter. Create an eye-catching post with a high-quality photo of the prize. If you’re giving away a gift card, get creative to keep it interesting! In addition to the prize photo, the post should also include start/end date, qualifications for entry, rules, winner selection, hashtags, and other contest details. Another reason for an unsuccessful contest is misunderstanding how to enter. To avoid losing participants, clearly state how to enter and what to expect.

In addition to the contest-entry hashtag, the launch post should also include other fitting hashtags. Refer to your target audience research in the planning phase to ensure your contest execution is on track. If you’ve been hash tagging for a while, you may already know which general hashtags your target audience follows and uses. Add popular/keyword hashtags relevant to your contest and frequently used by the Instagrammers you want to engage. You can also include general contest hashtags but keep in mind this may attract contest-seekers only. You’ll have more success with general contest hashtags if your contest is easy to enter or appeals to a broad audience. Popular general hashtags are: #contest #photocontest #giveaway #entertowin #contestgram #contestgiveaway #contestday. More on Instagram hashtags for marketing here.

This Instagram contest was hosted by Webware customer My Envy Box, and is a great example of a well hash-tagged contest.

Click here to read Instagram’s requirements for hosting promotions on their app. 



Step 4: Maintenance 



Give the contest enough running time to garner attention and entries, but not so long that people lose interest. Two to four weeks is the general guideline for an average contest, ensuring ample promotion before the start date. If you’re running a photo contest, you can promote throughout the contest by reposting submissions. Continue to repost even after the winner has been announced, to show appreciation and maintain the connection you established with your fans during the contest. 



Conclusion

Carefully crafting and hosting an Instagram contest can boost your social media stats. Get creative and have fun with your followers. Instagrammers appreciate brands who want to get connected and see the world from their customers’ view. Find your like-minded fans and get them thoughtfully engaged with a fun contest!

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Today  Webware launched the ability to download a list of customers who added a product to their shopping cart on your ecommerce website and then left without paying for their order. This is called an “abandoned cart”.

What can you do with this abandoned cart list? Well, this gives you a lead on a potential order! You now have an opportunity to contact these visitors and close the deal.

Here are some ideas of what you can do with your abandoned cart list:

• Send them a reminder email
• Give them a discount code to help turn their indecision into a sale!
• Phone them!

When you download the abandoned cart list, each entry will include a link which you can send to your customer. She can click the link to open her filled shopping cart, with her order ready to be paid for. It’s so easy for customers to complete their order with this link!

For more information on how to access your abandoned cart list, view our support article.

You already know that marketing is essential for your business. And if you’ve done any marketing for your small business, you also know that social media is an important part of the overall strategy. The photo-sharing app Instagram is a growing force in social media, especially for business. Research shows that Instagrammers love to shop - more than people on Facebook, who use the older social media site mostly to stay connected with friends and family. So if you haven’t already, it’s time to get your business on Instagram.

We’ve covered the basics here, so now that your Instagram business page is up and running, it’s time to make a plan to achieve your marketing goals. This post covers three essentials to include when creating your Instagram marketing strategy.

1. Use Hashtags!

There a lot of ways you can use hashtags to promote your brand and get more followers.  First off, some examples of the types of hashtags you’ll want to use.

Trending hashtags - Trending hashtags are the topics that people are currently discussing. They can be trending in a specific community/industry/country or trending across all of Instagram. The use of trending hashtags can help increase your exposure to non-followers. It’s best to use them when you find one related to your business. When that happens, switch out your regularly scheduled post for the trending hashtag to reach like-minded Instagrammers. Last week, #nationalsiblingday was trending. This adorable non-profit in New York City got in on the action. 

Top Hashtags – These are the most commonly used hashtags on Instagram. Examples of consistently popular hashtags include #love #picoftheday #fashion #friends #food #repost #beauty.

To see the overall top 100 Instagram hashtags, click here. 

To see a sample of top hashtags sorted by industry, click here.

It’s useful to hashtag your posts with one or two popular hashtags to reach non-followers. Use both general and industry-specific hashtags to maximize your reach.

Brand hashtags - It’s almost always best to use your brand name here. For example, #powerstores. In some cases, a short and clever slogan can work (KitKat uses #haveabreak), but it’s best to do some research beforehand. Include your brand hashtag on your profile page so anyone viewing your feed will see it.

Campaign hashtags - Hashtags for marketing campaigns or contests. Choose a short phrase that captures the essence of the campaign. Make a requirement for entering a contest or participating in a campaign.

Keyword hashtags - These are general hashtags used to describe the content of your post. They describe products and lifestyle.

Locations and events - Hashtag your geographical location (country, city, community, neighbourhood etc). Look for and use event/conference hashtags to reach fellow attendees and fans.

General tips on using hashtags - Use between 5 and 10 hashtags per post for maximum exposure. Any more and risk putting your followers off by appearing obnoxious (this goes for posting more than once a day, too). Use a few different types of hashtags to best describe what’s happening in your post. Knowing which ones to use can be tricky, so when getting started, check out what other businesses in your industry are up to on Instagram. Follow industry leaders, businesses you admire, and customers you appreciate. Research a hashtag you’re considering by typing it in the Instagram search field to see how popular it is and what it’s already used for.

For extra help, hashtagify.me lets you search a hashtag then gives you related, popular hashtags. It can help you find trends and recommend additional hashtags that may be relevant to your post.

2. Show Appreciation

As with all social media platforms, a grassroots marketing plan includes engaging with your customers. This is especially true for Instagram. A great tactic to increase overall engagement and attract more followers is customer appreciation. Re-posting followers’ content shows you’re listening and value their outlook on your brand. A popular campaign by Chobani yogurt showcases delicious food creations made with their products, by their customers. They encourage followers to get creative with their product then post the photo with a branded hashtag (#creationaday). Chobani re-posts the photo with a shout-out to the creator.

While showing the love is bound to get you more followers, the value of appreciation goes beyond customer loyalty. Your customer has saved you time by creating valuable content that genuinely shows how your product or service is actually used. It’s also great insight into what people love about your brand.

Instagram doesn’t give you the ability re-share your followers’ content, but Repost and Regram are two popular apps you can download that will. The free versions of these apps add a watermark to re-posted content and paid versions allows multiple Instagram accounts. Check your mobile’s app store to see what’s available.

There are other ways to show appreciation that work. 41% of Instagramers would follow a brand to benefit from special offers. Reward your followers with exclusive promotions, discount codes, sneak-previews of product launches or priority access to new services. Offer giveaways – such as your products/services, tickets to food & beverage shows, fashion shows, concerts, or other events of interest to your fans. Offering quality benefits exclusively to your Instagram followers will encourage them to never miss a post!

3. Measure what works

Don’t let the effort of creating content, researching hashtags and hosting promotions go to waste. You’ll want to measure how each of your strategies affects the number of likes, followers and comments received. Analytics are the key to refining your marketing plan and understanding what works for your business. Then you can make tweaks in response to how different strategies affect your metrics.

Iconosquare is the most recommended analytics tool for Instagram. Get your basic statistics and analytics to hone your marketing plan. Union Metrics offers a free checkup of your Instagram account which will give you a few pieces of valuable information at no cost. Collec.to’s free plan provides the same basic stats. These platforms also offer paid plans to get additional features to manage your Instagram account.

Conclusion

Instagram is great for business because users want to get involved with the companies they buy from. Instagrammers love to engage and are very active on what’s becoming one of the most popular social media apps in the world. Once you incorporate these essentials into your marketing plan, your business will get the most out of Instagram.

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Last November, Google announced that it would be labelling and promoting "mobile-friendly websites" in their search results. This was in response to the fact that 80% of Google searches are performed on a mobile device. People are moving away from their desktops and spending more time on smartphones and tablets. As technology improves, mobile devices are getting better at handling tasks which were once reserved for desktop computers.

On April 21, in less than four weeks from now, Google will update its search algorithm to include mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor for websites.

As stated on Google's official blog:

“This change...will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

If your website or webstore isn’t mobile-friendly by April 21, it will take a big dive in Google’s search results, which could significantly impact your website traffic.

If you’re already a Webware customer, you can rest easy. All of our themes are responsive, automatically giving your website or webstore the “Mobile-Friendly” label. Your business will rank higher in Google’s search and customers will have a hassle-free experience on your website.

Is your website not mobile-friendly? Visit www.webware.io and get a new website!

Instagram is a photo sharing app that has taken the social media space by storm! Users post photos and short videos to share any and all aspects of their lives with friends, family and fans. Before posting photos, Instagram users can easily enhance them using filters. Each filter has a different effect on the photo like adding more contrast, light, shadows, tint or vignette edges, black and white/sepia options. Take a picture with your smartphone, add a filter and share it with the world.

Brands have discovered that Instagram is way to communicate with their current customers and reach potential customers in a fun and unique way. Because Instagram is one of the top ten most popular smartphone apps, it’s an easy way to reach your customers and target market. Create a buzz around your product and engage your community to increase brand awareness and loyalty with this popular and growing photo sharing tool.

As part of a three-part blog series on Instagram, here are some basic guidelines to get your business’s Instagram account started off on the right foot.

1) Communicate your brand consistently. 

What is your business hoping to achieve with Instagram? More followers? Increased product sales? Brand awareness? Know what your main objectives are and work toward them with every single post.

Instagram is a great way to visually communicate your brand’s values through relevant, eye-catching images. These posts can be funny, inspirational, educational, or simply beautiful to look at, as long as they promote your brand image and align with your business goals.

2) Connect your Instagram account with any other social media you use.

Facebook and Twitter will automatically repost your Instagram photos to your existing fans and followers. Link all of your accounts and let all of your social networks know you’re on Instagram to build your initial following.

Learn how to link your social networks and more on linking to your Facebook page.

3) Post a good mix of business and fun images. 

Business images promote your products and show them in action. These are a great way to start a conversation about your product and interact with your customers. However, your followers will get bored by seeing posts that only promote products and feel sales-pitchy. Connect with your followers on a personal level. Share the faces behind your company at work and play. Your followers will appreciate an inside glimpse of your company’s day-to-day life and culture.

4) Use #Hashtags. 

This is the best way for non-followers to find your photos. Hashtags are words or phrases used to categorize posts making them searchable by subject. For example, if you take a photo of a beach and add the hashtag #beach, it will come up in an Instagram search by anyone looking for beach-related posts.

Use hashtags to describe your post and further convey your brand’s message, and it will help increase visibility of your photos.

5) Time your posts for the most engagement.

Post consistently, when your followers are likely to have down-time. Don’t post too often, once a day with a purposeful message is enough to engage your followers.

6) Engage with your followers.

Reply to comments on your posts. Like, comment and re-post your followers’ posts to build brand loyalty and attract new followers and potential customers.

These beginner tips will help get you started with your first posts and create a foundation for your business’s Instagram presence. Stay tuned to the Webware blog to learn more about using Instagram for your business. Future posts will cover marketing with Instagram, tools to help you get the most out of Instagram, and integrating Instagram with your website/webstore. Happy Instagramming!

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Most owners of online stores typically run extensive promotions and marketing campaigns to capitalise on the festive season at the end of the year, and watch with delight as their sales volume soars. You are likely one of them.

Now that you have set up your promotions and campaigns for the peak shopping season, it’s time to focus on another equally important element for success - Customer Satisfaction!

If you had any reason to wonder just how important customer satisfaction is to your ecommerce business, we have compiled the top 5 reasons just for you!

1.Satisfied customers are the ones who return

As obvious as it may sound, it’s important to always keep in mind that only those customers who are satisfied with your products and service are likely to return for more. Of course, not every satisfied customer will become a repeat customer, but it’s almost certain that a dissatisfied customer will never return, especially given the large variety of options available in today’s highly competitive market.

2. Returning customers are cheaper to retain than acquiring new customers

If you’ve ever run a successful marketing campaign, you are well aware of the high cost of customer acquisition. The cost involved in getting a satisfied customer to return to your website is a lot cheaper than the marketing spend required to acquire new customers. One thing successful businesses have in common the world over is a high volume of returning customers. And, as I’ve already said, the only customers who are likely to return are the satisfied ones.

3. You can make it part of your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

As you already know, in today’s highly competitive market, customers have a number of businesses to chose from to satisfy the exact same need. Good customer service can often become one of a brand’s USPs that customers take into account when making their choice. Price  is of course an important differentiator, especially for first-time customers - but research has shown that very often, people are willing to pay a slightly higher price for better customer service.

4. It leads to customer loyalty, increasing Customer Lifetime Value

The more frequently a customer returns to your store, the more value he or she creates for you. Your Sale Cost reduces with regard to that customer, while your Sale Value keeps increasing. The longer you can keep a customer satisfied, the more you stand to gain from them.

5. It affects your Online Brand Reputation

Research shows that more and more online buyers are depending upon product reviews and customer testimonials to make their purchase decisions. The more positive reviews you have, the higher your chances of acquiring a sale. On the other hand, negative reviews will turn away customers in a devastatingly efficient way.  So when you start getting those great customer reviews, be sure to post them on your website for all to see!

Conclusion: It's Worth It!

With these important reasons in mind, be sure you go the extra mile to please your customers. Fulfil your orders quickly, communicate well with your customers, ensure your products are high quality and well packaged – all with a goal of ensuring the highest levels of customer satisfaction. You'll be glad you did it! And your customers will too!

After you get your business online, the first thing you’ll likely want is to have people find it. One way to do this is advertising and marketing, for sure.  But one critical (and free) step you should do right away -- once your website is ready and optimized for SEO -- is to index your site with Google, so that people can find your site through search. 

Think for a minute about how you shop online. You search for the product you want in a search engine like Google, and then click on links that show up as results.  So you need YOUR business to show up for people who are looking for YOUR products and services in the same way. 

As we’ve said before, Google is by far the most popular search engine today, with 67%+ of all searches happening there, so it makes sense to focus your attention on Google’s search engine.  You can make sure your site shows up on Google quickly by indexing it.

What is indexing?

It’s a way of telling Google that your website exists. Google’s search bot may eventually find and index your site, but you really have no idea how long it will take, it could take weeks or more.  So this is a way to speed up that process.

How to index your site with Google

Here are the steps:

1) Go to Google Webmaster Tools site. You will need to sign in with a Google Account. If you don’t already have one, you will need to create one.

2) Click on the ‘Add a Site’ button and submit your website URL.

3) You will be given different options to verify that you are the owner of the site. The easiest option is to choose the “HTML tag” option under “Alternate Methods”. You will be given a code that you need to copy-paste in the meta tag of your home page.

Webware clients, to paste the HTML tag into your homepage, go to Website > Site Pages in your workspace and select “Home” page, or ask your Guru for help with this. 

4) Once the site is verified, you will get an email from Google that looks like this:

This email will help you set up your Google Webmaster Account.

If you are unsure of how to do the set up, there are helpful links to explain the whole process in easy-to-follow-steps. Whether you make use of the other options or not, be sure to submit the sitemap of your online store.

Once you have set up your account, your website, along with all its pages, will get indexed by Google soon thereafter. And once your site is indexed, it will show up in search results for searches that are relevant to your business.

How is indexing different from SEO?

SEO is about page rank, which is the next step. First, your site needs to be indexed.

Note that indexing does not guarantee your website will appear on the first page of Google search results.  It only guarantees that it WILL show up on relevant search results.  It won’t be missed. 

For a new website, it’s highly unlikely you will show up on the first page right from the start. You need to work on your SEO to get it moving up the Page Rank, hopefully to the first page, for your most important keywords.

Conclusion

Indexing your site with Google is a key and simple first step to getting your site noticed by Google's search engine.  

Webware customers, we’re now offering an SEO marketing package, where we will make sure that your site has all the right title tags and meta descriptions, and we will take care of indexing your site on Google for you. Contact support@powerstores.com or your Guru for more information!

Universal Hockey is a professional hockey training institute based in Canada, owned and run by Daniel Bochner. This is his story.

Daniel is a professional hockey player-turned-elite trainer. With his business, Daniel has been offering elite camps, private/semi-private lessons, clinics, consulting, coach mentoring, and off-ice training, amongst other professional training services, for many years now. He has had plenty of clients and has been successful for a long time before he decided to get online with Webware.

And yet, Daniel says Webware changed everything for him!

It sounds a bit dramatic, but he is very clear in his explanation. “I am a hockey player and trainer. That’s what I do. But I used to spend so much time in the administration side of my business, that it sapped the joy out my work. You see, customers would show up to classes and pay with cash or cheque in person. It was really difficult to manage because I had to keep track of everyone’s information on the spot, handle transactions, update records, and get ready to teach at all the same time. Saying that it was inconvenient is an understatement.”

So, when he decided to get a website which allowed for customers to book their classes and pay online, everything changed and the whole process became streamlined. Now, he spends more time with the students on teaching and training, and both he and his students are happier for it!

So, how did Webware work for Daniel?

In Daniel’s own words, “Webware was great from step 1 right up to the finish line. They helped me design and setup my site, and their ongoing support when I need it is always fast and helpful.”

According to Daniel, as much as it was a hassle to collect payments from his students, he also didn’t want the hassle of chasing web developers to get his website up and running - or the cost of paying someone each time he wanted to make changes to the dates and availability of his classes, update latest events and news, etc.

He needed a system that was easy, quick, and cost-effective, and Webware checked all the right boxes. And the customer support he has received from Webware has made the whole experience easy and even - in his words - enjoyable!

Thank you, Daniel! We are here to make sure your online store succeeds and helps your business to grow! We wish you all the very best!

We have talked about why online businesses need Marketing Analytics and what kind of data to look for in Marketing Analytics. Now, let’s look at some specific tools that you can use to gain insight into the performance of your website as well as marketing campaigns.

1) Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the best website analytics tools, and it’s free! You can gain insight into many different parameters related to user behaviour on your website, such as:

• Deep insights into your audience - where they are coming from, their demographics and interests, the devices they use, etc.
• An overview of their usage of your site - number of pages, time spent, etc.
• Tracking your social marketing campaigns and how much traffic they have brought to the site, and
• Details of all sales on your website, to help you identify marketing strategies that work.

Google Analytics also offers real-time analytics, in-page analytics and visitor flow visualisation that can have a deep impact on understanding how well the website is performing and which elements need to be improved.

2) Compete

Compete is a paid tool and its prices vary based on the types of features you need. Compete offers comprehensive information on keywords that attract your target audience to your website as well as your competitors’ websites. Such information can be very useful in creating advertising campaigns that provide a high Return On Investment (ROI).

You can also find out where viewer came from and where they go, for both your website and those of your competitors. This can help you identify the best referral websites to place your ads or content on as well as understand how customers behave when they leave the website.

3) Google Analytics Content Experiments

Formerly known as Google Website Optimizer, Content Experiments is now part of Google Analytics. Content Experiments enable you to test all different segments of your website to identify the best options. For instance, you can try different layouts, images and content on different pages of your website in rotation and easily find out which ones or which combinations perform better than the others. This will help ensure that all elements on your website are as optimised as possible.

4) KISSinsights

KISSinsights is a free survey tool offered by KISSmetrics. It enables you to reach out to your customers directly and get answers to important questions like:

• What are visitors attempting to do on your website?
• Are they able to do it or not?
• How satisfied are they?

KISSinsights is an extremely simple survey tool, and its best advantage is that it’s short and does not impose on your visitors for too long, while providing you with the most important insights you need into their opinion and experience of your website.

5) Social Media Tools

Let’s look at tools for two of the most popular social networks: Facebook and Twitter

Facebook: Page Insights

If you have a Facebook Page for your Brand, Page Insights can provide you with a whole lot of information about it.

You will find the Insights tab in the top left corner of your Facebook Page. 

Here you will get deep insight into the Likes your Page has received, your Posts that have been popular, the kind of audience your page attracts and their ages, genders and locations. Such information can be very useful in targeting your Facebook ads and promotions.

Twitter: Twitalyzer

Similar to Facebook Insights, Twitalyzer offers comprehensive insight into your number of followers, retweet insights, how often a specific account replies or engages with your brand on your Twitter feed, and more.

Conclusion

As you can see, these are tools that assist you in every aspect of your online presence and engagement - your website, your audience and your social networks. Using these tools will provide you with all the data you need to ensure the best performance of your brand on every net property.

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Wanna know what makes a CTO? Here is a little insight into the professional career of our Co-Founder and CTO, Indrajit Chowdhury.

Indrajit was first exposed to computer programming at a summer internship in the early 90’s at a research lab in the University of Wisconsin. But this was no ordinary summer job: Indrajit was at a research lab funded by the Human Genome Project, and here, he learnt how to program robotic arms. It is easy to see how such an impactful introduction to programming can easily lead to a lifetime commitment to the field, and so it was with Indrajit.

Two years later, in 1995, Indrajit found himself in New York, as part of a team of consultants who launched the website for the big media brand, Nickelodeon - which went on to become the highest trafficked kids’ website on the Internet. After that first experience in website development, Indrajit left the Nickelodeon team to flirt with what would later emerge as the second most important passion in his professional life after programming - startups!

Indrajit’s first startup experience was setting up the world’s first Internet grocery store, which was quickly followed by another half a dozen other startups in the coming decade, including a High School Sports Social Networking company, Viral Gaming via Email, Handheld “name that tune” music recognition software, and a Video Email company. 

Fast forward to the year 2000, when after watching his wife struggle to build and manage a website for her non-profit organisation, Indrajit decided to put his programming skills to work to help her.  He created an integrated solution for his wife’s NGO that included website building, online donations, and email marketing tools aimed at the NGO sector. 

This early experience of witnessing the power of software to change a small business’s future led to Indrajit co-founding Webware with his partner Cory York. His and Cory’s staunch belief is that Ecommerce can transform the lives of small business owners if it is made easy and accessible. 

At Webware, Indrajit’s responsibilities including leading product development, serving as a coach and mentor to his programmers, and technical operations management. And he and his team often stay late on Friday nights for gaming sessions and hackathons, sharing their passion for software programming!

‘No Pain, No Gain’ seems to be the way things go for everything in life, whether it’s a fitness program or even an online business. No matter what it is we want to achieve, we have to endure a painful ordeal to get it, right?

Let’s look at all the hassles you will have to go through (or already have gone through) when you want to build an ecommerce store and/or take your business online.

PAIN #1: Finding the right designer

You need someone who can translate your vision for your website in a web-ready design, while keeping in mind all branding requirements.

PAIN #2: Finding the right developer

Then you need to find a website developer who can translate the visual design into a functioning website, keeping in mind user experience and functionality.

PAIN #3: Finding the right domain-selling and hosting company

You need to decide where to buy your website’s domain name from and on whose servers you will host your website. Understanding the choices and all the features offered requires major time spent just educating yourself on all of it.

PAIN #4: Finding the right payment gateway

If you’re selling online, you have to choose a payment gateway that is right for you, based on many different technical and non-technical parameters, then have your web developer integrate it with your website.

PAIN #5: Finding the right vendor for site maintenance

Once your site is ready and launched, you will need someone who will update and maintain your website on a regular basis. Often, the developer who built your site has then disappeared when it comes time to make changes!

PAIN #6: Finding the right fulfillment partner

Finally, if you’re shipping products to customers, you will also need to find the right logistics partner and then negotiate with him to offer you a reasonable deal.

THE BIGGEST PAIN: The Cost

More than anything else, you will need to start with a large capital investment to pay for all the above-mentioned professionals and expenses.

It is easy to see why so many people are put off by the thought of taking their business online.

But imagine if this process was not as convoluted or as expensive as it is right now… Would you let anything stop you from breaking the Internet barrier and offering your goods and services to the large number of shopping buyers online?

Meet Webware.

Webware is a DIY Online Store Builder. We believe that ecommerce has the power to transform the lives of small business owners, and that it should be as easy as possible for them to have a great website where they can promote their business and sell products. That’s why we’ve created an extremely easy-to-use platform that’s as effortless as managing your Facebook page.

With Webware, you get pain-free access to:

1. Create your own professional-looking website yourself in a matter of minutes using our beautiful website themes.  And they're all free, even the mobile responsive ones.  
2. Or you can have us build it for you in a matter of days, at about one-third the cost you’d pay a web developer!
3. Try out many different designs, colors and other elements of look-and-feel of the website, as many times as you want until you have a website that you like - and it’s all for free!
4. Web hosting on blazing-fast Amazon servers. And the hosting cost is included in your highly affordable monthly subscription.
5. The best Payment Gateways available, like PayPal and Stripe, pre-integrated into your website. Just enter your merchant account info and you’re ready to accept payments for orders.
6. Webware  tie-ups with several logistics partners to help you find the right fulfillment partners at reasonable rates.
7. Finally, Webware is such a simple platform to manage that you will be able to make any and all changes to your online store on your own. You’ll never have to rely on a developer again!

Webware offers a host of other features that make it easier for you to manage your website easily, like:

• Easy web-based tools to manage orders, update product info, and communicate with customers
• Integration with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
• Discount coupons and Loyalty programs to grow sales
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly
• Blog platform hosted right on your site
• App Store with a wide range of third-party apps to plug into your site

Webware does not require any upfront or setup fees, so you avoid a large upfront capital investment, plus the monthly subscription prices that you pay are also extremely affordable. Check out our Pricing Page to see for yourself!

So, what are you waiting for? Join hands with Webware, and say good-bye to the pains of cobbling together a website and chasing elusive and expensive web developers! Set up your online store in minutes and watch as your business grows online!

Our recent blog post took a look at why you need marketing analytics and how it can help you streamline your marketing efforts. Here, we’ll explore what kind of data you need to study and how it can guide your marketing decisions.

Let’s consider what kind of data you need to mine from marketing analytics.

Website Performance: What to Track

You will have visitors coming to your online store from many different places, like Facebook, Twitter, blog, email links, organic search, Google Ads, etc. Website Analytics will not only help you indentify which channels of incoming traffic are leading to conversions (ie sales), but will also provide a large amount of valuable data like conversion rate, lifetime customer value, and cost per acquisition.

These figures can give you meaningful insight into what is performing effectively and what isn’t, thus helping you to decide how to allocate your marketing budget across various channels.

Sales: What worked?

Focus on actual sales and conversions on your website. Go as far back as possible in users’ behavior  to track down the path of clicks from how they entered to your online store all the way up to actual sales. Did a click from a text ad on Google search bring the sale? Or was it a link on Facebook? Maybe discount coupons in emails led to terrific sales!

Find out everything you can about what worked. If you compile enough data, you will start to see trends and be able to identify which channels work better than others in bringing in sales. You will also find out what kind of products the user was interested in and you can target your ads accordingly using remarketing tools. (Read more in our blog post covering remarketing).

Offline and Online Metrics: Consider Them Together

If your marketing strategy includes both online and offline marketing, it is important to ensure that the data record does not get interrupted in-between. So, for instance, if you advertise in a local newspaper or you give out leaflets with discount coupon codes on it, it is important that you keep records of these channels so that you can later combine both the online and the offline records to get a holistic picture of how well your marketing efforts are creating conversions on your online store.

There are many ways of doing this. For instance, in the case of discount coupon codes, create a separate coupon code for different channels, e.g. your Facebook ad can have the code FB123, while the code in your emails can be EM123. You can then look at the records of which codes were used to get an idea which channel was more effective in bringing in sales.

Vanity Metrics: What to Avoid

There are lots of metrics available that do not add any meaningful insight into what helps the bottom line. But easy availability of these metrics makes it very easy to get distracted by them. These metrics are called Vanity Metrics and they include elements like page views, time spent on site, number of pages visited, etc. These numbers do not add any value to your marketing strategy and are best avoided, to save time.

Social Media: Keeping a Bird’s Eye View

If there are any social media networks, like Facebook or Twitter, that you use to market your online store, it is important you use marketing analytics tools to keep a bird’s eye view of your performance there. You need not pay attention to every single like and share, but it is important to know where your audience is coming from whether the network is leading to website visitors and especially buyers, the demographic breakdown of customers who found your website through social media, etc. There are many tools that can make it easy for you to access this data, e.g. Google Analytics.

We will provide more in-depth information on various tools that can help you get the right Marketing Analytics data in our next post in this series. In the meantime, you can start identifying the most critical types of data you are going to need with regard to your own marketing efforts. Watch this space for more!

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Top 5 Reasons Why Marketing Analytics is Critical to Your Success

Tools for Marketing Analytics at Your Fingertips!

So you have decided to start a company blog on your online store/ website to drive more traffic, promote your business and engage your target audience. But what should you write on your blog? What kind of content is considered appropriate for a business blog? And, how to create content that will benefit your brand as well as your bottom-line in the long run?

Here are 10 ideas on what to post on your company blog:

1. Tell your Story: People are inherently interested in stories, and you can use your own story to develop interest in your brand. Talk about how you got the idea, how you met your collaborators, how you came to start your business, etc. If there are some really interesting facets to your brand, talk about them - the designers, the craftsmen, the techniques, etc. Introduce the people on your team, talk about their dreams and aspirations. The more people get interested in your brand, the more they will care about it.

2. Make Announcements: Whatever announcements you may have with regard to your brand- whether it is a new product launch, a new collection, a season-ending sale, use your blog to make these announcements. The blog provides a whole new channel as well as attracts a different section of your target audience.

3. Answer your Customers’ Questions: There is an important caveat here and that is ‘before they ask them’. You are surely aware of your target audiences’needs, concerns, demands, questions, etc. with reference to your products. Address these issues long before they actually come up. Use your blog to provide all the relevant information your potential clients are likely to need with reference to your brand, company and products.

4. Educate your Customers: Apart from pre-empting the questions your potential customers may have while buying your product, you can also use your blog to educate your customers in using your product most effectively and efficiently. If you have any guides, tutorials, how-to videos, etc. post them on your blog. Not only can you use this as a ready resource when your clients make a purchase, you also develop a reputation for being concerned with customer satisfaction.

5. Get Customer Feedback: Undoubtedly, a lot of market research goes into product development. You already know what your customers want and you have developed a product to fulfill that need. How about finding out exactly how your customers will respond to your products BEFORE you launch them? Use your blog to provide sneak previews of your products and get feedback on them from the very people who are going to be using them. You will have time for fixes, changes and troubleshooting before the launch, should the need arise.

6. Create a Platform for your Customers: Use your blog to create a space dedicated to your customers. Add their pics taken with your products, post their comments and testimonials, answer questions that they may have, link to blogs they may have written about you. Your blog can become a community space to help create a community of your customers.

7. Provide Industry News and Information: This is your opportunity to establish yourself as an industry expert. Report and remark on important industry news, identify and analyse trends that you see, write your opinions on how your industry can create a greater impact.

8. Create Engagement: Fun engagement opportunities can bring tons of traffic to your blog if done right. For instance, run a photo or a caption contest on your blog. Announce the contest, provide all the rules and guidelines, keep updating the page throughout the duration of the contest and announce the winners of the contest on your blog. Use other social media networks like Facebook and emails to promote such contests. Watch as traffic increases and your brand awareness builds.

9. Follow Relevant Blogs for Ideas: Look for the market leaders and thought leaders in your industry and follow their blogs. Of course, you never want to plagiarize their content, but you can easily find out what the industry is talking about, concerned with, aspiring to, etc. and use these ideas as a starting place for your own blog post.

10. Entertain: Use your blog as a space to provide relevant entertainment to your target audience. If you find a comic strip, a funny video or a quirky experience with regards to your product, brand or industry, post in on your blog so you and your target audience can share a laugh together and bond over it.

Now, you have the secret to creating the best possible content for your business blog. Once you get going on your blog, you’ll get better at knowing what works and what doesn’t, and it’ll come as second nature to think of new post ideas.  So go ahead and blog, and you’ll be interacting with your target audience in ways that were not possible before! 

Note: Webware customers, go here to read about how to add a blog to your Webware today!

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Webware New Feature Launch - Blogs!

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Online Store Needs a Blog

Do you have an online store? Then, you need a blog! Blogging is one of the most critical channels available to your business to attract new audiences, engage them, retain them, create brand loyalty, and in the long run, make your business profitable and successful.

If you were looking for one good reason to start a blog for your online store, we give you 10!

1. No-Pressure Communication: Your website needs to sell your products your ads need to drive traffic, your Facebook posts need to go viral, but your blog offers respite from these pressures and allows you to communicate whatever it is that you think might interest your target audience- news, updates, industry information, tips, company values and philosophy, tutorials, guidelines, the people behind the scenes, history and tradition associated with your products and services…. And the list goes on & on!

2. Two-Way Channel: A blog offers a platform for your target audience to engage in a meaningful conversation with you that goes beyond a ‘like’, a ‘re-tweet’ or a ‘re-pin’. A blog with a comments section offers a place to share ideas and have discussions with people who matter the most to you – your existing and potential customers.

3. Fuel for SEO: Regular updates, relevant & original content and additional tags are all things that get search engine algorithms to rank your website higher on relevant searches. Blogs also generate a lot of inbound links when they get shared- another plus for SEO.

4. Content for Social Media Marketing: The content you generate on your blog is the perfect material to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Newsletters, etc. These links will further help your SEO efforts.

5. Long Term Results: Most blog posts continue to produce results for years, as long as the information you have provided is original and relevant. Research shows that unlike news, blog posts are often read and referred to months, even years after they have been posted.

6. Establish Credibility and Expertise: A blog is a great way for you to establish your credibility and expertise as a thought leader in your industry. The more this perception increases, the easier it will be for your target audience to trust you and give you their business.

7. Build a Brand: Blogs go a long way in building a brand because they provide the perfect platform to share the story behind the brand. Human beings love stories and can relate to a company better if they have insight into the brand that runs deeper than just the products and services they provide.

8. Create Symbiotic Relationships: Blogs are a great way of building mutually beneficial relationships with other complementary brands and thought leaders. For example, if you sell cookware, you should easily exchange links with a recipe website and blog. This is beneficial to everyone involved - both for the brands as well as for the readers of both blogs.

9. Get Insight: While the blog provides your readers insight into your brand, it also provides you an insight into your target audience. By analyzing popular topics, clicks, shares, comments, etc. on your blog, you can gain deep insights into the needs, likes, preferences, etc. of your readers. This can go a long way in strengthening your overall marketing strategy.

10. It’s Easy! If you already run an online store, managing a blog is likely to be a breeze for you! You need no technical expertise to create and maintain a good-looking, easy-to-navigate blog. All you really need is just good content and appealing pictures to go with it.

Note: Webware customers, go here to read about how to add a blog to your Webware today!

So, you have set up your online store. And you are keen to spread the word and have more and more people find out about your online store. Apart from online advertising and marketing, is there anything else you can do to promote your online store? Of course!

Here are the top 5 ways you can promote your online store offline:

1. Printed Stationary

Add your online store URL on all your printed materials. Like visiting cards, your letterhead,and envelopes, invoices, receipts, packing, and labeling. Ensure that your website URL is always present when your brand name, logo or contact details appear in print.

2. Your Physical Store

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, then you already have an excellent venue to promote your online store. For most of your existing customers, an online store will be an added convenience and they are likely to take to it enthusiastically. Add your online store URL to all your signage - outside your store, window dressing, direction boards, announcement boards, etc. If your business requires your employees to wear a uniform or ID badge, add your online store’s web address on the uniform or badge. And put the URL on the shopping bags!

3. Outdoor Signage

On the other hand, if you do not have an actual store, you can still find ways to post signage for your online store.  Make use of signposts and other locations where signs are required. You can piggyback on signs for existing landmarks, by offering to pay for painting the sign and adding your brand name and URL in return.

4. Promotional Items

Many businesses invest in creating and gifting promotional items to their customers, vendors, investors, shareholders and potential customers on various occasions like festivals, anniversaries, etc. If you are one of those businesses, you now have one more vehicle to promote your online store! Add your online store URL to all promotional items and watch more and more people find out about your online business.

5. Pass out Leaflets

This is another great way to promote your store offline. Make brochures, leaflets, posters, catalogues, etc. for distribution and pass them out at locations where your target audience is likely to be found in large numbers, like the shopping mall, or the multiplex. This will be especially useful if your business is local and you cater to customers in a fixed geographical location.

So, now you have some great, cost-effective methods of promoting your online store in the offline world. Go out and try them all, then focus on the one that gives you the best results. All the best!

Marketing Analytics? What it is? Why do you need to pay any attention to it? It’s not as if online sellers are not already bombarded with enough jargon to make their heads spin!

Simply put, Marketing Analytics is analyzing the results of your marketing campaigns. You may be marketing your online store through various online channels like Facebook marketing, Google advertising, blogging, email marketing, etc. Marketing Analytics helps you analyze the results of each so that you can ensure that you are getting the best value, or the highest Return on Investment (ROI) for the time, effort and money you are spending on various marketing initiatives. Here are top 5 reasons why Marketing Analytics is critical to your success.

1. Identifying what Works:

Not all channels produce the same results. Some may bring in a lot of traffic, others may lead to higher sales, while other channels may not be adding much value to you at all. By employing Marketing Analytics, you can easily identify which channel works best for each goal.

2. Streamlining your Marketing Goals:

What is more important to you right now? Is yours a new online store that requires brand awareness and high traffic, irrespective of sales? Or do you want to focus on sales, and you’re not really concerned with many new people discover your website? Marketing Analytics will help you streamline your goals based on the kind of results each of your marketing channels is capable of producing.

3. Making the Right Investments

Most new online businesses have limited resources, so it’s extremely valuable to know how to invest those resources to get the maximum value. Once you have streamlined your goals and identified the strengths and weaknesses of all your marketing channels, you will find it a lot easier to decide which marketing channels to invest your time, effort and money into.

4. Save Money & Avoid Unnecessary Costs

If you have figured out which channels are most important to you, you can either completely stop or dramatically reduce your other marketing channels. This way, you can ensure that your resources and budget are not being wasted on initiatives that don’t contribute to the goals you are pursuing.

5. Have a Ready Toolkit

Once you have associated every channel with the type of results they are capable of producing, you have at your fingertips a ready toolkit for the future. Now going forward, no matter what short-term or long-term goal you want to achieve, you will always have ready knowledge of which marketing channel to employ to meet that specific goal.

Important Note:

It is important to also understand that online marketing is a highly dynamic field which is affected by a number of factors like seasonality, industry trends, new technology, quality of content, marketing expertise, etc. You will need to factor in these changes, trends and updates into your Marketing Analytics to ensure that you have an accurate understanding of all your marketing channels and their ability to produce specific results.

Watch this blog for more posts on this topic, including more specifics on how exactly to gather and analyze the data you have access to, for the most insightful Marketing Analytics for your business.

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If you have an online business and are like most, you’ve also set up a Facebook Page to promote your business on social media. Setting up the Page is easy, but knowing what to post there is the hard part. 

Do you see posts “go viral” on Facebook and want to know what to post on your own Page that can get the same level of exposure? Do you see other Pages get hundreds of ‘Likes’ for each and every post and wonder what their secret is? Exactly how do you determine what is the right kind of content you should be posting?!

Fret not! Here are some tips to guide you in choosing the right blend of content for your Facebook Page.

Remember these 5 things and you’ll be on your way to great posts with lots of likes:

1. It’s a Brand Page

First things first - your Facebook Page is your Brand Page. It should only contain content that is relevant to your company and your brand. This is not the place to post personal posts, opinions, rants, etc.

2. A Brand is Different from Products

While products form a very important aspect of Brand Identity, there are other elements to consider as well, like brand philosophy, vision, influences, accomplishments, press coverage, etc. Of course, you will need to post about your products, sales, news arrivals, etc., but your Facebook Page should also encompass all these aspects of your Brand Identity and not just be a catalogue of products that your company sells.

3. A Brand Belongs to an Industry

Your brand also belongs to a larger fraternity - your industry. Including news, trends, changes, etc. about your industry on your Page is a great way to be a part of the bigger picture and keep your fans informed of the larger factors that affect your industry, as well as news that your fans are likely to find interesting. For instance, if you sell organic products, posting news that a well-liked celebrity has endorsed an organic lifestyle can give you great mileage.

4. Know Your Target Audience

Just like in Advertising, the most important thing to keep in mind is your target audience. It is important to understand all sections of your target audience and know what they like. If you are selling sarees to women, think about the various activities and occasions where women like to dress up, and tailor your posts accordingly. If you are selling tees to the youth, think of their various influences – music, celebrities, etc. - and post about them. If you are selling electronic gadgets to young employees, talk about how your gadgets will help save time, improve productivity, increase efficiency, help them stay connected, etc.

5. Images Get Attention

In this age of information overload, you have very little time to connect with your target audience. Web users on social networks do not typically spend more than a few seconds on a post on their Facebook News Feed before moving on to the next one.  If your post has only text, chances are people will not take the time to read it. On the other hand, if you post a great picture of something that your Target Audience is likely to be attracted to, chances are that it will attract their attention immediately.

Here you go! Follow these 5 Basic Tips to find the right blend of content to post on your Brand’s Facebook Page and see how many likes and shares each of your posts is able to generate! 

Meet Radhika, Jagriti & Deepika. They are young, talented and passionate about what they do - providing luxury skin care. In fact, they are so passionate about it, they decided to get into business together and take their passion to the world audience. 

What they needed was an online store to launch their business. They acknowledged that technical skills were not their strong suit and were on the lookout for an easy solution to create their online store. They did not come to Webware first, however. They chose a different service provider who offered a similar service as Webware. However, there was one big drawback…

“While they did have some cool features, the biggest issue with them was efficiency and weak customer support,” says Jagriti. “I often had to talk to multiple people on the same phone call to explain what I wanted. Even the smallest queries often took days and many, many phone calls to get resolved.”

The problem, as Jagriti explains, is that it took up too much of their time and their limited resources. “This is a new business and we are only the 3 of us managing it. Spending so much time just to get our website done was simply not working out for us. We needed to spend that time getting our business up and running” she rues. 

That is when they made an executive decision to simply look for another service provider rather than continue to spend more and more time to get the website completed with their existing ecommerce platform.This is where Webware came in and this is the website that got created for SkinYoga.in.

“You guys have an excellent customer support team,” gushes Jagriti. “Not only did we get all the support we needed in a timely and efficient manner, your customer support Guru also provided us with a lot of insight on user experience and how to make our website better and more effective. They gave us the benefit of their extensive knowledge of how ecommerce works to ensure that our customers had the best possible experience on our site.”

However, the thing that Jagriti is most thankful for is that neither she nor her partners had to waste any time or effort in the process of setting up the website. “We would not be where we are today in the short span of time since we launched our website if we wasted all our time on the website instead of focusing on our business.”

Thanks, Jagriti! We wish you and your partners good luck in tending to and growing your business by leaps and bounds! 

So you’ve created a Facebook Page for your business, and now what? You might be thinking, how does this translate into getting more sales on my website? What do I do with this page? How can I get more “likes” and more engagement with my “fans”?

Facebook offers some great tools to help you get more out of your page.  By just putting a fraction of your marketing budget towards the following actions, you should see some exciting results. Let’s take a quick look.

1. Boost Your Posts

When you post something on your page,  not all your Facebook Page fans are going to see it every time. You can see this in the notification you get under the post, with regards to how many people were reached. You need to “boost” your post to ensure that it reaches all your fans. The good news is that this also exposes your post to the friends of your fans, who are likely to become your new fans, given that friends often have many shared interests.

So, how to Boost your Facebook Page Posts?

1. Every time you post an update on your Facebook Page, you’ll see the option ‘Boost Post’ under the post.
   


2. Clicking this button will allow you to choose the amount of money and the number of days you want to boost your post for.


3. The number of people who will see your boosted post will depend upon your chosen budget. The approximate number of viewers is provided to you when you select the budget.

2. Promote Your Page

Given the very social and casual atmosphere of Facebook, many brands (depending upon the products they sell) try to first attract their target audience to their Facebook Page to give them a taste of the culture their brand promotes. Instead of directly trying to sell products while people are busy socializing, brands often attempt to create desirability of the brand and products before attempting to get them to go to their website to make a purchase.

So, how do you get your target audience to your Facebook Page? By Using ‘Promote Page’ option! Here’s how:

1. At the top right corner of your Page, you will see a drop down menu under Build Audience. One of the options is “Promote Page”.
   


2. When you click on “Promote Page”, a dialogue box opens which allows you to choose the defining characteristics of your target audience like: Target country, Interests, Age, Gender, etc.  


3. Choose these options based on the profile of your target audience as well as the reach of your brand. For example: If you sell formal women’s clothing in India, you will choose “India” as target country, gender as “women”, age as “22+” and interests such as “fashion”, “clothing”, “formal wear”, etc.

3. Advertise on Facebook

Facebook also offers an advertising platform called “Ads Manager”. This feature provides you with far more detailed targeting options.

Here’s how to use Facebook’s Ads Manager:

1. At the top right corner of your Page, you will see a drop down menu under “Build Audience”. One of the options is “Use Ads Manager”.
   


2. Start a new ad campaign by clicking on “Create Ad”.
   


3. You will get a variety of campaign type options to choose from, eg: Page Likes, Clicks to Website, Website Conversion, etc. Make your choices based on the results you wish your campaign to produce. If this is your first Facebook ad campaign and you don’t have too many “likes” on your page yet, we recommend starting off with “Page Likes” option. This will help attract more people to your brand and help make your Page more vibrant and dynamic.
   


4. After this, you will get the opportunity to add photos, add a tag line to the image as well as write an ad text.


5. Once you have created your ad, you will get detailed targeting options including country, age, education, preference, etc. of your target audience. Make your choices based on the kind of people you think are most likely to be interested in buying your products. We recommend you limit your geographic focus to India, so that you can get more with your budget.


6. Finally, choose the budget as well as the duration of your ad campaign.


7. Then click “Submit” and your campaign will start!


8.  To follow the performance of your campaign once it starts, go to the Ads Manager and click on the campaign name.

So there! Now you know all the techniques required to promote your brand on Facebook! So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and try these techniques to attract your target audience to your brand and watch your sales grow!

In an upcoming post, we will offer tips on what kind of content to post on your Facebook Page and how to keep your audience engaged. Be sure to look out for that blog post coming soon!

UPDATE 8/8/2014: Our post on creating the right kind of content for your Facebook Page is now up, read it here!

John Pollard, widely acknowledged as the pioneer of White Water Rafting in South India, has 5 successful projects under his belt. Starting with Dandeli in 1999 and including 2 in Coorg and 1 in Maharastra in the subsequent years, John is now plying his trade in 2 locations in Goa, a spectacular addition to the myriad attractions that this beach-side state has to offer to its tourists.

John has been extremely successful in transforming sleepy, river-side locations into thriving tourist areas, creating a host of prosperous local tourism-related businesses in his wake. However, he has had to deal with one major setback in all locations until Goa.

“My business always depended heavily on third-party promoters. Whether it was the state government or travel companies and agencies who offer tourist packages, the people who came for river rafting were always their customers, not ours,” laments John.

The main reason for this was that he had no real channel to reach out to his target audience directly. “We always had a website, but we were also always dependent on the site developer to maintain it and update it. It was not possible to use the website as a marketing channel because of the heavy reliance we had on the site developers(who were often unreliable) to keep the website vibrant, dynamic and up-to-date,” remarks John. “As a result, we were never really able to use our website to build a relationship with our existing clientele, or to promote the business to attract new customers on our own.”

So, what changed in Goa? “Webware,” offers John quickly. John claims that with the help of Webware, he was able to create a website that was exactly as he had envisaged, without making compromises. But more importantly, he now has complete control of the website and is no longer dependant on developers or designers to maintain it.

“Webware platform is so easy to use that I am able to make any and all changes to the website on my own. So whether it is changing the dates and timings of the tours or adding the latest pictures or engaging the customers with social media, I am in full control of the site.”

So, how has this impacted the business?

“I have a lot more control over my business. Now that I can actually use the website as a marketing channel, I am able to reach my target audience directly and attract new customers on my own. This means I am no longer at the mercy of third-party vendors for business. I also have a more meaningful relationship with my existing clientele.”

So, John used Webware to transform his role from that of a service provider to a being the owner of a thriving business.

All the best, John! Here’s wishing you many years of driving a successful business!

You’ve probably heard before that in the online world, ‘images are far more effective than text to capture the attention of the viewer’. This is definitely true when posting on Social Media like Facebook, where many different bits of information are vying for the viewer’s attention at the same time. But when it comes to a website or online store, high quality content is key to its success.

Given the increasing use of images online, we find that often web designers focus more on images than text in their page designs, simply because images can look stunningly beautiful and highly impactful when using responsive designs. However, it is important to not forget that the text you include on your site plays a very important role in how your website is indexed and ranked in search engine results.

Let’s look at some of the most important roles played by website content (in other words, the text) in the world of Search Engines:

1. Relevance

Search engines, especially Google, focus on returning search results that are as relevant to the search term as possible. This means that sites that offer relevant text-based information about that search term are likely to get listed at the top. This is why your website should have high quality content that is relevant to your most important keywords.

2. Content Crawling

Search Engine crawlers go through the content of the website to identify the theme of the website, or to put it simply, to figure out what the website is about. They do this by identifying the groups of words and phrases that occur most often on the website. Then they use this info to decide how and where to list your site in their search results.

A word of warning though: if keywords seem to be unnaturally stuffed into the web page to increase their relevance, the site is likely to get blacklisted and will never show up on search results.

So while it’s important that your top priority keywords are used on your website, they should be used naturally and fluidly. When you include quality content on every page of your site, Search Engine crawlers will better understand the purpose of your site and you’re more likely to appear on search results.

3. Meta Descriptions

You probably have meta descriptions for every page of your site, to provide easy reference to search engine crawlers. (If your site pages don’t have meta descriptions, you should add them.) It is usually this carefully crafted meta description that shows up below the website link in search engine results.

However, if the meta description does not match the content that is displayed on the page, the search engine may ignore it. For instance, Google reserves the right to display excerpts of the page content instead of the meta-description if they do not seem to match.

If your website does not have sufficient content on its pages, it would be impossible to create meta-descriptions that will match the page’s content, and you risk being at the whim of the search engine bots as to what is displayed next to your page on search results.

As you can see, content plays a very important role in the performance of a website on search engine results. Without high quality, relevant and original content on the pages of your website, your site will never reach the top ranks of search engine results.

Meet Nadia Gunardisurya. She is a professional photographer living in the tropical paradise of beach-side Goa. When asked how she came about creating a website to showcase her portfolio, this is what she had to say:

“I used to visit websites of many renowned photographers to browse and to learn. I was well-aware of the importance of having a portfolio website, but I never considered making one for myself. To begin with, it seemed that it was something where people who had ‘made it’ in photography had such websites. I hadn’t quite ‘made it’ yet,” she laughs.

For Nadia, the second biggest hurdle to overcome was undertaking the project of building a website. “I was thoroughly overwhelmed! The project of making a website seemed large and unwieldy and I wasn’t sure if I was up to it.

“Thirdly,” she says, “it was very difficult to identify who to work with. Goa attracts all sorts of people and I had no idea who was trustworthy, reliable and capable of delivering the kind of website I had begun to envision for myself.”

That is when she came across Webware.

The first impression she had of  Webware was “Wow! This is a bona-fide office with a number of people working in different departments and there is a structure and process for everything!” Webware  had won her trust!

The second thing she remarked upon was the sheer willingness of the staff to help her realise her vision. What she wanted required customization, and she was impressed with the Webware team’s effort to create exactly what she wanted. “Even when there was no ready solution at hand, they would work out a way to make the elements I wanted possible!”

Most importantly, Nadia came to see how really effortless it was to work with Webware to create her online portfolio. Instead of the dread she had anticipated, she felt enthusiasm for the website that was taking shape.

Finally, Nadia says, “I haven’t quite ‘made it’ in the photography industry here in Goa, but Webware helped me realise that I could use a website to get there!”

Thank you, Nadia! Webware believes you will definitely ‘get there’! Wishing you best of luck!

So you have decided to set up an online store! Congratulations and welcome to the world of ecommerce! Have you stopped to think about how you will personalize your online store to reflect your business? In other words, have you considered the importance of creating a brand identity?

Why does Brand Identity Matter?

In today’s world, where comparison-shopping is a norm and consumers are likely to look any many different online stores before they make a purchase, it has become more important than ever to have a distinct brand identity. With a strong brand identity, you will stand out from your competition. This is what will ensure not only top-of-mind brand recall by online shoppers, but will also eventually lead to brand loyalty.

What constitutes Brand Identity in an Online Store?

Let’s first look at all the elements that constitute Brand Identity when it comes to a website. What are the things that distinguish your ecommerce store from that of your competitors, apart from your specific inventory?  The answer would be: 1. Logo 2. Banner 3. Colours 4. Look and Feel 5. Site Architecture Now let’s look at why each of these elements is important and how it contributes to your Brand Identity.  We'll use the website of Zeus Motorcycle Gear, a Webware customer, to illustrate our points.

1. Logo

Your company’s logo is a visual representation of your identity. It offers a glimpse into the values and philosophy of your company as well as its aspirations. A logo also helps distinguish one company from another, in much the same way that a face helps distinguish one person from another. That is why it is important that you put in substantial effort to create a smart, professional logo that will actually be able to represent your company and its ideology in full, with an eye-catching and professional-looking image that you display on every page of your online store.

2. Homepage Banner

First off, we want to stress that your home page banner image (or images) are changeable and, in fact, should be changed often to promote different  products and promotions, and to keep your home page fresh and interesting for returning customers. So in general, here are some tips on the types of images you should use in your banner space. It is important to remember that:

• images make a deeper impression on people than text, and
• your banner image is going to be the first, and most likely, the largest image a visitor is going to see when they land on your online store home page.

For these reasons, it is important that ALL your banner images are consistently able to wow your site visitors. They should be original, unique and highly representative of the company’s standards in terms of quality as well as values. Don't just use the default images that come with your theme. You should really take time and effort (and hire outside designers if necessary) to personalise your online store with exciting and beautiful banners.

3. Colours

This is perhaps the easiest and one of the most effective methods of distinguishing your online store and creating a "personality" for your brand. If you choose distinct colours for your brand and use them consistently across all your communications like your website, visiting cards, letterheads, invoices, labelling, packaging, etc., your customers as well as any visitors who land on your website will come to associate those colours with your brand. Such brand associations can become very valuable both in the short and the long term. So it's important that you choose your brand colours with care, and that you use these colours consistently on your online store as well as your offline mediums.

4. Look and Feel

The ‘Look and Feel’ of your e-commerce website represents the essence and quality of your brand and products. In the case of Zeus Motorcycle, their website has a look and feel that reflects their brand -- masculine and action-packed. On the other hand, if you are selling traditional sarees for example, you’ll likely want your website to have a more vintage, authoritative and artistic look. Aside from colours, the elements that contribute the most to the look and feel of your online store are:

• Most importantly, your website template (or “theme”)
• Fonts, font sizing and spacing
• Images and image sizes
• Image-to-text ratio

It is important that you create a look and feel for your store that is right for your brand and your product catalog, because this is the background against which your products are being showcased, and they should complement each other.

5. Site Architecture

This one seems like an unusual entry into a list about personalising your online store to create a brand identity. In fact, it is a very critical element. Your site architecture determines how easy and effortless it is for the visitor to browse your site and find the products they are looking for. A visitor’s experience while visiting your online store is going to play a large role in how they perceive your brand. In today’s day and age when people are shopping online more and more, people tend to remember and frequent those online stores that make their shopping experience easy and hassle-free. A good e-commerce site should have:

• Easy-to-navigate product categories
• Products grouped in logical categories (think about how your customers would browse in a real-world store)
• Use of sub-categories if there are many products (ie Men/Women/Children, then each of these would have Shirts/Pants/Shoes subcategories)
• A product search bar

Ensuring that your online store has the right site architecture goes a long way in creating brand loyalty because your site visitors will have a positive shopping experience.

Now you try it!

When you set up your online store, be sure to personalise your website with a logo, colours, fonts, and banner images that reflect your brand. From the start, when choosing your theme, always keep your brand in mind. Even if you haven’t thought in terms of brand identity before, the fact is that these elements will make a big difference in how people perceive your company and products, and it will affect whether or not they choose to do business with you. So, take the time and effort to make the right choices, always keeping in mind how you want customers to think and feel about your brand and your business. And here’s wishing you all the success in the world!

Since our release of Webware 2 in February, we’ve gotten so much great positive feedback on our new platform. We’ve also received requests for even more features from our customers, and we’re listening!

Our team of developers are hard at work improving our platform and adding features.  Here are some new features that we’ve recently implemented.

Photo Uploader Enhancements

Now it’s easy to upload beautiful photos to your Webware, even from your mobile phone!  We have two great improvements to our photo uploader that make the process simple and the outcome stunning.

1) Upload your image from anywhere. When you’re uploading a photo, you can now grab your photos from anywhere, including Dropbox, Instagram and more, and easily import them to your online store. Have a great pic on your mobile phone or on Facebook that you want to use? No problem!

2) And edit your photo right there. Once you’ve uploaded your snap, you can make it look beautiful in seconds with stunning filters, frames, stickers, touch-up tools and more from Aviary.  Edit your image right there -- including cropping, resizing, and special effects – and your image will be updated automatically.

More Currencies Supported

We’ve added support for two new currencies, the Singapore dollar and Hong Kong dollar.  As we’re expanding our customer base across the world, we will continue to add support for more and more currencies.

We now support all of these currencies for purchases on Webware online stores:

• Canadian Dollar (CAD)
• Euro (EUR)
• Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
• Indian Rupee (INR)
• Russian Ruble (RUB)
• Singapore Dollar (SGD)
• US Dollar (USD)
• United Kingdom Pound (GBP)

New Themes

We have three new responsive themes: Sushi Delight, Contemporary, and Fashionist.  Each of these themes is mobile-responsive, so your online store will look great on all devices and screen sizes. We’re continuing to add new themes every month!

Webware customers, it’s easy to change your store’s theme. For complete instructions, read our support article on Changing Your Theme.

Automatic Upgrades

As always, all software upgrades are done seamlessly and automatically and do not require any action on the part of our merchants. It’s all part of why Webware is so great!

Our #1 priority is to help our customers create successful online businesses.  We hope that these new features help you to get there.  And thanks for your support!

What is the best way to ensure that the bottom line of your online store goes from strength to strength? Why, make sure that you build customer loyalty! If a solid chunk of your revenues comes from the same customers giving you repeat business over and over again, then all the new customers you add over time only help in increasing your profits!

Let’s look at how you can ensure brand loyalty by using one simple tool: Customer Registration on your Online Store.

1. Use their contact info to contact them: The first and the most obvious advantage of customer registration is that customers give you  their contact info. This gives you the means to contact them every time you have exciting news for them, e.g. New Arrivals, End of Season Sale, Special Discounts, etc. Statistics show that emailers continue to be highly effective (check out our blog post that talks about this in detail.) So, not only do you help cause immediate sales, you also create top-of-the-mind brand recall amongst your customers who get your emailers regularly.

2. Make their experience easy and hassle-free: When customers register on your online store, one of the biggest advantages is that they only need to save all their details like contact info, shipping address, etc. one time. The next time they log in and make a purchase, this information gets auto-filled. This may not seem like a big thing, but habits of online users are changing and people are beginning to shop online more and more often. Even something simple as this removes the hassle of entering the same information over and over again and adds to a positive customer experience.

3. Create a database of their order history for them: What do you have to do if you want to tally your credit card statement with the purchases you have made online? Most likely, search and look through records of these transactions in your email, right? Make this process effortless for them by providing your customers with their order history at your online store. This will help them keep tabs on their purchases and make it easy to cross-reference them at any time.

4. Create Loyalty using a Loyalty Program: All credit cards and most major online stores got this right a long time back. Reward your customers for spending and give them incentive to spend more and more with you. Offer your customers reward points for every purchase they make based on the value of the purchase and make these points redeemable. Your customers now have a solid incentive to spend at your online store and accumulate these reward points so that they can get a large discount on a highly-priced item. You are not only getting them to spend more, you are likely up-selling your inventory, too! Read more on loyalty programs in this blog post.

5. Pamper them with Exclusive Privileges: A fun member benefit you can offer is to make pages of your website accessible to ‘Members Only’. On these pages, you can give your registered customers a highly exclusive preview of your hottest new arrivals with an opportunity to buy them before everyone else does! This works particularly well when you offer items that are limited in number. You can also offer your members exclusive discounts on these ‘Members Only’ pages, giving them further incentive to shop at your online store.

It may seem daunting at first, but really it is not very difficult to create brand loyalty. We are all creatures of habit and once we get used to something like a certain web store, it is just a lot easier to return there than to find one’s way through a whole new website.

Of course there will be people who will look for the cheapest possible deal for each and every purchase. But for most regular online shoppers, familiarity, ease of use, and small savings on time and effort go a long way in building brand loyalty.

And when you add exclusive discounts, exclusive privileges and rewards points to the mix (as benefits of being a registered customer), you can make your online store tantalisingly tempting to your customer base!

If you’ve already started your online store, you have probably learned that it takes some effort and money to acquire a new customer. So how does one KEEP a customer, get him or her to return often, and even better, spread the word about your store to others?

Needless to say, a customer’s experience with your store, the products you have on offer and your pricing are big factors in driving repeat purchase. But there is one more important business tactic you should have – a Customer Rewards Program.

Here are some tips on how you can implement a points-based Loyalty Rewards Program and how to make it truly effective, especially for small retailers.

1. Make it worthwhile to collect points

The points have to be redeemed for the customer to enjoy her rewards. So make it possible for her to earn enough points from two or three average value purchases to get a tangible saving on the third or fourth purchase. For a low value item 10% savings don’t work, it should be at least 20%. But for a Rs. 1000 item, a saving of Rs. 100 is sweet.

2. Make it easy to figure out the value of points earned

Keep the maths simple. Each point is worth Rs. 10, or 10 points are worth Rs. 1. Don’t have complicated formulas.

3. Offer starter points for customer registration

You want customers to register for your store for many reasons – that allows you to add them to your email mailing list, collect data on their purchases and track repeat visits.  So you can encourage them to register by offering points on registration.  It also gives them a nice balance of points right from the beginning, which will excite them to return to your site to earn more points and to redeem their points.

4. Play with the points values to drive purchases of specific products

If you want to specifically promote select merchandise, give a higher number of points as compared to similarly priced products. And don’t forget to advertise the offer, alongside the promoted product or even on your homepage.

5. Reward customers for helping promote your store

Customers who like your Facebook page or recommend your store to others are friends you don’t want to lose. So reward them for every friendly action with bonus points.

6. Have seasons or days when you run Points Multipliers

Instead of giving discounts away, give points away on special days and festivals. For example, earn 50% more points on Women’s Day and for the fortnight leading up to Deepawali.

7. Give away bonus points on special occasions

Present a customer with some bonus points on her birthday, or even on your store’s birthday. Send her a nice email on that day to announce it. The unexpectedness of such a gift usually works well to build a special bond which can lead to a repeat purchase.

8. Give your points a name that links to your store

Suppose your store is called The Baby Store and sells things for babies. You can call your points Baby Steps. So when a momma earns 10 points for her purchase she gets a message saying "Congratulations, you earned 10 Baby Steps for your last purchase!" It helps in standing out from the many loyalty programs that are running.

9. Talk about your rewards program!

Remember, the sense of reward is felt when the points are redeemed. So remind your customers that the points are there!  Notify customers who have a certain number of points by sending them reminder emails, and suggest purchases they can make using their points. Communicate when points are earned. Build it into the invoice and the confirmation email you send. Display “points earned” and “points required to purchase” on your product pages.

Using a points-based Loyalty Program is a great way to keep customers coming back to your store and to encourage behaviours you want, like member registration and more.  Think of all the places where you’re enrolled in Loyalty Programs – airlines, credit cards, supermarkets, the local coffee shop – and how it influences your purchase decisions.  If you could make your online store a place where people want to keep coming back, why wouldn’t you?

Cory York, CEO Webware tell his inspiring story of ambition, determination and success against all odds. Read and be inspired!

http://yourstory.com/2013/06/from-ice-hockey-in-canda-to-selling-books-door-to-door-in-india-to-setting-up-a-mini-incubator-goa-based-entrepreneur-cory-york/

In one of our earlier posts in the Quick Results Marketing series, we talked about how you can place your ads right in front of potential customers when they are searching on Google. In this post, we talk about reaching your target audience while they’re browsing the web and visiting other websites that may be relevant to your products or service. The combination of the right audience, the right website, and a powerful advertising message can be a powerful combination, leading to lots of click-thru’s to your ecommerce site.

Google has partnered with literally millions of sites to create the Google Display Network (GDN), a one-stop-shop advertising network to place your ads all across the World Wide Web.. Sites include well known ones like Gmail and YouTube as well as relatively obscure ones, but in all cases your ad will appear right next to content that is relevant to your product (how does this work?). GDN covers over 80% of all Internet users, so you are not missing out on any major audience segment by placing all your online advertising on this network.

Here are the reasons why you should be using the Google Display Network.

Reason #1: Context-Specific Advertising

Find your needle in the massive Internet haystack.

The ability to zero in on a very specific audience in terms of their demographics, their interests, and the content they are consuming when shown your ad is what makes the GDN the powerful marketing tool that it is.

Google Display Network works just like Google AdWords. When you set up your campaign, you select your keywords and ad groups, and then Google identifies sites that have content relevant to your selected keywords. Google then displays your ads on those relevant sites.

Here’s an example of contextually relevant advertising:

Reason #2: More engaging ads

Wow them with visuals.

Another feature of GDN is the ability to place ads in different formats – Text ads, Image ads of various sizes, Rich Media ads, Video ads, and even Mobile ads.

The ability to have ads with visuals, animation and video is what makes the GDN different from the text-only ads that appear on search result pages.

Reason #3: Remarketing

Hi, it’s me again.

A third exciting and extremely valuable feature of GDN is “remarketing”. Remarketing is the practice of serving up your ads to people who have previously visited your website. Once a person has visited your online store once, if you’ve got a remarketing campaign set up, when he visits other sites on the GDN he is shown your ads. Remarketing has the effect of a multi-pronged campaign directed at your target audience. It can be used by etailers for specific tactical objectives, such as addressing all people who added an item to your shopping cart but didn’t complete a transaction, or more commonly, creating top-of-the-mind brand recall to get an edge over your competition.

Accessed through your Google AdWords account, the Google Display Network is a powerful yet easy to use tool that allows you to set up a hybrid campaign that combines context-based ads in various formats to create brand awareness, visibility and website traffic and remarketing ads to increase conversions, thereby impacting your ROI.

So first off, DO create an email marketing campaign! It can have a big impact on return visits and growing your user base.  Here are the steps to get started. 

Step 1: Build Your List

All raring to go? You can’t do any e-mail marketing without a list of relevant e-mail IDs. So if you are just starting out with your e-commerce business, put some effort into building your list. You need to develop, grow and maintain your e-mail database and make sure that it is yours and yours alone. Some of the ways you can build your list are:

• Invite site visitors to register with you for your newsletter or your blog
• Allow visitors who make purchases to become registered customers for your online store, by incentivizing them with loyalty programs or to receive special offers
• Collect e-mail IDs of your customers, even customers at your physical stores (if you have any)
• Pull out your old visiting card stacks and create a customer list with all the email addresses

Step 2: Choose an Email Marketing Application

Once you have your email list, do not send mails just from your regular email client by putting addresses in BCC field. You should use an email marketing application like one of these: Free options:

Affordable options:

Professional options:

The advantage of using these tools is that it is easy to set up mail blasts, handle responses, and analyse the results, such as Bounces, Opens, Clicks, Unsubscribes, and Actions. This will help you progressively improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your email marketing activities.

Step 3: Create Your Campaign

Now that you have an e-mail marketing tool, it’s time to put it to use. Here are some best practices to improve the results from your marketing e-mails.

• DO write quality content – provide information that is relevant and valuable to your customers
  • Be clear and concise
  • Include a clear call to action with a link, or better yet, a big button
  • Create a sense of urgency
  • Keep the design clean and uncluttered
  • Ensure the most relevant messages are at the top above the “fold line”
• DO segment your e-mail list – address the needs of different customers differently. At the very least be sensitive to gender, age, and nature of your relationship. Address a new customer differently than you would an old one.
• DO consider the “From” line:
  • Use a name the recipient will recognize
  • Include your company name or brand
  • Or your own name, if it is well known
  • Shorter is better
  • Be consistent
• DO keep the “Subject” line  short and simple:
  • 30 – 40 characters (5 – 8 words)
  • Be interesting! People are bombarded with emails - give them a reason to read yours.
  • Incorporate a specific benefit
  • Capitalise and punctuate carefully
• DO carefully consider the first sentence. Most email clients like Gmail and Outlook have preview mode and/or alerts that often show the first line of text only.
• DO personalise it by using the recipient’s name. Be sure to also have a fallback for those customers whose first name you don’t know, such as “Hi there”.
• DO design your e-mail and landing page for mobile – nearly 45% of all marketing mails are opened on a mobile device.
• DO experiment! Try different versions of your emails. Send one version to half your customers and another version to the other half.  See which gets better stats, especially conversions.  Many of the email marketing applications like MailChimp have a built-in A/B testing option so you can easily run these tests.

The DON’Ts of E-mail Marketing

And now for what NOT to do.

• DON'T buy e-mail lists. Earn them the legitimate way.
• DON'T use words like “free”, “guarantee”, “spam”, or “credit card” in the “From” field or “Subject” line. This will definitely end you up in the spam folder.
• DON'T send mails at odd hours. This will negatively affect your “open” rate.
• DON'T send e-mails out before testing them
• DON'T bother too much about click-through rates, instead focus on conversions
• DON'T forget to welcome a new subscriber
• DON'T spam! Even if you are in another country, adhere to the US guidelines, ie CAN-SPAM act.

Now go and put it to the test! You may be surprised at how effective email marketing can be!

Did you know that coupons also belong to the arsenal of tools you can use to increase traffic to your site at short notice AND generate some quick sales? Think about the wonders that can do to your bottom line!

Here are some tips you can use to make the best use of coupons:

1) Announcing New Products: Use coupons with a 5%-10% discount rate to announce a start-of-the-season or a new collection of products. Apart from giving you quick returns, you will also be able to identify customer favorites for the season and stock your inventory accordingly.

2) Clearances: Similarly, when you want to clear old stock, using coupons to announce the end-of-season sale can help you clear your stock and provide you with the funding you need to acquire new stock.

3) Up-Selling: You can also use coupons to up-sell, i.e. make purchases of larger amounts or quantities. For instance: buy 3 ties and get Rs. 250/- off, or 10% off on purchases over Rs.2000/-. For the second example, a good rule of thumb is to calculate what’s 25% higher than the average total for your store, to decide the right threshold amount (Coupon visual – ”10% off on all orders over Rs. 2000”)

4) Cross-Selling: You can also use coupons to cross-sell, if you have more than one product range. For instance, buy 1 LCD TV + 1 DVD player and get Rs.2000/- off.

5) Festival Time: Use coupons to attract customers during high-competition periods like festive seasons. Most sellers tend to offer festive discounts so as to maintain a competitive edge and make rapid sales.

As you can see, when used properly, coupons can help you create a buzz about your brand, get your target audience talking about you, increase your website traffic dramatically, as well as help you generate lots of revenue in a short span of time.

Here’s wishing you lots of sales with the use of coupons!

This is our first article in the "Quick Results Marketing" series, which, as the name suggests, will cover marketing tools that start delivering results (usually traffic or sales) within a short turnaround time. If you want to jump-start your online business, these are the marketing tactics for you.

Search Engine Marketing with Google AdWords

Whether they’re in the browsing stage or even the buying stage, shoppers use search engines like Google to find web sites where they can source products or read reviews about products. It takes time and effort to get a high ranking in natural search results (see our blog post about SEO), but it is possible to get seen on the search results page by buying advertisements. The Google advertisement service is called AdWords, and you can buy ads as shown in the visual below.

With Google AdWords, you pay only if the shopper sees your ad and shows interest in your web site by clicking on it. So if she sees your ad and doesn't click on it, you don't pay anything. This is called the “pay per click” pricing model, or PPC, in Internet marketing. On AdWords, you can set a daily spend budget and a maximum amount you are willing to pay per click. So you are really in control of your overall ad spending and the amount you spend per visit to your web site.

Step 1: Target Your Audience

The secret to being successful with any kind of advertising plan is to target the right audience. With AdWords, you choose the keywords (see this post on identifying your keywords), so your ad is shown only to people who have searched on those keywords. In other words, your ad only shows up for people who are very likely to be interested in your products or the content of your site. You can also further sharpen your targeting by location, for example you can show your ad only to shoppers within India and UK, or only to shoppers in one particular city.

Step 2: Fine-Tune to Perfection

The secret to being successful with AdWords is to experiment with different tactics. Change keywords and try out different ad copy styles and messages. Observe the effect of different tactics on click-through rates and cost per click. And then drop the ads or keywords that are less effective, and increase your attention and investment in those that do work. The Google AdWords control panel allows you to manage and analyse all aspects of your campaigns, from keywords and ad building to ad placements and finally measuring results. So the whole cycle of testing, measuring, and fine-tuning can be done without any guesswork right from the control panel.

What else does Google offer?

There are other ad placement options that Google offers, including banner image and text ads on millions of partner sites across the web, image ads on Google Search, ads on mobile phones and devices, and ads on YouTube. This is called the Google Display Network. Look out for our post on contextual advertising on the Google Display Network. So what are you waiting for? The best way to learn about AdWords is to try it out. Visit the Google AdWords site for an overview and to get started. Google will even provide you with assistance to set up your first campaign.

In one of our recent blog posts, we talked about how 2013 was the “Year of the Mobile”, how 2014 will see even more growth in mobile commerce, and how important it is to put mobile at the centre of your ecommerce strategy. The sources cited in that blog post show that the number of mobile users and shoppers is going through the roof.  Indians especially are shopping madly using their mobiles, and those that aren’t, want to, while those that are already buying want to buy even more often. So what does this mean for you? The first step towards having a mobile strategy is to build a responsive website.

Responsive web design is fluidity.

The heart of your business is your website, and the first thing to do is to ensure that your website works well across screen sizes – from smartphone to tablet to laptop or desktop. This is what is meant by having a website with “responsive design”. An important part of responsive design is the visual adaptation, or “flow”, of elements to different screen sizes and formats. The illustration below shows how mere resizing of the screen is not the best solution, but that each block of the layout needs to be handled differently.

So if you already have website, try viewing it on different devices – a laptop, a tablet, and a phone. With the handhelds, turn the device around so you can see the site in landscape as well as portrait formats. Is the text readable in all the devices? On smaller screen devices, is the visual area dominating the screen? If the answer is no to any of these questions, your web site is not responsive.

Responsive web design is usability.

Mobile web design has several demands that are unique to handheld devices. The user’s attention span is shorter and hence he wants to get things done fast. Page downloads have to be fast, and importantly, navigation has to be easy. Drop-down menus don’t work well with finger taps. Adjacent links get tapped by mistake if they are too close. And checkouts have to be done in as few steps as possible. That is why handheld devices need site designs that are customized for them. Shoppers today often start a search on one device and complete the transaction on another. It could be either way – large screen to small or vice versa. A responsive website would allow a visitor to move seamlessly between devices, retaining his search history, saved carts, and preferences, and having continuity in look and feel as well as navigation structure.

Responsive web design is engineering.

The big swing towards mobile has created a new wave of website builders and designers who either create new responsive websites or take an existing one and make it responsive. That can be quite a challenge, and a smarter option is to build a new website on an ecommerce platform that is engineered to deliver responsive themes. The newer platforms are slightly ahead of the curve in seeing the mobile trend coming, and have excellent themes that are brilliant on mobile as well as desktop. Once you have adopted responsive design, you can create a marketing strategy that enables you to grab your share of the mcommerce pie. The question is whether or not you will advance with technology or choose to be left behind in this mobile revolution.

Coupons can be a vital element of online store’s marketing plan. Coupons are basically tools which can be used to encourage your customers to behave in a way that is best for your business. And if you make the customer feel that they have been rewarded for their interaction with you, they will not only remember this experience positively, but will likely return to your online store again... and again.

Here are 5 top ways in which you can use coupons to promote your online store and increase revenues.

1. Attract New Customers: Coupons can help you attract new customers to your online store by offering them generous discounts. Use social media networks like Facebook, affiliates like Snapdeal or Groupon, and other marketing channels to distribute your coupons, then sit back and watch them get redeemed!

2. Customer Registration: You can use coupons to entice your store visitors to register at your site. This will help you gather email id’s for your mailing list, which you can then use to email them about attractive offers, discounts, new collections, sales, etc. and bring them back to your store repeatedly.

3. Social Media Word-of-Mouth: You can also use coupons to create brand ambassadors, meaning you can offer discounts to those who share your site or products on their social media networks or refer to your store to their friends. This will help you reach out to your relevant target audience at minimal cost.

4. Reward your New Customers: You can help create a ‘Wow’ experience that will stay with your first-time customers. Surprise them with a discount coupon with their first purchase. Not only will they be happy to receive such a gift, they will likely return to your store to redeem the coupon and give you additional business.

5. Create Loyal Customers: Coupons can also be used to create brand loyalty. If you offer coupons to your registered customers on a regular basis, and perhaps an exclusive basis, not only do you help with top-of-the-mind brand recall, you also encourage customers to stay loyal to you and give you repeat business because you’ve made them feel special.

A big advantage of using coupons over other marketing efforts is that you get to see the results immediately. Most coupons tend to be for limited time only, so you don’t need to wait too long to judge their effectiveness. Coupons also help you identify which social media channels as well as which marketing strategies work best for you. Just ensure that you use different coupons codes for different channels, such as “EMAIL20” and “FACEBOOK20”, so that it becomes easy to identify the source of the coupons redeemed.

One of the other important things to keep in mind is that the back-end of your store needs to work seamlessly in the process of coupon generation and coupon redemption. Coupon marketing is one of those tactics that you need to manage on an everyday basis when running an online store.

Now that you know how coupons can help promote your online store, our next post will cover how coupons can help you generate quick sales!

As we’ve announced here, Webware has recently launched an awesome built-in Loyalty and Rewards Program for our merchants.  With this Loyalty Program, your customers can earn points on purchases and then use those points to get deals and discounts.

Points can be used to gain new customers and to keep old ones coming back. And there are many creative ways you can use points.  So, now that your customers are loving points, let's talk about the various ways to distribute them!

Think of it like playing a video game, where there’s more than one way to score points.  You can reward your customers with points not just for buying something, but also for other actions such as “liking” or sharing your site on Facebook, writing a review of one of your products, referring a friend to your site, or many others.  Whatever action you want your customers or site visitors to do, you can encourage them to do it in order to earn more points.

We’ve started with site registration.  This is a commonly sought-after behaviour by our merchants - you want your site visitors to register for your site, so that you can add them to your mailing list and inform them of sales, promotions, or other announcements.

This feature is now available in the Webware platform.  Webwaremerchants can now easily set up a trigger that allocates x amount of points to a visitor who creates an account on your shop.  Just head over to your Loyalty and Rewards setup page within the Marketing tab of your Workspace to make it happen.

To see this feature in action, check out our customer Propel Toys, where they give 1000 Points to all new users that sign up for their Flight Club.

This is the first of many event triggers that we have coming in the near future, to award your loyal customers with points.  Check back here for more Webware news and announcements coming soon!

Search engines like Google are the primary way in which your web site gets found by customers and interested parties. So, helping search engines find you is absolutely critical to your ability to build traffic to your site. The process of getting search engines to notice your site and report it in the search results is called Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short.

SEO is everything to do with managing how well and how high up you appear in the search results when a potential customer types in keywords relevant to your site. People rarely go beyond the first page of results, so your aim is to get into the first twenty search results for your keywords.

To clarify, this is different from being placed in the advertising sections of the search engine results page, ie, the ones in yellow on top, or in the right-hand column, of a search results page on Google. To appear there, you have to pay for a Google AdWords campaign.  That is a separate discussion.  Below the ads are called the “organic” search results, the unpaid ones.  You want to be as high on that list as possible, that is the purpose of SEO.

Since over 85% of searches are done on Google, we will focus on Google in this primer on SEO.  Here are some guidelines to consider.

1. Identify your keywords

This is THE most important step, so we’ll go in depth here.  Think about your business and your site content. What words or phrases are people likely to use when searching for sites like yours? Make a list of these, then go to the Google Keyword Planner and enter your words and phrases into the tool. In order to use the tool you need to create a Google AdWords account which is easy to do and is free.

Type in your preliminary list of keywords, and you will get two important results: search volumes and related searches. The “related searches” results will likely return some keyword options you did not think of, so add a few of those that you think work for you to your short list.

You can also type in the URL of your website in a separate box provided for the same. This allows Google to crawl through your website and identify the most common themes and return a list of keywords that are most likely to be appropriate. (If the results come up with keywords that are not directly related to your business, you may want to re-think the content of your website!)

Competitive vs. Niche Keywords

When you choose the keywords that you wish to optimize for, you can adopt one of two strategies – optimize for competitive keywords or for niche keywords. Some words naturally generate high search volumes and such words usually are of interest to a large number of web sites and hence are highly competitive keywords. For example let’s say you have an online store selling traditional wooden toys from Channapatna, which is a town famous for such toys. The key words “Toys” and “Wooden Toys” have search volumes of 12100 and 590 per month and are labeled as competitive. Now look at the search volumes for the keyword “Channapatna toys”. The volumes are reasonably high at 720 per month and the level of competition is low.

Now you could tune your SEO to the keyword “Toys” and try to get a high ranking and hence a high potential traffic volume from the 12100 searches every month. But you would need to do lots and lots of things better than the other toy web sites in order to earn that high ranking.

If you adopted the niche keyword SEO strategy, you would optimize for “Channapatna toys” and you would stand a good chance of attracting a percentage of the not so high but not so low search volume of 720 per month. In other words, one strategy is to aim for a small share of a large market and the other is to go after a large share of a small market. The choice is yours. Now, let’s explain what to do once you have selected all your keywords.

2. Create titles for each of your website pages

Page titles are what appear at the top of the browser when a page is displayed. It is part of the HTML code for the page. You should include two or three of your keywords which are relevant for that page in the page title. And try to keep the title short, so that it is not cut short by Google in the search results. As a general rule, stick to a max of 65 characters in your titles.

Also, place your keywords early in the title. For example:

"Pure leather handbags, style accessories | Aparna Fashions"

works better than

"Aparna Fashions | Your online store for stylish leather handbags and fashion accessories"

Try to have a unique title that contains some or all of the keywords you have selected for that page. Now do this for all the pages in your site. If you built the site yourself, you should know how to edit and create the page titles. If someone did it for you, give him or her the page titles to enter and upload.

3. Write appropriate Meta Descriptions for each page

Meta descriptions and keywords were originally used by Google as an input into deciding page ranking, but this is no longer the case. Google's various algorithm upgrades, ranging from Panda to Hummingbird in October 2013, have shifted the importance more towards natural content and away from backend manipulation. Meta descriptions however often appear in search results as the snippet below the page title. Because of this, you should think of your meta description as if it’s an ad for the page.

However, search engines are not obliged to use the meta descriptions you have added unless they really do reflect the page’s content correctly. If they don’t, the engines will simply use snippets from the page’s content and this may not always turn out to be in your best interest, depending on which snippet it chooses.

So, make sure that your meta description accurately matches the content of the page it points to. The best way to do this is to ensure that you use the prominent words that actually appear on that page, like your headlines, bullet points, etc. Make sure it is well-crafted and keep within the recommended limit of 150-160 characters to ensure it appears as a full message.

4. Write content that is search engine friendly

Google is smart. It will figure out if your content is of good quality and whether it addresses users’ search queries. So once you have your keywords, go through the copy text on your site and check whether you have used the keywords naturally AND added value and information relating to the keywords. Your content needs to be engaging to visitors, as this helps to build up your page reputation. Google looks at average time spent by visitors to your page, so your content needs to make the visitor want to linger. But if you fill page with irrelevant content, Google will punish you. You need to maintain the relevance by ensuring your keywords are naturally sprinkled throughout the page.

5. Make your images search engine friendly

Search engines cannot “read” images, so you need to associate some text with them to help the engines read the pictures. First of all, give your images descriptive file names. If the image is a picture of a Channapatna wooden toy car, give it the file name “channapatna_wooden_toy_car.jpg” and not some filename auto-generated by the camera.

Secondly, give the image an “Alt Tag”. This is a feature available on the platform you use to build your web site. In event of the image not being displayed, the browser will display the alt tag as text in the space reserved for the image. Also, provide a description of the image. Try to use a relevant keyword in your alt tag and in the description, and keep the description short and accurate.

Finally, keep your image file sizes as low as possible so that page loading time is minimized. Google considers loading time for the page when deciding on your search rank.

6. Carefully build external links to your site

Google measures your web site reputation by the number and quality of external links to your site. But the moment you have a link from a spam site, you risk being taken off the Google directory altogether. Hence it is better to have genuine back links in limited numbers rather than vast numbers of junk links.

So, submit your website for a listing on directories you are familiar with, those pertaining to your industry or trade, perhaps a locality guide, or even wider interest directories. Provide the option for visitors to share your web pages either on social media networks like Twitter or Facebook or to add the URL to social bookmarks like Reddit. In order to earn these shares, you need to have dynamic content on your site such as news feeds, and also have useful content like blogs or white papers that are valuable enough to be shared by visitors.

7. A caveat: do not try to fool Google

There are a bunch of disingenuous techniques called “black hat SEO” which some web sites use to try to get seen as more relevant and reputable than they actually are. NEVER do this, because you stand the risk of being blacklisted completely by Google. For example, do not put keywords into your metatags that are not relevant to the particular page. Do not have gibberish text full of keywords strung together in meaningless sentences. Do not conceal keyword-stuffed text on your site in small size fonts and/or same colour as the background. These are all tricks that Google knows about and will penalise you for.

Now What? Do not expect overnight results

SEO is an extremely important part of marketing your web site. There is no quick SEO solution. Once you start doing SEO, you’ll want to monitor how your site is ranking. You will find the movement sluggish at first. It takes a couple of months for Google to notice what you have done and then move you up the rankings. On your part, keep fine-tuning your SEO and when you do reach Page 1 of search results, do give us a shout by adding a comment below.

The future of SEO

Google is always tweaking or even modifying their search algorithm. The most recent update is called Hummingbird and was rolled out in September 2013. The principles that guide the new update are mobile search, social media, and author reputation. Mobile search will have more speech inputs and hence natural language. Social media and author reputation imply that Google+ will start playing a bigger role in search rankings, and so will the presence of your website and blog on social media networks. But these are the basics of DIY SEO, and they will not change in a hurry.

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Related Articles

How the Right Title Tags Can Improve the Performance of Your Website

Why Content Trumps Images for SEO

Google Announces Important SEO Update

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Related Webware Support Topics

An Overview of SEO

Adding SEO Meta Tags to Your Webwarer

The Story:

My Envy Box is a fresh new e-commerce startup focused on luxury cosmetics, based in New Delhi, India. Rishi, Julie and Bharat, the three co-founders, had an idea but no funding; they planned on bootstrapping their business as long as possible before trying to raise funds from outside investors. After resigning from their roles at high paying consulting firms, they set out to build their first startup!

The Challenge:

MyEnvyBox.com’s main focus is to provide a monthly subscription service where each customer receives a custom-tailored box of assorted, sample-sized beauty products. In addition, they wanted to give customers the ability to purchase the products they received in the monthly box while also providing relevant content around best beauty practices.

The Results:

Rishi, Julie and Bharat turned to Webware for an all-in-one solution that would get them up and running quickly. By selecting a theme from the Webware theme store, they were able to have an affordable and attractive webstore in minutes. Webware’ Content Management system and Product Editor helped them add and manage content on their own.

Webware’ more advanced features fitted the My Envy Box team’s needs nicely.  The ability to create pages for members only was really helpful to giving MyEnvyBox.com subscribers exclusive content over non-members. They also took advantage of Webware’ Loyalty Program management tool, which allows customers to earn and redeem points on every purchase.

Since MyEnvyBox.com went live three months ago, they have sold out of their monthly box subsciptions! They have also seen very strong sales of full size products.

“We would never have got off the ground without the service provided by the Webware team,” says Rishi Seth, CEO & Co-Founder of My Envy Box.

Check out Rishi, Julie and Bharat’s amazing Webware at www.myenvybox.com!

We’re on a roll here at  Webware HQ and we’re banging out features faster than you can handle it! :)

Today we’re launching a very useful feature called Product Tags. A product tag is essentially a keyword assigned to a product. They can describe a property of your product which can then be used to sort groups of products into “smart collections”, enable product specific coupons, and more.  It’s pretty awesome!

Using Tags to Create Collections

Collections are groupings of products, it’s how you organize your products to be displayed in your online store.  In your Webware, you can create “smart” collections using filters, such as a common product tag.  Just tag all the products with the same tag, like “Hair”, and you can create a smart collection around all products tagged with “Hair”.

Using Tags in Coupons

A Discount Coupon is an effective marketing tactic to generate more sales and move merchandise.  You can create a coupon for your entire store, or If you have a specific product or products you wish to discount, you can use a product tag-based coupon to do this.

Just create a common tag for all the products you wish to include, such as “SummerSale”, and you can create a coupon specifically for products with tag equal to “SummerSale”.

You can add tags to your products when adding or editing a product in your Webware’s Admin Workspace.

To learn more about uses for product tags, read our support section articles:

Creating Tag-Based Coupons

Creating a Smart Collection

Start using product tags in your Webwaretoday!

Which of these describes you?

• I have an existing small business that I want to take online
• I want to sell products or services online
• I have little or no knowledge about web development
• I am in a hurry to get my online business started
• I have a limited amount of money to invest in building my business
• I want to test the business idea before putting a big investment behind it

If any of the above applies to you, then read on to learn how the new ecommerce platforms are starting a revolution of sorts, putting millions of entrepreneurs and their shops or businesses on the web, quickly and on the cheap. Just so you don’t get confused, here are some of the different terms used to describe this new service.  All of these mean the same thing:

• e-commerce platform
• hosted platform
• online store builder
• DIY e-commerce solution
• ecommerce SaaS application

The Old Way

The old way of setting up an ecommerce site was to go to a web developer and commission them to build a site. But there are issues with that approach, as this illustration shows.

And The New Way

E-commerce platforms are powerful tools which already incorporate the best practices of online selling. So business owners are not just getting a neat tool, they are also getting highly user-friendly, slick-looking stores with most of the necessary services like shipping and payment gateways available through a single point of contact.

Take a closer look at some of the online store builders out there. You can start with Webware. We have an easy-to-use service that’s perfect for first timers who want to start light and add features as they go along. And for those who want to build an online store over the weekend.

Loyal customers are the gold standard for recurring sales.  Typically less than 20% of your customer base will be “loyal” customers (in other words, returning again and again to make more purchases), but they can make up more than 50% of your sales.  So clearly it’s in your best interest to target and reward these loyal customers. The most common way to do this in e-commerce is to create what’s called a Loyalty Program.

Webware now offers a full-featured Loyalty and Rewards Program which you can make available to your customers on your ecommerce site.  With this program, customers can earn points for every purchase, and can redeem those points on future purchases.

Here’s how it works.

1) A Customer Earns Points

As the administrator of your online store, you will set a point value for each product, just as you would set a selling price.  So, when a customer buys something on your site, they will earn points.

Note that only registered customers will earn points.  So this also encourages shoppers to register on your site, which means that you will now have their contact info and can add them to your email marketing mailing list (provided that they opt in for it).

2) Customer Buys More, to Earn More Points

At any time, a customer can log into your store and view their “My Account” page.  There they will see how many points they have accrued.  They can use their points on their next purchase, or they can buy more products outright to keep growing their number of points.

3) Customer Redeems His Points

The next time he comes to your store, your customer can use all or part of his points towards his next purchase. (When setting the point values for your products, you can also set how much the price can be reduced using points.) He’s happy that he’s saved money, and you’re happy that you’ve got a returning customer!

To learn more about Webware Loyalty Program, you can read our support articles on the topic:

Loyalty and Rewards: How it Works

Setting up your Loyalty and Rewards Program

Two of our favorite Webware customers, My Envy Box and Propel, are already using this great feature:

The Loyalty Program is one of many features that we’ve included in our Webware platform specifically to help you run a successful online business. We at Webware see it as our #1 priority to help our customers succeed with their online stores.

And we will continue to release more and more features to help our customers grow and thrive.  Look for new Webware announcements here on this blog!

COUPONS! COUPONS! COUPONS! Buyers love them, and as a Webware merchant, you should love them too! Coupons are an extremely effective tool to acquire new customers and to reward loyal ones. Over 2.9 billion coupons were redeemed in America last year alone.

So that’s why today, Webware is introducing Coupons for Webware Merchants.

Here's how it all works:

In the Workspace of your Webware, under the Marketing tab, you can create and manage your discount coupons. When your customer checks out, they will have the option to enter a coupon code and take advantage of discounts you've provided.

• You can create coupons to discount individual products or entire orders.

• Your coupons can be based on a dollar amount (or your chosen currency) or a percentage discount.

• From your Workspace, you can manage coupons with a few simple clicks. You can start a coupon, pause it, or delete it.

Our Coupon Program offers these advanced features:

• Tag-based coupon codes for individual products: You can create coupons to discount individual or groups of products. Tags can be added to products, and based on the common tag, a discount code can be created for all products with the same tag. For example if the product tag = “on sale”, a discount code can be set up for all products tagged “on sale”.

• Set start dates and end dates for coupons: You can decide how long to run a promotion by setting start and end dates for the coupon's validity.

• Set number of uses per customer: You can also choose how many times a customer can use a coupon. This limit will apply to each unique customer, based on the customer information they use to login to your store.

Along with our Loyalty Program, this Coupon Program is one of the many features we’re rolling out to help our "
customers build and run a successful online store.  Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Read more about discount coupons with Webware:

Offering Discount Coupons

How to Create a Discount Coupon

Managing Your Coupons

Mobile internet is a big trend we are seeing today, especially in Asia where computers are a luxury. Webware is taking mobile very seriously! Today we are announcing our first major step towards becoming a mobile-first product company.

A few days ago, our core dev team pushed our mobile upgrade live! This is a hugely important landmark that we’ve been working towards for over a year.

With the newest Webware release, here's what went mobile:

1. Three new mobile responsive themes (with more on the way)

A “responsive” website means that the page layout changes as the screen size is changed from narrow to wide and back again. Each of our new themes has been created with a smaller screen size in mind, and the ability to scale to a large screen as well, to ensure a great experience for all.

See how this page has reconfigured itself to 3 different screen sizes: 

Isn’t that cool? For those of you who already have a Webware, in order to make your site mobile-ready, you need to upgrade your theme to a responsive theme. Check them out here. It’s very easy to change themes. For a tutorial on this, click here.

This is a totally new framework that we have introduced to enable this awesome feature! For our techie users, you will want to know that we have enabled "Foundation" as the selected technology.

2. The entire checkout (payment) process

When a user is shopping on your responsive theme they will enjoy a completely mobile friendly checkout payment process. This is really important for helping your customers complete a successful transaction right from their mobile device!

3. All standard system pages 

When you create a new page in your Webware, you select from a library of page layouts and templates. All of these page layouts are now mobile friendly. Simply change the content as you wish and all changes will reformat for the tablet or mobile experience, as long as you are using one of our responsive themes. We have already seen a few customers quickly convert to the new responsive themes. Check them out with your phones!

Scott Morgan Fine Art - http://www.scottmorganfineart.com/

Tia & Tan - http://www.tia-tan.com/

With our new responsive mobile-ready designs and system pages, you can make your Webware available to anyone on any device.

From the home page all the way through to checkout, visitors can now browse and buy products on Webware websites with their computers, tablets, or mobile phones.  In this new mobile world, you can have a huge advantage over your competition.  Get started now!

View our Responsive Themes

Sign up for a free trial of Webware

Every businessperson knows the importance of marketing. As soon as you put up a signboard or print your visiting cards you have started marketing your business. But what next? And what is the best way for an online store to market itself? Here’s the no-jargon quick guide to online marketing. We’ll get into more depth on each of the marketing channels in future posts.

In the infographic below which we call the “Wheel of Marketing,” we’ve covered all the different marketing channels that most online stores rely on. If you are just starting out, do not try to do all of these at the same time. Start with one or two channels, try different tactics within each channel so you get to understand how they work and eventually where you should put in more of your time and money. Talking of money, when you are starting out, that is the one thing that is usually in short supply. So we are going to talk about the marketing channels in order of increasing spend levels.

Zero-money marketing

Yes it is possible to market your online store for zero or near zero money. Here are some ways to grow traffic to your site without busting the bank.

On your home page, feature the hot selling items. Offer a time-bound discount with a coupon code. Run a festival-specific special deal. Announce these on your home page and change the announcements frequently.

First, start building your mailing list. You can start with your friends and relatives, people you meet at parties, ex-colleagues and classmates. Collect visiting cards and enter the details in a spreadsheet. Ask people visiting your site to register for new product announcements and special deals. Create emails for each group separately so that they do not feel you are spamming them. There are great online services for email marketing such as MailChimp, which can make very professional looking emails.  But don’t overdo mails because everyone is fed up of getting spam email. Once a month is okay. Ensure that everyone you are emailing has opted-in to receive your emails. And always give the person a chance to unsubscribe and stop receiving your mails.

This is a huge and always changing area but the basics are easy. When you build your site, create unique and accurate page titles for all pages, not just the home page. For each page you should have a “description meta tag” which is a few sentences describing the content of the page in more detail than the title. Submit your online store URL to search engines such as Google. You can do that on the Google website “Submit your content” section.

These two go hand in hand. This blog post is an example of content. You can also write a blog or make a video that is related to your store but which has useful information or opinions. For example if you sell masala and spices on your store, your content could be recipes using the same. And the video could show how to make a particular dish. You could even shoot it with your mobile phone camera. Once you have some content to share, you can get social by creating a Facebook page for your online store and tweeting on Twitter. The important thing is to be chatty and social. People have to find you interesting enough to follow you. Talk about your products and how they fit in with peoples’ lives, without blatantly advertising your products at all times.

Little-Money Marketing

It’s like having salesmen who only get paid when they make a sale. In this case, the salesmen are other sites belonging to an affiliate network. You sign up and place an ad on these sites. The ads result in traffic and some of that traffic results in sales. You pay a commission if there is a sale, and if not, you don’t pay anything. Here’s a list and ranking of the top 10 affiliate marketing companies in the US and in Canada.

Little-to-more-money marketing

Results are very good here, but you need to commit and spend some money. You can start with Google AdWords which places your ads next to related search results, or on partner sites where the content is relevant to your ads. The good thing is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and therefore visits your site. You can use text ads which show up on both search results and partner websites. Experiment with different ad texts and determine which ones work best for you. Alternatively, you can use image ads, which only show up on partner sites, but here you are able to use an alluring visual along with ad copy. You can also advertise on Facebook to people interested in your product categories or fitting a demographic specification that you provide. These kinds of ads are considered highly targeted and even if they do not result in a store visit, your brand awareness starts building.

It takes a little patience as well as practice to start getting results from any of these tactics. But, once you start getting the hang of it, you will find them working wonders to your bottom line.

So set the “Wheel of Marketing” in motion and increase the movement of traffic to your site! We’d love to hear what your experiences with marketing have been like. And, so would our readers.  

So many people out there have exciting business ideas, but they have one thing in common – they are new to doing business online. And naturally there are a lot of questions about how to get started. So if you have ever thought about going online with your own store but were not sure how to do it, read on.

1.Think about what you want to sell online.

It can be anything. Your business idea could be conventional or unusual ... Maybe your wife makes a very good masala powder for some dish, or you can source T shirts with funky designs real cheap, or you already have an offline business that you want to take online. Whatever your business idea, think about how you are going to source the goods and how you are going to deliver them to your customers.  

2. Give your business a name and register the name for your website.

So if your name is FunkyTees, then you might want to register www.funkytees.in. There aremany companies who do this for you online. Big Rock, net4india, and GoDaddy are some of the popular domain registering firms.  Just ensure that domain name is registered in your name and your email ID is associated with the domain for renewals and cancelations.

3. Build your online store.

This is the fun part. With the right online store builder platform, you can do it in as little as a day. The new e-commerce platforms make it possible for a businessperson with basic computer and internet skills to actually build an online store, stock it with merchandise, and dress it up just like a designer would. You can have sections in the store such as different sections for men, women, and children. Decide which products go into which section. Then upload pictures of the products you want to sell, give them names and short descriptions, decide on the pricing and your store is almost ready. You can play around with themes to change the look of your store until you find one that you really like.

Of course, you can also get a web developer to build you an online store from scratch, but not only will you need to make a large upfront investement, you will also likely to forever be dependent on the developer to make even the smallest changes on your website. An online store builder is not only quicker and easier, it gives you complete control of your online store.

4. Sign up for your payment gateway.

Don't get scared by the big words. You need a payment gateway to be able to accept payment from your customers via credit or debit card or online bank transfer. Your store builder or e-commerce platform will help you get your account set up and walk you through the application process. You will need some standard documents for the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) submission.

5. Sign up with a courier company for delivery of the goods you sell.

Initially you may want to try out a few different courier and delivery services. You can start with Indian Post and send your packages by parcel post. If your customer is in a hurry, then use a courier company like Blue Dart or First Flight. After your business picks up, do a deal to get bulk rates from these couriers.

These are the basics, but that's really all there is to get your feet wet in the fast growing world of e-commerce. You can be in business in as little as one week. After starting your shop, move on to the next stage of business development. Run some marketing campaigns to grow the business, develop new products, analyse who your customers are and serve their needs well.  As the number of people visiting your store builds up, so will your orders.

But the first step is to get started. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!

Hello all! I'm Sara, and I’ve recently joined the Webware team.  We’ve built a terrific web and e-commerce solution here and now we’re ready to present it to the world!

One of my main objectives here at Webware is to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible service and support in their website and online store setup.  With that goal in mind, I’m extremely proud to announce the unveiling of the new Webware “Guru” program!

What is the Guru Program, you ask?

We have assembled a team of the best web developers and graphic designers in the country. Armed with our awesome Webware web development tools, our Gurus provide fast, flexible and full service to our customers.  Each customer who signs up for a Webware will be assigned a Guru within 24 hours. That Guru will be personally available to you throughout the entire process to:

• Get you started on building your online store
• Assist you with payment gateways and setting up a merchant account
• Help you with registering for your own domain name
• Create a web design for your site that you love, and
• Answer any questions you might have - however technical or basic, ask away!

Whatever your questions or concerns, our Gurus are extremely knowledgeable, and are readily available to you.  And if you want us to build your online store for you, your Guru can do that too!

We know that it can be daunting to start selling online, and that you’re protective of the business you’ve worked so hard to build.  You don’t want just a presence online, you want to wow your customers and create a web store that you can be proud of.  Our Gurus want to help you get there.

Take PinkCow Fashions, our latest customer to go live.  This online store was built by our fabulous Guru Shruthi Gautam (and backed by our whole Guru team).  Shruthi worked closely with Pratima at PinkCow to build a web store she could be proud of – and doesn’t it look great?

We hope we can do the same for you.  Please feel free to reach out to me to learn more.  And when you do get that email or phone call from your Guru, be sure to use them to the fullest.  That’s what they’re here for!