Business Branding Advice – Mobile Apps

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Business Branding Advice - Mobile AppsOver the coming months, an astounding number of businesses are likely to seek the services of a mobile app developer. If you aren’t planning to and don’t have an effective mobile app in place, then you seriously need to consider the prospect of doing so. Mobile internet is literally taking over at the moment and apps are at the core of this. In order for your business to be effective and competitive on all fronts, you need to capitalise on this before it is too late.

Nonetheless, selecting a mobile app developer is not an easy challenge. Firstly, this is likely to mark a substantial investment. Secondly, when you consider how dominant mobile internet is becoming you can see how the app created determines whether you reap a great proportion of success for your business.

When looking for a mobile app developer the first thing you need to consider is the complete service they offer. It is not enough to be able to design a beautiful app and fill it with graphics. The company needs to be trained in all areas. What do they offer in terms of branding and brand protection? You can read this brand protection guide for more details on the latter. They need to be able to incorporate your brand, they need to be able to implement a thorough marketing strategy, and they need to be able to develop an app that is going to be as effective and as impressive across all smartphones. There is a lot more to designing and creating a mobile app than meets the eye. Yours will only be effective if you opt for a company that evidently has a lot of skills and services in their locker.

In addition to this, you should only go for developers who have their portfolio readily available on their website. This shows that they have worked for an array of clients and it showcases that they have nothing to hide either. Look through the portfolio and get an idea of the work they have completed. This will give you a good indication of the level of service they provide as well as if they are capable of generating the sort of app you are looking for.

Aside from this, you need to bear in mind the fact that it is not always the best idea to go for the biggest company you find. Sometimes going for a localised business can be a lot more effective. This is because they have the time and effort to dedicate to your app. Furthermore, big companies often outsource their development work and this is never ideal. You want the same company to work on all aspects of your mobile app and local and somewhat smaller teams can do this.

And finally, make sure the team has some experience too. Don’t go for a company that has merely started up this year. Approximately five years of experience is what you should be looking for. This way you know the company has survived and done well to make a name for themselves yet you know they are fresh and in-tune with the demands of today.

If you consider all of the points mentioned in this article then you should have no issue finding the perfect mobile app developer for your business specifically. Remember to make sure the service is thorough, no aspects are outsourced, their portfolio is flourishing, and they have experience and training to boast.

6 Ways To Use Your Website To Build Trust With Customers

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Establishing trust with your customers is the first step on the sales journey. If people don’t trust your business and your brand, they’re not going to buy products from you, it’s as simple as that. People tend to approach businesses with an attitude of distrust until they are proven wrong because there are a lot of businesses out there that will use underhanded tactics to make a sale or mislead people about the quality of their product. So, unless you can build trust, you’re not going to get any sales, but how exactly can you do that?

The majority of people have their first interaction with a business online these days, whether that is through social media or on your website. That’s why your online presence is a good place to start when trying to build that relationship with potential customers. These are some of the best ways to build trust online.

Search Engine Rankings

6 Ways To Use Your Website ToStrategyDriven | Build Trust With Customers

We all put a lot of trust in the algorithms that determine search engine rankings, even if we don’t necessarily realize it. Think about it, when was the last time you went beyond the first page of a Google search to find a business? You might do it on occasion but usually, you naturally assume that the companies listed on the first page are the most successful and trustworthy businesses, that’s how they earned their place. That’s why the most important way to establish trust is to boost your SEO and make sure that you rank on the first page of results. It’s important for driving traffic to your site as well but even if people find your website through other means, like pay per click ads, they might still do a quick search to check you out afterwards. If you appear on the first page, they’ll be happy, but if they can’t see any mention of your company, that’s a bad sign for them.

Customer Reviews

You can go on about how amazing your product is all you like, but why should people trust you? Of course, you’re going to say that it’s great, you’re trying to sell it to them, so your word doesn’t really carry that much weight here. If you really want to convince people that your products are worth buying and you’re a company that can be trusted, you need an impartial opinion, which is where customer reviews and testimonials come in.

When shopping online, around 91 percent of people will look at the reviews of a product before buying it so they can get an impartial opinion on it. In fact, 84 percent of people say that they trust online reviews just as much as their friends. That’s why they are one of your best tools when trying to build trust in the online world. If you don’t already include customer reviews on your site, you absolutely should. As long as you’re offering good service and a quality product, you shouldn’t need to worry about bad reviews too much. You’ll always get a few and that’s fine, as long as the majority of them are positive. You should display these reviews and testimonials clearly on your website. A lot of sites have a rolling bar along the bottom of the page which shows different reviews, and you should always include them on product listings as well.

People don’t always bother to leave a review but there are a few things that you can do to encourage it. Firstly, send a follow up email a few days after a purchase has been made and kindly ask the customer to leave a quick review. If people are still reluctant, you could offer a small discount on their next purchase in exchange for a review.

Content Marketing

When you’re trying to gain the trust of your customers, it’s important that you prove to them that you know what you’re talking about, which is where content marketing comes in. Content marketing is a great way to generate traffic for your website, but it’s also a good way to offer a potential customer something of value without asking for payment in return. This shows them that you don’t just see them as another sale and you’re willing to put work into building that relationship before you start marketing products towards them. More importantly, good content demonstrates that you’re a leading expert in your industry, which means that they will trust in your products as well. If you can produce regular content on your website which gives useful information relating to your products and services, customers will be far more likely to come to you when they’re ready to make a purchase.

You can still use this as an opportunity to market your products, but you do it in a more subtle way that doesn’t put people off. People hate being bombarded with pushy marketing materials but an informative piece of content that gently suggests that your product might be of use to a customer will be well received.

Focus On Security

StrategyDriven | Online Marketing and Website Development | 6 Ways To Use Your Website To Build Trust With Customers

Online security is a big concern for everybody right now and people are always worried about the sites that they visit. This is especially true if they’re putting their credit card details in to make a purchase, so security on your site is vital. The most important thing is to make sure that your website is HTTPS secure. You might not recognize the term but if you check the web address on most sites, you’ll see a green padlock icon in the left hand corner. That means the site is HTTPS secure, and it’s one of the first things that people look for when they enter a new site. Most modern websites will be HTTPS secure so if yours isn’t, you need to rectify that (you can use this guide to help you).

The payment platforms that you use on the site are important as well. If you offer secure payment options that people recognize, like Paypal, they will feel a lot more comfortable making a purchase. If people have even the slightest doubts about the security of your website, you can easily lose a sale.

Add An ‘About Us’ Page

People like to have a sense of the people behind the logo when dealing with a new company. Social media has a big part to play in that because it allows you to show your personality a bit and connect with people more. But there are also some simpler ways to show people who you are, like an ‘about us’ page on your website. This gives you the chance to tell people about your company, why you started it, and what your core values as a business are. People are increasingly concerned with the ethical standpoint of the businesses that they deal with and it affects their purchasing decisions, so letting them know a bit about your company ethos is very important.

As well as the company itself, you should devote some space to your employees as well. Showing a photograph and giving a small description of what that person does and a little bit of personal information like their hobbies outside of work helps to humanize your company and builds trust with customers because they feel like they know you a bit more. Helping customers put a face to a name goes a long way when you’re trying to build that relationship with them.

Simplify Your Website Design

StrategyDriven | Online Marketing and Website Development | 6 Ways To Use Your Website To Build Trust With Customers

The design of your website has a big impact on the way that people see your business and they will make a lot of assumptions about you as soon as they enter the site. If they see a very outdated website that is difficult to navigate and has a lot of broken links, that doesn’t do you any favors. They will assume that you’re an unprofessional company and you don’t have the money to invest in a good web design agency. An overcrowded website is one of the things that puts people off the most because it makes the site so hard to use and it looks incredibly amateurish.

When it comes to web design, simplicity is key. You should only include information that is absolutely relevant and don’t overwhelm people with huge blocks of text. Make sure that everything is easy to scan so people can find the information that they’re looking for quickly and easily. Proper website maintenance is vital as well because if the site runs very slowly or images don’t load properly, that tells them that you’re not really putting much effort into the website. If you’re not putting effort into the website, they’ll assume that you have the same attitude to your products and your customers, so they will not have much trust in you at all.

Finally, you need to be careful with pop-ups. They can be beneficial sometimes, when building an email list, for example. However, if people are bombarded with lots of pop-ups right away, they will get the impression that you only want their money and you’re not interested in building a long lasting relationship with them.

If you follow these steps, you will be able to establish trust with your customers through your website and that will translate to increased sales.

Simple Steps to Increase Online Sales

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development |Increase Online Sales|Simple Steps to Increase Online SalesIf you are a business owner with a business that is predominantly based-online, then no doubt, one of your main aims and goals is to increase the online sales. Whether you are a small business or a large business that is going to be the aim of the game. You might be a retail business that has recently moved online, and have a brick and mortar store, or perhaps you are a solely ecommerce business. But with companies like Amazon taking a huge share of the market, you need to think about using your site in the right way, to help you to get the sales that you need. It can be a bit of a struggle, but done in the right way, and with a little know-how, you can use the internet to help you to boost your sales. Here are some things that you need to consider.

Be Honest in Your Sales Content

This is something that might seem really obvious, but it is quite staggering just how many people with online businesses are essentially writing out checks that they can’t cash, because their products don’t step up to the mark. Honesty is so important to your business and the reputation of your business, as it will help consumers to gain trust in your brand. So check what claims you are making, and make sure that they are backed up. If not, it is best not to mention them at all. So the bottom line is to make sure that you are honest and transparent with your sales content and copy, right through from product descriptions on your website to email newsletters.

Get More Ad Clicks with Ad Extensions

If you want to sell more things online, then having something like and ed extension is really a no-brainer. This kind of feature will allow you to make an ad bigger, with more places for people to click on, meaning that there is more chance of website visits. The good news is that this kind of thing doesn’t cost any extra, but the increase in click-through rates can be amazing.

Search Engine Optimization

If you want to get more people to your site, then you need to make sure that you are doing all you can to SEO your website. This could be done through keywords and ads, as mentioned, as well as using a blog and create links back online, using other blogs too. If you’re not too sure what you are doing with this, then you could always look for an SEO marketing agency to do the job for you. After all, if your business is all online, then you need to be doing all you can to people to visit.

A Bulletproof Money-Back Guarantee

There are many people that will be wary of using a website, let alone buy from it, if they don’t know your brand name; to them there is a lot of risk involved. So you need to let them know that there is no risk involved, and in most cases, the perceived risk is a financial one. So let them know what you offer for refunds or a money-back guarantee.

5 Functional Ways to Market and Grow your Business without Breaking the Bank

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 5 Functional Ways to Market and Grow your Business without Breaking the Bank It takes a lot of time and commitment to start a business. Probably that’s the hardest part that most aspiring entrepreneurs have.

Growing a small business comes with numerous challenges. You might be trying to think of the best marketing strategies you can embrace.

You may be on a budget, yet you want to market and grow your business. In this post, we are going to explore five affordable marketing strategies that you could use.

Here we go.

1. Have social media presence

Social media is getting more popular day by day. Most people use it to connect with friends, colleagues and family members.

Of late, there has been an increase in the use of various social media platforms for business purposes and building careers.

For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are among the most popular social media platforms. As a business, you could make use of social media to market your business.

Facebook and Instagram are also the cheapest platforms you can use to grow your business. These platforms are simple to use.

All you need is to create a Facebook page or group relating to your niche. A Facebook page is more effective if you are starting out. You can invite your friends and close contacts to follow you.

You could as well create informative posts that aim to solve people’s problems in your niche. Boost the post by paying a small fee, and that will help you reach out to many people.

The goodness about Facebook ads is that you can target people from various geographical regions. Doing this will make people want to know more about your business and will like your page to follow your posts.

You, therefore, need first to have an active account with informative posts. Within a short time, your audience will grow, and you won’t have to boost posts regularly to reach many people.

Create social media profiles with Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram as well. Having a social media presence is one of the inexpensive ways of marketing and growing your business.

2. Create a website

Having a business without a site is like trying to get noticed in the dark. Did you know that people can know about your business through organic search from search engines?

That’s another cheap way of selling your business out there. However, you need to find ways of getting traffic to your site. You need to learn SEO basics.

For example, you should create content that aims to solve people’s problems in your niche. One of the solutions to those problems could be your products or services.

Use relevant keywords so that you can rank high on Google. Remember, you have other competitors, and you should aim to give the best.

You can include your website URL on your Facebook page about info. Make sure that you are promoting your blog posts using your social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

3. Make use of email marketing

If you are looking for another affordable method of making your business known, email marketing works like magic. While it takes a lot of time, it won’t need a lot of money.

But before starting email marketing campaigns, you need to make sure that you are marketing to the right audience. You might want to create a lead magnet first.

This could be a freebie like an eBook in your niche that solves some problems your audience faces. Create a landing page on your website where you offer the freebie in exchange for their email addresses.

This will help you get people who will be glad to receive emails from you in future. You should find out about lead generation strategies that can boost your business.

Try to avoid marketing emails throughout. Let three-quarters of your emails be educational content, while a quarter of your emails are promotional emails.

Doing this consistently will help you get many subscribers who will turn out to be your customers.

4. Organize a trade show

Would you like to showcase your product one on one to your customers? A trade show is the best place you can use to get instant feedback about it. It doesn’t have to be a big show.

You can plan and start with a small trade show and a few products to test. Later, you can organize a big trade show.

However, you need to prepare well. First of all, you should have a great product that no one will resist buying. Create something that someone would love to use again and gain.

When you showcase the product and give them for testing, they will be glad to use it again.

Before the trade show, ensure that you also have some essential printed marketing materials. You don’t want your customers to lose your contacts after the event.

Since most of them can’t memorize them, you could create attractive business cards for your business.

You could as well create booklets which should have detailed information about your business. Ensure that you mention your products and services and how your clients can benefit from them.

Towards the end of the booklet, include your social media profiles so that people can connect with you. Don’t forget to add your website links and contact details.

Don’t worry about the cost of printing. You can opt for cheap booklet printing and sort out the issue. Just ensure that the booklet has an attractive colour and all the details about your business.

5. Have a loyalty program

Have you started rewarding loyal customers yet? If not, you are missing a lot.

Create exclusive offers only for customers who come back to buy from you. This will help you retain new and old customers.

Every time a former customer comes back, reward them something small. You should also tell your new customers about your loyalty program so that they can come back.

You have taken a crucial step to start your business. That is what you needed because starting has never been easy.

To grow the business, you should make people know about it through marketing. The above marketing tips are affordable and should help you start your marketing journey.

Have you ever marketed your business before? What are some of the budget-friendly marketing techniques you used?

How Good Is Your Website?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How Good Is Your Website?Understanding whether or not a website is any good can be a real challenge. Not only are a lot of factors which dictate this completely hidden from normal people, but they are also complicated and hard to understand. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the areas which you need to consider the most, along with some tools which can help you to get an idea of how well you’re going in each of them. Of course, though, you also have to do some work alongside this, ensuring that your site is in the best possible shape.

Security

Security has always been an important feature on a website, though privacy laws have increased over the last few years and this has made this field even more crucial. You need to have SSL on your site as a minimum, with options like firewalls, bot/spam detectors, and anti-malware tools all helping, too. You don’t have to spend much to make a site secure, and there are loads of sites around the web which can be used to scan your security.

Speed

Along with security, it’s also wise to consider speed when you’re thinking about the value of your site. Users won’t stick around if they have to wait too long for pages to load, often leaving if the pages hang for more than a second or two. Tools like GTMatrix can be used to check your website speed, and will give you loads of suggestions which can help you to improve your current position. A big part of this revolves around your content, with large images and videos slowing down a site more than anything else.

SEO

Having people find your website will only be possible if you have the right SEO. Not only do you need to make sure that you are working on this are regularly, but you also need to ensure that you have the right foundations in place. SEObility is a great site for this, providing you with a detailed analysis of the state of your site’s SEO with the push of a button. You have to pay for this, but it will be worth it to improve your SEO.

User Experience

Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about user experience. There’s no point in working hard on a website if your users are going to have a bad time on it. You can use a website worth and domain value calculator to start this journey, and this will give you an idea of what your site will appear to be worth to your customers. Along with this, though, it will also help to give tests to real people, and this can be done on social media.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on the work you put into figuring out whether or not you have a good website. A lot of people struggle with this sort of work, finding it hard to know how to figure out the value of their site.