To understand the relationship between blogging and SEO (search engine optimization), you have to understand the basics of SEO. Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing and improving the website (or the blog) to increase its rank in the search engine result pages for relevant search queries.
So you have a specific keyword or several keywords that are relevant for your business. Online users who look for these keywords are likely to be interested in your business. Your goal with SEO is to improve your online presence, so these users can find your website when they search-relevant keywords.
Regarding SEO, when you appear in the search engine result pages is very important. It is so-called visibility, the likelihood of being visible to online users. You probably know that when
you type a specific term into a search engine, you get a list of results, which spans many pages. The websites with the highest visibility level appear at the top of the first search engine result page. Online users are more likely to click on the results that appear at the top of the list. So for a website to increase its chances of reaching users, it has to appear high up for the relevant keyword(s).
Striking Relationship Between Blog And SEO
Optimizing a website helps with increasing its search engine visibility, which has a positive influence on multiple areas, such as an increase in traffic, lead generation, and finally sales (or conversions).
Blogging, allows you to create content that has the chance of being ranked in the search engines. In fact, companies that blog have consistently been showing better results than those that do not. The main reason for this is that a blog provides a large quantity of content to be ranked. It allows you an opportunity to use a variety of keywords to optimize the content, as well as to use relevant keyword variations that could also bring visitors who are interested in your brand.
Think about it this way. Without a blog, your website would consist of a couple of pages. You would have a home page, about us page, contact page, and perhaps extra pages such as services or products you offer, pricing, etc. Essentially, this is a small amount of content. It provides a few resources to be optimized, which reduces the chance of increasing visibility and being discovered through organic search engine results.
Blogging combats this issue and provides indexable content that helps with generating more organic visits. This is also beneficial for online users, who might discover your brand through your content.
Besides visibility, search engine optimization includes two more important aspects that affect your blog performance. The first one is on-site optimization. Apart from content optimization, which is its essential part, on-site optimization also includes:
• Blog speed • Server optimization • URL structure • Mobile friendliness The second aspect is off-site optimization. Off-site optimization includes elements that are not on the blog, but instead, it focuses on the optimization through different kinds of links, which can include:
• Inbound links • Social media links • Guest blogging links • Influencer links These links help search engines because they convey a lot of information related to the pages they are linking to: • Link popularity – If a page gets lots of links, it means it is popular. Hence the search engines will consider it valuable. • Relevancy – Search engine consider the relationship between two pages to conclude how these topics are relevant to each other. • Freshness – If a new website page links to a blog page that is a couple of months or even years old, it means that the blog page features evergreen content. This kind of content has a positive influence on page visibility.
• Trustworthiness – A page that links to your blog page, passes on so-called link juice, which means that the trustworthiness of a website that links to you will transfer to your blog as well. Linking a domain or a page with high authority is a factor that helps you improve your SEO.
It has been mentioned on several occasions that blogging is part of online marketing. Essentially, it is a strategy that is closely linked to many other segments that together make what we know as online marketing, i.e., the promotion of a brand or business using online resources and media. Regardless if you are blogging as a company or an individual, regardless your niche and blog popularity, blogging should always be connected with other segments of online promotion. They complement each other in multiple ways, allowing you an opportunity to make the most out of all of them.
Your task is to explore how blogging relates to online marketing segments and then to maximize your efficiency through a unified strategy.
Blogging and content marketing
Content marketing is a part of online marketing that focuses on the usage of content to promote a brand or business online. Since blogging involves content creation for a blog, it means that blogging is actually a part of content marketing. In fact, blogging usually makes an essential part of content marketing since a blog is the central platform bloggers use to share their content.
Content marketing also includes any type of content creation that is used for online promotion. Besides blog content, it can also include social media content and graphics, content shared in email marketing campaigns, content created for the search engine or social media ads, etc.
Other segments which are included in content marketing, and yet they are relevant for blogging include content optimization and distribution.
Content optimization
Content optimization refers to the process of adjusting the content published online, in this case, blog content so that search engines can easily find and index such content. Applying content optimization techniques to blogging means that you should optimize each blog article based on the general recommendations to make it SEO-friendly. These include optimization of the following elements of blog content:
Title
The title holds the highest level of relevancy as to what the content is related to. It should include a keyword (or keyword phrases), and it should be optimized to encourage clicks from online users. Besides the search engine result pages, this title is also visible in social media posts, in email messages, instant messaging apps, etc.
Headings
Using headings helps readers to glimpse through the text easily. It is also helpful for search engines, because headings highlight the most important parts of the text, providing the search engines with a context bigger than the one provided by the title. Ideally, headings should use keywords, keywords variations, or related phrases.
Bold and italic
Just like headings, these highlighting options are helpful ways to mark the most important parts of the text, for both the readers and the search engines. They are usually used within paragraphs to emphasize words or even sentences.
Image optimization
If you are using images in the blog article, optimize them through the usage of Alt tags, to provide context for the search engines to understand the image content. Also, make sure you use images of a suitable size (smaller image files are going to load faster).
Meta description
Meta descriptions also have an effect on search engine optimization. It is therefore advised, if you want more visibility in the search engines, to write a search engine-optimized meta description for your blog article. The text featured here is what is going to be displayed in the search engine preview (below the title) and what the online users will see when they browse through the search engine result pages.
Optimizing links and the anchor text featured in these links is also a part of the content optimization of the blog article. If you include links, both external and internal, make sure you choose the adequate anchor text.
The anchor text should be relevant to the resource you are linking to, preferably with the use of relevant keywords. You should also use different link tags (index, no-index, do-follow, no-follow, canonical, etc.) to instruct search engines on how to treat that link.
Content distribution
Content distribution is the process of sharing content with online users. This way, a blogger makes the content available by distributing it to multiple platforms. Distribution is done through content distribution channels which include: • Email campaign • Social networks • Influencers • Paid advertising • Online communities and forums Any online platform that supports content sharing can be used by bloggers to distribute their content. The higher reach of distributed content increases the potential of that content, maximizing views, interaction, and conversions.
Bloggers should explore content distribution in order to optimize the online promotion of their content. What is important to focus on when choosing content distribution channels is the following:
Target group – The goal of content distribution is to help you reach your target group, not online users in general. Therefore, when choosing a distribution channel, make sure you can target the content for the audience that will have an interest in such content. For example, even though collaborating with an influencer might be an interesting opportunity, if the target group of that influencer is not also your target group, such content distribution will have poor results.
Cost-efficiency – Content distribution should be a profitable activity for you, regardless if you use free or paid reach. Even if there is no monetary investment with free reach, this kind of content distribution still requires investing time to distribute content. It is also recommended that, if possible, you calculate the costs necessary for content distribution, and compare them with the profit from conversions achieved through this distribution.
Statistics – You should evaluate the performance of content distributed through each channel to determine the most effective ways you can promote your content. Using trackable URLs and website analytics you can examine, where the content is shared, when, and other relevant data that can help you organize future campaigns more efficiently.
Bloggers need a variety of tools if they want to turn blogging into a profitable career. It is important to start with the essentials, to set up a blog, including hosting and a blogging platform, but once all of that is completed, there are a lot of tools to be explored offering additional features and possibilities for a blog to grow and develop.
Not all of the tools are necessary for everyone, nor will everyone find them useful, but the reason why the tools you will see featured in this list are here is that they are the most common tools used by bloggers.
Since blogging is an activity that surpasses content creation, the tools you will discover on this list also go beyond content creation and optimization tools. You will need them in your blogging strategy as those will help you manage your work more efficiently, as well as to promote your blog with more success.
Ultimately, blogging tools extend to other platforms as well, because blogging is an activity that should be integrated with all of your online marketing efforts, especially social media marketing, email marketing, and link building.
Writing tools
#1 Google Docs
If you want to create and manage your documents online, instead of offline, use a tool such as Google Docs. It allows you to access your files from any computer and from any location. All you need is to log in to your Google account. Sharing documents enables you to work with a team online.
#2 Apple Dictation
This built-in option on your Mac can help you optimize your work as it converts spoken words into text. The software also supports punctuation and other characters. There is a similar software if you are using Windows (Windows Speech Recognition) or if you prefer an online tool, Google Docs Voice Typing can be a useful alternative.
#3 Bear writer
This is a writing app enabling you to integrate your work on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. An interface comes with editing tools as well as the option to convert the text into PDF or Word documents. Other features include cross-note links, adding to-dos, hashtags, rich previews, etc.
#4 Paragraphs
The Paragraphs app comes in a simplified form without any menus or widgets that typically are part of a text editing app.
#5 BlankPage
Writers sometimes find it challenging to stay organized, which is when this service can be helpful. It offers a tool to track your writing progress, set up goals, and stay focused on your writing.
#6 CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Try boosting your blog performance with better titles. Use a tool such as this one to optimize your blog titles based on suggestions or use them to get even more ideas.
#7 Hemingway App
Get useful ideas on how to optimize your blog post style. This tool highlights complex sentences, and it also shows alternative solutions. Copyscape – Double-check your content before you publish it, or use the tool to look for copies of your pages on the internet.
Organization tools
#1 Toggl
Toggl is a time-logging tool enabling you to track your time spent writing. It also allows adding team members so you can increase productivity and optimize your time.
#2 Evernote
Use Evernote to organize your work and ideas, share the notes and sync everything in one place.
#3 Todoist
Manage tasks and projects using this tool to enhance productivity and standards organized. You can access the tasks everywhere because the tool comes with apps and extensions for more than ten platforms.
#4 DropBox
DropBox is a very popular tool for storing files online, as well as sharing them with other DropBox users, which is very helpful when you collaborate on projects. Another option for managing files is Google Drive.
#5 Trello
This is a platform that allows you to integrate the apps you are already using to manage your team and optimize your workflow. Boards, lists, and cards help you organize your projects and productively collaborate with your team.
#6 Checklist
A simple interface offers a variety of handy features such as checklists templates, reminders, attachments, cloud sync, etc. Use it to keep track of your daily tasks, to stay organized and productive.
Content tools
#1 Readability Test Tool
Use this tool to check the readability level of your articles quickly. It evaluates the text based on the most used readability indicators and gives it a score. You can test by URL if the page is already published on your blog, or you can type the text directly into the interface.
#2 Recite
Use this tool to create graphics with a quote. All you need to do is to enter the quote, select the style, and click on “Create”.
#3 Pablo
Pablo is one of the easiest ways to create graphics in a couple of minutes. You do not even need an account. Simply visit the website, choose templates, and images (or upload your own), select the file size and finally, share or download your design.
#4 Canva
One of the most popular design tools, Canva offers a variety of templates, free and paid image library, and a lot of editing tools enabling you to create stunning designs without any experience as a designer.
BeFunky offers three major sections for photo editing and graphic design, which include a photo editor, collage maker, and designer toolset. Besides the tools, you can find a lot of useful resources with tutorials and creative tips.
#7 Iconfinder
The collection of SVG icons offers over 2 million of icons you can browse and use in your designs.
The Noun Project – Here is another collection of curated icons to use for creating visual content for your blog.
#8 Embed Code Generator
This tool is handy if you are creating original visual content such as infographics. It allows you to create a code that can easily be copied by the blogs or websites that want to share your content. The good thing is that when they copy the code, it automatically links back to your blog. Social media tools.
#9 Buffer
Buffer is a social management platform, helps you unify your social media activity and successfully track it from one place. Features such as post scheduling, link shortening, social analytics, calendar, etc. are all very helpful for bloggers to promote content on social networks.
Social Image Resizer Tool
If you look for a simple editor tool for cropping and resizing photos and graphics, this one is going to be very helpful. When managing social media, you will often need the same image available in multiple sizes, for each social network, which is why a tool like this one will prove to be quite handy. It does cropping and resizing for you, so there is no need to do it manually.
#1 IFTTT
Short for If this then that, IFTTT is a free platform that helps you enhance the options of your apps and devices. The platform offers a variety of features that integrate the apps to automate a lot of repetitive tasks, one of which is publishing on social media. The platform functions through triggers that you set up from your account.
#2 MeetEdgar
This tool allows you to create your own content library and to categorize the content inside it. You then schedule content by category, and the tool publishes content automatically, recycling old updates based on the publishing schedule. It works on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Research tools for bloggers.
#3 Pocket
When you come across an interesting article, a video or any content, but you do not have the time to focus on it at that moment, just use this app to save it. A great thing about this app is that once you save it, the content is available even when you are offline.
#4 Instapaper
This is an alternative tool that helps you save content for later reading. The tool also allows creating notes, highlighting, and commenting on the articles you save.
#5 BuzzSummo
This tool can help you get ideas for your blog. It shows the best-performing content related to the search term you enter. It is also great for looking for bloggers and influencers who would be interested in sharing your content.
#5 Quora
Quora is a question and answers platform that can provide a lot of ideas for your blog topics. Simply look up the phrases relevant to your blog and check if any of these could be used as an idea for a blog post.
#6 Google Trends
Find out what is popular right now using this tool. Filter your search to a specific category or country, or use the search bar to focus on a particular topic. You can find lots of content ideas, especially about the trending topics.
Email marketing tools
#1 HubSpot Marketing Free
This is a tool that helps you convert visitors into leads, using contact forms and pop-ups. The tool also comes with detailed reporting about your visitors helping you increase conversions.
#2 MailChimp
You will need an app to handle your email campaigns and newsletter, and this one is very popular. It helps you create, customize, and monitor email marketing campaigns with lots of email template designs, and automation features. Alternatives to this tool include: • GetResponse • TinyLetter • ActiveCampaign • AWeber
#3 Convert Kit
This tool helps you create and manage your mailing list, with lots of handy features such as customizable forms, automation rules, sequences, and plenty of reporting tools. The tool is particularly designed for bloggers, and it includes features that help them grow their business through the mailing list.
The goal of these tools is to help you with blogging tasks, optimize your work and save.
you time along the way. Tasks such as looking for content ideas, creating content, both visual and written and sharing on social media will become part of your blogging routine. The more time you invest in blogging, the easier will it become for you to determine which ones of these tools are really effective and helpful, while others might not be worth the time.
The final recommendation is to choose and focus your time on only selected tools. A lot of tools are available for bloggers but try to focus on the ones that work best for your own blog.
As content marketing is taking over and blogging has become a strategy used by almost every company nowadays, big or small, the amount of content published online gets larger by the minute. And in that massive pool of blogs, it does take a lot of work to get to the top.
However, there are a few mistakes that might destine your blog to fail even before you get any chance of succeeding. Try to detect those mistakes before it is too late.
#1 Writing without thinking about your target group
Bloggers who do not have some basic knowledge about internet marketing and the digital world in general, often make this oversight. They mistakenly believe that trying to reach everyone online is the best way to maximize the reach of their blog. So instead of having a target group, they write content for everyone.
This will lead to absolute chaos on your blog. One day you might have an article about blogging, the other about fitness gear, and the next one you might end up with giving tips on how to get organized.
The main question you should ask yourself is what kind of a goal you want to achieve with this kind of content. What kind of visitors will you attract with this content? How will you be able to turn your blogging strategy into a profitable blog, when you do not even know who you are addressing it to?
Solution:
Determining the target group should be one of the first tasks when you start a blog. Ask yourself the question “Who do I want to reach?” Try to be as specific as possible. For example, if you say that your target group is men, that is still too broad. “Men between 30 and 50”, “Men who play recreational tennis”, or “Men who work in marketing” are much better definitions of your target group. Narrowing down the group of people you address gives you more possibility to create a personalized approach and tailor your blog content with this audience in mind.
#2 Neglecting online promotion and content distribution
Being a blogger does not mean that your job is complete once you publish your blog post. Another trap that beginner bloggers can fall into, is writing content without any promotion. A blogger is not only a writer. A successful blogger is also a marketer (at least a rookie marketer, with some understanding of online marketing).
If you publish content without any promotion from your end, you solely depend on organic traffic and accidental visits. You hope for SEO and social media to bring you traffic without any work on your part. This kind of blogging can seriously harm your chances of succeeding as a blogger. Not only will you see low results from this, but it will probably have a negative influence on you. You will feel discouraged, and this might jeopardize your future blogging plans.
Solution:
To prevent this from happening to you, explore online promotion and content distribution strategies from day one. Once your first article is live, share it on your social media accounts. That is a start. As you grow your audience and traffic, you will use other channels to share your content:
• Search engine advertising (such as Google Ads) 111 • Social media advertising • Social media promotions (competitions, giveaways, etc.) • Newsletter • Blogger outreach
This kind of approach will help you increase the reach of your content and thus help you with achieving your goals.
#3 Not creating a mailing list
Most bloggers look for ways to monetize their blog. One of the most profitable strategies that can help them with that is email marketing. This is why it is essential to start creating a mailing list from day one.
Some bloggers believe that they first need to have a strong influence and reputation before they can start collecting emails from their audience. This is not true, and this kind of thinking can only cause a massive amount of traffic to go by without any benefits.
Solution:
The first step is adding a subscribe button to your website. Along with this, try to create a regular schedule for your newsletter and offer exclusive content sent in emails as a way to motivate visitors to subscribe.
The second strategy that is also very effective is having lead magnets on your blog pages. These are usually featured in the blog post, as an offer for the readers. A lead magnet is something the readers will benefit from, something they will see valuable enough to leave their email address.
To make the best out of your mailing list, explore the opportunities of email marketing, create engaging campaigns and newsletters, and segment your subscribers to increase the performance of your emails.
#4 Blogging without any goal or strategy
Blogging without any goals or strategy can doom you to fail from the beginning. Writing is a creative process, and as such, it should deserve a certain freedom for you to develop the topic. Still, you have a specific purpose to fulfill with that content. You have specific readers you are trying to reach.
Solution:
When you start blogging, creating a strategy with concrete goals is a recommended step. Then, as you start writing each blog post, you have this guideline that will help you define your voice, shape your approach and maintain the attitude that your content is truly relevant to your audience. It will help you discipline yourself to create each blog post with a purpose, and it will bring you one step closer to fulfilling your blogging goals.
#5 Being afraid of criticism
Most bloggers are nervous about anticipating the feedback. They are afraid they will be criticized. This is something that can hold back a lot of bloggers from succeeding. The idea of being criticized publicly can be too overwhelming for some even to start blogging. Or even if they do, they do it under a pseudonym or without revealing too much information about themselves in the about us section.
There will always be people who are quick to judge. You will always come across people who spread negativity online hiding behind their social profiles. As a blogger, there is not much you can do about that.
Solution:
What you can do is to stop being afraid. Yes, a certain part of those providing feedback will be criticizing you and your content. However, try to listen to this criticism. Not all of the negative comments are those spread by haters. Consider that the person criticizing you might have a point. It might help you redefine your approach or pay attention to some specific aspects of your content.
As for the haters (or so-called trolls), just ignore these comments, and don’t take them personally, as they are not constructive nor are they based on any real ground. Finally, remember that most comments and interaction, which bloggers receive is usually positive.
Those who do not like your content do not bother visiting or leaving a comment. Knowing this increases the level of motivation and helps with staying focused on your blogging goals.
#6 Choosing a free blog to avoid technical issues
As you have seen, there are many opportunities to start a blog. Those who are only starting blogging often choose free versions and hosted blogging platforms. It is true that blogging this way is much easier, and it is stress-free. You can have your blog up and running literally within minutes. You will not need anyone’s help because everything is so straightforward.
Still, you have to be aware that free blogging platforms come with lots of limitations. Despite all of their benefits, the major issue, that blogging platforms have, are limited opportunities for blog monetization. And if you are serious about blogging, you have to think about this from the start. You should not choose a platform that will limit your success or prevent you from growing your blog, just because it was an easy way out at first.
Solution:
Think about your long-term strategy and in which way you want to develop your blogging. Although it is impossible to set up long-term goals with precision, nor will you be able to predict exactly if you will make it or break it, you can still think about the future and have a long-term plan for your blog.
You should not let a technical issue be an obstacle that will make you choose a solution you know is not an ideal one for you. Instead, look for help. Hire someone who can help you with setting up your blog.
Alternatively, explore the internet and find tutorials and guides that can help you set up your own blog using the blogging platform of your choice. Besides the multitude of free content about these topics, you will also find premium content, usually in the form of an ebook or an online course, that can be of assistance when setting up a blogging platform and publishing your first blog post.
#7 Not investing in your blog
Another mistake bloggers make is not spending anything on blogging (apart from their time to create content). The thinking behind this is the following. Until they see any profit from their blog, bloggers are reluctant to invest. They are afraid that the money they spend will be sent down the drain.
Most bloggers choose to limit their budget and spend only on what is necessary. This is usually blog hosting. Then, they only use free tools, without even considering the paid alternatives. This approach can severely limit your possibilities to success.
Solution:
Think about investing in your blog from the beginning. If you are serious about blogging and you want to grow your business through blogging, paid tools can help you a lot with this.
There is no need to go overboard and hire a team of developers, but an expert that could optimize your server or install some add-ons might be worth considering. You should also think about blogging tools that could be useful and consider paid versions as they often include more advanced features than the free ones.
#8 Forgetting about the importance of interlinking
Interlinking is the process of making links within your blog. Interlinks connect two pages of the same blog. Unlike inbound links, also referred to as backlinks, which come from external resources, these links originate on your blog and take the visitors to other pieces of content on your blog.
There are two principal reasons to include interlinking in your blogging activity. Firstly, there is the SEO aspect. Search engines discover new pages through links. Once they crawl a page to index it, they will follow the links featured on that page. Unless there is a link to a specific blog page, it would be impossible for search engines to find it.
Additionally, when you feature a link, you can optimize the anchor text. Avoid using phrases like “click here” or “this article”. Instead, use the anchor text that describes the content of the pages you are linking to. Ideally, it should also include a keyword relevant to the linking page.
The second aspect that benefits from interlinking is the user experience. With relevant interlinks you advertise more of your content to the blog visitors, encouraging them to spend more time on your blog, browsing through the existing content.
Solution:
This might be difficult to do when starting out and when you literally have a handful of blog posts. But as you increase the amount of content, go back to the old articles and include an interlink with a new article, and vice versa. Each new blog post should link to one (or several) older ones.
An alternative could be a sidebar menu that features the latest or the most popular articles. You could also use the feature “related posts” which would show the related articles at the end of each article, inviting the visitors to explore more content on your blog which is related to the topic they are reading about.
Conclusion
Being aware of these common mistakes bloggers make, especially when starting out, is helpful because then you will make an effort to avoid them. Since all of them can harm your blog performance and prevent you from succeeding as a blogger, it is also helpful to know how to deal with them and how to face the problems that might occur along the way.
Ultimately, blogging takes time and patience, so arm yourself with those and do not expect anything to happen overnight. Have in mind both the opportunities and the problems that might pop up to always be ready to make the most out of blogging.
The first step of creating a blog includes choosing a blogging platform. A blogging platform is a software you use to create a blog and publish content. It is a type of content management system (CMS). Multiple blogging platforms are available online which offer a set of blogging tools and services providing everything you need to set up and run a blog. A platform can be free or paid.
#1 WordPress
Over 15 million websites on the internet use WordPress, which is almost 30% of all websites worldwide, making WordPress the most popular CMS platform. There are over 76 million wordpress.com blogs.
The principal two reasons for such a huge WordPress popularity is that this is a user-friendly and search engine friendly platform. This means that you do not need much experience in coding or web design to create a WordPress blog. Also, the platform supports a lot of plugins and extensions to optimize the blog even more and add features that are not a part of the core platform. As a result, search engines find it easy to index such a website and present them to their users as a response to a search query.
If you are interested in exploring WordPress as a platform, you will have two options to choose from: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The platform is the same in both cases, but these represent two different solutions for bloggers.
WordPress.org
With this option, you will be hosting your own website or a blog. By visiting WordPress.org, you download the free software which needs to be installed on your web server. After this, you will be able to set up and customize your blog.
This solution is a good choice if you want to have more control over your blog and flexibility when it comes to blog design and optimization. However, this comes with an added cost of blog hosting. You will also need technical know-how to install this blogging platform on the server. Even though this is not too complicated, it still can be a bit too much for someone who has no experience with it.
WordPress.com
If you want a blog without having to take care of hosting and web server installation, you will use the WordPress.com option. To create this blog, you will visit the homepage of WordPress.com and register for an account, which will take a couple of minutes.
The pros of using this blogging platform include a free and quite straightforward setup, which is perfect for beginners. The platform also offers several paid upgrades, such as domain registration (allowing you to remove wordpress.com from your domain name), but in all, this option provides much less ability to customize and control the platform. Choosing between these two depends on the goals you have with blogging.
If you have a personal blog, the free option without your own hosting can be enough to help you transfer your vision to a blog. Still, you have to be aware that this option comes with lots of limitations. If your plan is blogging for business, earning money through blogging, and expanding your blog (by adding new authors, a management team, subscriptions, etc.), you should use WordPress.org from the start.
Some of the reasons why bloggers choose the WordPress platform (both .com and .org) include the following:
• The platform installation, management, and optimization do not require a lot of technical skills • It integrates well with social networks and other platforms such as marketing automation software, email marketing software, e-commerce website, etc. • There are lots of plugins to optimize the blog and upgrade its features • The platform is intuitive and easy to get used to • It is known to be a very secure platform • Numerous options for customization and plenty of templates are available • There is a strong online community which is great for getting help and support As an open-source platform, WordPress is constantly updated which fixes potential bugs and introduces new and improved features.
#2 Blogger
This is another popular blogging platform. It is hosted by Google and allows creating of blogs with blogspot.com used as a part of the domain name. A custom domain can also be registered to remove the blogspot.com from the name and Google allows this for free. To create the blog using this platform, you will need a Google account.
An opportunity to create a blog for free and to easily set up the blog are common reasons for choosing this blogging platform. However, this solution offers fewer options for customization with hardly any blog templates to choose from. Blogger provides some of the following features:
• Adding location to posts through geotagging options • Country-specific extension in the URL
• Blog is hosted on Google servers, which are considered very reliable (but offer no option to upgrade to a self-hosted solution) • Drag-and-drop templates editing interface • It supports Google’s AdSense service enabling bloggers to generate revenue from blogging • It can be easily integrated with Google+ encouraging user engagement • Mobile application is available for blog management • Blog description is limited to 500 characters (HTML markup is not supported) • Individual blog pages are limited to 1MB • Blogger Product Forum offers online support
In general, this blogging platform is used by beginners and those who consider blogging as a hobby. Numerous limitations and poor customization options are the main reasons why professionals and ambitious bloggers, as well as companies, seek a more flexible and upgradable solution.
#3 Tumblr
Here is another easy-to-use blogging solution that comes with no additional monthly costs. The platform itself is designed as a micro-blogging platform that features short-form blog articles, quotes, images, etc. The opportunity to follow other blogs and get followers gives that social flair, thus increasing the engagement level. In December 2017, Tumblr reports having over 381 million blogs.
When you register to the platform, you get a subdomain of tumblr.com. It is possible to remove this and use your own domain name, but you will have to register the domain name using another online service. Some of the highlights for choosing Tumblr: • Great interaction with Twitter and Facebook, so you can automatically republish on Tumblr or vice versa • It is one of the fastest growing blogging platforms • Plenty of opportunities for blog customization including a possibility for HTML editing • Email or text publishing system allowing you to post quickly and easy • Live feed shows recent blog posts of the users you follow which increases engagement and content visibility • Tagging content increases the opportunity to get discovered
• Intuitive dashboard which is easy to figure out and use
Tumblr represents a popular blogging solution, but it certainly is not for everybody. Some great companies have positioned themselves highly with Tumblr blog, using its social aspect in particular, but in essence, this platform is mainly used for personal blogs or creative blogs to showcase work online.
LinkedIn blogging
The option to publish blog articles on LinkedIn opened up with LinkedIn Pulse, but as of the end of 2015, Pulse no longer exists as a separate platform. Instead, its core features and functionalities are integrated into the LinkedIn platform enabling articles and stories to be accessible directly from the news feed of a LinkedIn account.
To start blogging on LinkedIn, all you need is a content idea, and to think how to shape this into an article people are going to read. Also, you will need a LinkedIn account. You are literally one click away from getting your blog content published, and that is one of the main reasons for choosing such a way to blog. Other features of using the LinkedIn platform for blogging are:
• Huge user base which is your potential audience • Possibility to reach online users without any direct promotion from your end with social network visibility • An opportunity to gain influence as a professional on the platform through valuable content • Enrich your online portfolio with content publicly available on the network • Extremely beginner-friendly.
Still, blogging on LinkedIn has a lot of drawbacks. Starting from the limited control of the platform to the inability to collect readers’ email addresses and no direct SEO benefits, it means that you will have to weigh whether LinkedIn can be a platform that will add up to your blogging efforts and help you with achieving your goals.
#4 Medium
Medium is another free blogging platform enabling people to start blogging almost instantly. All it takes is to create an account and get started writing. The platform has an amazing import tool, supporting different content formats, easy inclusion of visual content, and plenty of formatting options. All of this enables you to create very professional-looking content and start gaining readers through the platform.
Some of the reasons why people choose Medium for blogging include:
• A huge base of followers • It connects with your Facebook and Twitter accounts helping you find connections from other social networks • This also helps with increasing the number of social followers • Strong social aspect with features such as following the author, bookmarking the article, clapping to show you like a story, etc. • Engagement metrics for the articles • Quite a straightforward platform with many formatting options and instant integration of visual content through a URL
Despite lots of the benefits, like LinkedIn Pulse, Medium is a third-party platform, which means far less control and possibilities for blog customization. Choosing a platform As you can see here, the first decision you will have to make when you decide to start blogging is related to the choice of the platform you will use. More control and flexibility.
On one side there are platforms like WordPress.org, where you get full control over the blog management and customization. You basically have your own CMS platform from which you create a blog. Alternative CMS platforms that could also be used for blogging include Drupal, Joomla, etc. You will need to create a promotional strategy to disseminate your blog content and reach online readers. Unlike using third-party blogging platforms, managing your own CMS means that you will not have access to an online community that could instantly help you with getting visitors to your blog. However, once you get visitors to your blog, you will have an opportunity to convert those visitors and collect their email addresses through your own blogging platform.
Platforms like these, which offer more control, are usually an ideal choice if you are blogging for business because they give you more flexibility and more possibility to convert your visitors, into becoming subscribers or clients.
No costs and easy setup
On the other hand, there are online platforms like Medium, that provide everything one needs to start blogging instantly.
The main advantage of such platforms is this social aspect which helps you increase your reach. When you publish content through this platform, you immediately get an audience. Even though this audience might be limited (by the number of your followers if you are just starting out), it is more than you would have when starting out blogging independently.
However, when blogging for business or working on brand promotion, these platforms can soon turn out to be too restraining. This means that the choice of which platform to use should be based on the type of blog you want to create. Think about your blogging goals, plans for the future, and the roadmap you want to follow.
In the end, it is important to mention that no rule states you should have only one blog. You could start various blogs on several different platforms and explore how each of them contributes to achieving your goals. You have to be aware that such a strategy will require more time to establish a presence on each platform, but it can be done at least on a trial basis. This enables you to try out the platforms firsthand, and explore the benefits they can potentially bring.
Knowing about the current situation in the market is very useful. Below please find some interesting results made by different studies. These studies illustrate the state of blogging and online marketing. It helps you understand the importance of blogging as a business tactic and how it can be integrated into an online business.
• Featuring a blog as a key part of your website will give you a 434% better chance of being ranked highly on search engines. (Tech Client) • B2B marketers are much more likely to use blogging (75%) when compared to B2C marketers (61%). (Social Media Examiner) • 65% of marketers plan to increase the use of blogging. (Social Media Examiner)
• Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. (HubSpot) • Most bloggers (53%) are publishing at least weekly. (OrbitMedia) • Most bloggers (64%) write for more than one blog. (OrbitMedia) • The average word count of top-ranked content in Google is between 1,140-1285 words (SearchMetrics) • Over 409 million people view more than 22.2 billion pages each month. (WordPress) • There are over 4 million blog posts written each day. (InternetLiveStats) • 85% of B2B marketers contribute their increased success over the last year to content creation. (Content Marketing Institute) • 52% of B2B marketers say that blogging is a tactic that will be most critical to the overall content marketing success in 2017. (Content Marketing Institute) • Ninety-two percent of respondents said their organization views content as a business asset. (Content Marketing Institute) • Most common ways to generate revenue through blogging is using display ads, affiliate marketing links and search ads.(Tech Client)
• There is a general increase in the use of promotion channels. Search, email, paid and influencer marketing are all up. Social media is still by far the most common method for getting the word out. 93% of bloggers share their content on social networks. (OrbitMedia) • Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads. (Tech Client) • Websites with blogs have 97% more indexed links. (Tech Client) • After reading recommendations on a blog, 61% of U.S. online consumers made a purchase. (Content Marketing Institute) • 43% of people admit to skimming blog posts. (HubSpot) • Three out of four (76%) respondents use email marketing technology to manage content marketing efforts. Other digital content marketing technologies used include CMS, content collaboration/workflow software, marketing automation software, etc. (Content Marketing Institute).
The highlights that can be concluded from all of these statistics are the following:
• The number of blog posts published each day is enormous. Quality has become a necessity to get noticed and reach your audience through blog content. • Blogging is more popular among B2B companies than among B2C businesses. • Blogging regularly can significantly help you improve your business objectives. • Blogging affects buying decisions. As you continue with reading this ebook, you will see even more benefits of blogging. You will see how this online marketing strategy is slowly becoming the number one method to reach and affect online users.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Alexa rank – Alexa rank is the website’s rank based on the Alexa traffic ranking calculator. The traffic is based on reach and page views, which signify website’s popularity.2. Anchor text – It is the clickable text in the hyperlink. The anchor text is usually the underlined text in blue color. 3. API – Short for Application Programming Interface, API represents a set of definitions, protocols, functions, and tools for building applications or software. 4. Automation – In marketing, automation refers to the use of software to automate specific tasks, such as email, social media updates, etc. 5. Black hat – This term is used to describe a strategy or technique that is unethical and used to manipulate the system in order to show false performance. 6. Bounce rate – This is the metric showing the percent of visitors who left the website after viewing one page only.
7. Broken link – A broken or dead link is a link on a website that no longer works. Instead of taking the user to the certain page, it shows an error page. These links negatively affect SEO. 8. Checkout – In e-commerce, checkout is the process through which a customer goes when checking out the items in the cart. 9. Click-through rate – It represents the percentage of visitors who clicked on a link in relation to the total number of visitors. 10. CMS – Content Management System (CMS) is an online platform for creating and managing digital content. It allows creating websites and blogs. 11. Content marketing – It is a type of online marketing that is focused on creating and sharing content in various formats (text, video, image, audio, etc.) which is used to increase interest in a brand or a product, and eventually increase conversions.
12. Conversion – A conversion is a desirable action. It is an action the website owner highlights as desired, and it can be a sale, lead generation, click, view, sign up, download, etc. 13. Cookies – Cookies include a piece of data from a website or blog which is stored to the user’s browser. 14. Creatives – This term is used to refer to the creative materials used in affiliate marketing which can include banners of different sizes, images, logos, etc. 15. CSS – CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is the computer language that affects how elements of a web page, such as color, fonts, layout, etc. are displayed. 16. CTA – Call-to-action (CTA) is a button that is clickable. Click on the CTA is usually considered as a conversion. 17. Display ad – Display ad relies on the usage of images as advertising elements. These images are shared on a website in the form of a banner. 18. Domain authority – Domain authority (abbreviated as DA) is a score that shows how well a website will rank in the search engine result pages. It ranges from 0 to 100, and it was introduced by Moz.
19. E-commerce – E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the process of buying and selling online. 20. Follower – A follower is a person who follows someone’s online activity, usually through social media, but it can also include blog following, forum followers, etc. 21. Hosting – Hosting is a service allowing individuals and companies to make the website accessible online. It is a virtual space where the website is stored. When you create a website, you will need to buy a hosting from a web hosting company. 22. HTML – Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a standardized system for tagging text files on the web pages. 23. Impression – This term is used in online marketing to represent a single view of a web page. It is often used in online advertising signifying the number of times the ad was displayed.
24. Inbound link – An inbound link links to your website and is published on a third-party website. 25. Influencer – An individual with authority, knowledge, and position to influence and persuade people is called an influencer. Influencers usually have a significant number of followers on social media and their website or blog. 26. Keyword – Keyword is a term that defines website’s content. It is of great significance because it is used to describe the content and instruct the search engines what the content is about. It can be a single word or a phrase. 27. KPI – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values the illustrate how effective a campaign is in achieving the planned goals. 28. Landing page – A landing page is the page where the users arrive after the click on the link, so it is considered an entry page. A landing page is usually designed to promote a certain campaign or goal, which is why it needs to be engaging and with the power to convert the visitors to complete the desired action.
29. Lead generation – This is a process of attracting online users who are potentially interested in becoming your customers through various tactics such as having a sign-up button, organizing an online contest, etc. 30. Link building – Link building is a part of off-site optimization which includes activities that help earn links to your website. 31. Loading error – A loading error is a web page error that prevents the online user from viewing the online content. 32. Mailing list – A mailing list represents a list of email addresses of your subscribers or previous customers. 33. Mobile-friendly – The term usually refers to online content, such as blog articles, email messages, etc. and it is used to describe online content that is accessible and properly displayed on mobile devices. 34. Multi-level marketing – Multi-level marketing (MML) is a strategy that is also called pyramid selling or referral marketing. It includes the sale of products or services to
salespeople or participants. They then recruit other salespeople to be the new recruits who are often referred to as the distributor’s “downline”. 35. Niche – In marketing, a niche is a part of the online market which is focused a particular topic, product, or service. 36. Online marketing – Online marketing, also called internet or digital marketing, is a process of advertising on the internet using online channels such as search engines, social media, paid ads, email, etc. 37. Optimize – To optimize something means to improve it to achieve better results. The term is usually used to describe the process of improving a web page, a landing page, an email message, etc. 38. Organic search results – These are the results that appear as a response to a search query, sorted based on relevancy in the search engine result pages. As opposed to organic, there can also be paid search results. 39. Outreach – This is a type of campaign in online marketing which involves looking for individuals or companies that are interested in working with you on projects, mutual campaigns, etc. 40. Page authority – Page authority (PA) is a Moz’s metric which represents a score between 0 and 100 that predicts how well a page will rank in the search engine result pages. 41. Page rank – Page rank (PR) is used for measuring the importance of website pages through an algorithm that uses different metrics to rank websites. 42. Payment gateways – A payment gateway is a service that processes payments for an online business and thus enables online purchase. 43. Penalty – Penalty represents a sort of punishment, usually introduced as decreased search engine ranking. It is applied when the website is believed to be using suspicious methods and practices to mislead the search engines and online users. 44. Query – This term is usually used in relation to search engines to signify a search query, i.e. a term that the online user types in the search engine. 45. Reach – In the online world, reach refers to the total number of online users who are exposed to particular content at least once, through both paid and organic reach.
46. Search engine ranking – Search engine ranking, or shortly ranking, is the position a certain website has in the search engine result pages shown in response to a specific query. 47. Segment – In online marketing, to segment means to create categories or groups based on particular features. You usually segment online users or subscribers to create campaigns that are more customized and personalized. 48. SEO – Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing and adapting the website in order to improve its rank in the search engine result pages. 49. SERP – Search engine result page (SERP) represents a list of the results that are shown as a response to the query by a search engine. SERP can show organic and paid search engine results. 50. Shopping cart – Shopping cart is software that allows browsing the products, putting them in a virtual basket and purchase. 51. Showrooming – Showrooming is the act of visiting a shop to see the product before buying it online, usually at a lower price.
52. Social media marketing – Social media marketing (SMM) is a part of online marketing that includes the promotion of a business through social media platforms. It includes having social media profiles, connecting with followers, being active, organizing campaigns, etc. 53. Social media presence – Being present on social media includes interacting with followers and organizing promotional campaigns. Through these activities, you establish your social media presence and use it to grow your business. 54. Squatting – The act of creating websites with common misspellings of legitimate domains is known as squatting. 55. Subscriber – A subscriber is a person who signs up to your newsletter and opts in to receive your updates through email. 56. Target group – A target group represents a group of people you try to reach with your online marketing.
57. Tier – Tier affiliate marketing model represents a structure when the affiliates earn commissions when they refer other affiliates to join the program. This commission is added to their commission earned through conversions. 58. Trademark – A trademark is a symbol or a word that represents a company or a product. It has a recognizable design and identifies the brand on the market. 59. User experience – User experience (UX) is a term that includes all the aspects of the interaction between the online users and a company. It is a metric that affects website positioning. 60. Visibility – When it comes to online marketing, visibility is often used to describe the likelihood of the website being shown in the search engine result pages and being visible to the online users who are performing the search. 61. Webmaster – A webmaster is a person who creates and manages a website and its content, the computer server used to store the website as well as all other installed applications and software. 62. Webrooming – Webrooming is the term used for researching products online before buying them in a physical store.
63. Website analytics – Website analytics includes data about website visitors. It analyzes the behavior of those visitors in order to improve website performance. 64. Website optimization –Website optimization includes the process of optimizing a website to improve its ranking in the search engine result pages. It is also called search engine optimization (SEO).
Affiliate marketing is a part of online marketing as it represents a performance-based marketing model that focuses on the online promotion of products to online users. Therefore, it is closely related to online marketing and other sectors that are also part of online marketing, such as social media marketing, SEO, etc.
To be truly successful in affiliate marketing and to leverage all of the potential, regardless if your role is being a merchant or an affiliate, it is wise to explore how affiliate marketing is connected with other sectors. These connections and mutual activities can significantly boost the success of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing and search engine optimization (SEO)
The first and the most obvious connection to highlight is the relationship between affiliate marketing and SEO. During the online promotion, affiliate links are shared on websites or blogs. A publisher features an affiliate link in an article or as a banner. The link can be available on all website pages, a single blog page or several pages. The decision about where to post the links depends on the publisher. As a general rule, the more exposure the link gets, the more likely it is to encourage clicks.
Merchants
The common goal that merchants have is to encourage affiliates to join the affiliate program and promote their products (or services) on their behalf. Consequently, the merchants expect affiliates to link to their websites. In terms of SEO, this activity is known as link building. It is a part of off-site optimization, and the purpose of link building is to obtain links from other websites. However, things are not always as straightforward as that.
Essentially, links are seen as a vote of trust by the search engines, and it is a recommended practice for webmasters to generate new links to their websites as a part of their search engine optimization. These links show the search engines that the website to which it is linked has some value. It must be worth it if people are linking to it.
Be that as it may, not all links are equal, and merchants would not be happy to get just about any link. Here is why.
In link building, there is something often referred to as link neighborhood. The concept is the following. If there is an awesome website (let us call it website A), with a great reputation and lots of visitors, and that website links to another website (this could be a website B), this is an ideal scenario for website B. Search engines see this as a sort of recommendation, so the awesomeness of the website A transfers to the website B (the process also known as the transfer of link juice).
So if website B has a lot of other awesome websites linking to it, it means it is in a good neighborhood. Search engines then conclude that this website is awesome as well because otherwise, it would not be in this neighborhood, i.e. these awesome websites would not link to it.
The same principle is applied to bad neighborhoods. If a lot of spammy and low-quality website link to a certain page, this page is also likely to be considered spammy and of low quality.
Now we have merchants, who need and want affiliates to link to them. That is the goal of affiliate marketing. Having in mind the whole principle about the good and bad neighborhoods, if merchants want to make sure to follow the guidelines for the good SEO, they will need to be selective when accepting affiliates to join their program. They only want credible websites to be linked to them.
It is necessary to avoid any spammy, low-quality websites because these links will do more harm than good. They will negatively affect SEO and the website ranking, while they are unlikely to drive any real sales because these websites have low influence and trust among online users.
Affiliates
The principle of good and bad neighborhoods is also a valid reason for affiliates who choose which affiliate programs to join. If their website enjoys a certain credibility both among the users (reflected in the number of visits, subscribers, etc.) and among the search engines (reflected as a website rank in the search engine result pages), the affiliate does not want to compromise this by linking to websites that are a part of the bad neighborhood. This could harm their SEO and their reputation.
Another criterion affiliates should think about when joining an affiliate program is the topic of their website or blog. They want to provide the website visitors with a great user experience, so even if the affiliates earn commission through the affiliate links, the links should still be relevant to the audience and their content preferences. Not only does this ensure a seamless user experience, but it also guarantees a larger number of clicks (and conversions) because the links are truly meaningful to the target group. As a result, the affiliates have a better chance of generating income through relevant affiliate links.
When placing affiliate links, affiliates may or may not disclose that the links on the page(s) are affiliate links. This is based on their own ethics and relationship with followers, but most influencers choose to state that links are affiliates. In fact, they sometimes might use different formatting options to mark affiliate links, such as different colors or asterisks.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
One of the distribution channels you will most likely end up using as an affiliate marketer is email. With the help of the right tools, you can fully optimize and monitor your campaigns to ensure the highest conversion rate. In this article, I want to talk about the best email marketing tools for SEO.
#1 HubSpot Marketing Free
Capture leads with customizable popups and analyze users’ on-site behavior to increase conversions. This tool provides a lot of information about your leads allowing you to optimize email campaigns based on these analytics.
#2 MailChimp
As one of the most famous tools for email marketing, MailChimp assists with creating, customizing, and monitoring email marketing campaigns, accompanied by marketing automation features. The tool is free for 2,000 subscribers or less, and it is limited to 12,000 emails per month.
#3 GetResponse
This is a platform that joins together email marketing, landing page creation, and marketing automation. Everything you need to run a successful email marketing campaign is found within this tool. It is a paid platform.
#4 Hello Bar
If you want to increase the number of emails you collect through your website, try using the Hello Bar tool. Besides lead generation, the tool can also show announcements, so you can promote an individual product here as well. It is quite straightforward and easy to use.
Nevertheless, how might you manufacture a gathering of individuals of people to send email marketing to as a segment of your web displaying attempts regardless? There are a few different ways, and all of them have to do with treating your customers right, and considering exhibiting best practices.
Make an effort not to buy email records. Many email displaying associations (checking Mailchimp) have an extreme, assent-based plan concerning email addresses, which infers that delivery off purchased records is blocked.
In light of everything, centre around asking individuals to choose into getting messages from you by using lead magnets.
You could offer a markdown on your customers’ first orders when they seek after your email list through a custom data trade structure.
Or then again conceivably you can offer new allies free transportation on their next solicitation—or permit them to win a prize when they join your overview. Here are some more tips to assist you with manufacturing an email list.
What is email marketing?
Email exhibiting is an astounding publicizing channel, a kind of direct advancing similarly as modernized promoting, that use email to propel your business’ things or organizations.
It can help make your customers aware of your latest things or offers by organizing them into your exhibition.
The Importance of Email Marketing
We’ve covered the greatest inquiry, what is , yet haven’t gotten into why email showcasing is so vital for your business. We should discuss that at this point.
Regardless of the ascent of web-based media and spontaneous spam email (which is never a decent advertising procedure, coincidentally), email stays the best method to support leads and lift client unwaveringness.
There are numerous reasons you should make email advertising one of your main concerns, however here are the best 3:
Email is the #1 correspondence channel. Did you realize that at any rate, 99% of buyers browse their email consistently?
You own your rundown. On any web-based media stage, your record (alongside the entirety of your fans and posts) could be suspended or erased whenever, in any way, shape, or form, without notice. Nonetheless, you own your email list. Nobody can remove those leads from you.
The email simply changes for the better. People who buy things displayed through email consume 138% more than the people who don’t get email offers. Truth be told, email advertising has an ROI (profits from the venture) of 4400%. That is tremendous! Also, on the off chance that you are contemplating whether web-based media changes over surprisingly better, reconsider: the normal request estimation of an email is, at any rate, multiple times higher than that of online media.
If there is one thing that has revolutionised how business is being done worldwide, it is the coming of the Internet. With the coming of the internet into the business landscape, it is now possible for organisations to do business beyond their immediate environment.
Many businesses today are also able to attract and convert more customers than they have coming to their brick-and-wall offices. In this article, I want to look at some of the impacts of the internet on businesses. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
Now the impacts…
#1 Market Penetration
One of the beauties of the Internet on business is that it has increased market penetration across the globe. With the coming of the internet, organisations are no longer restricted to a particular geographical location.
With the presence of the internet, organisations can reach out to their potential customers and convert them to loyal customers without them having to come down to their office.
#2 Market Development
Another benefit of the internet on businesses is that it can aid in the market development efforts of the organisation. With the internet in place, organisations can be able to analyse customer behaviour and aggregate what their customers really want. This will allow them to do segmentation and profiling of their customers. It will allow them to also raise the exit barrier for their customers as well.
#3 Diversification
Another benefit of the Internet for businesses is that it has brought about product diversification. Before the coming of the internet, the only option that was available to businesses was to allow customers and prospects to come down to their offices.
With the coming of the internet, organisations now realised that there is a cheaper and more cost-effective way of doing business. Many of them have been able to take their businesses online. This has changed the business landscape astronomically.
#4 Product Development
Online businesses are also able to develop new products and services based on customers’ feedback. Just like I said earlier, It is very possible for them to gather the opinion of the users who might have one thing or the other to say about the products or services that they have used.
This will allow them to create a platform where customers can make suggestions on how those products or services can be better. This will definitely increase customer loyalty and satisfaction level for the organisation.
Unknown Facts About Internet Marketing
Buying and selling are as old as mankind. When this process first started before the advent of the internet. The seller will always have to look for the buyer and it was so hectic.
That was the time of trade by barter before the introduction of money. Then if you have yam and you need rice you will have to look for some that have rice and he is looking for yam.
With the coming of the internet, things changed drastically, it is now possible to even sell products and services beyond your immediate environment, In this article, I want to look at the functions of internet marketing. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
What Internet marketing is…
Internet marketing or online marketing generally refers to the selling or promoting of products and services through the Internet. These online promotions can be done through the use of email, social media platforms, apps and other online media platforms.
This process also combines creative and technical features of the internet with design, development, advertising and sales using websites with effective content for a product or service.
When you need to market products and services online, you will have to develop contents that will allow you to market that product effectively. You have to write contents that will tell your audience more about the products and why they should buy that product.
Apart from that, you may need to come up with graphics and teasers that will increase your audience’s interest in such products and services.
Also, it should be noted that the use of the internet will definitely increase the frequency and depth of interaction between customers and brands. With the use of the Internet, your customers do not need to be coming to your office every time. You can maintain your interaction with your customers without them coming to your office.
Why you need to use Internet Marketing…
#1 Organisational function and processes
First and foremost, the Internet facilitates almost all functions and processes that deliver products and services to customers and any other stakeholders. The use of the internet allows organisations and stakeholders to relate with one another without coming together in a particular place. This allows them to work together in order to achieve product goals.
#2 Integration with brand
Another major component of Internet marketing has to do with integration with brands. Internet marketing allows customers to carry their favourite brand along wherever they go. You know this saying that “Out of sight is out of mind”.
But with the use of internet marketing, you have to make sure that they carry your brand wherever you go,. I don’t know if it always happens to you, whenever I see a Maltina advert anywhere, I always feel like taking a bottle of Maltina.
#3 Information Management
Also, the internet can be effectively used as an information management system, which is a critical marketing support tool in strategy formulation and implementation. With the use of Internet marketing, it is now very easy to articulate the views of your customers.
You will be able to aggregate their views through the use of a feedback mechanism. You can now decide what customers are looking for in your products and services. This will assist you in making well-informed decisions.
Earlier, I have discussed some of the reasons why internet gas changed how businesses are being done generally. In this article, I want to look at some of the major benefits of internet marketing. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.
Now the benefits…
#1 Global market reach
First and foremost, internet marketing can increase your global market reach. Without the internet, you will not be able to do business beyond your immediate environment. With the coming of the internet, you can set up your online campaigns. You can also set up your e-commerce store and transact businesses online.
#2 24/7 Online Shopping
All with the coming of online marketing, it is now possible for you to make money while you are asleep. Online Businesses are set up and most of the processes are automated. This allows the process to run without any human intervention. It also allows you to make money while you are asleep.
#3 Drive sales
Internet marketing can also allow organisations to drive more sales. With it, you can actually reach out to prospects that have all the characteristics that want in your ideal customers. This allows you to engage in inbound marketing in order to convert prospects to customers. This will end up increasing your sales astronomically.
#4 Better market research
Another benefit of internet marketing is that it can also improve the market research efforts of the organisation. When you have internet marketing in place, you will have available data about your customers’ purchase behaviour. This will enable the organisation to understand what motivates their customers’ buying behaviour. This will enable them to properly segment and profile their customers. It will allow the organisation to raise exit barriers for their customers.
#5 Brand awareness
Another benefit of internet marketing for businesses is that it will definitely increase brand awareness for the organisation. When your business is online based and you have a good brand strategy, even those that have not purchased any products or services from you will be conversant with your products and services. This will increase the clientele base for your products and services.
#6 Investment strategies
Also, when organization launch out online, their horizons will be widened and they will have to be looking for ways of increasing their customer base. This will definitely be forced to invest more capital into the business. They will have no option other than to respond to the increase in the demand for their products and services.
#7 24/7 Customer Support
Another benefit of having an online-based business that is fully supported by a stable internet is that it will allow the organization to respond to customers in real-time. Customers do not have to come to the office before their challenges can be addressed. This will definitely increase customer loyalty and boost the sales of the organization.
#8 Personalized Services
Another beauty of a good online business for any business is that it will allow the organization to offer personalized services to their customers. That means products can be individually tweaked in order to meet the need of customers. With that, customers can make individual personal demand for products and services and their needs can be met based on what individual customers can afford.
#9 Lesser Advertising costs
Also, when you are able to build a good online reputation for your organization, you are likely to develop a loyal customer base who can relate and identify with your business without having to come to your office.
When you have this calibre of customers, they are ready to assist you in reaching out to more customers. By the time they start posting about your products and services to their own audience, you will realize that you can reach out to more customers and reach out to more prospects without breaking the bank.
#10 Low-cost information sharing
Added to the lower cost of advertising your products and services, you will also notice that with a good online business and community management, you do not need to go to any radio or television station when you have vital information to pass across. You just need to ensure that your community are well managed and information is posted on your social media platform when most of your audience is online.
This will ensure that any information that you are passing across at that time is able to reach as many people as possible.
#11 Saves cost
Another beauty of a good online business is that it can assist the organization in saving cost and time. Let me say that when you are using the traditional mode of marketing, you are likely to spend more and achieve a little results.
It is also possible that the majority of those that listened to that advertisement at that time is not really interested in what you have to offer. When it comes to online marketing, with appropriate targeting, you can leave out those that are not likely to respond actively to what you have to offer.
#12 Better customer communication
Also, internet marketing as a tool can increase better communication among various stakeholders in an organisation. First and foremost, it will be easy to communicate with customers and prospects without requesting them to come down to your office. Also, internet marketing will allow various departments to communicate and collaborate in order to resolve customers’ issues.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In my previous article, I have discussed some of the ways that the internet can contribute to internet marketing success. In this article, I want to talk about some of he major limitations of internet marketing. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Now the limitations…
#1 Not for everyone
one of the very first things that you have to know is this, as good as internet marketing is, it is not every one of your customers will embrace internet marketing. Some will still prefer the traditional mode of transacting business with you. You need to ensure that you create processes that will accommodate customers and prospects that will still prefer the traditional mode of transacting business with you. You also need to know that it is not all business can be done online.
#2 Security issues
Apart from the fact that it is not all your customers that will prefer the traditional mode of marketing, you need to understand that there are issues when it comes to the security of your customers when they are visiting your website. You have to continue to analyse your website for the lapses and keep investing in ways of blocking the loopholes that you have discovered. This at times can expose your website to continuous attacks.
#3 Illegal online activity
Also, with the coming of the internet, attack paths have increased astronomically. There are now many ways that people can be scammed. You need to be very much alert when you are transacting businesses online. You have to make sure that you are only disclosing your information to the right people. Never disclose personal information on the phone. Also, once you notice that your account has been compromised, you have to report to the appropriate personnel as soon as possible.
#4 Feeling of isolation
One of the negative feelings of digital marketing is that it can lead to a feeling of isolation on the part of your customers. This is due to the fact that they do not need to come down to your office before they can relate to you. This will time will create a sense of isolation in the heart of your customers. That is why you need to combine traditional marketing with digital marketing.
#5 Purchasing behaviour
At times, you will need to analyse the purchasing behaviour of your customers. This will allow you to understand the products and services that will resonate with your audience. At times, you might need to interview your audience with other details and data that you have about your customers. This will allow you to know what your customers are likely to do next.
#6 Information overload
I don’t know if you have tried to search for information about particular products or services online. You will agree with me that for most products and services, there is more information than what you need to actually make a purchasing decision. You really need a working knowledge of how to sieve information so that you will not get confused. You might end up buying what you do not really need if you do not know how to get unnecessary information out of the way.
#7 Greater chances of fraud
In addition, there are greater chances of fraud because the identity of buyers and sellers are not known. When you are online and you are not a knowledgeable buyer, you will find it difficult to prevent fraudsters from duping you. You have to make sure that you are buying your products and services from authorised websites. If you do not know the right place to purchase your products, you need to seek help from those that know so that you will not fall victim to fraudsters.
#8 No look and feel
Also, when it comes to having a look and feel of the product before you actually make the actual purchase of that product or service, that seems not to be feasible. For an expert that you want to read about the products and services online, it will not be possible to test the product to see if it is compatible or not before you can actually pay for that product or service.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Now you know you are important to God, that you count in His plans, that he needs you, that He loves you, that Satan hates you and will love to destroy you, that satan will seek the help of your flesh to do you in, but that God promises you victory on a certain condition and that condition is obedience. What will you do now with this knowledge? You know so much about yourself now, what are you going to do with the information you already have?
#1 Do not give God a heartache
Since God loves you and He suffers when you do, the first thing you should do is to make up your mind that you will never cause Him any heartache again. In other words, you will live the rest of your life holy. Even if it is only because He loves you, if only because one day you are going to see him, if only because one day you are going to be like Him, that is enough to encourage you to make up your mind, that you will never annoy God again. When you sin, the punishment will come and when you suffer God suffers too.
So, in order that God will not suffer because of you, you should make up your mind that you will never sin again.
In John 3:3, the Bible says:
“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself; even as he is pure”.
Any one who has hope of seeing God and becoming like God will purify himself even as God is pure.
in 1 John 5:1-3, the Bible says:
“Whosoever believeth `that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God , that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.”
Don’t cause him heartache. Don’t disobey him.
#2 Love God in return.
If God loves you so much, you should love in return. In John 4:19 the Bible says: ‘We love him because he first loved us”.
He had already demonstrated his love. Let us love him in return.
#3 Love yourself
You are advised to love yourself. Why ? Because whosoever God loves is worthy of the love of anybody else. If God loves you then you should love yourself. I am sure you will say ,”Who told you that I dont love myself?” If you love yourself , congratulations but there are some people who hate themselves. They show it in their actions. For example, there are people who smoke; I know such is not among you the disciples. I just want to give an example of people who hate themselves. It is written on cigarettes “smoking is injurious to your health” and yet they keep on smoking.
You say “Oh well, they are foolish people”. What about you? Many of you eat so much that you cannot pray at night.
Do you love yourself ?
Many of you talk so much that you cannot even keep your mouth shut and yet it is written “in multitude of words there wanted not sin”. and yet you keep on talking no0n-stop. You know the Bible says “Pray without ceasing” and you don’t pray. You know the Bible says study the word of God, meditate on it day and night then whatever you do will prosper. You don’t study the Bible , you dont meditate therein, how can you say yu love yourself ? When you know what will bring prosperity to you , what will make you succeed and you refused to do it, how can you claim that you love yourself?
#4. Love others as you love yourself
It is only if you love yourself that you can love your neighbour. This is another reason why you must love yourself because the Bible says in Matthew 22:39 , you are to love your neighbour like yourself , then your neighbour is in trouble. The elders have a saying. They say the one who can step on the hem of his own garment will tear that od his neighbour. So, God loves you , and you love yourself so that you have a standard for loving your neighbour.
As you love yourself , so you can love your neighbour. If God is truly your Father, then you must love others also because “Like Father, like son”. Your Daddy loves the whole world . You too must love the whole world.
Look at 1 john 4:7-8; 20-21. Verse 7-8 says:
“Behold let us love one another for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God . He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love”.
So if you want to tell anyone that you are truly a child of God then you must love others.
#5 Don’t’ love occasionally
Make love your dwelling place. Make it your way of life.
in 1 John 4:16, the Bible says:
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in love and God is in him”
The Bible says dwell in love, make love your dwelling place everyday. Live inside love, dwell there.
#6 Demonstrate your love
Your Father loves actively, he shows his love. The Bible says in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whomsoever believeth in him should not perishj but have everlasting life”
Your Father demonstrated his love by actively giving, so you too must also love actively. You must demonstrate that you love by your actions.
Look at 1 John 3:11 and 18, the Bible says:
“For this is the message, that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another …, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth”.
Dont just say “I love”. Demonstrate it. Learn to give. As a dicsiple of Jesus Christ, learn to give.
1 John 3:16-17 says:
“Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whose hath this world’s good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him , how dwelleth the love of God in Him?”
Love actively. Learn to do things the way your Father does it. Learn to give. You know yourself now. You know that you are special to God. You are important to His plans. He needs you and he loves you. Satan hates you. Satan wants to destroy you, he wants to use your flesh to destroy you. God says that He will give you victory all the time provided you obey him. They do something with the information you have already. Dont ever cause God heartache again.
Dont ever sin again.
Love God in return.
Love yourself. If God loves you, you should love yourself also.
As you love yourself , love your neighbour accordingly.
if you are truly your Father’s son, you must love others also.
Don’t love occasionally, dwell in love. Let Love be your dwelling place.
Your father ;loves actively by giving , giving His best.Demonstrate your love also Begin to open your hands wide by helping others , by giving unto others and God will help you as you do so. Of course, it is going to take grace to do so. Ask for that grace now.
“THY GRACE OH LORD TO LOVE YOU, TO LOVE MYSELF , TO LOVE MY NEIGHBOUR AS MYSELF AND TO DEMONSTRATE THIS LOVE; FATHER GIVE UNTO ME”.
Talk to the Lord now and He will answer you.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We would appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent, and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
We have already told you that you are important to God. God needs you and then God loves you and we gave you twelve reasons why we know God loves you.
Now we want to continue from there and say because God loves you so much and because God needs you so earnestly, Satan hates you so intensely because you are a friend of God.
in John 15:18-19, the Bible says:
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.”
This is Jesus speaking and then He said in Verse 19;
“If you were of the world, the world will love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you”.
Satan hates you and I am happy that Satan hates me because I dont love him either. We are not friends. He hates you warmly because God loves you warmly. And because Satan hates you , he will constantly attempt to do certain things to you. According to John 10:10, he will want to kill you and he will want to destroy you.
#1 SATAN WANTS TO STEAL
He will want to STEAL from you. He wants to steal your possessions. You remember the story of Job, you can read the whole of Job Chapter One. But if you like, you can read from verse 9-11, and 14-17. You will see how Satan stole the possessions of Job. But he was not satisfied with that, he went on and stole his children. In job 1:18-19, and not only that, he then went on to steal the health of this man in Job 2:4-7.
Satan wants to steal your possessions, your children and your health. Of course, it is your duty not to allow him to do so. Not only that, he will want to go ahead and even kill you. In the case of Job, after he had stolen everything , the wife came to him and said in Job 2:9 “Curse God and die”.
#2 HE WANTS TO DESTROY
Satan will then want to DESTROY you by destroying your testimony. If you read Numbers 25:1-9, you will see the various methods that satan can use. When he knows that God is on your side, he will wan to do something that will make you collide with God so that God himself will fight you.
This is of course why you must run from sin. So, Satan will want to destroy you by destroying your testimony and if you allow him. he will want to bind you. In Luke 13:16, the Bible talks about a daughter of Abraham, a true child of God who had been bound by Satan for several years. So Satan hates you, he wants to steal from you, he wants to kill you , and to destroy you and to bind you.
Now to achieve his purpose in your life, he uses some methods and you need to know them. As the Elders will say, when God has shown you your enemy, he should not be able to kill you. In order to achieve his purpose in your life, he sets against you the following:
The first thing he wants to against you is your BODY. He would want your body to wage war against you so that he will be able to get you. That is why Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:27:
“I keep under my body, I bring it into subjection so that after I have preached to others I will not become a cast away”.
And then in James 1: 13-15, the Bible says any man who is being tempted should not say that God is the one tempting him because God cannot be tempted with evil and He does not tempt any man with evil. However , every man is tempted when he is enticed by his own lusts and drawn and then when this lust begins to grow, it will give birth to sin and when sin develops and finishes its work , it brings forth death.
So, dont allow the enemy to use your body against you. Also, when he knows that your body may not cooperate, then he will bring an array of well organised, highly disciplined soldiers of darkness and want to arrange them against you. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, we are talking about highly disciplined evil forces- principalities, powers, rulers of darkness in high places. This is the plan of the enemy to steal, to kill and to destroy, to bind , to use your flesh and demons against you. YOUR VICTORY IS SURE.
However, you have an assurance of victory because the One who loves you is greater than one who hates you.
In 1 John 4:4, the Bible says:
“Little children , you have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”
So we have nothing to fear . The greater One is dwelling in us. Our victory is sure. The One who loves you is the Truth. According to John 14:6, Jesus says:
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”
Everybody knows that the truth will always defeat the lie any day. The One who loves you, who is the Truth promised that you will be victorious because He loves you.
In Romans 8:37, the Bible says:
“In all these thing we are more than conqueror through him that loved us”
Our victory is certain. Because Jesus loves us and because we are His Disciples.
CONDITION FOR PERMANENT VICTORY
The Truth, that is Jesus Christ, promised us permanent victory subject to one condition only.
There is only one condition according to Deut. 28:13-14. The Truth , the one who can never lie said:
“And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail and thou shall be above only and thou shall not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord , thy God , which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them, and thou shall not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods and to serve them”.
In other words, your victory is certain, subject to one condition only and the condition is obedience. So if you will live a life of absolute obedience and rely on the almighty God, your victory is certain, absolutely certain.
If the enemy hates you , that is very good, He will try to steal from you, he will try to kill you, destroy you, bind you try to use your flesh against you, he will try to use a host of demons against you but you have the assurance of victory because God loves you . The One who loves you is greater than the one who hates you.
You have the assurance of victory because “the One who loves you is the Truth and your enemy is a liar.
You have the assurance of victory because the Truth has promised that you will be more than a Conqueror simply because he loves you and He says you will be victorious all the time, if only you will remain obedient. So, I want you to bow your head now and talk to the Almighty God and say:
“FATHER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, I WANT TO WALK IN OBEDIENCE BECAUSE I KNOW YOU LOVE ME AND I KNOW YOU WANT TO GIVE ME VICTORY AND I WANT TO BE ABSOLUTELY OBEDIENT TO YOU SO THAT MY VICTORY WILL BE PERMANENT”
Talk to the Lord now, He will answer you.
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In many of my previous articles, I have talked about some of the reasons why you need to have a concrete plan before you create your e-commerce website. You should know that having a concrete plan before you begin the creation of your e-commerce website will allow you to avoid some of the pitfalls that come with e-commerce website creation. In this article, I want to talk about some of the reasons to buy an e-commerce website theme. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Before I will delve into what I have in mind to discuss in this article, I want to talk about some of the features that you should look out for when you need to buy an e-commerce website. I believe if you can follow this guideline, It will help you to avoid a situation where you actually purchased a website and you are no longer interested in it because of inadequate or poor features.
Here are some of the features that might interest you.
#1 Basic Layout
Most times, there are some features that a good e-commerce website should have. You should be able to add products, display the price for the product, and add a few descriptions to let others know about the features of the products. There should also be a way of displaying testimonials of what others have to say about that product as well.
#2 Framework
There is a need for you to consider the framework for the entire website. You need to release consider the Content Management System for the e-commerce website. Which Programming Language is been used to create the website? Do you or someone in your organization have the required skills needed to maintain the website?
If you do not have the necessary skills, you may need to outsource the maintenance of that website to a third party.
#3 Navigational structure
Also, it should be noted that no matter how good a website is, visitors to your website will have no option other than to leave the website if they always find it difficult to find what they are looking for. There is a need for you to make sure that the website is designed in such a way that people can easily find what they are looking for.
You should also include a search box for those that would like to search for a specific article or keyword.
#4 shopping cart software
Another feature that should differentiate a normal website from an e-commerce website is the inclusion of shopping cart software. This software will make it easy for your visitors to purchase products and services from the website. You need to make sure that the products are displayed based on characteristics that they have in common.
You should be able to also suggest new products to your audience based on related products that they have shown interest in as well.
There is a need for you to also include brief descriptions that tell people about the product as well as some of the reasons why they need to show interest in that particular product.
#5 Graphics
It is a well-known fact that online users will always show a keen interest in any content that has images and videos. That is why you need to ensure that you always include related images and videos on your product pages. This will allow your prospects and customers to see some of the unique dimensions of that product(s) or service(s). This will allow them to decide whether they actually wanted that product or not.
Having discussed some of the features of an e-commerce website, here are some of the reasons why you should rather buy your e-commerce website instead of building your own e-commerce website from scratch.
#1 Relatively cheap
I don’t know if you have ever asked a developer to develop an e-commerce website for you, but you need to know that the price that they are going to give you will be higher than the price that you can buy such a website, even with more features.
In essence, it makes a lot of sense to buy a product rather than decide to develop an e-commerce website. Even if you have specific features that you want your e-commerce website to have, you will always find a specific e-commerce template that can satisfy your needs. At times, you just need to do a slight modification for you to have what you need.
#2 Ready-made navigation
Another unique advantage of buying an e-commerce template over creating a new one is that it already has all the features you are looking for embedded in the website. It comes with ready-made navigations that are easy to implement and modify. That means your modification does not include developing a new navigation system for your e-commerce template. This reduces the time it will take for your website to come alive.
#3 Pre-integrated payment system
Also, you need to know that your website also comes with a good payment system integrated into the entire website. This makes it pretty much easier for customers to pay for products and services. Do not forget what I said in one of my articles, that you should not restrict your customers to a particular payment system. They should have more than one method of paying for products and services.
9 Steps For Planning An E-Commerce Website
In my previous article, I discussed some of the factors that you need to consider when it comes to planning an e-commerce website. In this article, I want to look at some of the steps to follow when planning an e-commerce website. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
#1 Define your objective
The very first thing you need to do when it comes to planning your website is to define your website objective. Before you even contract the Developer that will even design your website, you need to know the reasons why you are creating that website. This will allow you to determine the necessary requirements that your website must have before you can have an effective e-commerce website.
Some of the examples of your objectives can include: generating income from the website, creating a national and global market for your product, increasing customer engagement, promoting good quality and valued customers as well as supporting socio-economic causes through the website.
#2 Define and segment your target audience
As part of the steps that you need to take when you are planning your website, you need to define and segment your target audience. There is a need for you to know the kind of audience that you are expecting on your website. When you have now analysed the specific type of audience that you are expecting on your website, you need to now segment them so that you can now divide the audience based on what your audience has in common.
Here are some of the criteria for segmenting your audience as Demographics, Age, gender, income groups, professional status, education, psychographics, brand consciousness, shopaholics, cosmopolitan, conservative spender, and values quality among others criteria.
#3 Do a competitive analysis
As part of your efforts towards planning your website, you need to do a competitive analysis of the audience on your website. You have to know what they lacked that you can leverage. What are they doing that you can easily do better? This will help you to develop and target an audience from that perspective.
There is a need for you to understand your market in order for you to function well in your marketplace. You also need to take time and check your competitor’s website and understand the key strategies that your competitors are using to drive the audience to their website. You have to understand methods that they are using that you can leverage. This will help you to plan how you can also drive key audiences to your website.
#4 Perform Situational Analysis Also, as part of your key strategies toward driving a key audience to your website, you need to perform a situational analysis of your key audience. This will allow you to know the method for selling your product. You need to identify your best products that can create wonders in the marketplace. What are the key products and offers that you have that your major audience will likely be interested in?
You also need to identify your advertising and promotional opportunities. What methods can you adopt in order to ensure that you send words out about products and services that you have to offer? This will ensure that you are using the right platform to promote your products and services.
Also, as you are identifying some of your products that can create wonders in the marketplace, you also need to identify some of your products that need attention. This will allow you to create a blueprint on how you can repackage such products in order to make them more acceptable to your target audience.
#5 Create Budget Definitely, the next major step that you need to do is to create a budget for the entire project. There is a need for you to allocate your budget for building the entire website. You also need to distribute your budget along with different areas such as search engine optimization, promoting and designing of the website, and applicable technologies among others.
You can also find pricing of freelancing services offered on the internet as well as decide on whether the website will be created in-house or through freelancing services.
#6 Create Content Marketing Strategies
There are many people that start an online business but they are not paying much attention to content creation. If you have a website or a blog, there is no way you can succeed if you do not have effective content marketing strategies. You need to make sure that you align your content marketing strategies so that everything can work as a whole. You need to support your owned media with paid and earned media in order to make sense of your content marketing strategies.
You also need to create a business profile for all your social media platforms. When you are doing this, you have to make sure that all the strategies are aligned to work as one. For example, if you are creating a social media profile, you have to use a common name so that it will be easily recognizable to your target audience. They will be able to recall the names without any hindrances.
#7 Hire your team
Also, the job of managing a website is always multi-disciplinary in nature. You need to make sure that you gather an excellent team that can manage different aspects of the website. You have to make sure that you also outsource skills that you know that your internal team will not be able to effectively handle.
Also, you need to define the roles and responsibilities of each of your team members. The main reason for doing that is to ensure that there is no duplication of efforts as far as the roles that members of your team are expected to play is concerned. The roles should not only include the skill sets that you need to create, it should also cover skills that are needed to maintain the site as well.
#8 Define metrics for evaluating results
There is a need for you to also define some of the metrics that you will use in evaluating your results. This will help you to determine whether your business strategy is succeeding or not. It will also allow you to make necessary amendments so that you can improve on what you have achieved already.
Here are some of the metrics that you need to consider which include: website traffic, customer engagement, conversion rates, as well as customer loyalty among others.
#9 Create e-commerce requirements
There is a need for you to also create e-commerce requirements specifications for different tasks. You need to define user and functional requirements, search and content requirements, technical requirements, as well as SEO requirements among others.
This will define what must be achieved for every assignment that has been defined for your project. This can also the management define what should be achieved as the project moves from one stage of achievement to another stage.
Social media apps are considered one of the best ways to get the attention of your target audience. Businesses need to think about making use strides, and there is nothing better than making a mobile app work for you. But there are second factors that need to be considered for making it work. And that is why businesses must know about the following process before launching their website.
The process that I am about to discuss is all about using the best marketing practices and strategies to make your app work big time. And your intended target audience is aware that your app is also available on Google Play and the App Store.
#1 Teaser Campaign
This is how it all starts. Envision what you can offer to your target audience regarding a teaser campaign that can get their interest. You can provide two-three teaser campaigns or even more, and it all depends upon the nature of the app and your target audience. You can start the teaser campaign several months ago, some weeks ago or just a few days. Again, it all depends on your marketing plan and how you want to make it work.
The timing of the teaser campaign can also work for you and can be critical in some cases. For example, think about what you can achieve with a marketing campaign to introduce a fizzy drink in the UAE? The timing of the launch must be during the summer months so that it can entice the target audience to no end. And in this case, a long teaser campaign of several months will not be feasible. Most people will not remember your campaign as it is more suited for new software. or the launch of a new business.
#2 Consistency in Design
This is one of the biggest mistakes that designers and even app developers commit. And the reason is that the business owners try to be different in their approach when it comes to the design of the map. In their bid to develop a unique design, they shed consistency and come up with an app that looks different on every screen and menu option. This can be disastrous for the design as consistency is the key to success.
The colour of your app, design and most importantly, the theme should be consistent across the app. Do not try to overdo things and some aspects need to be considered as it is. Do not commit mistakes that can run your app completely. Instead, it is always a good idea to consult a reputed mobile app development company UAE that can offer you great support and guide you.
#3 Marketing
Finally, when it comes to marketing, this is where you have to be on your toes. After all the hard work and spending a fortune on getting the app, all your efforts will go in vain if you fall behind here. Marketing an app is unlike any other product or service because initially, you have to optimize it on the Google Play and App Store. If your target audience is not familiar with your app, there is no way that you can expect a large number of people to use your app.
The use of social media platforms and apps is an excellent way to do that. While paid advertising on this medium will give you results very quickly, this can be pretty expensive for small businesses and startups. That is why you can use the communities and different pages on Facebook and Twitter to promote your app.
You can also use WhatsApp in other messaging apps to your advantage by sending bulk messages. But again, do not go overboard, as these messages can easily be termed spam. Give it your all to make things in your favour.
Over To You
Do you have any experience marketing your app after coming up with a great product? Please share it with the other readers of this blog. You can also ask any question or offer your valuable feedback by using the comments section below.
In my previous articles, I have talked about some of the benefits of web analytics to website owners and advertisers. In this section, I want to look at some of the types of user data in web analytics.
Here are the different types…
#1 Behavior’s data Behaviour’s data give information about what is going on, on your website. This will allow you to understand what users are actually looking for on your website. This will help to predict what your users are likely to do next based on the behaviour of your users. #2 Attitudinal data This will present another important fact about your website. It will give you the reason why people are taking certain actions on your website. Take, for example, you have a large number of cart abandonment. Attitudinal data will allow you to determine some of the reasons why users are not buying your products.
#3 Competitive data
Also, Web analytics data will also give you an insight into what your competitors are doing. It will allow you to copy some of the winning strategies that your competitors are using. This includes users’ demographics, behaviour data, and experimental reviews of the competitors, comparing your visitor to the competitors. This will give you an idea of what users are really expecting from your website.
#4 Call centre data
Call centre data can give you an overview of the information that your customers are requesting regularly. They can also help you in understanding some of the challenges that your customers are facing. This can help you in understanding some of the greatest problems that you can resolve. Once those problems are resolved, it will definitely reduce the workload of your customer care teams.
#5 Customer data
This analyses website behaviour and segments the audience based on their interest. At times having customers’ data at your disposal will help you to determine whether you are targeting the right type of audience. This will allow you to come up with a good strategy that will allow you to increase conversion rates for your products and services.
#6 Transaction data
This will give you an overview of transactions made by customers. It will allow you to have a clear understanding of where your traffics are actually coming from. You will be able to understand how your touchpoints are performing. This will allow you to optimize those sales channels that are performing better.
#7 Community score data
This gives customers opinions about you and your competitors. This will allow customers to know how you are faring compared to that of your competitors. Once you have an effective strategy of doing a self-assessment of how you are performing in relation to your competitors.
Type of web analytics…
#1 Off-site web analytics
Here, the web performance is measured and analyzed, whether or not you owned it or maintain it or not.
It analyses the overall visitor activities such as the number of visitors to the site, comments and website visibility among others.
#2 On-site web analytics
The website visitor is measured in real-time while they are online using your website. The visitors’ data can be viewed by website owners and other people with permission such as third-party marketing agencies.
CRM is the science of evolving a customer-centered organisation. It is aimed at making sure that customers’ needs are met irrespective of the channel that they have chosen to relate with the organization. This will ensure that both customers and other stakeholders involved in their satisfaction are fulfilled at the end of the day.
Many organizations today have failed in their bid to evolve into a customer-centric enterprise. This is because they are putting the cat before the horse. Some of these organisations have put CRM tools on ground before evolving a clear customer strategy. A good example of this is an organization that wished to be customer-centric but has not given proper orientation to their staff on how to relate with customers in a customer-centric enterprise.
As would be seen later, many organisations in this Nigeria treat their customers like very poorly They attend to customers as if they were doing them a big favour, All they are interested in is how to increase their sales and not customer satisfaction. This is very bad. An organisation must have a clear principle and blueprint that states how they will relate with their customers before bringing in technology to back it up.
One of the CRNI strategies that an organisation on this line must do, is to segment their customer base and evolve means of doing business from customer perspective. Like was said in the previous chapter, an organisation, for example, a bank. must be
Able to analyse its customer base. They can be divided into various segments such as youths, adults, illiterates, learned, corporate bodies, and government customers among others. They must be able to decide on ways by which each of the customer segments wants to be served. The Bank also has to meet them at the right place with the right products and services.
We should state it here that before an organisation can clearly segment its customer base; they must be able to know the benefits that prospects and customers will derive from using their product. They must also be able to say without mincing word the exact number of customers that they have.
Above all, the starting point of a new CRM initiative is for an organisation to develop a customer strategy. They must be able to know the calibre of customers that they want. They should also have a well laid down means of attracting the right calibre of customers/prospects that they want into their Life Cycle. The only means of attaining this is for the organisation to embark on “Customer Segmentation and Profiling”. We talk about Customer Segmentation now while we lets customer profiling comes next.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the expected net profit a customer will contribute to your business as long as the customer remains a customer. This also shows how profitable the organisation will be in the future.
Role of Technology
When an organisation needs to deploy a model that will be reliable and dependable in meeting customers’ need, in achieving this, there is the need for the organization to bring about a model that will automate and manage the whole process.
In deploying technology, the organisations need to deploy the king of technology that would manage the customer database. We also need to introduce analytical tools such as data mining; this dig in into customer’s database in order to bring out reliable information that can be used in order to increase customer experience.
We also need statistical tools such as predictive modelers which can suggest to organisations products and service that they can introduce to their customers. These are always done based on the need of customers and information at the disposal of the organization about their customers.
A customer-centric organization needs to check the effectiveness of its customer model regularly. This will help the organization to make necessary changes when necessary . There is a need for this because customers are very dynamic in nature. It changes very fast, the organization must have a challenger model that will continue to test the effectiveness and relevance of the model being adopted by the organization on a regular basis.
It should be noted that understanding the customer and the type of relationship customers wish to have is the key to a good CRM initiative. Here, we are saying that if you understand the customers and the type of relationship that they keep, you will know the best type of products and services to introduce to them. At times you might have a customer that does not take your organization as the main organization. If you don’t dig in enough, you may not know their worth.
It has been said before that, some organizations don’t know the number of subscribers that they have. Some don’t know who is actually responsible for the settlement of the bills or how many of their product, a customer has. If they don’t know all this, how would they come up with products and services that would meet their needs?
There is a need for market research and knowledge management coupled with a concise effort to dig ‘ip more information about customers, which will allow the organization to have more knowledge about customers. If all these are done on a regular basis, it will enable the organization to adapt to market changes and to anticipate and cater to the specific needs and wants of individual customers, thereby consolidating customer loyalty
