Digital Marketing Tips For Small Businesses And Startups: 15 Beginner Strategies To Grow Your Online Business

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What is digital marketing? 

If you said something along the lines of “social media management software,” then you’re probably thinking of social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms enable businesses to connect with their customers directly through live streaming and video and webinar softwares. The term “digital marketing” refers to using those same tactics within the web.

Digital Marketing encompasses activities such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), PPC (pay per click) advertising, email marketing, and much more. 

Digital marketing also includes offline strategies such as PR, event promotion, direct mail, and other forms of advertising. As a result, the term “online marketing” or “internet marketing” has become synonymous with digital marketing.

 As a part of digital marketing, email marketing has emerged as the most effective form of communication. Email marketing allows a business to send messages over the Internet to multiple recipients at once. 

It is an effective way to get in touch with potential customers and remind them about your brand. 

In addition, email marketing lets you segment your audience based on interest, behavior, location, and demographic information.

As business owners , we all know very well that the best way to market any business online is to be found organically through a search engine, like Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). It's a free powerful effective way and offers endless traffic to those who can master this type of digital marketing. In this post we will go through the most common ways like social media to market your online business.

50 Best Digital Marketing Business Ideas

Email Marketing For Business Tips: Best Practices & Benefits

Thousands of businesses everywhere, big and small, are taking advantage of email marketing for so many reasons. 

It’s one of the most effective methods for digital marketing and businesses of all sizes seem to be benefiting from building a larger list to help with gaining an online presence and generating online sales. 

Here are some reasons to consider getting on the bandwagon with email marketing for your business:

Why Email Marketing?

Did you know that over 90% of people in the US use email?  

That’s an astonishing number of people. Email marketing stats show that approximately 58% of people check their email before even starting their day! 

Email works better than social media according to some studies with a 6.05% conversion rate as opposed to a mere 1.9% conversion rate. 

Email marketing has become the best method for connecting with leads turning them into conversions and lifelong customers.

 Here are a few tips that’ll help with ensuring people subscribe to your email list or newsletter and that your email marketing campaign is successful for the growth of your business.

Tip #1: Offer Incentives

Offering something to your followers is an ideal way to get new subscribers to your email list. Make sure the incentive is something people want and nothing boring or lame. 

Make it appear that your emails are worth their inbox space. Discounts or sales are great incentives or even free gifts. Different incentives work differently in different businesses. Choose one that’ll work best for your industry.

Tip #2: Embedding Opt-In Forms

This is a lot simpler than some people think. Don’t make people click through to other pages. Instead, embed opt-in forms where you ask them to sign up.

Tip #3: Options on Every Page

Make sure you place opt-in boxes on every page of your website. It should be done so people can see it if they visit your site. You can add these boxes to the vertical columns of your site or to the footer area.

 #4 - Install Sliders or Pop-Ups

Make sure pop-ups aren’t annoying. You can set them up so they don’t appear until after a set amount of time. Make sure they show up only once a week.

Tip #5: Make it Mobile Friendly

One of your biggest priorities should be making your site mobile friendly. About 53% of people use their mobile devices to explore their emails and internet browsing. 

Email templates should be mobile-friendly as this ensures subscribers can open them on their mobile device anytime.

Tip #6: Avoid Spamming

Tip #7: Send Welcome Emails

Creating a Business Plan Outline

Business plans represent a crucial part of any business foundation. No matter the size of your business, you should consider a plan of attack for how you are going to plan the future of your business.

You want a plan of attack that’s going to accomplish 2 things:

#1-You want something that will help define your goals for the next 1, 2, and even 5 years of your business. 

#2-You need something that will be open-ended to help you make any necessary adjustments you might not have accounted for earlier on.

It might seem impossible to establish a plan that will accommodate both of these things, and in some cases difficult. However, it needs to happen regardless. It should happen before you decide to move on to other aspects of launching and establishing your business.

At this point you should be focusing on simply making an outline. Make sure you take into consideration putting in a lot of detail. You want to account for all aspects and things that can pop up and that will pertain to your business. You want it to be easy to define within a few simple steps.

When it comes to drafting an effective business plan outline, you want it to offer:

Make sure to include info such as when the company was founded, who the owner(s) are, where the company is located and when the company became incorporated.

Various businesses will use a business outline differently based on what their personal needs are. Some business won’t even use a business outline or may tweak it to fit their needs a little more. 

This is all dependent on what you personally want and need it to achieve over the course of your business.

Social Media Marketing Online Business: Creating Strong Presence

There’s an astonishing 2 billion people who use social media platforms each and every day. Social media plays a huge role in determining the type of success you’ll have as a business owner. 

However, while social media brings about a lot of opportunity, there are still people who struggle with making their presence known. Here are a few tips to help you create and gain a strong online social media presence.

Create a Plan

Before you even think about creating any type of social media profile, you need to take some time to sit down and think about what your plans are going to be. Make sure you have some clear ideas and determine exactly how you plan on using your social media profiles.

Offer Pertinent and Valuable Info

Make sure any information you share to your followers is valuable and useful to them. Take advantage of what you know, and post content people will want and crave. 

People will become excited in what you’re posting and when you will be posting more. Make sure any posting you do is consistent, though and not just hit and miss. 

Your content then becomes shared across other social media platforms by your followers allowing you to reach an even larger audience. 

Remain Consistent

What type of audience are you looking to target? There are millions of people along social media platforms. However, keep in mind that not everyone will want what you have. 

Know your target audience and make all efforts to build a lasting and strong relationship with them.

Announce Your Presence

People won’t know you’re on social media platforms unless you let them know. Make sure once you sign up for one you let your followers know. Building an online presence doesn’t happen overnight and takes some time. 

Start with friends and family. 

Ask them to share your online business or service as well to gain some exposure. This isn’t about making a sale; it’s about building an audience.

Share Pertinent Content

If you have an online business, it’s natural to want to look like an expert. However, the content you share with the internet world shouldn’t always revolve around what you offer or do. If you’re just looking to spit out your sales offers and business-related content, you’re most likely going to lose followers. What type of information can you share with your followers that they will find useful?

Stay on Top of Trends

Twitter offers small snippets of information for people to follow. This allows people to stay on top of the latest in news, gossip, business, fashion, and more. 

If you have a location-based business use Twitter to stay on top of trending things such as events and more. If you have an event or something important to offer, make a post about it.

Gain Insight

If you’re looking to increase your online presence, make sure you monitor results and tweak anything where necessary. 

If you use Facebook For Business, there’s an Insight feature that allows you to see overviews of your current strategy such as statistics and page likes. 

Not only can this gauge how far you’ve come and how far you have extended, but it can additionally determine what aspects are working to best and what isn’t.

Growing your social media presence isn’t impossible. If you own a small business, it can be extremely beneficial. However, keep in mind that it will take some time and won’t happen overnight. 

There are some aspects to it that will cost a little bit of money, and while you may not be able to afford it at the moment, give it some time and reap the benefits later on.

Digital Advertising Headlines: Elements to Creating High-Converting Headlines

Regarding internet marketing, the sales headlines you create are crucial to creating a successful sales campaign that’ll have you either succeeding or failing. 

These days though, now more than ever, the world continues to be a competitive place, and entrepreneurs especially need to determine successful methods for remaining on their toes with sales and marketing techniques. 

This is easily achieved with creating compelling and high-converting headlines that will turn even the most reluctant people into regular customers.

Keep in mind too that there are hundreds of methods that allow you to spin, write and create compelling headlines that can be successfully persuasive. 

Each one of these methods has a little something in common with them and can include the following:

Tips for Optimizing Your Headlines

When you’re creating your headlines, make sure you use power words. These are words that people won’t be able to pass up or skim by. They want to click on your link when they see these words. Sensory words are also a great way to go. These types of words invoke senses and help bring your title to life by having your readers use their imagination.

After you’ve created a few headlines, consider analyzing them. There are many tools out there that will allow you to analyze your headline to see how well it ranks.

Consider placing numbers in your headlines. Numbers have amazing click-through rates and if you think about it, you probably see headlines like this all the time. 

Numbered headlines that contain odd numbers have 20% higher rates of being clicked on than those with even numbers as well. There have been plenty of studies and tests done showing that headlines that contain numbers are winners every time.

Great headlines are always crystal clear. They tell the reader what they are going to read about. Questions are not the way to go when it comes to crating headlines. No one wants to read something with an uncertain title. Be as crystal clear as you can.

Successful headlines also act with two parts. There’s a beginning and also an ending. Placing a colon or hyphen in the title can increase click-through rates by as much as 10% as opposed to headlines that didn’t.

Make sure your title is between 5 and 9 or 16 and 18 words in length. You might not think this is a factor, but Outbrain reported any headline that has about 8 words performed a lot better than titles that had anything outside that range.

At the end of the day, it takes a lot of thought, skill, and careful wording choice to create a compelling and highly successful headline. But, remember you won’t know this until you try. So, what’s your choice of headlines going to be today? 

Getting Traffic from Twitter: 6 Tips To Follow

Having trouble with getting Twitter traffic or grabbing hold of the power it can have for your blog? Some people think they can post a link to their site on Twitter and they will be good to go. 

But, now more than ever social media marketers are working hard to find new ways to use social networking platforms to gain traffic that converts. 

However, when social media fans click on links in content, their intentions may be a little different than what you want. Little do people know posting links to their site or content won’t cut it in a growing and rather competitive online industry now. 

You need to be more active and creative as well as connecting with others on Twitter. Here are 5 ideal methods for gaining Twitter traffic to be seen more.

#1 - Utilize Hashtags

Hashtags are crucial as Twitter is based around hashtags when posting something. It makes content you Tweet searchable. It gets your content seen by other Twitter account users who are using specific keywords you are using in your tweets. Hashtags help enhance the visibility of your content posted and can help get people engaged who are not already following you.

#2 - Share Updates Frequently

Did you know that updates can frequently disappear in a matter of seconds on Twitter? That makes it even more crucial to ensure you’re sharing updates as often as possible. Don’t post once and expect to gain visibility and increased traffic with one post alone. You need to post often to reach people who aren’t following you as well as those who are.

#3 - Be Engaging with Your Followers

Similarly to other social networking platforms, it’s crucial to engage with your fan base as often as possible. This helps increase existing and new potential traffic. The more you talk and engage with your fans the more traffic you’ll gain. Tweeting, sharing, and retweeting to your audience will help your online reputation. Additionally, retweeting what other people post increases the chance you’ll get your content retweeted, too. This means you’ll reach even more people.

 #4 - Get Visual

Many people are under the impression Twitter is for text-only updates. This social platform is for so much more than that, though. Twitter now offers visual content, too. This means, you should be offering content with visual content as well now. This increases your chances of being seen, as people love seeing visual content. By posting visual content that stands out from your competition goes a long way in regards to gaining new and existing traffic.

#5 - Make Sure You Have a Call to Action

No matter what type of marketing you plan on utilizing, make sure you have an effective call to action. Have an eBook you want followers to download? Have a new blog post you want followers to check out? Make sure you incorporate what you want followers to do with that new content or eBook!

#6 - Keep a Tweet Pinned at the Top

Did you know you can keep tweets pinned at the top? 

This is beneficial for so many reasons! 

This pinned tweet is what followers will see every time they are on your Twitter page or scroll your feed. 

This can be any tweet you choose, but it’s important to update this often and make sure it leads to high-converting pages. 

If you’re looking to convert sales and traffic, link to a product launch page or a content piece that’ll generate a buzz and discussion allowing you to engage with your fans.

These are just a few tips that’ll help you gain some targeted traffic to your site whatever it may be; a blog, landing pages, or other content pieces designed to convert.

Learn to Blog and Stick With it

Blogging sure can be a great way to get yourself some recognition. It is a great way to get your brand or service out there and recognized. 

Getting started requires a blog host and domain name

This also requires a blogging avenue such as WordPress. 

Once you’ve got this all taken care of you can begin blogging and creating content for your audience that’ll add value to their life. 

Here are 6 tips to help with getting started and getting into a habit of maintaining it.

#1 - What’s the Purpose?

Blogging is all about starting with a plan and a purpose. 

Make sure you have a plan of what type of content you plan on offering for your followers for the first few months as well as the rest of your blogging period.

 #2 - Offer Visual Content

Some bloggers incorporate videos and other visual content besides just text. People like seeing graphics, videos and more. Photos, images, videos, and other visual content can magnify blogging. Visual content can help your blog stand out to visitors.

#3 - Gain Email Subscribers

 Creating an email list is crucial and allows you to generate traffic to new blogs and to reach your followers in case you begin offering a product or service they may benefit from.

 #4 - Blog Often

Make sure you blog at least once or twice a week. Blogging consistently allows you to gain followers and allows your site to show up in search engines.

#5 - Engage Visitors

When you have a post that goes live, make sure you’re sharing it across social platforms. You can set it up on your site, so it does this automatically, so you aren’t having to remember this aspect of it. You can activate this in settings on most blogging websites. 

Make sure you have your social media accounts linked to your site. Having this makes it easier for visitors to share your posts as well with their network which can get you even more traffic to your site.

When you notice people are commenting on your content make sure you comment back. 

Engage with your audience. Make sure you can reply on within a few hours to show your audience you are involved.

#6 - Make it a Habit

Blogging can be time consuming business for so many people these days. If you aren’t a fan of writing this becomes even more relevant to you. 

The more you enjoy blogging, the more you’ll do it and stick to a schedule of doing it. Try some of these tricks to make it something that becomes habit:

Some days you might feel like blogging more than others. 

Think about other commitments you have and set realistic goals for blogging. 

Set aside some designated time to create content for your site. 

How often do you want to blog each week? 

Some people want to use an email newsletter or social media. 

You can even throw in some videos from time to time, so you aren’t having to create content. Either way, blogging becomes rewarding if you want it to be.

Top 6 Mistakes Business Owners Make

Every business owner from time to time makes a mistake. 

Even singers and famous people make mistakes from time to time in their career. There are some mistakes you might make as well, and these mistakes might cost you dearly. 

Here are some of the top mistakes new business owners make that you might want to watch out for.

 #1 - Waiting Too Long to Launch Your Product or Service

When you begin blogging to build up your audience, you might find yourself getting stuck on the “hamster wheel” after some time. 

Some people forget to launch a product or sale after some time. 

Rather than focusing on getting a large audience size. Instead make sure you are offering sales of your products or services to help.

#2 - Solving Unimportant Concerns

If what you’re offering solves important enough problems, you would never have to focus on finding an audience. Imagine finding a cure for cancer. 

Businesses will fail mainly because they try to solve a problem or address a concern that really isn’t too important. If nobody seems to be interested in what you’re offering, consider looking for a different problem to address.

#3 - Cheap Infrastructure

Businesses need to remain sustainable. For that to happen, it’s necessary to remain reasonable with your expenses and other responsibilities. 

However, don’t let financial obligations deter you away from what’s best for the business. 

In addition, while cheap hosting will save you money, is it really what is best for your website? 

Hosting plans that are cheap or low cost might have limits on things such as capped bandwidth, and there may not be as many security features as other plans may offer to keep your site safeguarded. 

Your online presence might become compromised and uptime may have a lag at times. 

Infrastructure is the foundation of a business or industry.

#4 - Having Everything Outsourced

The internet has made it possible to find someone to do everything for you. This can be done at a fraction of the cost and has led a lot of business owners to spend more money than doing it themselves. 

Outsourcing can be beneficial in some aspects, and in others, it can be a pitfall. 

If you aren’t good at things, it can be appropriate to outsource it. 

If you aren’t good at building a website, consider hiring a website designer. 

After all, this is something that your business needs. 

Not all outsourcing is done off-shore. There are some companies and contracts that can be hired which are based locally. 

Some business owners don’t have control in regard to day-to-day affairs and this can cause the business to suffer. If you can do it, do it rather than outsourcing.

#5 - Lack of Diversification

Many businesses are just fine dealing with one niche. While there is nothing wrong with any of this, you need to sustain your business over the years. 

Every niche goes through ups and downs, and while you can enjoy the ups, you need to learn to take the downs as well. Know that these are just temporary lows. 

#6 - Failure to Upgrade

Pros and Cons of Having Your Own Online Business

Working from home has a lot of advantages that people everywhere are discovering. 

There are, however, some disadvantages that come with it, too. 

Working from home and being successful at it is something millions of people strive for all the time, but the reality is, it’s not made for everyone. 

Many people think you can make a lot of money working from home and become successful at it. It’s not that simple. If it was, everyone would be doing it.

Here are some of the pros and cons of working from home:

Pros of Running an Online Business:

Flexibility

Owning an online business allows you to be your own boss. You can create a schedule that works for you allowing you to spend time with family and friends as you see fit.

Be Your Own Boss

Imagine the freedom of being your own boss. You set the rules and terms for your own business. No boss to answer to. 

You can control how much time you spend with your business and how quickly you become successful at it. Only feel like working 1-2 days a week? You get the freedom to make that choice.

No Time Restriction

Think about how great it would be to work on your own time. Not having to punch a time clock Monday through Friday. You can be your own boss and work around your schedule. You can work based on your needs and goals for your business.

Low Startup Cost

Starting an online business can require little to no money as an investment. Many people purchase a domain name and set up their store for very little money. Selling online allows you to reach customers from all over the world and you don’t have to pay anything additional.

Brand Exposure

Having an online business allows you to gain exposure all over the world and not just locally. 

This means you have an increased ability to stand out from competition especially if you have a unique product or service that not many others are offering. 

Cons of Working from Home:

Increased Competition

The internet is a highly saturated market. More and more people are looking into working from home and therefore you have an increase in competition to stand out from. 

Many shoppers will shop by product rather than retailer, and this is true if there are bargains out there.

Fraud

One of the biggest disadvantages to owning an online business is the security and fraud risk there is. A lot of people are a little on the cautious side of shopping online these days as there are a lot of security concerns. This just means you might have to work a little bit harder at gaining a customer base.

Long Hours at Times

In order to succeed working from home, there may be times, especially in the beginning, where you need to put in a lot of hours. 

Starting from scratch takes time and some patience. In some cases, people put in more hours with their at home business than they did when they worked in a traditional brick and mortar setting.

Discipline

One thing you’ll find is that you need to be disciplined. This is going to be an important aspect to succeeding. You can take breaks, and should take breaks, but make sure you are staying focused.

Working from home can be rewarding for many, especially if you want to do it to spend more time with your family. 

It can be rewarding if you want a sense of financial freedom. Being your own boss and living your life as you want is something so many people can accomplish.

Should You Use a Free or Paid Merchant Account

It’s crucial to have a merchant account if you own and operate an online business. 

Basically, merchant accounts are something that will allow you to accept online payments, which can involve customers using a credit or debit card to complete their purchase. 

It’s no wonder these are so important for business owners to have.

Also, it’s important to stop and take the time to research them to see what option is going to be beneficial for you and your business’ success. It comes down to using a free merchant account or a paid merchant account. 

As a new internet business owner though, cost might be in the back of your mind so you might want to consider a free account at first. But, at the same time, even the most savvy of individuals will tell business owners that even free isn’t all its cracked up to be.

So how do you know what way to go?

Free Merchant/Paid Merchant

Probably one of the first things to know when it comes to a free or paid merchant account is that paid accounts can cause a fee that might not be expected. 

These fees can also be high in some cases which might not be something many people want to pay as a business owner. 

If you have a high budget and need to stick to it, it can be hard to want to have high fees on top of all other expenses you already will accrue being a new business.

Free merchant accounts require no expensive processing software. This can be beneficial as it can save you money. Many people don’t want to have to pay a processing fee to order from you. 

Many people get deterred often when they see that a company is charging a processing fee. With a free merchant account you can also take advantage of things such as:

On the same token, there are many people who would argue that these paid merchant accounts pay for themselves over and over again. 

With free accounts, there may be chargeback and processing rates that could be high and are common. 

There are not a lot of features with a free merchant account either and this can be important for so many business owners. 

With a paid account, some may take advantage of not offering customer service and this is huge to anyone especially when there are payment issues. 

Technical support is additionally a nice aspect to have which is something you won’t find with a free merchant account.

However, keep in mind that free can be used while your business is still new. 

If for right now you can’t afford a paid merchant account free may be the way to go. It can serve as a beneficial temporary solution. 

But, also make sure you do some research and determine what the ultimate fees are going to cost you later on down the road. 

Even over a short timeframe, costs can prove to be higher than if you were to just suck it up and get a paid merchant account.

 However, keep in mind that the more volume your business is going to do, free merchant accounts may not be the best decision for you to make. 

There are a lot of features that come with paid merchant accounts that can be super beneficial to your business. 

You may have to invest in a paid merchant account to keep up with the volume of your business.

Related: Business Income Tax Guide

Social Marketing Online Business Tips

Did you know social media is the number one thing Americans take part in on a daily basis? 

Approximately 75% of users spend an average of 20 minutes or more on social media. 

Social media used to be a place to catch up with friends and family. Nowadays, it’s used by online business professionals. 

Now, social media marketing has become one of the most vital aspects to online businesses everywhere. 

It boosts traffic, converts traffic to sales, and allows you to engage with your followers and fan base. 

Are you aware of the many advantages social media marketing can bring to the success of your online presence? 

9 Social Media Marketing Tips To Follow:

#1 - Reserve Your Username on All Social Media Platforms

 ake the time to reserve your social media username across all platforms even if you don’t plan on using it at the time. This helps keep imposters away, and there’s going to come a day you decide to utilize them.

#2 - What Platform Suits Your Needs? 

Not every social media platform is designed to work for you. Building an online presence can be tricky enough so make sure you can keep up with all social media platforms you are a part of. 

It can get time consuming trying to stay active enough on them after a while. Instead, consider which ones are the most effective and bring the best results to your business.

#3 - Optimize Platforms

After choosing which ones to use, spend some time making your profiles stand out from the crowd. Optimize them the best you can with real pictures of you, writing clear about pages, and make sure you include a link to your profile.

#4 - Connect Your Profiles to Your Site

Make sure all social media accounts you have are a part of your website. This keeps things going. Visitors can link to your accounts listed and this allows them to find out more about what you’re offering.

#5 - Find Leaders in Your Niche

Find influential people in your niche and follow them. They may just share valuable info in your niche as well or even info on a project and this will allow you to get some inspiration from them.

 #6 - Use Hashtags!

Don’t forget the hashtags! They serve more than being just a pretty function. People actually search for things on social media using hashtags. It’s a fun way to make upcoming things stand out and trend on social media. Just make sure you don’t go overboard.

#7 - Stay Involved & Focused

Regardless of the type of social media account you have, personal or business social media, you need to keep up with them and remain active and engaging with your fan base. 

Follow other users, send friend requests to new people, comment on others’ posts and like their things including status updates. 

Make sure you update your status regularly and share interesting info and links you think your fans would enjoy.

#8 - Avoid Trouble

Every social media site has rules and policies that users need to follow. Some rules are the same across all platforms, but make sure you are aware of what they are. 

For instance, Twitter has a limit to how many people you can follow. Facebook won’t allow you to friend request people you aren’t familiar with.

#9 - Keep Track of Mentions

This is where PR comes into play. Use all available tools to keep track of all mentions you receive across all social media platforms you belong to. Keep track of what people are saying about you. Make sure anything negative is addressed.

Lastly, make sure you post as many times a day as you can. Just don’t over do it and upset fans. Make sure you are posting according to how active your fan base is.

Staying Committed to Your Online Business

A few years back a few people asked me what I did for an income, and when I told them I had an online business, they didn’t believe me. Yes, in fact, I work from home full-time and make a living doing it!

While that comment from them hurt and hit the nail right on the head, it really got me thinking about what I do in all reality. 

My business wasn’t exactly doing the best at the time, well at least not like it should have been, and while it was hard to say, I wasn’t REALLY committed to it. It was more of a hobby to me.

If you stop and take a look at online entrepreneurs, most of them have a laptop, an internet connection, and an idea of what they want to do. 

They do things a little bit differently to make sure they are successful, and here are a few tips to help you stay committed to your online business as well.

Set Goals

It’s important to set goals for yourself. Without them, there really isn’t any point is being in business. If you’re looking to stay committed and connected, make a list of reasons you went into business for yourself to begin with.

Be Flexible

Being successful is different for everyone. Each business has its own methods as to what works and what wont. There are some things you will try that won’t work that worked for someone else. Be open to trying new things and finding what's going to work for you.

Be Persistent 

Don’t be so quick to give up if things aren’t working the way you had planned. It’s important to stick to your goals and meet them. It’s important to keep trying things until you find what will work for you. The more persistent you are, the more it will pay off in the end.

Find Support

Doing things without the support of family and friends can be really tough. It’s easier to stay committed when you have support around you. Talk to people who are supportive of your business. 

If you don’t have anyone, consider jumping online and checking out forums and other websites to get advice, tips, and tricks from people in a similar situation you are in.

Show Up

While this might sound obvious, it’s something that’s the most important aspect to any online business, and it becoming successful. Show up. Arrive at work like you would a traditional job and leave when you are done for the day.

Focus on Your Online Business

Being focused means knowing what problem you are solving, the product or service you plan to offer, and how you’re going to add value to the lives of people with a problem. There have been times I have looked for a company and wondering just how they made money. I then realized they are filling a need and adding value to someone’s life.

Create Content and Show it Off!

Having content on your site will keep people coming back for more. People will want to share what you have to say, and this can get you more traffic and visitors through other avenues and people. 

Make sure you’re including tips, tricks, comments and that you are interacting with your audience.

It’s important to stay positive most of all. A positive attitude can go a long way. Make sure you’re taking steps to stay on the bright side and don’t give up! 

These tips can help you stay motivated and committed reminding you daily why you did it in the first place.

8 Ways To Get Free Website Traffic

If you own a website, you know how important traffic is to obtain. While some experts say paying is the only way to get traffic, there are several ways you can get it for free. 

Here are just a few ways to get it without spending a dime.

#1 - Build Social Media Websites Up

Whether you have a blog or not, every business owner should have a social media account. Make sure you are using it to the fullest and obtain new visitors and traffic to your site. It’s simple and free. Followers and some friends are all it takes! 

Make sure you know who your target audience is and simply add them as a follower or friend. Make sure you’re networking accordingly. Then, you can send out relevant content via tweets or status updates.

#2 - Have Useful Content

Make sure anything you post is relevant to your audience. Don’t make every post a salesy post. Make it conversational and welcoming. 

All search engines including Yahoo!, Bing (Microsoft), and Google use algorithms that see just how much relevant content is listed on a site. 

Search engines will rank you higher in your niche, and when it comes to SEO, content is King!

#3 - Utilize SEO Optimization

Consider cleaning up your site for SEO purposes. SEO is quite simple-the higher you rank on search engines, the more traffic you’ll gain from those search engines. 

This is something that can be done for completely free!

#4 - Attach Your URL

Are you frequently on forums or other blogs? 

This is another great place to find potential traffic. Consider registering on some of these popular forums and post relevant content. 

Take some time to edit your signature and place your URL in it. People become curious and will click on your link to learn what it’s about.

 #5 - Search for Free Promotion Sites

There’s always a way to get some free exposure and traffic to your site. Make sure you follow the latest ones. These can include anything from content submission, free classified sites, web classifieds, various listings and more. 

These are all great ways to get some free exposure and traffic. They only require a small bit of your day.

#6 - Build Backlinks

Backlinks are links that take a visitor back to your site from a different site. 

If you can get backlinks from other influencers and complementary websites, you’ll gain a larger audience, and this could increase sales and revenue. 

Google picks up on these backlinks and increases its trust in your site and business. With more trust from Google, you’ll be able to rank higher in search results.

 #7 - Post on Social Media

Social media has taken over the internet these days and offers a free method for businesses to gain new traffic. 

There are a few different social media platforms you can take advantage of including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok for business and Instagram for instance. 

These can be used to promote blog posts or other useful content on your site you want to get eyes on. 

Social media audience can become a source of new eyes on your site and what you’re offering. Make sure the content you’re sharing, and posting is useful and free.

 #8 - Landing Pages

Landing pages can be another way of getting free traffic. These pages take visitors directly to your product or service. 

These pages can include discount codes, downloading free guides, and even starting free trials. 

These pages contain details users need before they can move forward, and they focus on one specific action making a conversion more likely to happen.

Getting traffic doesn’t happen overnight. It does take time and effort on your part, but these tips should be able to get you started without paying anything.

Tips for Increasing Landing Page Conversions

You have a landing page and want everyone who visits it to turn into a customer, right?! 

Your website is up and running and getting traffic. So how do you turn all those visitors into customers? 

Chances are you won’t convert every person into a sale, but there are some tips to help increase the rate of customers. 

Here are some of them.

Who Are You Talking to?

 Many people make the mistake of reading and learning all these cool new tactics for their landing pages and rush to make changes with little success. That’s because you need to know who your buyers are. 

Not everyone wants what you have to offer. Instead of jumping and creating a landing page, learn who’s going to be visiting that landing page.

What do you want them to read or watch? How do you want them to feel? 

Answer these questions to build a better landing page with increased conversions than before.

Use Segmented Pages for Keywords

Another common error people make is using the same landing page for all their keywords. This is not correct practice. 

You’re taking conversions away from yourself doing this. Instead, segment landing pages and target your traffic. This not only gets you more leads, but increases conversion rates as well.

Write Headlines That Contain Emotion

 Landing pages can contain a lot of info on them and readers may not read the entire thing. Chances are, they will skim it to find certain pertinent info. 

Test and change around info to make sure content is eye-appealing and catching, clear, sums up your proposition and is concise. 

Play around and incorporate content that makes readers feel a certain emotion, such as beautiful, feeling safe, assertive, and more. 

The more a reader can relate to the content the higher the conversion rate.

Test More Than One Version of Your Page

Many people make the common mistake of not testing their landing page. It’s important to test different versions to ensure you get maximum conversions. 

Sometimes there are tweaks and small changes that you will notice need to be made. 

Maybe you can think of a more eye-catching title or maybe taking out information not relevant to the product you’re offering. 

In some cases, getting a massive response increase requires a few small changes. 

You can figure this out by doing a few different tests than just one. Sometimes a simple color change may be just what’s needed.

Browse Your Landing Pages

Your page needs to relate to the people landing on it. Make sure content is consistent and relevant to what the product can offer potential buyers. 

Make sure that your landing page isn’t so busy that visitors lose what they are supposed to do.

Check Calls to Action

A call to action is crucial to making sure visitors come back to your site. 

Are there big or bold buttons on your page? 

Are they noticeable enough that visitors can click on them? 

Make sure you try different fonts, sizes, and colors to find what looks best. 

Additionally, make sure calls to action offer value your potential buyers will want to click on.

Check Your Credibility Appearance

Do the claims listed seem believable? 

Do you have customer testimonials on your site? 

If a money-back guarantee is offered is that listed somewhere on your page as well?

Being an online internet marketer can be a lot to handle for some people. The main thing you want visitors to do is one goal of the page. Make sure they won’t get distracted. 

These tips are going to help you increase conversions on your landing pages increasing overall business for you.

Facebook Business Page Strategy: Engage Your Audience With Facebook Live

Businesses everywhere have started to turn to Facebook Live as a means to get in touch with their followers and audience. Videos help enhance your reach on Facebook, and this also will take less time to post and then creating a write-up. 

Are you interested in what Facebook Live can do for you? 

Here are a few things to help you go about hosting a broadcast.

Plan Your Broadcast

Broadcasting doesn’t always allow you to know what is going to happen. However, you shouldn’t just wing it. Make sure you take some time to plan what you are going to talk about. 

There should be a purpose to your Facebook Live Video. 

Think about what you are going to broadcast, what you want to say or avoid saying, and why does a Facebook Live stream deserve it rather than another type of format.

Be Yourself

Give a Heads Up

Tag People

Leverage the tag option on the Facebook Live video. This will allow you to be seen by a larger audience. 

If you tag people, your broadcast will show up on their story which can allow their followers to follow the broadcast as well.

Be Engaging

As with social content, engagement is going to be key. Say hello to comments and interact with people who comment on your broadcast as well. 

This can be beneficial for you audience to see. Sure, it can be difficult to keep up with comments and such while hosting a broadcast but doing so is going to have a more positive outcome.

Host a Question and Answer Video Broadcast

Not so long ago, if you were looking to host a YouTube Q&A you would have to advertise and talk about it for weeks in advance. 

This would allow visitors the chance to write down any questions they might have. However, with Facebook Live, all this has changed. 

All you have to do is inform followers that they can simply re-watch the video for a follow-up. During the live stream you can answer their concerns.

Offer a Behind-the-Scenes

Show your visitors and followers you appreciate their support by offering a behind-the-scenes tour of your business and products. Your audience is interested in how your business is run. They want to know you on a more personal, rather than strictly professional, level. Make sure you consider reviewing your products you plan on selling so your audience gets a sneak peak.

Collaborate with Others

Digital Marketing Business Niches: Validating Your Niche by Researching Competition

When it comes to online businesses, they aren’t found on Google maps or other local means. This can make it a lot easier to start a business but maintaining and running it becomes tricky. 

There’s competition in just about every niche. No matter what yours is, you should take some time to validate it using your competition. 

Here’s how to go about it and why you should consider it as well.

Go Beyond Google Searching

No matter what you’re searching for, doing a simple Google search is where it starts or visiting your competitor site. There are, however, other tools that can help you besides doing a Google search. 

Google offers several other tools that you can use to help get more in-depth research info. Google Ads campaigns can also help you out too.

Tap into Their Social Network

Companies and businesses everywhere are tapping into how beneficial social media can really be. They are great for marketing and gaining an audience. They also can be a great way to check out what your competition is doing.

Ask Your Customers

When it comes to finding out information about your competition, you can even go as far as asking and talking to your customers. 

This can be a great way to find out some real info about your competitors. No sides are taken, and they give their opinion and speak from experience.

Supply and Demand Factors

The importance and essence of a business can be broken down into supply and demand. If there’s enough of a demand, you are able to cater to whatever the supply is. 

If you find the demand just isn’t there, there’s nothing and no one to cater to. If there’s one diner in a specific location, chances are it’s going to thrive. 

However, if there are more than one, some businesses might start to starve for business.

Likewise, there needs to be an online need for a specific business in order for it to thrive and succeed. 

While there are endeavors and firms that can coexist, the more of a specific niche business there is the smaller the business pool can get making it hard to succeed.

Make sure you study your competition and find out just how large of a market you are getting involved in. 

You can see what audience your competitors are catering too and find out how you are going to go about doing it.

Niche within a Niche Business

It’s highly unlikely that your niche is going to have little to no competition. 

There’s competition everywhere you go. If there are other businesses that have a huge part of the business you are after, finding a niche within a niche is going to be beneficial to you. 

You need to think outside the box. It’s hard to cater to the same area another person is and expect to succeed as well as they are, if not better.

For example, if you’re planning to target food as your niche, cuisine or any culinary related niche will be a great place to consider targeting without as much competition. 

If that’s not possible, find something you can become an authoritative figure with and how you can help or change their life.

Looking into your competitors and what they are doing can be beneficial to what you should do for your business. 

By seeing what they are doing, you might just find the inspiration that you need to make your business stand out in the crowd. 

What works for your competition though, may not work for you so be ready to think outside the box.