7 Different Income Streams (That Millionaires Earn!)

7 Easy Ways to Increase Online Sales

How to Improve Your Website's Buying Process From small businesses to huge corporations, increasing profits is the #1 goal. As a business owner, it's your main purpose and what you focus the bulk of your energy on. However, it can be a challenge-especially when you're so close to your brand-to see what's missing and to make the necessary changes. Fortunately, there's no shortage of ways you can improve your buying process and see results in the near future. Whether you run a product- or service-based business, here are 7 ways to increase online sales: 1. Have a user-friendly website that looks good. This might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many small business owners neglect their online presence, even if they don't have a brick and mortar store. They get so focused on selling they forget about the user experience. As a result, visitors get frustrated they can't find what they're looking for, wrestle with glitchy pages and outdated content and go elsewhere. Remember, many people are also going to be browsing and/or buying from their phones, so optimize accordingly. 2. Tell nothing but the truth. Don't exaggerate what your product can do or oversell your services. This will only hurt your reputation in the long run and keep you from gaining your customers' and followers' loyalty. You might make initial profits, but people won't return, will leave negative reviews and will tell family and friends. Of course, you want to market effectively, but don't claim your coaching services will absolutely lead to a six-figure income or your skincare products will make anyone look 20 years younger. Be honest and transparent while sharing the benefits of whatever you're selling. 3. Spend time on SEO. You want your business to be found in Google, but that's not going to happen unless you research your competitors, choose the right keywords (including longtail keywords) and properly optimize your website. For example, a wedding planner will face stiff competition when creating campaigns around "wedding planning in Vancouver". He or she could create targeted, longtail content around keywords related to wedding planning, such as fall flower arrangements, unique cupcakes, elegant Bohemian wedding décor, his and her cocktails and so on-anything to drive traffic to the site while standing out from the competition. 4. Create a sense of urgency. If users land on your site only to see an offer from a year ago is still front and centre, it's disappointing and makes people wonder how much energy you put into your business or if you're still in business at all. If you want to improve your buying process, it's essential to help customers understand the value of what you're providing, whether it's a limited-time offer or a seasonal sale. 5. Understand that content is king. We've been hearing this for a long time, and it's still so relevant! Search engines reward fresh and useful content. Here are some characteristics of a user-friendly website: • Detailed, unique product descriptions • Blog articles about interesting topics related to your product or service • A FAQ page where you answer all your customers' questions 6. Monitor and respond to reviews. Nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase, according to the Spiegel Research Center, 2017. I recently talked about the importance of online reviews in How to Deal with Negative Reviews Without Harming Your Business. From Google My Business to Yelp, you have the opportunity to share your information and get customer feedback, whether it's negative or positive. 7. Be super social. You NEED a social media presence, and the time has come to focus on content marketing storytelling. Not only do users check out online reviews and how responsive you are, they also look to see what you're promoting and how often you're active. You should have strategies the major platforms you know your target market is using including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Don't neglect your audience and they won't neglect you! It's worth it to put the energy into strategizing now for great results. No matter what your brand is, boosting your online sales, brand awareness and loyalty can be a big challenge. Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence. As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way. Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results". Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Susan_Friesen/260293 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10106970

Why Creating Great Content Is The Only Online Marketing Strategy You Need To Follow

When you hear the words "online marketing", what comes to your mind? Social Media? Facebook? Search engine optimization? Blogging? WordPress? Or maybe you think about online advertising, pay-per-clicks, and search engine marketing. I believe there is one word that everyone thinks about when they hear the term "online marketing", and that word is "difficult." Online marketing is difficult.

Have you ever talked to a marketing guru about online marketing? Don't they all give the same, vague, generalized advice when it comes to online marketing? First, they tell you to hire a SEO firm, then they tell you to blog, then they tell you to use social media, and after you've done all of this, they tell you that you'll start receiving traffic to your website. Every marketing guru says the exact same thing, and the advice is always vague. Even the in-depth advice about online marketing is vague. Have you ever read an article about online marketing? Try this when you have some free time. Research "online marketing strategies" on Google and click on and read some of the articles. You don't have to look past the first page on Google. Just read some of the top articles that Google returns. This is a compare and contrast exercise. Once you complete this, you'll realize that all these articles sound the same. The first paragraph gives you a brief overview of what online marketing is and why it is so important. Then the list starts. Now after you've completed this exercise, you probably realize that the titles of the article all have something in common; they're all formatted as a top-ten list. They all look like this: "7 Online Marketing Facebook Strategies to Increase your Fan Base." Now, this isn't problem. I like the top-ten list format. It makes the article more appealing to the reader. What I don't like about majority of these articles is that almost everyone's top-ten list is the same. They all give the same online marketing strategies and advice. I mean c'mon; these are the experts! These are professional writers, writing for some of the biggest companies in the world. Why do majority of the articles sound the same? Because again, online marketing is difficult! No one likes to be wrong or give bad advice. The writers are just writing the same vague, generalized advice that the marketing gurus say. I could go on-and-on, especially when it comes to online marketing workshops, but I'm not going to; I think you've gotten the point by now.

In this article, I'm going to attempt to do something that's rarely done. I'm going to attempt to give you original and effective advice about online marketing. I'm going to be completely honest. I will not give you outdated strategies that do not work just to make my article longer. These strategies will work. How do I know? Because, I run a company and they're currently working for me. I have experience in this area and I've made many mistakes in online marketing, so I know what works and what doesn't work. So, without further ado, here are my online marketing strategies that will definitely help your business gain more exposure online.

Online marketing is all about the kind of content you're creating. First of all, the best online marketing strategy is creating content. Hands down! Sure, Facebook likes, retweets and social media shares on other popular social media sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Reddit are cool, but do they really increase profits for a business? Think about it, how many times do you patronize a business because you liked their Facebook post? Exactly. I believe social media is very powerful but only works if you have great content. Content can be anything. It can be from a very nicely written article to a fashionable t-shirt with a clever phrase on the front. Content can really be anything. I believe majority of the businesses out there think that just posting a catchy post on Facebook along-side an eye-catching photo will increase their consumer base and ultimately their profits. This just isn't true. If online marketing were that easy, everyone, including the average person would be an expert at online marketing. Anything in this world worth having takes hard work and time; the results from an effective online marketing campaign are no different. Creating great content isn't easy; however, when you do create great content, there are so many resources at your disposal that could potentially help that content become viral. Have you ever saw a video on Facebook or YouTube that has hundreds of shares and thousands of likes? The reason that video went viral is because of the content. The average person isn't a marketing guru and doesn't have a social media budget; all they have is their imagination. That's all you need to create great content.

So, now that we've established that creating great content is the best online marketing strategy, I'm going to show you how to create great content. As I stated earlier, creating great, viral worthy content isn't easy. However, there are so many resources to help that content go viral; creating the content is really the only hard part. Creating great content requires research. You have to think about what's trending in the world. Too many marketing gurus think that the only thing that can go viral is a funny YouTube video and that's just not true. If you're not funny, don't try to be funny. You don't have to be funny. Play to your strengths. You just have to be creative, persistent, and use your imagination. There are a lot of things that are trending in the world. Pick one. Create content about a subject that's important to you. The more important it is to you, more than likely, the better the content will be. The next step is to create the content using a media that's popular. There is a reason why videos are more likely to go viral than an article. A great article can go viral, but it will definitely take longer. People enjoy videos more; there's no reading involved in watching a video. Your video doesn't have to be aesthetically appealing and you don't have to be an expert in video editing; it just has to be interesting. And don't worry, you can always learn about video editing and special effects while making the video; it's not exactly rocket science, it just takes a little practice. The next step in creating great, viral worthy content is relating that content back to your business. This might be the hardest part, but, if done correctly, is a game-changer. The ultimate goal is conversions, however, why do you need to convert people through the content? That's the mistake that many marketing gurus make. Great content may not raise your profits right away, but it's not supposed to. The purpose of content marketing is to raise awareness of your business. The profit gains will come in the future, not immediately. As long as the content relates back to your business (in some kind of way), you're good. The next step in writing great content is your content has to solve a problem. Consumers have problems, even if that problem is ignorance, meaning, not knowing enough about a particular subject. Great content solves problems and enlightens consumers. That's why great content goes viral. Consumers share things that they've recently learned because everyone has the inner-urge to help someone else in need.

So, let's recap. The best online marketing strategy is creating great content. There are five steps to creating great content:

1. Pick a topic that's trending
2. Use a popular medium to create the content (i.e. WordPress)
3. Relate the content back to your business
4. Make sure the content solves a problem or enlightens consumers about a particular subject.
5. The last and easiest step in this process is to share the content, everywhere.

When sharing the content, use every avenue you can think of. Social Media, Blog, YouTube, PR, press releases, etc. Don't be stingy. Great content is meant to be shared with the world. See, I told you I'd give you advice that actually works. Stop worrying about all that other stuff, like building backlinks using automated software. Google hates that anyway, but that's another subject for another day. Take care!

Allen Screen

-Content Creator and Online Marketing Director for PayPanther.com

If you're looking for an all-in-one business solution, then you're looking for PayPanther. CRM, Project Management, Time Tracking, Invoicing, Billing, and Task Management for any professional in any industry.

http://www.paypanther.com/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Allen_S_Michael/1837896

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