Blogs

You’re all excited about your new website for business. The website is working like a charm. You’ve installed Google Analytics on your website. Now, customers will rush to your website while you sit back, and catch up on the games slouched on the couch, with a drink in hand. Wrong! Sure, an e-commerce store provides you with an opportunity to make money while you sleep but before you sleep, you need to do some things that can keep your business rolling. Whether you’re starting a blog, an e-commerce store, or a service, money will not come to you that easily, unless you read this blog until the end. Alternatively, you can always spend a heavy amount of money on your marketing & sales.

6 Ways You Can Get Your New Online Business

Here are 6 ways you can get your new online business noticed:

1. Stop Bragging & Start Creating Value

The clients don’t care how awesome your website is; if there is nothing of value to the visitors, they will close your website and move towards your competitor. All marketing efforts should be directed toward solving real-life problems of people. For instance, if you are providing e-commerce solutions, what you can do is complete the website days before the given date. In this way, your services will outclass your competitors. You will build a reputation for being a seamless, fast-paced agency. Time is the most important commodity and if you can save the time of your audience, you have won. Every service that you provide should be aimed towards something that the market needs or wants. And how will you benefit from it? A value will not only lead to sales, but it will help you get the word out and promote your business.

2. Why Settle for a Bucket When You Have an Ocean?

There is a good chance that most of your followers are on Twitter while you’re wasting time on Facebook. Maybe your audience prefers to receive emails rather than updates on Facebook. There is no one way to approach your audience. You can repurpose your content and post it on various social media platforms. For instance, if there is a how-to article on your blog, you can extract key points and make a good presentation out of it. Doing so will expand your reach and you’ll be sharing different stuff on various social media platforms. Just because you feel that you’ve hired people to do online marketing, you can ignore your offline audience. Print advertising, public speaking, and business cards are effortless ways to get to clients and inform them about your business. The end goal is to reach people who are interested in your business. But not everyone will be in the same place, so you must put some extra effort into rallying people around you.

3. The Influencers Can Help

It is my habit to share blogs to gain reach. Usually, my share generates a reach of 50 people. But then one day a friend read one of my posts and shared it on his Twitter account. He is kind of a big gun. From 50 people, the reach went up the root. Around 10,000 people read the blog in a single day. Yes, this is the power of social media influencers. If you want to reach out to more people – the best option is to reach out to influencers and request them to share or refer your services. One clever idea is to interview industry experts. The influencers will be happy to share your website and blogs. Share words of wisdom from famous influencers and tag them on social media. Thank the influencers and they might consider sharing your business with their followers.

4. Try Free Publicity

If you create good content, you can be featured by Neil Patel. Highlighting your values can help the media take notice of your brand. You can send newsletters to media personnel and ask them to help. A great option is to create e-books centered on trends or industry insights that can easily be picked up by the media.

5. Give Away Something for Free

People love it when they win. The exhilarating feeling makes them come back for more. And to win something for free, people can share your brand with potential customers. Don’t give away easily. Make the customers think a little, this will force them to solicit help from their friends; in turn, inadvertently sharing your content. Another thing you can do is to give away something when the customers buy from you. If you attach a small value-added gift with every purchase, this will greatly please the customers.

6. Be Authentic & Approachable

Transparency is a rare commodity. No brand can win big if they hide things from their customers. People of today are more in tune with the buying options that are available to them. If they find something fishy about your offering, they will switch the brand without even informing you. This means that you need to gain the trust of your customers. Ask them what they want via email. Survey them and learn how they feel about your brand. While these six tips take time to do and show results, they are invaluable in building a quality brand and loyal customers.

He came, saw, and conquered. This is not my quote, but it is relevant to my topic, so I stole it for you. The competition is lethal. If you want to scale your business, you need to start by creating robust digital marketing strategies. Every year, the digital marketing day is celebrated on the 16^th of December with gusto & enthusiasm across the globe. Everything that you do will add to and affect the digital presence of your brand. If you have nothing to do on the digital marketing day, you can stick to this blog and educate yourself with some tips that you can do to grow your online business.

User Experience

Instead of whiling away your life daydreaming, get up and study neuromarketing techniques. User experience is something that can reduce your marketing cost and generate leads without entailing much effort on your part. Humans make decisions when they’re triggered. These psychological triggers can be used to affect the buying decisions of people. The digital marketing strategies should be designed to appeal to the audience. On this digital marketing day, delve into research and understand the customer’s intent behind their buying decisions. Establish customer interest by providing a seamless user experience. Your brand recognition will increase if you’re able to engage visitors and turn them into customers. The user experience is all about making your customers feel special. If the customers must do all the thinking, your user experience needs a redesign. "We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." ~Jeff Bezos What is the loading speed of your website? Can you reduce it to provide a seamless user experience? Use Pingdom to figure out the loading speed of your website accurately. Simplify your navigating menus, use chatbots when possible, and tone down your search box to know the intent of the user and give them smart suggestions. If the users find their product on the main page, they’ll surely visit again. You’ll know what customers are thinking about when they’re visiting your website. Moreover, if there are repeated questions, you can utilize the FAQs section to educate users on all the possible questions that they can ask. This digital marketing day, read the best digital marketing blogs that can help you captivate users and capture their attention.

How to Create Attention-grabbing Content

You need to spend some time revising your content marketing strategy. The content on your website should act as a magnet. If it is not attracting people, it means that there is some problem with the content. Good content can engage customers, send a brand message, and educate your potential users on how your brand can help customers. Great content can increase the organic traffic on your website & improve your search engine rankings. Your audience is looking forward to content that easily communicates your brand value. As per Jeff Bullas, follow the 80/20 rule to create content that customers love. 80% of the content should be informational and educational, while only 20% of the content should be about your product/brand. Messaging is one way to gain the attention of your customers. If you message customers, there is a greater chance that the link will be opened if the message is convincing enough. Use emails to create awareness of your brand and grow your business without nailing your customers with irksome messages.

Secrets of Growing Your Business with Social Media

Your online presence begins when you start valuing your social media strategy. Engage the audience, communicate a message, and deliver a powerful intent with the help of social media platforms. As a startup, one thing that you need to do is to devise a social media strategy leveraging your brand value to create brand awareness. Instagram surpassed Snapchat this year, which makes both the social media platforms perfect candidates for social media marketing. A good social media strategy starts with maximizing your growth, generating leads, and converting customers. Here are some killer tips to skyrocket your social media traffic:

• Target influencers to share your content. Give them a valuable piece to share and they’ll be happy to do so.
• Share behind-the-scenes videos on Instagram and Snapchat. Let your audience know how your product is made.
• Repurpose your top-performing content in a different form. For instance, take a blog and convert it into an infographic. Or make a presentation out of it.
• Create a sense of urgency to boost your sales.
• Use minimalist marketing to generate more leads.
• Keep an eye on social media trends and follow these trends vigorously.

Social Media Optimization

Most importantly, invest in a good social media marketing strategy. Don’t just spend money on social media optimization. Monitor the results and see how it affects your brand. Once you understand the outreach and impact of your brand, you can redefine the digital marketing strategy accordingly. Understand how SEO works. On digital marketing day, go through some blogs and learn as much as you can. A good digital media strategy can act as a catalyst and help you grow your business. If the conversation rates are improving, it's great news. If not, it's time to change the strategy and try something different.

Before I share some valuable tips for boosting your traffic on social media, let me start with a real-life example. I took on TaskQue – a free task management tool as a client. When I started the project with my team, the traffic on their website was around 5,000 visits per day. After 6 months, with the things-to-do mentioned in this blog, the traffic burgeoned to 30,000 visits per day. Getting traffic on social media is not rocket science. If you stay consistent, you do the impossible, like cutting through a mountain as Manjhi -The Mountain Man - did. But the shocking news is that social media is getting harder day by day. Nowadays, it requires a lot of challenging work, skill, and innovative tactics to target the right customers and bring traffic to the website. If you Google ‘how to drive traffic on social media’, you’ll get thousands of results but most of these strategies are either outdated or tried and tested again and again. What you need is something that is new & works like a charm on your customers. Time is a virtue. No one wants to listen to an idle talk. People want something practical. So, here, I’m sharing the gold pearls with you. Nuggets of wisdom that helped me drive tons of traffic on our client’s website. Oh yes, don’t worry my boss already knows that I’m sharing these valuable tips with you, so, there is no need to worry about my job.

1. Add a Flavor of Humor to Your Posts

It’s so easy to get lost in the mundane business updates. Share a picture from your recent trip. Share a fun fact about your team. And share a motivational quote. The point here is to humanize your brand in front of the customer. The goal of this post should be to spread a smile on your customer’s face. Not every post needs to sell something. Check out this amazingly good hiring post by Zomato. Although it’s just a hiring post, look at the level of creativity they’ve used. People will not just send their CVs because this post is sharable. It will be shared because it’s fun to read. Another brand that I follow vigorously to get my daily dose of inspiration is Taco Bell. Check out the following post. A simple post. Yet worth sharing with your friends & family. If you want customers to share your posts, you need to sit down with your team and come up with some creative ideas. Or if you’re unsure where to start, talk to us. Our social media marketing tips will guide you and help you stand out from the crowd.

2. Communicate with Your Followers

For startups, it’s impossible to drive traffic in the initial stages. One strategy that I’ve used with TaskQue followers is interacting with them. Listening to them. Helping them solve their problems. And once they considered me a friend, they were happy to check out the brand offering without needing a push. Here is Gary V on how to provide the best customer service: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKghCbrR_LU[/embed] Pick and choose your followers & see what they’re interested in. If they have a problem, solve it instantly. It will only take a little time to solve the problem, but the outcome will be fascinating and lucrative for your brand. Whoever comments on your product, start a conversation with them. Thank them for taking the time to appreciate your product and reply with a pinch of humor. Interact with your customers the way you talk to your friends. Once the customer starts realizing that you’re taking care of them, they’ll love to try out your product and brag about it on social media.

3. Make Good Use of Facebook Groups

The best way to learn is to learn from others. There are business-specific groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Go and join them. You’ll get a chance to interact with people who are more successful than you. Watch what people are posting and what hashtags they’re using. You’ll have an idea about which keywords are performing best and the trending topics. Here are some tips which can help you communicate on a deeper level in Facebook groups: Here are some ways in which you can contribute to a higher level in your groups:

• Start with Live chat: This is a way to have a real-time conversation with your potential customers. You can listen to their grievances or offer them words of appreciation. Solve their problems and answer their queries.
• Communicate with Influencers: From time to time, you’ll meet influencers on the groups. Talk to them. Mention the influencers in your comments whenever there is something useful for them.
• Add Call to Action: While in the conversation, you can add a link to your posts or add to your service. Groups will bring an immense amount of genuine traffic. Use the CTA’s wisely.

4. Enliven Customers to Review on Facebook

Imagine this. It’s Saturday afternoon. You’re feeling hungry. You walk down the block to eat something. Out of ten restaurants, eight have customers in them and two are completely empty. Will you risk your lunch on two empty restaurants or will you drop in one of the thriving eight? If you’re like most people, you’ll head straight to a restaurant that seems to be teeming with customers. This is not just a coincidence. It’s social proof in action. Customers prefer to shop from stores with good Facebook reviews. How does the above review make you feel? Surely, if customers read such reviews for your product, they’ll either try the product or refer it to their friends. After every successful order, ask the customer to share their reviews on Facebook & Google.

5. Stand Out on Instagram

With 1 billion monthly users, Instagram can help brands generate enormous traffic on the website. Getting traffic on Instagram is easy if you learn the science behind hashtags. Every Instagram photo has a story behind it. If you caption that story, it will showcase the personality of your brand. And if you find an engaging caption, it means you’re on the right track. If you know the ins and outs of photography, this is a plus point for your brand. If not, hire a photographer. Check how Buffer shared this story from a user. Notice how personal it makes the customer feel. Buffer introduced #BufferStories to give users this opportunity to share stories which can engage more users.

6. Answering Questions on Quora

With 300,000 million monthly users and above 400,000 topics, Quora is a grand canyon to bring traffic to your website. People ask questions like ‘How can I increase my blog traffic?’ and experts answer those questions. Not just simple answers; sometimes, they’ll give witty answers, and at other times, they’ll give detailed answers. As an Entrepreneur, I’ve answered tons of questions and generated 90,000+ views on a single question. You can do the same. Become an expert in your field. Give a detailed answer and embed your services in the answer. If you provide a valuable answer, people will ask you more questions and you can increase traffic to your website.

The Closing Thoughts

It’s wrong to assume that only paid marketing can bring traffic. The tips mentioned above are tried and tested by me. I’ve used them on many clients and they worked like a magic spell. Try them all and if you have applied any other method to drive traffic to your website, do let me know in the comments box below.

I’ve always dreamed of becoming a billionaire to run my own business. Having enough money to buy a Lamborghini without having any second thoughts. But then it occurred to me that there is a lot of demanding work involved before I realize my aspirations. The answers aren’t all peaches & cream, but this doesn’t mean there is no hope left. The interesting part is that in this era, there is no need to experience everything ourselves. There are lessons gleaned from successful people around us. From a distance, it seems like there are a lot of lessons we can all take away from business schools, such as those that emphasize planning and making informed decision-making. Regardless of how well the professors teach, they cannot instill in us everything. At the end of the day, there will still be some things they don’t teach you in business school. Sure, you can ask a few questions before joining a medical school or even an engineering degree, but this doesn't mean that you'll earn a lot of success early in life. I am extremely sorry to murder your sweet dreams, but getting an MBA degree alone won’t be a ticket to your success. But the prudent choice you made by reading this blog will indubitably make your wallet a tad bit heavier. But in terms of lessons learned, you’ll get to know what things you need to consider if you’re willing to start a business or work for a budding startup.

Lessons Learned Outside the Business School

1. How to Act Like a Leader?

Some say that leaders are born, while others say that leaders are borne of the circumstances they face while pursuing their grand dreams. According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, out of the top 100 best-performing CEOs, only 24% hold an MBA degree. For a leader to be successful, there are leadership skills which cannot be learned in a classroom. You must move out of the classroom to know your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Not Everything Can be Solved on Paper

There is no single way to success. In a business school, you’re taught theories and principles from highly successful brands. While it is okay to know what worked for them, it is also important to know that it might work for you. To succeed in business, you need to move away from paper and do some practical work. On the long arc of life, you’re either falling backward or falling forward. You must figure out everything that comes to you.

3. How to Develop & Forge Good Relationships?

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~African Proverb In life and business relationships lead to more sales. If you take some time to build your soft skills, your business will grow. In a business school, you’ll learn a lot about principles, theories, and even how to grow your numbers to maximize your sales. But hardly anyone will teach you about forging relationships and closing more sales. Until you meet great people you won’t learn tricks of the trade. Meeting people will help you to learn how to interact with people and attract them towards you without freaking them out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-UfI2BZ0cU

4. How to Start a New Business?

A business school will teach you how to do research, how to make a budget, choose a great business idea, and so on. Despite lessons learned, starting a business is more about generating an idea. Do you have to learn how to build a billion-dollar business without spending time? And they don’t teach you this in high school. To build a successful brand, you can start in your parents’ basement, but to grow your startup from zero to a billion dollar you need to learn from people and successful businesses around you. Know people so they can invest in your business and make you a millionaire. And for that, you need to learn everything outside the business school.

5. Get Great at Instant Problem Solving

Business models are important. But sometimes it takes more than a set of rules to grow your business. When the conventional wisdom ends, there lies an opportunity for an Entrepreneur to surpass their limits and make something worthwhile. Business schools teach you about following rules and solving each problem with the help of a business model. While in real life there is no one way to solve a problem. Good businesses solve problems faster than their competitors. At times the usual solution doesn’t work and then what businesses do is think outside the box, and successful businesses even reward their employees for solving creative problems. Nothing of this sort is taught in business schools.

6. Taking Risks is Prohibited

MBA programs are designed in a way which limits the ability to take risks. If you take risks, you’ll fail, and failing is not an option in a business school. But without failing you cannot succeed. When it comes to weighing opportunity over potential failure, you are bound to follow certain rules and formulas in a business school. While if you don’t take risks how will you explore the depth of your pond? Unless you’re comfortable living in a shared apartment you must choose from your comfort zone & start taking risks.

7. How to Whip the Office Politics?

Regardless of how good you are as a human being, there will always be some black sheep around you. Mostly, business schools will teach you a lot about SOPs and the internal workings of an office, but what they don’t teach is how to deal with mongrels? Starting from the top-level management right to the low-level employee, this is one thing that you can only learn on the go. It is up to you. You can either create an environment of fun or you can create a never-ending cycle of problems and challenges.

How to Outdistance Your Competitors Without Killing Them?

While you’re in a business school competition keeps you alive. You’re motivated to stay ahead of the curve and get good grades. But it doesn’t teach you how to utilize your strengths & overcome your weaknesses. Despite crying real-life competition will teach you how to survive and do head-to-head competition.

1. Stop Being Logical & Start Trusting Your Instincts

“Never discredit your gut instinct. You’re not being paranoid. Your body can pick up vibrations, some better than others, and if something deep inside you says something’s not right about a person or situation, trust it and keep pushing.” Anonymous Ultra-successful entrepreneurs would prioritize their instincts over anything else. Your intuition will realize the vibrations and make course corrections along the way. While pursuing an MBA program, there are lessons learned in the books. But apart from the books, sometimes you need to trust your guts and take guidance from a higher power.

2. Goal Setting

While in an MBA program the only goal you need to worry about getting higher grades than your friends, in business you must sit down and make some long-term goals. Goal setting makes you accountable and ensures that everyone in the team is going in the same direction. With a single business goal, there is more chance of succeeding than just getting good grades in your MBA course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOfl2sbgPhk

The End

“Imagine if you will be being on your deathbed – And standing around your bed – the ghosts of the ideas, the dreams, the abilities, the talents given to you by life." – Les Brown I am sure you’re not planning to die with your song buried in your heart. If you’re serious about leaving a legacy behind, start learning and get ready to embrace every setback you get in life.

Minimalist advertising focuses on simplicity and clarity, cutting through the clutter to deliver a clear, impactful message. Leonardo da Vinci once stated that Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Steve Jobs said, “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe also agrees with the notion that Less is more. They say people die but their work stays with us. To ponder, to reflect, and to make good use of it. Even after half a millennium, the words of Leonardo da Vinci ring true. In the modern-day, minimalist advertising is something brands are leveraging to generate leads. It’s hard to believe Steve Jobs himself said that it takes more brain power to design something simple. And when minimalist advertising is done right, it can leave an impact which can drive action from users. Seth Godin in his latest book “This is Marketing”, highlights the power of using emotions to drive action. ‘It is not necessary to make complex ads; if you want to engage customers, work on their emotions.’

What is Minimalist Advertising?

The marketers are suffering not because they are not creative enough, it’s because they fail to offer something different. Minimalist advertising is all about clearing out the mist to gain instant attention. Being out there and not generating sales is an exasperating experience. Do you know that overwhelming users with mountainous choices can leave them confused? And instead of taking any action, they end up not buying at all. Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their best-selling book “Made to Stick”, talk about the Jam experiment. In a study conducted by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper from Columbia and Stanford University, shoppers at an upscale market were presented with 24 gourmet jam flavors and were promised a discount voucher upon sampling the spreads. On some other day, only 6 varieties of jam were on display. The psychologists concluded that while the larger display attracted more crowds, people bought way more jams from the smaller display. This, in a nutshell, is minimalist advertising. Using the power of simplicity to drive users to make one solid decision. If you go through the minimalist M of any professional digital agency, you’ll conclude that they are breaking the pattern with simple marketing. For instance, take the example below: An ad created by Richter7 is a perfect example of how to turn heads with minimalist advertising. No complex design patterns, no hidden messages. Just a simple to-do action that will compel users in the throes of marital troubles, to contact StongerMarriage company. As marketers, it falls on us to capture the attention of our consumers straightforwardly. Sometimes, minimalist advertising might seem less productive but when done right, it can help you land sales and establish a long-term bond with your customers. Let’s take a hawk-eye approach to analyze some of the most outrageously simple minimalist advertising campaigns:

A Powerhouse of Imagination: LEGO Genius

When it comes to imagination, nothing beats the fancy of a child. Time and again, LEGO came up with creative, thought-provoking ads that captured the attention of kids. In this ad, three pieces of LEGOS are put together, with their silhouette forming a tank. The consumers can easily recognize the imaginative and playful promotion of the LEGO brand. Brands can learn a lot from minimalist advertising. Regardless of your budget, you can always come up with something simple and creative to send a powerful message to your audience.

Brand Recognition Combined with New Product Launch

Brand recognition is at the heart of every brand. Organizations spend a hefty amount of money on their branding, but what if that branding can be combined with advertising and product promotion? Coca-Cola did an amazing job of promoting its new lemon flavor drink by peeling off a lemon in a C shape to resemble Coca-Cola's iconic logo. This ad sets a brilliant example of combining brand recognition by promoting a new product.

Make a Statement with Samsung’s New Speakers

The amazing thing about minimalist advertising is that there is no need for any special tools to compose an ad. You can use everyday items to create something fascinating. Look at this ad by Samsung that aims to promote knock-out power speakers. Not just promoting the product, Samsung applied the product colors to the theme to introduce familiarity with the product. Brand familiarity brings higher ROI while an unknown brand or even a product can lead to lower ROI. To make a statement, try to pick objects that are already in the minds of your consumers and figure out a way to relate them to your product.

Nothing Wrong with Orbit Remote Cars

At a glance, you might think that something is wrong with the Orbit ad. But a closer look will reveal that the ad is a brilliant attempt to convey a crystal-clear message. The remote car starters can work even from a distance. Now what makes these simple ads so promising: They stay true to the brand: All these ads have product and brand colors that give the feel of the brand itself. This is the easiest way to promote your product and remain relevant at the same time. Few words with more impact: All the ads have limited text with well-thought-out images. The ad is simply attention-grabbing and connects with the users on an emotional level. The Company Logo: All ads incorporate the company logo to remind customers of the brand. The logo itself is a reason to trust the brand and make a purchase. Each ad is crafted with care: While it seems that it only took minutes to design these ads, there is so much energy and deep thinking involved. From branding to product promotion, every aspect of the brand is meticulously crafted. Not an exact science: Creativity is not an exact science. But it takes a whole lot of energy to create minimalist advertising campaigns that resonate with customers and make them loyal to your brand. As per the words of Don Draper: “Make it simple, but significant”.

If you want to overthrow the Goliath, you need to step into the battleground. Your choice of weapon will dictate the defeat you want to inflict on the giant of the industry. The rock-solid competition requires a mega-marketing strategy that can push your brand off the ground, and Google Ads and Facebook ads dominate the online advertising space. If you want to reach out to customers, Google’s search network or Facebook’s news feeds are the places to be right now. Facebook currently boasts over two billion monthly active users, making it a hotbed for user activity. Similarly, Google Ads encroach upon the lives of billions of people each day. The “Holier than Thou” battle between Facebook Ads and Google Ads has been raging on forever it seems. it is nearly impossible to know clearly which will fit your business. Since both mediums are producing results for brands, you cannot afford the liberty of neglecting one over the other. Before diving into any one of them, start by asking two questions:

• What is the end goal that you want to achieve?
• How will it benefit your business?

If your answer is lead generation or sales, it means that both platforms are perfect for you. If brand awareness is your end game, Facebook is the medium for you. And, if you want to sell products, both Google can Facebook can fight to be your best friends. If you’re serious about generating leads and knowing how Facebook Ads or Google Ads can help you turn visitors into leads, keep reading;  there is a lot in store for you.

How to Use Google Ads to Get More Leads?

Start by searching the network. Did you know that Google Display ad campaigns reach 80% of users across the globe? Consumers who see a brand on Google Display Ads are more likely to search for the brand to know more about it. It is not just about display ads; video-based content ads work equally well. Which means there are more chances of being noticed by the consumer. The average click-through rate on display ads is just 0.08% across the USA. So, the search network is surely the best place to start. To get started, you can locate the keywords which are relevant to your business. Learn more about the Google keyword tool and get started with the keyword planner. Just start with a keyword that rubs the right way with your niche. This will give you more ideas on the target keywords which are relevant to your business. Just hit the ‘Start Now’ button and you’ll get a lot of suggestions. By using Google Ads, you’ll be able to achieve the following:

• You’ll know how many competitors are competing on a keyword. The greater the difficulty level of the keyword, the higher the number of businesses bidding on the keyword.
• And the bid ranges will help you discover the highest and the lowest paying bids.
• This will give you an idea of what the competitors are bidding on and how much you need to invest in campaigns, which will be right for your business.

The Right Way to Advertise on Facebook

As you might have heard, Facebook advertising affords some serious targeting options. Not just that, there are tons of options for all the various campaigns. Here are a few steps which can get you started:

• Start by creating an audience based on your previous clients and sales records.
• You can do this with the help of a Facebook lookalike audience. This Facebook feature can help you replicate your current audience. The algorithm operates by checking the emails of the customers and matching them with their Facebook profiles.
• You can even integrate it with MailChimp.

Images Do Create a Strong Impact

Images are responsible for 75 – 90% success of an AD campaign on Facebook. When done correctly, images can say more than words and incite people into action. Even if you don’t want to grapple with graphic design or want to hire an expensive designer, you can make amazing designs on Canva. The ‘Facebook Ad template’ on Canvas consists of different templates which can help you create images in mere seconds.

3 Ways in Which You Can Use Google Ads with Facebook Ads

It’s not always about Facebook Ads vs Google Ads; as they say, if you cannot beat them, join them. How about using both Facebook and Google together?

1. Start with Facebook and End with Google

As mentioned earlier, Facebook is a wonderful place to build brand awareness. Get your product out there for the people to see. Create a campaign targeted towards your cold audience. In this way, you will get to people who are looking for the product but don’t know where to find it. This is when you can move on to Google Ads. In Google Ads, use your brand name as a keyword. When people recognize your brand from Facebook, they will buy your product on Google, as they are already familiar with the product. This is how you can leverage the power of both Google and Facebook concurrently to acquire more leads.

2. Use Google Ad Data to Target People on Facebook

Get to know your target audience better by looking into your Google Ad campaign. This real-time data lets you see people who are really searching for your product. Use this data to target the audience on Facebook. There are myriad options in the Facebook ad campaign, where you can sort your audience based on gender, location, household, and various demographics, to retarget your audience and glean relevant traffic on your website. Retargeting can help you cut down on ad spending.

3. The Same Audience on Both can Help

And if you’re more curious about Facebook Ads vs Google Ads, you can even try reversing the idea and seeking people on Facebook and using that data to create better campaigns on Google. One of the best features of Facebook is a lookalike audience. Dig deep into lookalike ads and see how they can help your brand grow. In a nutshell, the algorithm in Facebook lookalike works similarly to Google, which means it can work in tandem with Facebook. This will double the impact on your audience as the power of both Google and Facebook will combine to create an overall impact.

Conclusion

To wrap it all up. When it comes to Facebook Ads vs Google Ads, it is not wise to prefer one over another. There is no competition at all. You can use both and create a larger impact. Both Facebook and Google provide unique benefits for any business whatsoever. Each of the platforms can bring a diverse number of people to your website. If your goal is to create brand awareness, start with Facebook. If you want people to buy from you, use the Facebook lookalike feature to gather the audience and use that data on Google ad campaigns. Build awareness, create leads, and close them with Google Ads. The good news is that we, at Branex, are providing digital marketing services that can help you with the traffic and convert that traffic into leads.

Regardless of how innovative or awe-inspiring, your product idea is, if there is no money to back it up, you will only be able to sustain your business for a fleeting time, or worse still, keep daydreaming. Well, unless you receive a random call from the producers of Shark Tank by a fluke of luck, you need to forage for finances. One of the major problems that today’s Entrepreneurs face is finding investors for their business. Amazingly, unlike old times when there were no social media and crowdfunding websites, founders used to spend their days in the garden of a potential investor, or in a networking event talking to real people. If you don’t have any idea how to pitch your product, check out pitch-deck templates that can help you persuasively pitch your business ideas. Whether you’re looking for small-term or large-scale investments, here are some ways in which you can meet your ideal potential investors & force them to invest in your business without giving any second thoughts.

Start with Friends & Family

I don’t know about you, but when I was little, I used to borrow money from friends & family to try out various ideas that kept popping up in my mind. Sometimes, it was something as simple as setting up a lemonade stand on a scorching summer day, at others, I was launching my own printing business from my room. When it comes to asking for money, friends and family are the obvious first choice. Firstly, you don’t bite your nails in apprehension at the thought of it. You know you can count on them. Second, they don’t expect a strict ROI from you. They simply invest because they believe in you and no matter how many times you mess up, it is your friends and family who will have your back time and again, without doubting your idea or efforts. But the only thing that has changed since I bade farewell to the good old innocent days, is that back then, failure didn’t mean that big of a deal to me. If something didn’t work, I simply moved on with the next idea. Now, I have bigger responsibilities to shoulder, so I must give back even if they are not asking.

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A general rule of thumb is that if you’re starting a business that requires an investment below $50,000, it is good to ask your loved ones to invest in the business. Otherwise, for investments above $50,000, you need to go for angel investors or venture capitalists.

Angel Investors

As mentioned earlier, an Angel Investor is someone who will invest more than $50,000 in your business. However, before you start looking for an angel investor, it is good to know some things first. Normally, an angel investor will ask for 8 – 10% of the profit for 5 years. The good thing about angel investors is that they won’t get involved in the business, as long as they are getting their fair share. As for venture capitalists, they seek serious involvement in the business and decision-making process. There is a difference between an angel investor and a VC. If you don’t know where to find angel investors, go for this list.

Venture Capitalists

If you are asking for an investment greater than $1.5 M, you need to hook in a venture capitalist. In return, they generally ask for a 30% share in the company. Take a good look at the list of venture capitalists and seek help from them. Venture Capitalists are more inclined toward your long-term plans. What do the figures say? When will they start getting ROI? If they are getting their money back, they won’t bug you. But, if you’re not giving them back, they will withdraw their investment, leaving you lurching by a thread.

Social Websites

Besides startup funding sites, where you can find investors, there are social websites that can help you solicit investment for your business. I am not at all talking about Facebook or Twitter, I am talking about Quora & LinkedIn. Don’t be perplexed. Yes, actual investors are hanging out on Quora. Regardless of its core purpose, which is to help people solve their problems, it is a social hub for angel investors and venture capitalists to seek new ideas and invest in them. If you’re not using these social sites, you’re missing a good chunk of investment for your startup. Another website is “Idea of Entrepreneur”. You can pitch your start-up idea and wait for the investors to invest in it.

Crowdfunding Websites

What is crowdfunding? It is basically about gathering people to support your startup. Nearly everyone is aware of Kickstarter.com. Indiegogo is another crowdfunding website that can help you get funded for your grand idea. Talk to investors, sell them your idea, and establish long-term relationships with your investors directly. Finding the investor is the easy part, but making them realize that your business is a growing business is hard.

3 Strategies to Win the Hearts & Cash of Investors

1. Knowledge & Confidence that Your Startup is the Right Place to Invest in

While talking to the investor, you need to ensure that you have a solid plan in place. Not just a PowerPoint presentation, but a persuasive pitch as well.

2. Add Value to People

Next comes adding value to people’s lives with your product. If your product is improving the lives of people, figure out an angle that can showcase it in that way. Pass on your excitement to investors and make them believe in your product.

3. Have a Deal Ready

Do you have all the numbers in place? If not, get it done before you pitch them to the investor. Future predictions, how much return will the investor get in the next 5 years? Or when can they expect ROI?

Conclusion

If you can acquire real customers, you will be under less pressure to seek outside money. When you do, you can achieve better terms from better investors. But as a startup, you should know how to find investors who can help you kick-start your business.

It’s no wonder that Black Friday can be an equally incredible opportunity for startups, small businesses, and established brands to get more customers and boost their revenue. In the chaos and carnage that ensues the epic four-day splurge, shoppers exuding the right spirit of blessed capitalism, seem to be running a shopping spree marathon. Cyber weekend is one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. And serves as an amazing opportunity for online marketers to attract a large number of shoppers to their website and convert them into qualified leads. Hundreds of thousands of consumers are looking for discount offers and exciting deals, which make online marketers invest their best possible efforts towards creating holiday marketing campaigns, winning SEO strategies, impressive landing pages, and engaging Black Friday content to stay ahead of the curve. Offering enticing holiday season deals and knowing how to promote your offers effectively can help you drive more traffic and Black Friday sales.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing Strategies

Here are some workable Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing strategies that online marketers looking to grab the tail of this Black Friday comet should adapt to augment their sales and traffic.

1. Create Landing Pages

There is no denying the fact that landing pages are one of the most effective ways to attract more new customers to your business website and promote your holiday-specific shopping deals to them. Designing dedicated landing pages can help brands rank against popular Black Friday keywords, embed interactive and engaging content, and leverage catchy calls-to-action to persuade shoppers to take the desired action. You can create a profound sense of urgency in Cyber Monday/Black Friday landing pages by informing your visitors that it is a limited-time offer that will expire soon. Let’s take the example of Sage. The brand that sells account software already has a successful landing page that is generating a substantial number of conversions. So, they just made some minor tweaks to their basic landing page and changed the background image and headline to go with their Black Friday promotional deals. Have a look at Vimeo’s landing page. The brand cleverly used its promotion code CYBORG on its landing page and clearly mentioned what they are bringing to the table for the holiday season.

2. Create Engaging Seasonal Content

Investing your efforts in creating interactive seasonal content early is a great idea to keep your brand top-of-the-mind. When the time comes to make purchase decisions on Black Friday weekend. It is advised to launch your landing pages and holiday marketing campaigns at least a month beforehand. You can create seasonal content, including holiday gift ideas and other interesting topics, which provide useful information to shoppers and make it easier to buy products of their own choice. To find the specific query your target audience is searching for this holiday season, use Google AdWords to find the seasonal keywords. Or simply check Google Trends and BuzzSumo to spy on which topics your users are searching for. This way, you can come up with a perfect seasonal content marketing strategy and create interesting infographics, blogs, and videos that will stand out from the rest. The key is to start planning your seasonal content strategy and promotional offers at least three to four months ahead of time. So you have enough time to think, write, and post strategically. Remember that content marketing is an excellent tactic to give your brand a boost during the holiday season. With a pinch of creativity, diligent planning, and perfect timing, you can make the most of your seasonal content.

3. Create an Effective SEO Strategy

It’s a worthwhile idea to optimize your SEO strategy for the holiday season to make your website stand out in the SERPs. All you need to do is carefully resolve your 404 error pages and place 301 redirects on all your broken links. It is important to make sure that your hosting server is efficient enough to handle high visitor traffic without buckling under the strain. Conduct in-depth keyword research and leverage the most highly searched terms in tandem with your brand, product, or services to devise your organic search strategy. When you focus on long-tail keywords that entail brand terms, specific product names, and competitive pricing offers such as discounts, deals, coupons, and offers. It will become easier for you to ensure a top Google ranking, which eventually drives more visitors to your website and maximize conversions.

4. Invest in Paid Marketing

An effective way to promote your seasonal content and holiday landing pages is to advertise them on social and search. Investing in retargeting campaigns is a great idea to capture the interest of people who have already visited your page but haven’t made a purchase decision. Whether you are putting your efforts into paid search campaigns, digital campaigns, or retargeting campaigns. It is important to create a compelling ad copy that can persuade users to take action.

5. Create Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Social media is the most effective and result-oriented platform that brands can use to promote their products and services and reach out to a wider audience. You can create Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing campaigns to connect with your audience at an emotional level. In fact, advertising your brand through social media marketing campaigns will help you receive the highest engagement, create brand awareness, and increase your user base. You can use social media to feature user-generated content, and personalized videos that explain the benefits of your products, run contests, and offer a reward program for getting more engagement and shares for your holiday deals.

Wrapping Up

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are an incredible time for brands to drive significant sales. Implementing these strategies in your holiday marketing strategy will help you make the most of this revenue magnet. Good luck!

Failures are integral to the journey of highly successful entrepreneurs, offering valuable life-long lessons. Key takeaways include the importance of resilience, where setbacks are seen as stepping stones to success, and the necessity of taking risks for innovation, even if some ventures fail. Persistence is crucial, as overcoming obstacles often leads to long-term success. It is a never-ending debate. Some say that Entrepreneurs are born while others believe that they’re the outcome of their circumstances. One way or another, each Entrepreneur came with their own set of struggles, which they dealt with and found their way out of. JK Rowling has offered hope to aspiring authors everywhere, after revealing that she was turned down by 12 Publishers before finding success with the Harry Potter books. She was a single mother at that time and barely making ends meet. Tim Ferriss faced 25 rejections for the 4-hour week before the book was published. Every Entrepreneur, whether big or small, has faced brutal failures throughout their careers. You cannot change the past, but you can learn from others and not make the same mistakes again. Whether you have witnessed the ugly face of rejection, faced a massive failure, or got demotivated at some point in life. This list will remind you to focus on the ray of sunshine peeking out from behind the ominous clouds.

1. Bill Gates – Weak Business Model

Before all the fame and money, Bill Gates was just an ordinary guy working on projects and figuring them out. In the early 1970s, Gates came up with a company known as Traf-O-Data, which aimed to analyze the data from roadway counters and create reports for traffic engineers. Paul Allen, in an interview, revealed that the business model for Traf-O-Data was flawed. Traf-O-Data totaled the net losses of $3,494. The shop was closed shortly after that. Lesson: Always start with a solid business model. Plan the pros and cons on a strategic level.

2. Evan Williams - Wrong Launch Date

The founder of Twitter faced a massive failure with his product Odeo. Although Evan worked hard on the product, the only mistake he made was launching it on the same day as the podcast section of iTunes came out. However, the side project Twitter went on to become an instant hit. Lesson: In every business, patience is the key to success. If Evan Williams had stopped creating and testing his ideas, we wouldn’t have Twitter today. Find some side projects you can count on to earn a little extra on the side. If you play your cards right, you can turn an idea into a full-scale business.

3. Jeff Bezos – Obsession Over Competitors

When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, he was laser-focused on its competitors. The project failed massively but Bezos took important lessons out of it. Speaking in an interview, Bezos shared, ‘I was so busy focusing on our competitors that I forgot our customers.’ Lesson: With Amazon, Bezos never bothered about the competitors. Right from the word go, Bezos kept his eyes on pleasing the customers. The key here is to follow the 80/20 rule. This means that focus your energy on that 20 % of the customers who are giving you 80% of the business.

4. Fred Smith – Embrace & Learn From Failure

When a video of FedEx throwing a computer went viral, it bashed the core values that FedEx held dear for its company. Right after the video went viral, instead of playing the blame game, Fred Smith took responsibility and asked his employee to upload an apology video. Lesson: Businesses fail and succeed mostly because of their values. Once the value is injected into the customer, a customer creates the pertinent perception of the company. If that perception is wrecked, it is difficult to get it back. Therefore, it is important to hold your company values close to your heart.

5. Peter Thiel – Surviving the $7 Billion Loss

Sometimes, we learn things the hard way. Peter Thiel learned the hard lesson when one fine morning, he heard that he had lost $7 billion in the stock market; a massive 90% of his total assets. Instead of blaming anyone, Peter worked hard and created two billion-dollar businesses and sold them with pride. Lesson: In business, failure is imminent. But not learning from that failure is the real failure. If you have failed, make sure that you get back up and continue on without making the same mistakes again. It is not just about failing, it is about trying things which did not work for you. Try something else.

To Wrap it Up

As we have seen, none of the people above were an overnight success. Success comes at a heavy price. And if you’re not prepared to pay the price. It will crush you and come again for you. The key is to take lessons from every failure and move on as if nothing happened. If you harbor grudges, it won’t do anyone good. The highly successful Entrepreneurs learn from their mistakes and move on with a fresh set of eyes.

One of the fastest ways to get your business message out in front of the audience is through email marketing. There are countless tools that entrepreneurs can easily find on the Internet in today’s day and age to help them accomplish this feat.

Why Email Marketing is Important For Your Business?

First of all, it is because email marketing is relatively easier and quicker to begin with. It is an inexpensive way of generating quick profit without putting much effort into selling your product. And besides, with effective email marketing, you can create a list of clients, prospects, customers, and subscribers. Emails can be of many types; you can send daily promotions, solo blasts, advertise products, followup sequences, auto-responders, etc. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how email marketing can benefit your business; here are some great reasons why email marketing is the best choice for your business.

It Can Help You Save a Good Amount of Dollars

Traditional advertising requires a whole lot of advertising material to be printed on paper. Moreover, you will invest a good amount on billboards and media channel advertisements. Well, now you can save yourself from such huge expenditures and conserve trees along the way! Instead of going traditional, why not opt-in for digital? With digital advertising, you can design the perfect email newsletter and then send it out to your customers. To design an attractive newsletter, you will only have to invest in a graphic designer to help you create the most alluring newsletter design. Besides, if you are operating on a shoestring budget, there are several newsletter templates that you can find on the Internet.

Emails Can Help You Get Connected with Your Target Market

An effective email marketing campaign can help you stay in touch with your customers constantly. Besides, with an effective email, you can easily reach out to your potential customers and provide them with valuable offers directly. Since the idea of capturing their minds through a subconscious channel is a difficult feat. An email can have a more direct impact on the person. Even if someone is not interested in buying your product, there is a certain chance that they can recommend it by forwarding your email to a family, friend, or colleague.

Emails Can Help You Educate Your Customers About Your Business

You want to keep your clients updated on what’s new about your product and brand. The best way to educate them on what you are selling is by sending them relevant information about your service through newsletters. Some organizations believe that sharing your work in the newsletter is a good idea. While others believe that sending information on the product/service is a more viable option. Emails help customers hire you or purchase from you all over again.

Emails Help You Increase Your Brand Image

Email can be the best way to put your logo, tagline, color palette, and brand graphics in front of your target audience. We often find ourselves wondering how we can increase the brand value of our business and the answer lies in front of us. Good email marketing is all it takes to penetrate the market with your brand. Just sharing what you are working on can help create the right awareness among the relative audience and you can either convince the audience to hire you or buy from you ultimately.

Effective Emails Can Help You Expand Your Network

Effective email marketing campaigns can help you grow your website traffic and build a loyal list of customers around your brand. How exactly are you able to do that? All you ever have to do is add an opt-in box to your website and run social media marketing campaigns on your landing pages. This way, even if a visitor drops in at your website, they are more likely to leave behind their email addresses on your website. Add a lucrative offer to your pop-up such as “sign up for a newsletter” or “download a free e-book”. Once you get the required email addresses, you can offer them more.

You Can Organize Industry Knowledge in Newsletters

Every website incorporates a series of articles. Some of these articles are quite interesting. How about leveraging those articles for the best use of your business? You can rearrange those links into Ebooks, whitepapers, guides, free audiobooks, and more. Then you can include all these relevant links in your email newsletter and market them accordingly. You can test content topics, subject lines, headlines, and much more. Just make sure that your popular content can get more exposure and ultimately turn into a great benefit. Email marketing is one of the most sophisticated ways of bottling down potential customers. But, not everyone knows the art of designing the perfect email campaigns. We, at Branex, pen down remarkable content to help your business flourish. Are you eager to get an amazing email strategy designed for your business? Get in touch with us. Let us help you build an amazing one.