Digital marketing tips for service based local businesses

How To Reduce Facebook Ads Cost In 2022

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 17:00:03 GMT

Whether you’ve been running Facebook Ads for a long time or are only just starting out advertising on the world’s leading social media network, the cost of running these ads will certainly be a major consideration.

With billions of users across the globe in every demographic, Facebook is arguably the best place to be for brands to spend their advertising dollars on. To aid them in this endeavor, Facebook provides advertisers with powerful tools that enable them to fine tune their campaigns in order to achieve the maximum return on ad spend.

The fact remains, though, that Facebook advertising costs have risen steadily over the past few years. There's no denying that Facebook Ads have become expensive and that presents brands with a risk. If their ad campaigns aren't successful, they could end up losing a significant chunk of money.

Even if their campaigns don’t completely flop, the money that brands have to put in for these campaigns may simply not be enough to justify the return on ad spend. That’s why there’s a lot of focus these days on figuring out ways to reduce Facebook Ads cost. It’s easier said than done but it’s not entirely impossible.

How are Facebook Ads costs calculated?

It's important to first understand the factors that determine the cost for your Facebook ads. The social network relies on real-time auctions powered by its AI algorithms to determine the price of every impression or click.

It takes into account characteristics such as locations, interests and even ad placements to reach the final cost. For example, brands will pay more for a campaign targeted to users in the United States than for those in Thailand. The time of the year also has an impact on ad costs. During peak shopping seasons, the average CPMs tend to jump by double digits.

Competition is another factor to keep in mind. Many different businesses are competing against each other for the same Facebook audience. This tends to drive up prices for everyone, as the auction model prioritizes those that pay top dollar.

Generally, the highest bidder wins the ad placement but there are other factors that weigh on it as well. Relevance is one of them. Facebook wants to make sure that its users see ads that are relevant to them, so it tries to strike a balance.

Tips to reduce your Facebook Ads costs in 2022

1. Use the Campaign Budget Optimization feature

Campaign Budget Optimization is a feature that Facebook offers advertisers. When enabled, this allows Facebook's ad algorithm to decide how the budget for your ad campaign is split. It distributes the budget across ad sets to get more results depending on your delivery optimization choices and bid strategy.

Once you've set the entire budget for the campaign, this feature will then distribute it across the ad sets to favor those that are performing better than the others. It's important to note that this feature is different from split testing.

Campaign budget optimization doesn't choose a winning ad set to spend all the budget on, rather it simply allocates more or less budget based on how the different ad sets in the campaign are performing.

With Campaign Budget Optimization, you’re able to run more ad sets while Facebook’s algorithm handles the spend based on how they’re spending, and this can help prevent your budget being burned on ad sets that aren’t doing well.

2. Use fresh ad creatives at least once every month

If the ad costs on your campaigns are rising, you can always refresh the ad creatives. The general wisdom is that this should be done at least once per month. That's due to the fact that Facebook's ad algorithm favors new creatives over olders, so it won't spend as much money pushing it in news feeds.

Most marketers agree that swapping the creatives at least once per month is enough. The guidance on ads that run on a higher budget is that if the statistics indicate rising costs, it's better to opt for fresh creatives even sooner.

Remember, this is only required if the stats show that the ad costs are rising. If the campaign is delivering optimized conversions with fast delivery at low costs, then it's best to not try and fix something that's evidently not broken.

3. Improve audience targeting

Targeting the right audience is crucial to the success of your Facebook ad campaigns. If you've got it locked down, your campaign will not only hit the desired objectives but will also do that in a cost effective manner. Even if you've created an amazing ad with great copy, unless the targeting is right, it's not going to achieve much.

When selecting the audience, try and find one that has a higher possibility of engaging with your ads instead of just looking at them. This may require you to test new audiences that may be a fit for your brand. It's also important to use the ad targeting features to exclude sections of the audience that may not be relevant in order to reduce unwanted impressions.

The formula is quite simple. Work on improving your audience targeting to achieve a higher CTR for more conversions. This will mean you're paying less CPM, thereby getting the best return on ad spend.

4. Don’t sleep on lookalike audiences

This is one of the most powerful tools that Facebook offers its advertisers. Facebook's algorithm is great at finding new audiences that are quite similar to the audience that has already taken a certain action related to your business. For example, these may be people that have visited your website or purchased a product.

The algorithm will use this data to find completely new audiences that are essentially a lookalike of the audience that has already engaged with your brand. The source audience can come from a custom audience that you provide Facebook with or you can also use the Facebook Pixel to collect data.

Since the source audience already specifics to the algorithm exactly what it’s looking for, it doesn’t burn through as much of the budget as it would when trying to find a completely new audience for you without any direction.

5. Capture leads with retargeting

Converting cold traffic, or people who have never heard about your brand before, is extremely difficult. Brands in almost every industry struggle with this. It happens very rarely that someone will buy a product after seeing just one ad for it online.

Through retargeting, you can put ads in front of people who have already interacted or engaged with the brand. Retargeting allows you to continue to capture their attention and if so desired, even provide them with an incentive such as a special discount to get them to convert.

Retargeting tends to be light on the overall campaign budget compared to blasting the ad to a completely cold audience. If done correctly, it enables brands to significantly improve their CTR and conversions.

It’s not impossible to reduce Facebook Ads cost

It may seem very difficult at first, but diligently following these steps and other best practices, it’s entirely possible to reduce Facebook Ads cost in 2022. Even as competition increases and overall ad rates increase, there’s always room to optimize.

Brands shouldn’t lose faith in Facebook ads yet. It continues to provide brands with an incredible opportunity to reach new customers across the globe at a scale that few other social networks are capable of matching.

How Instagram Can Help You Increase Website Traffic

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:15:11 GMT

Website traffic is fast becoming an elusive commodity. You’d be hard pressed to find a niche without any competition. This makes it incredibly difficult to rank well on search engines, thus leaving you at the mercy of paid ads to drive traffic.

The conventional wisdom around increasing website traffic is no longer enough. Yes, you can work on a well-rounded content marketing strategy, do SEO and run link building campaigns. This is just one part of the puzzle now. There’s a greater need now to leverage your social media presence in order to increase website traffic.

It’s easier said than done, though. Getting people to leave a social network that they want to spend a lot of their free time on to visit a website is difficult. With enough optimization and focus, it’s entirely possible, and it works out well there’s nothing quite like it.

As one of the leading social media networks of our time, Instagram is a great resource to leverage when trying to increase the traffic on your website. It’s particularly useful if you already have a decent presence on the social network. Those followers can be converted into regular website visitors fairly quickly.

Why Instagram is so important when trying to increase traffic to your website

For marketers, Instagram is a goldmine . It's one of the most effective social media networks with an audience that's ready to engage. Instagram also happens to be pretty big across the globe. It has over 1.4 billion users across the globe, making it the fourth more popular social media platform in the world. Studies have also shown that people tend to spend more time on Instagram compared to some of the other networks.

Instagram’s focus on discovery considerably levels the playing field for brands, enabling startups and established businesses alike to tap into an audience that’s actively looking to find new content that appeals to their interests.

Such an engaged audience can be hard to come by on other social networks and this is precisely why Instagram is such an important tool to use when trying to increase traffic to your website.

How Instagram makes things difficult

Instagram has made a conscious decision to not make it too easy for brands to send people off the app. That’s understandable, the Meta-owned social media network obviously wants people to stay on the app as much as possible. That might be why it doesn't allow clickable links in posts.

No matter how much engagement your posts get, the caption can’t include a clickable link. This makes it difficult even for people who want to visit your website, since it requires a bit of manual work from them, and that’s one of the easiest ways to make potential visitors lose interest.

Fortunately, there are several different ways through which you can use Instagram to direct traffic to your website.

How to increase website traffic from Instagram

Make the most of the Link in Bio

You've probably heard your favorite Instagram influencer mention this multiple times. Instagram allows users to add just one external link in the bio on their profile page. So it’s imperative that you make the most of this allowance.

Think of the Link in Bio as the prime real estate on your Instagram profile. You can put the link to your website here or if you'd like to have multiple links, use one of the many Link in Bio tools available to create a landing page that includes as many links as you want.

Since the Link in Bio is a treasured commodity, be sure of the goal you want to achieve. Whether it's just driving traffic to the home page or a specific landing page, offering an incentive or growing your newsletter subscriber base.

Remind people that you have a Link in Bio

Remember, there are no clickable links in Instagram posts. Simply adding a Link in Bio isn’t enough. You need to remind your audience that they need to click on the link in your bio, otherwise they may not know that it even exists.

Your Instagram posts can include a reminder in the caption that invites the audience to check out the link in your bio. If you tend to post videos on your feed, that’s another great opportunity to get them to click the link.

Instagram users are very familiar with the Link in Bio. It’s widely used across the entire platform so there’s not going to be a learning curve here for them. They know exactly where to find it and how to use it.

Don’t sleep on Instagram Stories

Instagram may not have invented the stories format, but it has surely made it its own. Shoppable stories are particularly useful if you’re in the ecommerce business, as you can send visitors directly to a product page.

A shoppable story has a "swipe up" link, so viewers only need to swipe up on the content in the story to be taken to that page. If they're even remotely interested in your product, chances are they will swipe up.

This is a simple yet powerful way of bringing more organic visitors to the site. The people who follow you on Instagram likely check out the stories that you’re posting. Simply by relying on this feature you could be sending a big chunk of them to your website.

Use a smart Call to Action with every post

A call to action is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. It sounds very simple, just telling people what you want them to do, but you'd be surprised just how effective it is online.

So whether you're posting just an image, a video or a story, be sure to include a call to action that invites people to check out your website. The golden rule here is that your call to action shouldn't appear to be pushing a sale.

It should feel natural, one that stokes the curiosity of the viewer and compels them to visit your website to find out more about the brand.

Optimize your website for mobile

Think about it. People use Instagram on their mobile devices. When you send them to your website, they’ll still be on their smartphone. If your website is not properly optimized for mobile viewing, they’re more likely to leave it without even seeing what you have to offer.

So while you focus your efforts on trying to get more people from Instagram to your website, do make sure that it’s optimized for mobile. Otherwise, all those efforts will have been for nothing.

Boost your efforts with Instagram marketing

Your marketing efforts on Instagram should go far beyond getting people to the website. There are a plethora of tools offered on the social network that you can utilize to grow your Instagram presence further and increase engagement.

Remember, the more popular your Instagram account, the larger the audience is going to be. Even getting a fraction of them over to the website could prove to be very beneficial.

6 Ways To Increase Your ROI With Digital Marketing

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:51:55 GMT

Some people mistakenly believe that digital marketing is an expensive way to market a business. But it is more affordable than you realize and easily pays for itself. On top of that, it is a necessity. If you don’t create a strong online presence, it can be difficult to grow your business.

You won’t get the full impact of a campaign if you don’t use digital marketing to make it happen. As with any mode of marketing, you will need to see if your digital marketing campaigns are worth the time and money you’ve invested. There are several metrics you can use to determine the ROI of your digital marketing campaigns. This will help you know where to spend your time and when to move on.

Consider the following ways to improve your digital marketing strategy and boost your ROI.

Define Your Campaign Goals

When setting business goals, you need to keep several factors in mind. One way to establish a system is to use the SMART goal-setting method. SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant,
Time-Bound

This will help you understand how to set and measure achievement with your goals.

This applies to campaign goals when trying to determine your ROI. Marketing ROI will depend on your industry, market demand, cost structure, and other factors. Your ROI is also determined by the campaign. Make sure that you define the purpose of your marketing strategies in detail and be mindful of having realistic goals.

Create Content People Want

Your clients are exposed to constant information online. You need to give your brand something that sets you apart to see a return. Content is one of the most important tools for you to stand out.

No client wants a sales ad. They want value and a connection. To get this, make sure your content is personalized. Look at your target customers and create for them. This may be based on their demographics, interests, location, or gender.

Moreover, there are a few other key factors to consider when creating content.

Develop Useful Content

Make sure you are providing something your audience can use. Solve a problem, whether by telling them how to care for equipment, how to utilize an item in a new way, or how to clean something, for example. Give them information that solves specific challenges.

Develop User-Centric Content

Whether sharing a service or product to your audience through emails or FB posts, connect with them on a personal level.

Get Regular Feedback

One of the best tools for determining what your audience wants is to send out surveys. These can get you real feedback on what your audience needs and expects your brand to deliver. Be sure to utilize regular Q&A sessions, polls, surveys, and webinars to keep in touch with your customers. This will be used to create more useful content.

Use Influencers to Market

Consider collaborations with influencers to keep marketing and working with your audience. They will know what content you need because they are immersed in it. When collaborating with a partner, you open your business to new leads and prospects.

Let Predictive Analytics Work for You

This essential tool boosts and measures ROI. Through AI and machine learning, you gain insights using models, datasets, and algorithms in an effort to predict future consumer behavior. You can also use predictive analytics for prioritizing leads based on which customers are ideal for conversion. This aids in customer conversion and retention rates by helping meet consumers’ needs.

Predictive analytics also helps fine-tune a marketing strategy by allowing you to focus on needs and spend your energy and time well.

Use Automation to Your Advantage

There are many different automation tools available for you to use to your advantage and reduce costs. That is why the automation industry is predicted to reach $6.4 billion by 2024. These tools perform repetitive tasks like managing docs, images, and email lists. That will give you more time to focus on running your business.

Making the Most of Your Marketing Budget

By adding the right strategies to your digital marketing, you will find an improved return on investment. Incorporate the above strategies to make the most of your marketing budget.

5 Social Media Platforms Every Small Business Should Consider in Their Digital Marketing Strategy

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:29:22 GMT

Are you a small business owner that is wearing too many hats and running or at least managing all parts of your business?

If you are the sole marketing person, or overseeing a small marketing team, you know the multiple hats needed to make it work. Due to your workload, social media may seem like a non-essential element of your marketing plan. It becomes easy to push aside when things get busy. But do not write it off that quickly.

More and more people spend their free time on their phones and social media apps. You have to be on those platforms if you want to engage them.

Social Media Platforms You Need to Use For Your Small Business

While you are likely familiar with Facebook, there are many other platforms your company should consider when running a social media campaign. Here are the five that most companies should consider:

● YouTube

● Instagram

● LinkedIn

● Twitter

● Facebook

YouTube for Small Business

Instagram for Small Business

Twitter for Small Business

LinkedIn for Small Business

Facebook for Small Business

Which Social Media Platforms Will You Use for Your Small Business?

By using a combination of two or more of the above social media platforms, you will notice a boost to your digital marketing results. Start by focusing your efforts on whichever platform your customers are most likely to be on. Then, expand to make sure you cover multiple platforms to expand your visibility, branding and reach.

Sources:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7832-social-media-for-business.html

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/03/19/social-media-for-small-business

Stock Images or Real Photos - What to Use for Your Website

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:18:49 GMT

No matter how unique your website content is, it will not make much of an impact without visuals. Yes, the role of images in engaging visitors and creating shareable content is undeniable.

Thankfully, getting access to a library of photos is possible with stock photographs.

At the same time, we can notice a significant growth in the number of professional photographers available for digital shots. Since they are hired specifically for your business, they can take unique and fitting pictures for your website.

Yet another option is hiring a graphic designer to create custom illustrations . Check out the link for more information on the benefits of using custom illustrations as a branding strategy.

So, which option would you choose for your website?

Website designers and marketers are often confused between using stock photos and hiring photographers for their website visuals. Just like any argument, both have their pros and cons.

To help you make the selection, let us have a look at some core points:

What is Your Budget for Website Images?

Budget-friendliness is a crucial factor for almost every business. Especially those in their early stages cannot afford to spend big bucks on images. In this scenario, stock photos look like an ideal solution.

On the other hand, businesses generating a huge ROI can afford to hire a photographer to use in conjunction with stock photos. But if we compare costs, getting original images is always heavy on the pocket. So, it generally depends on what the business can afford.

Do You Have Time to Bring in a Professional Photographer?

Undoubtedly, getting original and custom images is a long process. You first need to look for a suitable photographer and then wait for the editing period before they are fully delivered. The entire procedure takes a lot of time and may not be ideal for those looking to get results instantly.

Conversely, stock photos are just a click away. Within minutes, you can download your favorite photos and set up the site.

So, if you have enough resources and time, consider getting original images. But what if you need to focus on other core business activities and cannot manage time? In that case, nothing is better than stock images.

Convenience of Stock Photos

Do a quick Google search, and you will get tons of websites offering affordable stock photos . There is no need to go through the entire hassle of setting up a photoshoot, conducting light adjustment, and gathering the right resources. Stock pictures offer the convenience of being readily available at any time required.

Meanwhile, customized images require your involvement with the photographer. Though photographers can take the pictures on their own, no one wants to take the risk when it comes to their brand.

To ensure you get optimal results, it is important to communicate with the photographer and tell them the features you would like to focus on. In the end, photographers will be the ones taking the shot - but you cannot sit back and put the complete reign in their hands.

Real Photos Boost Brand Identity

Stock photos can question your credibility if you plan to develop a distinguished brand identity and earn customer trust. Since stock photos are not original, they might have an unprofessional impact on consumers' eyes.

Furthermore, they are generic. Comparatively, incorporating unique pictures of your team, behind-the-scenes, and products may leave a lasting impact. So, we can see the usefulness of original photos in this regard.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Many people have a misconception about poor SEO ranking with stock images. However, SEO ranking will never go down if you incorporate these images strategically. And one of the best ways to do this is to ensure relevancy. When the images are relevant to your brand niche, the visitors' overall experience will improve. Ultimately, this will encourage the prospects to convert as well.

Competition

When selecting pictures for your website, always look at what your competitors are doing. Are they using original images and getting massive traffic? Or are they being savvy and using stock images?

Judging their choice of visuals will give you a fair idea of what you can use for your site. If the competitors are using stock images successfully, why not you?

You can also stand out by using a mix of original and stock photos. You can also find some stock images that aren't widely used by searching Google. The results will show how many times the specific picture has been used.

Final Verdict

In summary, the selection criteria of stock and original images depend on your business level and objectives. Start-ups can opt for stock images because of their low budget and resources.

Once your busines starts getting a good return, arranging a professional photographer to take personalized images is recommended. You do not need to rush into getting authentic images. Understand your industry, study your competitors, and start creating a plan for the types of images you want captured for your first or next photo shoot.

Author's Bio:

Jucebox Local Marketing Partners Among Top B2B Service Providers on UpCity!

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 14:05:49 GMT

Jucebox Local Marketing Partners is thrilled to officially announce that we are a part of the UpCity community of top B2B service providers!

At Jucebox Local Marketing Partners , we proudly specialize in helping home and professional services businesses improve their marketing efforts. Small businesses require a more strategic approach in order to stand out amongst the competition, and we help implement local SEO best practices to ensure success. Our team is the one-stop shop for those looking to maximize their visibility!

UpCity is a resource that helps connect businesses to service providers they can trust. With more than 70,000 listed providers—from marketing agencies to accounting firms to HR consultants to IT specialists, and many more—2 million businesses (and counting) have visited UpCity to research and identify the best partner for their needs.

UpCity’s proprietary algorithm utilizes a variety of digital signals to measure the credibility, trustworthiness, and recommendability of B2B service providers across the U.S. and Canada. These digital data points like reviews (both on UpCity and other third-party review sites), presence in relevant search results, domain authority, website speed, and experience help UpCity connect businesses with outstanding service providers like Jucebox Local Marketing Partners.

We are proud to be listed in this vibrant and growing community and want to thank our clients for all of the love and support you have shown our business.

How to Get Your Social Media Followers Buzzing About Your Business

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 22:55:33 GMT

When you advertise your business on social media, it can take some real patience and time to get the number of interactions and followers you are looking for. Many entrepreneurs start out thinking they will have 100 followers in their first week, but unfortunately, it doesn’t usually go like that. Here is how you can get your social media followers buzzing about your business .

Build Your Brand

Ensure that you create a brand that people can associate with, follow and love. Target it directly at the people you want to become customers and followers. The trick is to use your branding as a continuous and stealthy advertisement for your business. It should exude what you stand for and remind people that you are in business ready to serve them. Your branding should appear on everything from your product packaging to your content posts and email bulletins. It does not stop with social media.

When you follow the steps below, ensure your branding is integral to each and every one of them. Use your logo as your display picture and on content posts that you produce. You can use a logo maker, like logocreator.io , to design your logo and customize it to fit your business advertising model. Take stock of how your brand is working and the response it receives from customers and visitors to your pages or website. If you need to rebrand because it is failing to achieve results, then take the plunge and do so. Doing some research on how to brand effectively can go a long way, especially since there are so many ways to use branding on social media.

Create Amazing Content

Content that does not create a vibe or spark interest will let visitors know your business is still operating, but is almost pointless in terms of connecting people to your business. It can be so easy to get caught up in posting stock images or irrelevant memes to your page to cope with the hunger of the algorithms, but it will bore your audience. You want to satisfy the social bots and satisfy your customers each and every time you post content pieces.

Take time to plan your business' content strategy and consider what you can produce or have produced for you, that will suit your business, your brand, and appeal to your audience. Be the refreshing business that makes people laugh or informs them of facts they’ve never heard before. Be the change on their newsfeed, the one business post that pops out and says ‘Read Me’.

Involve Your Customers

Email bulletins, face-to-face interactions and replies on review sites are all just as important as responding on social media. If you create a bond with a customer and make them feel special and needed, they are more likely to recommend your business. Let customers know about your social media and ask them to add you. It might be simple to put up a sign in your shop or to create a big button on your website. If you want to gain followers, you have to tell people about your social site. Consider how many businesses you use or buy from online and how many of those you follow on social media?

Interact With Your Followers

Communicating with customers is great but you have to also make sure that you are active and interactive on social media. This is a brilliant way to gain shares and comments on your posts, which will boost them and show them up on the newsfeeds of people who might not already be following you. If someone visits your social site and sees a page full of yourself and your followers chatting and sharing in conversation, they will want to be a part of it.

Make Your Page an ‘Event’

Lastly, ensure that your content is full of competitions and fun, interactive possibilities. The more you make your site feel like a party where everyone can gain something the more you will build your following.

When you create a buzz, the social media buzz will follow. Be the change you want to see in your business. Keep up that enthusiasm and dedication until you make a breakthrough.

7 Tips to Creating Shareable Content

info@juceboxlocalmarketingpartners.com — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 21:16:15 GMT

A surefire way to drive more traffic is to create highly shareable content. When your content is interesting, funny, and informative, people will automatically share it with their friends or post it on social media. Not only that, but you are likely to get natural backlinks to your blog post from high-quality blogs, thus boosting your SEO rankings. This article will give you seven tips for creating shareable content.

Let us get into it.

1. Find Out What Your Audience Truly Cares About

The first step is finding out what your audience truly cares about. If you write content that is uninteresting or covers topics they don’t care about, they won’t read it, let alone share it. Fortunately, there are many ways to figure out what kind of content your audience reacts to.

Google Analytics is your friend here, as is Google Search Console . Google Analytics will show you which pages people are spending the most time on. You will also be able to see things such as the bounce rate for different pages, which is an excellent indicator of audience interest.

Google Search Console is also beneficial, as it can show data such as which pages rank the highest in the search engines and get the most click-throughs. Topics that get clicked on more by searchers and rank higher are probably more attractive to your audience.

Of course, you can also ask your audience directly. You can publish a poll, either on your website or in your email newsletter, asking your readers what type of content they would like to see in the future. It can be a multiple-choice poll, or it can allow readers to write in their own ideas, in their own words.

2. Look For What Is Trending

Follow the trend. Find out what is trending in your niche and write content related to that. Buzzsumo is an excellent tool to find out the top shared and top trending content related to any niche or keyword. Find out what kind of content people are reading and sharing so you can create similar content.

Reddit is another great place to find trendy content ideas. Most niches will have at least one subreddit dedicated to that niche. Go to that subreddit and filter for “Hot” or “Top” posts. See what people are talking about, which issues concern consumers, and what kinds of questions people have.

Quora is another excellent site. It's a Q&A site where people can ask questions and receive answers. It can be very revealing as to which things people are worried about or which topics they are curious about.

Twitter can be helpful as well. Find trending hashtags or topics in your niche and write blog posts about them. You can use a tool like Hashtagify or RiteTag to discover trending hashtags in any industry, or you can simply look at the hashtags your competitors are using.

3. Write a Killer Headline

Your headline is one of the most critical parts of your article. It must be eye-catching and exciting, and it should include an element of mystery, hinting at additional information being revealed throughout the piece. It should make people want to click on the article and scroll down to read more.

You should consider creating an alternative headline for your meta title. That is the headline that will appear with your URL in the search engine results. Keep your meta title under 60 characters, or it may get cut off.

4. Prefer Long-Form Content

Long-form content tends to rank best in the search engines. That’s not to say that shorter content can’t rank. In less competitive niches, or when published on authoritative blogs, shorter blog posts can and do rank well. However, as competition is getting more intense in almost every niche, shorter content is becoming less and less effective. The more your content ranks, the more traffic it will get, and the more people will share it.

How much content is enough? In general, content in the top first position has 2,400+ words , on average, and all of the first six results have more than 2,300 words, on average. However, it’s not solely correlated with content length, as the first result, on average, has slightly fewer words than the second result. That shows that quality and site authority are paramount as well.

It really depends on your industry at the end of the day. For example, if all the content in your industry is only 300 words long, you don’t necessarily need 2,400 words to get to the first position on Google. An SEO agency can figure out how many words you need for your niche.

Shorter content is also less sharable. That’s because it often does not cover the topic in-depth and only superficially explains it. It lacks the ability to convey critical information or to reveal unique insights.

5. Break Down the Post Into Links

A great way to make your content more shareable is to break it down and add links. Breaking up your content into subheadings is a great start. Most people skim through articles instead of reading them thoroughly, as they don’t always have a lot of time and are distracted by personal issues.

Breaking up your content will allow readers to skim through the article and understand your message without spending as much time on the piece. If they know your message, they will be more likely to share it.

You can also use links to break down the post. Links show that your statements are backed up by research, data, and studies. They also add a structure to the article when spread evenly throughout the piece.

In addition, outbound links can improve your SEO rankings. Make sure you are linking to high-quality blogs, however. Inbound linking can also improve your rankings, but link to pages you want to rank higher.

6. Use Images

Images also break up articles and make them easier to skim through. Not only that, but they make your content more exciting and interesting. They also make your content more shareable. A high-quality, eye-catching image will make people want to share your content with their friends or on social media. Remember that your main post image will show up on social media previews when shared, making those social media posts more likely to be reshared many times over.

Don’t use free stock images. You might save a dollar or two on an image by using a free stock image from a site like Pixabay , but those images appear more times on the web than you might imagine. Also, they’re often lower-quality images that are kind of plain-looking and uninspirational. If you can’t hire a designer to create custom images, at least invest in premium stock photos that look better.

When uploading images, make sure to use a plugin like WP Smush to compress the images before uploading them. Doing that will help speed up your site. Otherwise, the photos you upload can make your site load slowly, making it less user-friendly and less shareable.

Also, when you upload your images, include your target keywords in the alt text. That doesn’t make your page more shareable directly, but it does increase your SEO rankings, leading to more traffic and shares in the long run.

7. Add Sharing Buttons That Are Easy to See

Finally, add sharing buttons that are easy to see. There are many plugins that will add sharing buttons to your WordPress blog. AddThis allows you to add a variety of different sharing button styles to your page, such as:

A floating sidebar that is always visible but doesn’t interfere with the reading experience
A floating header or footer bar with a share button
Inline sharing buttons that appear at a specific point in the blog post, either in the beginning, middle, or end
Pop-ups with sharing buttons
Share buttons in the corner of the page that only expand when hovered over, thus not interfering with the user experience
Sharing buttons that appear when a user hovers their mouse over an image, allowing them to share the image with a link to your blog post

AddThis allows you to customize the way your share buttons look. It also provides you with detailed analytics on how many people shared your posts and to which channels. I would suggest playing around with different share button styles to figure out which types bring the most shares. You may need to choose a more prominent style or a less prominent one if your share buttons are interfering with the user experience.

ShareThis is another excellent plugin.

Wrapping It Up

It only takes one viral blog post to become famous. Sometimes, you’ll publish post after post without the type of engagement you dream of, only for one blog post to go viral on social media, giving your blog celebrity status.

Ultimately, however, your goal should be to provide consistent, high-quality, shareable content and encourage readers to share your posts with as many friends as possible. Using these seven tips, you can make your content more shareable and get more organic traffic from referrals.

How to Use Customer Feedback in Email Marketing

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 00:23:14 GMT

The overly competitive market of today weeds out companies that can’t demonstrate solid social proof. The reason is simple — no one is going to do business with a brand that lacks a digital presence solidified by real people. It’s a risk not worth taking.

But don’t just take our word for it. It turns out that a whopping 89% of customers need to read at least a couple of reviews before they feel confident enough to make the purchase. Add the fact that the majority of people don’t trust reviews older than 3 months, and you have a good case for regularly collecting customer feedback.

Still not convinced that high-quality testimonials are the backbone of a reputable company? Keep on reading.

Why Gathering Customer Feedback Should Be Your Top Priority

Apart from acting as proof that your business delivers on its promises, endorsement from customers ensures that your company stays on track to meet the pre-set goals. It helps keep the focus on the bigger picture and move towards expanding your reach and hitting those sales quotas like nobody’s business.

Here’s how:

Through building relationships with customers based on trust. Everyone likes to feel like their opinion matters. They also like to be listened to and heard. And this is precisely what asking for feedback achieves.

Through using testimonials in marketing campaigns. You can hit two birds with one stone by sending out questionnaires and incorporating the answers into your promotional campaigns. This way, you benefit from enhancing the brand’s reputation and exceeding revenue targets.

Through improving future products and services. There’s no better way to determine how to better your offering than to take notes from customers who’ve gotten first-hand experience with it. It’s free consulting that’s worth its weight in gold.

Groove’s CEO Alex Turnbull jumped on the opportunity to ask fellow customers about their experience with the product to find out why the company’s churn rate was going up . It didn’t take long for him to figure out what features the product was missing and in what new ways it can be used.

An insight like this would’ve cost him a fortune had he not reached out to those for whom the product was created originally.

How To Get Feedback From Customers Via Email

Nike’s motto “Just do it!” applies perfectly well to seeking feedback from customers. Ask for it and there’s a good chance you’ll receive it.

In fact, Bright Local research found that 72% of those who were asked to leave a review did so with no hesitation. This goes to show that it only takes a well-written request — which you can send via email — to get the information you need.

Now, the question is — how do you approach asking for testimonials so that the customers would be interested in sending them to you?

1. Create Segmented Lists of Subscribers and Cater to Them

Asking a lead to tell you about his experience with the purchased product is akin to asking a tourist to show you around the new city — you aren’t going to get the answer you’re hoping for. Your email will get ignored at best or prompt the potential customer to unsubscribe from receiving emails from your company in the future at worst.

To avoid getting into this trap, consider segmenting your subscribers into a few categories. One of them should include loyal customers and another one - prospects. They should also be further split up into groups of different ages, occupations, locations, and purchasing habits.

Image Source: Vero

2. Keep Your Emails Short, Sweet, and Personalized

You might have the wittiest email template in-store, but if it’s too long, too generic, or too boring to read, your effort will go in vain. No one is willing to take 20 minutes out of their day to leave a review that won’t make a difference in their lives.

Below are some of the rules to follow when creating an email template that will get at least a 20% open rate:

Mention the name of the customer
Get to the point right away
Keep the focus of the email on a single product/service
Make the Call-To-Action (CTA) button easy to spot
Embed the questionnaire into the email

Airbnb set a great example with its succinct email that complied with the above rules.

Image Source: eDesk

Pro tip: do let your customers know why their input matters (hint to a catchy subject line and a concise message with a clearly stated objective).

Don't Be Stingy With Rewards and Discounts

Sometimes it takes offering an incentive to get your customer to leave a testimonial. Indeed, the response rates to feedback emails rise by 30% when the customer is incentivized to leave a review. An example of a reward can be a discount on the next purchase, a gift card, or even an entry for a giveaway.

No matter what you choose to offer in exchange for the customer’s time, make sure it provides real value. People are quick to spot a clickbait that’s not worth their attention and are likely to form a less than positive opinion about the brand that deceives its customers.

Take a look at Tailor Brands and its approach to collecting feedback.

Image Source: Campaign Monitor

How to Use the Collected Feedback in Future Advertisements

There’s no point in getting all of this customer feedback just to make a few tweaks in your operational processes. Make them work for you by incorporating these testimonials into your promotional strategies.

Don’t shy away from letting your prospects know why they should do business with you. The market is saturated enough for customers to favor brands that don’t sell themselves short.

Check out how you can make the most of the reviews:

1. Include Customer Feedback in Your Welcome Emails

That’s right — there’s a way to use the feedback you have collected from your customers to lure in the new ones. If you add a couple of reviews to your welcome email campaigns, your leads will be persuaded to believe that your offer is as great as advertised. And since there are people who can confirm this, they’ll think to themselves “Why not jump on the bandwagon too?”

2. Add Testimonials to Your Website as Proof of Evidence

Whether it’s the landing page you’re trying to fill up or the whole website you’re in the process of revamping, a handful of authentic testimonials can do wonders for your business. If you can get feedback in the form of a video, consider you’re in luck — 94% of marketing specialists confess that videos are a great way to explain how the product or service works.

Use the Existing Feedback to Turn Skeptics Into Customers

When noticing that the company’s churn rate is declining, it makes sense to start including customer feedback in your retention and reactivation emails. Both of them, if containing a positive review, will help you remind the customer why he should continue using the company’s services.

Pro tip: use social media to showcase what others have to say about your products or services.

The Takeaway

To not be asking for customer feedback is to miss out on the opportunity to improve your products or services and build long-lasting relationships with your clients. It’s also a wasted opportunity to decrease your costs on coming up with content for your marketing campaigns.

So, do yourself a favor and get those reviews. Test out different email templates and segmentation groups, personalize your messages , and offer rewards that would prompt subscribers to get involved. Valuable insights and an improved reputation are guaranteed.

Jucebox Local Marketing Partners Recognized as a Top Website Design Agency in the Sacramento Area

info@juceboxlocalmarketingpartners.com — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:58:04 GMT

Jucebox Local Marketing Partners has been recognized among the 20 best Web Designers in Sacramento in 2021 by DesignRush Marketplace.

DesignRush is a reliable online guide to finding the best professional companies and agencies categorized according to vertical and area of expertise.

After evaluating and analyzing Jucebox's performance with some of the most prominent brands in the US, the online platform gave Jucebox Local Marketing a spot among the most reputable agencies in the Sacramento area.

Jucebox Local Marketing Partners was founded in 2012 by Rebekah Richards, an ex technology consultant for NEC. It has achieved a consistent 5 star reviews and 90% 2+ year client retention rate thanks to relentless pursuit of opportunity and optimization efforts.

In 2020 with the global recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company provided a free community outreach website that allowed companies to post details about whether they were operating and in what capacity. Jucebox's founder, has also been very active in the local Chamber of Commerce.

DesignRush evaluates thousands of agencies and is committed to helping brands find the best solutions for their needs. The platform has a listing that allows users to search partners based on clients, portfolios, reviews, pricing structure, and testimonials. This recognition to Jucebox Marketing is one of many that distinguishes the agency and claims it’s excellence. Visit our DesignRush profile here .

What to do Now? Resources for U.S. Small Business Owners

Wed, 26 May 2021 13:50:42 GMT

Local, State and National Resources to Aid Businesses During the Pandemic

If you own a small business, you might struggle to be profitable even at the best of times. The current COVID-19 pandemic has dialed up the stakes for most businesses in the United States and around the world. Non-essential businesses have closed their doors in an effort to halt the spread of the virus, and there is no clear end in sight.

There is a glimmer of good news. There are many resources available to help small business owners in this difficult time. Some are resources that were already available in some form but have been retooled to fill the changing needs of small business owners. Here are some resources and tools that may help you.

US Chamber of Commerce

The US Chamber of Commerce has created a comprehensive guide for small business owners that includes links to many useful resources, including:

Loan and grant programs for small businesses
The Paycheck Protection Program , which is a key provision of the CARES Act that was recently passed by Congress
A to-do list for small business owners

It’s a very useful page with lots of links out to other resources and information. It’s also a good idea to check out your local Chamber of Commerce for additional resources. You can find your local organization here .

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides resources to small business owners all the time, including small business loans and government grants. They have some special resources for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic:

The Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program
SBA Express Bridge Loans
Guidance for Businesses and Employers
SBA Products and Resources
Government Contracting
Local Assistance

EIDL loans have been expanded under the CARES Act. These are low interest loans that are coordinated at the state level with the help of governors. They can provide up to $2 million in loans to businesses to help them replace revenue lost as a result of the pandemic.

Even if your business does not qualify for an EIDL, you may still be able to get a $10,000 emergency grant to help you meet your payroll commitments and other business expenses.

Centers for Disease Control

While many small businesses are closed with employees working from home, some are still open. Restaurants have retooled as takeout and delivery services, and some other small businesses have been identified as essential.

If your business falls into one of those categories, then the Centers for Disease Control website has a resource that you’ll need: Resources for Businesses and Employers . The page includes interim guidelines to keep your business safe, recommendations for cleaning and sanitizing your workspace, and a link out to OSHA guidelines for COVID-19.

US Tax Credits

Expanded loans and payroll protection aren’t the only things in the CARES Act designed to help small business owners. There are also several tax benefits that may help you recover lost income.

Here are a few highlights.

The proposed bill waives tax penalties if you withdraw money from a retirement account before you reach the age of 59 ½. The waiver applies for amounts up to $100,000 and is good through the end of 2020. To qualify, you must demonstrate that you or an immediate family member were diagnosed with COVID-19 or that you experienced significant loss of income due to a layoff, reduced hours, or a business closing. You may still be required to pay income taxes depending on the type of retirement fund you have, but you can spread out the payments over three years.
The bill also includes a credit for employer taxes if you either closed your business for one quarter in 2020 or you can demonstrate that your income decreased by 50% or more due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are additional provisions that allow for increased charitable deductions. You can find a full explanation here .

Finally, you should know that the Internal Revenue Service has extended the deadline for paying taxes to July 15, 2020. You are still required to file by April 15, but you may wait until the extended deadline to pay any taxes you owe.

Google Small Business Fund

While some big companies are asking for government handouts, others are doing what they can to help small businesses in this time of crisis. A good example is Google, which announced that it has created an $800 million commitment to help with the pandemic.

There are two key elements of the fund that apply directly to small business owners. The first is a $200 million investment that will be given to non-profit organizations and financial institutions to provide bridge loans and assistance to small businesses impacted by the pandemic.

The second is a $340 million commitment to provide Google Ads credits to every small business with an active account in the past year. The credits will appear automatically on your Google Ads account and may be used on any of Google’s advertising platforms (including YouTube) through the end of 2020.

It’s also worth mentioning that Google is providing support and funding to any manufacturing business that can retool their facilities to produce needed materials, including hand sanitizer and Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers.

State Relief Programs

In addition to small business relief programs at the federal level, most states have programs to help small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find a partial list in this Forbes article . It includes loan programs, grants, and other assistance.

If you don’t see your state on the list, you can do a Google search for your state + COVID-19 relief for businesses. You can also find your state governor’s website on this page .

Keep in mind that some states may be lagging on offering assistance simply because they have not yet been as strongly impacted by the virus as places like Washington, California, and New York. Based on projections, that is going to change pretty much everywhere, so if you don’t see something now, keep checking back.

Facebook Small Business Grants Program

Another big company that’s doing something tangible to help small businesses is Facebook, which recently announced the creation of a Small Business Grants Program .

The program will provide up to $100 million in grants to 30,000 eligible small businesses in 30 countries around the world. The grants may be cash, ad credits, or a combination of the two.

There is limited information available as of this writing, but if you click on the above link, you can sign up to receive updates and get more details as they become available.

Other Resources

The resources we’ve listed above are some of the most widely available and directly useful, but we also found an array of other resources that you should know about.

America’s Small Business Development Centers has created a comprehensive resource page for small businesses . It includes some of the same information we’ve covered above, as well as additional resources that you may find useful.

Small Business Majority has a collection of resources, as well, which includes live and recorded webinars to help small business owners cope with the crisis. You can find it here .

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has a resource page that includes webinars, legal resources, FAQ, and more. You can find it here .

The ICIC has a resource page that includes webinars, a network for members, and federal and banking resources to help small businesses with their financial needs during the pandemic. You can find it here .

SCORE has a web page dedicated to pandemic-related resources for small businesses. It includes remote mentoring, webinars, and local chapter workshops and events. You can access it here .

Most local Chambers of Commerce are providing resource pages. Check the Chamber in your city or area.

While some small businesses recovered from being hit by COVID-19, others did not. Studies found 35 percent of service-based businesses that closed during the pandemic were still closed. The experts at Bankrate wrote a post in August of 2021 that explains the resources that are available now for small business owners to help them prepare for another potential shut down.

Finally, you can access FEMA’s emergency plan for businesses here . It includes guidelines to help you plan and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This list is as comprehensive as we could make it, but there are likely to be additional resources that we didn’t cover as well as new resources that become available in the coming weeks and months. We will keep you posted, but we also encourage you to seek resources on your own.

The best thing you can do at this time is to educate yourself about the available resources and be as practical and calm as possible. The more you know about what’s out there, the easier it will be to choose the resources that are most helpful to you and your employees at this difficult time.

How to Stay Connected When Your Team is Working from Home

Wed, 26 May 2021 13:50:35 GMT

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employers to scramble to set up the technology required to allow employees to work from home. If you and your team are used to working in the same space, the adjustment requires more than technology.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to increase your sense of connection and your ability to work as a team. Here are some suggestions.

Use Online Meeting Tools

Online meeting software Zoom has seen a huge increase in users since governors began issuing stay-at-home orders. Zoom software allows multiple users to connect to a meeting, and they have a free option that you can use if you don’t want to (or can’t afford to) pay for a service.

Zoom’s free plan includes:

Unlimited one-to-one meetings
Group meetings up to 100 participants with a time limit of 40 minutes
Online support
Active speaker view

If you upgrade to their Pro plan, which costs $14.99 per month, the maximum meeting length goes up to 24 hours and you’ll get some useful admin features that will allow you to change the settings for your Zoom meetings. The company has also created a resource page for users during the pandemic, which you can find here .

You may also want to use some of the following tools:

Google Docs (ideal for sharing document)
Google Hangouts (may be used for meetings)
Facebook and Facebook Live (you can create a private group for your employees and go live with video if you choose)
Project management software such as Slack or Asana

This is just a sampling of what’s available. If you’re looking for something specific, use Google or connect with other small business owners to ask what they’re using.

Set Up a New Routine

One of the most important things you can do for your staff is to create a new “normal” so that they know what to expect every day. Some of y our employees may need guidance on how to work from home, and some may need more structure than they normally do.

Here are some suggestions for setting up your new work routine.

Have a daily check-in, preferably early in the day, where you get together on a video conference or conference call and talk about the day.
Be clear in your expectations and create written workflows when necessary.
Use Google Docs to create a schedule and post assignments. (If you already use project management software such as Asana or Slack, you can use that instead.)
Encourage your staff to talk one-on-one and brainstorm ideas as needed.
Set up clear milestones and goals and make sure everyone understands them.

Here is an excellent training from Darren Hardy who has been successfully leading virtual teams for 20 years.

Communication has never been more important than it is now, and it’s your job as a business owner to take full advantage of the tools available to you to keep the lines of communication open.

Show Compassion

Connection and compassion go hand in hand. If you want your employees to feel connected to one another and to you, it’s essential to let them know that you understand and respect their feelings like this resource post by Marie Forleo shares – and to give them room to feel them.

Be understanding that employees are adjusting to working from home and may have challenges that they need to work around to be productive. Examples include spouses who are also working from home, kids who are now engaged in distance learning, and demanding pets who want their owners’ attention. We’re all going to need to be patient with each other to be productive.
Likewise, be patient and compassionate with your employees’ fears and concerns. This is a scary time and there’s no point in pretending it isn’t. We don’t know what the future will bring. Your staff may be emotional and have a hard time focusing. It’s your job as a leader to meet them where they are and give them what they need to do their jobs.
Finally, find ways to make it fun. You may decide to have a virtual happy hour with your employees once a week or enjoy lunch together in a Zoom meeting. Not everything needs to be serious and your employees and you will benefit if you find moments of lightness in the workday.

There are a lot of uncertainties in our lives now, but we can still find ways to feel connected to one another. Ultimately, creating a sense of connection will help make your employees more productive as they adjust to the new normal.

How to Keep Your Business Relevant During COVID-19

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:59:59 GMT

Strategies to Help Your Business Survive the Pandemic

There’s no question that we are living in a surreal and scary time. For Americans, the COVID-19 virus went from being a distant headline back in January to an overwhelming reality in March. Cases in the United States and around the world are increasing exponentially and in a short time, we’ve gone from business as usual to most of the world’s population sheltering in their homes.

For business owners, the element of uncertainty looms large. Governments are advising non-essential businesses to close to protect employees and the public. If your business is going to survive, it will be because you find a way to keep your products and services relevant to the people in your target audience.

The answer for most businesses is going to require creative thinking. Here are some tips to help you find your relevance and maintain your audience during the global crisis.

Start with Your Customers

In a time of uncertainty, it’s always a good idea to let your customers lead the way. Ask yourself what your customers need from you right now – and what they’ll need from you a month from now. Better yet: ask your customers what they need.

While there’s certainly a lot of stress involved in running a business during a pandemic, it’s important to remember that we have resources that are still available to us even if our offices and stores are closed. We have technology to help us keep in touch with our audiences. That’s not a small thing.

Your customers may need you to deliver services in a new way. They may need your services or products to adapt to their current situation. You won’t know unless you ask.

Embrace Creativity to Retain Your Customers

Once you know what your audience wants, it’s time to figure out how to adapt your business to provide it. The answer may be an obvious one. For example, many restaurants have transformed into takeout and delivery services. Diners may not be able to come in and sit down, but people still want to support their favorite eateries.

Here are some other suggestions that may inspire you:

Fitness trainers can do Skype or streaming classes. A great example comes from the martial arts community, where schools have been agile at switching to virtual classrooms to keep their students engaged.
Consultants, including personal coaches, lawyers, and financial consultants, can offer Skype or Zoom sessions in lieu of face-to-face sessions.
Some businesses (think electricians and plumbers) may be able to keep working with proper protective gear, including masks and gloves.
Look for advertising resources that are dedicated to getting the word out that you are open. A great example is the WhosOpenNow.com directory.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to figure everything out on your own. There’s help available .

Prioritize Safety

No business will survive the current crisis that doesn’t take the situation seriously. This is not a time to take the pandemic lightly or act as if the safety of your employees and customers doesn’t matter. People are being hit hard by an ever-worsening reality and they won’t thank any business that’s dismissive of their fears.

Some of the things you can do to show you care and that you take your customers’ health and safety serious include:

Posting a statement on your website and on social media outlining the precautions you are taking to minimize the risk. Here’s a good example from Target . You’ll notice that they’ve talked about what they’re doing to help employees, new cleaning procedures for their stores, precautions for product pick-ups and deliveries, and their community efforts to help people impacted by the pandemic.
Offering deals on your products or services that are specifically helpful to people at this time. That means being creative and being mindful of the needs of the people you serve.
Avoiding anything that seems opportunistic. Of course, you are worried about the survival of your business, but failing to show empathy to the very real concerns of your audience won’t help you survive.
If you have clients or customers that owe you money, work with them to create payment plans if they ask you to. It’s natural to be concerned about cash flow but pushing people who are worrying about their own financial futures won’t make them pay you more quickly. In fact, it may make them avoid you. Be compassionate and you’re more likely to get paid.

In other words, you should market and advertise, but it’s essential to do it in a way that’s mindful of the current circumstances and shows your audience that you care.

Embrace the Uncertainty

Uncertainty can be difficult to cope with, but the truth is that none of us knows what tomorrow will bring – or next month, or the month after that. Despite hopes that social distancing would be a temporary measure, the rising number of cases suggests that we’ll be battling this virus and its devastation for a long time.

One difficult decision that’s on the horizon for some businesses is the need to lay off employees. If you can’t meet your payroll, then it’s best to lay people off now and file a claim with your local department of labor or unemployment office. When you file as the employer, you’ll be smoothing the way for your laid off employees to collect unemployment benefits.

The businesses that will survive this crisis are the ones who manage to maintain their agility in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. As a business owner, you’ll need to lead your employees in a way you never have before, providing steady guidance and reassurance even if you’re filled with doubt.

Take Help If You Need It

Finally, and this is important, don’t hesitate to take help from any source that will provide it if you need to do so. I’ll go into greater detail about the help that’s available in another article, but you should be aware that the Small Business Association is providing disaster loan assistance to qualifying companies. You can learn more here .

Not every business will survive the COVID-19 pandemic. The ones that will are those that listen to their customers, get creative, and find ways to stay relevant. It’s going to be a long road, but your business can get through with some hard work and luck.

How Online Reviews Can Affect You

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:35:30 GMT

It’s hard to do anything these days without consulting reviews first. The wisdom of an ambiguous “they,” online reviews have pervaded aspects of everyday life from gyms, to smartphones, to candy bars .

In a world seemingly focused on eliminating negative experiences completely, [MP1] the difference between “I heard they’re really good!” and “oh, yeah that would be fine” can make or break entire businesses.

As fickle as that might seem, reviews as far as the eye can see is worth getting used to; studies show that almost 90% of consumers read reviews before making any shopping decisions.

The good news is that there’s a positive side to this trend as well if you know how to navigate it. Online reviews can help your business stand out if you:

Actively cultivate positive reviews
Accept the reality of negative reviews
Respond to the constructive criticisms you get

You can’t change the presence of third-party review sites like Yelp , CNET, and Clutch. You can, however, change how they affect your customers.

1. Get Reviewed

As much as negative reviews have the potential to bring you down, positive reviews have the ability to get your attention. And not only do great reviews make customers more likely to shop at your store, but they can influence them into spending up to 31% more on your products and services.

Many marketing agencies recommend seeking honest reviews [MP4] from your happy customers. The stats here are beyond compelling: 77% of customers are willing to leave a review if asked, and 82% of consumers say reviews have convinced them to buy specific things. At face value, those two factors alone mean that a positive representation in reviews could lead to as much as a 63% increase in sales!

2. Take Negative Reviews in Stride

As fantastic as that ROI would be, it’s certainly possible that inviting reviews could lead to a few negatives in with the positives. What kind of doomsday scenario will this incite?

The truth is, probably none. Reviews have been around for long enough that customers actually expect a few negative ones. According to business.com, negative reviews serve as an important sign that the reviews themselves are real. It’s the proportion that matters.

In other words: if you have no negatives, the positives don’t even count .

3. Always Learn and Respond

One added benefit of online reviews is the actual feedback you get. While positive reviews are great for telling you what you’re doing well, negative reviews — ones that have some basis in fact — are an excellent opportunity for your company to grow.

Whether or not a complaint has merit, the most important thing to do is respond. If you appear concerned about your customers' experiences and eager to make things right, you can cancel out the negative value of the review.

According to one ReviewTrackers survey , “45 percent of consumers say that they’re more likely to visit a business if it responds to negative reviews.”

Reviews Are Low-Cost Advertising

If there’s anything you should take away, it’s that you don’t want to be one of the companies left behind by this digital trend.

They say actions speak louder than words: if you need any more convincing, check out our profile on Clutch, the B2B ratings and reviews platform where we show off our expertise in digital marketing for the exact same reasons we’ve explained here.

Their marriage of detailed project explanations and customer feedback is one of the easiest ways for us to put our skills on display!

We also have a review site with over 2 dozen reviews as well as several 5 star Google Reviews .

If you want help in your business’ search for online reviews or other digital marketing techniques, contact us today .

Is a Facebook PPC Campaign Worth it?

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Social media is a powerful marketing tool to reach your audience and create an online presence for your brand. However, when it comes to advertising, technology is a prerequisite and has always played a vital part in its dispersal and attainability. From flyers promoting the local shopping mart to pop-up ads appearing on your phone, technology has made advertising much more readily available.

It did not take long for companies to realize the power of utilizing social media platforms to get their brands noticed. In the past several years, space has become more restricted and competitive for brands and businesses to get themselves seen on these platforms.

This led to Facebook offering its “Pay-Per-Click” or PPC campaigns.

This being said, being wary of something new is understandable, so we are here to go through what exactly a Facebook PPC campaign is, and if it’s worth it.

What is a Facebook PPC?

A Facebook PPC is a marketing channel or a form of advertising in which a company pays Facebook Advertising only when the ad is clicked. Having an effective Facebook PPC strategy helps you attract more people to your website and increase the sales revenue.

Based on the audience, demographics or keyword selected, the company advertising will pay X amount each time their ad is clicked. This cost is determined by how many people you can reach, and how competitive the audience is. These ads placements can be on a variety of spots on Facebook; this includes both desktop and mobile newsfeeds, the sidebar, and the audience network.

Advantages of Facebook Advertising

Amid a large, vast audience and extremely popular in youngsters, Facebook has over 2 billion active users across the globe, with more and more people signing on every day. With such a high rate of traffic, this will open up enormous opportunities for businesses to reach a large group of people that might not have found your company otherwise.