Social Media for Small Businesses

Social media has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Businesses of all size and shapes have started making the most of available mediums. Today we will try to anatomize tips on social media for small businesses.

There are a plethora of small businesses eyeing social medium to promote their business/services. However, majorly these small businesses are failing or not being able to make optimum use of social media for their business growth.

There are many theories and strategies on how to effectively use social media for established brands, but the topic social media for small businesses is seldom addressed. According to Digital state of eMarketing India 2017 Octane Research:

60% small businesses promote their business on social media. 50% focus on SEO and 35% use multichannel marketing funnel.
70% small businesses consider content strategy as their primary marketing activity.
52% business owners are using social media as to efficiently address customer engagement.
More than 20% of business owners said that they are making 50% plus profit using social media.

The primary reasons for the low turnout are uncertainty on an application of social media, calculating return on investment and persuade employees/stakeholders to clinch social media. Hence it is important to address the elephant in the room and analyze how beneficial is Social media for small businesses.

Social media for small businesses is a great way for emerging businesses to generate lead and build a reputation. If regularly updated, social media can deliver more results as compared to traditional mediums. Social media for small businesses gives brands an edge of control over the content that they want to post. Also, since social media is a two-way dialogue process, it helps businesses to instantly identify what is benefitting them. Social media for small businesses also helps generate Word of Mouth, which is one of the best tools for emerging businesses.

Social Media for small businesses | 10 Tips to effectively use Social Media

Define your Target Audience
The first and foremost important part that small businesses should focus on is to define their target audience. This helps small businesses to device their social media strategy accordingly. The target audience should be defined basis age group, sex, location, users' online behaviors, their likes, interests, and preferences. For niche products, business owners can even target users based on their birthdays, anniversaries and important milestone. Audience targeting plays a very crucial role in the outcome of the results. For e.g.: a local shop selling footwear should not target users with interest in entertainment. The shop definitely won't get the desired results.

Set achievable goals
Overnight success is a myth. Small businesses must understand this basic fact. Generally, when a new business starts selling on social media, there is palpable excitement is achieving more than set targeted sales. Businesses need to set goals which are upwards and forward. To achieve enormous goals, small businesses start updating social feed with multiple updates in shorter duration. This leads to user's disinterest in the product/service. The set goals should be in sync with brand's core capabilities and expertise. For e.g.: if a business is into selling shoes, they shouldn't set a goal to repair maximum shoes in their area.

Choose the right medium
By now everyone knows, social media is for free. Even paid campaigns can be conducted at a relatively low cost as compared to traditional mediums. It is in this scenario, that we often see small businesses jumping the bandwagon and creating profiles on all the available platforms. Creating social profile doesn't hamper brand image, but aggressively promoting a brand on wrong platforms can lead to brand losing its potential customers. Hence it is advisable for SME's to first identify the right platform through which they can maximize their business. For e.g.: If a shoe selling brand tries to aggressively sell on LinkedIn, they won't get a plausible response as compared to promotions on Facebook/Instagram.

Promote your core product/services
Since each and every business is riding in the social media wave, it is important for a them to promote their core product/services. Nowadays, we see a lot of businesses promoting their services as well as promoting peripheral products/services, which revolves around their core product/services. Majority of the times, this SME's doesn't have capabilities to fulfill a requirement, which can lead to a bad word of mouth for their business on social media platforms. Let us go back to our example; if a shoe seller is trying to aggressively promote socks instead of shoes, it is not going to benefit the business in the long run.

Create quality content
Now that we have covered the topics of identifying the target audience, setting achievable goals, choosing the right medium and promoting the right product/services let us now take a look at the type of content a business should promote on their social pages. A business should always focus on creating good quality content rather than not-good quantity content. Even if the business updates their page once in a day as long as it is relevant to their business, advocates about its core products send across a clear message it is considered as a good quality content.

Antagonistically, if a business posts multiple updates which aren't even relevant to the business's products and services leads to users considering the business as fake/spam. Also, new businesses should try and refrain from promoting other businesses on their social platforms initially.

Create a content calendar
Making a small business successful on social platforms is no small task. It takes a lot of efforts for the businesses to keep up their conversion ratio. One such effort is to create a content calendar. Small businesses must anticipate important events and create a content calendar accordingly. Ideally, a content calendar must be planned a month in advance but an even weekly content calendar is highly recommended. This helps businesses to avoid any last minute hassles, strategize much more effectively and it also helps in creating curiosity amongst its loyal fans/customers.

Test and re-test
Social media is highly unpredictable. The content a business posts today, might not work for tomorrow. Hence, small businesses must always test their content before publishing it on their pages. Testing content also applies to the platform a small business chooses to promote. Small business owners must always don the consumer's hat before posting about any product feature, updates, schemes or offers. A consumer's perspective is the key when testing the content that has to be uploaded.

Look for inspiration
Small businesses must always look for inspiration from a competitor who is successful in the same category. Copy pasting competitors idea or content is not the answer. Small businesses must look for the kind of content its competitors are putting up and derive their own strategies subsequently. Inspiring content/stories always make a business to strive to create their own content that is appreciated by one and all. It helps in increasing brand consideration, brand visibility thereby increasing conversions for the business.

Calculate ROI
Even a small promotional budget is not justifiable if there is no mechanism to calculate its return on investment. It is more important in case of small businesses. It is very important for a small business to keep a tab on the budgets allocated to any promotions and the subsequent ROI related to it. If a certain promotion is not doing well or the business is not getting desired results, the brand custodian can always look for other platforms to generate quality conversions.

Analyze and Re-strategize
There can be umpteen instances where a particular campaign/promotion might not work for a business. That doesn't mean that the promotion is wrong or the product/service is not good. Doing an analysis of the campaign is as important as setting the objective. This helps the business to formulate their upcoming strategies in more effective ways. At the end of every campaign, brands must note down the learning's from that campaign and identify if the content/idea was appreciated by their fans or not. This helps businesses to skip the non-performing updates from future communications.

Final Thoughts
Social media for small businesses is definitely beneficial and fruitful. If followed correctly, small businesses can benefit tremendously from the power of social media promotions.

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Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2019

We are almost on the corner of the year 2018. But, I am sure it's not late talking about next years' biggest digital marketing trends. Somewhere between a robust plan of action for Q1, 2019 and making digital marketing strategies, it's good to know about how the market will shape up in the year 2019.

Below are a few trends which will rule the digital marketing all over the globe.

Video Marketing

One of the most effective digital marketing techniques next year will be video marketing. According to a report, 80% of the online content will transform into a visual representation. It will give an overview of the product and services with a tint of entertainment and humor.

Since the adoption of smartphones and social media platforms video is preferred as one of the best ways of marketing a product. A short video not only communicate a message effectively, but it is also capable of giving your campaign an emotional environment.

AI - The Future of Machines

According to a report from Adobe, soon machines will be decisive enough to make strategic marketing decisions. Isn't it mesmerizing? Imagine all you have to do is to store all your data in a machine server and you will get suggestions for your marketing strategies. It's not over yet; these strategies will be in sync with your customer behavior patterns. AI will change the face of marketing immensely in the near future.

Automated Chatboxes

I am sure you must have encountered a chat box while surfing on the internet. Chat boxes are one of the most widely implemented applications of Artificial Intelligence. Not just they display results at a faster rate, also chat boxes are humorous and offer a personalized experience to the clients. Moreover, in a recent report from IBM, 85% of all the customer service interactions will be done by machines by the end of this year.

Voice Search

You must be hearing about Alexa and Google Home these days. If not, read about it. A research report says, 65% of smart speaker owners say that they don't want to go back to a life without a voice-controlled assistant. Smart speakers will change the ways of data surfing.

Have you tried searching content through voice commands? That's where digital marketing comes into play. All the SEO you do on your website must rely on voice commands as well.

The fall of the Kingdom- Internet vs. TV

In this millennial generation, where a person spends more time using a phone or surfing internet television is merely a device to connect gaming modules. According to study, people will spend approximately 2.5 hours online and 2.7 hours spending their time on tube. This leads to a change in advertising pattern transforming from television channels to internet sites.

Content - The Trustworthy Soldier

We read articles, blogs, newsletters, and what not, on a daily basis. But what if you don't find genuine content which you can trust? Content is not just about facts and figures, it must be easy, clean, and lean. In the year 2019, content will have the same importance which it had earlier. It makes a data set trustworthy and genuine though any media.

If you still seek any information regarding the same, connect to us and let our experts help you with some deep-dive insights on digital marketing trends in 2019.

The author of this article, Mr. Prashant Bhatia is associated with Praadis Consulting Inc., which deals in IT, ICT, Smart City Solutions, and Smart Learning Services for a long time. Praadis Consulting Inc. is dedicated to deliver tangible value for data-intensive business processes that help enterprises across the globe deal with their business challenges.

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The Key to A Successful Online Business Is in the List

The importance of List Building for online businesses can never be overemphasized!

List building defined:

List building is a marketing process that involves strategic gathering of limitless volume of followers for the sole reason to deliver vital news, messages, products info or events, etc. This ever-growing mailing list is created and developed by end-users who freely opt-in via subscription into an online business marketer's autoresponder facility. Whatever business you do online, you can compel your audience, prospects and clients to be part of your list for several reasons, such as: receiving newsletters, updates, discounts, etc. When you consider list building for your online business, it can be very lucrative and highly effective.

Below are some benefits of building and using a mailing list to help promote your online business:

For Pitching New Products/Services

When you choose to build a list for your business, it is actually people who trust in your products or services that will opt-in. A mailing list offers you the opportunity to market new products or services to potential customers. Whatever it is that you sell online, whether it is new software or some popular electronics, sales are almost guaranteed with your subscribers since they actually willingly opted into your mailing list. Once you are able to deliver effective sales pitch to your subscribers, making good profit becomes forthcoming and certain.

For Offering Exclusive Deals/Offers

When you are in the process of launching special offers, your mailing list will be most convenient to reach out to prospects that will quickly engage with the business. For example, if you sell a service or product at a list-price of $200 on your website you can sell the same service/product at $100 (providing special discount deal purchase link) to people who are subscribed to your mailing list. This can help you make loads of profit - especially if you have a large mailing list of subscribers.

For General Business Updates

When you need to inform your customers of very important product/service update your list will come in handy. Let's assume that your business social networking channel experiences a sudden technical disruption. You can quickly forward an email to your list informing them about the problem at hand.

Also, if you plan on having a live webinar or any event, subscribers on your mailing list would usually be among the first people to find out. With your list, you will be able to send emails at intervals inviting people to attend your live webinar or event.

With so many advantages of building a mailing list for your online business as mentioned above, it is clear that the Key to a successful online business is in the list. Start building your list today!

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How To Generate Traffic Using Ad Swaps

We all know how important it is to build an e-mail subscriber list as part of your online strategy, but
it can be difficult to get enough traffic to your squeeze page.

You can use a lot of different traffic generation methods in order to send traffic to your squeeze page and build your subscriber list including pay per click advertising, search engine optimization,
and article marketing.

There is one powerful method, however, that many marketers overlook, and that method is known as
ad swaps.

This concept is pretty simple because all you have to do is contact another marketer in your niche who also has an e-mail list and you agree to perform a simple swap so that both of you can receive additional subscribers.

You would send an e-mail to your list promoting the other marketer’s opt in list, and he or she would do the same for you.

This is generally a simple and effective way to add subscribers to your list, but you need to keep
some precautions in mind.

If at all possible, you should verify that the other marketer has the number of subscribers claimed.

Otherwise, you could be wasting your time even though no real damage will have been done.

For best results, you should contact marketers who have roughly the same number of subscribers as you do in order to make the whole process worthwhile for both of you.

If you have 500 subscribers, for example, and the other marketer has 1000 subscribers, you might still be able to work out an arrangement if you are willing to send two e-mails  to your list in order to make up for the difference.

If you don't currently have any subscribers but still want to participate in the swaps, you need to build a list of at least a few hundred subscribers as quickly as possible in order to be taken seriously.

The fastest way to achieve this would be to use some paid advertising such as pay per click campaigns so you can begin participating in ad swaps as soon as possible.

Social Media Platform Review

Unless you are an incredibly well-connected Solopreneur who is making a killing and maybe even turning business away, social media will play a role in your branding and marketing strategies. Each platform has its cohort of devoted users and will be a good fit for some businesses, but maybe less so for others.

The platforms are free of charge, aside from the time it costs to keep your content up-to-date. No matter how responsive to social media marketing your venture is, time will not allow most Solopreneurs and business owners to maintain a presence on all platforms, unless social media management is outsourced. If the ROI positively impacts sales revenues, then the investment will be worthwhile. Let's take a look at Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Facebook

The most popular social media platform has 2.19 billion users (Statista, 1Q 2018) around the world. There are somewhat more female users than male and the bulk of the age demographic is 18-44 years. Forbes Magazine data indicates that 47% of Americans report that Facebook is their primary influencer when it comes to making purchases.

Facebook often delivers excellent ROI for B2C enterprises (somewhat less for B2B). In-store events and promotions, speaking engagements, your workshops and other events can be announced to Facebook Friends. Content provided in text, photos, or video can be uploaded. You can create groups and build communities, or post a customer survey. Share behind-the-scenes information about your business and what it takes to do what you do and in the process, you'll engage customers, strengthen your brand and build relationships.

Does that sound like too much work and too much sharing? Then create a Fan Page and limit your presence to basic info and a good call to action. Be aware that your presentation of text, photos and other content should be relaxed and welcoming, to create a personal feel (but remember that business is the context).

Instagram

You'll find 1 billion users (Statista, June 2018) from around the world and 80% are outside of the U.S. 95 million posts are shared daily, with many accessed on a mobile device. Approximately 59% of U.S. users are 18-29 years. As of 1Q 2018, there are 300 million daily Instagram Stories users and 30% of users have purchased a product.

Visual storytelling, behind-the-scenes photo montages, social selling, brand awareness, engaging with customers and creating relationships are good uses of Instagram. If you are in public relations or special event/conference planning, then you will find worthwhile B2B use, otherwise it's B2C as far as I can tell.

Photo sharing, brief video trailers and concise text postings that include a hashtag # to better distribute your content are ideal content. Add a link to your profile bio. Decide if you want a public or members-only account. Links cannot be shared.

LinkedIn

Considered the gold standard B2B social media platform, LinkedIn has 500 million members globally (Statista, January 2018). Business ventures large and small, Solopreneurs, corporate and nonprofit leaders, physicians and dentists, any employee who harbors professional aspirations and most college students maintain a profile page. Recruiters use LinkedIn to identify potential candidates for job openings. LinkedIn ProFinder helps Solpreneurs find project work.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform on which to build a community of professional colleagues through your connections and share with them your professional story, successes, highlights and other updates that support your personal brand. My B2B blog posts to my LinkedIn page and my connections receive notice of its arrival. Your connections will also share their stories and there is great opportunity to be in touch and nurture relationships.

Professional portfolios, videos, white papers, newsletters, blogs, infographics, SlideShare presentations and podcasts can be featured on your profile page to add depth to your brand story. Links to articles or studies that might interest your connections can be posted. Recommendations and endorsements let others verify your professional bona fides and you can return the favor.



In the Groups section, you'll engage with colleagues within your industry, or with alumni of your school. Topics of interest are explored through posted questions and group members can respond and in the process get to know one another and possibly, forge relationships that lead to doing business.

Thanks for reading,
Kim

Kim L. Clark is an external strategy and marketing consultant who brings agile skills to the for-profit and not-for-profit organization leaders with whom she works. Ensure that your organization is positioned to achieve mission-critical goals when you contact Kim http://polishedprofessionalsboston.com.

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How To Build Multiple Streams Of Passive Income

Passive income, also known as recurring income, is a popular term right now, and it includes a wide range of income streams from rental properties, membership services, book or eBook sales, and more. The phrase "passive income" can be inaccurate because there's nothing passive about creating a passive income stream.

Recurring income is simply an income stream where you don't trade your time for a specific amount of money. It's not time or project based. It also takes work to maintain a passive income stream so it continues to make you money.

You must proactively build and maintain a passive income stream if you want it to continue to earn money for you for a long period of time. The more work and attention you give to income streams, the more money it will make you.

Membership Website

A membership website is a good way to develop a unique community around the products that you provide. Exclusivity sells, and this is no different with a paid membership area on your website for members to network, get unique content, and exclusive access to you.

Subscriptions

If you're an info-product creator, subscriptions are an excellent way to build passive income streams. You can sell subscriptions to your content where people subscribing gain access to regularly released content for as long as their subscription is available. It is much easier to keep regular customers with a subscription-based business model.

Webinars

Although webinars are not a passive income source, having said that, you can record a webinar and then sell access to it. This can make you money given that the content remains relevant. It can be stand-alone or be part of a course, subscription, or even in a bundle with several of your products.

Courses

There are several ways to develop a course to go alongside another product you have or as a stand-alone product. There are a number of websites out there for course creation, or you can choose to host your course on your own site. You may also prefer to email a course to customers.

Sponsorships and Ads

Sponsorships and ads are often overlooked examples of passive income streams. You can sell advertising spots on your website in set spaces either on your main page or in the sidebars. Also, you can sell sponsorships for individual posts or categories on your blog. If you have a podcast, you can have sponsors for each episode of your podcast.


Creating a membership website is a great way to set up recurring, passive income. You build the website and create the content once, and you receive recurring weekly, monthly or quarterly payments. For an easy to follow guide, download my free checklist, How To Start A Membership Website, at https://jonallo.com/membership

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Video Marketing Mistakes That Every Marketer Should Avoid

In today's digital era, a marketer should not underestimate the power of video, as it solidifies your presence over the internet or intranet. It's no real surprise that it has now become the need of the time, without which your digital marketing strategy is incomplete. To hit the head like a pro, you need to get out of your comfort zone and jump on the bandwagon that gives you the results. Customers or visitors find videos more interesting and easier to communicate than the content itself. It clarifies and conveys the thoughts better than the written text. While indulging in the strategy, here are some mistakes that you need to avoid, have a look to know them.

Creating Never-Ending Videos: Just because videos have now become an integral part of digital marketing strategy, doesn't mean you make it lengthy or never-ending. If you did so, it'll only ruin your impression and break your images in front of the clients. Thus, you should keep in mind the duration of the video and try to make it as short, simple and knowledgeable, as possible.

Try Not To Push Sale: While creating a video for your company, you need to keep in mind the point that it is to attract people and advertise your products or services to them in a smarter way. If you are not doing so, it'll break your impression and deliver the wrong results. Make sure the video you create convenience them to try out your products and services, rather than trying to foist it on them forcefully.

No Title And Description: Video makes it easier for a viewer to understand your offerings, similarly, title and descriptions help the Google to index it for better ranking. Thus, you should create SEO-friendly title and description that justify your video and make it easier for search engines to index it.

No Call-To-Action: Be it content or video content, a call-to-action phrase is very much important to attract the audience and, to increase the chances of conversion. If you are not adding it to your videos, so, it'll zero your efforts of generating the leads.

These are a few video marketing mistakes that being a marketer, you must avoid. To add a professional touch to your videos, you shouldn't hesitate to take the assistance of the experts. Do remember, video marketing has the power to make or break your company's impression and, you should use this tool ideally to make it work for your goals.

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Social Bookmarking Tips For Pros

If you are past the beginner stages for social bookmarking strategies, these tips are going to help you take your game to the next level. In this article, we are going to talk about strategies you can use to get your website noticed through the use of social bookmarking.

Syndication

If you have multiple profiles on social bookmarking sites, you may find it is difficult to get your website on all of them because you do not have the time to do this. One of the easiest ways you can fix this is by using a service like Only Wire that will send your bookmark to all of the sites you have entered your login information for. If you have sites you do not want to share certain bookmarks to, you can unclick those sites and only send them to the ones you desire.

Influencer Marketing

Having influencers with a lot of followers share your bookmarks is a great way to get attention to your website. When you are sharing with influencers, you want to make sure they have an audience that is similar to yours. If an influencer shares to an audience that is not interested in what you have to offer, you are going to be wasting your advertising dollars.

Social Bookmarking Conclusion

As you are looking through your marketing strategies, make sure you pay close attention to what is working for you. If bookmarking on social sites or using influencers that are doing it for you is working, put more money towards it. If it isn't, try another strategy and see if you get better results.

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Video Marketing Mistakes That Every Marketer Should Avoid

Everything You Need to Know About Mobile SEO

Smartphone addiction is real and it is a global phenomenon. For a majority of people, checking their phone first thing in the morning is a ritual. Needless to say, mobile devices have changed lives dramatically and also the way people use the web, leading to changing SEO. If you have not optimised your website for mobile SEO, there is a high chance that you are not reaching out to your target audience or satisfying the needs of your customers. Keep reading to know how you can deliver the ideal mobile experience to your audience.

What is the Importance of Mobile SEO?

Mobile SEO is critical because it enables you to reach your target audience at the right time and in the right place. Every day, people are discovering more and more advantages of smartphones, which is leading to mobile traffic surpassing desktop traffic. In order to connect with millions of mobile phone users, you need an effective mobile SEO strategy. As per reports, smartphone users have a much higher intent of buying than desktop users. So, you need to be there when potential buyers are looking for your products or services.

Google's Mobile-first Index Raised the Importance of Mobile SEO

Making websites mobile-friendly was a concern amongst most online businesses thanks to the rising number of smartphone users all over the world. But, Google's mobile-first index made it mandatory for online businesses to have a mobile version of their website. As per the mobile-first index, the search giant announced that it would be giving more preference to website's that has a mobile version when it comes to ranking. The mobile websites will be crawled by Googlebot to determine their content, performance and user experience. This announcement means that online businesses must take action if they do not want to lose their customers to their competitors.

Websites with Responsive Design Fares Well on Search Engines

When developing your mobile website, you are going to have 3 options - responsive design, a separate site on a subdomain or dynamic serving. Amongst the three options, Google prefers responsive design because that way, you will only have one website adapting to the devices that it is being used on. You would not have to build different websites for different mobile devices and screen sizes.

Having a responsive website is less of a hassle, as well. Such websites have only one code base, making maintenance extremely easy. Also, responsive design is going to make your website readily eligible for Google's mobile-first index.

Important Considerations for Mobile SEO

Page speed: You cannot afford to have a mobile website that loads extremely slow. Mobile users are even more impatient than desktop users, and they might not wait for 5 to 7 seconds for your website to load. You need to periodically analyse the performance of your mobile website and make the necessary changes. Some suggestions for improving page speed would be optimising the images, upgrading to HTTPS, use a CDN and so on. Professionals offering SEO optimization services can give you more inputs.

User experience: Besides being found easily, your mobile website should offer an outstanding user experience. You need to be vigilant about the common tasks performed by your customers and their search intent. Make sure to do away with any kind of obstacle that might hinder your users from reaching their goals fast.

Optimise for local: Smartphones become particularly useful when users are out and about. About 76% of mobile users search for things are nearby to where they are. This means that to truly achieve SEO success, you need to optimise your mobile website for local search.

The digital and mobile landscape undergoes rapid changes. So, even once you have a foolproof mobile SEO strategy, significantly invest in upgrading it.

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4 Little Known Secrets to Becoming a Profitable Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing business has gotten a lot of buzz in recent times due to advances in internet technologies and upsurge of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

However, some affiliate marketers especially beginners struggle to earn profitably because they do not thoroughly understand the business.

WHAT REALLY IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?

Affiliate Marketing is the process of earning online commissions by promoting products and services. Your commissions are earned each time you get a lead (Potential customer) or sell products online.The interesting aspect of affiliate marketing business is that you can make a ton of money with a little monetary investment.

Furthermore, you can start the business without products or services of your own, work from home and earn passive income even while sleeping if you have an effective system in place.

HOW DOES AFFILIATE MARKETING WORK

Register under the affiliate program of reputable companies that have valuable products and services.

Decide on the niche products to focus on.

Get your custom affiliate tracking link for each product you decide to promote online.

Select the right traffic source to use in promoting the product.

Decide on the marketing strategy to use i.e Blogging, video or social media marketing.

4 MAJOR WINNING STRATEGIES TO INCREASE YOUR PROFITS ONLINE

Focus on a single niche at a time

You should choose a niche that you are both knowledgeable and passionate about. For example, Weight loss, Supplements, Nutrition, Pet training etc. This enables you to easily persuade your customers to buy your products. Also, this will allow you to learn and acquire new selling strategies that will increase your sales and multiply your profits.

Select traffic sources

It is recommended to focus on 2 traffic sources at a time. I will recommend focusing on one search engine and one social media traffic at a time. This enables you to properly track and optimize campaigns launched on each platform thereby maximizing your profits per product.The secret of super affiliates is their ability to focus on a traffic source, testing and tracking campaigns optimally.

Test marketing strategy to use

You can never know if either blogging, social media or video marketing will be most profitable until you test marketing strategies such as:

Blogging: You can write a blog post using well research keywords for search engine optimization. This attracts your clients to your blog and causes them to make a decision.

Video marketing; You can make a video describing the features of the product then you upload it on YouTube for people to watch.

Social Media Marketing: This is the commonest and the easiest method especially for beginners. Facebook is a very good platform because it has lots of groups/forums where you can find people who are interested in your product and service. You can easily send them a friend request and pitch your products to them.

Track the data/results gotten from each of the methods then you focus on the method that produces the greatest profit.

Select the traffic type

The traffic type can either be free or paid traffic.

Free traffic involves search engine optimization, social media groups, and article marketing. The drawback of this method is that it does not allow you to target your client based on their interests and demographics.

Paid traffic involves using Pay per click or Pay per view advertising on search engine and social media platforms. This method is faster, associated with increased conversion and profits because it allows you to target your clients specifically based on interests and other features.

Finally, affiliate marketing business is very lucrative and you can start becoming profitable today once you implement the strategies above.

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Ready To Give Up Marketing On Facebook?

The recent changes to the Facebook algorithm has set many entrepreneurs who were using Facebook to promote their businesses into a tailspin. In basic terms, Facebook will now prioritize relevant content from friends and family on timelines.

The reason for the change was, to some extent, a reaction to the issue of "fake content" on the social media platform. Facebook now wants to promote "real content" from real people, not international propaganda agencies disguised as people.

This means that posts from businesses will be less visible and is particularly hard on ordinary, honest businesses that are producing genuine content without trying to misinform or damage anyone.

So what does this mean for your business?

Good Content Will Always Be Shared

If you have plenty of engagement in regards to your content, you have a better likelihood of being in the new news feed. But even if you're not, those who genuinely like what you do will generally come to visit your page specifically to see what's new and to interact with your content.

Create a Facebook Group

Your personal Facebook page is for socializing. Your Facebook group is for socializing, and communicating with others that are interested in the topic or market in which you are doing business. When people join a group that you create, on a topic they're interested in, they look at you as a leader in that area. This means that you can promote your business while being in control of the process, something you can't do in someone else's Facebook group, or successfully from your own personal profile page.

Leverage Influencers

Influencers are folks who have grown a significant following on Facebook over time. They often keep to one niche or subject and offer their thoughts, opinions and expertise. Interact with their content, and you will become more noticeable. When people click on your name, they can go to your account, like your page, and start receiving your posts on their data feeds.

Offer A Variety of Content

Don't limit your marketing on Facebook to one kind of content, for example text only. Include things like memes, video, live video, short content, long content, infographics and so on. Videos should be short, sharp, informative and entertaining. Don't forget to ask for comments and shares.

It's not the first time Facebook have made major changes, and at least they informed people about them on this occasion. It's just a case of being more innovative and thorough, and watching how things unfold in the future.

Facebook wants you to succeed using their advertising platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you're likely to use that marketing practice again in the future. To learn how to make your Facebook marketing successful and profitable, download my Free Checklist, Successful Facebook Ads at https://jonallo.com/FBads

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Negative Effects of Social Media

Alexander Pope said "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." it goes perfectly with the amateur usage of social media especially in the 21st century. We take social media for granted and do whatever we want which comes biting back later.

Social media has brought about new opportunities and avenues for the world to connect at large. With social media, the world has become a smaller place. On one hand, it is a great invention, and a lot can be done to better our lifestyles. But if we look at it with thousands of immature users it is becoming a somewhat scary place to live in.

There is a reason why most parents or older siblings try to keep the young ones away from social media handles these days. From being a platform to connect or share worldviews it has narrowed down to bring a platform to boost and troll. That is sad given that we can do so much with social media, it is sad to see how low to stoop.

Today kids of ages 10 have the access and accounts on social handles; it can turn into over addiction and an escape to a fantasy world. This fantasy world that we create behind the 15-inch laptop screen might be a scary affair. The fit models with perfect bodies, exotic travel locations, and photo-perfect moments most often don't match with the lives we lead on a daily basis. This disconnect might want us to aspire for more which might not be possible in reality and can affect our mental health.

The thrust for more followers or likes has a dangerous effect on our mental health. You start feeling anxious, a lack of identity, less sleep causing insomnia, a negative body image can be some of the significant issues that a social media addict might, face. You make yourself as desirable as the models you see around you, you keep adding filters and edit your pictures to look 'perfect, and your sense of self is lost. You want to become someone you are not. You start hating yourself for not having the ideal body, the perfect shape, so on and so forth.

Researchers across the globe have found that the "fear of missing out" created across all popular social feeds can substantially lower self-esteem and fuel issues like anxiety and depression among individuals.

Cyberbullying is also heavily linked to the constant need to prove oneself better than the others on social media.

On a large scale, not only teenagers but people nowadays take the social platform too literally and believe in a lot of fake news of hoax that is being circulated just for publicity purposes. People today are falling for dangerous trends that they see on social media or think it is cool to be a part of. The trend of being a part of a social group is what is causing more harm than good.

You have to understand you being social has nothing to do with the number of friends or followers you have on social media. It can all be a farce, just by seeing another peer having many followers you cannot be jealous and want that life. Don't let social media be a drug that is so addictive that you cannot live without.

All of these leads to identify threats that take place due to the sharing of too much personal information on the net unnecessarily. You can also see a rise in hate speech and social disgust across social media accounts which is completely uncalled for. The most disgusting thing that is coming up a lot in the 21st century is cyberstalking. It can be too dangerous and is even taking lives. Immature usage of social platform has to stop and stop now.

After using social media handles many people decide to keep themselves away from it as there is no or very minimal privacy with the extensive use of social platforms. If not handled sensibly your life becomes a window to the world. A subject of discussion.

We as a world lack smart users. We either take everything for granted, or we take things too literally. Having said all of this it does not mean that social media is all that bad with only negatives. Of course, not, there are plenty of benefits of social media. It keeps us connected across vast distances, let's us find our school buddies and long lost colleagues. If your motive is to stay connect or share an opinion about life and other stuff but if social site is your source of news or emotional upliftment it is undoubtedly a bad idea.

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Engage People On Social Media By Asking Questions

As I've said repeatedly, "It's called social media for a reason." How do you gain traction with people on social media? Not by telling them things, but by asking them questions.

When you make a post, go ahead and finish it with an open-ended question, something like "What do you think about the topic? Post your thoughts below." BTW, and open-ended question is one that doesn't automatically elicit a short, one or two word answer like "Yes" or "No," "red" or "blue." It asks people to express their inner views on a subject, to answer expansively.

Of course, the other part of the social media equation is interacting on other people's posts. In order for you to be seen, you need to do more than write your own posts. Of course, other people are asking questions on their social media posts. Some of them are asking closed questions, to be sure. "Am I right - yes or no?" A few people will be asking open-ended questions. Either way, when you reply, your voice is added to the conversation. More importantly, your on-line name or handle is added to the stream of information flowing past the eyeballs of others.

If you look for advice on marketing, a metric crap-ton of people will shout a single-word piece of advice at you - "Content!" What they mean is that you should be creating unique information to put in front of others to grab their attention.

But here's a bit of content the so-called experts tend to overlook: asking your own questions on other people's social media posts.

Let's say, someone makes a post about carpet cleaning. Yes, I use that industry in a lot of examples. So let's say a person posts that you should steam clean your carpets at least every six months. Go ahead and ask your own question! Like with your own posts, open-ended is best. "In addition to the 6-month cleanings, should I also clean before a holiday gathering?" You could switch that to a closed-ended question: "Which is best, cleaning before or after a holiday gathering?"

If you can't think of a relevant question, it's okay to ask for examples and clarification. I can guarantee there are plenty of other folks out there who would like additional examples or a different explanation. "Is there a different schedule you'd recommend for a carpet in the reception area of a business?" "Can you give an example of a hotel lobby carpet cleaning process?"

Asking relevant questions, ones that dig deeper into the subject of the post, are often nearly as good as - and sometimes better than - the original informational posts, and will get your name out there as someone who knows what they're talking about.

* * * * *

Scott Gardner is the founder of boutique firm Agile' Marketing Services, LLC. They specialize in working with their clients to become Recognized Experts, and using that status to leverage the clients' marketing efforts. For more information, please visit http://www.AgileMarketingServices.com.

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6 Reasons A Beginning Marketer Should Start With Affiliate Marketing

In this article, I will give you 6 Reasons A Beginning Marketer Should Start With Affiliate Marketing.

If you are wanting to start an online business but you don't know where to start, I think you should really give affiliate marketing a try. The reason I would start with this technique is that it's by far the easiest to get started with and has just about no upfront cost at all.

So let's take a look at 6 Reasons A Beginning Marketer Should Start With Affiliate Marketing.

1. MANY OUT THERE TO CHOOSE FROM

Just about all the companies out there have affiliate programs you can join. And not just small companies but the really BIG COMPANIES as well. Such as Walmart, Bestbuy, Amazon, JVZoo, Warrior Plus, eBay, and tons of others. All you have to do is do a Google Search with "the company name" and put affiliate program behind it like this (example. Walmart Affiliate Program)

2. FREE TO JOIN

Affiliate programs pay you to promote their products and it's free to join them, so no upfront cost for you. Now depending on the company will depend on how much commission you will make. As an example, Walmart pays 8% commissions. And most vendors on JVZoo will pay a 50%-100% commissions depending on the vendor and product. While Amazon typically pays 4-8.5% depending on your seller rank.

3. NO PRODUCTS TO MAKE

When you do affiliate marketing you don't have to worry about creating a product because you are simply promoting someone else's product. This is a no-brainer and you don't have to have any skills in creating products from scratch. All of the hard work such as building a website, create awesome graphics for a product, paying someone to write the copy for the sales page are all already done for you. All you need to do is drive people to the page.

4. NO PRODUCTS TO SHIP

When you do affiliate marketing you will never have to struggle with having to ship a product because the vendor takes care of all of this. And it doesn't matter if it's a digital product or a physical product. The vendor takes care of all the hard work for you. All you do is get people to have a look at their products and if they buy you get paid and they ship or deliver the digital products.

5. MANY PLACES TO PROMOTE

There are unlimited ways you can promote these affiliate products. You can use email, Facebook, YouTube, Forums (read their rules and regulations before posting), Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Even if you are a beginner you can make some good passive income. To me, the easiest way to make affiliate sales though is to use your emails list. If you don't have one, start building one now. Build a good relationship with your list and once they trust you and you send them affiliate promotions and they like the offer they will buy from you.

6. NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Another great thing is you don't have to handle customer support. Everything is done for you.

Well, that about wraps up the 6 Reasons A Beginning Marketer Should Start With Affiliate Marketing. I hope now you can see why this is one of the easiest business to start making money online.



If affiliate marketing is something you would like to try for yourself but want more info on the subject, check out my video about affiliate marketing here: http://ronnierokksmith.com

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5 Do's of Social Media Marketing

Many business don't do the marketing the right way, especially when it comes to social media marketing. What you need to keep in mind is that your social media campaigns have to be effective and affordable. If done the right way, they can help you grow your business. Targeting the wrong audience is not a good idea. Let's talk about 5 do's of effective social marketing.

1. Learn to use the power of social media

On the Internet, you can find a lot of information about marketing. You can find free courses as well as paid ones. Understanding these things is not difficult as long as you want to educate yourself.

So, it's important that your take your time to find out how these marketing campaigns work. Although basics are the same, businesses have to customize these strategies so as to grab the eyes of their potential customers or clients.

2. Listen to your prospective customers

How can you find out what your customers want from you? There is only way. You need to listen to them. Aside from this, it's important that you make use of social media platforms to extend your customer service, as more and more customers present their feedback and opinion on websites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

By listening to your clients or customers, you can avail a lot of opportunities too. For instance, you can read up on the key influences to find out how you can improve your products or services.

3. Make use of automation tools

It's not a good idea to opt for spammy automation. Instead, you should use the smart automation. Blasting out a lot of promotional offers all the time is not a good idea. This may prove counterproductive and your followers may lose interest in your offers. What you need to do is make use of social media to get in touch with your customers and offer useful information. By doing so, you can build a loyal audience that can become your customers.

4. Engage with your audience

You don't just need to keep updating your social media pages, it won't work. What you need to do is keep in touch with your audience and keep them engaged. What matters is their satisfaction.

If you engage your audience, you can find out more about the problems that they are facing. Then, you can work harder to resolve those issues and make those customers satisfied.

5. Work on just two platforms first

It may not be possible for you to stay active on all of the social media sites. If you are just starting out, make sure you choose one or two platforms and focus all your efforts on them. Most of your customers will be active on two big platforms, such as social media and Twitter.

So, these are 5 do's of social marketing. If done well, they can help you run effective social media campaigns to grow your customers and clients to expand your business.

If you need more of social media marketing advice, we suggest that you head to PopuSocial.

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