Ecommerce Tools

For an eCommerce website to be successful in today's competitive landscape consideration needs to be paid to several factors. Below we list the common factors that aid eCommerce success.

eCommerce Software: WordPress, Shopify, Magento

Each platform has its own pros and cons including the complexity of use, flexibility, functionality, management, security measures, third party compatibility, etc.

Shopping Websites: Amazon, Google

Feeding your products through to sites like Amazon and Google - yes - costs money but this should be weighed up against the additional sales generated and also the increased exposure for your eCommerce website.

The feed/s can be set up to automatically take notice of product and category changes you make on your eCommerce website and periodically regenerate and resubmit the feeds through to these shopping platforms.

Shopping Comparison websites: Newegg, Shop, ShopBot

Similarly with the ability to feed products through to sites like Newegg, Shop, ShopBot and other shopping comparison websites the same strategy and cost modeling applies here.

Newsletter Managers: Campaign Monitor, MailChimp

A great way to keep in contact with your customers - updating them on new products, product ranges, and other useful or sales-focused information.

These systems range from the simple to the elaborate; allowing simple sign-up forms through to managing customer journeys from the inception of a subscriber, the customer through their full life cycle. Some allow the integration of product feed data to be used in managing certain types of newsletters like basket abandonment. GDPR is an important consideration so ensure you follow the guidelines before sending out any communications.

Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Another great way to engage potential and existing customers. It may be it is sales, customer service, information dissemination or general engagement - Social Media is a must for most businesses.

With Social Media, there are a number of offerings here in relation to reaching your intended market. This encompasses both free and paid forms of advertising your eCommerce website. And each platform attracts its own type of audience and user so research the top x number of Social Media platforms to find where your audience is.

Campaign Managers: HubSpot, Infusionsoft

Managing the acquisition of new customers has become more complicated with the number of online channels where they can be reached or found. Newsletters, Social Media Accounts alike require management with a consistent message and with as much ease, from an administrative perspective, as possible. Offerings like that from HubSpot and Infusionsoft attempt to make this possible.

Pay-per-click Advertising: AdWords, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter

Another way to reach your intended audience is to use pay per click advertising. Again there is a cost - but needs to be balanced against sales/engagement your eCommerce website gets through them. The range of these types of advertising vehicles is vast from dedicated platforms like AdWords and Amazon through to this offering is available via Social Media websites. Each provides tools, control panels, reporting, and metric targeting and like social media, your audience may be reached through a specific PPC channel so do some research/testing.

Analytics: Google, MSN, Hotjar

Who is visiting your eCommerce website and what are they doing when they get there. Which pages are performing the best and which require your attention, where are you losing customers, which pages are not converting.

Analyzing the visits and engagements on your website can help you focus your attention on the parts of your eCommerce platform that require the most work.

Summary:

As you can see the list of eCommerce tools is long and a lot needs attention. As business owners, we have only so much time during the day. So work with the above tools methodically (they are not in a particular order) so that you can measure results from the work you do on each point to find which elements are the most effective for your eCommerce website.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Emmett_Brosnan/2525276

P.S.

We would love to let you know about our Content Marketing Starter-Kit & our Conquer Your Content System. This system has been proven to increase reach, engagements, and followers. It also helps bring in new customers EVERY MONTH! 

Gain clarity on your target audience, a downloadable and editable 6-month content calendar as well as a guide on how to set up the PERFECT content strategy for each month! 

Do yourself a favor & LEARN MORE about the Conquer Your Content System  & Content Marketing Starter-Kit 

Content Curation - 9 Top Tools To Boost Your Online Influence, Authority And Visibility

The easiest way to create content? Curate it. And in the process, build your online influence, authority, and visibility.

Content curation is becoming an increasingly essential component of effective content marketing. The truth is, it's nigh on impossible to create all the content yourself that you need in order to sustain and build your online visibility. Curating content offers a useful, and actually highly beneficial, alternative.

With increasing amounts of content available, people need a trusted resource who's willing to cut through the noise and clutter and gather the most important pieces of information in one place.

By performing that role within your niche, you attract increasing numbers of followers and enjoy increased influence, authority and visibility as a result.

So What Is 'Content Curation'?

In brief, content curation involves sourcing quality content from around the web and then sharing the results through your own channels, such as social media and your own website.

In fact, most success stories on social media involve a component of curated content. Those who insist on trying to use social media as a direct selling platform (rather than an influence-building platform), and only share their own content rarely make much headway.

The benefits come from 'giving' as much value as possible to those on the social media platforms, rather than the 'grabbing' mentality of trying to make a quick buck.

The profits come from the influence you build, and is far more powerful long-term.

So How Can You Get Started Curating Content?

It's actually easier than you think. Here's a list of nine of the top resources and tools you can use to get started with content curation quickly - and most are completely free.

1. HASO (Help a Socialist Out) [search for 'HASO guy kawasaki]

From Guy Kawasaki, once you subscribe you receive a daily email with potential content you can pick from and share.

Each email is based on its own content curation activities, and they actually use the stories they find in their own social media activities.

You should find at least one or two content items a day in the list they provide that you'll then be able to share.

2. ContentGems.com

ContentGems has over 200,000 sources such as blogs, news sources, and social media accounts.

By entering your own interests - or what you want to find content about, using keywords - you'll get numerous recently-published content items in the results that you'll be able to sift through and use. They also show you the number of times a particular piece of content has been tweeted, so you get a feel for its popularity level, and how well it might resonate with your own audience.

3. Scoop.it

Similar to ContentGems.com, you enter keywords relating to your niche and can then see the latest content on your topic.

You can also use the platform to share the content you find directly to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (additional channels are available for paid accounts).

4. TrendSpottr

TrendSpottr puts you 'ahead of the trend', enabling you to see content that has reached a certain level of sharing frequency but not yet achieved a general level of awareness.

One advantage is that you'll be able to share content that your followers have not yet come across from another source. And when they do, they'll credit you with telling them first, immediately boosting their sense of your authority on the topic.

Secondly, you'll be sharing content that you know is highly sharable. That means when your followers share it with their own followers, you'll gain increased visibility as a result.

5. Google+ Explore

You can find posts related to your niche by searching based on hashtags. You can see which of them appear to be resonating more than others (you can see which have had the most +1's and shares) then find the most appealing posts to share with your own social channels.

6. Evernote

Evernote software is effectively a digital notebook that takes advantage of all the internet has to offer. It means you can save all sorts of information, and access it through your computer, smartphone or tablet.

In terms of content curation, if you're browsing something on your smartphone that would be suitable to share at some later point, you can save it to a suitable folder in Evernote, and then access it when you are ready.

It's also useful of course for making notes when ideas and inspiration strike you for creating your own content.

7. Feedly

Feedly.com is an aggregator service that takes advantage of RSS feeds to compile content from sources you enter.

It comes in very useful for example when you have a number of blogs you want to keep up with regularly. You add all the blogs in, and can then see all the content in one place without needing to visit each one or remember where they are.

When you're looking for new content to share, you can pick out the latest blog post that your followers will appreciate hearing about, and share it accordingly.

8. Google Alerts

By creating Google Alerts based on keywords relating to your niche, you can immediately find out what's new and share accordingly with your niche. You can get alerts by email, or create an RSS feed based on your alert that you can then consult when you are ready (for example, plug into Feedly above).

9. Hootsuite

In curating content, you need an easy way to disseminate the content to the social networks you're involved with. That's where Hootsuite comes in. You can view your social media activity all in one place, as well as schedule posts and tweets in advance.

Conclusion

With content curation an increasingly essential component of content marketing, it's important to use the right content curation tools to make that job as easy as possible as well as assist you in finding the most authoritative sources of content to share. By curating content on a regular basis, you'll enjoy your own online influence, authority and visibility increasing as a result.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steve_Shaw/4373

P.S.

We would love to let you know about our Content Marketing Starter-Kit & our Conquer Your Content System. This system has been proven to increase reach, engagements, and followers. It also helps bring in new customers EVERY MONTH! 

Gain clarity on your target audience, a downloadable and editable 6-month content calendar as well as a guide on how to set up the PERFECT content strategy for each month! 

Do yourself a favor & LEARN MORE about the Conquer Your Content System  & Content Marketing Starter-Kit 

Top 10 Best Digital Marketing Tools for eCommerce | eCommerce Marketing Tools

Top Podcasting Tips & Tools for Recording, Interviews & Exporting (2019 Tutorial)

How to Calculate Twitter ROI

Get to Know Your Social Media Metrics
It doesn't matter which social media platforms you're using to promote your business?-if you're not measuring your results, you're wasting your time!

You need to be tracking things like which posts perform better than others, and which types of content your users like best.

According to Twitter, 336 million people use the platform every month. But early on, I was struggling to see the value of Tweeting. It was hard for me to justify the amount of time and effort I was spending on it, before I understood how to properly market there and calculate Twitter ROI (return on investment).

Yes, I saw many celebrities and big brands joining the platform, and it became an active community to Tweet about politics-Barack Obama even announced he'd won the 2012 presidential election on the platform.

But how could it work for me and my clients?

I see things differently now, and put a lot of effort into marketing on this platform (as you'll see by going to our account. I Tweet a lot)! But that's because I know how to calculate Twitter ROI, so I know what's working and what isn't.

Too many entrepreneurs don't effectively measure their efforts on social media. They also fail to realize how valuable their time is. They'll choose to DIY something to save money instead of hiring an expert to do it for them.

They don't consider the time they spend learning to do the task, the time they waste by not focusing on their business, and the fact that the expert probably could have gotten them far better results.

From my perspective, I see a lot of value in the social networking sites when it comes to visibility, brand enhancing, building relationships and being recognized as an expert in your industry.

But the key is to allocate your time wisely.

Put in enough time to achieve your goals and then move on to other important business-building activities. There's nothing wrong with spending some of your time on social networking, but spending hours a day at it is probably not the best thing for your business or your ROI.

Here's how to focus your time wisely on Twitter metrics:

Set up your goals.

Is it to get people to download a white paper on your website?

To fill out a form for a free consultation?

Only then can you effectively calculate ROI. You need to be able to see what people are doing, like clicking on a link you posted to get to your website.

Part of setting up analytics (Google Analytics or a paid platform) will be creating a tracking token per goal. Most marketers have more than one goal: on the home page it may be to sign up for a newsletter, while on an inside page it may be to download an eBook.

You want to be able to see which actions had which results, rather than ending up with a giant pool of stats you can't make sense of.

There are online tools that let you generate these tracking tokens, or you can hire a professional marketing company to make analyzing metrics much easier on yourself.

Get to know Twitter Analytics.

You'll find stats on everything from audience demographics to engagement rate here. I find some of the best insights here include:

? Tweet engagements and engagement rate. Engagements are the number of interactions a Tweet gets, while the engagement rate is engagements divided by impressions.

? Event and trending topic data. This shows you holidays and trending conversations so you can join in when and where it's relevant.

? Video content performance. According to Hootsuite, Tweets with video attract 10x as much engagement. When you've started Tweeting your video content, you can see how people are interacting with your videos, like if they're watching them to completion. Read 'Why Incorporating Video on Your Twitter Account is Good For Social Marketing'.

Don't forget the hashtags.

Hashtags can be a really effective marketing tool, but many marketers don't understand how to track their ROI.

Not sure what hashtags are? Check out 'A Newbie's Guide to Hashtags on Social Media'.

You can track the number of interactions with your hashtag (how many people like, share, comment or retweet the content) to see how well a particular tag is performing.

It's just one of the ways to see if the time and/or money you're putting into social media is paying off.

Check examples from the BizGalz, a global community of women and the men who support them as they "challenge the world, think big, & make change." During one of their recent Twitter Chats, they've asked people to name their favourite conference using the hashtag #BizGalz so they can easily see who's engaging with the chat.

Keep on tracking.

Depending on the size of your business, it may take some time to uncover viable stats. That's okay! Keep tracking and tweaking as you go along.

It's important not to lose focus on things like how many followers you're gaining or losing over time, how many shares your posts are getting, how certain hashtags are performing and so on.

While it may be a bit more difficult to calculate Twitter ROI than it is to simply see if someone has filled out a form on your site, it's worth it to spend some time focusing your marketing efforts there and getting familiar with your analytics. Chances are, your competitors are!

Find it challenging to find enough time in the day to get your business tasks done, never mind social media? Or maybe you're just not sure where to even start.

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.

Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Friesen/260293

How to PLAN, SCHEDULE, and AUTOMATE your Instagram posts! (Create CONSISTENT Content in your SLEEP!)

Instagram Story Hacks: 5 Tricks You (Probably) Didn't Know

Your 2019 Guide on How to Use Video in Email Marketing

It's not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days.

From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more apt to purchase from you.

Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.

This article focuses on using video in your email marketing. Keep reading for the technical parts of utilizing video in your email marketing and the creative aspect for some inspiration.

I've talked about using video many times in the past, but in case you're still not convinced or didn't think to use video in your email marketing efforts, it's time to pay close attention. According to a study done by SuperOffice, including video in emails led to open rate increases of six percent (the average open rate across industries is about 25 percent).

Some other benefits of video marketing:

• It saves time. You can create short, engaging pieces of video much more quickly than it will take you to write an 800-word blog. It also gives info to your viewer in an easy-to-understand way.

• It can help SEO. Your Google search ranking can improve if your footage is viewed and shared by enough people.

• It's cost-effective. You don't need CGI effects or animation to make something great. A video can be much more affordable to produce than a blog or ad.

• It grabs attention. Especially when added into your newsletter, a video captures your audience's attention and compels them to want to watch.

First, the Technical Part of Video Email Marketing

Before you start brainstorming ways to use video in email, you need to know how it plays in different email clients.

There are over 30 major email clients, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail, and some of them don't support the requirements for using email with video.

Traditionally, marketers would use HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) to code HTML video directly into an email, but recipients with certain email clients aren't able to play it. Many popular email providers will only show a fallback image, and your marketing message will be lost in the crowd.

Fortunately, some of the popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact and AWeber make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.

This gives the appearance there's actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.

Instead of having to learn HTML5, there are also 3rd party services that can create a video snippet for you to include right in the body of your newsletter. In fact, I did this in a recent newsletter of ours!

Check out Playable to embed a short video in your next newsletter. Playable will replace the video with an image of your choice if the email service provider doesn't support the video technology.

>> Learn more about the features of our favorite email providers.

No matter what eNewsletter tool you use, it's crucial to test your campaign before you send it out. You'll need to have accounts on all of the popular email platforms so that you can see how your footage works in each of them.

Sound like a lot of work? Trust a professional marketing company that's been helping clients create successful eNewsletter campaigns since 2003.

Next, Make Sure You're Mobile

According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you're keeping smartphones in mind when you're email marketing with video.

Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.

It's still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn't need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don't have the fastest download speed.

A good tip is to take a 10 second snippet of your video to use in the newsletter. That snippet can then link to the full feature on your blog.

Also, always make sure autoplay is off, especially on mobile. Most people don't appreciate having something start playing (often noisily) as they sit in the office or on a bus; they prefer to click on Play themselves.

Now, On to the Creative Part

With the technical stuff out of the way, let's look at how you can actually create content that will engage your viewers and get you more visitors to your website.

You need a plan with clear objectives or else you're just sending content out into the world and hoping it will be seen and loved.

Why are you creating this campaign? To generate leads, brand awareness, followers... ?

Once you've identified your objectives and goals, you can start thinking about actual email, and the content you want to produce.

As mentioned, host the full-length video in a blog post, landing page or even on social media and then plan to incorporate a "sneak peak" of that video in your email marketing campaign, linking to the full-length version.

Here are six tips and inspiration to get you started:

1. Use the word "video" in your subject line to make your message stands out.

2. Promote an event. Let's use a law office as an example. We created a short video using Wave.Video for one our clients, A Family Law Firm, to promote an upcoming seminar they were hosting.

3. Offer tips. When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips. A "Top 5" or "4 ways to improve" will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product.

4. Create a series. This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you're providing is valuable to them. Stay away from a five-part series on your latest offering. Instead, solve a problem.

Using the law firm video marketing again as an example, you could set up a list-building campaign and do a four-part video series on ways to prepare for a separation or divorce:

• Part 1: DIY or hire a lawyer?

• Part 2: Filing the necessary paperwork

• Part 3: Dividing assets

• Part 4: Supporting your children

5. Make tutorials. Your product or service solves a problem, so how can you showcase this to your clients? Educate your viewers with a short explanation around how your product or service will improve their lives, using real-world examples.

6. Think outside the box. Now, we don't all have the budget outdoor company Patagonia does; however, look at how they've integrated amazing footage into their email campaigns. It doesn't focus on their surfing gear, but it's relevant to their customers.

Whether you're a life coach shooting some footage while you're on vacation or a wellness provider offering viewers a glimpse of your dinner prep process, get creative and get shooting!

Email marketing with video can be incredibly powerful, increasing your open rates, engagement, leads and sales substantially.

However, not every email should contain one. If you start using this marketing tactic every time you send out an eNewsletter to your subscribers, they'll stop paying attention. Think of it as one way to stand out from the crowd, but don't neglect your other tactics.

Crafting an eNewsletter campaign with video (or without), choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or else you'll end up alienating and losing subscribers.

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.

Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Friesen/260293

Email Marketing Tips - 6 Quick Tips for Success

Video SEO - How to Rank #1 in YouTube (Fast!)

So How Does SEO Work?

How Does SEO work?

Before we dive into SEO and find out more about how does SEO work, Let us first understand what exactly SEO is.

As we all know, digital landscape is evolving faster than ever before and thus creating an urgent and immediate need for all the online businesses to not just embrace but also capitalise on the rising online trends and the digital economy. Although, there are many digital marketing strategies to gain online business from, but the most effective and sustainable is the organic method, part of which is SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

Search engine optimisation helps website, blogs or webpages to be found by the search engines for related keywords. SEO is also commonly referred to as "organic", "natural", "unpaid" or"earned" results.

How exactly does a Search Engine works?

There are two key steps responsible primarily for search engine results. They are as follows:

Crawling: Search engine bots crawl all the web pages linked to a website. Major search engines like Google crawl millions of pages on a daily basis.

Indexing: After fetching all the pages through crawling process, these pages are then indexed in the database for future retrieval. The process of indexation is extremely important. The more the number of indexed pages of your websites, the greater are the chances of improving your rankings. Although, it depends on the strategies you formulate.

Major Search engines update their algorithm on a regular basis and there are various factors that influence these results directly or indirectly. It is advisable to update sitemaps

How does SEO work and what are the best tips to improve SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation depends on a number of factors the influence the rankings directly or indirectly. We would uncover all of those factors in this article. Here are the key factors:

Content - It is one of the most important SEO factors. Anyone who has heard about digital marketing must have also heard that "Content is King". It is true. On numerous occasions Google has said that it rewards sites with great content. So if you want to outsmart other websites, when it comes to SEO, you might as well want to focus on its content. Wishing content section there are some important factors that must be kept in mind such as readability, use of H1/H2 as appropriate and keeping a check on use of passive as well as repetitive sentences.

On-page SEO - If you want to outwit your rivals, You need to work on your site's on page SEO. Get the fundamentals right. Work on the meta-description and keywords carefully. Focus on content as well as internal linking. Add relevant titles, optimise all the images (add alt-tag), Infuse a mix of H1, H2 headings and subheadings, add LSI keywords by keeping a check on keyword density. Length/description needs to be according to the keyword difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the detailed your content should be to outscore and please ensure you get the basic right.

Backlinks - Generating quality backlinks is extremely important to boost the domain authority and page authority of your website. Some of your efforts should also be focussed on creating enough great quality backlinks. Most of this should be achieved by creating compelling content because the better the content you produce, the higher are the chances of people linking to your website. Stick to the relevance because if the links are irrelevant then it would do more harm than good as far as Google rankings are concerned. It has to be generated through ethical methods only with the right types of backlinks(white hat strategies).

Website speed (Page Load Time) and user experience - Google rewards the sites that are faster. It focuses on user engagement more than anything else. What it means is - fundamentals of the site needs to be intact. Look at your site speed (page load time). This was made clear it the latest Google speed update. You need to adjust/arrange accordingly. You need to also work on the user engagement metrics such as the number of clicks/Out of total impressions. Focus on the bounce rate, page views, session and all these metrics to understand in great detail. Simply put "faster the site, better the results".

Mobile Friendliness - As we discussed in earlier part of the article that Search Engines update their algorithms regularly and as per the latest Google algorithm update it confirmed that the friendlier the site for mobile users, the higher the rankings of its pages. Therefore, Mobile Friendliness affects your SEO efforts. Do check if your site is mobile friendly or not. If it is not then that should be your first priority.

Domain Age, URL and Authority - Age of the website, URL and it's DA /PA (domain authority and Page Authority) are all important factors of SEO. DA/PA would improve with a number of strategies - backlinks, internal links quality of the content.

Image optimisation - Optimising all the images on your site is advisable as it improves your chances. Add relevant titles and alt tag to all the images. It adds a lot of value when it comes to image search results.

Social Signals - Social links or signals can not be overlooked when it comes to (search engine optimisation) SEO strategies. These are authority signals that not only increase your visibility but also generate links in the forms social signals. One can share its site on social media platforms to boost signals. The more, the better.

Structured Data - Focus on the structure of your web pages as they should be thoroughly aligned. Update the sitemap. Bottom-line is you have to think from your user's point of view since we know that user engagement cannot be overlooked.

Conclusion: Now, we know how does SEO work and what are the key factors that influence or expedite your organic digital marketing efforts, Keep these in mind and work on these parameters individually to outsmart others and rank your or your clients site on top of the SERP (search engine results page). Evidently, SEO is one of the most effective strategies to capitalise on the rising digital economy and it also gives your sustainable results as long as you follow the right strategies and keep the basics intact. It is an ongoing process and requires constant efforts.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Nizaar_Gherfal/2176714

How To Use Instagram For Business

How To Grow Your Email List With A Contest

You should be building an email list of prospects and customers. You constantly need to add new prospects to fill your sales funnel, and once someone buys a product from you, that person is more likely to buy something from you again in the future.

A great way to broaden your email list is to hold an online contest. Contests not only allow you to create something useful and beneficial for your audience on a particular topic, it also creates more engagement, usually daily with your target market.

You can create a contest or competition where everyone has to submit their email address to enter.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

If you don't know who your target audience is, you can't do anything - from creating content, to developing products, to holding a contest. Knowing your target audience lets you know when, what, why, where and how you'll move forward. Everything you do is about your audience and what type of value you can provide them.

The Goals for Your Contest

One goal, in this case, is obviously to grow your email list. But are you wanting to promote a specific product to the list that you build? Do you want to launch a new product and make sales? Know the goals for your contest so that you can make sure that you're doing what needs to be done to meet that goal.

The Right Tools for Your Contest

There are many tools that you can use for contests. Each social platform has its own approved contest software. If you want to run a contest on Instagram and Facebook, check out ShortStack.

Market Your Contest

Don't have a contest without also adding the marketing element. Consider it just like you would with any product you want to launch. You're going to want to run some online ads, and share widely on all social media platforms. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are absolutely perfect for marketing your contests and getting sign-ups.

Follow Up

When the contest is over follow up with everyone. Announce the winner and interview them. Also interview the top three entries. Send email messages that you've pre-planned to everyone who entered and everyone who signed up during the contest.

Holding a contest to grow your list is an excellent way to accomplish your list-growing goals. Treat the contest as you would another product so that you promote it, launch it, test it, and improve it for the next time.

Online contests are a great way to engage with your audience and add grow your email list. When people are engaged and interacting with your business it helps drive sales and profits. To learn more about running a contest for your business, download my free checklist, Running A Challenge at https://jonallo.com/challenge

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948

What is a Sales Funnel? And How To Create One that Actually Makes Money

5 Reasons Email Marketing Is Important

What Is An Autoresponder And How Can It Help Me?

Do you use email marketing in your business?

If so, you may be tired of having to get up every single day and try to create some content to send out on a daily basis. Did you know that there is a way you can create all of your content and have it go out automatically? Through the use of an autoresponder you can place all of your emails into it and have them delivered at specific times.

In addition, you can create an opt-in form which will allow new subscribers to get a predetermined email campaign. This is a great way to introduce new customers and leads to your business and products. Let's take a look at how an autoresponder can help you get more clients and sales.

If there is one thing we know about customers is the fact that they hate getting sold to. It is absolutely essential in today's business to seem as non-salesy as possible. And one of the best ways to do this is by genuinely helping our leads. We can do this with great content that will help them and our product or business will allow them even greater success. One of the first things you would need to do is create a lead generator. This is going to be something that you create that is going to help your clients.

Let's look at this from a weight loss clinic. They may be in the same situation as you and wonder what is an autoresponder and how can it help us. Well, they are going to begin by creating a great piece of content of ten foods that will help you lose weight quick. Individuals will land on this page and opt-in to an email list of the autoresponder. The autoresponder captures the individual's name and email and will send out the report.

Now that the autoresponder has the individuals name and email it can begin to send out emails. These emails need to focus on helping and not selling. These emails will be sent out automatically to the individual until they unsubscribe from the list. If the emails are helpful and build trust, they will stay on the list. Over time when trust has been built the weight loss clinic can begin a soft sell on a product or service.

What makes autoresponders so invaluable is everything can be created once and it is a set and forget business model. Of course, you can always add emails into the mix at your will and do a daily blast. This is great if you want to capitalize on a trending topic or have a sale you want to introduce. An autoresponder will become an invaluable tool for your business.

While this gives a basic rundown of what is an autoresponder, there is much more to it. It is best to research the various responders on the market and understand their true power. Regardless, these are one of the best tools to have in your business arsenal!

Shane Allen Bost is an Internet Marketing Consultant specializing in new product development and affiliate program management. www.ShaneAllenBost.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shane_Bost/464266

Marketing A Business - How To Market A Business On A Small Budget

Starting a business takes a huge amount of cash. The more you can save, the better. Here are some alternatives to help you create some buzz for your business on a budget.

Talk to Your community:

You do not have to have huge thoughts when it comes to marketing efforts. Think smaller.

Try sponsoring a little league team or a 7k charity walk. You can print book marks and leave them at your local library. Get your targeted customer and think about how and where they may spend their time.

Put A Group Together:

Collaborate with some people in a non-competitive way. The benefit with doing this is you can cross-promote. You can come together to bundle website links, coupons and share social media platforms. Cross-promoting put my business in position to expand to another consumer base.

Request Referrals:

Don't be afraid to ask for consumer referrals. Most people say that they are willing to provide a referral if it is requested, but you may be surprised that so many business owners do not take the initiative to do it.

Offer coupons:

Although most start-ups are not in the position to give money away, this could be a way to get a little buzz going. In my opinion, it is better to make a 50% sale then make no sale. According to constant contact, research shows that people will go out of their way to use a coupon at 48%. In addition, coupons may create return visits. As an example, if you give a coupon to a consumer for a future discount, there is a huge chance they will be back.

Do some article marketing:

Article marketing is one of many ways to promote and create content for free. It takes some time to create articles, but If you understand how to craft an article and provide valuable content online, you can generate hundreds of thousands of people to your website annually without spending a dime.

In addition, some benefits of doing article marketing is the credibility you gain from your consumer base. When people develop a trust in what you have to offer they will be incredibility loyal to your business.

Create a You-tube channel:

It is free to create a you-tube channel. Similar to doing articles, you can create informative videos that can help build some traffic to your website and business. However, it is important that I tell you to avoid coming across as "salesperson". The best approach to take when making articles or you-tube videos is to come from a place of help. Figure out the problems of your consumer base and inform them on how your business is the best solution to their problems.

For more information on starting a business, go to FREE REPORT

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Marc-Eddy_Drouinaud_Jr/2289154

Myths and Truths About Marketing to Millennials

We can define millennials as those born from 1982 to 2000, with some people extending the time frame to 2004. The upper part of this generation is sometimes referred to as Generation Y. The younger end of the group is now coming of age, meaning they will start to flex their spending muscles.

Do They Really Kill Off Industries?

Millennials have been blamed for killing off a variety of industries, including the record industry and movie theaters. But the truth is, they buy large numbers of MP3s and DVDs. They also stream considerable numbers of programs. Technology can often significantly change industries. Millennials aren't destroying anything; they are just making the most of new tech.

How Tech Savvy Are They?

They are more tech savvy than previous generations, but not as much as the younger generation, Gen Z. Millennials are the last of the non-native users of tech who grew up in a world where computers weren't everywhere, and smartphones such as the iPhone and gadgets like the iPod, iPad and Kindle eBook readers and software were non-existent.

Millennials don't usually live on their mobile phones, so you can still market to them effectively via their desktop computer. They also use traditional social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Do They Really Pay Attention to Digital Advertising?

According to the US Postal Service, Millennials also pay attention to print ads, and in particular direct mail. They have not destroyed the magazine industry; they want a paper magazine and a digital one. But they are tending to be much more savvy than older generations about which ads they pay attention to. As a result, you need to be honest in all your marketing efforts. Cut the hype and get to the facts.

Are They a New Generation of Carefree Hippies?

This is not true either. It's true that they are putting off buying homes, getting married, and having children until later in life as compared with previous generations, but this doesn't mean they have zero interest in these things. Attending college and grad school, student loan repayment burdens, and the fact that they witnessed the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression means that they are more prudent about debt, and careful about staying out of debt.

The job market can also be tricky for new grads. Focus your campaigns on the great value your products and services offer, and how they can help them save money, or make more money.

They Are Not All Interested in Charitable Causes

Like the younger Generation Z, some Millennials appreciate companies like Toms Shoes, which donates a pair of shoes every time they sell well. But on the whole, they will see this as a gimmick unless your products and services really stand up well to scrutiny - that is, comparable to similar items on the market. They are willing to buy hybrid cars and green cleaners, but only if they are affordable and work as well as non-ecologically sound products.

We all occasionally make mistakes in marketing our business. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. It's all part of the learning process. Although mistakes are going to happen, you can avoid a number of common business mistakes. Download my free checklist, The 10 Most Common Business Mistakes at https://jonallo.com/mistakes

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948

19 Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Business

6 BEST Digital Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business Online