The Marketing Tools You Need to Succeed in 2021

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, The Marketing Tools You Need to Succeed in 2021

Marketing is something of an art form, and its success often depends on the personnel involved and the toolkit that’s used. Your company might spend millions on a marketing campaign that doesn’t nearly reach your expected ROI. On the other hand a little honesty and savvy marketing know-how can accelerate your campaign beyond your wildest dreams. You will have to hire the best people for the job but you can narrow the chances of success by knowing the right tools to use as well. In this article we take a look at some of the marketing tools you need in 2021.

Buffer or Hootsuite

Both Buffer and Hootsuite give you more control and better data when managing your social media accounts. Your website host will probably allow you to schedule posts to social media but there are limitations and the data you receive back may not be sufficient. That’s why a third party software option like Buffer or Hootsuite is effective.

Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to schedule posts to multiple social media accounts at once and give you valuable response data, such as clicks, retweets, likes, favorites, mentions, and potential views. While the free version is limited to one social media account and 10 posts at any given time, a subscription can link you up with every major social media channel.

Social media was once a friendly platform for connecting with people around the world, it’s now a commercial enterprise integral to the success of brands and businesses. Around 3.8 billion people globally use social media everyday which means your business needs to engage with the medium effectively. Buffer and Hootsuite can help you make those important strategic decisions.

Wishpond

Is your website landing page looking dated or not achieving the results you expect? This might be the case with other aspects of your website as well, such as your mailing list or CRM system. Whatever the issue Wishpond can step in and help you out. It’s an affordable digital marketing suite with more than a dozen tools on offer that make your website sing like it should.

The aim of Wishpond is to help you grow your business online by making your website modern, functional, and attractive. Wishpond’s multiplicity of tools allows you to build and publish responsive web pages quickly and across all devices – you can also add various forms to the pages that popup when users visit a landing page. Wishpond will also integrate well with social media and allow you to set up promotions and contests.

If you want an all-in-one software solution that takes your online presence to the next level then consider Wishpond. It’s not only affordable but it provides you with essential software tools like departing employee computer forensics investigations, in a user-friendly format. These tools can be found in other places too but individually, and they are often more expensive.

Instagram

Are you a small business looking to gain a foothold in social media this year? If so then Instagram is your friend. Unlike the big hitters in social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit, Instagram has remained untouched by big business advertising. Major social media sites might be awash with established brands but Instagram manages to make space for smaller voices.

How is this possible? The answer lays in the way Instagram manages its advertising. It’s difficult for smaller businesses to gain traction on social media sites dominated by the loudest voices in the industry, and even if they do ‘get-in’ it’s next to impossible to maintain the progress. However, Instagram has an affiliate program that seems to cater more to these smaller voices.

There is nothing stopping corporate giants joining the affiliate network and proving products but for some reason they don’t gain the same traction or attention. Instead, small fashion lines, makeup brands, and esoteric products are more appealing to an Instagram audience. The Instagram audience is much more favorable to the personal connection with products rather than a slick corporate appeal.

Facebook Post Boost

Like Instagram, Facebook Post Boost is a way for smaller brands and companies to slip through the cracks of corporate advertising and gain effective traction at a lower cost. In the coming year the dominant trend for corporate social media advertising is to run high cost campaigns with long run times, this opens up possibilities.

Facebook Post Boost has been introduced to combat the decline in organic reach for businesses on the site. In recent years Facebook has moved more towards posts from friends and family. The result of this is more competition with bigger brands for reaching your target audience. With Facebook Post boost you have an alternative to big budget advertising that still reaches the people who matter.

Facebook Post Boost allows you to set up parameters for a promotion post to reach your audience. You can select a range of demographics along with your ad duration and budget. These ads are not as straightforward as scheduling a campaign with a long run time but they are just as effective at reaching your audience and helping smaller businesses compete with the big guns.

Twitter Explore

In recent times Twitter has become less favorable to marketers and many are moving away from it, opting for Facebook and Instagram instead. The platform is generally perceived as good for marketing if you have a few major influences, but is otherwise difficult to reach your target audience effectively. As more small and medium sized businesses seek conversions elsewhere it might be time to move against the tide.

The reason for this trend is fairly obvious. While it is not impossible to gain new followers on Twitter and benefits from retweets, the platform doesn’t lend itself well to conversions – getting people off Twitter and onto your website is not as slick as other platforms. Still, the site has much to offer, especially if more of your competition is making the shift.

In 2021 it’s more than worth the effort to investigate your potential reach on Twitter. With less competition in your industry and some concerted effort promoting your brand with retweets, lists, and relevant connections, you might see some Twitter ROIs you have for some time relinquished.

People Per Hour

People Per Hour is an excellent freelancer website that connects talented freelancers with businesses and brands. There is so much on offer through this website that it would be silly to ignore the possibilities in 2021. For instance, you could hire influencers to visit your YouTube channel to build subscribers or have product reviews written.

Building a brand online is not always easy or straightforward. There are a concert of things to consider, everything from how to post content, where to post content, and what content to include. You might want written material or something more sophisticated like graphic or photographs. Whatever it is you ‘need’ to take your business forward online PPH has the freelancers to help.

Using freelancers might not be your first solution. It’s tempting to learn the tricks yourself and save the investment for other areas of the business. But realistically, a freelancer who spends all their time doing what you need done will turn around an effective product for you far more quickly. This saves you time and most likely money as well.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console might not be the most sophisticated analytics software on the market, but it is free and extremely useful – especially for small and medium sized businesses that need to know the vital stats for website traffic. The software does have its flaws – it is not quite as accurate as similar products – but it’s extremely user-friendly.

With Google Search Console you can analyse, maintain and improve your website’s position in SERPs, all from the convenience of a free easy to use software system. The Google Search Console allows you to confirm that Google can locate and crawl your website, fix any indexing problems you may have, analyse Google search traffic for your website, and much more.

There are some drawbacks to the Google Search Console. It works on a verified setting which means that only some activity is recorded. If someone searches for your website with a VPN or third party app it may not register. Still, it’s a small price to pay for a range of free features to help your business succeed.

Sprout Social

If you’ve already done the groundwork with your social media presence and need something to take your brand to the next level, Sprout Social is the tool to use in 2021. Sprout Social collects information from all your social media channels and helps you manage and engage with it efficiently – integrate your social media enterprise and forget about the hassle of sporadic emails.

When you’re running a social media enterprise you need to have updated responses to new messages and schedule content across your channels. Without a social media manager like Sprout Social you will be all fingers and thumbs. Needless to say this software is for the more advanced social media users. In order to collect data Sprout Social will need access to several channels and many followers.

Improve Your Local SEO For Optimum Success

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Local SEO| Improve Your Local SEO For Optimum SuccessDo you know that by improving the Local SEO positioning , you will have the possibility of reaching clients who are close to your business? For several years, the main search engines and especially Google, show personalized results for each user. These results are based on our location or if we do a local search, and they will allow us to quickly find what we need. That is, if your business is in a certain physical location and you want to attract customers from your locality or nearby, you have no choice but to appear in the first local search results. Interesting, right? Well, let’s not waste any more time and let’s start by seeing what actions you should apply to optimize the Local SEO positioning of your business.

Why is it important to improve Local SEO positioning?

Do you remember the order in which Google shows you the results when you do a local search? First, the paid ads (if there are any), and then the Google Maps map with 3 location pins. Well, in one of them your business can be, therefore, it is very important to be well positioned in your city or province. For example, if we search for hotels in the city of New York, Google shows us this map and these results.

How to do Local SEO

I can tell you that, in order to achieve a good web positioning in your locality, and you must work on internal aspects , over which you will have full control and other external aspects, which will no longer depend only on you

1. Always use the same NAP

In order to properly work on Local SEO positioning, something very important is to always use the same and identical NAP (Name-Address-Phone) data on all the websites where you register your business. It is recommended that you write them down in a Word document or in Notepad, and from there you copy and paste them. This way, no characters will be missed ( this information must match letter by letter and point by point).

2. Create a profile on Google My Business

Now you can register your business in Google My Business. You just need to have a Gmail account and start filling in the data that the platform requests. Try to enter the maximum number of possible, real and updated data (no padding or irrelevant data). As such, it will allow Google to show your listing to potential customers in your area of ??action.

By creating and optimizing your profile in this service offered by Google, you will be providing the search engine with a detailed, personalized and updated file of your business. Without a doubt, this point is essential so that you can appear on the Google Map as a local result, and you will also appear in the organic results of the search engine itself.

3. Get reviews and comments on Google My Business

If a business does not have positive reviews, it will hardly be able to climb in the local search results. Truthful reviews and opinions will do nothing else, but demonstrate your good work and increase credibility and trust with the user. Given the importance of reviews, you must encourage your satisfied customers to leave their assessment about you and your business . It is a good method to contact them and invite them to leave their opinion and thank them for the high value for us that they do this action.

4. Register your business in local directories

If you register your business in local directories, you will be letting search engines know that your field of action is in a certain geographical area. In addition, another benefit that you will get when you register in the directories will be a link to your website, a factor that will undoubtedly help you improve the overall SEO of your website and at the same time the Local SEO positioning of your business. Once you have selected the most relevant local directories in which you are interested in being present, start the work of getting reviews, scores and comments from your users. As we have seen previously, this factor is one more in determining the position in the search results. Always use the same NAP. If there is a slight difference, in a punctuation mark or in an upper and lower case, it will be a reason for a penalty and all the work that you would have done so far to achieve a good local position could be ruined.

5. Add more information using Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are micro data that provide additional information to Google about our website. In this way we make it easier for you to understand our content better. Google will show these rich snippets in search results if it thinks they can provide information of interest to users. Surely in searches that you have been able to do you have noticed:

  • The stars that indicate the rating given by users.
  • In the thumbnail images or videos that accompany the description of the content.
  • Or in the information about the author of the content, events, opinions.

These are all examples of enriched fragments and just as they have been able to draw your attention, they do it with other users, do you see their importance now?

6. Optimize your business profiles on social networks

It cannot be said that the presence in social networks where your target audience is, is more than necessary and cannot be absent from your Digital Marketing plan. You will imagine that not only being present is enough, your profiles must be active and properly optimized . With this I want to tell you to publish regularly and include the maximum information regarding the description of your business. And remember, no fillers, just important information:

  • Schedules
  • The different ways a user has to contact you ( E-mail, telephone, etc.).
  • And of course your location

Also make sure to include links that point to your website from each of the social profiles. This way you will soon be immersing yourself in the incredible world of local SEO and creating a successful future.

Discover The Best Ways To Boost Business Conversion Numbers

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Boost Business Conversion|Discover The Best Ways To Boost Business Conversion NumbersAre you interested in earning more with your business? If so, then you need to think about how to boost the level of conversions. It’s not enough to boost the traffic to your website. You need to make sure that people are buying from your business too. Here are some of the ways to do that.

Think About Structure

You should make sure that your site is following the three click rule. Ultimately, a client should never be more than three clicks from the page, product or service that they are looking for on your site. This can require a full reshake of your web design so it can be worth hiring a professional. Alternatively, you can cut a few corners by adding links to your site. You just need to make sure that this doesn’t end up negatively impacting SEO and that can happen if you’re not careful.

Content Is Still King

If you want to make sure that people buy from your site, then you need to keep them on it for as long as possible. The best way to do this is to focus on adding high quality content to your site. This needs to be targeted and reflect what your customers want from your business. Be aware that creating appealing and engaging content can be quite tricky. The best way to do this is to tell stories and present customers with something that they can follow to the very end. You also need to make sure that you are adding content to your site regularly to guarantee that it stays fresh.

Upgrade Your Web Design

It’s important to understand that first impressions do matter. That’s why you need to think about upgrading your website design where possible. By boosting the design, you can guarantee that you are sending the right impression with your website and your brand in general. You can ensure that it looks more professional and appeals to your target audience. For instance, websites for hair salons should be stylish and modern to reflect the type of service that clients can expect.

Speed It Up

Finally, you should think about how fast your site is able to load. Ideally, you should ensure that every page on your site loads in a couple of seconds. If you are struggling to do this, then there are a few options that you can consider. For instance, you can think about converting your photos and video files so that they are smaller. This means that you won’t have to worry about problems with files that are taking forever to load, particularly on phones. Don’t forget, this is where most of the traffic for your site will be sourced these days.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key ways to boost your conversion numbers online. In doing so, you can avoid the dreaded issue of the abandoned basket and ensure that your company is on the right track for a big revenue stream that will ensure the longevity of your company.

Turn Your WordPress into a Shop

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Wordpress Shop|Turn Your WordPress into a ShopWordPress is a fantastic platform that can be used to write and share information on almost anything. The beauty of this little platform is what can start off as something such as a humble blog about soaps could then turn into a full-blown business overtime – bringing in impressive amounts of views and comments and creating a fanbase larger than you ever would have dreamed of. So, what happens if you want to start selling products or services?

The likelihood is you will not want to move domain, and linking different domains together to get different benefits can become confusing.

So, with that in mind, this piece will show you how you can turn your WordPress into a shop!

“Easy, accessible and free to start”

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress is one of the easiest and most accessible content management systems available and is often used to create websites or blogs. Not only is it extremely user friendly, but it is easily customizable to create a website you love and can come with plenty of add-ons to give your users the experience you want. WordPress also offers a good level of security and is easy to manage and maintain. Many businesses start off with using WordPress as it is free to use and offers a decent setup that interacts with search engine optimization (SEO).

“Customize your WordPress so it feels like you and your brand”

Getting Advanced

For those who have moved past the basic setup, themes, and plugins, there are options for you to upgrade, which offers you more features, more advanced plugins, styles and designs, and more options for you to customize your website.

Upgrading can give you significant control over what your website looks like, how your consumers can interact with it and will give you the tools for precise customization.

Don’t forget, you will need to ensure your WordPress site is secure and you have the best WordPress security features activated. Hackers and cybercriminals are always looking for weaknesses in websites, including eCommerce sites and poor WordPress security can lead to your data and that of your customers being accessed and used by criminals in a variety of different ways. So before you make the decision to move past the free WordPress setup, make sure you know how best to secure your site.

“Sell from anywhere; you are not tied to a warehouse!”

Want to Sell?

Many people use WordPress as an ‘access to information’ website. More common interfaces for sales include systems such as Shopify, which are designed for you to sell your goods from the get-go. That being said, many people might not know what direction their website will begin to go in, and then further down the line might want the option to begin to sell without any hassle. That being said, if you are new to selling, do not have enough space, or simply want to test the waters, why not consider WordPress dropshipping?

Why Use Drop-Shipping?

Whether you are a first-time seller or your online store is very much established, drop-shipping is one of the most useful tools when it comes to running an online store. For those who have no space for inventory, or even the costs upfront to produce products, drop-shipping allows a wonderful amount of freedom in not only how much you can sell, but where you can sell from too. A simple plugin can turn your WordPress website into a fully functioning, automated shop for a low-cost, low-hassle option!

Creative Ways to Market Your Business

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Creative Ways to Market Your BusinessWhen opening a business, the one thing that any budding entrepreneur wants is for it to be as successful as possible. Marketing your business to a wide variety of audiences and maximizing the number of people you will be reaching is undoubtedly one way of promoting success. However, as a business owner, you probably understand that the market is saturated with the traditional methods of branding and marketing a business. How can you beat your competitors and get to potential customers first, but vibrantly and innovatively? Fear not, for we have devised a great list of creative ways to market your business. Let your artistic flair go wild and read on for more!

Social Media

The top dog of marketing and branding in the present day! When you understand how to use social media to your advantage and its fullest extent, you are sure to be successful in your attempts. Everywhere you look, businesses are using social media as one of the main ways to connect with their audiences and truly allows you to be creative in what you post. Ensuring that the content is relevant to your services and products and linking to your website – if you have one – will make sure that those visiting your social media accounts go on to visit your website. Social media is also a great tool to use when promoting other marketing avenues that you might be using, leading us to our next suggestion.

Podcasts

Podcasts are certainly something that has increased in popularity in the last few years. There is no right or wrong way to record your own podcast. Knowing what you want to talk about on your podcast and how it will fill a gap in the market while linking to your business will encourage success. The only thing you would have to ensure is high-quality is the audio levels; no-one wants to listen to a podcast where they cannot hear what is being said! If you are interested in learning more about podcast production and how you can make it work for you, consider contacting companies like Jelly Marketing. Experts in all things related to podcast production, you are sure to be in the right hands here.

Using a Mural

Not the most convenient method of marketing, but one that has undoubtedly been successful for some businesses out there and is one way of letting your artistic flair free! Commissioning a mural near your business is sure to brighten your local area while promoting your business to potential customers. Something so bright will catch the attention of those who are passing, without you needing to say much. If you are contemplating using a mural for marketing purposes, make sure that it is short and snappy; you don’t want people to read into it too much. Murals also work well in tandem with social media; if someone has seen a vibrant and beautiful mural, they are likely to share it on social media. In turn, more people will see your mural and know about your business.

What’s more, when looking for other routes into marketing your brand, it is all about trying and testing the methods to see which one works best for you. Marketing and branding your business are not a one-size-fits-all; what might work for someone else is not guaranteed to work for you. Furthermore, you will want to relax! This is meant to be an exciting and creative time in your life. There is a suitable way of marketing out there for you; you just have to find what you like and what works first. There is no rush!