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In this pandemic situation that has taken its toll around the world, who wouldn't like to earn a few extra bucks on the online side, right?

And when we are all sitting indoors and are left with not many options. Earning online is the only best option we have.

Whether you are saving money to pay off a debt, perform a wedding, or go on a world tour with your better half. A few extra $1000 every month is just the amount you need to make your lifelong dreams come true. While your day job might contribute to paying off your essentials, freelance or side hustle can help you fill up your wallet with enough to take that leap you always wanted to make.

Now, it might sound challenging, but trust me, it's not. It's just something that you're going to do when you've time on your clock and in fact. I know some people who have left their jobs just because they grew so much with their side hustle that it became their primary source of income. Are you interested in doing the very same? Guess what! There's no investment involved. It all depends on how quickly you learn a new skill & how effectively you adopt it.

Here are four side hustles to look forward to this year.

1. Freelance Copywriting

If there's one way you can make good money in less time, it's by adopting the art of freelance copywriting. Copywriting is the art of converting the desired audience type through a sales copy page or a web copy page, convincing them that your business is the best there is in the market.

A good copywriter can add value to your client's life and convince them to purchase.

There are several ways he can create powerful hooks to convert the audience. There are hardline facts, statistical analysis, emotional story-telling, compelling business pitches, promises, and discounts.

It's up to you what type of copywriter you want to become and what your client's product is all about.

Most copywriters often undercharge and it's one of the reasons why they easily burn out too soon. If you're planning to become a freelance copywriter, my advice to you is that you do a couple of gigs at a low pay rate. Once you have seen the success ratio of one of your copies, take the statistics from the client and use them to market your service at a better price. You can easily land a sales copy, web copy, or an email copy for an easy $500 - $1000. Just two of these jobs will be more than enough.

2. Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Don't have the creativity to create a website or sales copy, yet you want to earn $1000 easily. If you can invest in creating a review website, then affiliate marketing is your way in. All you have to do is select a niche and perform research on the products that are trending and selling hot in your niche. And then add these product affiliate links to your website. If you can't afford to review these products on your own, then hire a professional writer at Branex who charges a minimal cost to write good reviews for you.

You can easily find these writers in abundance on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.

Employ them, ask them to write a review article for you, and publish it on your website.

Now here's the tricky part, several eCommerce stores are selling the exact product through Amazon, which you're and the affiliate percentage which you will get on these products will be significantly low. So my advice to you is that you search for some tech giants who are offering good affiliate profit rather than settle for eCommerce stores online. To give you an example, if you become an affiliate partner of a good tech company. You can easily make $1,500 - $2,000 a month.

3. Start a Side Gig for Extra Earns

The pandemic is pretty harsh on almost every one of us. One of the saddest bits is that there is a financial emergency going on in different corporate sectors of the world. As a result, many individuals are facing salary cut downs. At times such, as when we have debts, rent, and bills to pay, what is the best option we are left with to pay off ourselves? The answer lies in freelance gigs.

Have you heard about freelancing websites such as Fiverr, Freelancer, or Upwork?

Some exciting platforms can help you earn that few extra bucks on the side even when the pandemic is on the rise. Yes, you heard me right. Just create a profile on all three of these platforms and if you've got a skill, make the best use of it. There are several online jobs available on these platforms and your talent is good enough to speak for itself. Do the jobs, create a portfolio, get better ratings and reviews from clients, and before you know it. You will quickly be making $1000 - $2000.

Whatever you do, make sure that you get positive ratings. It's the only way clients will trust you.

4. Become Instagram Influencer

Can you sing, or can you act or do you look good, there's no better time than now to cash on that. Become an Instagram Influencer amid the pandemic and let the world observe your talent. Once you've gained a significant amount of followers, there are plenty of ways how you can earn bucks.

Don't feel like the kind of person who enjoys being in the spotlight, and it's totally fine.

Instagram is a diverse platform. You can use photography or your pet as the spotlight and create a powerful profile with a great number of followers. Once you've gathered enough followers, the next thing is to find the right way to monetize your profile. It's not that good of a hustle like the rest unless you have at least 100k followers. But you can easily make $500 - $1000 a month once on the roll.

In a Nutshell

There's no single way of earning when it comes to the online market. While I have discussed a few handfuls of such talents. I am sure there are countless many that once you start exploring, you will easily find them. The Internet is full of opportunities, and people like you and I are already cashing into it.

When we are purchasing stuff online, aren't we capable of redeeming it back? It's just the mindset that stops us. Imagine there are thousands of businesses that are specifically focusing on the above-discussed ways and have established themselves as a successful brand.

The E-commerce world has incredibly changed and so have the people buying things online. But what makes a website truly workable? A good website development is one that’s truly error-free. Imagine going to a store to purchase a pair of shoes only to realize that the directions aren’t correct, the shelves are disheveled and the shoes aren’t organized or arranged correctly.  Won’t it ruin your entire experience… It's the same with websites. An online presence that’s clunky and has a lot of problems isn’t going to perform well in the online space.  In today’s article, we are going to share some of the common website development challenges. We will also try to share some of our recommendations on how to best solve them. 

6 Common Website Development Challenges and How to Solve Them

As a job or a startup, we hope this article is going to be your best guide.  

1. Check If Your Website is Fully Responsive

Being a web designer, the first thing that comes to your mind is to make sure your website is fully responsive. If a website isn’t responsive, you will be creating a mess for most of your mobile users.  Do you know Statista states websites in the second quarter of 2024 amassed a total of 60% of the global web traffic, excluding the ones that came through tablet devices?  What if your website isn’t fully responsive?  Here’s what you need to do.  A website is fully responsive when it's based upon flexible grids. That’s where you will begin with designing your website, ensuring that it’s fully responsive. From there onwards, you start focusing on button placement, add scalable vector images, and make use of legible fonts to ensure there’s consistency across all screen types. Test the results and see which of them are becoming clunky & improve. 

2. Slow Page Load Time on Your Website 

If your website has a slow page load time, then you can experience a high bounce rate.  This is a basic website development challenge that many website owners often face.  Page optimization doesn’t just offer a great user experience; it also contributes to your overall ranking in search engines. A badly designed or slow-speed website often degrades your SEO implementations. Whether off-page or on-page or technical SEO implementations, slow page loading time on websites can impact your overall ranking, pushing your website down the search rankings.  An interesting way to fix slow page load time is by simply minimizing large image files. You can also leverage browser caching and employ a security content delivery network (CDN).  All such implementations eventually accelerate your website’s loading time. 

3. The Tech Stack You Employ  

A website development challenge that most website developers often highlight is the choice of tech stack. The more prominent the tech stack used for website development, the better its performance and the quality of the build. Tech stack usually involves elements like programming languages, servers, frameworks, libraries, APIs, IDEs, and cloud services, which are a few among others.  The tech stack depends on a multitude of factors; depending on the complexity of the website, features, functionality, integrations, etc. Choosing the right stack often becomes a difficult website development challenge. However, you can easily overcome it by employing the right tech stack for your project, which is why requirement gathering and analysis plays a much more important role in web development.  Once you are aware of your website build requirements, picking the right tech stack becomes prominent.  Here are the top website technology tech stacks used abundantly within the year 2024. 

4. The Security Measures You Implement 

If there’s one pressing website development challenge that businesses often observe, it’s the one that surrounds website security.   Did you know? During the first half of 2024, more than 1,400 major data breaches were reported globally, exposing sensitive data from millions of users across industries. Just in January 2024, the Trello platform saw 15 million user accounts compromised, with emails, names, and usernames leaked on a popular hacking forum.  A few common cyber attacks which are prominent in the website development industry are access control issues, cross-site scripting, link injections, authentication breakdowns, & security misconfigurations.  In fact, most websites deal with critical information and sensitive data.  To ensure all of it remains safe, implementing the best security measures becomes imperative.  The best way to ensure the best security measures are implemented is to install robust cybersecurity protocols. A few practices that most web developers perform to overcome these website development challenges are integrating SSL certification, adding the website to a secure host server, regular security updates, biometric integrations, and multi-factor authentications with access validations. 

5. Website Maintenance, Once the Website Goes Live 

Once the website goes live, it must observe proper site maintenance.  It’s obvious that websites will experience a variety of problems and may encounter bugs for newly created web applications. Thus, it’s important to provide effective maintenance and post-launch support.  Therefore, it’s essential to provide continuous maintenance for your web applications with 24/7 monitoring and regular testing. A key aspect to making sure your website offers smooth performance is to reduce the dependencies using a microservice architecture for improved efficiency. When you have a website with a more structured process, that goes a long way. It’s relevant to ensure that your website is well maintained at the back end by professional web developers. 

6. Creating a Website with an Intuitive Navigation 

Did you know a staggering 88% of users are unlikely to return to a website after having a poor experience with navigation or usability?  A website isn’t complete until it has correct navigation.  So when it comes to website design services for custom websites, functionality plays a significant role. It’s one of those important things you need to prioritize so you don’t end up losing any of your website visitors. What most website designers & developers don’t understand is navigation needs to be simple. You don’t need to get creative in terms of design; what truly works is simplicity.  Let your copy mostly tell what you want to express.  Just remember, visitors only drift away if they are working with a website that’s not easy to follow. 

Concluding Thoughts

Being a website developer is a challenging task.  All websites experience several website development challenges. Today, we have shared some of the most common website development challenges that businesses often experience. Is your website struggling or needs a complete revamp? Do you want to make sure it’s well protected from all security breaches? Do you want to dedicate resources to perfectly manage their digital presence?  Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an SME, it all depends on what best practices you implement.  Branex is a custom web development company, and we encourage businesses to share their website design ideas so we can offer them the best solutions. Looking for a website design that’s robust and on-point from the UI/UX perspective? Feel free to get in touch with our professionals so we can help you. 

After 1993, when the first clickable ad went online, people stepped into the age of digital marketing.

Once upon a time, any company that wanted to get its message across to prospects and customers used traditional marketing to do so. What was once a norm is now obsolete.

Before the dot com revolution, it was okay for companies with a huge budget to invest in flyers, advertisements, billboards, TV, radio, and even direct marketing to reach their customers.

Today, if you want to stay in the game, digital marketing is the only option that can give you unlimited digital space and global customer reach.

Now, people spend more time on the internet than any other thing. So, marketers must grab the attention of users and turn them into customers.

With a brief history of the evolution of marketing over the years, now you are all set to dive into how to grow your business with digital marketing in 2020.

Digital marketing is more like fishing alone in the sea. Some methods are more effective in catching a fish while others take more time. Similarly, in digital marketing, there are effective and ineffective strategies.

In this blog, you’ll see some of the most effective digital marketing strategies to increase your market share in 2020.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The top-most digital marketing strategy that can benefit startups is search engine optimization (SEO). If a business wishes to rank on the search results of Google, effort must be made to optimize the website for search engines.

As mentioned earlier, most people spend a lot of time on the Internet. And when it comes to searching for anything, Google is the best place to start. Whether you want to search for a review of a product, 

Today's users will virtually be lost without Google. People check the time on Google. And people do currency conversions on Google. People translate text on Google. And most importantly, people buy products based on the search ranking on Google.

A study suggests that 94% of buyers do a Google search before buying a product. Those brands that failed to optimize their website for the search engine are missing out on sales that can come from SEO.

For small businesses, SEO is a goldmine. It’s not just important. Rather, it’s indispensable for brands to grow their business by leveraging SEO.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses

• By optimizing a website, you’ll get a high position in SERPs.
• Your brand awareness will increase.
• There will be more traffic on your website.
• SEO will help you to reach a global audience.
• Most importantly, an SEO-optimized website will convert visitors into customers.

2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

A type of digital marketing where content is created, and shared across relevant social media platforms, creating and sharing information pertinent to reach marketing goals and boost your branding.

A recent study revealed that there are 3.484 billion social media users. No one in their right mind can deny the power of social media. Social media marketing is helping businesses to grow. Social media is the right medium for small businesses to influence and put the right content for the target market.

How can Social Media Marketing help Startups?

• People will know more about your business to increase web traffic.
• It allows you to establish a strong bond with customers.
• Social media promotion can improve brand awareness.
• Boosts organic visibility.
• It’s economical.

3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click is a digital marketing strategy where owners pay a specific amount for each click their ad gets. In other words, it’s merely buying visitors for your site.

Businesses use this method to create brand awareness on search engines, mobile apps, and all social media platforms.

Of all the popular PPC methods, Google Ads has proven to be the most effective.

Whenever a user searches for a product, Google Ads will display your ad on SERPs along with other paid and organic search results.

People trust Google Ads, so there is a high probability that they will click on your ad on Google Ads.

Is PPC Necessary for Your Business?

Let’s look at some of the main reasons on how PPC can benefit your business.

• PPC gives various targeting options.
• You can easily track your effort using Google Analytics and Google Ads tools.
• PPC helps your business reach a broad online audience.

You must make the best use of a PPC campaign. If you are having PPC management issues, we would love to help you out. Even if you don’t have a clear budget, we will assist you and ensure that your brand is well-optimized for your target audience.

4. Content Marketing

One of the most popular and impactful digital marketing strategies is content marketing. You can use content marketing to increase brand awareness and increase conversions. When you distribute content publicly, it attracts leads, increases traffic on your website, and ultimately boosts your sales.

Content in any form represents the values and morals that your brand holds. Every piece of content that you create demands attention. No business can survive without content marketing.

Content marketers use tools to reach their marketing goals. If you are new to content marketing, check out this fantastic article from Gary V where he teaches how to create various types of content. Each piece of content can be shared individually on different social media platforms.

How can Content Marketing help your business?

• It will drive more conversions.
• Content marketing will bring traffic to your site.
• It helps in building trust with your target audience.
• Good content will help you boost SEO and increase your search results ranking.

Content marketing is having a conversation with your target audience. It will help you to build authority with your brand, humanize your brand, and give you business intelligence that will grow your brand.

Final Thoughts

You might be wondering, are these four strategies enough to grow your brand? Of course, they are. When done correctly, they can take your brand from the ground and make it fly high on the clouds. If you don’t have a digital marketing strategy yet, we can help you plan, execute, and make your brand visible online. Our digital marketing services can help you to make your brand worth trusting.

Till October 2019, an astonishing 6,000 tweets were sent every second. It means that people are actively sharing ideas, talking to people, and even sharing their reviews about a brand on Twitter.

85% of small businesses say that they use Twitter to provide customer service to their customers. If you are a startup, in the beginning, there are chances that you will struggle to generate ideas for your tweets. As you spend time on Twitter and observe your audience, you’ll learn what to tweet as a brand.

But the good news is that you don’t need to worry about this thing anymore. The reason why you started reading this blog is that you were out of ideas on what to tweet. And secondly, even if you are posting things, it means that there is no traffic on the website.

In the following text, you’ll get around some tried and tested ideas that will help you clear your mind and post something that users will love to read.

Promote Your Blog or Landing Page

If you are a business that publishes blog posts daily. There is a chance that each of these blogs won’t get enough coverage due to limited resources or lack of time. But with Twitter, there is a chance that you’ll be able to increase your reach when you tweet it.

A good thing about Twitter is that you can tweet the same tweet several times for different target markets according to their time zone.

Plus, there is so much room for evergreen content that can be retweeted for a different target market.

A similar thing happens with a landing page. For a landing page to reach more people, owners and marketers run PPC campaigns. Twitter with hashtags is an excellent tool to drive people with enticing content. One-liners can grab the attention of users who want to avail of your service. They want a little push, which can help them reach a potential customer.

Share Helpful Tips

Your aim as a marketer is to grab the attention of users and make them trust your brand. If you keep sharing spammy links, no customer will trust you.

To get yourself heard and unique, you must provide the users with some helpful tips regarding your product or the current trends in the market.

Another tip you can use to grab the attention of users is to take the current trend and add something valuable to the conversation.

Surely every brand is using Twitter or at least has an account on Twitter. The best thing you can do is to educate the users on your product.

Moreover, you can post quotes, valuable tips, and tricks from experts in your industry. This will help users in building trust in your brand, and they’ll surely come back for more.

Highlight Reviews

There is no surprise that 97% of customers believe that online reviews influence their buying decisions. 

When you get a review on Google or Facebook, don’t ever hesitate to show it on Twitter.

The good thing about Twitter is that there will be potential customers who can read reviews and make an impulsive buying decision.

And social proof has grown and been recognized in the past few years a lot. To gain trust in the customer or at times, you can even calm an angry customer on Twitter, where everyone can see how you are treating customers who are not satisfied with your service.

Announce Job Openings

If you are looking for a potential candidate, there is a good chance that you’ll get them on Twitter.

Additionally, you’ll be able to get much attention from people. Posting job openings gives the impression that you are a legit brand that is using Twitter to connect with real people.

If a customer is already following your brand, there is a good chance that they will be interested in working with you. When you post a job opening with a link, it will drive relevant people to your website.

Be Transparent

Studies show that consumers buy from a brand more quickly if they feel that the brand is being transparent.

On Twitter, you have a chance to stay true to your brand personality. When you admit that you made a mistake or even if you celebrate things on Twitter. It gives the impression that you are just like a regular brand.

Share BTS or “behind the scenes” videos on the making of your product and let the consumers enjoy the production of your product.

Upon doing this, consumers will be more interested in your brand. And they will be more curious when the product is near launch. If you include the consumer in the making process, the consumers establish a connection with the brand. This is a brand moment where you can leverage that connection and make the users feel safe while doing business with you.

Final Word

Whether you admit it or not, Twitter is a necessary tool for customers and audiences to interact easily with a brand and learn more about its values and goals.

Upon interacting with the users directly, a brand can easily understand the buying intentions of the consumers. If you are not active on Twitter, now is the chance to do so. And if you don’t have the expertise to do so, we can help you with our digital marketing services.

Brace yourselves influencers because from this day onwards; you won’t be able to flaunt your likes on Instagram. Unless you are Gary V or Roger Federer, who needs no likes to grab the attention of their fans, you need to work ultra-hard on getting the attention of people on Instagram.

The news that broke six months ago is now live on a global scale. Instagram is not showing likes to users.

The wave first started in Canada and then took every other country like a storm. Now even in the US, you won’t be able to see the number of likes in a post.

Previously, social proof was the universal key to generating more leads. But with no likes, there will be nothing to show to the users. This means that in 2020, it will become nearly impossible for everyone to get engagement on Instagram.

Let us first look at why Instagram is hiding Likes and what steps you can take to increase your engagement in 2020.

Why is Instagram Hiding Likes in the first place?

Speaking at the Wired25 Conference, Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, broke the news. According to Mosseri, he is willing to make Instagram a safer place for people.

Initially, the experiment was just for six months, but now it is being implemented on a global scale. The reason is to expand the user base with genuine followers, not fake followers. 

Thank GOD! At least someone knows what they are doing and why they are doing it.

How will Instagram Hidden Likes work?

It is necessary to mention that likes will not disappear altogether – instead, they will be hidden from followers. When you click on the others in likes, you’ll be able to see those who liked the post but not how many people liked it.

You’ll also be able to see comments made by people.

But you will be able to see your likes with just a few taps.

That’s good news. Your followers will not be able to see your likes, but you’ll see them when you tap in the others under your likes section.

How did people respond to this change?

Upon chatting with some people, CNN concluded that the majority of the people are taking this as a positive move from Insta. As likes were the reason that youngsters were facing mental health issues, there will be no such thing as anyone.

However, according to Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, the mental issues will still not get resolved as users can check their likes and feel depressed upon an underperforming post.

And Then There Were Some Angry Birds

The decision to hide likes instantly sparked a heated debate among influencers. Some are not at all happy with this change and have shared their concerns on other platforms.

While some think that it is the biggest mistake by Instagram.

But as the saying goes, GOD doesn’t make a lock without first creating a key for it. So, there are some ever-green Instagram engagement tips to start the year 2020 with a big bang.

How to Boost Your Instagram Engagement in 2020?

There are two ways to deal with this change. Either you evolve, or you get lost in oblivion. I am sure you are willing to go for the first.

To evolve, you need to follow specific tips that can outsmart your competitors.

1. Begin with Engaging Users

Yeah yeah, I know. This sounds too clichéd. But still, many brands are creating content that is not all serving their marketing needs. They are trying to shove content down their audience’s throats users instead of understanding the pain points of the audience.

Remember, you don’t have likes available anymore. The only thing that can save you now is high-quality content that directly inspires your followers.

Forget the likes; comments are now your new likes.

Produce content that can tempt people to comment. When people say, it will open a gateway to start a discussion.

Make sure that you are posting content that is relevant to, interesting, and intriguing for your followers — this will be how you will be able to engage more people.

Check the example from the ASOS brand. How the brand used an old-school photo to revive old memories, and that forced people to comment on the post.

2. Longer Instagram Captions

Who doesn’t love stories? Do you know how to create stories around your posts? If not, it is time that you start polishing your storytelling skills. Because Jenna Kutcher – an influencer, suggests that writing extended captions in the form of a story can engage more people.

Check how Jenna created a beautiful story around a post and received well-deserved comments.

3. Go for Target Ads

We all know that Instagram’s algorithm follows nearly the same approach as Facebook. If there is little or no engagement, your post won’t make it to more people. One solution that everyone suggests is to run Instagram ads. Since there are no likes, you don’t need to hire influencers to get likes, you can run ads to engage people.

In a world of no likes, small businesses can leverage sponsored ads to reach their target customers; this will entail high sales, more click-through rates, and engagement.

4. Separate Fake from Genuine Influencers

If there are no likes, it will be difficult for fake influencers to reach out to people. In this way, it will be easy for brands to pick influencers who make share-worthy content.

You can easily judge the value of the influencer by the conversation going on in the comments section of the post.

People will share their authentic views about the influencer, and it will be difficult for the fake influencers to rise in such a situation.

5. Get Serious About Hashtags

Regardless of what everyone thinks about hashtags, it is a great way to reach out to more people.

But just like a right hashtag can generate a lead, a wrong hashtag can steal a point too. That’s why it is essential which hashtags you use for your brand.

For instance, if you don’t know which of the hashtags are right for your business, you can use tools like Later.com to get suggestions for your brand. 

Wrapping it all up

Not everyone will respond in the same way. Some people will like it while others, as you might have seen, have vociferously rejected the change. But in the end, all that counts is how you will create and retain engagement for your customers.

What do you think about Instagram hiding likes – do you love it or hate it? Let us know in the comments!

Every business strives to win customers. There are unimaginable ways to gain the trust of customers. One of the most popular methods is using social proof to grab the attention of customers.

Let’s be clear that people on your website are just people. Nobody wants to try something new. It is in our nature to be influenced by others, whether we admit it or not.

Social proof entices us to ask questions before making the right decision, and this can be a powerful tool in Internet marketing.

What is Social Proof?

The phrase was first mentioned by Robert Cialdini in his mind-altering book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It teaches how people imitate other people’s actions even if they don’t know how they should respond to the situation. As a result, before making a big decision, people observe the actions of other people whom they consider experts.

 “We conform because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action.”

To sell and establish trust at the same time, social proof is the company’s most authentic way to hit two birds with one stone. Whether it is sales, advertising, or marketing, the end goal is to sell a product and social proof can help in selling the product.

You just need to show the potential customers that people are already buying products from your website, and even their friends recommend your products. Sentences like “99 of 100 people…”, and quotes and testimonials from users are just a couple of examples.

7 Worry-Free Methods to Boost Your Sales with Social Proof

Here is a list of ways in which you can use social proof for your benefit:

1: Reviews

84% of the customers believe in online reviews as much as personal recommendations. The reviews are actually short experiences people had with a product or service. Most of the time, the ratings depict the love-and-hate bond with the brand’s offerings.

Most of the companies use email automation to solicit feedback from customers about their experience with the products. This feedback can be used to implement better strategies to add value to products. When customers feel happy, they often share their experiences on social media and often these reviews get listed in search results.

2: Case Studies

Case studies are one step ahead of reviews. They are often treated as one of the most trusted forms of social proof because customers look for in-depth reviews when they plan to select a vendor for their services. And case studies provide detailed examples of how the brand helped its clients.

Case studies are essential for B2B marketing and agency services. This is their opportunity to provide detailed data and stats regarding the results that were delivered.

For instance, as a digital agency, we have served a wide range of clients and helped them to scale their business. Our case studies describe in detail how we managed to make our customers happy. Every case study is a problem that we resolved, and the results fascinated our clients.

3.  Certification and Badges

During our academic lives, we receive certifications and similar accolades for our achievements. I still have a dedicated cupboard where I put all the badges and certifications that I won in my school days. Whenever I heard that a special guest was coming to our home. I used to place all these badges and certifications in a prominent location and make my parents proud.

You can do the same with your brand. Do you know that displaying trust badges on your website can boost sales by up to 30%? It is not just about being proud, it is about making the customers feel comfortable so that they can use your service with complete faith and confidence in your capabilities.

A report by Statista.com revealed that the social network population reached a whopping 2.82 billion in 2019 and the numbers are snowballing daily. Since there is a huge number of social media users, it opens doors for marketers and brands to brandish the love and trust customers have in them.

A loyal social media following is not easy to come by. A company needs to stay active on social media channels to build its followers. Although a digital marketing agency can help you with this, you must display and show your following so that visitors feel safe while trying your brand for the first time.

A higher number of followers on social media networks builds credibility for the brand. One sure-shot way to increase your genuine following is to post regularly engaging content that connects your services with the needs of the customers. Upon doing so, more customers will engage with your brand and convert into raving fans.

5: User-Generated Content

One of the fastest ways to create engagement and get social proof out of people is to entice customers to generate content.

When customers create content on your social media channels, everyone can see and take part in it. In doing so, it will be easy to establish trust for the company and promote your content most naturally. You can ask customers to be part of a marketing campaign or request them to share content with a specific hashtag (#). You’ll be amazed by the content that people generate. This approach will distinguish your company’s worth as a brand.

When it comes to establishing trust among visitors, getting featured on reputable websites can serve as noteworthy social proof. In fact, not just people, Google algorithm increases the rank of those websites that get mentioned in famous publications.

Just by adding logos on the website, you will be able to create a massive impact in the eyes of your audience.

7: Numbers, numbers & numbers

All in all, social proof is all about numbers. No one can deny numbers. Stats and numbers are easy to absorb, and people trust stats more than anything else.

Numbers and stats can quickly raise the level of urgency and force the customers to buy, even when they are not sure.

Here are some of the ways you can take advantage of the numbers:

• Show years of experience
• How many customers you served over the years?
• Total numbers of employees and business locations that you have.
• Your price compared to your competition.

Social proof is emerging as a key differentiator for brands. If you want to soar above your competition, you must show how other people are thinking about your brand. As they say “seeing is believing”, so you better start working on building. Your social following and flaunt your social clout to lure in more customers. Happy hunting!

Remember that first job interview for an online business?

You are stumbling on every step, sweating your way out, not being able to think clearly, and realizing that you are shaking while you are talking with the interviewer.

Often, it is not about the interview itself; it is about the first impression that you create on the person conducting your interview.

Just within a few seconds, you are evaluated based on the way you look and communicate with the interviewer. 

Mostly, they will create an impression of you based upon your expressions, gestures, and postures or the way you explain your skillset to them.

Similarly, when people visit your website, they will judge you on a few things. If the site is attractive, they will stick to it; if not, they will move on to the next best website in the list.

These tips will help you create an impressive experience in the eyes of the visitors.

Keep it Neat & Clean

Although Minimalism can generate more leads, every business has its target audience, which means you need to use an approach that fits the best target audience.

I am not going to tell you how to design a website; our custom web design agency can design & develop a website for you. But what I want to emphasize is that the website design must sync with your business values and the nature of your business.

There’s no point in developing a funky website if it doesn’t reflect your brand identity or fulfill your goals. 

Sure, everyone wants a cool website. A website that can attract customers and facilitate them to do business with you. The goal of the website should be to give people what they want. That being said, a bland website cannot achieve such a goal. A neat and clean site with a seamless flow can help you to engage the customer and keep their focus on your product.

Check how DigiLab has placed the elements and did an excellent job of creating an attractive website design.

Quickly Satisfy their Needs

If you’ve ever attended a webinar, you may have noticed most of the speakers purposely beat around the bush before revealing anything productive. And they do this so that you can buy a book or pay something to get all the answers.

You don’t have to do any such thing on your website. Be prompt in offering your audience the information that they need. When the target audience gets the desired information quickly, they will not just love you; they will share the experience with their friends and family.

For instance, giving a return policy on the shopping cart page will save time for the user.

Choose One Layout Pattern

I’ve learned this from a senior website designer at my firm. There are two ways in which the visitor views every website. Either they see it in an F-shaped flow or a Z-shaped flow. And this is why bullet points get attention fast.

If you want the customer to view the critical information quickly, ensure those points are in either of the two layout patterns.

If a page loads within 2-3 seconds, it gives an average bounce rate of 9%. But if it takes 5 seconds or more, it provides a bounce rate of 38%.

The most common problem that website owners face with a website is its loading speed. To deduce the speed of your website, you can do the following things:

• Begin by optimizing images and writing content in a web-friendly format.
• For images to load quickly, cache the images.
• To get the best results, it is advised to use a high-end server.

Speed is one factor that affects the ranking in search engines. How quickly your website loads represents what kind of business you are. If it lags, then your image will be that of a company that doesn’t respond promptly to the needs of its customers. Therefore, make sure your website is optimized to load quickly across different devices and browsers.

Use Catchy CTA Buttons

The only purpose of a Call to action button is to stimulate people to act desirably. What you need to make sure is to give the visitor an unforgettable experience.

However, it is essential that the flow of the page should not break, and the design must entice the user to act.  

The CTA is just like a trigger that can motivate the visitor to take the desired action. It could be to fill out a contact form or drive the visitor to the portfolio page. To ensure this happens smoothly, the CTA must complement the overall design of the page, if you plan to blend it into the design and naturally turn the potential customers into revenue-generating customers.

These are some of the locations where you can put the CTA button for maximum results:

• Right at the bottom: The best place to start is by pitching the services and educating them with all your offerings.
• Somewhere in the middle: Right when you are discussing the important stuff, you can disclose your services on the page.
• Side CTA: When grabbing the attention of the users, it is necessary to change the place of the CTA to the side of the page.

To Wrap It All Up

It is all about offering a pretty good first impression. The hard part is to maintain that impression throughout the journey of the customer. Once lost, is it impossible to get it back? As the saying goes, “Never make promises you can’t keep”.

You must not overcommit to the customer at the start. If you have something worthy, offer it right there. If not, use the tips above to create something that will get people talking.

The Internet is full of blogs talking about eCommerce conversion strategies and almost half of them are focused on boosting sales but offering nothing of much value. However, when we asked eCommerce store owners around the globe. It appears they are a bit overwhelmed and exhausted reading stuff off the Internet which offers nothing much of value. Besides, instead of getting a sure-fire solution, they often felt mind-boggled in deciding what areas of the eCommerce store they should be paying attention to.  To take the burden off your shoulders, I have done my part by performing adequate research and finding a few of the best possible ways to increase your store’s sales exponentially.  Today’s article is going to help you find some actionable and proven eCommerce strategies that will help your eCommerce store stand out from the competition.  Read on. 

Reverse Engineer the Customer’s Buying Journey 

Whether it’s creating interest in your niche, developing awareness of your brand, or delivering more information about your product for better purchase decisions, a customer journey plays a significant role. In most scenarios, the customer journey makes the process appear simple. However, it’s more linear and usually gets performed in 5 stages. These stages range from awareness to post-purchase. 

• Awareness: Customers identify a need and discover your brand through various channels.
• Consideration: Customer researches and evaluates different options, comparing products and reading reviews.
• Decision: Customer decides on a product or service and prepares to make a purchase.
• Purchase: Customer completes the transaction, including checkout and payment.
• Post-Purchase: Customer experiences follow-up support, delivery tracking, and evaluates their satisfaction with the purchase.

The reality of the customer journey is basically a whole lot more complicated than it appears. Buyers usually skip steps and they rush to purchase, especially when they have found what they are looking for on your eCommerce store. They simply leave your eCommerce store page and never revisit your site again. To learn more thoroughly about customer interaction, there are analytical tools which help store owners better understand customer behavior. Such tools allow an easy understanding of where visitors enter an eCommerce store, where they drop off, and the path they select to finally make a purchase.  Google Analytics is a popular tool that allows just that and in fact, more.  With Google Analytics, you create custom dashboards that help you visualize how a visitor moves within your eCommerce site. It tells you which landing pages helped your average customer discover your products, and where they eventually lost interest and decided to leave & drop off. By reverse engineering, store owners eventually learn which areas of the store require iterations. 

Simplify Navigation on Your eCommerce Store 

What makes an eCommerce store better? The answer lies in navigation.  The easier it is for a customer to find their way around different products in your store, the more accessible your eCommerce store is going to become for customers. If you go exploring the different eCommerce stores, you will find that the navigation for many of them is flat. What does it mean by a store being “Flat”? It refers to the design of the eCommerce store having as few layers as possible.  An eCommerce store serves best when everything is only three clicks on the homepage.  After all, you want to make your eCommerce store as simple as possible for visitors to get from the core landing pages to the product pages and the checkout page.  This, in turn, makes the online purchase as seamless as possible.   Complex navigation is the same as having an eCommerce page with a longer load time. For example, a person might decide to leave your website just because they get stuck in the labyrinthine site design which can be overall frustrating and eventually leads to cart abandonment.   There are several things that eCommerce store owners can do to optimize & improve site navigation. Start by including breadcrumbs, simplifying the option on the menu, and prioritizing other elements.  Amazon is a prime example of an eCommerce store that optimizes navigation for its users.  Despite having millions of products, Amazon uses a flat design to make sure everything is accessible in just a few clicks. The website’s homepage features categories and search filters, while breadcrumbs allow users to track their path through different pages. For example, when shopping for electronics, customers can quickly narrow down their search by using filters like brand, price range, and customer reviews.  This ultimately reduces the complexity of finding specific products. 

Offering Personalized Shopping Experience 

Customers today usually demand shopping experiences customized to meet their preferences.  The more data you can collect on them, the easier it becomes for you to offer them personalized shopping experiences. You will eventually find it easier to predict what they are looking for and then optimize the shopping experience. Let’s say, even if you are only getting started, target the low-hanging fruits. Showcase similar/frequently bought together product items to optimize purchases. It’s a successful way to start because it doesn’t require data collection, but rather creates a new way to collect information.  However, with an eCommerce business, you can take it a step further.  Imagine a Shopify-based clothing store using user cookies, geo-targeting, and augmented reality in eCommerce to enhance the online shopping experience. When a returning customer visits the site, the store can display items based on their previous browsing history. For example, if the user recently looked at winter coats, the homepage will highlight related products like scarves or boots. Besides, geo-targeting can be used to display location-specific products or promotions. If a visitor from Florida lands on the site, the store may showcase lighter, summer clothing, while someone from New York might see recommendations for warmer, seasonal outfits.

Using Scarcity & Urgency to Increase Business Sales

Emotions play a vital role in increasing eCommerce sales.  Many brands have upscaled their businesses to earn significant profits by simply capitalizing on emotions. The two emotional drivers that helped many e-commerce businesses increase their sales over time are none other than scarcity and urgency. By showing your stocks are limited, you increase the chance of online purchase solely because it’s marketed as a product available in limited edition.  A sense of urgency shows that a particular product on the market is only available for a short period. Customers often find the need to purchase a product, just because they fear losing out on the great offer. 

Add Live Chat Support to Your Website 

Having your questions answered or getting your queries resolved, especially when you’re dealing with a salesperson at a store, is much easier than dealing with a person behind a virtual storefront with Live Chat Support, you can offer this liberty to all your customers.  More than 70% of the customers prefer to purchase from stores with live chat support. They prefer this mode of communication much better compared to any other, such as emails and social media.  With Live Chat support on your website, it’s bound that no customer will leave your store. If they have any questions for which they seek answers, they can simply ask a customer support agent. Live Chat offers immediate solutions. If a shopper has any issues related to product return policy, seller information, or anything else, there’s always an expert available to offer reassurance. 

Lastly, Don’t Forget Product Reviews 

BigCommerce reveals that 69% of online shoppers want eCommerce stores to share more product reviews. This is because people trust other online purchasers more than they believe existing store owners.  Buyers are always looking for social proof before they make up their minds about purchasing a product.  When there are customer reviews on a certain product, it eventually improves the credibility of the store & instills legitimacy of the products. People eventually become more inclined to shortlist the products and ensure they are investing in stuff that’s worthy of purchase. It wins their vote of confidence. 

Concluding Thoughts 

To ensure your eCommerce store stands out from the rest of the competition and brings in more sales, we have put together some of the best eCommerce conversion strategies within a single article.  By following these steps, we believe you will be better equipped to streamline the customer journey, simplify invitations, and offer a more personalized experience to your customers.  Adding chat support to your website, displaying product reviews, or simply taking steps such as simplifying navigation or adding scarcity or urgency are just a few steps.  Want to build an online store to offer increased conversions?  Well, here’s how you can achieve it and much more. At Branex, a custom website development company, we believe in building eCommerce solutions that go a long way! 

Are you suffering from ”Gotta-do-a-deal-it-us” syndrome in Business?

People who are from real estate might understand what I am talking about. For others, let me elaborate. The situation occurs when you’re buying a property that’s way out of your league. However, since you’re inspired by the events that occurred in Jim Carrey’s Yes Man, you end up saying YES to the deal and paying too much for the property. What ensues afterward is buyer’s remorse and a huge dent in your wallet.

In business, the core goal is to generate revenue. However, your customer might have some other goals. A customer wants to pay as little as possible for the product, which might not work for you.

Not every customer is like that. So, it is best advised to use the power of no to fire these types of customers first. My ex-boss used to call such customers ‘energy drainers.’ Not every customer is worth serving; similarly, not every business deal or personal favor is necessary to accept.

If you are like me, you might find it impossible to say no to anyone.

Why Do People Find It Difficult to Say No When They Should

• When you say No to a client, it might upset them, and you can lose the customer.
• Saying no is disturbing. Science proves that our brain is hard-wired with a negative bias that makes us sensitive and difficult to accept anything negative. So, as a result, we avoid interaction at all.
• A potential client might not accept no at first and push you towards ending with a yes.
• If you don’t say no to people, you are sending a clear message that you are willing to deliver everything they ask of you.

It is not at all about saying no. It is about the way you say it. At times it becomes necessary to use the power of no to get some pressure off your back. Also, that is precisely what you’ll learn in this blog.

First, let’s look at the various benefits of saying no.

Benefits of Saying No

• The less available you are, the more clients will be eager to get to you. When you say no to a client, it conveys that you are overloaded with much work and gives the impression that you are a desirable company.
• Saying no will save a lot of your precious time. If you don’t set boundaries, clients will think that you have much time. A client might ask for a revision without paying anything extra; this is an excellent time to say no.
• The worst kind of business relationship is one in which a person feels that they are taken advantage of. When you say no to a client, it means that you are seriously professional and don’t take anything for granted.
• A simple no will give a message to your client that both parties can speak freely, and this will strengthen the bond.
• You might not understand the power of any at the moment, but when you start saying no, you’ll be able to focus on the other essential aspects of your business.

An excellent TED talk about ‘The Art of Saying No.’

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPRrn5nwAo[/embed]

When is the Right Time to Say ‘No’?

Now that we have established the power of no, let’s look at when is the right time to say no.

Before you say no, ask these four questions:

• Is it beneficial for me to work with this client?
• Does the client understand the value of my time?
• Will saying “yes” cost you anything extra?
• Is the client demanding anything other than the agreed-upon scope?

If you are a startup, then the last point is the only one that might impact you. For a well-established business, answering no to any of the last two questions will be the best choice.

How Do You Say “No” Without Hurting Anyone?

It takes more than words to say no to anymore. If you don’t practice it enough, you cannot hurt people. Start practicing with your friends. Next, you can try in the emails.

1. How to Say No Without Being Rude?

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YAo19qr5WM[/embed]

My rules of saying no to people I don’t want to.

2. Set Early Boundaries

Tell the person the processes, and the expectations early on. This includes working hours, preferred communication methods, and turnaround time. The best approach is to talk as much as you can right at the beginning. If anything goes beyond the scope of work, inform them about the priority and the extra costs associated with them.

Early boundaries will eliminate any confusion. Even if you are willing to make any changes in the middle of the project, state the reason why you are changing the timeline or adding things.

3. The Reason Why You are Saying No

Imagine this. If someone asks you to slash your quoted price for a solution by 20%, you say no abruptly without providing any valid reason. This will convey two messages. You lose a customer, and second, the potential customer will tell everyone that you’re a jerk.

On the other hand, if a person asks you to reduce the offering price and instead of saying ‘no’ straightaway, you tell them, ‘I cannot do it. Because if I take this project, I will spend less time on this project and will not be able to deliver the full scope of the project. Moreover, your business will be affected.”

Notice the difference? When you say ‘no’ with a reason, the client cannot argue with you because you have done the maths. You have determined that the discount is not worth your time. The client has a choice. Either go for a cheaper service or pay whatever you’re asking for.

Of course, some will go for a cheaper service, but you’ve harnessed the power of no to give a clear message without hurting the reputation of your brand.

4. Give an Alternate Solution

What if instead of leaving the client in the desert, you plan to help your client? To do so, you can provide an alternative solution to the client.

You can make a deal that is agreed by both, or you can revise the scope, and contract keeping intact the interests of both parties.

Conclusion

Saying no won't be easy if you're used to saying yes, all the time. However, learning to harness the power of no is an essential part of simplifying your life and managing your stress. Moreover, with practice, you may find saying no gets more comfortable. Whenever you are planning to say no to someone, keep in mind to be brief, honest, and respectful. Rest, you’ll learn as you practice.

There are things in life that we can’t say no to. For Branex, it is crafting exciting web and mobile experiences for our amazing clients.

So if you’re looking to get eCommerce services or mobile application development services, say YES to Branex and we’ll open the door to endless possibilities for designing your next digital marvel.

Is there any chance that you have been to a McDonald's Job in New York on Third Avenue at 58th Street? If not, here is how things go by. You enter McDonald's. You place an order on a touch screen. Your order is cooked by a McRobot and served by a McRobot too. As surprising as it might seem, this is quite alarming for unskilled employees. Also, in some cases, even professional employees are being replaced by automated robots. A recent study predicts that automation will eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030. If you're not worried yet, you should be. If you’ve not yet seen Black Mirror, a Twilight Zone-esque anthology TV series about technological anxieties and possible futures.  I would suggest you log into Netflix, grab some popcorn, and binge-watch all five seasons. From the first episode of Season 5, where AI took over the feelings of an average human being to the third episode, namely, ‘Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too’ where a famous popstar was replaced by her AI robot. Yes. A clear indication that robots are taking over our jobs. Robots are now performing automation jobs more efficiently and accurately, a task once assigned to manual labor. Companies are investing billions in automating jobs. The jobs which were once performed by a real person are now being handled by machines. Do you pump your gas? Buy groceries from a self-service shelf. Alternatively, even consult an AI-based doctor to prescribe you meds. More and more jobs are assigned to robots. Automation is not a bad thing. It is smart to replace the back-breaking work that even injured employees, or plainly worn-out workers, do. Sadly, it is replacing unskilled labor such as cashiers. Instead of charging manually on credit cards, payments are made via Apple Pay or Google Pay. Even the task of flipping burgers can be assigned to robots who are making patties by pressing them between two hot rollers. JPMorgan is using software that figures out which of the documents are relevant to a case in a matter of seconds, something that used to take lawyers more than 360,000 Hours of hard work. Before you start rushing to check if your current job is at risk, there is a tool for that as well. Ironically. Will Robots take my job, and will they help you figure out if you need to switch or pursue your career or not?

Lifesaving Tips To Keep You On The Job In The Future

Here are some lifesaving tips to keep you on the job soon:

1. Always be Learning:

Japanese use the word Kaizen, which means constant growth. If you dream of having a prosperous life in the future, you must invest your energy in growing slowly every day. Education doesn’t end at the age of 22, nor does it end at 82. CEOs of today and successful people prefer reading books over spending their free time on vacation. Companies like Zappos and Amazon give their employees extra credit if they learn something other than their core field. In a federal report in the year 2017, it was concluded that more than half a million Americans are unemployed just because they won’t accept a job which is below their skill level. Figure out ways to help employees learn new skills. Develop a culture of lifelong learning.

2. Stay Curious:

Technology is moving at an enormous rate. The interns, the CEOs, and even the managers must prepare themselves for the future. The only way to survive is to stay curious. Evolve. Widen your skillset. You might be good at analyzing data. However, if you are not willing to put in your blood, sweat, and tears to learn, you’ll end up in the dungeons with the dragons. It’s necessary to exercise the Curiosity Quotient (CQ). To stay relevant, you must ask the right questions. If you keep a company of diversified people, they will generate new ideas and even contradict your opinions, which will help you to learn something new. It’s fantastic how great of an impact passionate curiosity combined with diverse, inclusive teams can have on the success of a leader, team, and business as a whole.

3. Negotiation and Persuasion:

According to Oxford research, people who have mastered arts, creativity, negotiation, persuasion, social perceptiveness, or are adept at assisting or caring for others, are in the least danger of being overtaken by Schwarzenegger-like T-800 cybernetic beings. Unfortunately, those with cramped workspaces or those who deal in tasks entailing manual/finger dexterity are most likely to be assimilated by the Borg. Neuromarketing can help you learn about the buyer’s intent and help you take the necessary actions to persuade the potential consumer to buy from your brand. Robots cannot do any such thing. The more questions you ask your customer, the more feedback you’ll be able to gather. Moreover, based on that feedback, you can judge the emotional state of the customers. Sure, robots can take data and apply some logic to analyze the situation. But robots can’t understand the feelings of customers.

4. Psychology Tricks to Persuade Anyone:

Alibaba Founder Jack Ma said at this year's Bloomberg Global Business Forum that artificial intelligence will lead to new opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL1nyEi7VwY There are some jobs that are safe from robots, which are difficult to replace.

Imagine, Because Robots Cannot

One trait that cannot be learned by robots is imagination. AI currently works by taking existing data and making logical inferences based on the parameters we give it. Imagination and dreaming are not programmable skills. Activists, entrepreneurs, visionaries, thought leaders, authors, speakers, and others have a distinct advantage over technology in this arena, and that isn't going to change any time soon. The revolution of going back to the basics of humanity is about bringing each of those skills back to our reality at home, school, and work. It is impossible to answer ‘Will robots take my job?’. However, what each one of you can do is take these skills seriously and get yourself immersed in the habit of learning and growing. It is because of those skills that we have evolved over thousands of years. Moreover, it is because of those skills that we will continue to survive and thrive in times of technological disruption.