Posts Tagged ‘promote your business’
Should You Run a Business from Home?
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
This is a great time for you as an entrepreneur to consider starting your own home business.
Due to the rise of digital technology, there are many more opportunities than ever before to launch a successful business from your home. There are plenty of home businesses to choose from, whether you want to build a full-time career or are just looking for some extra income. Your choice ranges from online tutoring and freelance writing to selling products on Etsy and drop shipping. So, should you run a business from home? In this article, you’ll find answers to some questions you may have and information you need to get started.
CONSIDER THESE FACTORS BEFORE STARTING A HOME BUSINESS
1. Is there enough space?
Before launching your business, you have to know how much space you need to operate and flourish. You absolutely must maintain a separation between your business and your personal living space.
You can make your choice in one of two ways. First, check out your living space and see if there’s a place for boundaries to create a work area that is free of distractions.
Do you have a spare bedroom, study, or a quiet corner off your living room that you can use?
The second choice is to make a list of the materials and equipment you’ll need. If you can imagine putting new printers, monitors, cables, wires, mic stands, and boxes in this workspace, then go for it.
If not, you might want to consider renting a small workspace. That would be an added cost, however, a separation between business and personal living space is of utmost importance.
To avoid frustration, keep a buffer between your work area and where you rest. You don’t want your business activities to disrupt the flow of how you live and relax.
2. Is a special license required?
Before starting a home business, you should check with your attorney who can ask you important questions regarding how you’ll operate and the types of services or products you’ll offer.
If you need inventory or machinery, you might need special licenses or certificates.
Before you purchase any materials, inventory, or equipment, talk with your attorney and local government officials.
Although there will be a fee, it will be much less than the frustration and headaches of fixing mistakes after your business is moving along. It’s best to ask for advice first rather than start your business and have to shut it down later.
3. Is permission required?
You may need to get permission to operate your home business if you live in an apartment building or your home is part of a homeowner association. Read your lease or check with your landlord before altering your apartment to suit your business.
Check with your board president or the association’s attorney.
If you’ll have clients or customers visiting your business, there could be parking challenges, or if your business creates any excess noise or disturbance it will probably upset your neighbors.
4. Is there a need for special equipment?
If you start a home business in the pet care, catering, or retail area you may need special equipment.
You’ll need a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection. If you need machines, bulky items, or containers, be sure they’ll fit in your living space, your furniture is protected, and your family is safe.
Otherwise, consider renting an office or commercial space.
5. Do you have the right business strategy?
Create your business strategy before deciding to buy equipment, build a website, and market your brand.
Consider the following:
In which area will you participate?
What distinctive skills or abilities do you have to compete?
Which customers will need your solutions?
How will you set apart your business from your competition?
It’s vital you craft your strategy FIRST and your plan SECOND.
Your business strategy needs to find and fix 1 BIG problem.
Once you have your strategy, you can then develop a plan to carry it out.
You can begin to work on your website, marketing message, pricing strategy and the tech part.
Decide on your social media strategy and decide which platforms will work best for your ideal customer profile; TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
What are the benefits of starting a home business?
Starting a home business can be a very rewarding experience. If you have the right planning and dedication, you can have a steady source of income and a lot of flexibility.
The following are some benefits of starting a home business:
1. Low Start-Up Costs
Compared to traditional businesses, the start-up costs are minimal. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, it’s easier to get your business off the ground without having to invest a lot of money upfront.
2. Flexibility
When you work from home, you can set your own hours and work when it’s convenient. This can be especially beneficial if you have family commitments or other responsibilities that make it difficult to commit to a regular 9-5 job.
3. Tax Benefits
Your home business is eligible for certain tax deductions which can help reduce your overall tax burden.
4. Increased Productivity
When you work from home, there are fewer distractions and interruptions which can increase productivity. You can focus on the tasks at hand and get more done in less time.
5. Personal Satisfaction
Starting a business from home can give you a sense of personal satisfaction, a sense of pride, and accomplishment as you’ve created something from nothing.
What are the pros and cons of starting a home business?
Pros:
1. Low Overhead Costs
It’s easier for entrepreneurs to get their businesses started, as most of the equipment and supplies needed can be purchased or rented at low cost which saves you from having to invest large sums of money.
2. Flexible Hours
Working from home allows you to set your own hours and work at your convenience. This is especially beneficial if you have a family or other commitments that prevent you from working a traditional 9-5 job.
3. Tax Benefits
Your home business is eligible for certain tax benefits that can reduce your overall taxes.
Cons:
1. Limited Resources
Unlike larger companies, home businesses often lack marketing budgets, experienced employees, and access to capital.
2. Isolation
In a traditional office setting, there is lots of interaction with colleagues. As an entrepreneur working from home, you may not have this level of interaction.
3. Distractions
There are often more distractions than in a traditional office setting. It can be difficult to focus on tasks and complete projects on time.
How to Balance Work and Family Life While Running a Home Business
1. Set Boundaries
Set clear boundaries between work life and family life. Set specific hours for work and family time. Also, designate certain areas of your home for each activity.
2. Prioritize
Be sure to prioritize your family over the business. You need to take time off to spend with your family and be sure you are present during important events.
3. Schedule Breaks
To be sure you’re not overworking, schedule regular breaks throughout the day. This ensures you stay focused and productive and will also allow you to spend quality time with your family.
4. Utilize Technology
To make your life easier, take advantage of technology. You can use tools like online calendars, video conferencing, and task management software to simplify your workflow and increase efficiency.
5. Outsource
To free up more time for you to focus on your family and other parts of your life, consider outsourcing non-essential business tasks.
So, should you run a business from home?
Running a business from your home can be a great way to become your own boss and attain financial freedom. Nevertheless, it’s most important to carefully weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to start a business from your home.
With the right strategy and a plan in place, you can successfully balance your work and family life and achieve success.
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Artificial Intelligence in Digital Marketing
By Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Going forward, marketers may face unique challenges that will change how we approach digital marketing.
The top content marketing strategies are still personalized marketing, extended use of multimedia, and exploring new digital channels.
What is AI?
We all basically know what AI is, as we see and use it daily. However, this is the definition from Wikipedia:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by humans or by other animals. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs.
We must reconsider the use of MI (marketing intelligence) and AI (artificial intelligence). MI typically focuses on interpreting worldwide consumer trends while market research focuses on customer preferences for a specific company.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are changing the way businesses operate and revolutionizing the approach to digital marketing.
By controlling these technologies, businesses can operate more efficiently. They can give their customers personalized experiences and automate tasks, thus freeing up time to focus on more strategic endeavors.
AI has the potential to help with lead qualification, customer engagement, and product demonstrations for sales. The use of AI-generated salespeople can help companies provide high-level customer service and save time and resources. However, it’s important to strike a balance between AI and human interaction, as there are still consumers who prefer the personal touch of a real human.
Smartphones now have privacy controls to prevent too much sharing of certain data on sites like Google and Facebook, so marketers now have less data to use for understanding customers and personalizing marketing efforts. We’re also moving toward a cookie-less future, as Google will phase out cookies by the end of 2024.
Do not ignore the use of artificial intelligence in digital marketing.
What can we do to stay relevant?
HERE ARE FOUR STRATEGIES TO EXCEL AT MARKETING
1. First-Party Data
As third-party data continues to be phased out, first-party data will probably be the most valuable source of information. Rely on your own resources to get customer data instead of purchasing information from outside companies. Respecting customers’ privacy will benefit you.
You can source first-party data from:
Social media interactions
Website visitor tracking
Digital forms and surveys
Customer service interactions
Marketing email and text message responses
2. Run Pay-Per-Click Ads
Run pay-per-click ads with first-party data. If customers visit your website and look at a particular item and leave, you can retarget ads on other sites to entice them back. This is, however, becoming harder to do since Apple’s privacy updates are making that more difficult, and cookie-less browsing is taking its toll.
Many marketers are turning to Facebook’s Custom Audiences or services like Google’s Customer Match. These use a custom audience list that businesses create with first-party data, then match the list to users on the ad platform. Now, an ad funnel can be created to deliver personalized ads to customers based on first-party data.
3. Email And Text Message Marketing
Focus on email and text message marketing. Two of the most valuable first-party data sources are email and text message marketing. You can target specific customers and segments through these marketing channels. You can divide your email list by location and send out location-specific promotions to customers. Consumers like personalized emails based on behaviors like purchasing history.
This gives you a way to track which customers open emails and text messages and how they respond to the content. Using this data, you can customize your marketing to current customers based on how they respond to certain promotions.
4. BRAND AMBASSADORS
Work with brand ambassadors and influencers. They promote businesses more personally than a pop-up ad on someone’s social media feed. Brand ambassadors are familiar and friendly faces offering product recommendations, and that boosts your brand’s authenticity.
Don’t put all your marketing budget into one or two strategies, which will put your business at risk. Instead, use a diversified approach. Your ads are still relevant. So, keep running them, even without cookies. But, also, invest in email marketing and text message marketing. To reach the most customers, use the most effective content marketing strategies together to fill the gaps where some strategies are weak or where you’re not reaching customers. By using diverse strategies in tandem, you reach the most customers and aren’t significantly impacted by changes.
This information on artificial intelligence in digital marketing will help with your marketing.
Affiliate Marketing Moving Forward
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Affiliate marketing could be your opportunity to make money online. You don’t need any special skills and you can sign up for free. You can connect with brands and promote their products to earn commissions.
Over the past few years affiliate marketing has been steadily growing. With the rapid changes in digital marketing and e-commerce, there are certain trends that you should be aware of.
Affiliate marketing is a low-cost business growth plan strategy that is ideal for small businesses as it increases income with less expense and work.
Giant corporations and single-item shops have an affiliate program or are part of an affiliate network. The world of affiliate marketing can be fierce and it’s growing daily so, to be successful in it, you have to keep up with market trends.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way of getting customers and an alternative to advertising. It allows you to work with partners known as affiliates or publishers to reach a wider audience and generate more profits. Affiliates are paid when they have accomplished what they set out to do which may be increasing leads, driving sales, or getting new clients. In affiliate marketing commissions are paid for actual results.
In affiliate marketing, there are networks that allow websites and bloggers to share links to a specific page or product for ad revenue. Affiliate marketing depends on a huge network where the marketing can take place. When visitors click on an ad or a link they will be taken directly to that site or e-commerce site.
If a customer purchases a product through that e-commerce link you must pay your partner the agreed-upon fee, typically 5% to 10% of the contract value. Through this system, you (as the retailer) and your affiliate (as your partner) gain from increased sales.
If you run a product-focused website or blog, you can do affiliate marketing. But do keep in mind that affiliate marketing is not ideal for direct sales.
What are the benefits of an affiliate marketing program?
If you’re in retail, an affiliate marketing program can be added to your overall marketing plan. Whether your product is already well-liked or you’re just starting to build your brand, the product can help you reach your goals.
An affiliate program for your business can provide you with the following benefits:
Wide-Reaching Impact
Your affiliate partners have websites, email lists, social media accounts, and a sizeable number of followers so, potentially, they can reach a larger audience than you can on your own. They can help you promote your product through one or all of their networks. Since there’s a reward coming, they’ll work hard to grow sales or drive traffic for your brand.
Result-Based Commission
Since you only pay for completed actions, setting up an affiliate program is a cost-effective marketing strategy. You can work with as many affiliates as you choose. Their commission will rise as your sales rise. This is advantageous for both parties.
Increased SERP Ranking
As the links from your affiliates are widely shared, the SERPs (search engine rank pages) rank of your website will substantially improve and you’ll get more organic traffic which will save money on marketing.
Unique Content
You may not need to run countless ads on Google or social media platforms, because your affiliate marketers can write articles about your brand, produce reviews for your product, and create video ads about your business. Each affiliate presents a unique perspective.
Marketers are feeling more and more confident about investing in social media so affiliate networking is becoming very competitive. Here are some trends you should be watching to help you see the direction the industry is taking. Understanding them can increase affiliate traffic for your brand.
1) Influencer marketing continues to grow.
2) More websites are embracing alternative ad technologies such as contextual targeting to reach a broader audience in more meaningful and relevant ways.
3) As more people are using their phones to shop online, cross-device tracking will be prioritized.
4) Consumers worldwide are increasing their usage of mobile applications so affiliate marketers will need to use In-App monitoring for improved consumer insights.
5) Voice search SEO will continue to rise. As voice search SEO isn’t standard SEO, affiliates will have to refine websites for voice requests.
6) Blog link building will be diversified, so blogging still works although there will be new challenges.
Keeping this information in mind will help you with your affiliate marketing moving forward.
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11 Steps to Start Your Own Business (Part 2)
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
In the last article 11 Steps to Start Your Own Business Part 1, we covered the first five steps of starting your own business. We’ll now cover the remaining six steps.
Now that the business is set up, what’s next?
6. Get Your Finances in Order
Open a business bank account and keep your business and personal finances separate. Your business account can be used for business transactions such as invoicing customers or paying suppliers. Usually, a bank will insist you have a separate business bank account in case you want a business loan or line of credit. You’ll have to provide your business name and business tax identification number (EIN) when opening a business bank account.
You’ll need to hire a bookkeeper or get accounting software. There are some software programs that double as bookkeeping tools and often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. The software can also be used to generate invoices, track your income and expenses, run reports and calculate taxes. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device.
You must get an idea of your startup costs before funding your business. To do this list all physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you’ll need, add the cost of any licenses or permits required to operate, and calculate office space cost or other real estate. If applicable, add payroll and benefits costs.
Since businesses can take years to make a profit, it’s better to overestimate startup costs and have too much cash on hand rather than too little. Some experts recommend having enough cash to cover six months of operating expenses. You should also know your break-even point; the point at which your business makes money.
7. Fund Your Business
There are many ways to fund your business. Some require more effort than others. There are two categories of funding: internal and external.
Internal funding includes credit cards, personal savings, and family and friends. This option has the inherent risks of lost wealth due to not paying debts or hard feelings because of strained relationships if the company goes under.
External funding includes:
Small business loans and grants
Angel investors
Venture capital
Crowdfunding
Whatever the source plan for profit. It’s much better to take home all your money rather than lose part of it.
To choose the right funding source consider the amount of money you need, the time frame for repayment, and risk tolerance.
8. Apply for Business Insurance
Even if you don’t have employees or you have a home-based business, you need to have insurance. The type depends on your business model and your risks. You might need more than one kind of policy and, as your business grows, you might need additional coverage. In most states, if you have employees, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law.
The basic types of business insurance coverage are:
Liability insurance which protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury such as defamation or false advertising.
Property insurance for covering the physical assets of your business, including your office space, equipment, and inventory.
Business interruption insurance to pay for the loss of income if your business is forced to close temporarily due to a covered event such as a natural disaster.
Product liability insurance for protection against claims that your products caused bodily injury or property damage.
Employee practices liability insurance that covers claims from employees alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, or other wrongful termination.
Workers’ compensation insurance for medical expenses and income replacement for employees who are injured on the job.
9. Have the Right Business Tools
The right business tools can help make your life easier and your business run a lot smoother. They can also help save time, automate tasks, and aid you in making better decisions.
Following are some tools to consider:
Accounting software
Customer relationship management software (CRM)
Project management software
Credit card processor
Point of sale (POS)
Virtual private network (VPN)
Merchant services
Email Hosting
10. Market Your Business
Don’t spend so much time creating the products that you have no marketing budget by launch time.
A web presence is essential even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business. Here are tips for establishing a web presence. You can have a standard informational site or an e-commerce site where you sell products online.
After getting a website or e-commerce site you need to optimize it for search engines so that when a potential customer searches for specific keywords for your products, search engines can direct them to your site.
As SEO is a long-term strategy, don’t expect a lot of traffic from search engines initially—even when you’re using all the correct keywords.
Provide quality, relevant digital content on your site. Content marketing should be one of the most critical tasks on your daily to-do list and should be used in conjunction with social media.
Get listed in online directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook to find local businesses. Include your business in as many relevant directories as possible and create listings for your business in specific directories that focus on your subject matter.
Develop a social media strategy and use social media to drive traffic back to your website where customers can learn more about what you do and buy your products or services.
You don’t have to use all the social media platforms. But you should have a presence on Facebook and Instagram as they offer e-commerce features that allow you to sell directly from your social media accounts. Both platforms have free ad training to help you market your business.
11. Scale Your Business
In order to scale your business, you’ll need to grow your customer base and revenue. You can do this by increasing your marketing efforts, collaborating with other creators, improving your product or service, or adding new products or services that complement what you already offer.
Consider ways you can automate or outsource particular tasks so that you can focus on scaling your business. For example, if social media marketing is occupying too much of your time, you can use a platform such as Hootsuite to help you manage your accounts more efficiently. You can also completely outsource the time-consumer.
You can use technology to automate certain business processes including accounting, lead generation, and email marketing. By doing this you will have more time to focus on other parts of your business.
It’s important to watch your finances and make sure you’re still profitable when scaling your business. Make sure you have enough money to cover your costs. You may need to either reduce your expenses or find ways to increase your revenue.
As your business grows, you will eventually need a team of people who can help you run the day-to-day operations. This might include hiring additional staff, contractors, or freelancers.
Now, with these 11 steps to start your own business, you can get started today.
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11 Steps to Start Your Own Business (Part 1)
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Where do you start?
Starting a business can be very exciting and rewarding. But where do you start? There are many ways to approach creating a business as well as many important considerations.
What is often touted as overnight success requires years of dreaming, building, and positioning before a big public launch. So, remember to focus on your business journey and not measure your success against anyone else’s.
Before beginning these 11 steps to start your own business you need to get in the right mindset. You should know that it takes consistency, creating habits and follow-up routines, and writing out every possible step it takes to achieve your goal. Then order those steps by what needs to be done first. Some steps may take a few minutes to accomplish while others will take a long time. The point is to always take the next step and keep moving forward.
1. Determine Your Business Concept
How do you determine your business concept?
Before deciding what type of business to start, there are several things to consider:
What kind of financing do you have?
How much time do you have to devote to your business?
Do you prefer to work from home, at a workshop, or from an office?
What passions or interests do you have?
Can you sell information (a course) rather than a product?
What expertise or skills do you have?
How fast do you need to scale your business?
What kind of support do you have to start your business?
Will you be partnering with someone else?
Does the franchise model make more sense to you?
If you’re not sure of what kind of business to start, consider one of the following:
Start a blog
Start an online store
Start a franchise
Start a cleaning business
Start a bookkeeping business
Start a drop shipping business
Start a clothing business
Start a landscaping business
Start a consulting business
Start a vending machine business
Start a photography business
2. Research Your Market and Your Competitors
As an entrepreneur, you should spend more time on getting to know the competition rather than on products. If you ever apply for outside funding, your potential lender or partner will want to know what makes you (or your business idea) different from the rest.
If market analysis shows that your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can come up with something different. For example – housekeeping. Rather than general cleaning services, you can specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.
Primary research is the first stage of any competition study. This means getting data directly from potential customers and not basing your conclusions on past data. For this, you can use surveys, questionnaires, and interviews to learn what consumers want and would actually buy.
Secondary research uses existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information. The current data may be studied, compiled, and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it probably won’t be as detailed as your primary research.
Thirdly, you can do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis which will allow you to get the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market. It can also help you make decisions about the objective of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.
3. Create A Business Plan
A business plan is a document that serves as a roadmap for establishing your new business. It outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet them.
Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you bring to life your idea and spot potential problems. When you write your well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:
Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis
Organization and structure
Mission and goals
Products and/or services
Background summary
Marketing plan
Financial plan
Come up with an exit strategy. The most common ones include:
Selling the business to another party
Passing the business down to family members
Liquidating the business assets
Closing the doors and walking away
The best option for you will depend on your goals and circumstances.
It’s important to have a scalable business model that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without acquiring a significant increase in expenses.
Some standard scalable business models are:
Subscription-based businesses
Businesses that sell digital products
Franchise businesses
Network marketing businesses
One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to plan for taxes which can be very complex. There are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax, and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.
4. Choose Your Business Structure
When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations, and whether your personal assets are at risk.
The most common business structures in the US are LLC, LLP, Sole proprietorship, and corporation.
Follow this link for more information.
5. Register Your Business and get Licenses
After choosing a business structure, you have several legal issues to address. Following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:
Choose a business name
Register your business and get an EIN
Get appropriate licenses and permits
You’ll officially create your business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN), and business bank accounts.
All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. You can submit your application to the IRS and you’ll usually receive your number in minutes.
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Digital Marketing is Changing
By Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
There are many elements to digital marketing, and all of them move at a very fast pace which makes it difficult to know everything necessary to have a digital marketing career, even though you may have set up a social media campaign.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing covers all marketing activities that take place online, as more people use the internet to browse, connect, and make purchases. Also, the increase in mobile use continues to rise.
What are the digital marketing channels?
There is a variety of digital channels available to drive traffic including the following seven main digital marketing channels:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC)
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
As the digital landscape keeps evolving, there are more than those listed above.
What are the benefits of digital marketing?
Digital marketing allows you to engage with prospects and customers in a way that builds relationships, hopefully, long-lasting ones.
Reach new audiences
As you know already, there are billions of people you can engage with and influence online. When it comes to digital there are no boundaries. Since your social media posts or blog articles can be read by anyone anywhere at any time, the possibilities to engage are limitless. You can use automation for scheduling to reach people on the right days and at the correct times.
Also, you can create interesting content for new audiences by creating a targeted campaign to reach a particular group across relevant digital channels.
Segmentation
This means that you can target audiences based on their location, gender, age, job role, goals, desires, and interests, in your online marketing campaigns.
But, you need to know who you want to connect with before you target anyone. One of the best ways to do this is by creating a buyer persona. This is a profile representing your ideal customer. By using buyer personas, you can tailor your marketing content and reach out on the channels that are relevant to those personas, and connect with them to meet their needs and begin solving their problems. You can have a few personas to reflect your diverse audience.
To gauge who your customers are, what they want, and what they’re looking for you to solve, run surveys and polls on your social media channels, interview current customers on a one-to-one basis, and check out your competitors’ interaction with their customers online.
You can also do some market research using the following:
SurveyMonkey
Site analytics
Your site analytics show where your visitors came from, the keywords they used, and how long they stayed on your site, and the devices and platforms they used to get there.
Cost efficiency
Digital marketing campaigns are trackable and cost-efficient as opposed to magazine and newspaper ads.
Whether your campaigns are paid search, display advertising, or social media, you can cap your spending to keep track of costs. You can set a daily, weekly or even a monthly budget so you never overspend.
Measurable results
Digital marketing is measurable. You can track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) across digital channels for metrics that matter, not likes or comments or social media channels. Track KPIs that show measurable results like conversion rates, sales, and revenue – things that matter.
Personalize campaigns
Of course, campaigns that are relevant and personalized perform great. Email marketers use this tactic to improve engagement. It’s the same across digital channels.
Easy adaptation
Digital is fast so you can adapt and change campaigns or content quickly. If you realize that one of your social media campaigns isn’t preforming, you can change the location or tweak the message to see if things change. Do A/B testing to avoid wasting time and money on a campaign that will never work.
Engage audiences at different stages
If you’ve read or studied marketing, you will have heard about sales funnels which have four stages through which a customer passes and needs nurturing. Your content must be geared to each of these stages before the purchase is made.
Levels the playing field
Global and small brands benefit from digital marketing. It levels the playing field for all. If you understand your personas, have identified the key digital channels to use, and found what content works, your small business is headed for success.
When setting your digital marketing strategy, you need to:
Set smart goals
Know your target audience
Conduct analysis
Choose your channels
Keep an eye on trends to gain a first-mover advantage
Determine your budget
As digital marketing is changing, you can be successful using this information.
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The Ideal Length for Blog Articles
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Because your business strategy is in place, you should have already determined your audience.
Your audience should be a determining factor when deciding on an ideal blog post length as well.
You need to consider these questions when determining your audience and your ideal blog post length.
** Which social media platforms do your audience share content from the most?
** What types of media sources are they following?
** What types of content are they sharing?
** How long are the blog posts that they are engaging with?
Word count is not a standalone ranking factor. It only has value if the content is of great quality.
A few years ago, the average blog post was usually somewhere between 500 and 800 words or even less.
Now long-form content is dominant.
There is no magic number for every post every time.
What is the average length of a blog post?
Although there is no average length per se, there are suggested lengths for different industries.
Financial technology (FinTech) – 2,000 – 2.150 words
The topics in this industry are fairly complex so they require a lot of depth. For adequate coverage, you should aim for between 2,000 – 2,250 words with a significant number of data-driven images like graphs and charts.
Finance – 2,100 – 2,500 words
Research has shown these numbers to be ideal for the largest volume of organic traffic in the finance industry.
Manufacturing – 1,700 – 1,900 words
The manufacturing industry includes chemicals, textiles, machines, and heavy equipment. There might be differing opinions regarding the word count. But, on the whole, 1,700 – 1,900 is a safe number.
Sales – 2,500 – 2,700 words
Sales is a wide umbrella covering many different areas. The most successful posts in this industry have a high word count.
Retail – 1,500 – 1,700 words
Retail drives the U.S. economy, whether it’s massive chains or mom-and-pop stores.
Online retail has experienced massive growth over recent years, and like manufacturing, the retail industry can involve a lot of different types of content.
So, 1,500 – 1,700 words or even less is sufficient to explain a product or service.
While images are always important across the board, for retail-based articles they’re especially critical.
Real estate – 1,800 -1,900 words
Real estate is an incredibly competitive industry in which you’ll need to specialize in a few strategic areas and be able to deliver expert advice to your readers.
You’ll need to master local SEO.
Home and garden – 1,100 -1,200 words
The word count for this industry is much lower than for the rest because these types of posts are more visual-centric and use lots of pictures and how-to videos to demonstrate their products.
Tech – 800 – 1,000 words
Most tech articles are a short commentary on a product, technology developments, or events, so 1,000 words is a reasonable count.
Gadgets – 300 – 500 words
After talking about long-form content being best, this seems incredibly low.
There are always exceptions. You probably don’t need to go on and on about a new gadget. Just be practical and cover the background, key features, nice images, pricing, etc.
You want to give readers a clear idea of what to expect if they buy it.
Marketing/advertising – 2,500 – 3,000 words
Just about everyone in marketing engages in content marketing. Which means a lot of content.
In this area, giving value with a high word count will help you to stand out from the competition.
Healthcare – 2,000 – 2,150 words
Healthcare is a huge industry. Not only are there major publications, but there are so many scholarly articles that feature original research from top universities.
To get your content noticed and shared, you must create top-level articles that are filled with valuable data.
Fashion – 800 – 950 words
As with tech gadgets, there’s no need to over-state fashion content. This number of words will allow you to adequately discuss fashion trends, styles, or industry models.
It goes without saying; be sure to include plenty of images.
Recruiting – 900 – 1,000 words
This industry content tends to be statistics-heavy but fairly short.
Food – 1,400 – 1,900 words
There are a whole lot of people writing about the food industry, and food blogs have increased.
Be sure to include beautiful images to make an instant connection with readers.
Travel – 1,500 – 1,850 words
This should be long enough to entirely cover topics like travel tips, destinations, useful gadgets, and more.
Film – 1,500 – 1,700 words
This industry keeps growing. To stand out you have to create substantial, long-form posts.
Producing content is not all about length. There are other variables that determine the success of your blog articles.
** Substance – The most basic consideration is what you’re trying to say. It may require 150 words or 10,000 words.
** Style – Of course, writing styles vary and will affect your content. Some styles will use content that is short, brief, and to the point, and other times it’s conversational and interactive. The style will affect the length of your content.
** Frequency – It takes time to write good content. Some bloggers post once a week while others put out short posts daily. The frequency depends on how much you can manage.
** Format – Your format has a great impact on its readability. You should break your content into small sections so readers can easily skim it. You can do this by using lots of subheadings, a few images throughout the article, and short paragraphs.
** Purpose – What is the purpose or purposes of the article? You may want to spread brand awareness, drive social engagement, provide education, grow email lists, or improve SEO. All these are sub-goals related to your ultimate goal of making conversions.
** Audience – You have to create content based on what your particular audience needs and wants. It should be based on their passions, interests, and their problems.
** Medium – When you post a video, meme, or infographic, word count doesn’t matter. With an infographic, you might use around 100 words to introduce the topic.
Why is long-form content best?
You can cover your topic with a level of depth that’s clearly impossible in a shorter post. So, long-form is perceived as high quality.
As most people don’t read word for word, long-form content is perfect for skimming. What people do is scan and check out headlines, subtitles, and bullet points, and look at the images.
Research shows that most visitors only read about 20 percent of an article.
It seems that creating content with a high word count leaves readers feeling as though they’ve just read something very impressive when they’ve finished.
Short, thin content can’t provide this certain sense of satisfaction.
As long as you provide value to your readers, they’ll appreciate a short or long article. So, use this information to determine the ideal length for blog articles that works for both you and your reader.
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Internet Marketing Tips for Home Business
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
If you already have an online business that is making money, you know the basics of Internet marketing and growing your business. There are still many people who are unsure about launching a business on the internet and what to expect, and many have a website without any real online presence.
Why do you need an online presence?
There are many ways of making money online, but if you have your own product or service, you need to advertise so people know you exist.
In order to grow your business online, you need a steady flow of targeted customers and prospects visiting your website and sales pages just as you do with a brick-and-mortar business.
There are many sources for free and paid advertising that include:
Social media
Search engine and directory listings
Marketing offline
Content marketing
Blogging
Google My Business on Google
Google Adwords
Email marketing
Paid ads can become really costly very quickly so you have to watch them very closely, especially if you’re just starting out unless you have an unlimited budget.
What else is necessary to grow your business?
In order to grow your business you need:
1. Targeted traffic
Targeted traffic is a visitor that falls within the niche of your website. For example, if your website is about athletic wear and someone lands on one of your articles after doing a search for “best athletic wear for women”, that visitor is targeted. Targeted visitors are people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.
You can buy traffic, use free sources, or both. Paid traffic includes pay-per-click, solo ads, ezine advertising, and banner advertisements.
2. Product or service
Included in these internet marketing tips for home business, of course, is something to sell. This can be an actual physical product that is shipped to buyers or a digital product that can be instantly downloaded to their computers.
If you don’t have your own product, you can find good ones to sell as an affiliate marketer. Click bank, JV Zoo, and Deal Guardian are a few to check out. Just make sure they are good products that solve problems for people. This is especially important for your prospective buyers. You want them to trust you and your recommendations.
3. Marketing funnel (sales funnel)
A Sales Funnel for your Online Marketing
You must use effective advertising. This includes a lead capture page (LCP) with a lead magnet (a freebie or a discount you offer in exchange for names and email addresses) for visitors to fill in to get more information about your products/services. When they fill in the form they’ll be directed to a link to get what you’ve promised.
Now they’re on a list you’ve set up at your hosting company so you can follow up with them and establish a relationship in order for them to get to know, like, and trust you. This process of advertising, using an LCP, and a follow-up system is your sales funnel.
You need a follow-up strategy for people who do not buy from you the first time they visit your site. A marketing funnel serves that purpose by capturing visitors’ information and adding them to a list of prospects to be contacted at a later date. They may like what you’re offering but need more time to get to know and trust you before buying. Once you have a prospect’s information you can remind them of your products and services in a number of ways that include email marketing, online webinars, and social media.
So, using these internet marketing tips for home business to start or grow your business, you’ll be able to establish your online presence to let people know you exist, get targeted traffic to your website to grow your business, advertise your product/service, and follow up with your prospects.
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Use A SEO Copywriting Strategy
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Copywriting involves the creation of textual content for the needs of your target market. It’s broad and includes written content for blogs, advertisements, product catalogs, emails, print media, and websites.
It requires communication with your clients to know what they want and the reason for the copy you’re writing. Understanding your target market or the audience for whom you’re writing is a must.
You need the following for copywriting:
1. A computer or a smartphone
2. Internet connectivity
3. A document app or writing tool like Google docs, Draftable.com, and access to a content management system
4. A tool for checking plagiarism, like CopyScape or another
5. Tools for checking grammar and sentence structure, e.g., Grammarly
What does a copywriter do?
Copywriters write for the internet, and their content is informative for businesses and is designed to guide readers in their own research.
A copywriter is a lot more than just a wordsmith.
As a copywriter you:
Obviously, write
Research
Interview
Edit
Proofread
Plan and implement marketing campaigns, and much more.
The kinds of things copywriters write include:
White papers. Non-government white papers are about 1,500-2,500 words and are informative, educational documents that explain the origins of a problem and how it might be solved. Often that solution will be linked to what the client sells, but the majority of the white paper will be objective and useful. These tend to be gated behind a form, and are used for lead capture.
Case studies. These are short articles explaining how you’ve helped your customers.
Blog posts. These are generally a bit more informal or opinionated, but this varies from client to client.
Emails. Email campaigns are for attracting interest, raising awareness, and prompting an action. They should be short, enticing, and informative to help turn leads into customers.
Social media posts. Social media also requires copywriting for those limited-character tweets and clever Facebook updates.
Website copy. Writing for the web requires a whole other skill set, although many copywriters have it.
Today, it’s essential to have a SEO copywriting strategy for your business. It may be even more important than your social media strategy.
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of improving your website to get more organic traffic, free traffic from people performing internet searches.
You may have to change your website design, content, and other non-technical features to get better results. Your website should be designed to attract traffic, without you having to pay for it.
This is a way you can continually get traffic, and it pays off in the long run. SEO is used to get your website’s landing pages to rank on a search engine’s first page of results for a particular word or phrase.
SEO copywriting is writing copy with this in mind and maximizing your opportunity for getting free traffic to whatever website, landing page, or offer you have.
SEO is not something that you do once and expect it to keep working. It’s an ongoing process, and you should be ready to keep investing your time and effort in it.
What skills does a copywriter need?
There are certain skills a copywriter must have which include:
Attention to detail: You need to be able to evaluate your work or copy from an objective point of view. This is necessary to properly proofread and edit your work in order to improve or enhance its quality.
Writing: Everyone can write, but not all can do it well. You don’t have to be a top-notch writer before you can attempt copywriting, although improving and fine-tuning your writing skill goes a long way in helping you become a good or even great copywriter.
Creativity: Creativity involves being imaginative and able to view things from different perspectives. Clients rely on the creativity of copywriters to make a copy interesting or engaging to a target audience. When you are creative, the development of copy ideas is easier.
Listening: You must be a good listener to be a good copywriter. By understanding your client’s needs and requirements you can more clearly meet their needs. Being a good listener helps you to become an authority in copywriting.
Along with the proper tools and setup, you need to use a SEO copywriting strategy in your business.
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12 Top Converting Lead Magnet Ideas for Your Business
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
If you need a reminder, a lead magnet is a motivation for people to give you their contact information. This incentive is important because the last thing anybody wants is more emails.
However, they do want solutions to problems.
Therefore, when you offer an impressive lead magnet that solves your target audience’s problem, they’ll be much more inclined to give you their email addresses.
When you have their contact information, you can stay in touch, build a relationship with them, and make more offers that grow your business.
We’ll cover 12 top converting lead magnet ideas for your business.
There’s no reason creating a lead magnet should be complicated.
How do you create a great lead magnet?
There are 4 keys to creating a powerful lead magnet:
1. One Problem
In order not to confuse your target audience, focus only on one problem. When people are confused, they won’t take any action.
2. An Easy Win
Provide an easy win. Your target audience wants to see quick results and the best content to help solve a problem.
Don’t confuse the value of a win with the amount of content you include. A 6-hour video course sounds valuable but it’s too much of a time commitment for a lead magnet. Do something that can be acted on immediately.
3. Specificity
Your lead magnet should solve a specific problem.
Give your reader a step-by-step guide. Concentrate on one problem with a quick win, and enter enough information so the person can understand how to get that win.
Never leave someone hanging with a lead magnet that offers no value or one that leaves them confused.
4. A Great Design
Invest in a great design that pleases your users and demonstrates you’re a professional.
Great designs don’t have to be expensive. For a minimal investment, you can use tools like Canva produced by real designers to create a great-looking lead magnet.
What are some lead magnet ideas?
We’ll be covering 12 top converting lead magnet ideas for your business.
1. Discount
Although some businesses offer a one-time discount of as much as 50% to people who sign up for their email list, a small one of 10-15% will do.
2. Product Sample
Since people like to know what they’re getting before they buy, consider giving away a sample of the product, such as the first chapter of a book they can download.
3. Free Shipping
If you ship physical products, free shipping is an outstanding option as shipping charges may stop many people from making a purchase.
By removing the extra cost of shipping from a customer’s first order they’re more likely to buy. You can also include a discount with this.
4. Free Trial
Free trials help you boost your current and future sales. Free trials provide potential customers the opportunity to try before they buy to see if your product or service will work for them.
If it works, they’ll buy it and you’ve gained a customer. If it doesn’t, you’ll still have their email address so you can stay in touch with them and nurture the relationship to potentially convert them into a paying customer later.
5. Templates
Templates are among the most common lead magnet ideas because they offer an instant win.
Most people need some guidance to start a project, and templates offer that guidance.
Visme is an online platform that helps you design presentation materials and it has templates you can use like infographics or charts to build your business’ visual materials.
They have some free templates and the others are reserved to entice visitors to create a paid account.
6. How-to Guides
You can offer a step-by-step how-to guide to relieve the frustration of those needing to do something unfamiliar and complicated.
7. Cheat Sheet
You can offer your target audience lists of the essential points to remember during a process. For example, things to include when composing an email or some great headlines to use to improve the probability of your email being opened.
8. Audio Recording
If you’re more comfortable with audio content than written, recordings are a great lead magnet idea. Similarly, if your target audience likes to listen while on the go, audio recordings work well as a lead magnet.
9. Video
As video in content marketing is growing in popularity, it makes a great lead magnet idea for three reasons:
a) It’s a great way to access your target audience.
b) It helps them get to know you better.
c) It strengthens their trust in you.
Although you can use a series of videos, one that’s well done will work.
10. E-book
Use a short e-book to give your reader a quick win, as they’re a valuable resource. The operative word is short.
11. Email Course
An email course could be a perfect lead magnet for your business if you love email.
Just as with an e-book, don’t provide so much content that you overwhelm your prospect.
12. Free Consultation
If you’re a service provider working with clients, offer a free consultation to determine the kind of help they need.
Since your time is valuable, do keep time limits in mind. Don’t give away too much of it.
We’ve discussed how to create a great lead magnet and presented 12 top converting lead magnet ideas for your business.
As you look at these lead magnet ideas, remember your audience. Keep in mind the problems they face, and the best content to help them solve one of those problems.
Use one of these 12 top converting lead magnet ideas for your business to help solve a prospect’s problem.
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