The Famous Five Golden Rules of SEO

pexels-photo-106344

No matter what kind of website you run, making sure that you can be easily found online should be one of your top priorities. And there is no doubt that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) holds the key to you achieving your goals. However, to people not in the know, it can seem like a seriously confusing area which is difficult to navigate.

Of course, the solution of many people is to head to the SEO Experts for some much-needed help. But it still helps to know a few of the golden rules and things which you can do yourself. This is where this article comes in.

Content

Google and the other major search engines love to see fresh content being produced on a regular basis. So, populating your website with regular, well-written words should be one of your highest priorities. Of course, you should be aiming to produce content which provides genuine value to people’s lives, so make sure that you write with your audience firmly in mind.

Keywords

While you  should tailor your content to be read by a human audience and not a machine, you still need to input some keywords to give yourself the best chance of being found when these terms are searched. However, this doesn’t mean that you should simply stuff your articles full of a certain word or phrase as this is going to seem totally unnatural. Make sure that you check out factors like monthly search volume, competition level and bid value to decide which keywords to target.

Responsive

With so many people using the smartphones to access the internet, you are missing a trick if your website is not responsive to their requirements. If your website needs to be redesigned to suit the preferences of your users, this is a step that is certainly worth taking. Different devices are used to access the internet and you need to accommodate everyone’s individual requirements.

Links

You should be actively seeking backlinks on other websites which redirect users back to your site. However, the website that you are seeking to obtain backlinks on should be genuinely high-ranking or ‘valuable’ sites. One of the most popular ways of achieving backlinks these days is with guest blogging, and this is certainly something which you could look into.

Speed

In today’s fast-paced world, your website needs to suit the demands of your users. So, your sire should be to be both quick and responsive. This is not only important for SEO; it also ensures that users stick around to check out your content. Make sure that your images are no larger than they need to be and that they are in the correct file format.

The above points should provide you with a good starting point in the world of SEO. It is not an exact science, but keep doing the right things, and you should start to receive the rewards that you seek.

Making Sure Potential Customers Make Their Way to Your Site

pexels-photo-374074 (2)

For a few years now, new business owners have decided to start up their ventures online rather than going down the old brick and mortar business route. While this may go against tradition, it has proven extremely profitable for many, and for good reason! When you’re starting out, you don’t have a reputation, recommendations, or established brand image to support you in the market. It’s difficult to get your products to stand out amongst all of the competitors out there. But by operating online, you significantly reduce running costs and can offer your goods and services at lower prices – something that is always bound to catch any buyer’s eye. However, when it comes to making a success of your online business, everything won’t necessarily be plain sailing. After all, the web is a large and heavily saturated place, and it can be difficult to direct potential buyers to your page, regardless of whether you’re offering low prices or not. So, how do you go about ensuring you get as much traffic as possible? Here are a few ideas to get you started on the right foot!

PPC

The first thing that you want to do is to advertise. Advertising is what will expose your products to potential buyers and encourage them to look further into who you are, what you have to offer, and (hopefully) how to make a purchase from you. If you’re operating online, the best place to advertise is also online. This is because your adverts could include direct links to your website where the customers will be able to push their purchase through and make you profit. However, as we are all aware, advertising can be expensive. The best option for people who are watching their budget is often PPC advertising. Now, there’s PPC directly targeted to near enough every sector out there… PPC for Car Dealers, PPC for clothing companies, PPC for events companies. But each runs off a relatively similar concept. PPC stands for “pay per click”, which means that you only have to pay the advertiser for each unique web user who is directed to your page. This means that you are only paying for genuine traffic!

SEO

“SEO” is yet another acronym that you should familiarise yourself with. It stands for “search engine optimization”. While it may sound complex, it is simply the process of helping your webpage to appear as high in search engine results pages as possible. It sounds relatively insignificant, but if you think about, people use search engines to find pretty much anything they want or need on the web. If your page features higher in the results, they’re more likely to click it. How often do you go past the first page or two of search results yourself? Probably very rarely! So, collaborate with an SEO specialist in order to secure a high ranking and gather the maximum traffic possible.

These are just a couple of techniques that you should try out to ensure that you get as many visitors as possible on your site. Remember that the more visitors your page receives, the more people who are being exposed to what you are selling and the more profit you are likely to make!

Considering Starting Your Own Charity? Here’s How

laptop-2324128_1280 (1)

Many of us can get toa time in our lives where we have a situation we are faced with that changes us. It might be an illness, something you go through as a family, or a loss of someone too soon. Often that can give you the sense of determination to raise awareness for a subject, and this is how so many charities and amazing things are started from. You might be in this situation right now, maybe you feel like you want to have a voice. I thought I would share with you some of the steps you can take to start your own message and charity.

Know your vision and intention

One of the first things you need to think about would be to think about what your vision for the charity is, and your intention and long term goals about what you want to achieve. Knowing how you want to raise awareness, what message you want people to hear, and even how you might go about it is a great way to ensure you do things justice, if only for yourself.

You need a name

The next thing you might want to start thinking about would be the name of your charity. Perhaps you want to use your very motivation for starting the charity as a point to begin creating the name. Name itself can be a great thing to consider. People like to know what the charity is about, or who it is aid of perhaps, so if you do have a motivation that stems from someone perhaps using their name would be the ideal way to celebrate them.

Think of ways for contributions

There are so many ways people could donate, so you need to decide what areas you want to be associated with. There are just giving pages and even things like global faces direct monthly giving programs for non profits that could be worth looking into. You may also want to think of organised sponsorships where people do certain things for the charity. These can be small things or stem to bigger adventures such as climbing mountains. The world is your oyster for your charity and you just need to decide how far you want to go.

Write a plan

Part of your plan may have already formed in your head. You could have considered your visions and what is driving you to make a difference, your message and even how you want people to be able to get involved. But you also need to treat this in a business like manner and this is when a plan can be put into place to get things moving.

Create a website and register where needed

Finally, you can start by creating your website and social media platforms, which is a great way to get your message heard. However, you do also need to think about how you register your charity to be official and for non profit.

I hope that this has inspired you to take the right steps to creating your charity and to get your message heard.

Note Taking Isn’t Dead

pexels-photo-261628

Regardless of the technology available, many people still prefer to take notes during meetings. Why? Because we’re taught from a young age that taking notes, physically writing them down, aids in retention. Not to mention the fact that few people can remember all of the details from a short meeting, much less a longer one. This is where new technology comes in. With the advent of the S Pen and note taking apps, the need for a notebook and pencil is long gone. 

Samsung Galaxy Note8

 The Samsung Galaxy Note8 is one piece of technology that is perfect for taking notes. With its Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Processor, it should have no problem running the note taking apps or supporting the S Pen. With this phone you can take notes on the screen without ever unlocking the phone, which is great for jotting down things to remember while on your way to a meeting. You can also create GIFs and edit photos. Another feature of this phone is its ability to multi-task. With 6 GB of RAM combined with the processor, lags are no longer a concern. 

S Pen

The S Pen comes with the Note8 and is accessible with the push of a button. The small tip size

 creates a more ‘pen and paper’ feel and allows for more detailed work when drawing. With Air Command, the options for using the pen are right on the screen and make it easier to use the pen’s features, whether it’s taking notes on the screen, making a GIF or simply doodling.

Note Taking Apps

Most smartphones have a built-in note taking app that allows users to take notes, color images and save text notes. If that application isn’t enough, there are several other apps available as well. 

One of these apps is Evernote. This app also syncs to a computer, so any notes taken during a meeting or on a conference call can be accessed and worked with across devices. There is also a widget that can be used with an S Pen, so handwriting is possible. 

HandWrite Pro Note and Draw is another useful app that has photo manipulation features as well as note taking features. It, too, is S Pen friendly. Squid looks more like notebook paper, which many do, but this one also has the ability to mark up and export PDFs and project from the app like a whiteboard.

Scribble Racer is perfect for decompressing after a rough meeting. Designed for use with the S Pen, it is an obstacle game with several difficulty levels along a course.

Technology is Resurrecting Note Taking

Even though technology has progressed to the point where pen and paper are obsolete, the need for taking notes is still as strong as ever. We’re taught from a young age to do it, and few of us dispense with the habit as adults. For businesses, the need for notes is just as prevalent, and being able to translate those notes into usable documents is a necessity.

Can You Really Build A Site Without Any Code

igor-miske-174209

Across the web, there are loads of different services which promise to give you the power to build your own website without any code. The allure of this sort of promise is very strong, as a lot of small businesses simply don’t have the resources to go any other way. Of course, though, building a website is a complicated job, and the idea of doing it without code can seem too good to be true. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring this area to give you an idea of the ease you’ll find in doing it for yourself.

What Do You Need?

To begin this journey, you first have to consider exactly what your website is going to need. Building an ecommerce site which can sell products, for example, is a lot harder than putting together a simple blog, and will be more likely to require coding skills. As someone new to the game, it could be hard to know what might be possible or not. So, you might have to do some research at this stage, especially if you want to achieve some good results.

Understanding exactly what you’re going to need might take a little bit of time. To start, it can help to write a list of the features you’d like your site to have, being as specific and detailed as possible. From here, you can figure out exactly what will need to be used to make each feature work, along with the skills you’ll need to do it. After a short while, you will find yourself getting to grips with exactly what you’ll need.

Choosing A Platform

With a good idea of what you’re going to have to build, you’ll be ready to choose the best platform for the job. There are three different levels to this sort of tool, and you can find some examples of them below. In some cases, the best platform will simply be the one you feel most comfortable with.

  • Wix/Other Builders: The most commonly chosen tool for this sort of job is a handy DIY tool, like Wix. While limiting your scope, this sort of tool makes it very easy to put together something beautiful, without having to know anything about web design. Of course, though, they will make it hard to achieve large jobs like ecommerce sites.
  • WordPress/Bootstrap: Next, options like Bootstrap and WordPress are often the very best for this work. Enabling you to build a site with all of the normal features you’d have access to, while also making it nice and simple, this sort of tool is perfect for beginners. With over 75% of the world’s websites using platforms like this, you can always find support and documentation to help you.
  • Starting Fresh: In the past, all websites were built from the same basic pieces; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Of course, though, this sort of method is often very hard, and a lot of people will struggle a lot more than they have to if they choose to go with it. In most cases, professional companies won’t go down this route, so it makes sense for you to try and avoid it.

Finding Alternatives To Code

The only option out of the ones above which will completely limit the need for code is a service like Wix. Unfortunately, though, this sort of site is rarely enough, and most businesses will need something more to power their work. To help you with this, you can find some alternatives to programming which can be used with platforms like WordPress and Bootstrap.

 

  • Plugins: With platforms which are so widely used, you can almost always find a plugin for the job you have to do. Finding options like this is a simple matter of doing some searching. Once you find some options which work for you, though, it will be a lot easier to use them than trying to start fresh.

 

  • APIs/Shortcode: In some cases, you may not be able to find a plugin or add-on to do your job for you, but this doesn’t mean you’re completely lost. Instead, you just need to find a company like Plivo to provide you with easy to use APIs which can do loads of different jobs. There are loads of guides and other resources around the web which are dedicated to helping new users with these sorts of tools.

Hopefully, this post will inspire you to start working harder on the time you put into your website building dreams. For a lot of people, being able to put together a website without any code seems very far-fetched. In reality, though, this will be nice and easy, as long as you put the time into your research at the beginning.

Tips for Effectively Recognizing Employees on a Budget

pexels-photo-165907

When you’re running a startup and trying to make ends meet, it’s unlikely you have the funds available to spend on lavish perks and rewards for your team. However, it’s still vital to recognize the efforts of all your employees, so that company morale and results stay as high as possible. Read on for some key ways you can show gratitude and recognize the hard work of your staff members without spending a fortune today.

Give a Heartfelt Thanks

For starters, a very low-cost option for recognizing your team is to simply thank them for their efforts. A heartfelt thanks can show people straight away that they’re appreciated, and that you have noticed all the hard work they put in.

Wherever possible, try to have an in-person conversation with your worker to express your gratitude, or else relay your thoughts via a handwritten note. Alternatively, if employees are remote, you can send them a letter or email, or pick up the phone or arrange an online chat.

Whichever method you opt for, just make sure you are specific, genuine, and direct, so that workers really understand the difference their contributions have made to you personally and/or the company and its results or culture.

Recognize Employees Publicly

In addition to, or instead of, thanking your team members privately, you can also make a lovely fuss over them through public recognition. For example, you can express your appreciation at a corporate event, in a business newsletter, or via one or more social media pages.

Another good way to give employees a boost is to present them with trophies, certificates, plaques, crystal awards and other validations which aren’t expensive to source but which can really make your staff members feel special. You might like to set up an Employee of the Month or other structured awards program, or simply hand out a commendation when you think it is warranted.

You might also like to instigate low-key celebrations where you and your top workers can get together as a way of honoring a job well done. For example, you can set up office parties, head out to lunch together, enjoy a picnic, or spend time together in some other celebratory way. A few drinks, sandwiches and other nibbles don’t have to cost much but can have a big impact.

Give Time Off or Low-Budget Rewards

Many employees also like to be rewarded when they have been working really hard or achieving amazing results. As such, even when you have a small budget, it is worth looking into ways you can give out perks which will put a smile on people’s faces.

For starters, something that doesn’t cost you any extra money is simply giving workers some bonus time off as a reward. This could be a day off, longer lunch breaks for a set period, or extra vacation time. You can also consider perks such as a better parking space at the office, some free lunches or massages at work, or even relieving them of having to complete a least-favored task.

When it comes to gifts, there are also plenty of low-cost options to select from. For instance, consider buying things like a movie voucher, bunch of flowers, hamper, book, bottle of wine, store gift voucher, magazine subscription, tea set, or any other gift you think might suit the employee you are wishing to reward.

Provide Opportunities for Employees to Grow and Develop

Lastly, don’t forget that something else that’s important to more and more staff members these days is the opportunity to grow and develop. People want to achieve their career goals and continually learn and try new things, and you have the power to help them do this. As a result, promote people through the ranks over time, and/or look at ways you might be able to give additional responsibilities to your top workers, which they can then use to highlight on their resumes as important experience.

You should also conduct annual, or even quarterly, employee reviews with your team members so you can sit down and discuss their goals for the coming months and put a plan in place to help them achieve them. Another great way to recognize your employees is to give them opportunities to attend key industry or company events. This allows them to network, learn and grow, and shows them that you see them as a key part of the team. You might also want to look into investing in training and mentoring programs, or bringing in speakers to motivate and inspire your workers.

How To Get People Offline & Into Your Store

open-sign-blog

Although many retailers are focusing their attentions on their online sales and their website presence, for many of us our businesses are all in bricks and mortar. Having a retail startup in the digital age comes with its own set of challenges. Whilst online retail is all about getting traffic to the site, physical retail outlets are all about increasing foot traffic into the store.

With the continual rise of online shopping it has never been more important to be looking at unique and creative ways to make our retail stores thrive. So today we are sharing our top tips on how retailer startups can boost foot traffic by using different approaches to garner attention in-store.

USB Chargers

This is a bit of a new development when it comes to the sorts of things that shoppers are looking for. Providing USB outlets within your store is a great new way to keep people in your store for longer than they would usually stay. Have you noticed people gathering around USB portals in train stations and airports? We have such a dependence on our mobiles now that keeping them charged has become really important.

So whilst it might seem like an unnecessary detail just think about all that extra time shoppers will be spending browsing as they wait for their phones to charge. It is a super simple strategy to creating a solution to the age old problem of how to keep shoppers in your store for longer periods of time.

Free Wi-Fi

This again is tapping into our love of mobile phones. With many mobile phone providers no longer offering unlimited data, people are now turning to more and more places and areas that offer free wi-fi. Advertising in your store window that you offer free wi-fi can seriously boost the foot traffic to your store. A recent study revealed that over 60% of shoppers spend more time in-store after they have tapped in wi-fi details. So again this is a simple trick to getting more people inside your store and keeping them there for longer periods of time.

Your Entrance

If your entrance looks shabby and old then you are going to struggle to get people through the door. Think of design features such as aluminum canopies to offer shelter to customers coming in and out, whilst also offering an attractive design feature. Focus on your window displays in order to best show off your products and keep these fresh by changing things around every month or so. You can even ensure you bring in dog lovers, by offering somewhere for people to tie up their dogs with a bowl of water (and even biscuits, if you want to show that you really, really love dogs). You’d be surprised how much custom is lost by customers not being able to find anywhere to tie up their dogs, so use little tricks like this to your advantage.

In-Store Events

All store owners should be looking at ways to promote their company and ways to peak interest in the local community. In-store events and clubs, depending on the type of products you sell, are one of the best ways to do that. Look at your store as a way of being a key member of your community, a company that pulls people together and a company that thrives to connect the local people through the products that you stock.

You can also think about sponsoring and co-hosting local events, again to raise your profile and to have a bigger and more well respected presence in your local community and stronger relationships with your customers.

So, as you can see, it only takes a few simple details and a bit of strategic thinking to get more foot traffic to your store and to increase the profile of your store in your local area. So get thinking about the different ways you can ensure the success and future growth of your retail business.

Open Up To Attract Talents For Your Startup Business

technical-recruiting-techniques-to-attract-top-talent

Getting people excited about your business tends to be left to the marketing expert. Indeed, more often than not, when you think of people engaging emotionally with your startup business, you are thinking about customers. Consequently, it seems that getting your future customers excited is about making the loudest possible noise in the marketing sphere, from social media campaigns to event presence. It’s about being seen and heard so that everyone knows what’s coming and wants a piece of it. But as a startup owner, you will need to attract a different kind of persons first. Customers come second. First, you need to build a team, and it’s not an easy task in your business position. Indeed, startups are businesses that have not yet proven that they can survive on the market. In other words, candidates are cautious about starting to work for a startup. So you need to find ways to attract and excite them. You need to open up…

Open up to the idea of remote collaboration

Most employers don’t feel comfortable with remote work options, as they often fear that the work will not be done the way they intended to. However, in a startup mindset, you need to be open-minded and to accept that a remote option is the best way for you to gather talent from everywhere in the country without needing to build an office. As flexible work is becoming increasingly trendy in the digital sector, so are collective co working office possibilities too. A collective office is a place where different talents from a variety of companies come together to use the facilities and work. By offering the possibility to candidates to work from local co working stations, you can provide them with the office facilities they need – a desk, Internet connection, secured office, etc. – with the freedom of home office work.

Open up to the idea of transparency

Young talent is interested in an honest, open and human approach. Candidates prefer to know exactly what they are signing for. And this means that it’s your role is not to let them guess what is going on or what you are planning, but to share with them the exact position of your startup. Yes, you might be in debts now, but if you’ve got a plan about it, then make it known. Building trust is essential to attract talent, and this starts by being completely honest about your business decision, strategy, and vision.

Open up to the idea of foreign talent

American companies can find it difficult to hire international talent. In fact, a lot of Americans consider that it’s anti-patriotic. In truth, there are specific industry sectors such as high tech and digital where the US lack domestic talents. Accepting that you can find the talent your business needs outside of the USA means that you get access to a wider pool of skilled people. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft hire talented graduates from China or India to improve their products. These candidates are remunerated exactly at the same rate as national candidates. It’s not a cost-saving approach. It’s a talent hunt for the best!

As a startup owner, you need to convince candidates to believe in you. Open-mindedness and respect for the person are your best allies to attract the talent you need to thrive.

The First Steps to Opening a New Store

newbusiness

Opening a new store can feel like taking a leap into the unknown. Not only do key factors such as choosing the perfect location and decoration have to be taken into consideration, but you’ll also want to consider loading bays, parking for your customers and the neighbors too. 

Are you new to the retail scene? The thought of high overheads and leasing fees can be a nightmare, coupled with your cold sweats about attracting those customers through your doors. Worry not. Check out the first few steps that you should consider when getting your business off the ground.

Location, location, location

Location really is crucial when opening a new store. Don’t feel rushed into choosing an imperfect location. Check out the floor space – remember to think about extra rooms for storage, staff area and office space – these are essential for retail, and are as important as the front of house area. Have a look at the neighboring units, do they sell products that are complementary to yours? Or are they direct competition? Remember to take time out to visit the location at different times of the day or evening, you want to make sure that your chosen location is going to be secure and safe for your staff. 

Staff and shopping experience

Right from the get-go your staffing and the shopping experience you will provided are essential for your success. Your staff are the number one point of contact with your customers, and they represent you and your business, so recruit wisely: tardiness and rudeness are not acceptable. 

Keep your merchandising fresh and fun. Looking for a stylish, versatile solution? Store fixture and retail display supplier AAA Displays provide a range of options that guarantee results. Think about the lighting you will use to enhance your displays, and set the ambiance it will provide for your shop – you want your products to be seen, but you don’t want the light to be glaring and uncomfortable for your customers.

Marketing like there’s no tomorrow

Don’t be afraid of taking to social media to really tell the world what you are about. During your first few months in any new location, a successful marketing campaign will get you thoroughly noticed. From a timeless sandwich board to a super Saturday offer, don’t forget to be creative. Give your customers a reason to keep on coming back; they are bound to share the news with their family and friends if you provide a welcoming and positive experience. Make sure that your shoppers know you are here to stay right from day one, and make sure they celebrate your successes too. 

Super suppliers

Suppliers are the lifeline of your business, and as you grow, your relationship with them should too. Keeping your supplier on side is essential to helping you establish yourself in a fast paced, competitive market. Make sure you are aware of the latest trends and offers and don’t forget to make sure you show some mutual interest. Nice touches such as a gift during the festive season or a holiday hamper show that you really care about your suppliers. Be smart. Showing interest and keeping your suppliers happy could result in better business deals in the future.

Hiring Talented Employees Just Got A Lot Easier

Печать

It’s common for small startups to be a bit wary of hiring new employees. In the beginning, you almost want to keep your company as small as possible to minimize overhead costs and what have you. Plus, the hiring process can be complicated and cost money also.

However, hiring employees may be essential for the running of your business. This leaves you in a tricky situation that needs solving. Luckily, hiring talented employees is a lot easier when you know the right tactics to use.

Conduct Video Interviews

Potential candidates hate interviews as they can be a very tense and nervy affair. Well, employers hate them too as they take up a lot of time and effort. Having candidates come into your premises over the course of a few days can lead to disruptions. Alternatively, you can save yourself lots of effort by conducting video interviews. Interview candidates over Skype and you will find the whole thing a lot easier. You don’t have to go out of your way to do anything, and the interviewee is likely to be more confident and give a more accurate representation of themselves.

Use Software To Sort Through Resumes

A big part of hiring employees is looking at the resumes of many candidates. As a startup, you might be hiring for multiple jobs at once, which gives you lots to look through. People hate doing this, and it can often lead to rushing through it and missing important info and losing a great candidate. Or, you just don’t request resumes in the first place and hire someone without knowing much about them. Instead of doing either of these things, you should find software that deals with the problem for you. As it mentions on the Applicant Tracking Systems website, there is software that will scan through resumes for you. With this type of software, you typically set a few keywords and skills that you want to pick up on, and the software does the rest. It saves a lot of time and ensures you find the best resumes from the best candidates.

Ask Questions During The Application

The traditional way of applying for a job is to submit your resume, wait for a call, go to an interview, and hopefully get hired. But, your business should do things slightly differently. When the applicants have to submit their resume, you should ask them certain questions. Think about a couple of questions that are important to the job role. They could be simple things like ‘What experience do you have in this role?’ or ‘What makes you different from other candidates?’. These questions can be answered on an application form or in the cover letter of their resume. It’s a great way of trying to narrow down your options depending on how well the questions are answered.

With these three tips, hiring employees becomes a lot easier. The whole process will be quicker, and you will hire the best candidate every time. Try them out and start hiring talented staff for your startup.

Site Visits Into Sales: It’s Not Rocket Science!

Buying-Web-Traffic

It’s easy to become bogged down with all the information and rhetoric on how to convert visitors to your site into people that buy from you. There is a lot of advice out there, and in typical marketing form, it’s all seems like you need to be an expert in the science of sales. However, in reality, great success can be achieved with the application of a few simple principles. In fact, converting site visits into sales isn’t rocket science at all. Read on for more information.

Free downloads

The first thing to do is to offer something on your website that no one else does. A popular way to do this is by giving site visitors access to a free download. This could be in the form of a pdf document showing how to solve a particular problem like how to wash your windows without streaks, or how to create a particular item like a bird house. Obviously, the information needs to be relevant to the field in which you are working. If it can involve demonstrating the benefits and uses of one of your products that is even better. Just remember to not make this too obvious as it could out potential customers off.

You don’t have to just offer document downloads either, it could be in a more interactive form as well. Such as an audio track, podcast, or video. Actually, the more entertaining and interactive the better.  As this is likely to encourage visits, as well as stick in people’s mind the longest, and that is what you are trying to do with this strategy, forge a positive bond between you and potential customers. Making them much more likely to visit your site and buy from you than your competitors.

Data collecting

Something else you can do to convert those site visits into sales is to use a service like Visual Visitor. You can find out how visual visitor can help you increase leads in detail by clicking the link, but in summary, it captures the data of all site visitors. Allowing you to store this and then use them as leads later on.

After all, if they have viewed your site, they are likely to be more interested in your products. Making them a warm lead and much easier to convert.

Urgent messages

You can also use the old call to action strategy to help convert site visits into sales, you can see a good example of this here.  Although, do be aware that most customers are aware, to a certain extent of this method. That means they may well recognize language calling on them to make a purchase.

Although you can be more sophisticated with your approach and use strategies like timed vouchers for free items. As well as coupons for money off, if the customer chooses to purchase now today, or before a certain date. What these do is to provide the potential customer with an incentive to make the purchase of the item they are considering, now, rather than later. As they will be getting a better deal for their money, on something that they may well be looking to buy anyway.

Crafty Content Writing Tips and Tricks

contentwriting

In today’s online business world, content is king. But that doesn’t mean that you should simply be creating content for the sake of it. You need to make sure that it is doing its job – namely that it is attracting attention and people are actually reading it. Ultimately, you want your content to be clean, compelling and characterful. So, before you get started, here are a few basic tips and tricks that you should follow.

Start with Research

There is no point writing without doing some research. What is it that people are looking for that relates to your particular business? Are they looking to be entertained or helpful answers to their questions and concerns? Also, you need to research keyword ideas so you can include these in the articles. SEO needs to be a focal point of your content, though that doesn’t mean that you should stuff in keywords too heavily or they will affect the overall quality of what you are producing.

Think About Structure

Reading a book and reading web content are two very different things. To start off with, people tend to skim over what they are reading online, so you need to make sure you break up your content. Five or six line paragraphs are usually fine and you should also include subheadings so people can easily find what they are looking for. Don’t overdo things with long, rambling sentences. People tend to be a lot more ruthless with their time online so you don’t want to put them off.

Include Links

All the pages of your website should link to one another so you can get people spending more time there. And you also want to be directing people to the parts of your site where they can actually make purchases. However, remember not to overdo this as it tends to look spammy if every other word seems to be linked up and taking people off in different directions.

Avoid Using Jargon

You have to assume that anyone who is currently reading that page has landed on it for the first time and may not be familiar with your business or even the industry that you are talking about. Therefore, you don’t want to put them off by using too much jargon or people may be put off. Similarly, try not to use acronyms unless they are common. You never really know who your reader could be and how much prior knowledge they have.

End with a Call to Action

At the end of your content, you should be encouraging your reader to do something – whether this is to sign up to your newsletter or buy a particular product – with a call to action. Ultimately, if you have provided them with interesting and informative content, you are much more likely to have gained their attention.

These are just some of the basics when it comes to writing high-quality content that helps to boost your website and your business as a whole.

Getting People Excited About Your Business

brand-ambassador-2

When it comes to building a business, you can do everything right. You can get the funding, follow all the tips for building a brand, create a website, and have social media profile for your company. But all of this means nothing if people don’t care about your company, or have no interest in your products and services. You can have the most groundbreaking product or service in history, but without building anticipation and generating interest in the months leading up to the launch, your business will fall flat, right from the start. You can increase your chance of success if you start getting people excited about your business before you even launch. Here are a few ways you can build up the hype.

Use social media correctly

It’s not enough to just have a social media page for your business and post links to your blogs and products; you need to use it to grab people’s attention and make them care about what you have to say. The easiest, and hardest, way to do this is to get something trending on social media. It can help if you tweet about something controversial on Twitter, use a unique hashtag, and post things at a time when more people are likely to be online. It also helps to have an established audience to share your posts, but that will come after you’ve built an online personality.

Attend events

Generating interest online is definitely a good way to make sure you have a global audience waiting for your product, but sometime you can’t beat doing a pitch in person. Attending industry events is an excellent way to showcase your business in a way that just isn’t possible to do online. With a killer presentation behind you, and Conference Data Services microphones in your hand, you can let your charm and personality shine through as you tell your audience why your product matters, why you believe that your services can help them, and why they should be excited about your launch.

Create a waiting list

Waiting lists are beneficial for you as a business owner because help you gauge consumer interest early on. They also play on many psychological triggers, such as scarcity, that make us want access as soon as possible. To give further incentive to your potential customers, offer a reward for the first 20 or so people to sign up to your waiting list. You might want to change the reward depending on how many people are actively talking about your product, and you want the prize to be something useful, but not too expensive for you.

Start a countdown

Countdowns act as a reminder for your audience and they build anticipation. Once you have enough people talking about your product and signed up to your waiting list, start a countdown to the launch date. You can publish it in your website sidebar, on your homepage, or across your social media accounts so no one misses the big day.

How To Get Your Startup To Hit The Ground Running

Launching-a-startup

Having a startup business is a very risky thing to own, you’re going to have to make your business work otherwise it’s going to fail and you’ll have wasted all your time and money on it! Because we don’t want to lose the time and money, you need to get your business started the right way, so carry on reading to learn how to!

Get A Designed Logo

Your logo is going to be one of the most important parts of your business. In just one image, it’s going to represent your company and what you do, it has to be informative and clear cut whilst also being entertaining and memorable. It’s your customer’s first impression of your business, so it has to be done in the right way! Trying to design a logo yourself is often something that you should avoid; most people don’t have the experience or tools to properly design a logo, so it’s a good idea to hire a logo designer so that you can get the best logo that you can, avoiding any silly mistakes that you might make if you were going to do it yourself!

Make Sure You’ve Got The Right Kit

A lot of areas of business are going to require specific equipment in order to perform the task of that market. If you don’t have the right equipment for the job then your business is going to suffer whilst you try to find the right equipment. You’ll have wasted money and time, both of which you have precious little of! This is why it’s good to check what kit you need before you start. Of course, this is entirely dependent upon what your business is, if it’s a coffee shop you’re going to want to head over to kickstartmycoffee.com, or if you’re setting up a car mechanic shop you’re going to want to get tools from sears.com, so do your research before you buy things you may not end up needing!

Get Everyone To Work At Home

One of the biggest mistakes that startup businesses make is that they think that they need an office straight away; but you don’t! Sure, you’re going to need one eventually but you’re not going to need one right away because you’re not going to have the employees to  justify it. Hiring out an office space can be very detrimental to your business’s finances; hiring office space is expensive and your startup business will not be able to support this amount of outgoings which will result in its collapse, so don’t do it until you can afford to!

As long as you keep all of these things in mind, you’re going to have a successful startup. Everyone involved is going to be working from home so you won’t have to worry about getting an office space, your logo will be as unforgettable as it is professional and you’re going to have everything you need to start off right! However, there are some more things that you can do that are a bit more internet related, so check them out!