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Telegram Marketing For Business – 4 Great Features You Should Know About

Similar to Whatsapp, Telegram is a cross-platform cloud-based instant messaging, video calling and VoIP service. It provides end-to-end encrypted calls and end-to-end encrypted “secret” chats between two online users.

Other user features include sending text and voice messages, animated stickers, making voice and video calls and sharing of various media and information like images, documents, location and contacts.

During the pandemic, there has been a surge in business owners using social media as the primary platform for their marketing campaigns due to various factors which include reaching the masses within a short period of time at a low cost, increasing brand awareness through engagement by going live and etc.

Telegram has also unexpectedly experienced the same surge. As of 2020, Telegram reached 400 million monthly active users and 70 billion messages are shared on the platform every day. This makes it a booming platform for increased engagements and opportunities, directing professionals to leverage on this platform for their business marketing.

It is a new digital channel that even the government bodies and media companies have tapped into, indicating its immense potential to be an effective communications channel.

So without further ado, let’s go into how we can effectively use Telegram for business!

1. Pods

For businesses who want to amplify their reach on Facebook and Instagram, they can use Telegram pods. A Telegram pod consists of people who are passionate about the brand and whenever a post is shared on a Telegram group, they will like the pictures or comment on the post. It serves as a powerful tool for organic reach.

These are most useful for tech companies or other industries which have a strong technological presence and are aware about coding bots as well as other additional features. Alternatively, there are many basic and free bots on the platform that can be used to create reminders from the companies’ end and keep constant engagement with audiences; saving labour and time. That’s what you call killing two birds with one stone!

2. Large reach

Unlike Whatsapp who has a limited group size of 200, Telegram has no limit on group size which means when you are marketing your brand, you can be assured that it reaches a maximum number of people at any given time.

The developers of Telegram, Nikolai and Pavel Durov, take pride in their software’s ability to deliver messages quicker than any other messenger application. What makes them uniquely different is that they have this default unchangeable option which is to notify everyone whenever your channel posts something. Talk about the power of default effects!

Some popular groups on Telegram have more than 1 million followers so you can tap into these and leverage on the group popularity to increase your brand awareness or any new announcements that you have.

3. Cost

This verse “survival of the fittest” rings true for 2020 which has seen companies, even large corporations, to close down during the pandemic. So profit loss margin definitely hits home for many business owners. Whatsapp Business charges anywhere between 0.5 to 9 cents for every message sent, depending on country and they will be implementing a new chargeable feature called Whatsapp Story Ads.

Then what about Telegram? Zero…zilch, yes you did not hear wrongly, my friend. This is indeed a saving grace in the face of the pandemic where most business owners are struggling to tally their accounts. As for advertising, it costs nothing too. All you need to do is craft and schedule a message; it will reach tons of subscribers quickly.

4. Security

Many businesses are turning to use Telegram because it is a more secure application due to rising concerns over Whatsapp’s security and encryption. 2020 has seen many people being forced to work from home as part of global measures to contain and annihilate COVID-19. Hence it is very important to make sure for businesses to make sure their company information is talked about somewhere safe.

Many businesses are using Telegram to have discussions with their team and besides the end-to-end encryption, there are also the options of “secret” chats and self-destructive messages. How cool is that?

Overall, Telegram is a good new marketing tool which every business can use to leverage on for generation of leads, sales and revenue. With well-executed marketing strategies, this is not impossible!

December 7, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Webinar Marketing – 5 Useful Tips To Success

Webinar technology first emerged in the 1990s as a business tool and it was developed to provide multimedia streams. However, it had limited functions including interaction capability.

Fast forward to 2020, the technology has developed exponentially since then. No longer do hosts and attendees need specialized software to use webinar technology nor is it a tool solely reserved for the big guns in business. With today’s tools, anyone can access or host webinars.

Why are webinars important and how do business owners take advantage of this trending technology tool? Webinar marketing is basically using an online seminar to connect with a wider audience and promote your branding. For businesses who want to improve conversion rates, webinars are a great marketing strategy to provide value, improve engagement and increase sales revenue.

It usually consists of a presentation followed by a Question and Answer (Q&A) session. Due to them being a visual and interactive medium with chat features, they can help presenters connect quickly with participants. Most people will also grasp the information better.

Businesses can use webinar marketing to give a demonstration on their products and services, showcase their expertise and knowledge as well as expound on content that has been published in a blog post. Now that you know the benefits of webinar marketing, let’s talk about setting it up!

Here are 5 tips to get you started:

1. Choose a host

All webinars need a host to make the engagement happen. There are some free hosting providers whereas some are paid. To save you the trouble and time of doing research, we have included a list here. Some of the best webinar software tools are WebinarJam, Webinar Ninja, GotoWebinar and etc.

A good webinar tool should help you deliver live high-quality video, automate your sales process and engage marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) during live training and product demos.

2. Interesting topic

This is the most important factor as your topic is the hook to bait your target audience and/ or potential customers. Do some prior research as to what other people are presenting especially your competitors and anticipate what your target audience might want to know about so you can keep them engaged and interested.

Using these 2 pointers in hand, draft out a presentation plan that takes an hour; which 40 minutes should be the actual presentation while the remaining 20 minutes is used to do a little icebreaker or welcome from the start of webinar plus Q&A at the end after the presentation.

3. Timing is critical

As the saying goes, there is a timing for everything and this rings true when it comes to hosting a webinar. According to research, the best time to hold a webinar is at 11am in the middle of the week when everyone has cleared their initial workload when the week starts and before Friday when everyone autotunes to the weekend mood.

However, if you are reaching out to a global community, you might want to consider the time zone. Scheduling countries with similar time zones will be instrumental to increasing the number of participant registrations and makes it less stressful on yourself too in terms of time management.

4. Pick your preferred webinar style

If you are just starting to use webinars, these 2 marketing styles will be more suitable: The Interview and The Panel. The Interview consists of someone who is a highly influential industry-specific expert and well known at the same time.

Their reputation and credibility will be a signup booster to your webinar. You just need to make sure to go through the script with him/ her so there won’t be any glitches when you go live.

The Panel is providing access to a group of experienced professionals who are willing to discuss popular topics and share their experiences in a panel format. This can work exceptionally well because participants will think they have access to a treasure vault of knowledge and expertise.

You will need to brief every panelist on the script and it is also good to use an experienced and unbiased facilitator to manage the flow of conversation. A good candidate will be someone who is impartial, familiar with the topic and knows how to handle the panel as well as participants.

For the experienced and/ or more adventurous presenters, you can use The Q&A format as this engages your attendees the most. Always ask for questions so the audience is more likely to interact and engage when they are waiting to see whose question will be chosen.

At the same time, it is the perfect opportunity to put your top brass in the hot seat as this will build brand loyalty and makes your offer more valuable.

Alternatively, you can use The Presentation format which is the most straightforward and popular style. However, to host a successful webinar, the presenter will need to be as engaging and enthusiastic as possible besides being an expert on the topic.

In order to guarantee the success rate, it will be necessary to provide content that is relevant and valuable to the target audience. Delivery in a clear, concise and confident manner will nail that success for you!

5. Promote your webinar

Strategy is important when it comes to promoting your webinar. According to The 2017 Big Book of Webinar Stats and compiled by GoToMeeting, 45% of marketers use email as their primary promotional tool. However, the signup rate will increase dramatically at the last minute because 69% of signups take place in the final week.

There are a few ways to do it and these are not exhaustive. You can post about your webinar details on social media, business website and/ or blog, email marketing list, industry forums or partner with someone to maximise your reach and if you are working with an industry expert or a panel, it will be good to ask them to mention your webinar on their social media and other channels. After all, they are involved in it too!

For those who are starting out, we advise you not to be discouraged. Practice makes perfect and once you get the hang of it, it is like taking a walk in the park! For the more experienced presenters, we hope this inspires you about new ideas for presentation and brand promotion too. All the best!

December 5, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Youtube – 4 Tips To Making Great Videos

Would you agree besides Google, Youtube is our next go to when we need information and/ or to learn something new? It is the internet’s second largest search engine and everyone’s favourite online video sharing platform. Youtube allows users to view, share, upload, rate, add to playlists, report, comment on videos and subscribe to other users. With current mobile phone technology, we can even use our mobile phones to shoot videos and upload them onto Youtube. Easy peasy!

What does this mean for individuals and more importantly, for business owners? Similar to social media, not only you can use Youtube to share about your personal hobbies but also your business especially if it depends heavily on any category or mixture of visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses like fitness workouts or travel vlogging. The video genres are vast and unlimited on Youtube.

Youtube has over 1.9 billion monthly active users and they watch a billion hours of videos every day. That translates into 114,000 years of videos being consumed every day. You might have tried to play around with video making before but still fuzzy about how to make good ones to upload onto Youtube for branding so here you are.

These are the top 4 tips for making great Youtube videos.

1. Plan your video content

Before you start working on your first script or storyboard, think about your target audience. What their problems are, what they need to know and how they benefit from your videos. If you are not sure, you can do some research and see how your competitors are using video content in their marketing strategies.

At the same time, you can also do a keyword research so you can put highly ranked search keywords into your content and meta description to enhance the search engine optimization (SEO) to dramatically increase number of views.

Use a cohesive tone for your video content, making sure how the overall mood and video elements such as music, lighting and colour composition are well-pieced together and thus reflect your branding in a clear and eye-catching manner.

2. Use the equipment you have

You might think you need to buy very expensive equipment to shoot good videos. Well, not totally true. With current smartphone models and their high quality cameras, you can use even your mobile phones to shoot videos and this is suitable for Youtube amateurs or for businesses who are working on a tight budget.

Before you start shooting, be sure to run an audio test. Nothing turns people off more than poor quality audio so having clear audio is crucial to making your target audience feel that you are an expert and professional in your niche. Choose a quiet environment to test how close you need to be to the camera. Alternatively, you may want to invest in an external microphone to ensure effortless clear and high quality audio.

3. Attention-grabbing intro and outro

How many times did you start watching a video but to close it within 5 seconds? In our recent blog article, we talked about the goldfish memory effect so the same rule of thumb applies. Today’s video viewers are very fussy about content and quality so you gotta grab their attention in the first 5 seconds if not they will be gone in a jiffy!

A good attention grabbing intro is a 2 liner, telling viewers what you are sharing and how they are going to benefit from watching. Eg. If you are in the fitness industry, you can say “In just 15 minutes, I am going to show you simple workout techniques and share some helpful tips to lose 5kg in 1 month!

Assuming you got your target audience hooked from the intro to the end of your video, you can use the outro video to compel them to take action. It should include a call to action like subscribing to your channel, visiting your website or contacting your team to find out more. Either way, it is good to guide them in clear and concise steps so they know what to do next.

4. Video editing and optimization

There are many free resources available on the web to edit your videos on various operating systems. Just like blog articles, it is good to make longer videos as they rank better than shorter videos. Backlinko analyzed 1.3 Million YouTube Videos and found that the average length of a video on the first page of YouTube is 14 minutes, 50 seconds.

You will want to make sure when you upload your videos, they are optimized. Youtube transcribes your video content so make sure the main keyword is spoken at least 2 to 3 times in the script. Put the keyword in the title and description, preferably at the front and make sure it is click-worthy adding an attractive thumbnail. Choose a thumbnail with bright and engaging colours and put some text in too so it will instantly grab people’s attention!

Finally, use tags to ensure maximum impact. You can use multiple variations of the same idea. Eg. “How to lose 5kg in 1 month” or “Use 1 month to lose 5kg”. Combined with the keyword research, you can be sure that there is significant leverage on making your video noticeable and clickbaitable during search results.

Now that we have shown you making videos is not difficult even for the amateurs and with just a little tweak in content, audio and lighting; it can make a huge difference between good and bad quality videos. We hope these tips will help you and give you the confidence to get started on your video making journey!

December 4, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Content Writing – 4 Awesome Tips To Effective Marketing

What is content writing and why do we need it? Content writing is basically creating content for your business website with the purpose of attracting online visitors. It is the process of putting yourself into your target audience’s shoes, anticipating what they want to see and planning what to write to best engage with them; eventually promoting a product or service successfully.

It can include writing blog articles, scripts for videos, product descriptions as well as content for specific platforms such as Twitter or Reddit. A major and important component of digital marketing, great content writing that engages your target audience is the key booster to sales revenue besides the aesthetics of your website. It drives search engine results, increases traffic to your website and establishes your credibility as well as branding in the industry. Sales revenue increases naturally as an effect of great content writing.

There is no “one size fits for all” when it comes to content writing because every individual has their own preferences and quirks but what we can share with you is the secret sauce to great content writing for the masses. Just like success stories, there are always some common “ingredients” or X factors that produce the desired outcome.

Here are 4 important tips when it comes to content writing:

1. Effective research

Understanding your target audience and creating buyer personas is fundamental to building a solid marketing strategy. You need to make sure the content you offer at different stages of the buying cycle is attractive enough to keep them engaged from start to finish when they visit your website.

Content strategy and distribution is equally important. You can use the calendar tool in Asana to help you plan content ahead of time and distribute to the relevant social media channels. You can also write and put up blog articles or posts around key events.

Eg. If you are running a pâtisserie, you can write about popular tarts or cakes to serve for Christmas and some history of how these came about when the month of December is approaching. Good visuals and engaging content will pull consumers into thinking of the sweet treats as potential Christmas ideas and eventually leading to a successful purchase.

2. Use a head-turning headline

Sounds cheesy but this is so true! We are flooded with so many different types of information every day that our brain automatically becomes goldfish-like when it comes to processing information. Because we sift through tons of information and 99% is similar anyway, we basically only remember it for that 3 to 5 seconds.

It is like going through a mass of black and white so unless you use a head-turning headline, creating a shade of red among the mass of monochrome; the chances are people will not be attracted to turn back and look at what you are offering. You only have that few seconds to catch their attention hence great content writing is important.

Eg. If you are in the financial industry, most people will write “Want to have peace of mind?” but instead of writing this, you could write “How practising yoga helped me save money?” to link the importance of taking care of our physical health and potentially avoiding medical costs as you lead a healthy lifestyle and medical costs are getting higher. This is what we term as “emotion mapping” – a commonly used marketing strategy nowadays.

3. Execute in the right channels and time

Though many businesses are turning to social media to promote their branding, we will advise you not all platforms are suitable based on the nature of your business. What do we mean?

Eg. If you are in the legal industry, using a Facebook page and LinkedIn will be deemed more appropriate. However, if you are in the interior design business, using a Facebook page and Instagram will be more suitable as you can showcase your designs and decor. Get the drift?

As for post timings, according to a Buffer study, the best time to post on Facebook is between 1pm to 3pm during the week and Saturdays while the best time to post on LinkedIn is 8am to 2pm on Tuesdays to Thursdays.

4. Keep it updated and easy to consume

To ensure continued traffic to your business website and to drive turnover, you need to consistently update your content. A good frequency will be at least once or twice a week.

Content that is easy to consume makes it easy for shareability too. To add some sass to your content writing, you can include short funny videos for some humour to engage your target audience.

Alternatively, you can put in some stunning visuals to mix things up and most importantly, keep the content writing to short paragraphs so people can skim over easily and get the information they want within a short period of time.

Now that you have the secret sauce at your fingertips, we hope it helps you to write great content. With well-planned marketing strategies and execution, you are on the road to success!

November 30, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Email Marketing – 7 Amazing Tips To Increase Sales

Now that your business website is up and running with search engine optimization and etc in place, what else can business owners do to drive potential traffic and increase business turnover? Another way to constantly showcase your product or service offerings is to create an email database aka email marketing where you can “push” new offerings or promotions to customers. Direct but yet not overly aggressive.

You must be thinking “They are not going to open the email or even if they open, they are not going to get anything?”. Not necessarily true. A survey in 2018 on Statista showed that 65 percent of responding marketers found their email marketing return on investment (ROI) was either good or excellent while 4 percent said it was very poor. Usually, the possible open rate will be higher when 2 emails are sent for each campaign.

Email marketing by far, is a cost effective marketing strategy that delivers real time results for business revenue regardless of marketing budget. It is also a great and personalized way to keep customers engaged into new products and promotions plus the results can be tracked easily. Still not convinced of its effectiveness?

Let me tell you the top 7 reasons on what email marketing can do for your business:

1. Stay connected with your audience

Emails have the ability to keep your customers informed and capture their attention at the same time. Consumers have the freedom to check their emails and what your business can offer without feeling pressured to do anything compared to traditional brick and mortar businesses.

It is also a subtle way to tell them that you are thinking of them and you are updating them on the latest happenings that they might have missed in their hectic schedules. Those who have signed up into your email list would mean they already have an interest in what you are offering and as long as you give them something worth reading, it will boost engagement with your customers.

2. Reach customers in real time

Nowadays, we bring our mobile phones wherever we go. On the bus, in the train, even to the washroom – our mobile phones are inseparable and if the mobile battery runs low, we fly into a panic. According to Litmus, 54% of all emails were opened on a mobile device. This is a significant percentage and should be taken into consideration when planning any marketing strategy.

More and more consumers are using their mobile devices to access not only emails but other types of information as well. Hence well-designed emails will produce higher conversion rates on mobile devices compared to any other electronic gadgets.

3. Results are measurable

Most email marketing tools like Mailchimp and Zoho offer the ability to track consumer analytics after you sent out your email campaign. You can track delivery rates, click through rates, bounce rates, open rates and unsubscribe rates. This gives you a better understanding of which email campaigns are working so you can tweak from there and choose which ones to remove altogether.

These metrics form an important part of your internet marketing strategies because they tell you about consumer preferences so you can adjust your content accordingly. Generally, sending an email once or twice a week is good enough to keep customers engaged and yet not overbearing to the point that it becomes a turn off.

4. Targeted marketing for segmentation

There might be many consumers who subscribe to your email list but the truth is, they are potential customers who are possibly at different stages of the buying cycle. Some may be in the research and compare stage, some are in the consideration stage and some may be in the ready to buy stage.

Creating buyer personas aka targeted customer demographics will help you determine what type of content to create for each campaign. Segmentation of these customers into appropriate email marketing lists helps businesses to target these groups more effectively, “pushing” them into the next appropriate stage in the buying cycle.

5. Personalized

We are thinking of sales all the time but yet more often than not, we forget that personalization is one of the most crucial keys to getting sales. Being able to showcase your product or service offerings in email marketing is good but it will be more effective if you know how to use it in the right fashion.

It is important to use whatever customer data and information you have available. Sending customers a special offer on their birthday or letting them know their favourite lipstick brand is half off is much more effective than simply sending them a generic offer. They will be more likely to make a purchase when they know you remember their preferences and were thinking of them.

6. Affordability

This is what you were holding your breath for, correct? When we mentioned cost effective, you were probably thinking “Ya right?” Email marketing can reach a large number of consumers for less than a few cents per message. The cost per potential conversion is so low that we will be surprised which company would not want to use email marketing to engage their customers.

For starters, you can use Mail Chimp which allows you to send up to 12,000 emails a month for free! Alternatively, you may use SendGrid which allows you to send each message at $0.0001 with their Essentials level. The various platforms come with free and paid plans so you can choose the one most suited for your business needs. You can also schedule email campaigns and all the email marketing tools would come with dynamic templates for you to use.

7. Everyone uses email

If we make phone calls, the recipients will either reject or cut the calls short, right? Using email as an alternative sales and marketing technique will be better because it is non-invasive and allows the consumers to find out about what your business is offering at their own pace. A Hubspot survey states that 91% of consumers use email and that alone should convince you to explore email marketing.

Not only can you provide them with the latest deals, new products and more, email marketing also makes it easier for them to share or forward those emails to anyone they like without much hassle. A good and successful email marketing strategy is to encourage customers not only to make a purchase but also to share as much as possible. That is free brand awareness for you!

There are many platforms and/ or ways to market your business, including Google Ads and Instagram. However, email marketing has been proven to be one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to promote your product and service offerings with well-planned execution. This makes brand awareness possible for new entrepreneurs or businesses that are working with a limited budget. We hope this information has been useful to get you started on your email marketing journey.

November 28, 2020/by Editor

Business

Payment Gateway 101 – Easy Quick-Start Why And How To

Many business websites have either product or service offerings and especially for the former, it will be more convenient to set up a payment gateway. Why a payment gateway? With the booming e-commerce trade and many people turning to online shopping especially during the pandemic, it is so crucial to have a payment gateway on your business website.

A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes online credit card or direct payments for online businesses and/ or even brick and mortar businesses. The payment gateway may be provided by a bank or by a third party financial service provider.

A payment gateway facilitates a payment transaction between a merchant and their customers. It sends credit card information from the merchant’s website to the payment processor and returning transaction details back to the customer. The payment gateway is responsible for encryption, request and fulfillment etc within a few seconds, Ultimately, it is used to make the payment process secure and easy for the customer who can just shop whenever they like without the limits of location or operating hours when it comes to payment. Payment is just a few simple clicks away.

Statistics have shown that in June 2020, global e-commerce traffic had a monthly record of 22 billion visits, with exceptionally high demand for daily essentials such as groceries and clothing but also tech items. Driven to an unprecedented high due to the pandemic; how online shopping and the overall future of e-commerce in 2021 and beyond will largely depend on the progression of COVID-19.

If you have not set up a payment gateway on your business website or if you are going to launch a new business website, now is the best time to set up one.

Today, we are going to talk about the types of payment gateways and you can choose the one that is most suited for your business needs.

1. Payment off site

When a customer makes the purchase, the front end checkout will occur on your business website but the payment processing will happen through your payment gateway provider’s back end. There are advantages to handling your payments this way, simplicity being the most of all. However, you won’t be able to control the customer experience and you will be at the mercy of the payment gateway provider’s off site quality and its quirks.

2. Redirects

Redirects might include an option for a Paypal payment, meaning upon checking out; the payment gateway will take a customer to the payment gateway provider’s payment page to complete the transaction (processing and payment), it becomes a “Redirect”. This is extremely useful for small businesses which has the advantage of simplicity, convenience and security of a widely recognized platform like Paypal but the process also means less control for the merchant and an extra step for the customer through the shopping experience.

3. On site payment

This is usually used by large companies, handled on their own servers. The checkout and payment process all go through your system. You will have more control over the customer experience but also more responsibility. Retail carts have an abandonment rate of 75% so every variable counts to meeting the bottom line. It means you need to be on a constant lookout to check the analytics and see there is anything you can do to improve the customer experience or reduce the cart abandonment rate. This is especially important for companies who work with a large volume of sales every day.

These are the common payment gateway types used for businesses. You must be thinking “But which payment gateway should I choose?” Fret not, my friend. We got you covered too!

Here are the top 3 payment gateway options:

1. Amazon Pay

Amazon, like Paypal, is also a widely recognized platform which has 300+ million customer accounts worldwide. This makes it very attractive as a trusted payment gateway provider option and it comes with a number of plugins, including some for use with BigCommerce. A big advantage is that whoever has an Amazon account can use Amazon Pay to make payment for online transactions without needing to create a new account or key in credit card information. Current processing fees are 2.9% on domestic transactions with an additional $0.30 per transaction. International fees escalate to 3.9%.

2. Paypal

Paypal is popular as a redirect payment gateway provider because it is widely recognized worldwide which means many customers trust this provider a lot. They have two options: a $0 per month checkout payment gateway hosted by PayPal, or a $25 per month option with more checkout customization features. Whichever option you choose, Paypal adds fraud protection security without any additional charge. This gives you the assurance that your payment gateway is safe. Current processing fees are 2.9% with an additional $0.30 per transaction.

3. Stripe

Stripe is a popular payment gateway provider with broad focus on various payments: mobile e-commerce, non-profit, software as a service (SaaS) and platform-based payments. It is also capable of handling companies who deal with a large volume of sales transactions. In addition, Stripe can be used as a standalone solution for businesses who need to send out invoices and collect payments for products or services. Processing fees are currently 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction.

We hope you are ready to get started on setting up at least 2 payment gateways on your website, making it hassle free and giving more options for customers during payment and for yourself in terms of tracking where traditional payment methods are used.

Last but not least, we advise you to always use established payment gateway providers like those mentioned above so that the customer experience is enjoyable from start to finish and this will add on to your business credibility and branding in the long run.

November 26, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Google Ads – 6 Easy Ways To Increase Traffic

After building your business website and implementing SEO, what else can business owners do to drive potential traffic quickly? With a little budget, you can set up a Google Ads account to start your online advertising campaigns. Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is basically an online paid advertising platform where advertisers bid on certain keywords to display brief advertisements, product or service offerings and videos to users in Google’s search results. Services offered are based on a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model.

You might be thinking “Do I need to spend a lot of money?” or “It is too expensive!” Many people have misconceptions that they need to spend a lot of money on Google Ads to drive and increase traffic to their business websites. However, this is not totally true. The cost varies due to a number of factors, including the competitiveness of your keywords and industry, geographic location and etc.

For example, the business service industries like real estate and accounting; they are one of the more competitive verticals in Google Ads and that means it would result in higher costs per click (CPC). This is due to the nature of a niche market and one client could yield significant revenue of $1K to $10K depending on your business so a CPC of $50 is a minor price to pay for that client.

On the other hand, industries like arts and entertainment incur smaller CPCs because they need to reach many more customers to hit that same revenue of $1K to $10K. So how do you manage when you don’t have a big advertising budget? Similar to Facebook, you can actually set a daily budget. Let me explain. If you want to place an ad with a CPC of $0.50 and you like to receive 100 clicks, that would put you on an estimated daily budget of $100.

In this example, it means $0.50 is the maximum amount you will be charged per click if that is your maximum CPC. In reality, the actual amount might vary every time, depending on individual ad auctions but it also means you will not pay more than $0.50 per click but could possibly end up paying less. There are other advanced options that might affect the overall budget such as dayparting, geotargeting and device targeting but we will leave that to another time.

More importantly, let’s talk about 6 most practical features to help you master the basics of Google Ads and increase traffic to your website!

1. New ad copy formats

Since 2019, Google has released different ad format options to use and if you have not used them yet, it is a good time to look into these new options. Previously, advertisers had limited text space to put in their ads but now the space has almost doubled and there are powerful ads that can use any number of preset options to create an attractive advertisement for individual users. Eg. Video ads can be used to provide an interactive and fun experience to customers. These can be featured on websites that partner with Google.

2. Search impression share

Just because you run Google ads does not mean that you will automatically get traffic. A major factor is the use of keywords. Sometimes, your business does not show up because the ad rank is too low which is a prompt to work on improving your quality score. Other times, it might be due to budget constraints. With search impression share, you can find out how often your business appears based on the keywords you use and pinpointing you to where the underlying problem is so you can make the rectifications accordingly to increase traffic.

3. The Home tab

Do you agree that when you see this tab, you tend to “switch off” in a way cuz it seems like a mass of information to digest? This is often the most overlooked but insightful page. Within the Home tab, you will find interesting information like missed clicks due to budget, good quality but low traffic keywords and even suggestions to increase traffic by adding new keywords. A great free tool to help you improve on directing more traffic to your business website.

4. Auction insights

While you cannot directly see how much your competitors are bidding for keywords or their quality scores, there is still a lot of information you can gather from the Auction Insights tab. It offers an in-depth analysis at what your competitors are bidding alongside you, how often their ads appear for your keywords and where their ads show up on the page. If you find that the bids need to be at the top of the page to increase traffic clicks, you can review your competitors to see who is outbidding you.

5. Different bidding strategies

Google Ads has put in place several automated bidding systems to help businesses in achieving different goals – search page location, clicks and conversions etc. You will want to have your account set up and running for some time before using any of these automated bidding strategies as research has shown that past account history plays a part in their effectiveness. By doing this, it helps you save time and money in the long run as the analytics will show you which strategy works best for your business.

6. Remarketing

If you are not familiar with the concept of remarketing, it is worth doing some research. With this tool, you can “push” ads to people once they visit your business website. Retargeting can be specified down to particular pages of your website so you can tailor ads for those unique areas. Similar to traditional advertising, some people need to visually see your brand many times before they decide to connect. With remarketing as an indirect advertising strategy, you can continue to remind them of their previous visit and make the first ad click worthwhile by “pushing” ads even after they left your website.

We hope this information has been insightful and helpful so you can maximize using Google Ads to increase traffic to your business website. You may need tweaks here and there but you will definitely achieve the desired results in due time!

November 23, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – 6 Critical Ranking Factors

Search Engine Optimization - 6 Critical Ranking Factors

We see so many websites created nowadays but besides the social media platforms being used to promote the websites branding, do you know what is the important X factor that drives visitors or should I say traffic, to these websites?

It is search engine optimization (SEO). In layman terms, it is the process of improving your website to increase organic aka free visibility for relevant searches whenever a person goes online to look for a product or service etc.

The better visibility your website has, the more likely you will garner attention and attract new potential customers to your business besides maintaining your current customer base. Many people say SEO is dead but man, are they dead wrong! It is still one of the most powerful strategies used in digital marketing to drive long term results.

Search engines such as Google and Bing; they want to provide the best service to their users. This means they use bots to scan or crawl pages on the web, going from site to site and collecting information about them to make sure that not only will high quality results be delivered during a search but also relevant information that the user is looking for.

This is where algorithms take place and they change very quickly, so as to ensure the consistent quality and relevancy of searches hence it is important to implement search engine optimization for your business so that when the user does a search, your business website will appear within the first few pages on search engines.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the 6 factors that affect SEO ranking:

1.Optimized Content

Search algorithms depend heavily on keywords. These are the words and phrases that searchers use when they are looking for information. They are also the very same words and phrases that describe what your website is about. Ideally, these should match well so it is therefore important to use keywords in your content. However, do note that fresh and original content is best as duplicate content is one big negative SEO ranking factor.

2. Google My Business Listing

Having a Google My Business listing is the most basic yet fundamentally important thing you can do for local SEO. It helps establish your business as a legit entity which acts as a great asset to your SEO. It also elevates your local search performance and once you create a listing, it becomes eligible for the local business community and Google maps, making your business visible to nearby searchers.

3. Page Speed

This has been known to be one of the leading SEO ranking factors for years. As mentioned earlier, search engines want to provide the best service to their users which equates to having an enjoyable user experience of the web and fast loading web pages help to achieve this objective. Page Speed also affects mobile page speed and Google announced that starting from September 2020, all websites will be judged on their mobile version and this definitely becomes a big factor in deciding your SEO ranking!

4. Backlinks

Backlinks are a signal to tell search engines about the credibility and authority of a website. The number and quality of links pointing to your website is an off page SEO factor that can have a significant impact on your search ranking. Backlinks are often considered to be the second most important SEO ranking factor after optimized content so if you want your search ranking to be good, you will need to build high quality backlinks such as digital PR and guest postings etc.

5. Site Security

As early as 2014, Google has discussed site security as a ranking factor and this has become one of the most important factors especially when cyber hacking is on the rise with advancing technology. Sites with HTTPS encryption have SSL certificates that create a secure connection between a site and its searchers, protecting information exchanged between searchers and the site through an extra layer of security. Make sure your website starts with HTTPS so Google can inform the searcher that your website is safe for use.

6. Domain Age

This factor is definitely out of your control but the age of your domain does remain a considerable ranking factor and though Google does not state explicitly that they prefer older domains, research has shown that older domains tend to rank better. Well I guess, older domain age does give searchers the feel of credibility and so if you are going to or just launch a brand new website, know that it will take at least 6 months to 1 year for your SEO efforts to see results. Your SEO ranking will definitely improve with time and consistent SEO work!

Now that you know that it is no longer optional but imperative for your business to implement SEO, I hope you will be encouraged and know that great SEO results take time and persistence to achieve. All the best in this amazing world of SEO!

November 21, 2020/by Editor

Business

Build Your Business Website – 7 Great Reasons Why You Should

Do you think it is important to build your business website? The first websites were created in the early 1990s and they were manually written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It is assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as Javascript to transform documents into multimedia web pages.

You would need to know coding to build a website but came the 2000s and websites can be built without coding since the introduction of content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Wix and Magento etc. It makes the business website dream possible for all of us especially the non-techie folks.

Now building your business website is as easy as eating cake and many business owners are doing it to showcase their products and services. You may ask, why do we need to build a business website?

Here are top 7 reasons why you should build your business website:

1. A website makes you look professional

Though social media is the new norm for many business owners to promote their products and services, psychologically wise; 84% of today’s consumers still think a website makes your business look more credible than companies who only promote their products and services through social media. Your business website is also the perfect wall to display any professional awards or certifications your business has. Having a company email address adds on a second layer of professionalism.

2. Attract customers through Google

As you all know, Google is our best friend when it comes to searching for any answers to the questions we have at any point of time. You might feel comfortable with the current business size but every company experiences customer turnover due to stiff competition. To ensure continued success, you will need to attract new customers and one of the best ways to do it is to make yourself visible on Google. A well-optimized website can help your business rank well on Google with search engine optimization (SEO) and attract a steady stream of new customers.

3. Showcase your products and services

You can use your business website design to give customers a good customer experience when they visit your website, imprinting your brand upon their visual senses. You can provide important information about your products and services to make sure you are attracting the right customers. For example, if you run a spa, you might want to mark any massage services that are unsuitable for pregnant women due to properties of certain essential oils so mothers to be will know which type of massage to go for when they visit your establishment.

4. Display your best reviews and testimonials

Displaying your best reviews and testimonials serve as a credibility booster and this might come in the form of personal customer testimonials. If your business has appeared or has been mentioned in popular local blogs or newspapers, it is good to feature those as this shows that your business has received public recognition. Doing this acts as a safeguard against third party review sites closing but customers will still have access to your testimonials. Now that’s definitely a very important reason to build your own business website!

5. Integrate your business website with Google Maps

Since Google is the go to search engine for any queries, it is imperative to integrate your business website with Google Maps so customers can locate you easily. A website allows you to embed maps directly into your content. Some businesses have a map embedded directly onto their home page and makes it easy for people to locate your business especially for those who are not familiar with your area. You may also include bus or train services to better guide customers.

6. Creating a website is easy peasy

Unlike the past, creating a website no longer seems daunting. You do not need to know coding because modern website builders like Wix and Squarespace have made it possible for many laymen like you and I. You can easily build an attractive and user friendly business website and even for WordPress, it has evolved and transitioned into a block editor where non techies can build a website by just dragging blocks and widgets.

7. A website ensures success in the long run

In 2020, almost 4.54 billion people use the internet; it proves that more and more people are going online, even our parents and grandparents. Without a website, your business is invisible and not known to these people. In the current digital era, not having a visible presence online is subjecting your business to high collateral damage and the probability increases as we advance further in technology. To ensure sustainability and competitive advantage, your business needs to go online.

We hope this information has motivated you to start on your business website or make improvements if you already have one especially when the odds are in your favour now with modern website builders. You can build one easily or make changes on your website within a few days and your business is ready to roll.

November 19, 2020/by Editor

Marketing

WhatsApp Business – 6 Big Advantages

Have you heard of WhatsApp Business? Would you agree besides the invention of the internet, WhatsApp is the next amazing creation? Out went the traditional messages like SMS which is more costly and has limited text length in a single text message. If you are sending SMS to a person in the same country, the cost is considered reasonable but when you send it to a person overseas, it can prove costly especially when you just want to catch up with your loved ones and friends.

With the invention of WhatsApp, we can now catch up with loved ones, friends and business associates at minimal or zero cost even if they are overseas. Sending text and voice messages, making voice and video calls, sharing photos. documents and other media have become part and parcel of our daily lives. It also becomes a useful tool for businesses where customers can make enquiries hassle free without having to call or email. Furthermore, it is available on both iPhones and android phones.

What makes life sweeter is when WhatsApp web was launched in 2015 – a browser-based web client that could be used by syncing with a mobile device’s connection. We no longer need to use our mobile phones to reply messages during working hours – saving time and efficiency for both work and personal communication.

Since WhatsApp is already an important part of our lifestyles, how do we take advantage of its features especially for business owners? This is where WhatsApp Business comes into play and as its name suggests, it is purely meant for businesses. Designed to offer a concierge-like service for customers, it is used by business owners to provide better service to their customers in terms of support and updates. In this way, turnaround time is maximized to sustain and expand the number of customers, especially happy ones.

In early 2020, it has been reported that WhatsApp users hit 2 billion worldwide, proving itself to be one of the fastest growing and popular communication apps besides Facebook. Statistics have shown that WhatsApp users send about 65 billion messages per day which means 750,000 messages per second when you break it down.

Now that we have told you about the purpose of WhatsApp Business and statistics, let’s dive into the features on how it can be a great marketing tool!

1. Business Profiles

Besides the standard features of WhatsApp, you can include additional information such as email, website, physical store address and etc in “Business Profiles” so customers will understand better the nature of your business . Your account will be verified as part of the standard operating procedure for WhatsApp Business and this serves as a form of insurance to customers, showing them your business is legit and they do not need to worry about getting scammed online.

2. Messaging Tools

You can set different types of messages in “Messaging Tools” to standardize and smoothen the customer experience, improving efficiency at the same time rather than writing individual messages every time when a customer contacts you. Quick Replies can be set up as answers to frequently asked questions, Greeting Message to introduce your business to new customers and Away Message to notify customers during off hours or when you are busy.

3. WhatsApp Web

WhatsApp Business also supports WhatsApp Web so you can manage the service online without using your mobile, increasing the efficiency and improving customer experience. It is still not as multi faceted as the mobile app but it serves the purpose of being a good concierge-like service for customers. It is also what sets WhatsApp Business apart from the regular app because it offers so much more, mainly designed to help business owners to cater to customer needs.

4. Statistics

What better way to improve your business operations than using statistics to understand your customers? WhatsApp Business offers messaging statistics, a feature that provides business owners with simple metrics. These metrics measure the number of messages that were sent, delivered and read. Simple but yet functionally important, it tells you about customer behaviour and preferences; thereby giving business owners ideas to fine tune the content of Quick Replies and strategy for contacting customers.

5. Broadcasts

An asset especially for small businesses – there are no limitations on the type of content you can send. However, you can only send broadcasts to 256 people at a time. The only flaw is that WhatsApp users will need to add you as a contact before they can receive the broadcast. There seems to be limitations but if you stay organized, this feature can be a powerful tool. Using labels provided in the app, you will be able to organize customers into groups on the fly and send targeted mass messages at any point of time. Promotions for regular customers and VIP customers are a piece of cake!

6. Contacts Manager

Working almost exactly like personal WhatsApp, the app will show your customers the name you have saved if the contact is in your phone contacts. If the contact is not in your phone book, it will just be shown as your phone number.The Contacts Manager has one unique feature called labels which work a lot like tags in CRM – a Customer Relationship Management technology that allows a company to manage interactions with past, current and potential customers. You can add labels to contacts and create groups or broadcasts based on the labels you assigned.

Now that we have shared the features of WhatsApp Business, we hope you have gained some insight into how it can work for your business. The contact format is easy, making it hassle free for both business owners and customers. As business owners, it is impossible to constantly check your emails but you tend to check WhatsApp messages regularly; thereby making it easy for yourselves.

Likewise for customers, they tend to use WhatsApp regularly compared to email. Chatting with a WhatsApp Business account makes them feel assured that they are chatting with a legit business and their satisfaction index increases when you seem to be “easily contactable” all the time. WhatsApp Business is an efficient and cost effective way to achieve all these.

November 16, 2020/by Editor