Several business owners make the crucial mistake of focusing their energy on products and services, not recognizing that the key to success is not just from what the business offers. Reaching success is also present in your ability to reach customers and how you can persuade them to invest. In a nutshell, marketing is the essential element to any business’ success.

Before the Internet took the world by storm, marketing, especially to the masses, was challenging and expensive. Although the Internet and its accessibility have changed drastically in the last decade, it does not mean there is no place for traditional marketing strategies alongside Internet marketing.

Allow us to weigh the advantages of these two marketing methods:

Understanding Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing (now referred to as offline marketing) is a broad category involving the promotional strategies used before the Internet. Today, it is still the most recognizable marketing method, which encompasses advertisements we see and hear every day. The majority of traditional marketing strategies fall under one of four categories, including print, broadcast (radio and television), direct mail, and telephone.

Benefits of Traditional Marketing

Even in the digital age, there are great reasons to incorporate old-school marketing strategies, including:

• Reach hard-to-get customers. Believe it or not, 11% of U.S. adults do not use the internet, according to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center. Seniors are the primary age group unlikely to go online, and traditional methods may be the only means to reach this particular group of consumers.

• Woo your clients in person. Internet marketing is convenient in a sense that you rarely have to travel to communicate with a client in person. However, you should not underestimate the effectiveness of traditional face-to-face marketing. Meeting in person allows you to do impressive demonstrations and later read their body language to see if they are genuinely interested in working with you. Furthermore, many customers prefer doing business with people they have met personally.

• Billboards are not a thing of the past. Each week, the average American drivers spend 20 hours traveling over 200 miles. Furthermore, 71% of Americans consciously look at billboard messages while driving, and those who learn about an event or restaurant via traditional ads later pay to visit.

• Hard copy material provides tangible information. Search engine optimization and paid media do great jobs of attracting leads and prospects, but there is still something unique and compelling about a meeting sealed with a business card exchange (which they can refer to at their leisure). This type of traditional marketing makes it incredibly easy to provide information on the go.

Understanding Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, also known as internet marketing, e-marketing, or web marketing, is an all-inclusive term for promoting products and services online.

While the more obvious purpose of internet marketing is to sell goods, services, or advertise your brand over the Internet, your business can build itself by conduct competitor analyses and by learning from your online customers’ feedback and preferences. Online marketing is a very effective way to identify your target market or discover a marketing segment’s wants and needs.

Today, every brick and mortar business can (and should) use the widely available Internet to their advantage and leverage it for marketing purposes.

At PrimeView, we offer a broad selection of digital marketing services, including web design and development, search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, video optimization, email marketing, and reputation management.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Marketing via the Internet allows your business to reach target audiences more efficiently. Other pros include:

• Measure your marketing success (and failures). Tools like Google Analytics can help you see which methods are bringing prospects, leads, and conversions to your business, including which ones are not. This way, you can alter your marketing practices and focus your efforts on what works.

• Engage and network anytime, anywhere. Social media is a powerful tool that not only allows you to communicate directly with your market, but also share relevant news and information for absolutely free. It is by far the fastest and easiest way to build direct relationships with your clients and prospects. Further, it is an excellent platform for receiving quick feedback on what your target market likes and dislikes.

• Spend less money. Traditional marketing billboards can cost anywhere between $300 to $30,000 per four-week period, which equates to $3,600 to $360,000 per year. Although digital marketing strategy prices may vary depending on which services you integrate into your business, many online marketing tools and methods are free.

Which Type of Marketing Is Best for Your Small Business?

A company can leverage both traditional and digital marketing methods to achieve their goals. It does not have to be one or the other because while one approach might be more effective at drawing leads and analyzing results, it does not mean the other is any less effective. For instance, a television ad might pull in many prospects, but so can the same ad on YouTube for far less money.

The real question should not be what type of marketing is best, but instead, which method offers the best way to reach your audience and convert them into customers. Fact is, there are strategies in both traditional and Internet marketing that will work to your advantage.

Speak with a Professional Marketing Strategist Today

Are you having a hard time figuring out which method – traditional or online – works best for your business? PrimeView, a pioneering digital marketing agency in Phoenix, AZ can help determine which option is the best for your audience. Dial 480-970-4688 to speak with our strategist about improving or rebuilding your company’s marketing strategy. You may also complete our online form to receive a free quote. We look forward to hearing from you.

According to a HubSpot Research, “54% of consumers want to see videos from brands they support in comparison to email newsletters (46%) or social image (41%) based content. We also found that video content was the most memorable (43%) in comparison to text (18%) and images (36%).”

There is no question that the role of video has significantly grown in the last decade. Several blog sites have dedicated pages to the growing trend, and although there are hundreds and thousands of video creation tips online, many continue to struggle from unsuccessful attempts at video marketing.

In a previous article, we discussed the factors that contribute to an unsuccessful video marketing campaign. Today, we will further explore the elements that negatively impact the conversion-driving power of online business videos.

1. Are you producing top-notch quality?

Please tell us that you didn’t use a mobile device’s camera to record your business video. Although everyone with a smartphone has access to decent-quality video recording and editing technology, it simply does not measure up to high-grade equipment.

Sometimes, simply “doing your best” will not be good enough to execute what should be a professional promotion of a brand. It’s important to remember that just because you have a camera does not mean you know how to use it to your marketing advantage. If your video marketing strategy stands on frail foundation, you can bet that it won’t stand tall for long. Even the most original and outstanding video content ideas require quality execution to connect with an audience.

The Fix: The best solution is to work with people who understand video marketing and have track records of success. Do not hesitate to hire a video marketing agency that dedicates their time and resources to creating stand-out video campaigns. Also, ensure that your team works closely with the agency to produce niche videos that maximize your budget and effectively reaches target audiences.

2. Did you promote your video online?

Once you publish your video, the work is only 50% done. Video distribution is only half the battle (if not more). Statistically speaking, only a small percentage of video campaigns ever go viral. Some never get past a certain number of views just because the content is bad. But some high-quality and compelling videos fail to exceed expectations because they lack in one thing — promotion.

The Fix: The purpose of videos is to draw as many views as possible. To attract viewers, you need to refine your online social skills. Get more views by promoting your video on social media, by sending it to influencers and asking them to post or talk about it on their platforms, and of course, encouraging every person you know to share it with everyone they know.

If you have the budget, hiring an outside firm that specializes in social media and online video promotion can be highly beneficial. If not, be prepared and freshen up your social media presence. Remember that social networks are your most powerful marketing channels.

3. Did you remember to include transcripts?

Video transcription is the process of translating a video’s audio into visual text. This is done either done by human transcriptionists or by automatic speech recognition technology (and sometimes a combination of the two for double-checking purposes).

So, did you miss including a transcript of your video? Transcripts are great for improving your SEO efforts. In fact, it could be the reason why your video was unable to reach your audience on other platforms. Without an accompanying transcript, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have no way of understanding the context of your video. Thus, your video will not show up on search engines.

The Fix: The solution is as simple and as straightforward as making your video more search engine-friendly by adding transcripts. Most interns are given the responsibility of translating audio into text. But you may also use online services like GMR Transcription to get captions for every video you upload.

4. Did you optimize your video for SEO?

Like most forms of content marketing, video has become oversaturated. If up until today, you are not using SEO to help your videos stand out, you are likely to miss out on gathering more views.

Metadata is an underlying definition or description. It summarizes necessary information about data, which makes finding and working with particular instances of data easier. Having the ability to filter through that metadata makes it so much easier for a search engine user to locate a specific document or footage online.

Metadata matters, but not everyone who launches a video marketing campaign knows just how crucial it is and how it works. Metadata includes the titles, tags, and descriptions of your video. Those are the key components that allow people to find your videos when they are searching on Google, YouTube, and other search engines.

The Fix: Use handy online tools such as the YouTube Keyword Suggestion Tool to find appropriate and relevant keyword suggestions. You may also use a tool like TubeBuddy to optimize your videos.

5. Are you working with the right video marketing agency?

Most marketing agencies can support you across a wide variety of different marketing strategies and tactics. But the truth is, some agencies that claim to be the best at video content tend to specialize in only a handful of video marketing tactics.

The Fix: As one of the more recent additions to the marketing mix, video marketing is not something that many marketing agencies provide or fully support. That said, if you are looking for a team that provides excellent video marketing services in the state of Arizona, PrimeView is the company for the job. We will take charge of conceptualizing content ideas, planning strategies, drafting scripts, editing, and even submitting your video to the best video search engines and sharing sites. Your video will then be indexed for optimum search engine optimization to reach your desired target markets. Call PrimeView today at 480-970-4688 to request a free proposal.

Conclusion

Avoiding these mistakes will significantly help you improve the odds of creating videos with tremendous potential. Follow these pro tips, and your video might accomplish your marketing and conversion goals.

As a marketer, you understand how challenging it can be to provide new and unique ways for your product or service to stand out amidst a sea of competitors. In hindsight, video marketing is nothing new — but it can prove as a unique, powerful, and efficient aspect of a marketing strategy.

As a matter of fact, online videos are so popular that they increase the click-through rates of emails by 200 to 300 percent. Further research shows that adding videos on a landing page increases conversions by 80 percent. Today, 60 percent of marketers use video in their marketing and roughly 73 percent plan on improving their use of video. The continuing growth of video marketing is due to the 90 percent of people claiming that product-focused videos help them make better buying decisions.

Now, you may be one of the 60 percent of marketers leveraging on this powerful strategy — but why exactly are your video marketing efforts failing?

In truth, producing video after video is not enough. You have to do it right if you want people to take action, make a purchase, and believe in your brand. If your video marketing investments are not producing measurable growth for your small business, here are the top reasons why (and how you can fix them).

1. Are you creating original content?

No matter what kind of product or service you put into the world, always remember that your brand will not be rewarded for doing what everyone else is doing. Your target audience will recognize originality, so steer clear of distinct resemblances to your competitors.

The Fix: There is no other workaround than to be original. You must take calculated risks, have fun, and build your brand. Like how every person has a unique personality or quirk that differentiates them from everyone else, your brand must possess a stand-out character. If you don’t know your brand well enough, it will be difficult to use its charm to your advantage. In this case, put your team through rigorous branding to figure things out. Remember that some of the world’s most authentic and inspiring business owners are unapologetically themselves.

2. Is your message or objective clear?

Making an online business video just for the sake of making one is never a good idea. Have you ever heard of the saying, “If you can’t explain it simply, you simply don’t understand it,” — and neither will your audience. If your objective is unclear, or if you are struggling to put into words the message you want to convey, your audience is unlikely to stick around until the end of your video.

The Fix: To start defining your objectives clearly, here are the two questions you must answer:

• How will your video help customers and prospects solve their problems?
• What benefits do your products or services provide?

It all boils down to crafting a high-quality script. All successful business content has a clear and concise message. They comprehensively describe a problem, provide a groundbreaking solution, then present quirks that show their brand’s personality to keep the video compelling.

3. Are you connecting with the right audience?

A great video does one thing that no other form of content can — it makes information super-easy to digest. If a viewer is not able to connect with your story, your video is likely to fail. Aside from the possibility of having an unclear objective, another cause could be not knowing who your target audience is. If you are attempting to tap into all audiences instead of segmented groups, it won’t connect to anyone.

The Fix: It is crucial to make sure that audience research is a significant part of your pre-production strategy. Section your audience using demographics, interests, behaviors, and other related factors.

4. Are you striking a balance between selling and authenticity?

You may be the one producing the videos, but they are more for your audience than for your business. Therefore, hard selling will not be an effective tactic to draw in more prospects. If your videos are just like the commercials people see on TV, where they only showcase their product like an advertisement — your campaign is bound to flunk. Take a good look at how successful Youtube online creators talk about a product. Many of them gather millions of loyal subscribers by making a legitimate effort to define a product, while staying true to their brand’s personality and authenticity.

Customers are hypersensitive to being sold. Applying psychological pressure or pushing your viewers through urgency and other hard selling tactics will not deliver the results you desire.

The Fix: Make sure that your video strikes the right balance between selling and authenticity. Though the reasoning behind your video is to sell your product or service, that should not be the goal. Instead, let’s move on to reason #5.

5. Do you nail your sales pitch?

At this point, you may be thinking, “My content is original, my objectives are as clear as daylight, I connect with the right audience, and my brand’s personality shows — but my videos are still failing to convert!” If this is the case, the issue could be the journey you create for your viewers. In fear of hard selling, you may be slacking on providing a comprehensible or easy “next step” for your viewers.

The Fix: Similar to writing a blog post, it’s not necessary to leave your call-to-action (CTA) at the very end. Make sure to use more than one type of CTA, but keep your desired action consistent. Know your CTA options and experiment with different placements and choice of words.

The types of video CTAs include:

• Verbal:

  Spoken by a narrator.

• Annotations:

  Clickable text layered on top of a video.

• In-Video:

  CTAs that are part of a video.

• End Cards:

  CTAs that are at the final screen of a video with credits, which include links.

In the simplest sense, do not forget to tell your viewers to “reach out to us,” “sign up,” “register,” “call now,” “click here” or do whatever it is you want them to do.

What’s next?

If your videos are guilty of any one of the five bases, now is the time to redevelop your video marketing ventures. But wait! There is still much to learn about video marketing and why your campaign efforts are failing. Keep an eye out for part two of this article, where we will further discuss the factors that impact the conversion-driving power of online business videos.

Social media is not and never will be limited to sharing personal experiences, and a lot of business entrepreneurs have caught on. Social media plays a significant role in online marketing. It gives marketers a way to communicate with existing customers and prospects through a medium that acts as their voice. It personalizes brands and helps spread messages in a relaxed and conversational way.

In 2017, 71% of internet users were social network users, and the numbers are only expected to grow. But what exactly is everyone using right now? Take a look at this updated roundup of social media sites to see which ones are currently dominating the 21st century.

Facebook

There’s no question that Facebook is one of the top social networking sites on the web. With more than 1.59 billion users, Facebook dominates with the largest blend of demographics for any social platform. For business entrepreneurs, Facebook provides an extraordinary medium to connect with prospective customers from all over the world. From an advertising perspective, it’s also the easiest platform to manage and allows for the best possible targeting.

Youtube

When it comes to uploading, watching, and sharing online videos, no other website can compete with Youtube. Despite being owned by Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine and is recognized as a separate social network from its parent.

From personal vlogs to music videos and movies — YouTube has it all. Aside from the ads that pop up in almost every video, everyone’s a fan of how Youtube provides a space for internet users to watch quality content for free. YouTube also has a premium subscription option called YouTube Red, which removes all advertisements from videos. More recently, the thriving social media beast also offers YouTubeTV, a separate live streaming subscription service.

Instagram 

Ever since its release in 2010, Instagram has continued to grow as one of the most popular social networking sites for photo sharing, particularly on the mobile web. It is also the ultimate platform for sharing real-time photos and short videos while on the go.

Instagram is also a leading advertising platform for brands and influencers who generate income through the social media site.

Though initially, the app was limited to the iOS platform, it grew in popularity and expanded to Windows and Android, along with the web. In 2012, Instagram was bought for a whopping $1 billion by Facebook.

Twitter

Twitter is known as a public microblogging network where news breaks first. Most users loved it for its original, iconic 140-character limit (now 280 characters), and unfiltered feed that showed users absolutely everything in the form of tweets or short sentences.

Over the years, Twitter has changed dramatically. Developers have faced critique for altering the platform to look and function almost exactly like Facebook. Besides Twitter Card integration, which makes it easy to share all sorts of multimedia content through tweets, you can also expect to see algorithmic timelines coming to Twitter.

Reddit

Reddit is one of the few popular sites that never really had the most intricate design. But don’t let that fool you. Reddit has a robust and smart community of users who come together to discuss their topics of choice while sharing links, photos, and videos relevant to the subreddit thread they’re participating in.

Reddit AMAs are another unique feature, which allows users to ask hosting celebrities and other public figures questions. Reddit functions by displaying submitted links that get voted up or down by users and the topics that receive the most upvotes will get pushed to the first page of their subreddits.

Pinterest

Pinterest proves just how significant visual content has become on the internet by becoming a major player and game changer both in social networking and in the search world. As the fastest standalone site to reach 10 million monthly unique visits, Pinterest’s unique and intuitive pinboard-style function is one of the most enticing and helpful resources for collecting the best images, which you can easily categorize into separate boards.

Pinterest is also a growing e-commerce platform by featuring “Buy” buttons on pins of products sold by retailers.

Google+

Google+ became the fastest growing social network on the web when it debuted in the early summer of 2011, but nobody wanted another Facebook, which is why Google+ had been widely criticized for being a social platform that nobody ever uses.

Towards the end of 2015, Google+ had a makeover that aimed to differentiate them from Facebook. Google’s team decided to put more emphasis on their Communities and Collections features, which ultimately gave existing users more of what they wanted.

LinkedIn

If you are working in a B2B field, LinkedIn is the social media network for you to focus on. LinkedIn is like an online curriculum vitae, which is the ideal platform for professionals. Anyone who loves making new connections in order to advance their careers should take advantage of its features. Each profile is designed to look like a detailed resume, with sections for work experiences, achievements, certifications, educational attainments, volunteer works, and all sorts of other work-related information.

LinkedIn users can promote themselves and their businesses by establishing connections with other professionals, posting job ads, applying to jobs, interacting in group discussions, publishing articles to LinkedIn pulse, and so much more.

Snapchat

Snapchat is an entirely mobile-based social networking application that thrives on instant messaging. It’s one of the fastest growing apps out there and is the first to introduce something new to the table in a very long time. Building its popularity on the idea of “snaps,” you can send a photo or short video as a message to a friend, which automatically disappears a few seconds after they’ve viewed it. Snapchat also has a one-of-a-kind feature called Stories, which allows users to share snaps publicly whenever they want, but would disappear after an allotted 24 hours.

Unfortunately, when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel refused to sell the app to Facebook for $3 billion, the concept behind Snapchat was instead integrated into Instagram and Facebook’s systems. Nonetheless, people still love the app because of its originality.

Stand out in social media today.

Social media marketing assists in validating your brand. Your social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that your brand focused on thriving communication. If you require assistance in this field, PrimeView can help you strategize and find ways to maximize your social media visibility. Call us today at 480-970-4688 to request a free quote.

Importance of Good Web Design

Web design goes beyond aesthetics — it should display four major components that any reputable website should have. These are navigation, brand consistency, reading patterns and SEO, and most importantly, building trust.

Navigation is the most critical component of a website, especially for those with many pages. Good web design makes it easy for users to navigate through the site, striking a balance between elements that are pleasing to the eyes and buttons that are functional.

Customers must recognize your brand in all forms of communication. This is what brand consistency is about, and is something that must be present in a well-designed website. Everything that appears in print materials — that is, brand messaging and imagery — must be carried over into the website design. This needs custom design work, so templates are not advisable.

Websites with good design take into consideration how visitors read content; like a book, from top to bottom and left to right. This means that relevant information must be on the upper left column and the first thing visitors see. This practice also helps with SEO efforts, because search engines can crawl your website more efficiently, thus increasing your placement in search results pages. This translates to increased visibility and traffic to your site.

Finally, building trust among customers very important, so it makes sense that your design incorporates elements that resonate well with your target market. This means making your website look welcoming and professional, and easy to use. A website with a professional, uncluttered design makes it easier for visitors to read and understand the message you are trying to send.

Why You Should Invest in a Reputable Web Design Agency

You should never cut corners in building your website, especially when it comes to design. Hiring professionals to design your website is pricier than relying on templates available online or doing it yourself, but the benefits far outweigh the cost. Web design is an investment – one that might cost 10k upwards. That’s a lot of money, but here are some of the reasons why you should hire a professional web design agency such as PrimeView:

1. We have the skills and experience needed to deliver results.

Professional web designers are experts in designing sites that will attract visitors and are adept at SEO techniques, as well as in all the software necessary to come up with good web design. They are also trained to be both creative and technically proficient, so they can execute your vision seamlessly into the site. These professionals are aware that your time is valuable, and since they are experts at what they do, they will be able to turn in deliverables promptly. After all, they no longer need to learn or struggle with what they’re supposed to do.

Furthermore, they put valuable human touch to your website in that they understand how websites are supposed to work and how people navigate through websites, so they understand the merits of, say, having your contact details on the upper right side of your site at all times, and why large chunks of text must be broken apart with images. At PrimeView, we know how to design a website that is easy to navigate through and people will want to keep coming back to.

2. We can maintain your site.

One of the main advantages of getting your site designed by a professional web design agency is that they can help you develop your website as your business and your customers’ needs grow. At Primeview, we have professional web designers that can help update your site’s design, navigation, and functionality as needed. This will resonate well with your audience because this means that you are in tune with their needs.

3. We make your site responsive.

Some of your users might be using an older browser version, or a device that does not support some aspects of your site (such as Java or Flash), and professional web designers will ensure that all elements will be perfect regardless of the browser version or device your site is being viewed from. The talented web designers at PrimeView will also ensure that your website loads properly and accurately, with all elements intact, regardless of the browser size, which means that we will make your site design mobile-responsive.

4. We execute designs to your exact specifications.

Templates are cheap but often limiting. When you pay for a template, you have a ready-made design. All you have to do is input your information, and you’re done. It’s easy and convenient but has little regard for SEO, ease of navigation, and your brand identity — things that matter on a well-designed website.

At PrimeView, we will work closely with you in executing the exact design that you have in mind. We will adjust background color, font size, font type, buttons, and all other elements on the site until everything is exactly as you prefer it, and if there’s something that needs to be tweaked, we will be able to do so.

5. We take care of even the smallest details.

Professional web designers are sticklers for details. We won’t stop until the site borders are even all throughout until all the colors are just right until all the fonts are of the right size, and until all the links and flash elements are working correctly. We will make sure that your site has the perfect canary yellow background you asked for, and that the text is evenly distributed so that visitor’s eyes won’t glaze over when they read your content. This is yet another advantage of having professional designers work on your site as opposed to purchasing a template.

Invest in a Good Web Design Agency Today

Hiring a professional web design agency can get expensive, but the investment will be worth every penny. PrimeView is Arizona’s leading web design firm with over 20 years of experience in the business. Contact us at 480-970-4688 if you need professional web design services in Phoenix.

Sources:
https://www.epagecity.com/blog/five-reasons-you-should-spend-more-than-10k-on-your-website
https://www.topagency.co/blog/10-reasons-why-you-should-invest-in-web-design

The holiday season is upon us, and with it is the flurry of early shoppers — and the aftermath, the last-minute shoppers. While it may be chaotic to get all orders processed and delivered by the time Christmas Eve rolls around, you need to be prepared to ensure that you maximize the holiday rush.

With the different preferences of the shoppers, your approach has to vary to ensure that you don’t alienate any of them. However, how can you balance your approach to target all groups?

While it may be impossible to please everyone, here are some foolproof tips to prepare your website for the holiday rush.

   •   Know your audience.

You should do your research before the holiday rush kicks off. You have to know your target market and get to know your consumers. A popular method is the “A day in the life of” to get to know your consumer. For example, how do your usual customers spend their day? By studying their habits, you will know when is the best time to advertise to them. Likewise, you will also know the kind of deals that would appeal to them the most.

 •    Kickstart your SEO and CRO.

If you’re just starting your SEO campaign today, you are a little late to the game and you should do better next year. A proper SEO campaign needs time to work; it has to gain traction for you to reap the rewards come the holiday season. With this, you also need to consider your conversion rate optimization program (CRO). Once the new tidbits of your website are in place, you have to ensure that all items work as they are indeed to. Which brings us to…

 •    Optimize your website.

When we say optimize your website, we don’t mean create a new website right now. You should never do that so close to the holiday season. Rather, what you should do is to work with what you have now. For starters, you can do the following:

o     Have a holiday-themed design

This is very simple and attractive, for the reason that holiday designs can get people in the mood to shop more. By showing that your website is designed for the holiday, they will get the idea that you are taking the event seriously and would, therefore, be able to provide good value for their money.

o     Have holiday-themed deals

As we mentioned above, the deals that you’re offering should add value to your customers. For instance, do not offer them deals that they’re likely to get elsewhere. Rather, play on your strengths and show them how valuable their business is to you. So if all your competitors are selling branded t-shirts, take it up a notch and sell personalized shirts.

o    Think mobile

A large percentage of online shoppers complete their transactions on mobile. In fact, Apple just sold their billionth iPhone — just imagine that number browsing on their mobile for the latest deals! That being said, it would be in your best interests to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. We’re not just talking about changing the screen resolution to fit your device’s screen – rather, this is about optimizing everything so that all the nooks and crannies of your website work on mobile. All buttons are responsive; all the choices are available. Going mobile should not be a hindrance for your customers to find you. Rather, it should be a stepping stone to them purchasing more.

•     Exhaust your server

One of the things you should do to ensure that your customers have a positive experience is to test your website thoroughly and see if your server can handle the sudden spike in traffic. There have been numerous cases of interactive websites only to fail at the last minute because it could not handle the traffic. You will need to increase the bandwidth to make sure your site can accommodate the extra shoppers, so talk to your web host about it as soon as possible.

•     Beef up your online staff

While the majority of e-commerce websites provide the live chat function, not all of them offer it 24/7. During the holiday rush, make sure that you add more people manning the live chat function so that they can help shoppers find what they need as soon as possible. Remember, the sooner a customer completes a purchase, the sooner your staff can attend to other customers. The same rule applies to online stores.

If you don’t have the budget to hire full-time staff for holiday work, then make sure that you outsource the work to a vendor you know and trust. There is nothing more infuriating for a business owner than finding out that customers are leaving the website with no items because they couldn’t find what they are looking for, or that the agents who are working the line were of no help to them at all.

•     Strengthen your security

One of the most pressing issues among online shoppers is the security of their data. You have to reassure them that shopping on your website is a safe and pleasurable experience. To do this, you have to make sure that you are affiliated with all the right merchants, such as PayPal so that they can pay with a method they recognize. Also, harp on the fact that your website has an SSL certificate. The green padlock on the browser bar right next to your URL is a telltale sign of security, too.

•     Remember deadlines – and with that, the pressure

You have to be upfront about your deadlines. Cut off shopping at a certain period if you feel that you cannot deliver the items before Christmas morning. That, or make sure that your customers know that some of the items may arrive late if they shop late. By being transparent about your limitations, you would be protecting your business from irate customers – and not to mention, the stresses of telling people why their package didn’t arrive on Christmas morning if they just ordered it the night before.

Optimizing your website for the holiday rush is not just a good thing to do — it is a necessity. With these tips, you are hopefully on your way to getting a robust holiday-themed website that can withstand the holiday rush.

Need to optimize your website for the holiday season?

Tis the season to re-optimize your website! Help your business reflect its seasonal goals and strategies with PrimeView. If you need help re-kickstarting your SEO strategies and redesigning your website for the holidays, don’t hesitate to contact us at 480-970-4688 to request a free quote.

img c/o pixabay

More and more people are taking to the Internet to open their own entrepreneurial businesses and online stores. There are many advantages to choosing to sell online rather than in a brick and mortar store: not having to pay rental fees on a storefront, not needing to pay for utilities such as electricity or water, not having to pay for maintenance or even a staff to aid in the selling.

Why sell online?

By all accounts, it is simply more cost effective to get started online with a business rather than opening an actual store, as there is ultimately less risk and less capital needed. Nearly anyone can sell online through a variety of shopping websites or even social media pages. Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr now have integrated “buy” buttons and business page options that allow users to easily buy right from the site. You can get started immediately, with very little effort necessary.

However, for individuals, groups, or entities that truly aim to launch an e-commerce presence that is above the regular buying and selling online, it becomes imperative to create one’s own shopping website. As with opening one’s own brick and mortar store, however, the groundwork and the system that you will erect needs to be the best fit for your business.

The two major options

The two of the most popular options available online are between two e-commerce software systems: Shopify and Magento.

Shopify is a licensed software that ultimately gives individuals and brands complete control of the features, look, and feel of their website. The customization options are endless, and Shopify is a near-universal tool available to everyone in the world who requires a more customized user experience for their own e-commerce website. It can be applied to virtually any type of website for e-commerce, from selling individual niche items to businesses that cater to a large base.

Magento is another powerful software, open-source, that has steadily been gaining in popularity as well as quickly becoming the latest standard in e-commerce software. Being open-source software, it means that it’s even more customizable as well as completely open for absolutely anyone to use with or without a license. Users can apply Magento in a variety of ways, even customizing the code to best adapt to what they need it to provide for their online business. Currently, Magento is now in its second iteration at Magento 2.

Which version is right for you?

As with anything, there are pros and cons for either one. These are quite a few differences between them, so let us look into what they have to offer in terms of:

Availability and Setup

Let’s begin with the availability and setup of each one. Shopify, being a commercial and licensed software, will obviously cost you some money to procure for its full capabilities. It is a hosted solution, which means that your store will be based on Shopify’s servers. There is a support system in Shopify that will already have this system installed, setup, and configured as needed.

Magento, on the other hand, is free, being an open-source software. The downside of this means that you will have to find your own hosting, and you will have to install, set up, and configure it yourself before any customization can begin.

This means that if you are a small business owner looking to start up on your own, Shopify would be far easier to use given that it already provides hosting, software, and support built right in. It would cost money, but it’s a lot easier for you to make use of. Magento, on the other hand, being open source, would still require work before you can even begin using it. You may need the help of a web developer who understands this software’s coding for it to be installed and subsequently used as needed. This may be easier for companies who can afford to hire their own developers.

Inventory

Both Shopify and Magento have a large inventory management capability. Users can put any number of products or items in their online store through these systems easily. An e-commerce store lives and dies by what it puts up to sell, so this is one of the major concerns, particularly as many sites that host e-commerce tend to have a certain limit to items being sold and other similar restrictions.

Themes and Templates

Both Shopify and Magento also work with pre-built themes that users can choose from. These theme templates can be changed and customized to better fit the brand of the company or the individual’s business. However, there is a notably larger pool of themes and templates available in Magento rather than in Shopify. Being open source, it makes sense that Magento would have more themes and templates available as many more people would be able to freely create them and make them available for use for anyone who wishes to use the system. Shopify remains restricted to what Shopify as a company intends to produce as a template or theme for its users.

This means that customizing in Shopify might take a little more work than in Magento which, with its mass amounts of custom themes, would probably have what you need already.

Apps and Add-Ons

Magento and Shopify are themselves pieces of software; to make it even more useful, you can add custom add-ons to them. These include things like integration of e-mail marketing, widgets, payment options, and other additions that would not only make the customer experience easier but also make it a lot easier for the company to keep track of customer data.
Again, being open source, Magento has far more offerings in terms of apps and add-ons that can be used, while Shopify’s are extremely limited, as not many people will have access to the code that will allow them to develop them.

Multilingual capabilities

If you expect to reach customers beyond the English-speaking sphere, Magento may be the better bet as it fully supports multiple languages for your e-commerce site. Shopify doesn’t allow multilingual capabilities and restricts you to a single language throughout the website. This may limit your user base, as not everyone may speak the single language on your site.

All in all, both are excellent. Whichever one selected would largely depend on the company’s target, resources, the need for customization, and how many people they want their products to reach. SMEs and entrepreneurs might make a great start on Shopify, but bigger companies who demand more customization and more abilities may be better off with Magento operated by their own web developers.

Having an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter account will keep a business tuned into the customer base and will drive traffic to the website.

You can learn how to be successful in social media, marketing with fewer resources and marketing staff. Research has proven that customers are using social media to interact with brands and that’s why it’s crucial to have an effective social media marketing plan to make your presence felt on the web. If appropriately implemented, you will tap into the interest of your potential customers and bring remarkable success to your business.

Social media marketing is an internet marketing used to implement various social media networks to achieve branding goals and marketing communication. The type of marketing involves activities that include the aspect of social sharing of videos, images, and content for purposes of marketing as well as promoted social media advertising. The following is how you can improve your marketing strategies using social media.

Start with a plan

Think about the goals you have for your business before you begin the process of creating a campaign for social media marketing. Brainstorm about your goals: who is your target audience? What do you hope to achieve by the approach? What information do you plan to reach your target audience via social media?

Develop your primary goals

Social media marketing for small businesses can help with several goals like:

• Creating the identity of the brand and positive brand association
• Increasing the website traffic
• Improving brand awareness
• Improving interaction with the principal audiences and communication.

Some helpful tips to help you with your social media campaigns include:

Content is the most important. When it comes to social media marketing, the content is what matters most, and it must be consistent with other areas of online marketing. Ensure that you are giving valuable information appealing to your ideal customers. Create a variety of compelling content through implementing social media, videos, images, and infographics on top of the classic typed content.

Planning. As mentioned earlier, building a marketing plan is essential in social media marketing. Consider interesting keywords and content ideas for your target audience.

Consistent brand image. Using this particular type of marketing enables your enterprise to project the image of your brand across several social media platforms. The original identity of your business should remain consistent while as you give each platform a unique environment and voice.

Blogging. Blogging is an excellent social media marketing tool that enables you to share a broad range of information with your clients. The blog of your business can serve as the social media marketing blog by blogging about your most recent social media events, contents, and efforts.

Other links. It’s advisable to share links to outside articles as you share your own original and unique content to gain more fans, followers, and devotees. Linking to outside sources improve readability and trust, and you might probably get some links in return. Never shy away from sharing sources with valuable and significant information interesting to your target audience.

Measure your success with analytics. You will have to track data to measure and determine the success of your social media campaigns and marketing strategies. Google analytics tool can help assess your progress in social media. To do it better you will have to attach tracking tags to your marketing strategies to adequately monitor them.

Available platforms

Facebook ideally requires you to create a Facebook business fan page. It’s good to pay careful attention to the layout because the visual aspect is essential for a Facebook experience. In Facebook people go to chat and relax with friends, that’s why you have to keep a friendly and light tone. These platforms allow you to engage in conversations with your potential customers by posting business-related images, videos, and articles.

Twitter enables you to broadcast your business updates across the web. You will follow tweeters within your industry and related fields to gain a steady stream of followers in return. Your official tweets should include discounts, special offers and news updates which are fun and interspersed. When a customer tweets, make sure you retweet and answer the questions thrown at you. Be sure to interact as much as possible when using Twitter as a social media marketing tool because it revolves around communication and dialogue.

LinkedIn is a more professional social media marketing site. The groups in LinkedIn are a great avenue for sharing content with like-minded individuals and engaging in professional dialogue with other people within the same industry. Encourage your clients to leave a recommendation on your profile because they make your small business look more reliable and credible for new customers. In the questions section, provide answers to earn more trust.

YouTube Is the best place to create video content which is an incredibly powerful marketing tool for social media marketing. Focus on making an instructive and useful video that will benefit your business and have an added advantage of ranking on Google video search result.

Paid social media marketing

Paid social advertising is a highly cost-effective method to reach more of your customers. You can get your content and other offers to a huge audience at a very low cost if you play your cards smart.

Social media platforms allow you to focus your budget on particular types of people most likely interested in your business.

The behavior of buyers is pertinent when building marketing strategies. When you invest a good time in profiling your target audience, you will realize its worth because everything that works on social media isn’t random and it works for particular reasons.

There’s one thing Amazon really gets right: customer reviews. They help customers decide whether they want to buy a product or not. In short, they help Amazon close sales. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, there really is no debate that online customer reviews are important.

A 2015 survey  found that 97% of consumers aged 18-34 read online reviews to judge a local business. People want to know what others have had to say about your brand and company. So how do you get your customers to give you a review?

1. Set up your profiles

Consider all the sites that are relevant to your business, whether that’s TripAdvisor, Yelp, Angie’s List, Google+, LinkedIn, or an industry specific site. Set up profiles on multiple review sites. And have a place on your website for reviews, too. Aside from the SEO benefits, customer reviews form valuable content on a website.

2. Ask for it

Seems simple, right? But you’d be amazed at how few businesses actually ask customers for a review. Ask for a review via your website, email or calling them on the telephone. Add a note to invoices or receipts asking customers to leave a review, or include a review link in your standard email signature. And, of course, there’s Facebook. Don’t be scared of possible negative reviews (see point 4 below).

Here are some tips when asking for a review:

• Personalize your request by mentioning the customer by name

• Tell them how much you value their input (“…your review is important to us”)…

• Explain how it will help other people (“help others make informed decisions”)

Make review requests part of your company’s procedures and methodology.

3. Make it easy

Unless your customer has a complaint to share, the average person won’t be searching for ways to leave a review. That’s why you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Provide customers with links and step-by-step instructions on how to post reviews. Also put direct links to your review profiles (see point 1) in multiple places – a follow-up email, a newsletter and your website, of course.

Be sure to not bog the customer down with multiple steps and details, or else you could lose them. A simple review process leads to more customer reviews.

4. Respond to reviews

When you get a negative review, respond promptly in public and solve the problem. This shows that you are listening and engaged which will often encourage more feedback. Depending on the issue, it may be wise take your conversation offline via email or phone. Then, if you resolve the matter, leave a brief comment in the public timeline.
Got a positive review? Be sure to say thank you.

5. Incentivize (but don’t buy) reviews

Offering a small incentive is a good way to prompt someone to leave a review. But make sure your offer is for writing a review, not for writing a good review! Monthly giveaways, where one reviewer is chosen randomly, are effective in encouraging reviews without any semblance of a transaction taking place.

Struggling to get customers to leave reviews? You’re not alone because most businesses never ask! Let PrimeView’s experienced Arizona marketing team set up your review generation system and watch your online reputation soar. Call us now at 480-970-4688 or contact us online for your free strategy session.

Face #3: Local Search

According to LocalU, when you view Local Search from the perspective of a business owner, it’s all about having their company found whenever people in their area are looking online either specifically for them or for the goods and services they offer.

On the other hand, when web companies talk about local search marketing, they’re mostly referring to getting businesses to rank in the listings that appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) accompanied by Map pins. Usually, a map appears on the page, too. These results are displayed with the address and phone number of the company, along with a link to directions to the location, if appropriate, and a link to any reviews Google may have about it.

Research Online, Buy Offline

Another explanation of Local Search is that people are researching online before buying offline. Sometimes referred to with the acronym ROBO, this behavior is exactly how searchers are using the internet to facilitate interactions with local businesses.

First, they discover their choices for buying products and services from those nearby them via the internet. Then, they use reviews and ratings to help them decide which businesses to consider and, finally, they make phone calls or visit stores to solidify their buying decisions before actually making a purchase.

Correlation to Yellow Pages

Another way that helps many people to comprehend Local Search is that just about anything that you would think of as being listed in the nearly-obsolete, printed Yellow Pages phone books is now found online via Local Search.

The Search Engines and Local Search

From Google’s point of view, Local Search is all about the map and only entities that have a physical presence in a real place belong on Google Maps. Bing and Yahoo tend to follow Google’s model this. Online-only businesses and those that market nationally or globally cannot usually get a Google, Bing or Yahoo local listing to rank in the SERPs except in the city(s) where they actually have a physical location.

This concept has tended to favor enterprises with offices and storefronts. But businesses that go to the customer, rather than having the customer come to their location (also known as service area businesses) are now gaining parity in the Local Search results. Examples of service area businesses are carpet cleaners, plumbers, roofers and mobile veterinarians.

Other Local Searches

Not all local searches are performed at the big 3 Search Engines – Google, Bing and Yahoo. Sometimes people are looking on digital maps, GPS systems and in-car navigation systems for local businesses. Sometimes they are looking for business information in online Yellow Page-type directories or on social sites like Yelp, Angie’s List or Facebook. Nearly every industry also has a set of directories that list that particular type of company. Examples of this are BedandBreakfast.com, Findlaw.com and GunDogBreeders.com.

Conclusion

These three faces can help any business dominate its competition on the web, using the right marketing plan. They all provide a sizeable and contribution to website ranking and visibility on the web, despite being distinctly different from one another.