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Key Things to Remember When Setting Up Your Business Website

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Business Website|Key Things to Remember When Setting Up Your Business WebsiteYou’ve decided it’s time to set up your business website, but what are your next steps? A business website is a big opportunity, but there are plenty of things you need to remember when it comes to planning your online presence.
Here are some important things to remember when setting up your business website.

User Experience

It’s easy to focus internally on your business when creating a website, but you’ve always got to remember the user is one of the most important aspects of this process.

You can make your website do all these fancy things, tracking analytics, helping you create leads, and so on, but if you’ve not got a good user experience, then it’s all going to be for nothing. As a consumer, you know how frustrating websites with a poor UX can be, so don’t let your website be one of them.

Security

Security is a huge priority for any modern business. When it comes to your website, you’ve got to make sure you’re protected, and your users are too.

If your website fails to protect its users from things like cross-site scripting, then it can do huge damage to your brand and seriously affect your business. We see big security incidents on the news all the time, and it can happen to any business if it is not investing in cybersecurity.

Invest in Quality

There’s no point in creating a bare-bones website. If you’re going to have success with it, then you need to build it out properly and invest in your content.

Your website is always evolving and growing, and this reflects your brand. As soon as you stop updating your site, it will lose some relevancy, so it’s best to keep investing and keep growing what you’re doing.

Get Your Site Ranked

No matter how big or small your business is, you have the ability to rank your website in the search engines. This can bring in targeted, sustainable traffic, so it’s well worth focusing on your search engine optimization and following the right steps.

SEO might seem like something very technical, but in reality, it’s not. It’s just about following good practices and making sure your website appeals to the right audience. If you can do this, then you will find you start to have success in the search engines.

Share Your Work

If you’re doing amazing work with your website, then share it with as many people as possible.

Create social media accounts and get your message in front of a large audience. You can build your website and hope people find it, or you can be active and make sure people find it. Sharing your work is easy to do, and it can be a great way to introduce people to your brand.

You have gone to the effort of creating the content, so make sure you get the most value out of each piece by sharing it on multiple platforms.

How to Become a Successful Property Developer

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Property Developer|How to Become a Successful Property DeveloperProperty development is an exciting way to start your business. Thanks to popular TV shows, developing property is often seen as a get-rich-quick scheme. However, making money from property is demanding and may take more time than expected.

It takes a bit of risk and lots of hard work to break even in the real estate market. But the good news is that starting a property development business can be relatively exciting. It offers flexible working hours, and no formal qualifications are needed.

If being a property developer appeals to you, then this article will help you. We have outlined tips on how to become a developer with a decent income.

1. Choose Your Path

Property development comes in all shapes and sizes. Hence, you must choose the route you want to take. You may have plans to grow in the future, but you must have a place to start.

Do you want to develop residential or commercial properties? Will the final project be for rent or sale? Or do you want to renovate run-down properties and give them a new resale value?

Knowing what you want helps you in making strategic decisions. You can also understand the kind of loans to take or where to get funds.

2. Develop a Plan

After choosing your path, come up with a business plan. The plan will help you get the funding for the success of your business. It also helps break down finances, potential income, and costs.

Creating a business plan gives you a map of how to start your business and its growth projection.

There are several business plan templates you can download based on your goals and business type.

3. Get Your Finances in Order

Developing properties, whether from scratch or renovating old houses, is a hefty investment from the start. To get a sufficient amount, you need to assess how extensive the project is, the costs involved, how long it will take to complete it, and the projected income.

Due to uncertainties, create the best and worst-case scenarios and set aside at least 30% contingency if the cost spirals.
You may choose to get a mortgage based on your property plan. Buy-to-let mortgages are easy to get, though you’ll have to deposit 25% or more. When seeking finances, research the local market and pay attention to inflation, interest rates, and employment rate in the area.

4. Choose the Right Location

When it comes to property development, location plays a crucial role. Look for an upcoming community as the property will be cheaper with a great potential to deliver good ROI. You may hire a general contractor to advise you on what to avoid when developing property in a specific area.

Some places might need more work on ground leveling. The type of soil will also determine the location of developing a property.

5. Don’t Get Personal

Remember, this project is for a property and not your home. You should develop a property that suits the market and not your taste.

The Bottom Line

Property development is a lucrative business for both long and short term goals. Approach it with care and a good strategy, and you’ll thank yourself for starting it.

Everything You Need To Know If You Want To Sell Online

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Selling Online|Everything You Need To Know If You Want To Sell OnlineThanks to technological innovations, selling online has become easier than ever. And because it’s scalable, it’s precisely the type of business that entrepreneurs need to get themselves into. Instead of trading your time for money, you can just increase the number of units you shift over time, generating massive returns.

If you’re currently selling on Shopify or any of the other platforms, this post can help you. Remember, flogging goods is about more than setting up a website. It’s also about putting the systems in place that will allow sales to happen.

Here’s what to do.

Choose Where You’ll Sell

The first thing you’ll need to do is choose where you want to sell. There are lots of platforms out there, each with advantages and disadvantages.

Remember, if you choose one of the larger e-commerce vendors to host your goods, you’ll have to pay them a commission every time you make a sale, so your margins will always remain depressed.

If you go down the hosted route and sell independently, you’ll get bigger margins, but you’ll also have to do more marketing. Thus, it all comes down to where you think your competencies lie.

Choose How People Will Pay

Payment systems are the most complicated aspect of setting up an ecommerce business. Just displaying goods and writing descriptions is easy. But connecting your site to POS and banking is much more challenging.

Fortunately, most platforms now provide tools that do this automatically for you. For instance, the Shopify FFL checkout allows you to sell restricted goods safely. Other services use their own methods.

Where possible, you want to offer a variety of payment methods. Try to include PayPal if you can, as people who haven’t been to your site before are much more likely to trust this method.

Start Marketing Your Online Store

The next step is to start marketing your online store.

This is more challenging than you might expect. You can have a great ecommerce platform. But if you’re failing to reach out to the community, you won’t get anywhere.

Social media is perhaps the best place to start drumming up business. It’s relatively inexpensive and a great place to begin getting people interested in your services.

Work Out How You’re Going To Do Shipping

Shipping is one of the most challenging aspects of e-commerce. Finding a system that allows you to deliver the right goods to the right customers on time is a notoriously challenging process.

The best option here is to simply outsource the task to a fulfillment provider. These services store and then distribute your goods on your behalf when customers order them.

Please note that these solutions aren’t just “cutting into your margins.” For many new companies, they’re a necessity. You simply don’t have the systems to bring distribution in-house, unless you’re selling just a couple of dozen items a day (and even then, it can be a hassle).

In summary, selling online has never been easier, but it requires a degree of patience and strategy.

How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Productivity| How You Can Boost Productivity Within Your Small BusinessWhen you’re the owner of a small business, it can often seem like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Unanswered emails, unfinished tasks, rising stress levels, and a to-do list as long as your arm are all fairly common, and can often leave you feeling overwhelmed. You can relax, though, because we’ve come up with five great ways to boost productivity in your small business.

Utilize Organizational Tools

To stay on top of daily, weekly, and even monthly tasks, the best thing to do is to utilize some of the great online tools available for businesses. Asana is a brilliant work management app that allows you to organize and plan your workflow more easily; tasks can be scheduled either for yourself or for other team members, and there’s also a great built-in messaging feature which can easily replace traditional emails. Microsoft Teams is fantastic for coordinating staff messages and arranging meetings, and also includes a handy conference call element.

Choose Business Coaching

There’s nothing more helpful when you’re struggling than receiving motivation and tips from someone with more experience and knowledge. INFIX are a team of consultants who provide small businesses with coaching packages on how to grow your company, via one-to-one online video sessions. Covering everything from strategy and goal-setting to growth and pricing, they’re a one-stop shop for anyone who has hit a stumbling block within their business.

Motivate Your Employees

One of the secrets to a successful small business is happy employees; it’s proven that motivated and upbeat staff provide better results, so it pays to take this into consideration. Setting reasonable working hours, providing fair pay and being supportive are all great ways to stay on top of staff morale – and remembering to give credit and encouragement is also key. Another great tip is to seriously consider flexible working requests; parents and guardians often require time off at short notice, and being understanding in these situations is beneficial.

Delegate Tasks

As the owner of a small business, it can often be tempting to try and manage all of the most important tasks yourself – but this is often a one way road to unfinished work and dissatisfied customers. Many employees will be keen to progress within the business, take on more hours or further their career, so increasing their workload can be beneficial to everyone concerned. Giving employees more autonomy and responsibility isn’t only helpful to you – it can also make them far more productive.

Pick the Right Foods

Eating the wrong foods at work can put you on a fast track to flat energy levels, sluggish thinking and low motivation, so ensure you fill your body with the good stuff throughout the day. If you’re super busy finding time for lunch can be tricky, so make sure what you do eat is packed with nutrients; avocados, quinoa and chia seeds are all superfoods which stick with you, and can easily be mixed into a quick and tasty salad. Keeping healthy snacks on hand is also a great tip (and one your staff will thank you for!); nuts and seeds, dried fruit and even the humble banana are all great for keeping hunger at bay throughout the day.

SMS Marketing Trends 2021

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, SMS Marketing Trends 2021

Since the world has been gripped in the hands of COVID -19, it brings significant changes in the life of businessmen. SMS is now regarded as the marketing tool and perfect way to bridge the gap between the business and its consumers. According to a study, the texting was increased by 53% and recorded to be higher than average in both January and February. Let’s look at some of the trends in SMS marketing and the probable changes they must bring to the lives of many.

1. More than SMS, Omni channel is better preferred: In case you want to establish a better relationship between with the customers, prefer Omni channel more than only SMS. Earlier SMS was regarded as the only channel of communication with the customers; the contact number and email ids of customers were collected by the senders. But now, SMS has an incredible open rate (say 98%) acceptance and it can be integrated with other channels as well. 2021 will notice certain trends in SMS marketing and they would be like the following.

  • Blog posts and other company news can be shared through messages.
  • E- Mail and SMS promotion can be combined.
  • SMS can be well combined with social media marketing.

With the help of marketing automation software it is possible to integrate other channels with SMS.

2. SMS as a customer care channel: Some ways are prominent where SMS can facilitate the customer service functions.

  • They can be used for sending confirmations.
  • They could be used for providing delivery tracking information.
  • They can be used for confirmation and also rescheduling appointments.
  • They are generally used for responding to questions that are frequently asked.
  • While you text with customer support that allows a shorter time of resolution.

In the present year 2021, you may expect to see a betterment in customer service. Since the SMS platforms come handy, there is much improvement in the transactional SMS, and the two way SMS that helps in customer and business services.

3. B2B SMS marketing is on the rise: B2B marketing uses SMS for interacting with the customers and it’s in rise in 2021. Well, the amount of SMS used by B2B is always lesser than B2C. SMS is used to send text to customers as well as valuable information. Well, there are many ways that can help in this regard:

  • By sending personalized messages that customers can know the expected time of delivery as well as the order number of the materials.
  • The customers might know about the product updates and also improved services thereby keeping them in the loop.
  • While you exchange messages with potential customers, it can keep themselves motivated.
  • There can be timely updates about the company’s products and offerings.
  • You may schedule product demos and webinars, as well as answer FAQ’s that provides limited time offers.

4. User reviews is the trend:The use of SMS is on the rise. According to a study about 82% of the consumers read the online reviews especially for the local business. Reviews play a critical role in sales and marketing. In fact, there are several polls and surveys conducted that would give an idea of people the product. In fact threads are provided via SMS and users are expected to complete the poll. Give customers a chance voicing their opinion on the various products and services; you may see the use in social media. The surveys conveyed can help to build the necessary insight.


5. Transactional SMS updates for cross selling: The transactional SMS would keep the customers updated about their purchase and any interactions with the Finance business. By sending SMS to the customer would create a positive image, and there are chances they would convert to potential customers. The companies will be provided with a chance to promote cross selling and providing discounts, all to attract a buyer.

6. Elevate your business with SMS marketing message: In the future, maybe SMS marketing will be combined with marketing strategies as a mix. The success of a marketing strategy depends how effectively it’s used to send text and manage the potential clients. With advent of age, SMS marketing will be the most effective tool to communicate and give a boost to sales.

The marketers hope that business will see a havoc change in 2021 and that will be reflected in the marketing trends. Business trend will be more empathetic this year and that will lead to a stronger customer relationship. E-mails and SMS are regarded as a perfect tool that can help push notification and can elevate sales along with revenue. After all, there is a saying that ‘Content is the king’, and it would appear like that text only emails and SMS are the main tool that can lead to a successful marketing strategy and future development.

About the Author

Susan Raj is Marketing Head of TXTImpact.  TXTImpact provides Business Text Message products for marketing to and support of customers to increase their client base. Our Enterprise Text Message Marketing Platform designed for your business, allows marketers to communicate and engage customers on the go instantly.