How To Win Over More Customers

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Entrepreneurship | Marketing and Sales | How To Win Over More CustomersIf you want to run a profitable company and keep your business around for years to come, then you’ll need to work on winning over more customers. Without clients, you risk sales dipping and your business having to shut its doors.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to help you grab the attention of potential prospects and customers. You can’t sit around waiting for people to flock to you and figure out what you’re all about. Instead, you need to be proactive and figure out a game plan for attracting individuals who are likely to purchase your products or services.

Define Your Target Market

Trying to get in touch with everyone out there and not having a strategic plan of action for who you want to connect with will likely backfire. While it’s easier to send out mass messages, it’s not going to help you win over the right type of client. Instead, take time to define your target market and figure out what your ideal customer looks like. For example:

  • What are their interests or hobbies?
  • Where do they spend their time?
  • What are their demographics?

These are just a few key questions you should be asking yourself as you outline the specifics about your target audience. It will help you to narrow down who exactly you should be getting in front of both online and offline and the best times and places to do so.

Perfect Your Presentation Skills

You can also win over more customers by perfecting your presentation and sales skills. It’s a wise idea to attend workshops dedicated to helping you feel more comfortable and confident speaking in front of other people. A lot of times you’ll be called upon to give sales presentations and attend meetings where you’re going to have to try and get the customer to buy what you’re selling. The more you practice and improve your skills in this area, the easier it’s going to be for you to present the information without getting flustered.

Increase Your Marketing Efforts

A tried and true way to win over more customers is to increase and expand your marketing efforts. It could be that you’re simply not investing enough time and money in this area to have it make a difference in your sales numbers. Create a strategic plan that incorporates both online and offline marketing campaigns and helps to share your value proposition and reasons as to why someone would want to do business with you. The more creative you are, the more likely it is that your target audience will notice what you’re doing and will want to take further action.

Get Involved in Your Community

Another way to win over more customers is to get involved in your community. You can do this either by sponsoring local events or signing up to help out with charity causes. There’s likely a lot going on right in your own neighborhood, but you have to be willing to reach out and get involved. It is an excellent way to meet new people and introduce them to who you are and what your business does. People tend to gravitate toward companies and business owners who are willing to give back and show their local communities some love. Donating to specific causes and volunteering your time are also excellent ways to show your area some support and get individuals to notice what you’re doing.

Launch A Blog

An easy and effective way to bring in more customers is to post relevant and timely information through a blog. Many people find reading articles a great use of time and will want to know more about your business if you’re continually sharing interesting blog posts through your website. You may also be able to win over more customers by writing intriguing articles and then having other people share them with their networks online. If you want your blog to be successful be sure you post consistently, review it for errors and respond to comments and questions in a timely manner.

Get Current Customers Talking & Sharing

Win over more customers by getting people talking and sharing about your business. Maybe it’s that you run a special promotion or discount or a lead referral program to help you achieve this goal. On the other hand, perhaps you use humor or an element of surprise to attract customers and get people discussing your business with others. Also, the better customer service you offer, the more likely it is that satisfied clients will share their experience with their friends and family and help you draw in more paying customers.

Use Online Reviews

You can also win over more customers by collecting, posting and promoting online reviews and testimonials. The best way to get customers interested in what you’re doing and your business is to get other people to talk about you. Consumers trust reviews and feedback from other consumers versus hearing about how great a company it is from the company itself. Be sure to respond to any negative reviews so that the public sees that you’re aware of any issues and are working hard to resolve them. Include testimonials on your website from real clients and let your service speak for itself. Having a lot of positive reviews and testimonials will certainly help you attract more customers to your business and make people feel compelled to learn more about what it is you do.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, just because you launch a company doesn’t mean you’re going to attract new business automatically. You have to be willing to implement these ideas outlined above if you wish to win over more customers and increase your sales. It’s going to take an extra effort on your part but know that your hard work and dedication will pay off in the long run and you’ll have a thriving business to manage. Give these ideas a try and see what works best for you and continue to do more of that going forward.

This Is The Reason Why Your Off-Page SEO Strategy is Not Working.

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, This Is The Reason Why Your Off-Page SEO Strategy is Not WorkingAll powerful SEO strategies involve in-depth analysis, bespoke planning, and thorough implementation.

Although this may sound simplistic, there are two main categories to every search engine optimization strategy: off-page and on-page SEO.

Staying true to its name, on-page strategies involve specific elements that occur on your actual website. While it can be time-consuming to optimize these factors, website owners have full control over their implementation.

In contrast to on-page strategies, off-page SEO isn’t quite as simplistic.

In this article, we’ll discuss what these strategies involve, why it’s important to your website, and how you can optimize off-page elements in order to increase traffic flow and grow a larger audience.

What does off-page SEO refer to?

Off-page SEO involves the different elements that impact a site’s visibility on search engine results. Instead of existing within your site, these strategies take place other places online.

Many people consider this to be the hardest category of SEO because these factors are outside of a website owner’s direct control. It is very difficult to influence the posts that other bloggers write and the links that they use.

Search engines develop their algorithms to take many different factors into account. These algorithms take information from other sites to help analyze your website’s authenticity and credibility.

This is a clever method of ranking content that relies on the perspectives of many different websites to rank others within a search engine. It makes sense that websites with many external links would be seen as credible. No reputable or authoritative site would be willing to link to a page that isn’t offering quality value.

Google, along with all other search engines, must rely on these links to determine the credibility of a site. It is irresponsible and nearly impossible to judge the quality of a site only from its internal contents.

Although earning these external links is a greater challenge than tweaking factors on your site, it’s a critical component of off-page SEO.

Link Building

Because of Google’s reliance on external links to judge a page’s quality and authority, websites that achieve many of these links have a proclivity to rank higher in the search results.

For website builders, this should highlight the importance of earning external links as part of any SEO strategy.

Before jumping into this strategy headfirst, there are some important nuances to understand.

Many website owners place too much of their focus on the quantity of links instead of their quality. While an impressive number of external links can look good to the Google algorithm, these numbers are meaningless if all of the linking sites are of poor quality.

Google prefers to see links from websites that have already established a reputation for being credible, authentic, and authoritative. Receiving links from these sites will have a greater impact on the ranking of your site.

Domain Authority

Domain authority is measured on a ranking from 1 to 100. This scale rates the credibility of your site based on the quality of its backlinks.

Your site will rank higher on the scale in direct proportion to the number of quality links that it earns.

Website Authority Checker offers free evaluations of a website’s domain authority ranking.

Sites with higher numbers will have an easier time ranking in the search results.

The best way to improve your site’s domain authority is by receiving more quality links from credible and reputable websites.

Social Promotion

It is much less clear how links from social media platforms influence a website’s ranking on Google and other search engines.

Matt Cutts, an employee for Google, revealed in 2010 that the iconic search engine was using links from several different social sites to determine a website’s ranking.

This claim was contradicted in 2016 when Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes said that social links weren’t taken into account when ranking for SEO.

While it’s not definitive that social links have a direct result on a site’s SEO rankings, there is a proven relationship between rankings and social signals.

Even if there is no direct impact from social shares, a strong presence on these platforms is still indicative of a healthy ranking in search engine results.

How do off-page and on-page SEO factors work together?

There is no reason to choose between off-page or on-page SEO strategies. Both of these factors are most effective when used in tandem.

On-page strategies help determine which queries and keywords for which your pages will rank. On the other hand, off-page strategies help determine where your site will rank.

In order to achieve the best SEO results, you should use a balanced combination of on-page and off-page factors.

What are some useful tools for improving a site’s off-page SEO?

Off-page factors that influence your site’s ranking can be difficult to control. Fortunately, there are some great tools that can aid in the process. The following tools will help you improve your off-page SEO factors:

  • Ahrefs – is one of the most useful tools for identifying link opportunities. After entering a domain, you’ll be provided with a detailed report that highlights all of the external websites that link back to that domain. This report will also show individual pages to which the domain links. This is an excellent tool for evaluating the sources from which your site’s links are coming.
  • SEMrush – is a popular tool amongst the SEO community. While SEMrush is a powerful tool for researching keywords, this site can also be used for finding opportunities to build more links. Both of these tools will also allow you to see where your competitors are getting links so that you can reach out to those sites as well. Additionally, understanding the keyword research tool can help increase your site authority. Indeed, learning how to conduct effective keyword research to drive online leads creates valuable traffic, which increases your business reputation and authority. Therefore, applying SEMrush keyword results to content generation can also assist linking strategies for off-page SEO.

Start Off-Page SEO Strategies Today

There are many elements that make off-page SEO significantly more challenging than on-page strategies.

However, these off-page factors are necessary for people who want to improve their SEO ranking.

These off-page indicators help search engines determine a page’s reputability and credibility. When a page has more backlinks, Google feels more comfortable recommending it to users.

If you need help improving your site’s ranking, consider using Local SEO Search, a digital marketing agency

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Katrina FernandezKatrina Fernandez is a hardworking individual who always gives her best. As a degree holder, she aspires to establish within the media industry. Expert in building online partnership, she’s been working in digital marketing services, Local SEO Search Inc. for several years.

Easy Tips for Localized SEO in 2019

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article|SEO|Easy Tips for Localized SEO in 2019Local SEO marketing is a digital marketing method for small and local businesses to build an online presence that’ll expose them to potential clients and customers. This is so that smaller and independent businesses can gain custom and not be overshadowed by enterprises.

Like any digital marketing method, you need to find a strategy that works with your business model and overall business goals. What’s more, the ways in which we search shift at an outstanding rate, so it is crucial that you keep on top of the latest local SEO trends.

Cover the basics

Firstly, you need to cover the basics. Otherwise, your whole campaign can falter. You need to cover the title, and meta description tags as these HTML elements will describe your content and help it show up in the SERPs. Basically, it is a preview of your content.

When writing your title and meta descriptions, do not think longer is better. You want to avoid having your title and meta descriptions being cut off, so be sure to put your keywords sooner rather than later. However, be sure to make your content unique so that you do not suffer from a low click-through rate. When it comes to the title and meta descriptions, each and every character counts.

Tip: You’re a local business, so do not forget to mention your location. After all, this is the whole point of local SEO. Need help with finding such keywords? Experts like Trevor Tynes can help.

Claim your ‘Google My Business’

Google My Business (GMB) is incredibly important for local businesses, so be sure to claim yours and fill out all the required fields the signing up process asks for. You may have to set up a page on the GMB platform, or if you are already there, claim it and make sure the information is a) correct but also b) optimized.

Remember that there is a verification process, so be ready for this. Google will send you a physical postcard with a PIN on it, which you will then have to key in.

When optimizing your Google My Business, do not forget to do the following:

  • Write a solid and SEO optimized description of your business
  • Update your business’s operating hours
  • Make sure your business is listed in the right category
  • Include a logo and/or a photo of your business so that people can recognize it in person
  • Provide further quality photos of your business such as products and services you provide

Collect reviews from your customers

Reviews are gold dust when it comes to building a reliable and concrete brand. You want to be trusted but also seem real. For instance, while a negative or mediocre review may seem bad, too many 5-star reviews will make your business seem fake and unreliable.
It is believed that 88% of people trust online reviews, so be sure to spur on your customers to leave them. You can, for instance, offer a prize for your employees so that they win something if they get the most good reviews, or have the customer be entered in a raffle.

Determination is Not Enough; Content Creators Need Blockchain on Their Side

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Imagine earning a living as a writer, artist, freelance reporter, photographer or any other content creator trying to scratch out a living in today’s overcrowded, hyperactive digital landscape.

You may have something to say; you may have something to share. Now what? What can you do to ensure your work is discovered?

Before answering, consider these stats: Wikipedia users publish 600 new pages every minute. Meanwhile, almost 50,000 new photos are uploaded to Instagram every minute. Bundled together, this deluge of videos, posts, texts and tweets make up about 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data posted online each day.

Faced with this tsunami of information, one has to ask: What inspires content creators to share their hard work in the slim chance it will gain traction?

Obviously, sheer determination is a driver. Scrappy fortitude and confidence are necessary for those creators confident their work will be discovered.

But stick-to-itiveness is not enough.

High-Tech Heavyweights

If creators are hoping to have their work unearthed, many share their wares on popular outlets such as Facebook, YouTube, SubscribeStar, Twitter and other popular online platforms.

But this is a proverbial double-edge sword. These outlets promise creators the potential to build big followings, but – because these sites depend on advertisers, payment processors, and other third parties to pay the bills – they also demand final control over a creator’s work.

Such arrangements can get messy when it comes to revenue. Mainstream content platforms are notorious for demanding steep fees to showcase a creator’s work. (The most extreme example may be YouTube: Google – YouTube’s owner – can keep up to 45 percent of any advertising revenue a creator’s work generates.)

The arrangements can get even messier if an artist’s work leans towards controversy. The internet is littered with examples of creators who have been deplatformed – or demonetized as the practice is called. When a controversial creator is demonetized, it means the big sites that once welcomed them and their work has had a change of heart. They can be 86’d from the platform, loosing ownership rights of their own content – and their income stream.

Blockchain-Powered Content

Before signing on the dotted line with a popular content platform, creators should know there is an alternative. Blockchain technology – the decentralized tech that was famously introduced to supports bitcoin – is now be leveraged to remedy the many disparities that exist in today’s online content landscape.

Popular content platforms– Twitter, Facebook, etc. – operate using for-profit, centralized business models that are wholly dependent on third parties. They are loaded with inefficiencies; excessive fees and the threat of censorship come with the territory.
Blockchain-powered content platforms offers creators an alternative method of showcasing their work while operating under a far more equitable arrangement.

Artists, citizen journalists and other creators can use blockchain platforms as digital galleries to showcase their work directly to appreciative fans. No advertisers or payment processors are required. Conversely, blockchain permits fans to directly support the creators they prefer. They can subscribe to preferred creators, promote their work and even offer financial support directly to the creators. (Mainstream currencies aren’t even needed; fans can offer support through cryptocurrencies.)

This subscription approach enables creators to thrive, keeping the full amount of what fan compensation. However, should they post offensive content, blockchain empowers fans to immediately withhold their support. Needless middlemen – advertisers, payment processors, content watchdogs – who shudder at the thought of controversy, are all removed from the mix.

This is the beauty of blockchain technology. It fosters collaboration and cultivates trust. It’s efficient and transparent. Those who associate it strictly with bitcoin are missing the boat. Don’t take my word for it. IBM, Walmart, FedEx, Microsoft, Mastercard, Overstock, and Bank of America are just a few the corporations now using blockchain. By 2024, the global blockchain market is projected to exceed $60 billion.

The reason these name-brand companies are migrating to blockchain is because they recognize it offers a more efficient way to manage projects and tasks. It levels the playing field.

That is exactly why content creators should think twice before striking a deal with the digital devil and surrendering creative control and a significant slice of their earnings to big, centralized content heavyweights.

Blockchain technology offers an alternative path. Instead of depending on big-name content outlets, creators owe it to themselves to explore the possibilities that decentralized, ad-free platforms offer.

About the Author

Brad Robertson is the founder and CEO of Polyient Labs, a Phoenix-based blockchain incubator with offices in Denver and San Diego. Prior to launching Polyient, Robertson was the CEO and founder of CX, an early innovator in cloud computing. Before that, Robertson served in several executive roles on behalf of numerous internet startups.