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The Different Search Result Types Your Business Must Be Aware Of

Business owners regularly think that there is just one type of search result they need to contend with; organic search. Others are aware that paid results exist, but this still doesn’t cover it all. You see, when a website looks to improve its search engine performance, it will often only contend with these two types of results. In reality, there are way more out there that you must focus on to make your site more visible online.

Below, we’re going to look at each search result type out there, and how your business website can optimize itself to do well in these results. It will lead to a website that’s seen by more people and regularly pops up at the top of all rankings

Standard Organic Results

These are the search results we often think about when we talk about improving SEO. They’re the natural results that everyone sees and no-one pays for. They appear in a list, with the websites ranked in order of authority.

Every business owner should know the benefits of having a website that ranks highly in organic searches. There’s simply no negative to this; it will directly influence your traffic, lead generation, and customer base. Many businesses see an increase in sales when their site ranks highly.

Getting your business to perform well in these results has been talked about many times before. Essentially, you have to make it search engine friendly. Ensure you; target the right keywords, include valuable content on your site, build backlinks, optimize your site for mobile, structure your pages properly, make the user experience good, and have fast loading times. There are plenty of other considerations too, but this article isn’t about SEO tips, it’s about the different search results your business needs to know about!

Paid Results

The paid results are also commonly known as many businesses pay for adverts to try and improve their search engine visibility. These results tend to appear before the organic ones, meaning you could potentially be seen before any of the organic sites. This leads to more clicks, more traffic, and possibly more sales for your business.

Paid search results all go through Google Adwords. You have to bid on certain keywords, and you’ll appear in the relevant search results. Although it’s beneficial to get into these results, it can be very costly. Some popular keywords will cost your business a lot of money to bid on, and you have to pay Google every time your link gets clicked on.

This is an investment you probably shouldn’t think about until your business is more established and you have the funds to allocate to it. Otherwise, you’re better off focusing on the natural approaches that won’t cost as much money.

Local Results

Next up we have the local search results, which are so beneficial for small businesses. These results are designed to point people in the direction of your company. Instead of only displaying your website, they’ll show your business name and location on a map. This allows users to click on the map, see if you’re close to them, check your opening times, and decide whether or not to proceed with any actions.

Your business needs to focus on ensuring you actually appear in these results. If you don’t, then you could miss out on loads of customers. The easiest way to get started is by setting up a Google My Business account and registering your company. Here, you can fill in lots of information about your business that will be displayed in the local results. This includes company info, location, opening times, and contact details. But, you can also use keywords to target certain searches and make sure you’re found by the right people.

Local results are perfect for small businesses with physical locations. Restaurants and retail stores are probably the two types of business with the most to gain from these search results.

Rich Results

Rich results are one of those things you’ve definitely encountered but weren’t aware they were a special thing. A lot of the time, when you search for a query, you’ll get a search result that appears before anything else. This is normally in a little box that provides the answer to your query without you needing to click on the page.

If your business website starts appearing in these results, it will only benefit you. First off, you will be seen before all of the generic organic list results. This gives you more exposure and can direct more people to your website. One of the key ways in which you can get yourself in these results is by creating SEO structured data markup code. This code allows your site to display its content in a format that’s very easy for search engines to digest. As a result, their bots can crawl through your pages and find the relevant content for any specific queries. This allows it to present your content in the form of a rich result snippet.

This is something that’s becoming more and more popular and competitive nowadays. Google realizes that users often don’t want to go through the annoyance of clicking on a website and scrolling through paragraphs of content before they find the answer they wanted. Instead, they can just see it on the search results page and be done. While it can still help you gain more traffic, the main purpose is to help make your business more of an authority in your line of work. If you keep popping up in the rich results for queries relating to your industry, then it makes you look professional and respectful!

Mobile Results

Lastly, we have mobile results. Now, these search results pretty much cover all the results we’ve spoken about, only the mobile versions of them. When someone searches for the exact same keyword or phrase on their phone, they could see completely different results to the ones they see on their desktop computer. This is because Google specifically orders mobile results to display mobile-friendly sites first and foremost.

As a consequence, if you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, then you could well miss out on loads of mobile traffic and visibility. It’s found that over half of all internet users are on their mobile devices more than their desktops. So, you could say that half of the people searching for your business are using their phone or tablet. If you don’t cater to their needs, they won’t find you.

Thankfully, it’s very easy to improve your mobile search performance. All you have to do is design a website that’s responsive. This way, your business won’t miss out on valuable mobile web traffic.

Why is all of this important? Because search is still the number one way for a consumer to find a business online. Yes, social media is powerful, but search remains at the top. It’s not good enough to optimize your small business for one type of search result. If you have good organic results, it will generally benefit you, but you can take things to new levels by getting rich results, paid ones, local, and mobile too. Everything is brought together, and you start to see your business more and more in search results. It becomes impossible for people not to notice you, which should lead to financial benefits down the line. The more people that find you via searches, the more traffic you gain and the more potential leads you have. This lets you convert more leads and end up with a handful of paying customers. At the end of the day, all the money you put into search engine marketing will be repaid with the results.

Streamlining Your Business For Growth

You’ve worked hard to get people to back and invest in your idea, you’ve grown your business, and now it’s up and running generating a steady stream of income. Now it’s time to maximize your profits by streamlining your business model. Below are three ways of saving some money in your running costs to help increase your profit margins.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is by far the most popular way of trimming some of the fat in your budget, and there are many different ways of utilizing these services. The most usual departments of a business people outsource are HR and IT. Filling vacancies in your business is an incredibly important process to dedicate your energies to, mainly because every day that goes by with an unfilled vacancy is robbing your company of efficiency, growth, and money. By employing a recruitment agency, you not only get a top-rate service that will be able to fill your vacancies quickly, but they will have extensive networks and contacts to ensure that you are getting the best possible candidates in the market at that time. IT services fill a similar role in that they help you to avoid your company being slowed down by inefficient computer networks and viral attacks. Another outsourcing option not many people know about is your buying network. If you regularly source merchandise or parts from several different suppliers, it can be very time-consuming to negotiate and liaise with them all. Companies like leelinesourcing.com allow you to consolidate your buying process, meaning that you only have one company to deal with instead of ten. All this means that you have more time to put into growing your business and keeping your customers happy.

Online vs Brick-and-mortar

Many people cling to the notion of a brick-and-mortar business as it can seem more ‘real’ and add an air of credibility. Whilst that is all well and good, if the online section of your business is bringing in more than your store, it may be time to rethink your business model. There are a huge amount of overhead costs associated with a traditional brick-and-mortar business that could be needlessly eating into your profit margin. Every outgoing cost must be measured against the return on investment; if your store is costing more than it brings in, it’s time to do the right thing and pull the plug. Switching to an online-only model will dramatically reduce your spending and allow you to focus more on growing your global brand.

Reduce plastic and paper usage

The world is slowly shifting its priorities to become more eco-friendly, and the public is increasingly beginning to favor those providers who share their values. By making a conscious and public effort to reduce your carbon footprint by minimizing wastage, you will be building a positive reputation that you are a brand that cares and is worth investing in. Not only that, but reduced wastage also means reduced cost, which means increased profit. It’s a win, win scenario.

There you have it, three simple ways to streamline your business to help foster some continued growth. Running a company is like being a gardener; sometimes you have to trim back some of the plants to allow the garden as a whole to bloom.

Have You Considered Reselling As A Business Option?

Entrepreneurs these days are making significant profits by setting up reseller businesses. A reseller is someone who purchases goods at a low price with the intention of reselling at a profit. Goods range from preloved items sourced from auctions and car boot sales to buying surplus stock from wholesalers.

Many people enter the world of reselling through selling unwanted items on ebay and other online auction sites. Once people realize that they can gain significant profit from their own items they begin to source items from different places to provide them with stock.

Develop your USP

It is possible to develop your own niche within reselling. Some reseller’s choose to concentrate on sourcing and selling retro games and consoles, as the whole retro gaming industry is currently very popular. Another popular niche market is vintage clothing. Certain era’s can fetch huge profit if you can manage to source your stock at a reasonable price. Whatever you choose to sell, It is best to sell what you’re interested in, you will then develop an “eye” for what will attract the highest profit margin.

Industry knowledge

If you have previous experience of working within different industries, you may be able to utilize your knowledge by sourcing second hand machinery, cars and commercial vehicles from auctions. Many auctioneers offer commercial truck resale at affordable prices, you could then resell at a profit. Previous knowledge would be advantageous as you would know what to look for in the commercial products and vehicles.

Your knowledge will help in the re selling process too, as you will be able to provide useful, inside information to your customers. Many new startup businesses will be looking to source equipment and vehicles at reasonable prices, so you have a ready made market. You will also have industry connections that you could utilize to your advantage in both sourcing the goods and reselling them.

Market trends

Be aware of market trends and “hot” products of the moment. Every Christmas there is a list of “must have” toys. If you can find out what these toys are likely to be and buy a large volume of them at the right time, you could be in profit. There will be times when you buy items that won’t sell, as long as you resell them at the same cost of buying them, there will be no losses. As in all businesses the larger profits made on certain items will counteract any small losses made.

Selling outlets.

Sales can be made in a number of ways and can be done entirely online by using auction sites such as ebay. Facebook is also a good selling outlet and if you are selling a niche product you can tailor who sees your items by joining sites dedicated to people interested in what you are selling.

Offline selling outlets could be newspapers adverts, Gumtree, market stalls or even shop premises. Recent years have seen a number of preloved clothing and toy stores appearing on the high street.

Everyone loves a bargain, so you have a captive audience. Just remember to do your maths carefully when working out profit margins. Ensure you take into account fees from selling, listing and distributing your products.

10 Digital Marketing Acronyms Every Entrepreneur Should Know

As an entrepreneur, you can be forgiven for wanting to manage every aspect of a new startup. Your new venture is your brainchild, after all, and you want to do what you can to see it grow and prosper. But sometimes, doing what you can means letting other people do things for you.

One of the areas where experience matters more than enthusiasm is digital marketing. There are many reasons why hiring a digital marketing expert is the right choice for your startup. The bottom line is that they’re better at it than you. Plus, you get to focus your attention on the areas where you can contribute the most.

When you hire a digital marketing expert, you’ll learn that they speak funny. The majority of important marketing notions, concepts, and activities are referred to using acronyms. Since the success of your start greatly depends on your ability to communicate effectively, here are some explanations of the most important acronyms in digital marketing.

1. SEO — Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a group of practices for improving your website’s visibility in search engine results. The activities that fall under SEO include choosing a good host, researching keywords, optimizing website performance, creating high-quality content, and link building. When done well, SEO will ensure your website had a healthy stream of organic traffic.

2. SEM — Search Engine Marketing

As opposed to SEO and organic traffic, search engine marketing is concerned with getting you paid traffic. Instead of using optimization practices to improve search engine visibility, in SEM you use paid ads that appear in search results. Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Ads, and Bing Ads are the most popular search engine marketing platforms.

3. PPC — Pay per Click

Pay per click is an advertising model where you pay a certain amount of money each time someone clicks on your advertisement. The cost per click has an acronym of its own, CPC. However, some people will use PPC and CPC interchangeably. Search engine marketing is a form of PPC advertising.

4. KPI — Key Performance Indicator

Key performance indicators weren’t invented for digital marketing. However, digital technologies provided marketers with the opportunity to gather an enormous amount of data. They use that data to derive indicators of the success of their online activities, or KPIs. You should also know that KPIs are useful as long as you know which ones to choose for which activities. Choosing the wrong KPIs can lead you astray.

5. CTA — Call to Action

Website visitors will sometimes need encouragement to perform certain actions. If you want them to order something, subscribe to your newsletter, or visit a certain page, you use calls-to-action or CTAs. A CTA is a combination of copy and visuals that tell the visitors what you want them to do. CTAs are usually buttons or links on a website. They use short, assertive copy, such as “Order Now!”. They are also made to stand out on the page and be easily visible.

6. B2C — Business-to-Consumer

Business-to-consumer and its relative business-to-business (B2C and B2B) refer to your customers. If your business sells products or services to consumers than it’s B2C. If it sells to other businesses, it’s B2B. In marketing, the activities you undertake are dependent on your customers. B2C and B2B marketing might use different channels, different types of content, and different tones.

7. CTR — Clickthrough Rate

The click through rate is a handy metric that describes the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. The CTR tells you the share of people who performed an action out of the total of people who had the opportunity to do so. For example, the click through rate for a landing page CTA is the number of people who clicked on the CTA divided by the number of people who visited the page.

8. UX — User Experience

User experience, or UX, is a term that describes the users’ experience when interacting with your digital assets. UX is important if you want your customers to be satisfied. To develop a good UX, you need to adopt the point of view of your customers, and then build your assets around what they would want. At the very least, make sure your assets are easy to navigate and display on mobile devices. That way, the UX you offer won’t be disastrous.

9. CRM — Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management is a term mostly used in the context of tools you can use to manage customer relationships. These tools allow you to track all sorts of things about the customers. The basic ones handle contact information. The advanced ones can track customer interactions, send personalized emails, and leverage geolocation to improve targeting.

10. CRO — Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization is a process of analysis and improvement of conversion rates. If you want to improve conversion rates of a landing page, for example, you can try using different calls-to-action for better results. Or, you can place the existing CTA at a different place. You can also optimize form length, the copy on the landing page, as well as the visuals. Plenty of things affect conversion rates, and most of them can be optimized for better performance.

Entice People Into Your Business Without Leaving Your Home

Whether you run your business from home, or you are just keen to carry your work over into your home life, you might be keen to know how you can possibly improve the standing of your business without leaving the home. We all know that marketing is an essential part of any business’ processes, but is it really possible to engage with your marketing in such a way as to make it truly worthwhile – all without leaving the home? As it happens, with the right approach and understanding of digital marketing, you might be surprised at just how much you can actually achieve. In this post, we are going to discuss that, as well as some ideas for what you can do to improve your digital marketing in the future.

Setting Up The Website

If we are to start with the basics here, the number one thing to consider is that you really do need to have a decent website set up. You want to be able to link people back to this site again and again, and to do that you need to make sure that it is a site you can be proud of,. In fact, we could go as far as to say that a decently constructed website makes the difference between successful digital marketing and marketing which is more likely to fail. As long as you get the website right, you know that you are generally going to be on the right track, so make sure you get this down first. But what does a good website consist of?

One of the main ingredients of a good website is that it is clear, bold and concise, and displays fairly and obviously what the business is all about. If you are not creating an immediate impression in this way, then you can’t be sure that your website is really doing what it is intended to do. It also needs to be easy to navigate around and to use, so that you will not be putting any potential visitors off with the design. As long as you get that right, you can be sure that you are generally on the right path. Of course, websites which really excel will also have a range of other fantastic characteristics, and it is worth paying attention to what others are doing if you really want to ensure that yours is as flawless as possible. As long as you are happy with your website, you will know that you are starting to approach your digital marketing in the right kind of way.

Drawing Visitors In

It’s not enough just to have a website, of course – you also need to find a way to actually draw people into it and visit it on a regular basis. This can be surprisingly difficult to get right, but it is the kind of thing which you really can’t overlook if you are to keep your business at the top as much as possible. Fortunately, there are countless different techniques and methods for keeping people coming into your website, so you can be sure that you are going to keep the interest up. Ensuring that the website is well-made is an essential first step ,as we discussed above. But you will also want to make sure that you are doing whatever you can to bring new people in too, and that means resorting to the likes of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to ensure that that is done right.

How can you be sure that your SEO is doing what it needs to be doing? One of the best ways is to hire the help of a professional, as they will be able to make sure that your website really is set up to draw people in as well as possible. If you go to the likes of Monkee-Boy Digital Marketing, you will find that this can make a huge difference to how many visitors your website gets, as you are essentially outsourcing your SEO to those who really know what they are doing. You can’t know just how valuable great SEO is until you have got it just right, so make sure that you consider this when you are trying to improve your own digital marketing tactics. What’s more, you can do all of this without ever leaving your home, especially given the fact that you will be utilizing outside help.

Social Media

One of the best ways you can possibly spend your spare time is on social media, as when used properly this can constitute one of the most useful ways of potentially marketing your business. You do need to know how to use it properly, however so that you can be sure that you are doing it in the right way. But as long as you do, there is no reason that your social media use can’t help to keep the interest in your business going strong.

The trick to getting this right is to find a good balance, in terms of comparing your output to the amount that you try to link back to your website or promote your business. You don’t want to spam anyone, but you do want to make sure that you are actually getting the results you want – and that means knowing what you are doing when it comes to using social media. If you spend your spare time doing this, you will be amazed at how quickly it makes a profound difference to your business on the whole. You might even be able to generate some new leads this way, and all just by using a website and tool which is absolutely free to use. You might even find that you end up enjoying this process as well, and if so you can do it all the more in the future and help your business out even more.

With the right approach, you can achieve a lot from home, and hopefully end up with your business having more and more customers in no time.

Business Boost – 5 Things Your Business is Doing Wrong and How to Fix Them

Every business has its ups and downs. The down periods might last a week, a month, or even a year. However, while temporary losses are no cause for concern, long-term downturns are. You might believe your business runs like a well-oiled machine, with processes in place that tick along just nicely. However, a few words with your team might tell you otherwise. In reality, it might be those very business processes that you employ that are contributing significantly to poor business performance. Here are five things your business might be doing wrong, and how to fix them.

Outdated or Inefficient Software

When you first set up your business, you probably weren’t thinking of streamlining or integrating your software systems. You likely selected the preferred solution for each specific task, or simply did it manually. That strategy might have operated fine at first, but as your business begins to flourish, it can become a hindrance rather than a help. By choosing to streamline your processes with ERP software solutions or business management or accounting software systems, you’re able to organize production, distribution, accounting, performance, asset management, and more. All this can be achieved in one convenient system that provides unparalleled visibility over all your operations and a reliable flow of timely, accurate data on which to base crucial business decisions and strategic direction.

Inefficient IT Infrastructure

Traditionally, business paperwork lay in cumbersome file cabinets that took up too much space. Thankfully, we all moved on to electronic data storage on in-house servers. That required a team of

IT experts to manage. That model has been turned on its head with the advent of cloud computing and data storage. Cloud servers, Internet-based systems that are accessed remotely, are continually growing in popularity, efficiency, capacity and safety. In fact, they’re expected to achieve an annual growth rate of 19 percent by 2020.

Manual Processes

Many businesses are now operating seamlessly online, but is your business dragging the chain? If your staff is drowning in an endless paperwork and inefficient processes that eat up their productive resources, it might be time to evaluate where you’re going wrong. By now, you should be computerizing almost everything, including payroll, finances, and reports. If old Gladys in accounts is still manually calculating your profit and loss reports per month, you might want to reconsider how things are running within your organisation.

Redundant Marketing Strategies

If your business is still relying on old-school marketing strategies, then it’s likely you’re falling behind the competition. Even if you have a website, keeping it updated with fresh content and humming along with good quality traffic is a challenge. A well-functioning, efficient digital marketing strategy is no longer a luxury that businesses can afford not to have. It’s an absolute necessity in an age when the internet and mobile technology completely dominate the marketing world.

Poor Sales Management

Without sales, your company will slowly starve itself out of existence. It’s a cut-throat game and finding god sales staff is a challenge. Even if you have good people out on the coalface, giving them the tools that they need and then maintaining the right level of healthy oversight is a must for any manager. If you don’t already have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool in place, you need to consider it seriously. There is no better way for salespeople to organise and information about every lead and opportunity at their fingertips and for management to gain visibility about the progress of their staff’s efforts.

No one sets out to sabotage their own company’s success, but failure to keep your finger on the pulse of updates in your line of work can spell the end of your profits. Make changes, consult experts, and watch as the money starts rolling in once again.

How You Can Make More Money as a Small Business

When you make an investment as a small business, you need to make sure that you understand how long it is going to be before you make a profit. If you are not sure how you can make an investment or if you want to know everything there is to know about investing then all you have to do is a little bit of research and have a small amount of capital to start with.

The Salary you Pay Yourself

When you start up a business, you may find that the company that you have never generates enough for you to live on. Other times you may find that it generates just enough for you and your family to live on, and this is for most people, the definition of success. You have your own career, your own business, and at the end of the day, you only have yourself to answer to. You need to carry on growing your business until you have enough income to support other employees.

The Income from Profits

When you have become successful as a small business, there may be some profit after you pay yourself your wage. The owner can then decide to invest these profits. You can do this in an attempt to expand your company or you may even use the money to build your own savings. If you want to get the best result out of your income however then one way for you to make more money would be for you to invest in stocks and commodities. Read more at: https://commodity.com/ if you want to find out how you could benefit from this while also finding out how you could get started for yourself.

Your Investment

So as you can see above, you first need to develop your business before you go on to invest. Once you have this kind of capital, there are various methods that you can use to make more money. One way would be for you to acquire real estate and then lease it out to other businesses. A lot of successful companies have done this and they usually control their real estate from within the firm as well, as opposed to selling it on to other landlords. This is especially the case if you purchase a business space but don’t necessarily need it at this moment in time. You can rent it out until the time does come for you to use it in a couple of years and you can also make money from any of your previously owned properties.

This is just one way you can make extra money. If you want, you can even provide loans to other businesses, charging interest as you do. This can be done through third party providers where the appropriate channels are monitored, and this is a brilliant way for you to capitalize on any money that you have coming in at the moment but is not being used. If this is not suitable for you however, then stocks and commodities are certainly the way to go, and you can invest as much or as little as you want along the way.

6 Ways To Get Your Business Back To Black

Starting up a new business is exciting, scary and liberating all at once. Throwing off the shackles of working for someone else and going it alone is a big deal and it takes a lot of research and a lot of preparation to be ready to start a business. The problem, is that lenders everywhere are really tightening their belts when it comes to business finance, so managing to get the funding to get the business idea of a lifetime off the ground is difficult. Companies are struggling to get the funding for everything from materials to health care insurance, and it’s a big reason why half of all new businesses fail in their first year. Money may make the world go around, but so many businesses aren’t going anywhere due to struggles with debt and trying to get their heads above water.

Bankruptcy is a popular option for small businesses that are failing, as it is an avenue that can save a company in the long run, but it comes at a hefty price. Read this article to learn about how much bankruptcy can cost a business, and not just financially. While bankruptcy is an option, it’s one that causes damage to both the business credit score and the credit score of the owner personally, so it should never be the first option that you use to dig yourself out of debt. Don’t worry though, you can avoid a similar result for your business. You don’t have to opt for bankruptcy as a way to salvage the company you have worked so hard to raise from the ground. We’ve got six ways you can steer your business away from the red seas of debt and back into the black.

Cut Costs & Free Your Cash

In a business, you can easily spot where it is that is putting you in debt. You can see exactly the areas that are pushing your business into the red, and attack those areas directly. If you have customers that aren’t paying you in a timely manner, your utilities and shipping costs are too high, or your business rent has slowly climbed over the time you have been there, you need to work out how to rectify these issues. Start ramping up collections efforts with customers and so a comparison on your utilities so that you are getting the best deal. Talk to your landlord about the rent and if there is no wiggle room on your rental amount, start looking around for cheaper premises. Sell your unwanted or unused office equipment for cash and scrap. There are a lot of ways you can cut costs in the office, you just have to find them.

Revisit Your Budget

When you find yourself in debt that is growing rather than reducing, it’s usually because the company budget is very much off. You have to look at the current financial situation of your business and build a new budget based on that. Previously, your budget has been all planning and guesswork, but you’re now in action and up and running, so you can now paint a more realistic picture of the budget you are working to. Pay off more than just the minimums on business credit card debts so that you aren’t adding more money in interest and charges through the year.

Prioritize Debts

When you are looking at the debts your business has accumulated, you need to work out where you pay the highest interest and tackle those first. If you want to tackle them altogether, you should look into how you can get an application for a debt consolidation loan approved. You can read it at DebtConsolidationLoans.com so that you can really learn the best way for your application to get the green light and get you out of debt. Paying off business debt isn’t always easy, and if you’ve guaranteed any of your debts, you need to get those paid off quickly so that your creditors don’t come for your assets.

Communicate

One of the best things that you can do to get your business back to black is to communicate with creditors. Believe it or not, the people that your business owes money to are not going to eat you! Talk about the hardship that your business is going through right now, and discuss the financial situation that you are in with great detail. Most of the time, your creditors will offer you a payment plan that you can stick to. If they don’t offer you one, then you can request one and you can even request a reduced amount to settle the debt entirely. You can negotiate so that you can settle the debt faster if they give you better terms to do so, but you don’t have to be demanding about it. The worst thing that you could do, though, is to get that coveted payment plan and then default, so stick to it.

Get Advice

It can be daunting to speak to and negotiate with creditors, so get the help of a credit counselling organization like these. They can liaise with you on the best course of action with your creditors for your business.

Debt Management

Professional debt management companies that work specifically with businesses can really help you to get the best deal on your debt repayments. They can negotiate with creditors on your behalf and sniff out any inefficiencies that could be keeping you up to your eyeballs in debt. Be careful though, as there are far too many debt management companies out there that scam businesses out of their money without helping them to pay off debts.

Getting your company out of debt isn’t always easy, but if you have a plan in place and you speak to the right people you can ensure that your company gets back its solvency without heading down the bankruptcy route. Take the chance with your company and help it to swim rather than sink – you won’t regret it.

Where Does Competence Come Into Marketing?

How do you define marketing? Is it simply being able to propagandize well, as in trying to spin a product to look better than it is? Is it deception? Is it exposure? Or does it have more of a significant social element?

Marketers are often viewed with some form of disdain by the public. They know when an advertisement is silly, on the nose, or simply doesn’t respect their intelligence. This is why clever and well-crafted advertising campaigns are celebrated so much. They’re rare, and when they hit, they hit with impact. Competence is a large factor in the creation of such content. What does this mean? Well, when it comes to developing a more profound and affecting campaign, reading social humor and the general climate at large is essential. In the interests of developing our understanding of marketing competence, we’re going to talk about what it comprises of:

Subtlety

Subtlety is important when it comes to developing competence. In order to develop your message more thoroughly, you need to allow it to transcend mere marketing. It needs to be affecting, worth content of its own. Think of a video advertisement, the first one you can remember being impressed by. It’s likely this has stuck in your memory for a reason. Either it was very funny, clever, impressive or a spectacle. You likely remember the product that was being promoted along with the advert.

However, we’re willing to bet you didn’t feel sold to during your time experiencing the advertisement. That was a necessary companion, but it wasn’t the focus. This is where smart and subtle advertising is heading. People are so aware of being sold to that they are great at filtering it out. Walking down the street often brings us in contact with a plethora of brightly lit signs all snapping for our attention. It’s likely we give these not even a moment’s notice unless we’re looking primarily for something to buy. This subtlety previously explained can give you the power of magnetism regarding the public who deeply desire to have their intelligence respected.

Reach

Marketing is only as good as the reach it has. You can pull off the best and most intelligent campaign ever, but if it only reaches one hundred people, then you’ve missed your opportunity. Thankfully the internet has made this easier than ever, particularly methods of social media marketing. If you’re able to, it’s very instructive and enlightening to see how tracked advertising can work for your firm, and how it affects you personally. For example, we suggest you type in ‘guitar packages’ into Google or Amazon right now. Search a few links, and continue with your work or reading blogs. The next time you watch a YouTube video, or read your Facebook timeline, you will see tracked ads next to your profile or before your video. Just imagine how your business could profit from this. Work using tracked advertising ID’s, sponsored Facebook and Instagram posts, and search engine optimization. Use it wisely and willingly. It can gift you much more reach than any billboard or magazine space can, and with more specificity.

With these things combined, your marketing competence will never be called into question.

Building A Loyal Audience

The key to any successful business is having a loyal audience which returns and will purchase over and over again. You may think as you start out in the business world that you simply need a killer website, social accounts and thousands of followers. But it is the integrity of these followers which you need to look out for, and maintain if you are to succeed.

1. Quality, not quantity

The biggest misconception when you are building up your empire is thinking that you have to have more followers to make a more successful business. Of course, the more followers you have the more likely you are to get a sale, but it is the quality of your followers which you want to look out for. Think about if you have 10,000 followers- only 1000 of them may actually purchase your product and engage with the brand. However a similar company with 1000 followers may have 800 people who purchase and engage. This is a huge difference in the percentage of engaged audience members. When you are creating a promotion, you need to track the people who visit and see if they are the people who come back again and again.

2. Emails

Email has always been a large part of good marketing, however you need to make sure that the quality of your emails is good enough for people to read. Instead of simply creating a poster with 20% off written on it and sending that out, take time to write an engaging email, share a funny story and add links to your products. You are much more likely to gain a loyal, engaged audience this way.

3. Partnerships

Collaborating with similar brands can be the key to helping you grow and nurture your online family. By exposing yourself to their audience and visa versa, you can all come together and create on big community.

4. Test, test, test

Whatever type of marketing you do within your business, test it. Keep testing and testing again until you can see where you need to improve and what is successful for your brand. Use google analytics to test if referral traffic is booming, look at your social posts for likes and comments, see how many sales you gained through that email campaign… every little thing should be tested and analysed so that you can make the best campaigns for your audience and pull people in.

5. Content is key

Content is at the heart of any marketing strategy, it is the glue which holds everything else together. Creating content can be varied and it must always be engaging. Think about guided digital commerce, images for social media, blog posts, social posts and everything else in between. Every piece of content you share with your audience should be well thought through and checked out. For example if you look at images for social media and your website: you could just use stock images, or you could go out and about and take photos of your own. They might not be as perfect as stock images but they will show your individuality and show your audience that you are making the effort for them. The same applies to blog posts. Writing informative and helpful posts will give you a much more loyal following than simply posting to say that a new product is on sale.

6. Design

Most of what will attract people to your website in the first place is your design. Humans are visual creatures: whether it be a person, a cute puppy or a stunning landscape- everyone loves to look at clean, clear and bright things. Think about your design and create a color scheme which fits the type of business you are. Add lots of images to your website because images are known to drive twice as much traffic.

7. Consistency

The most important thing to bear in mind if you are thinking of starting your business and building a loyal audience is to stay consistent. You need to make sure that you are posting on social media every day, engaging with your audience, replying to comments, creating blog posts, promoting your products and updating your website. It is an on-going job which you need to take the time to work on and get better at each and every day. If you stay in the forefront of your customer’s minds, you will be the first one they think of when they need something. You will have a loyal, recurring audience in no time.

4 Ways To Improve SEO Without Rewriting Content

Typically, ranking highly on Google is about content. After all, the more material you have, the easier it is to leverage keywords, which means there a better chance of being noticed. It’s a simple piece of logic which website owners use to maintain their high SEO standards. However, one mistake they make is to churn out new content or mess with the old material for great results. Although it works, it’s also a time-consuming process which can be annoying and stressful. Usually, it’s best to avoid rewriting altogether and focus on alternative methods to boost SEO.

Here is a handful of the most effective ones at your disposal.

Update Title Tags

Every page has a tag – it’s the thing which pops up at the end of the domain name. For something small, it has a huge impact on pagerank because it’s a chance to optimize content. All you have to do is think about the titles of your content and include words and phrase which you know rank highly. Google will pick this up and adjust the page accordingly. Of course, if every page on the site ups its title tag game, then the entire website will get a boost.

Keywords In Existing Content

Okay, so you can’t touch or don’t want to rewrite the content which already exists on the platform. No problem because you can use Google to tell you which words and phrases are relevant to the content that already exists. With a tool such as a keyword planner, there is no reason to let old material get stale and lose points. Instead, consider inserting the terms which the planner believes is relevant to the content now. You can do this by including it in the main body or playing around with tags, meta tags and headings.

Purge Content

People laugh when experts like Skip The Line Backlinks recommend purging content. What kind of professional tells you to get rid of the thing which boosts SEO? Well, the type that knows what they are talking about! It’s tempting to think that all content is terrific because it has the potential for keywords and backlinks, yet it isn’t the case. Sadly, bad content will negatively impact your ranking because search engines rank pages based on added value. If you aren’t adding anything, it’s best to delete the dead wood and opt for quality over quantity.

Play With Page Speed

The Fred algorithm only convinced the SEO community or what it already knew: Google values speed. The reason is simple: it increases the user experience. After all, the quicker the page loads, the happier the customer is and the less time they waste. So, any pages which load slowly are going to reflect poorly on the king of search engines. Therefore, ensuring images aren’t too big or that videos don’t lag are tricks which can boost SEO without much hassle. Just general maintenance goes a long way also.

It’s true that content is king, both written and video. Still, there’s no need to rewrite or re-post everything you have ever done to optimize SEO.

Why Storytelling is Such a Powerful Tool for Brand Creators

Stories are ingrained in the lifeblood of human civilization, from primitive cave paintings, to the Epic of Gilgamesh; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, all the way to the modern development of film and television. We’ve always been compelled to relate and intake, cultural wisdom in the form of stories, myths and legends.

To prove this point researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis, studied levels of brain activity in the minds of participants who listening to excerpts read from a children’s picture book. Researchers found that, rather than just passively consuming the events of the story, areas of participants’ brains that corresponded to the movements of the story’s main character actually lit up. Showing that, when we listen to stories we actually see, and feel the experiences they evoke as if they were real.

For a company looking to create a unique brand, in a crowded marketplace; establishing this sort of a connection with customers is a much sought after advantage. Here’s what you have to gain, from using story telling in your brand creation.

Set Yourself Apart

In 2007, companies like Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry ruled the roost when it came to mobile technology. While Apple had gained some public attention with its wildly successfully portable iPod music player; the company was still considered a lightweight when it came to actual mobile phones.

Then, early in February 2007; Steve Jobs and co dropped this advertisement and shortly followed with a formal introduction at their Macworld Expo, later that year. Within 2 months Apple had sold a staggering 1 million iPhones, and the product was well on its way to dominating the mobile phone market for years to come.

Yet, the iPhone was not the first smartphone on the market; nor did it come from an established name in the industry; so what led to this overwhelming success? Watch that video again, and you’ll see that the answer is storytelling. From the beginning Apple had a clear story to tell about their product and through simple advertisements and on-message branding they made customers believe it.

Subtle Call to Action

At marketing firms like brandmatters.com.au, differentiating a product isn’t enough; companies their marketing efforts to actually pay off through direct conversions. Without storytelling, creating that motivation within customers can seem awkward and aggressive, but with it you can organically motivate customers to take action.

Every good story has a moral at the end, as listeners we’re trained to listen for one. So when a brand takes you through an emotional journey where they lead an audience surrogate through obstacles and problems; customers have their ears pricked for the solution. Of course those solutions are offered by your company’s offerings.

Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers are less expensive and time-consuming to retain; and they actually spend more on your products. A Harvard Business Review study revealed that customer’s actually spend more on their 6th purchase from a company than on their first, and even more on their 8th. Spend less, and earn more, who wouldn’t want to get those benefits?

Storytelling helps you create a brand that customers can relate back to their own values and experiences, and once you’re successful in forging that kind of bond, it lasts!

The 3 Most Engaging Ways To Present Business Ideas

No matter what kind of business owner you are, you are limited to a certain number of responsibilities. Innovation and a creative spirit can lead you to think outside of the box, but sometimes your business will be restricted to the tried and tested ways of doing things. For example, you will never be able to convince people of your fantastic and revolutionary business idea if you choose not to present them well. Business presentations account for some of the best clarification your business can bestow upon shareholders, investors and consumers alike.

We have detailed the three best and most impactful ways of presenting your new business idea to those who haven’t the slightest idea what you offer. Clarity, brevity and engaging communication will all work to launch your business platform to new heights, but only if you to conform to one of these three examples:

Corporate Events

Many businesses launch their new products at their own shows. This adds to the theatricality of your product unveiling, and as such is likely to attract eyes. If you pull it off well enough, it could even be covered by the relevant aspects of the business media. You have two choices about how to present this idea. You can host an event all by yourself, which will incur a significant cost but can add to the overall positive impression of your business, as the ‘wow-factor’ is certainly introduced.

Secondly, you can hire an event space within a larger convention. This often helps attract a large audience as they meander through the event. It can also make competition more fierce, so choose your option wisely. Choose a relevant convention. For example, if you’re hoping to present a revolutionary new board game, heading to Essen for the biggest board gaming convention immediately helps you meet your target demographic.

Just be sure that you use effective methods to present your ideas. You will need to use staff who possess public speaking skills, or are otherwise comfortable with the nuances of your design, and communicating those to an audience. If needs be, hiring actors and developing a show behind the scenes can truly engage eyes.

Online

Most people will engage with your brand online, especially internationally. For this reason, it’s important to host your website in such a manner that your business idea is front and centre. Anyone visiting your brand online should be immediately greeted with the platform you are trying to launch and should have great difficulty missing it. Instead of gating access to your website or another underhanded method, consider making attractive information the forefront of your homepage. For example, using a great motion graphics company can help you develop an explanatory video that draws the eye but also presents the relevant information. This can also contribute to helping your firm seem ‘cool,’ as motion graphics often signify a creative company with fresh advertising perspectives.

Sponsorship’s

The main bulk of communication is now translated through social media services, meaning that there is a vast and ripe connection to be made with your audience. Sitting in public and witnessing how frequently people look at their phones should convince you there is plenty of opportunity for ‘your brand’ to be the information presented on their phone. Take out advertised Facebook sponsorships, as they prioritize your information listing in the eyes of your demographic.

Also consider sponsoring famous social media figures. To use the board game example, if you see a popular board game Twitch streamer with a social media account, sending them an allowance and free copies of your game to try on stream can present that to a larger audience, and help the content creator spur on their content. If you’re willing to make a significant investment, you might be able to feature placeholder ads on their channel, but this depends on the audience and the persuasion of the person involved.

Another ripe social media platform for inquiry is Instagram. Instagram has a massive audience, and unlike Facebook, photographs are the main content hosted, commented on and developed. Sponsoring fitness athletes, musicians and even public figures can launch your humble brand into the stratosphere. Just be sure you research the chosen sponsor correctly, because upon launching the business deal you automatically associate anything that person has done with your brand. If you deem them suitable, one of the most public platforms is yours to capitalize from.

Hopefully, this article has helped you in your quest to present your innovative idea correctly. We wish you the best of luck.

Five Creative Ways of Making Your Startup Stand Out from the Crowd

Light bulb crumpled paper on a blackboard

If you are working hard to get your new business off the ground, you might want to appear unique and approachable at the same time. While the majority of businesses created today operate on the internet, you should not neglect the importance of branding through networking and carefully designed marketing materials. Make a statement about your business online and offline, and show off your best side to potential business partners and customers. Find out how below.

1. Create Unique Stationary

“Business Cards” by Paul Reynolds is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It is important that your new business is credible, and you show your audience that you are serious about your offer. There is no better way than brand yourself and make people remember you from business meetings and networking events than creating unique business cards, Custom Labels & Tags, and promotional gift items. Make sure that you choose an appropriate and easy to remember logo and color scheme that you can use for creating brand awareness in your new market.

2. Engage in Video Marketing

One of the most underestimated ways of creating awareness about your new company is video marketing. You don’t have to have a full studio with all the latest equipment, and can create a short presentation in just an hour highlighting the benefits of your offer to potential clients. Many online marketers use videos for personal branding, as they can help them get their values and mission effectively communicated to the target market.

3. Create Unique Presentations

Whenever you meet a new potential client, make sure that you tailor your business presentation to their needs and industry. Use their name several times in the presentation or project proposal, and tell them why this feature is important for their business.

4. Personalize Your Messages and Videos

If you want to make a statement and get the job or project, you should create personalized video messages and send them to your potential clients through email or the cloud. This way, they will know that you made the effort to address their particular needs and concerns, instead of creating bulk marketing materials to distribute to everyone. Even if you have an autoresponder, it is important to segment the market and tailor each message to the individual company’s industry and level of engagement.

5. Create a Strong Brand Message

“Raising brand awareness – Own your Brand Conversation” by Thos Ballantyneis licensed under CC BY 2.0

Before you can become successful in the world of business, you need to develop a personal and business mission and vision. A brand message should be something your audience will remember, and can relate to. If you want to end their struggle with cloud administration, or want them to have more flexibility when hiring temporary workers, build your brand message around this aim, and make it consistent across all your marketing channels. This way, you will be the guy they remember for making HR easy, or one who saves them money on accounting software.

Whenever you are thinking about your future business, consider how your future customers will see you. Get them to give you feedback on your marketing and branding messages, and tailor your brand image to their needs and wants. Using personalization and unique marketing materials will help you stand out from the crowd.