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Fenstermann LLC offers custom window treatment services including window coverings, blinds, and shades in hundreds of fabrics, prints, and colors across Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.fenstermann.ca

We wish the team at Fenstermann LLC the very best of success.

FLO State Studio - Yoga & Pilate Studio in Oklahoma City, OK, offers yoga, pilates, HIIT, and HIIP classes. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.flostatestudio.com

We wish the yoga & pilates instructors at FLO State Studio the best of success.

Heart & Soil LLC offers realty services, home staging services, knock home swap, drone, and notary services across Arizona.  To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.hasarizona.com

We wish the team at Heart & Soil LLC the very best of success.

Breakthru Your Health offers disease and infection prevention supplements and immunity-boosting supplements that are shipped across Canada, the United States, and internationally. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.breakthruyourhealth.com

We wish the team at Breakthru Your Health the best of success.

Upper Appleby Eyecare provides comprehensive eye health assessments, ocular disease diagnosis and treatment, and other eye care services to patients from in and around Burlington. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.upperapplebyeyecare.com

We wish the team at Upper Appleby Eyecare the very best of success.

If you’re a small business owner that cares about your success, then you probably already have a website. It’s important to understand that with so much competition online, merely having a website is not enough. The key question is whether your website is actually working for your business. Furthermore, how much available time do you have to maintain your website without affecting your day-to-day operations?

If your website is not bringing in enough traffic or you spend too much time trying to figure out how you can be successful online, then you probably need some help. Here are 10 most common signs that you need help with your website:

1. Your website is not mobile responsive. Even worse, you’re not sure what mobile responsiveness is. You want to make sure that your website is designed to fit all devices so you can provide a consistent user experience without sacrificing results.
   
   80% of online users in 2019 used mobile devices when searching the internet. On top of that, if your website is not designed for mobile you will notice a big drop in your search engine rankings or might not even get ranked at all. If you’re interested in learning more about how your website’s responsiveness could be affecting your ability to be found on search engines, you should speak to an expert immediately.
2. You know SEO is important, but don’t know how to get it to work for you. If you don’t know how to utilize Search Engine Optimization tools, this is a sign that you need help. SEO is an essential component of a successful and effective online strategy. Search engines, like Google, run algorithms that measure a number of criteria on your website when deciding where to rank it in the search results. Some of the things that affect your SEO include keyword selection, website content, mobile-friendliness, internal & external links, search relevance, site structure, location, and the overall quality (load speed, duplicate pages, broken links, etc.).
   
   If you can’t find your own website online, how do you expect your customers to find it? If you have trouble finding your website online, without typing in your business name, then that means there is plenty of room to optimize it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential website practice that makes it easier for search engines, like Google, to find you. There are a number of online practices and strategies, which will affect your website’s SEO. Being able to implement and execute these practices effectively will drastically improve your ability to be found online.
    

   

3. Your website has little to no traffic. If your website has very little or declining traffic, then that is a clear sign that you need to adjust your current website strategy. Even in heavily saturated industries, there are always opportunities to improve your rankings by trying out new keywords and increasing links. A little help from SEO experts can go a long way.
   
   Sure, there are tons of places where you can go online to learn about setting up your website's SEO, but how much time do you really have to become an SEO expert? Developing a high-quality SEO strategy for your business is a complex process. You need to make sure that your content development, website design, and overall brand story work together to engage audiences. If you feel like ongoing SEO planning and maintenance is outside of your comfort, you will likely need some help.
4. Your website visitors are not moving past your home page. If your website has a high bounce rate, your visitors are either clicking the “back” button to leave your site, closing the tab, or going dormant. In any case, your website is not captivating them which could be due to a few things:
   • The keywords your audience is searching for does not fit your content.
   • Your content and messaging is confusing or difficult to understand.
   • Your website is difficult to navigate.
   • You do not have the right CTAs (Calls to Action)
   • Your website is attracting the wrong traffic.

   Whatever the reason, if your website visitors aren’t moving past the initial landing page, now is a good time for a general website review.

5. Your website isn’t updated regularly. Regular updates help search engines understand that you have an active website with relevant content. If your website does not contain keyword rich content, a regularly updated blog, and consistent updates, you will likely see a decline in traffic which will affect your search engine rankings. If you’re unsure of the type of content that you need to add to your website, how to edit or add pages, or don’t even have time to manage a blog, you probably need to speak to an expert to get you on track.
6. Your website has 404 error pages. You might have seen these messages in the past when you visit a link or a website page and see a message that the URL doesn’t exist anymore. This is either because the page was moved or deleted. This can be an annoying and frustrating experience for visitors who are navigating your website and searching for information. Search engines like Google do not like 404 errors either. This will be reflected in the search engine results page (SERP) with a low rank. A review for 404 error messages and broken links should be a regular part of your website maintenance plan.
7. Your website was designed by you. This might have been an important first step in establishing your initial online presence, but successful companies understand how their website can be used as an effective tool to generate business. A well designed website will help you drive more traffic, improve the user experience, and deliver new leads for your business. If your website doesn't look professional, you could be turning away valuable customers.
   
   Professional web designers don’t just create a beautiful website. They understand the psychology behind how a user behaves when they arrive on your website. The chances are that if you’re busy running the day to day operations of your business, you do not have the time nor the expertise to manage your website properly along with all the other optimization activities needed .
8. Your website doesn’t have an online marketing plan. Even if your online marketing strategy is not complex, this is still something that needs to be carefully considered. Start by asking yourself the following questions:
   • What is the goal of your website?
   • What do you want your customers and prospects to do when they get to your website?
   • How is the user experience going to guide the customer to achieve that desired outcome?
   • Why should they care?
   • More importantly, how are you going to get them to your website?
   
   
   If these questions are not keeping you up at night, maybe they should be. Website design, blogging, having a social media presence, email marketing, reputation management, as well as the initial and ongoing development of your SEO, are all things that need to be considered in your online marketing plan. Many of these marketing channels can be executed for free, but can be daunting if you’re trying to manage them all on your own. You also do not want to be engaging with multiple vendors in order to understand what’s working and what’s not working for you. Without a plan for finding new customers, continuing to keep customers, and converting online traffic, your website may not be as effective as you expected.
9. You don’t know exactly who your ideal customers are. If you don't have a good idea of who your best customers are, you probably should. Not only will this help you create better content to engage them, you will be able to add other elements such as promotions and videos to better communicate with them. This will help your website and business stay top-of-mind to keep people coming back.
   
   At the end of the day, your website should be contributing to your business. If any of the 10 signs mentioned stand out for your, then it is likely that you could benefit from some help with your website. Making the decision to update your online presence could be one of the most valuable decisions you could ever make for your business.
   
   Not sure where to start? Webware.io 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.

Every brand wishes to become famous. Well, every entrepreneur, business owner, and marketer wishes for its brand to become famous.

But as you might guess, popularity doesn’t happen overnight. Not for brands. They don’t wake up famous; instead, slowly and steadily, they grow brand awareness.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness defines the extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.

The goal of marketing, PR, and even customer service is to grow brand awareness – to make sure people know the brand, talk about it, and recall it when the brand’s industry is discussed. These are the primary perks of brand awareness, but there are others, too.

Brand awareness fosters trust – people rarely buy important products from unknown brands. It creates brand equity – people pay more due to higher perceived value.

Brand awareness also creates communities of loyal customers who keep buying the brand’s products not just because they like them, but also because they associate themselves with the brand and feel as a part of the community. Think about the Apple vs. Microsoft battle, Coke vs. Pepsi; recall people who stick to the same brand over decades, be it cars or cereal.

How do you measure brand awareness?

Growing anything doesn’t work well without regular measuring. Brand awareness is no exception: despite the obvious difficulties – it’s impossible to accurately calculate how many people know your brand – it’s the metric you can’t ignore. In fact, it’s a number of metrics. And here’s how to get some numbers.

1. Surveys

   Asking a random selection of people over the phone or email whether they’ve heard about your brand is the first step to getting a vague understanding of brand awareness. Ideally, of course, the selection should be representative of your target audience.

   Asking existing customers how they heard about your brand is another approach which addresses a different issue. It gives you an understanding of how the word about your brand is spread and which channels are effective in growing brand awareness.

2. Social listening

   Social listening metrics are the metrics that get you as close to measuring brand awareness as possible. Social listening tools search for mentions of your brand (tagged and untagged) on social media networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and the web. They calculate the number of people talking about your brand, which must correlate with the number of people who know your brand.

   Besides, social listening tools show the overall sentiment of brand mentions, allowing you to dig deeper into how people feel about your product or service. Social listening metrics also include the Reach metric. Reach shows the number of people that see mentions of your brand online multiplied by the number of times they see them. This reveals whether you have influential brand advocates (e.g., social media influencers) and/or popular sources (BBC, CNN, etc.) that have mentioned your brand.

3. Website traffic

   Measuring website traffic is another way in which you can assess brand awareness, not as a total number, but as an increasing or decreasing metric.

   Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn’t show the number of people who’ve arrived on your site by using branded keywords. All you can do in terms of assessing brand awareness is look at Direct traffic – these will be the people who’ve typed your URL into their address bar, along with the ones that arrived on your site through untracked links.

4. Search volume

   Search volume data adds to website traffic metrics. You can use Google Adwords Keyword Planner and Google Trends to check the volume of your brand searches over time. This, however, will only work if your brand name is unique.

   Unlike with social listening, you can’t add “negative keywords” to specify your search, so if your brand name is “Apple”, the data you get will be meaningless.

Top 3 tools to measure brand awareness

1. Survey Monkey

   

   Creating surveys isn’t as easy as you might assume. Survey Monkey does most of the work for you. It’s one of the best – and definitely most popular – survey tools out there, and it’s great for creating in-depth online surveys.

   Pricing: Free for Basic, $25/mo for Advantage, $75/mo for Premier, and Enterprise pricing is available upon request.

2. Awario

   

   Awario is a social listening tool. It crawls all major social media networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and the web for mentions of any given keyword (usually a brand). It analyzes mentions’ growth, reach, sentiment, as well as popular topics around the keywords and the authors’ gender, locations, and languages. It also finds brand advocates and industry influencers.

   The tool has a Boolean search option which ensures that the results include relevant mentions only, even if your brand name is a common or ambiguous word.

   Pricing: $29/mo for the Starter plan, $89/mo for Pro, and $299/mo for Enterprise. Save 2 months with a yearly plan and get a free 7-day trial.

3. Brandwatch

   

   Brandwatch is another social listening tool. It’s more sophisticated than Awario and fits enterprises and agencies better. Brandwatch covers all social networks, including niche and local ones, as well as review sites, news sites, comment sections, blogs, forums, and the web. The tool finds not only mentions of the brand’s name, but also images related to a brand, for example, its logo.

   The tool analyzes mentions’ growth, reach, and sentiment, and the authors’ demographics, psychographics, locations, and languages. It also reveals trends most popular in your niche.

   Pricing: Available upon request.

How do you grow brand awareness?

Now that you know how to keep an eye on your results, let’s talk about all (or some of) the ways you can grow brand awareness.

1. Social media marketing

   Social media is where communities are built. It’s where the word about a brand (or anything else) spreads far and wide.

   Interestingly enough, it’s also a place where people want to hear about brands and to talk about brands. Although social media is often perceived as a place to chat with friends and take part in political discussions and nothing else, for many, it’s also a place to talk to brands, to follow their news, and to discover them.

   66% of Facebook and 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand. 80% of Twitter users have mentioned a brand in a tweet, and an average Twitter user follows five businesses.

   Social media marketing has many aims. Here are some of them:

   • Creating social communities around a brand;
   • Spreading the word using promotional, entertaining, and educational content, both from brands and user generated;
   • Attracting new people with your brand’s amazing personality that especially shines on social media.
2. Influencer marketing

   Influencer marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing, and it’s especially useful for growing brand awareness. Influencers are the people with a large following by definition and if they advertise, review, or even simply mention a product, they get the word out.

   While offline influencers are usually extremely expensive, when it comes to online, there is a whole spectrum. You can find niche influencers with an average but dedicated following genuinely interested in products like yours. You can also find Internet celebrities with millions of followers. And, you can find anyone in between.

3. Content marketing

   Today, people turn to the Internet to find answers to all kinds of questions. And if your product or service might raise some, it’s time to answer them – for free.

   Creating free content attracts people looking for content and not, necessarily, ready to buy a product right now. Content gets spread around quicker than anything promotional. It’s the easiest way to establish your brand as a source of information about your industry – the source people will turn to, tell their friends about, and share on social media and beyond.

Over to you

Brand awareness might seem too vague and complicated to mindfully measure and grow. However, it doesn’t mean you should neglect brand awareness, especially considering how vital it is for a brand’s success. Get out there and tell people about your brand!

Article Source Credits:

Author: Aleh Barysevich
Aleh Barysevich is Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at companies behind SEO PowerSuite, professional software for full-cycle SEO campaigns, and Awario, a social media monitoring app. Aleh is a seasoned SEO and social media expert and speaker at major industry conferences.

Article Source: www.jeffbullas.com

Originally Posted on: November 10, 2020

9th Floor Design offers residential design services, home expansions, renovations, and new home development services across Kirkland. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.9thfloordesign.com

We wish the team at 9th Floor Design the best of success in their projects.

Paramount Executives is a marketing company assisting clients with debt relief and financial services in Texas. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.paramountexecutivesinc.com

We wish the team at Paramount Executives the very best of success.

Farm Fresh Choice is an organic microgreen/urban farm in Edmonton, AB, providing a variety of microgreens across Spruce Grove, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, St. Albert, Edmonton, and the surrounding areas. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.farmfreshchoice.com

We wish the team at Farm Fresh Choice the best of success.
 

Leaside Dentistry is a dental clinic in Toronto, ON, specializing in root canals, wisdom teeth removal, implants, gum therapy, laser treatment, and more. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.leasidedentistry.com

We wish the team at Leaside Dentistry the very best of success.

one27 Photography offers product, headshot, residential & commercial architecture photography services across Acton and the surrounding areas. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website last week - www.one27photo.com

We wish the team at one27 Photography the best of success.

Crowfoot Vision Centre is a family eye health clinic and full optical dispensary offering vision test, eye examination & comprehensive eye care services across Calgary. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.crowfootvisioncentre.ca

We wish the team at Crowfoot Vision Centre the very best of success.

There’s search engine optimization, and then there’s seasonal SEO.

One is a constant companion that deserves consistent attention and focus to drive traffic to your pages and visitors to your profiles. The other – when done correctly – can give you a sweet little bump depending on the time of year.

Search engine optimization is easy to grasp, but more difficult to master. It’s the art of getting your content to rank well in the Google search engine.

Our digital lives revolve around the search engine. Whenever we want to know, buy, or do, we head on over to Google (it’s responsible for 94% of organic traffic) or Bing. And ranking is important:

• Three-quarters of people never scroll past the first page of search engine results.
• Most people ignore the paid ads that appear on the front page.
• Leads that arrive via search have an average close rate of 14.6%, but it’s only 1.7% for those from outbound channels.
• 92% of organic clicks are captured on the first page.
• The result in the #1 spot gets 32.5% of clicks.

If you don’t appear on the first page, it’s like you don’t exist. Outside of the top three spots, the click-through rate or CTR drops very quickly even if you are on the first page.

That’s not to say you won’t see a lot of seasonal fluctuation throughout the year. And you can capitalize on that. “Seasonal” refers to more than just the uptick in spending and buying we see in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday, back-to-school shopping in late summer, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, the seasons themselves, and much more.

Whether you’re a small business looking to capitalize on the trends or a seasonal business only open in the summer or holidays, there are steps you can take to catch those waves of increasing demand. With a little planning, you can produce a consistent uptick in your organic traffic at the same time each year.

Meet the Customer’s Needs

Taking advantage of seasonal SEO is not a shady tactic. You’re going above and beyond to meet consumer needs. They want this, and they want it now. If they’re looking for Christmas decorations in November, it’s because they’re ready to buy. They’re happy. You’re happy. Satisfied customers increase traffic and profit.

Google Trends

Your first step is to identify the naturally-occurring highs and lows for a particular keyword or product. If you sell Christmas ornaments, then you know you’re going to see increased demand in the lead-up to Christmas.

Others may be a bit more difficult to pin down. Maybe it changes from year to year, or maybe there’s more than one uptick. There are simple SEO and keyword research tools to help with this part, including Google Trends, which is free.

It’ll show the relative search volume for any keyword. Choose a geographic region, time period, or type of search, and Trends will display a line graph. You can also compare several keywords on the same graph.

Down jackets experience a major spike in demand starting in the fall and peaking in the winter. Makes sense. But let’s say you sell raw honey. When’s your season? You might think spring or summer.

You’d be wrong.

The highest search volume for ‘raw honey’ occurs every year in early January. Why?

You’d have to do some research, but it may be because that’s the time of year when people set resolutions. Healthy eating is a common one, and raw honey is a healthier alternative to processed sugar.

So, as a raw honey vendor, you’d want to accelerate your SEO efforts starting in November, with content that pushes the health benefits of your product. Then, you’re perfectly situated for the rise in demand. When they go looking for it, they’ll find you.

Google Analytics

If you have a website, you can dig into your own data to find the highs and lows for your traffic. Using Google Analytics, you can get valuable insights into your traffic trends over the course of a year.

The Audience > Overview graph provides a convenient snapshot of the peaks and valleys over time.

Check out Acquisition to see where your visitors are coming from. This data provides a roadmap for the seasonal niche events you should be targeting.

Combine it with insight from the Google Search Console on specific keywords and how much traffic they generate, and you know exactly what’s bringing in traffic at any given time, and where customers are going on your site.

Keyword Research

What are the keywords that people are using to find your products or service? You might turn to a keyword research tool to find new opportunities. Make a list of those words bringing in the most traffic, and the relevant keywords you’d like to add to the mix.

Don’t forget about long-tail keywords. They may have a lower search volume, but they represent a much higher level of searcher intent. Long-tail is the difference between searching for ‘shoes’ versus ‘brown leather shoes for men’. Lower overall volume, but much more intent to purchase.

Put It All Together

Once you’ve analyzed everything, you should see some clear patterns on what (keywords) and when to use them. Create content to match – content that reflects the peak engagement period and the slow-down period.

Create seasonally-specific calls-to-action, pages, and navigation menus on your site. Highlight the seasonal niche events. Give yourself enough time to generate awareness and momentum. Start your efforts at least a month or two before the peak, and continue them for about a month after it.

Keep your SEO healthy at all times. Create and share high-quality and relevant content. Build and earn strong backlinks. Seasonal spikes can be very lucrative. Find them. And grab them.

Article Source Credits:

Author: Jeshue Betts
Jeshue Betts is the regional marketing representative of LawnStarter.com, an online and mobile platform that connects homeowners with lawn care professionals for care-free and efficient services.

Article Source: succeedasyourownboss.com

Originally Posted on: September 29, 2020

Do you know how to enhance your social media marketing performance using an ambitious yet achievable strategy?

Actually, this is what the majority of marketers think they know. But the truth is many of them are not successful in marketing and usually get low ROI.

In fact, marketers and brands of all sizes and types don’t use social media to its full capacity.

They consider digital marketing to be posting several pics/clips and advertising their products.

This is what any common social media user can do. So what are the differences?

The greatest mistake they’re making is that they think social media is all about the number of followers.

They sometimes don’t care about the followers’ relevancy and the engagement rates they can bring to their accounts.

In other words, they ignore and avoid building a niche community to make their audience consider them as a leader in the community.

Many of them don’t know anything about “Brand Storytelling” on social media, and the only thing they want is to get more followers.

Many of them even try to acquire existing accounts to gain instant access to thousands of followers.

It is clear that building a niche community is not an easy task, and not all marketers can afford to do it.

A versatile and robust strategy is a must in this regard. Otherwise, you’ll repeat your previous mistakes without knowing the reason it isn’t working.

This is so important that many medium and large companies assign their marketing campaigns on social media to agencies.

Table of Contents

• How to Build Efficient Social Media Marketing Strategies
  1. Analyze your social media performance
  2. Define S.M.A.R.T goals
  3. Know your target audience
  4. Choose the right channels
  5. Generate informative content and post them at the best time
  6. Constantly survey your industry
     • Tom Siani
     • Latest posts by Tom Siani (see all)

How to Build Efficient Social Media Marketing Strategies

The most important thing these agencies do is to build efficient social media marketing strategies.

That would be especially useful during the COVID-19 pandemic when the staff’s physical presence is limited, and the threat of the coronavirus is still with us.

The time of social media usage per capita has globally increased, and this is a unique opportunity to build a social media marketing strategy.

If you can strengthen your brand identity through informative content and targeting organic audiences, you’ll have a brighter future in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Here is a step-by-step guide through which you can build your own company’s marketing strategy on social media.

1. Analyze your social media performance

First, you have to analyze your current performance to know how well you’re generating leads.

One of the most beneficial aspects of using analytics tools is to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.

Google Analytics is also a great software in this regard.

You can also perform social media A/B testing to know if your ads are of interest to your audience.

2. Define S.M.A.R.T goals

After analyzing your previous performance and knowing what has performed well and what hasn’t, you can define your next objectives.

They need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound so that you can be sure you reach them.

You also need to define certain metrics to measure these objectives and optimize your activities.

3. Know your target audience

Social media marketing is all about reaching out to the most probable customers and encouraging them to buy from you.

So you have to exactly recognize your potential customers to be able to speak with them like them.

Age, gender, location, job, and many other factors can significantly change people’s thinking and buying.

So you can’t have a single strategy for all social media users. Fortunately, there are several useful tools to find and reach out to a niche-relevant audience.

4. Choose the right channels

When you know your audience characteristics, you can target them on social media platforms.

The question is which social network is the best one for your business.

Of course, top social platforms are being used by billions of people, and you have to consider using them.

But you need to be more specific as any social app has its own audience demographic, and you can’t use a single content strategy for all of them.

For example, Pinterest’s users in the U.S. are mainly women. But on the other hand, LinkedIn is being used by CEOs, job seekers, professionals, etc.

So you need to prioritize your marketing strategies based on these differences.

5. Generate informative content and post them at the best time

Content is king! You must have heard this sentence thousands of times. But along with generating informative content, you need to put it in the eyes of as many niche audiences as possible.

Try to use social media scheduling tools to post your content at the best time to get maximum exposure.

6. Constantly survey your industry

Even a strong marketing strategy can fail you if you don’t know the competition well.

If you constantly check out your competitors, you can predict whether your strategy will be successful or not.

You have to track all their activities, including social channels they’re using, content style, followers, posting schedules, etc.

To understand these steps better, you can look at the infographic below.

Article Source Credits:

Author: Tom Siani
Tom Siani is the Content Manager at Blogwaves.com where he shares his years of experience related to social media marketing, brand marketing, blogging, and search visibility.

Article Source: growmap.com

Originally Posted on: October 4, 2020

Once upon a time, LinkedIn was only known as a job-related social media platform "for professionals". Now, with over 700 million active users, LinkedIn has become the second most used platform for B2B marketers.

As a small business owner, LinkedIn marketing should be another priority on top of having an active Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram presence. However, in order to do that, you will need to understand how LinkedIn works to make sure your presence is felt.

Unlike with other social media platforms, obvious sales tactics and spamming your business will not work on LinkedIn. People are not expecting you to sell products or services on LinkedIn. What they are interested in is the information and expertise you have to share. Marketing on LinkedIn requires a different approach if you want to get results.

To help you add one of the world's largest professional networks to your marketing toolkit, we've listed some tips and tricks to help you scale your business.

1. Complete Your LinkedIn Company Profile

Did you know that Company Pages with complete profiles receive up to two times more visitors than those with incomplete page profiles?

For a complete profile, it’s essential to have the following items:

• Logo
• Company description
• Website URL
• Company Size
• Industry
• Company Type
• Location

To fully complete your LinkedIn profile, head to your Company Page and select “Overview.” There you can upload a high-resolution image for your company logo as well as a cover image that represents your brand. Along with that, filling out the "About Us" section will provide your visitors with more information.

Beneath the "About Us" section, you will find more fields to complete your profile by entering your website URL, company size, industry, type, and location. All of this helps make your business' LinkedIn profile look more legitimate and professional, giving potential customers the opportunity to connect with you.

2. Get A Custom URL.

As part of your LinkedIn marketing package, you can claim a custom URL for your business. This makes it easier for people to remember your brand if they want to contact you, especially when they search for your company online. This is especially useful in the B2B sector where people use LinkedIn regularly to learn more about a business.

3. High-Quality Content = High-Quality Returns

Content is king and the more you post, the more likely you are to get tangible results for your business. LinkedIn helps improve their user experience by integrating content natively into their platform, videos included. All content you post should accomplish either of the following goals: teach people to solve a problem or how to do their job better.

Not only will this make you become a thought leader in your space, it will lead to more business by delivering more value to your customers.

It is also important to brand your LinkedIn profile the same way as your website and other social media accounts for consistency. This includes imagery, colours, content tone, and more.

4. Create A Regular Posting Schedule

According to LinkedIn, businesses that post at least once per month gain followers 6X faster than those that don’t. However, you should aim to post at least once per week to keep your followers engaged. To help you post consistently, create a scheduling template so that you can easily plan your posts each week.

We’ve found that LinkedIn content performs really well if you include a descriptive caption, eye-catching images, and relevant hashtags. As a bonus, you can add emojis, questions, and bullet points to switch up the look and feel of your content.

5. Every Connection Can Lead To A Business Relationship.

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals to connect with other professionals. As a business owner, you can connect with prospects, partners, and other business owners to reach your goals. You will also be able to reach your target market with the ability to nurture them through the buyer's journey.

Once these connections have been strengthened, you can decide which should be developed into business relationships and which can continue as connections.

6. Join Groups And Stay Active.

By joining relevant groups, you will be able to participate in relevant discussions to better reach your target demographic and learn what your competition is doing. Groups are an excellent way to listen to what your audience is talking about and answer any questions they might have. On top of that, being a part of a group gives you access to more connections than ever before.

7. Boost Your Email Marketing List.

Linkedin lets you communicate with fifty people at a time, a feature that should be taken advantage of to increase your email list. You can include a link for them to sign up for your emails directly along with a special offer. Offer to look at something of value for them in order to generate goodwill and get some replies.

8. Target Specific Segments With Sponsored Posts

Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn offers a very specialized advertising platform that is unparalleled. You can zero in on the exact industry, company size, and job roles to reach the people who typically buy your products or services.

For example, if you are selling translation software to small businesses in Canada, you can set your campaigns to only show for businesses with under 100 employees, that are based in Canada, and only to executives at those companies.

9. Promote your Company Page Beyond LinkedIn

A LinkedIn marketing strategy on its own will not get you results. It is essential to promote your presence across different channels in order to maximize your growth.

For example, have a link to your LinkedIn profile in your marketing communications, email signatures, blog posts, and more. You can also add a LinkedIn “Follow” button to your website and make it easy for people to share content at any point throughout their reading experience. By adding a LinkedIn “Follow” button to your landing pages or using sticky social media sharing buttons in your blog posts, you set yourself up for long-term success.

LinkedIn is an untapped market for many small business owners. As one of the top digital marketing service providers in Toronto, Webware.io wants to help you take advantage of every tool there is to help you grow your business.

If you’re a small business owner and know that you need to take advantage of social media platforms like LinkedIn, but don’t have the time to learn and manage these tools on your own, we can help you. Webware.io gives you the expertise, tools, and support to help your business navigate your digital channels. To learn more about our services and how we can help maximize your business’ exposure online, please click here.

If you have any questions about how we can help with your digital marketing needs, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our experts here.

Are you here, but not convinced you need an online marketing plan? Let me explain why you do. A small business owner has to be smarter than a corporate business; simply because they have limitations in resources. A corporate business can easily spend thousands of dollars for their marketing campaign, while a small business has a limited budget and needs to be cautious about the strategy they are going to use because they have no room for mistakes.

Though in my experience, many small business owners give little value to online marketing; they think it would be a waste of time or simply they do not have any idea about it.

But the true fact is, by using online marketing to advertise their small business has the potential to increase sales without much effort. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, a website has automation procedures thus increasing efficiency and reducing costs. On top of that, your small business can get thousands of new customers from other locations that would otherwise be impossible.

All big brands run their businesses in both brick-and-mortar stores as well as online shopping sites. In the last 6-7 years, online sales have been increasing every year. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, brick-and-mortar stores have been devastated because of social distancing while online stores achieved record-breaking sales. And experts believe that this is just the beginning, from now on online sales will continue to rise even more.

So it is imperative to leverage online marketing to increase your small business’s sales. However, without prior knowledge in online marketing, it would be very hard to make a stand in today’s competitive market. You need proper direction on how to do it from beginning to end. And that’s why I am writing this guide to give you a clear direction towards your goal.

Let me show you how you can take your small business into the next level with a simple yet powerful 27-day online marketing plan.

Days 1-7: Build Your Online Presence

Before we start your online marketing plan, you may already have some knowledge or even used Google Ads or Facebook Ads for your online business. Though they are very powerful platforms, but also very costly when compared with offline marketing.

For example, in Google Ads, every click in your advert may cost you from $0.20 to $2 depending on the competition level for that specific keyword you have chosen. Thus in order to receive 1,000 targeted visitors you have to spend $200 to $2,000. The same goes for Facebook Ads. Like I said before, for corporate business spending thousands of dollars is not an issue. However, for small businesses, every dollar counts.

Therefore, building a website for your small business is vital to increase your efficiency and reduce cost in marketing.

Many small business owners may think that spending money on building a website is a waste of time. But the true fact is, the website will get popular day by day and after a while, you will receive thousands of organic visitors from search engines like Google with $0 cost. Not just for a website, this will happen in every online platform like the Facebook page, Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, Instagram, etc.

From day 1 to day 7, your task is to build a website for your small business along with a Facebook page and Twitter profile. If you have products to sell like leather goods or furniture then do not forget to build an Instagram page as well.

On your website try to showcase all of your products and services and also link up your Facebook page, Twitter profile, etc. Then share with your customers to gain exposure. For website help, read these articles:

• Three Options for Getting Your New Small Business Website Up and Running
• Do You Need a Custom Website or Can You Use a Site Builder?
• Shopify SEO: A Detailed 5-Step Guide to a Perfect Online Store

Days 8-14: Leverage Content Marketing to Increase SERP Rank

Content is the king of all online marketing. As I mentioned above, after a while when your website becomes popular you will receive thousands of free organic visitors from Google. But how will you become popular? By creating great content for your customers.

Google loves content and ranks websites in their SERP (Search Engine Result Page) based on that. A website with high-quality engaging articles has a greater chance to get ranked high than the website without any content. For example, you have a small business of leather products. On your website try to create high-quality articles that are related with leather products & make sure your customer would love to read it.

In case you do not have the necessary skill to write a quality article, you may use freelancer article writer service to create high-quality articles for your site. Depending on article size you may have to spend $100 per 1,000 words article.

Another great tool is the email marketing campaign. Your website visitors can subscribe to your email newsletter then you can send promotional offers directly to their inbox. A great way to increase your sales without any additional advertisements.

Web push notifications are a rather new invention in the online marketing platform. It is similar to email marketing however, instead of sending promotional offers to customers email, using push notification you can send messages directly to their device like PC, laptop, mobile, etc.

Try to create several high-quality contents from day 8 to day 14. And set up an email marketing campaign as well as a push notification. More on email marketing:

• A Guide to Launching Your First Email Marketing Campaign
• Beginner’s Guide on Starting with Email Marketing

Days 15-27: Search Engine Optimization

After you have done all of the previous tasks it is time to dive into the technical side of the online platform. Let me tell you in advance, if you do not have any problem with funds then this technical part will be in full automation. There are many website optimization services out there just do some Google search.

In case you do not have enough funds or want to do it by yourself, then read on I will explain how to do it all.

Let’s talk about onsite optimization. After building your website check whether you have used your focused keywords in blog, product page/service page and homepage. Remember, in title, slug, headlines, meta description & paragraphs focused keyword must have to include. When choosing a keyword always try to use low competitive and high volume search keywords. For doing your keyword research use Google Keyword Planner tool, it’s free.

For small business owners, local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is essential. Do not forget to build a contact page with your business details like name, address, contact no, etc. To get more help you may use some tools specifically designed for local SEO optimization.

Finally, you have to use analytics to measure the performance of your website. Use Google Analytics tool, it is completely free.

For more on SEO:

• Five Ways To Boost Your SEO And Online Presence
• 12 Deadly On-Page SEO Mistakes In 2020 (And How To Avoid Them)
• Digital Marketing Services For Small Business

Summary

From day 1 to day 27 of your online marketing plan, all you have done is prepare for a great journey into online business. Like a brick-and-mortar store, you always learn from your surroundings and try to beat your competitors. The same goes in online business. You have to learn more and implement this knowledge in your online business. When your website and social media profiles and pages become popular you will enjoy increased sales with low expenditure.

Article Source Credits:

Author: Arif Chowdhury
Arif Chowdhury is the founder of Cliobra. An active digital marketer specialized in both search engine marketing and social media networks. His website Cliobra is all about modern technology in the Cyberworld. Arif contributed to several blogs and websites that specifically are technology-related.

Article Source: www.smallbusinessbonfire.com

Originally Posted on: Oct 2, 2020

Updating your website during COVID-19 highlights that your business is aware and concerned. It tells your customers that you are keeping an eye on the situation due to your concern for clients. Not only does doing so help consumers get a better idea of any new policies (such as shipping changes or rescheduling) and measures you’re taking, but it also shows you in a positive light. Updating your website also shows that you have taken the appropriate measures to protect customers in case of any interactions and that you care about them enough to change policies.

Let’s look at some examples. We’re sure you’ve seen some variant of these pop up on a number of websites during the pandemic:

Here are three entirely different websites—a federal center for disease control, a news page, and an airline—but they all have something new on their website that wasn’t there before COVID-19. The CDC has a huge banner that’s exclusively dedicated to the virus; The Guardian has a separate page for news related to COVID-19; Emirates has a notification at the top of its homepage informing flyers of “new guidelines.”

They’ve all done what you ought to do as well: upgrade your website for the pandemic. Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Start with the Header, Not Just the Heading

There’s a reason the update on the CDC website catches the eye instantly: it’s because their website sports a large, attention-grabbing banner at the very top of their home page—with a big, menacing artistic interpretation of the virus. Considering current customer interest in the virus, you’ll have to do something similar. Give them visual cues before you give them textual, anecdotal consolations.

The header is a great place to start. But there’s a catch: this header shouldn’t just be a decorative piece that you use on your home page. While you probably get the most traffic re-routed to your home page, most users don’t land on this page when they come across your website. Use Google Analytics to find out which of your internal pages receives the most traffic. If we were to take a guess, we’d say that most traffic was landing on… landing pages.

After all, Google ranks pages—not websites. Here are a few tips on what to do with the header:

• Keep the text short and attention-grabbing. For instance, which of these is easier on the eyes: COVID-19 Update or SARS-CoV-2 Reparations.
• Action-oriented language works best in this case. If you’ve added too much text to your main notification, declutter and keep it simple. Something like “Follow our updates” or “Read our new shipping policy.” Don’t write a thesis.
• Create an ALERT bar—but make sure users have the option to collapse it, because it can get annoying.
• Use bold colors and block texts.
• Keep it easily customizable.
• Use high-quality, high-resolution images.

2. Make a Separate Landing Page

If your services and products have been particularly impacted—positively or negatively—just a header won’t be enough. Let’s say you sell masks and PPEs; in this case, it’s best to have a separate landing page for COVID-related products, because several visitors are bound to click through for those alone. Moreover, keep the URLs consistent for these pages.

This will help users bookmark the page, and search engine spiders will have an easier time crawling and indexing it.

3. Update the URL

If you do have a separate landing page for COVID-19 updates/products, you should really optimize its URL. Not only is this SEO-friendly, but it can also help you keep track of your content in the future. This also helps SERPs group all your blog posts together.

4. Updating Business Hours? Spread the News

Most businesses that are delivering products—and those that depend upon dispatching people working on-ground (such as plumbers)—have changed their business timings. If your business has also undergone a similar change, ensure that this is reflected not only on your website, but also on:

• All your social media pages
• All listings and local directories

Similarly, update all your logistical and scheduling details. It’s best to have a 24/7 customer service option on the side. This helps users know that you’re still here for them, 24 hours a day, despite the pandemic and all the problems it poses.

5. Keep the Content Relevant

We’re assuming that blogs and articles are a regular part of your SEO campaign. And perhaps you also do infographics and videos, which are great add-ons. We’d suggest keeping the content relevant to the times and uploading COVID-related blogs, articles, and interactive videos. Make sure your business is somehow related to what you’re putting out there—make a connection.

Use royalty free images to keep the content visually attractive. The goal is to ensure that your customers are hooked to your content. It’s even better to have a comment section below the blog posts, to encourage visitors to leave comments or start a discussion. This helps you interact with customers, relays useful information about your business, and is also useful for other onlookers who might be scrolling through.

6. Add Cashless Payment Options

If you haven’t already implemented it, having a cashless payment option on your website is imperative. E-commerce rules in the pandemic, and no matter how small a local area you operate in, it’s best to offer online orders and delivery options during this time. Ensure that your checkout process is simple, easy, and quick. Customers shouldn’t face long delays or glitches when they’re trying to order something. Send quick notifications.

And don’t forget to optimize for mobile. Most of your customers won’t just be shopping online—they’ll be doing it from their smartphones.

Article Source Credits:

Author: Joseph Dyson
Joseph Dyson is a website optimization services and SEO specialist from Search Berg. He’s been closely following the COVID-19 pandemic, especially how businesses have been impacted by it. Under his guidance, many businesses have updated their websites for the pandemic, and have seen a boost in organic traffic, CTR rates, and ROI.

Article Source: www.smallbusinessbonfire.com

Originally Posted on: Sep 24, 2020

At Advanced Axis, the team offers entry-level sales & marketing job opportunities across Pennsylvania. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.advancedaxisinc.com

We wish the team at Advanced Axis the best of success.

Fish Pot Studios is a film production company offering video & film production services to clients across New Orleans, Louisiana, Los Angeles, New York, United States, and London. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.fish-pot.com

We wish the team at Fish Pot Studios the best of success.

Steri-Shield Expert Anti-Viral (to disinfect & protect) offers residential & commercial COVID-19 disinfection and sanitizing services across Irvine, CA. To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website last week - www.expertantiviral.com

We wish the team at Steri-Shield Expert Anti-Viral (to disinfect & protect) the very best of success.

Fenton, Collins & You LLC The Tax Trio offers individual, business tax preparation, bookkeeping & payroll services to clients across Orem, Salt Lake City, Utah.  To help the team reach a wider audience, we launched their new website last week - www.taxtrio.com

We wish everyone at Fenton, Collins & You LLC The Tax Trio the very best of success.

The Bubble™ offers a wide range of creative services including vehicle wraps, banner designing, fabrication, ad specialties, augmented & virtual reality services to clients across Arlington, TX.  To help them reach a wider audience, we launched their new website - www.bethebubble.com

We wish the team at The Bubble™ the best of success.

Bio: Michael Guta is a Staff Writer at Small Business Trends, focusing on technology and business systems. He has a B.S. in Information Communication Technology, with emphasis in Technology Management. He has used his degree to consult in the implementation of information and communications technology in developing regions. This included finding viable technologies where there is limited or no network and power infrastructures in place. He writes on tech-related subjects for publications, global companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The fact that 92% of U.S. small businesses have reinvented themselves during the pandemic says a whole lot about this bunch. Small business owners are scrappy go-getters with no quit in them. And the survey from GetApp proves that very point.

Small Business Reinventing During Pandemic

According to the survey, 92% pivoted their business in at least one way, but many have pivoted in multiple ways. This means only a small minority, or 8% didn’t pivot their business at all to adapt to the current environment.

When these businesses are pivoting, they are changing their business model on the fly. And when they do, they are hitting paydirt. One of the respondents in the survey highlights the need to quickly change a company’s business model.

Sally Matsumae, owner of Asahi Imports, a small Japanese grocery store and delicatessen in Austin, Texas, is such an entrepreneur. Matsumae goes on to say, “With shortened business hours and everyone’s fear of leaving their homes, we had to quickly figure out a way to offer online shopping and curbside services.”

Adding, “With the pandemic, we had to act fast. We had to scramble to get some sort of system that shoppers could use to tell us what items they wanted without having to step into the store.”

So, what are the five business model changes that are helping these companies survive?

The 5 Business Models

These business models are primarily being driven by digital technology. And as the survey reveals, you can use the technology no matter how small your business. The key is to adapt to the changing conditions and implement the solutions to better serve your customers.

Online Delivery Channel

Many small businesses have been thinking about launching online delivery. But before the pandemic, it wasn’t absolutely essential. This is what Matsumae also says regarding this very issue. “I’ve always wanted to have an online store, but unfortunately it was always one of those things on the to-do list.”

In the case of Matsumae, the business added an online inventory to its website along with an embedded Google Form.

According to GetApp, “Ultimately, what matters most is getting your business online—how you do it is less important.” So, look at all your options and find out the best solution for your business, customers and location. An online marketplace that lets your customers buy or order online is a must during the pandemic and beyond.

Virtual Service

Whether you are a music teacher, personal trainer, or chef, you can create virtual services to supplement your income.

In the survey two out of five small businesses are creating a new virtual service. This not only lets you keep your local customers, but you can also find new ones around the world.

Offline Delivery Channel

While an online delivery channel will keep your customers engaged, don’t forget about offline delivery. Curbside pickup and home delivery is another way to keep your business going.

If your business can’t afford its own delivery service at the moment, consider services such as Uber Eats. As the report points out, make sure to look into the cost of these services. With profit margins so low, the cost might not be worth the benefits.

On the other hand, even with razor-thin margins it can be a great way to build your customer base. And when social distancing is over, they will remember to come to your business in person.

Design a New Product

Designing a new product may not be possible for many businesses, but for those that can, it is another opportunity. Manufacturers can pivot their production to address a need in this market. Whether it is masks, sanitizers, or other PPEs, there is an opportunity.

By reconfiguring your resources to address a new need, you can keep your business going until things pick up.

Target New Customers

Targeting new customers is always a goal for any business. However, in this particular scenario finding new customers that want to buy your products is especially important. This is because businesses across the board are losing a percentage of their customer base.

While you are looking for new customers, don’t forget to try even harder to keep your existing customers. Cashflow is a big problem for small businesses, so keep that in mind as you try to find new customers.

Challenges of Pivoting

GetApp says businesses that are pivoting are three times more likely to report higher revenue. Fifty-one percent say they have increased against their forecast because of the pivots. It goes all the way down to 16% for businesses that didn’t pivot.

This, however, doesn’t mean there are not any challenges. The top challenges are lack of skills for the new approach (22%), shortage of funds (16%), and setting up new online delivery channels (14%).

When you see your business environment changing, taking action is key. Waiting for things to get better might work, but you are not in control. By pivoting to fully address the challenges head-on will keep your business going and point out new opportunities.

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.

Webware.io provides the services, support, and expertise to help you small business navigate the online channels. To learn more about our services and how we can help maximize your businesses' exposure online, please click here.

If you have any questions about how we can help with your digital marketing needs, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our experts here