How to Make Money with Podcasts in 2022?

posted on January 12, 2022

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The rise of Clubhouse in 2019/2020 clearly demonstrated that podcasts are far from being dead. As opposed to text and video materials, this format offers a wide range of unique advantages such as,

  1. The capability to listen to podcasts on the go while driving or doing your household chores.
  2. Audio materials do not require continuous visual contact with any screen making them compatible with most daily activities.
  3. The format of podcasts lends itself to the old-style radio show format that is still highly demanded by lots of listeners.

While this type of content is relatively easy to produce, its authors still need money for equipment, operating expenses, and other needs even if they do not seek to become professional content creators in this sphere. This substantiates the need to explore the most effective ways to make money with podcasts in 2022.

Image Courtesy of Unsplash

1. Affiliate Marketing

This instrument is the most straightforward one in terms of ease of use for podcasters. If your channel has lots of listeners, some firms will probably approach you with requests to promote their products and services. You can integrate such messages in various formats ranging from affiliate links on social media to voiced advertisements made during your podcasts. The main ‘rule of thumb’ here is to make such promotions non-intrusive and always check the quality and legality of the products and services you promote. Most listeners grudgingly accept the need for paid advertisements as a way of supporting the channel that allows its owner to continue making quality content for them. However, the promotion of online casinos, Ponzi schemes or other ethically controversial offerings is a quick way to ruin your reputation for good or even end up in jail like several top-ranked US media experts. Always make sure that you could imagine yourself using the products and services you promote or selling them to your close friends and relatives.

2. Branded Memorabilia

As your podcast is growing in popularity, there will be lots of people willing to show their support and contribution by purchasing various merchandise featuring your logo or other branded visuals. These activities represent two potential customer motivations. On the one hand, some listeners view such purchases as a form of donations supporting the channel, which is why they can purchase your offerings even if they are not planning to use them in their daily lives. On the other hand, your creativity may result in some really interesting product designs that can attract even non-followers. The main idea here is to not rely on the second strategy and start with the first one. Offer some basic merchandise such as cups, stickers or T-shirts with memorable quotes from your podcasts or your logo. You can start with a third-party print-on-demand service working on a per-order basis and expand your operations when necessary. Combined with other tactics such as Patreon subscriptions and product sales, merchandise sales allow you to create a steady source of passive income that will be growing over time.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

3. Patreon and Live Stream Donations

Many podcasters including Crime Junkie, Dan Cummins, and Heather McDonald presently make their living via income from Patreon and similar membership platforms for creators. They allow your listeners to support your channel via paid subscriptions. The unique feature of this scheme is its flexible nature. Many artists offer various benefits to their subscribers such as early access to new podcasts or some additional materials that are only available to supporters. It is also possible to set up various tiers depending on the amount of money your followers are willing to share with you monthly. With that being said, some content creators choose to not offer any advantages to paid subscribers in comparison with regular listeners. This unconventional approach may be less popular but is more suitable for ‘independent thinkers’ willing to show that they treat every member of their audience equally and do not push anyone into supporting their channel. Similarly, live streams are frequently accompanied by paid donations allowing any listener to send a small sum of money and have their question answered by the show host. This form of monetisation is completely unobtrusive but frequently leads to substantial revenues from loyal fans of your channel willing to support it or establish direct communication with you via it.

4. Offering Your Own Products

Podcasters focusing on educational context or professional recommendations can monetise their activities by offering auxiliary products. The best rule here is to use free handouts first in the form of various cheat sheets, eBooks or online mini-courses. These products will guide your listeners several steps further in their customer journeys. You can ‘close the deal’ later by selling ‘full’ offerings such as long-term programmes, books or personal consultations. With that being said, this monetisation format may not be suitable for all podcasters. Developing high-quality materials that suit the needs of all viewers may be extremely challenging even for top-level experts. At the same time, going into one-on-one coaching effectively forces you into an additional full-time job if you want to effectively monetise this activity. Hence, a middle-of-the-road approach may be preferable for most podcasters.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

The four tactics described above allow you to form a flexible monetisation strategy that suits the specific needs of your channel. For example, podcasters who are just starting out may not receive a lot of affiliate marketing requests and can focus on Patreon subscriptions, live streams, and the development of their own products. As your channel grows over time, you may choose to combine all of these methods to create a stable source of passive income. However, it is crucial that you are always careful regarding the types of monetisation you choose and the kinds of products and services you recommend to your followers. While some podcasters want to start making lots of money over their first year, a single wrong step can close this opportunity for you forever. Keep in mind that you should always view your listeners as your friends and be grateful to them for their support of your channel.

The post How to Make Money with Podcasts in 2022? appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Use AirDrop on iPhone and iPad? A Step-By-Step Guide

posted on January 10, 2022

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It is now easier than ever to share files and photos between devices. AirDrop allows you to send files from an iPhone to a Mac or iPad with a single tap, as long as they are within range. Now, what is this range? AirDrop transmits files using a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so your iPhone, iPad, or Mac must be within 30 feet of each other.

How to Turn On AirDrop on iPhone and iPad?

Turning on AirDrop on your iPhone or iPad is incredibly easy. Follow the below steps to accomplish your objective in a go:

  1. Go to your iPhone settings
  2. Tap “General.”
  3. Choose “AirDrop” on the general page.
  4. Now, choose who can see you by tapping “Contacts Only” or “Everyone.”

You’re done! Limiting AirDrop to your contacts is a safety approach, but selecting “everyone” is convenient if you frequently receive files from different individuals.

How Can You Use AirDrop?

Similar to Bluetooth, iPhone users use AirDrop to share and receive files with other nearby Apple devices.

Before you begin:

  • Check that the person to whom you’re sending is nearby and within Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range.
  • Check that you and the person you are sending to have turned on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Turn off Personal Hotspot if either of you has it enabled.
  • Check to see if the person you’re sending to has AirDrop set to receive only from contacts. If they do, and you’re in their Contacts, they must have your Apple ID’s email ID or mobile number in their contact card for AirDrop to work.
  • If you are not in their Contacts, request that they change their AirDrop receiving setting to “Everyone” to receive the file.

How to use AirDrop (On your iPhone11 and later)

  • To share an app, open it and then hit Share or the Share icon. You can swipe left or right to select several photographs when sharing a photo from the Photos app.
  • Select the AirDrop option.
  • If the person with whom you wish to share an iPhone 11 or 12 model also owns an iPhone, aim your iPhone in the direction of the other iPhone.
  • At the top of the screen, tap the user’s profile image. Alternatively, you can utilize AirDrop to transfer files between your own Apple devices. If the AirDrop button has a red numbered badge, there are several devices nearby that you can share with. Tap the AirDrop button, followed by the user with whom you wish to share. Learn what to do if the AirDrop user or your other device is not visible.

If the person you’re exchanging material with is a contact, you’ll see an image beside their name. However, if they are not in your contacts, you will only see their name and no image. For more information regarding this aspect, connect with experts offering global assignment helpservices. With their suggestions, things will get easier for you.

On your iPhone XS or earlier and iPad

  • Open an app, then select Share or the Share button from the menu bar. When you share a photo from the Photos app, you can choose multiple photos by swiping left or right on the screen.
  • To use AirDrop, press the AirDrop button.
  • Select the AirDrop user with whom you want to share the file. Alternatively, you can utilize AirDrop to transfer files between your own Apple devices.
  • Seeing a red numbered badge on the AirDrop button indicates that there are several devices nearby with which you can share your files. First, tap the AirDrop button, then tap the person’s name to whom you wish to send the file.

Whether or not the person with whom you’re sharing material is already in your Contacts, you’ll see a picture next to their name. If they are not in your Contacts, you will only see their name and not an image for them.

How to Accept AirDrop?

When someone uses AirDrop to share anything with you, you will receive an alert with a preview of the item. You have the option of selecting Accept or Decline.

If you accept the AirDrop, the message will be delivered within the same app from which it was sent. For example, images are displayed in the Photos app and webpages are opened on the Safari web browser. In addition, app links open in the App Store, allowing you to download or purchase the app directly from the link.

If you AirDrop something to yourself, such as a photo from your iPhone to your Mac, you won’t be presented with an Accept or Decline button; instead, the item will be delivered to your device immediately. Ensure that both devices are signed in with the same Apple ID on both computers.

How to Adjust AirDrop Settings?

To control who has access to your device and can send you content using AirDrop, follow these steps:

  • Select General from the Settings menu.
  • Tap AirDrop, then select an option from the drop-down menu.

The control center also gives you the scope to set your AirDrop option.

Troubleshooting

Like any technology, AirDrop may malfunction at times. If you face such a situation, you need to check the following aspects:

  • Is your Mac/iPhone/iPad compatible with AirDrop? It must run Mac OS X Yosemite or a later version.
  • Ascertain that both your iPad and iPhone have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
  • It’s likely that the devices are too close, particularly if the Mac is not visible in the iPhone’s AirDrop list. So close the distance between the two devices.
  • Ensure that the iPhone is not using a personal hotspot to connect to the internet. Open Settings and ascertain that Personal Hotspot is disabled.

Wrapping Up

Now that you have understood the intricacies associated with using AirDrop on iPhone, it is expected that you can easily implement the above steps in real-life circumstances.

The post How to Use AirDrop on iPhone and iPad? A Step-By-Step Guide appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Steps to Take to Create Employee Training Videos

posted on January 7, 2022

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In this day and age, video has undoubtedly become the new mode of learning. According to a Pew Research study, 87% of YouTube users utilize the platform to figure out how to do things they have never done before.

Another report states that in 2021, 71% of people resorted to watching two or more instructional videos per week. The figures are not surprising as new technologies have made creating and sharing visually engaging videos easier than ever.

Interestingly, videos have also become a core part of employee training. Back in the day, businesses would play VHS tapes featuring generic training content on health and safety or compliance. However, things have changed and how!

What Makes Training Videos for Employees Effective?

In simple words, videos make training more interactive and engaging. That is especially helpful when dealing with dry subjects such as employee onboarding, product education, and compliance. Plus, it is common knowledge that pictures are easier to recall than words.

Video offers a much richer visual context and tone than text, blending multiple modes of communication into a single format. When someone can see “how” something should be done before giving it a try on their own rather than reading about it, that helps.

Lastly, videos are more cost-effective than having in-person sessions. In fact, remote training with video gained precedence due to the pandemic with 28% of companies reporting a decrease in their training budgets, while 49% said it remained the same.

Types of Employee Training Videos

Now that we know that videos have significant pedagogical value and boost learning and development in many ways, let us look at different training videos that you can create to explain various aspects of your business and operations:

1. Screencasts

A screencast is typically a recording of the computer screen, where the trainer explains or performs a task in real-time. Such recordings can also be edited to create standalone video demos. If you want to make short, quick explainer videos, screencasts are an excellent option.

Used correctly, they can be engaging and cost-effective to educate and train your employees on many things, from website walkthroughs and project deep-dives to HR explanation and technical demos.

2. Tutorials or instructional videos

Such videos help take new employees step-by-step on how to follow a process or perform a particular task in the company. Mid-video quizzes, interactive quizzes, and frequent annotations help boost engagement rates.

Tutorials are versatile, and you can cover almost any topic with them. Even within instructional videos, there are a few different approaches you can take:

  • Demos: Such videos demonstrate a process or product in action.
  • How-tos: As the name suggests, these explain how to do something, usually in numbered steps.
  • Animated videos: These work wonderfully for data visualization purposes where having a real-life person do the explaining might confuse employees.

3. Presentation captures

Nearly 90% of people put great effort into their presentations. However, getting the most out of them is still a challenge, primarily because once the person has given a presentation on a product launch or compliance policy change, one cannot go back and replay it in real life.

That is where recording it comes in handy. You can either capture the presentation in real-time as you present or do it in advance to benefit from the flipped model.

That way, your presentation can be made available on-demand for both those who could not attend and for future employees. Many screen capture tools are helpful, such as Camtasia, which lets you record your voice over your presentation directly inside PowerPoint.

4. Employee-made videos

They make a great addition to the training program because by asking employees to create videos on specific topics, you can test them simultaneously. They can practice what they learned through videos and make more accessible versions for new hires.

Seven Steps to Take to Create a Compelling Employee Training Video

Creating a video can be daunting. One needs to get everything right — equipment, lighting, script, special effects, and so on.

So before you get overwhelmed, take a deep breath and simply follow these seven steps one-by-one to create engaging videos that will stay with your employees even after they have finished watching:

1. First, decide what you want to teach

You can create videos on many topics, but it is best to develop a calendar containing details of what you want to produce and when to use your resources optimally. Understand your business requirements and then focus on a topic that will benefit your employees.

You could consider a variety of topics such as professional ethics, compliance, product initiatives, diversity and inclusion, and so on. You may also divide the video into several segments to make it crisp and easier to consume.

2. Write the script and design a storyboard

When you start penning down the script, you will have a clearer picture in your mind regarding how you want the video to flow. From the layout of the scenes to the type of visuals, you can visualize the entire setup with this exercise.

When writing the script, read it aloud so that its tone and flow match the entire setup etched in your mind. Remove all the extra words and unnecessary jargon. Shorten your sentences, and make sure your message is direct and helpful to many different people.

If you produce a video without any script in place, it will show that you have worked in a disorderly fashion. Once you are done with this, create a storyboard showing a pictorial sequence of the video.

Please make use of screenshots, copy-paste pictures, and sketch stick figures to demonstrate each video scene on paper before the production begins.

3. Choose a suitable video format

Step #2 will help you decide which video format you want to opt for. Think about the types we discussed in the previous sections and try to pick one based on the kind of training you wish to provide. For instance, you can create a screencast-type training video to walk employees through the new CRM interface.

However, if you are only creating animated videos, it is best to invest in a brilliant animation video maker such as Animaker, Doratoon, and VIDDYOZE. Once you know the full scope of the video-making process, set up a project management tool like Trello to keep all the stakeholders on track. You can also track project notes and delivery timelines on a shareable Google sheet.

4. Sort out your equipment

This should not be a problem as everyone has a smartphone and laptop with built-in cameras. But if you are looking to produce videos in HD, investing in a high-end camera would not hurt in the long run — quality matters.

And if you use a screen capture tool, you won’t even need a camera. You can purchase other equipment such as a lapel microphone, tripod, and light reflectors online. In addition, please check to see if you need a license for the video editing software.

If you plan to include music in the videos, there are many paid music libraries such as Airbit and Songtradr from where you can pick beats that match the overall look n’ feel of the video.

5. Film your training video

Once the equipment is sorted, start recording your video unless you decide to go for an animated video or capture the presentation you give in real-time. Plan the date, time, and location of the shoot and coordinate the stakeholders’ schedules who will be on screen.

Choose a quiet environment such as a conference room or rent an off-site studio. Avoid busy backgrounds where objects or people are constantly on the move. The focus should solely be on the presenter.

When recording, focus on audio quality over video. Poor audio distracts more than poor visuals. Also, do not forget to capture b-roll footage. For instance, if your presenter talks about “how to work in teams,” capture extra b-roll footage of colleagues working together.

If you are recording on your screen, use tools such as Prezi to do that. The visual experience needs to be as clean as possible, so close all tabs and clean your desktop. Before recording, please ensure you know how to navigate through the process yourself.

Avoid figuring it out on the go. Practice the steps as much as possible so that your recording comes out engaging and smooth.

6. Edit the video

The biggest advantage of producing your employee training videos is that you have complete control over how it comes together. Once you have shot the video, created the animations, or recorded your screen, use any video editing software to polish the end product and add branding, music, and transitions for greater appeal. Some of the best solutions available in the market include Vimeo Create and Adobe Premiere Pro.

7. Host and distribute your employee training videos

Once the video is ready, you will need a place to host it and share it with your workforce. A good LMS helps you embed external videos from sites such as YouTube and make them easily accessible to employees.

If the video content is sensitive and you only want a specific set of people to watch them, use a video hosting solution such as Panopto to stream content in the most secure manner possible. You can also unlist videos on YouTube and ensure only select people have the links.

Over To You

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of training videos is that you can ensure every employee has the same experience, which is impossible when a real-life person trains.

When pharma company AstraZeneca wanted to train its 70,000 employees, it wanted an interactive platform and did the job well.

Uniformity was of paramount importance, so they used Facebook’s Workplace platform to inform employees about the company strategy through live videos. This training method resulted in a 35% increase in content consumption compared to when they used an intranet.

When you create and launch training videos, you engage your employees better and ensure they can rewatch them any time they need a refresher. So, are you set to create your very own series of employee training videos?

The post 7 Steps to Take to Create Employee Training Videos appeared first on SiteProNews.

Which is the Best App for Photo Background Changes?

posted on January 5, 2022

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Finding the right background remover app can be a game-changer for you. You don’t have to be a Photoshop expert to remove or change image backgrounds. All you have to do is find the best background remover app that provides superb cutouts every time.

However, since numerous options are available in the market, it can be tough to make the right decision. From technology to features and pricing, there’s a lot to consider. But don’t worry – we have compiled a list of the top three best background removal apps in the market for you.

Best Background Remover Apps

Whether you’re taking product shots or require a fun social media profile picture on a solid background, you’ll need the same background remover apps. But that doesn’t mean that all background editors are designed the same way. 

While you will find an abundance of free background remover apps online, only a few of these are capable of producing professional-level results. Here is a list of the top three apps to remove backgrounds from photos.

1. Slazzer

Unlike most background removers available in the market, Slazzer relies on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to differentiate between foreground and background. The patented vision algorithms ensure high-quality cutouts for even the most complex details. In fact, it is one of the leading reasons why Slazzer is dubbed the best app to remove backgrounds from photos.      

Slazzer also comes with some excellent features that are hard to find in other background changers. For instance, while apps let you change the background of an image, most won’t let you leave the subject on a translucent background. Fortunately, Slazzer allows you to save PNG files with a transparent background. This seemingly small feature can come in handy when making visual content.  

Slazzer also makes it possible to upload a new photo as a background or choose a solid color. It also comes with a number of built-in background templates that you can use to create creative backgrounds within seconds. This app can help improve the digital efficiency and image background optimization speed by supporting you with bulk background removal. You can download this free background remover app for desktop or integrate Slazzer API or plugins with some of the most popular eCommerce sites, design applications, and computing environments. 

Now let’s take a look at pricing. Slazzer is free background remover app option for personal users or individuals who wish to use basic functions. However, if you want to optimize HD quality background, it is best to opt for a subscription or top-up plan. The best pricing plan for you depends on your use case.

Slazzer’s Top-Up plans may be the ideal option if you want to do a one-time task with no commitment. These credits also have a two-year expiration date, which is great. But if you have recurring needs, then Slazzer’s subscription plans may be the most cost-effective, starting at just 100 credits each month.

2. InPixio

With InPixio Remove Background, you can easily select any section of your photo and remove it without spending a dime. There is no need to install any software on your computer because this utility is available online. InPixio has a user interface that is simple to use and navigate.

However, keep in mind that InPixio does not allow for automatic background selection. After you upload the image, you will have to use the red brush to choose the undesirable portions. The good news is that the tool can be resized to make it more useful. Moreover, you don’t need to be precise with the brush.

While you can use the app online, a desktop version is also available. The free version is suitable for basic background removals. However, for advanced options and best quality, you may want to invest in InPixio photo software, Photo Studio Pro, which includes a full-featured version of Photo Editor.

It will give you additional editing possibilities, such as stickers and text, one-click image correction, tilt-shift, blurring options, and more.

3. Canva Pro

Canva is a solid performer for editing the background from photographs and taking care of most graphic design duties. No wonder the tool is quickly becoming one of the top choices for expert designers and professionals. It is important to mention that while background removal is one of the best features of Canva Pro, the app has a lot more to offer.

It allows designers to centralize their content and collaborate more effectively. It further provides templates, photos, and design templates that teams can utilize to produce on-brand graphics. So, while the background removal tool is one of its nicest features, Canva Pro is more suitable for teams who require a complete set of designing and branding tools.

On the other hand, if you are simply looking to remove image backgrounds, it is best to stick to apps designed exclusively for this purpose.

Most people use Canva’s free version, but the Pro version adds a slew of extra photo editing features, like the ability to modify the backdrop or completely delete background elements. However, keep in mind that you will be charged an extra fee for each team member you add to your Canva Pro account.

The Verdict’s In – Slazzer is Our Top Pick!

Image courtesy of Pexels

Considering the advanced technology, unique features and quality, exceptional tools and API, and cost-effective pricing solutions, Slazzer is easily the best background remover app in the market.

Whether you use it online, download it on your phone or desktop, or integrate it into another platform, you can expect excellent results every time. Visit Slazzer to learn more about our top pick and start editing your image backgrounds right away. 

The post Which is the Best App for Photo Background Changes? appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Find Journalists’ Requests

posted on January 3, 2022

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Whether you’re a fledgling entrepreneur, an established business owner, or simply a thought leader looking to generate more press coverage about you or your brand, knowing how and where to find journalists’ requests for media is crucial to gaining valuable PR. The good news is that you don’t even need to necessarily be ready — or have the extra capital needed — for an all-out PR blitz, as finding the right journalist at the right time can even lend you a brief mention in an article for a journalist’s media pipeline.

Journalists will routinely post calls for stories they plan to publish that require an expert opinion or credible source when these are not immediately available from within their own network. These are especially common for publications or articles that are centered around an extremely niche topic, which can quickly translate to organic PR coverage for entrepreneurs or their business’s brand by highlighting you as a relevant expert within your specific field through a short quote or backlinks to your website.

Typically, most requests made by journalists or reporters will have a set of guidelines to follow when responding to their request and tend to be time-sensitive depending on the journalist’s deadline, meaning the sooner you respond to their request with credible and relevant information, the better chances you have of landing yourself organic media coverage.

Thankfully, there are plenty of services and platforms out there to help journalists market these requests and that will help you find them.

Use Media Inquiry Services to Search for Requests Made by Journalists


As the name suggests, media inquiry services are platforms through which journalists can make inquiries or requests for a relevant source of information on a specific piece of media they intend to publish. These allow journalists to find you rather than you trying to cold pitch to them for coverage by sending their request to a larger network of potential sources, or people who can direct them towards a credible information source. Some of these services are targeted towards more specific audience demographics or geographical locations, so it’s important that you know precisely who the request is targeting, what for, and why.

Some of the more popular media inquiry services include:

Each of these services operates using its own unique platform, so be sure to familiarize yourself with each to see which ones are best suited to your media and PR goals.

HARO

Short for “Help A Reporter Out,” HARO is one of the simplest and most effective ways journalists use to seek out content to report, and it’s completely free to use. All you need to do as a potential journalistic source is to sign up for an account and select which types of requests you wish to receive from reporters. You’ll then receive emails up to three times each day with requests made by journalists through HARO’s service.

The requests typically have everything the article will be about and what the journalist needs, including deadlines, editorial/writing guidelines, and what outlet their coverage will be targeting. The requests you’ll find through HARO can vary between topics from gift bundle ideas for holidays to expert political or legal insight, self-care and beauty tips, and more, making it a great free service for entrepreneurs and business owners to utilize when looking for media coverage.

Google Alerts

Oftentimes when a certain story in media is still unfolding, journalists will include an email at the end of an article they publish on the topic that might include a line such as:


“Have you been impacted by X? Get in touch via this email”.

Sometimes, however, the inquiry for more information or additional interviews won’t be as explicit, but many editors and outlets will welcome guest pieces or independently-written opinion pieces by guest writers not directly associated with their publication related to a specific story in current news cycles. In these cases, setting up Google Alerts for certain keywords or phrases related to your industry and/or the story in question can be a great way to find and keep track of journalists’ requests pertaining to that story or industry. Doing so will allow you to respond to inquiries made by journalists or reporters much faster as those opportunities appear in real-time.

Twitter Hashtags

Unsurprisingly, an increasing number of journalists and reporters have begun to use Twitter more effectively in recent years by following trending hashtags pertaining to certain topics in news.

When they need a credible source to help craft or write a piece on that topic, they will sometimes post a tweet along with hashtags like “#JournoRequest” or “#PRrequest” which means you can search for these hashtags and respond to them accordingly. This is a great way to not only search for recent requests made by journalists, but also to stay updated on trending media topics relevant to you or your business, as well as to introduce yourself to a greater number of journalists you can then establish credible rapport with and begin building valuable relationships with them.

Responding to Requests Made by Journalists and Reporters

Whenever you find and read a particular request made by a journalist or reporter, you might initially feel that you or your brand can be the best match for them. The caveat here is that, if you feel this way, it’s likely that tens, dozens, or even hundreds of other potential contacts are thinking the exact same thing. As such, it’s your responsibility as a credible source to show the journalist why you are not only the right person to help write or comment on their story, but the best candidate to do so.

The first thing you’ll need to do is capture the journalist’s attention in your response to their inquiry. Perhaps the best way to do this is to craft your response to each request in the form of a short-form media pitch structured as follows:

  • In the first line of your response email, include your niche “hook” to keep their attention
  • A short paragraph outlining your personal “Who/What/Why”: who you are, what your experience was or is, and why you are the best fit for their request
  • A concise conclusion thanking the journalist for their time and consideration as well as your most updated contact information

Your pitch response to them shouldn’t be longer than 200-300 words total, and the bulk of the information you provide should be done in an easily readable bullet-point format. Remember that most journalists are looking for quotes from experts, so the more well-written and customized your response pitch is to them and their needs, the better your chances of getting selected will be.

Concluding Remarks

It’s worth noting that responding to requests and inquiries made by journalists is more a long-term strategy for gaining news coverage and media attention. You’ll undoubtedly have to read through dozens of requests that are irrelevant to you before you find one that is, and you’ll likely have to respond to just as many requests with custom, personalized pitches before you’re selected for one. This is what makes knowing and understanding how to navigate the ever-changing media landscape all the more important when finding where to look for journalists’ requests.

You should also keep in mind that while these requests can provide you opportunities for essentially free press coverage, you won’t be chosen unless your specific expertise can add value to a journalist’s own story. But by proving that you can do this through showcasing examples of prior writing that show journalists your relevance, and through including request searches into a part of your daily routine, you’re already giving yourself a greater opportunity to land more media placements at virtually no cost to you.

The post How to Find Journalists’ Requests appeared first on SiteProNews.

Brand Marketing Strategy Guide for Startups: Harness the Power of Your Brand with These Strategies

posted on December 29, 2021

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What’s a brand? Is it a logo, colors, or typography? Not quite. Brands are more than their assets – they promise an experience to a customer.

A brand is a concept that differentiates a company or product from the competition. With branding, you can shape how your company is perceived by your customers to drive growth and positive ROI.

Many startups focus exclusively on developing a product and its story, instead of creating a brand that fosters positive perception in customers. Product development and time-to-market take precedence over long-term brand strategy.

How to Build Success with Your Brand

Focus on the Customer for Your Brand Story

The brand story is more than your story about why you started a business. A brand story tells the world who you are and what you stand for, so customers have an idea of what they can expect.

Customers aren’t just searching for bargains – they want to forge a connection with a brand that appeals to their sense of self and engages them.

The goal with your story is to create an emotional connection with your customers and use strong messaging to attract customers. Remember that a brand story doesn’t need to be elaborate to be successful. Developing a great story is a matter of telling your customers the problem you wanted to solve, how you approached solving it, and how successful you were.

Customers aren’t looking to buy your products just to make you rich. They want to find products that tackle their pain points. Your story is a way to tell your customers that you understand and relate to them.

Let Customer Insights, Not Product Features, Inform Strategy

When you have a product you’re proud to reveal, it only makes sense that you’ll want to create marketing campaigns that tell the world. In most cases, this means highlighting the product features, but that doesn’t do much for the customer.

A bunch of bells and whistles may excite you, but they don’t provide context for customers. Talking about your features is salesy and makes the customer connect the dots for what the features are and how they provide a real-world benefit.

Marketing means attracting people to your products because of how they can help them. Show your audience why purchasing the product can change their life.

Of course, you can still discuss your product features. After all, they’re part of the benefits of your product. Just keep the focus on what they can do for the customer, instead of highlighting them for the sake of it.

Develop the Touchpoints on the Customer Journey

Touchpoints are all the places where a customer interacts with your brand, which forms their overall perception. When you identify and map out the customer touchpoints, you can make sure the interactions reinforce your message and build brand loyalty.

Touchpoints include the awareness, evaluation, and post-purchase phases. With customer journey mapping, you can see where customers interact with your brand during each phase and create a seamless, positive customer experience.

All touchpoints should:

  • Represent your brand
  • Attract your customers’ attention
  • Motivate them to take an action

Ask yourself some questions to think like a customer, such as:

  • What is the first impression at each touchpoint?
  • Is the experience different than that of competitors?
  • Will it attract customers?
  • Does it motivate customers to act?

By thinking like a customer, you can evaluate your brand from the customer’s perspective and develop your touchpoints for a positive experience.

Powerful Brand Strategies

While the specifics of each brand can vary, these broad strategies can help you develop the appropriate brand strategy for your business:

Focus on CX

For startups, everything is about the user experience (UX) instead of the customer experience (CX). UX considers how customers interact with a product and the experience that comes from that interaction, while CX considers every interaction a customer has with a brand, such as the post-purchase experience and customer service.

UX is part of CX, so if you’re only paying attention to UX, you’re missing a big part of the experience. If you have a lot of market competition, you’re missing an opportunity to elevate your brand by providing a superior customer experience than your competitors.

Failing to consider both UX and CX can be detrimental to your business, so optimize both to provide a positive customer experience.

Use a Customer Advisory Board

Finding out what is special about your product and why it appeals to customers takes a lot of listening and effort. You can streamline the process with a customer advisory board.

A customer advisory board is a group of customers that come together to share insights into your product and brand. Customers are encouraged to provide feedback, both good and bad, and make suggestions for improvements and features. With the right guidance, customers may also share insights into how the product fits into their lives and why they need it in the first place, which can inform your development process.

Embrace Strategic Brand Communications

Strategic brand communications are vital to any branding effort. By taking a proactive stance, you can make sure you’re connecting with the right audience at the right time on the right device.

Brand communications plans include targeting your audience, creating goals and objectives, developing key messaging, forming a tactical action plan, and choosing metrics to determine success. With all this mapped out, you can provide better brand experiences with your audience across all touchpoints.

Create Framework for Reviewing Feedback

Customer feedback can go a long way in giving you suggestions, ideas, and recommendations to develop your brand or product. Not every idea is a gem, however, and some are good but only represent a small part of your audience. Furthermore, some ideas are the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.

With a high volume of feedback, you can end up on a path that isn’t the best choice for your brand. Implement a process to review feedback and ideas. Set up guidelines to decide which ideas have merit and which don’t, so you can ensure only the most appropriate and innovative ideas get your attention.

Make Your Employees Brand Advocates

Employees are excellent brand advocates. Customers see positive employees and develop more trust in your brand. By empowering your employees to promote your brand, you can gain an edge over the competition with customers and talent.

You can start by seeing if any employees are interested in being brand advocates. From there, offer training and development tools to help them spread the word about your brand through events, social media, and customer interactions. You can also offer one-on-one coaching and meetings to help your employees realize their potential as brand advocates, listen to their stories, and gather ideas for branded content.

Manage Change

Change is inevitable in any business, but it can be more volatile in startup environments. The business itself can not only experience changes that force restructuring or pivots, but the larger market can have detrimental impacts that require massive organizational change.

Contingency planning ensures you have a plan in place to address threats, risks, and opportunities for organizational and market changes, fluctuations in the market, and cultural shifts. With a backup, you’ll be prepared for the dramatic, unexpected, and damage changes that may occur and you can keep your business moving forward.

The post Brand Marketing Strategy Guide for Startups: Harness the Power of Your Brand with These Strategies appeared first on SiteProNews.

All the Latest SEO Changes in 2021

posted on December 27, 2021

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The SEO industry is highly unpredictable. It makes it harder for marketing strategists and professional writing services to rank their content. The algorithms and trends keep changing. And before we know it, there’s a new set of rules ready to dominate the online world in a mere few months.

Similarly, 2021 was also ready for the SEO changes like every year before it. In this post, you will learn about new trends and find some old ones still standing in the SEO game. If you are ready to make your mark this year, check out these SEO changes to improve your content.

2021 SEO Trends for Professional Writing Service

It does not matter whether you are an online marketer interested in improving your inbound marketing strategy or a person just starting a new website. SEO guidelines do not prioritize one over another. The set rules are the same for everyone who is interested in ranking high in search results.

Take a closer look at the most significant SEO changes made for 2021 that will help you improve your search engine rankings!

Multitask United Model (MUM) for SEO Rankings

MUM is the latest Natural Language Processing (NLP) model created by Google, 1000 times faster than BERT. Now that says a lot about how crucial SEO is for this global company!

When Prabhakar Raghavan introduced MUM to the world at Google I/O 2021, he said that the model was capable of analyzing online content like images, text, and videos in 75 different languages. This is supposed to be ideal for complex search queries.

He further mentioned that MUM can understand languages, generate them, and train across 75 languages simultaneously. MUM is still in the testing phase, but Google will soon be letting it out of the lab for all users like professional writing service providers, video content creators, etc.

Core Web Vitals for Measuring User Experience

The SEO trend prioritizes page speed over any other website factor in 2021. Core Web Vitals are three SEO metrics that measure user experience about loading, visual stability, and interactivity.

Loading: How fast can the page load?

Visual Stability: How stable is the page while loading?

Interactivity: How long does it take to get interactive?

If you are looking to improve your inbound marketing strategy by content development, you can use the Core Web Vitals to your advantage. If a new user finds your website but does not stay, it won’t be good for the ranking. So, invest in user experience as it is directly proportional to SEO success.

Passage Indexing for Long-form Content

If you have written long-form content before but failed to get ranked on the greatest search engine, then, this SEO trend will be your new best friend!

For many professional writing service providers and bloggers, it was tough to spend hours finding the right keywords and writing thousands of words per blog post. Yet, the result was no ranking.

However, passage indexing will change the old methods of web crawling and improve SEO ranking. Google has introduced this NLP feature that will index web pages and analyze the meaning of each passage. It will help long-form content creators to get ranked on Google. based on specific sections of their posts.

More Keyword Research…Again

While those interested in inbound marketing strategy and optimization are working hard to rank on Google, the search engine keeps updating its methods to answer queries.

With Featured Snippets, related questions with answers, and Google’s business listings – people do not need to click on a link to get what they were looking for.

This is why keyword research is becoming increasingly important as SEO practices advance. To improve your search ranking, you can target long-tail keywords and write specific articles/blogs about topics.

SERPs are the best place to find the keywords that you want to try. Invest more time in searching for the keyword than any other SEO practice. It will benefit your website or business in the long run.

Voice Search: The New Game Changer

Smartphones are becoming smarter, and people are trying out new features to improve their tech experiences. Similarly, voice search is becoming a trend on its own for SEO optimization.

Let’s say, you provide a professional writing service to clients who want to target voice search queries. You’ll have to search for long-tail keywords that are very focused. Keyword research depends on your target audience and the topic. Therefore, voice search queries will be more specific and to the point.

Still, voice search optimization is new, so you can take your time learning as an SEO content creator.

Original Content is Still Relevant

Despite all the changes to SEO practices in 2021, this one hasn’t changed. No method is better than writing original content to reach a good SEO ranking.

If you want to create a killer inbound marketing strategy to increase sales or bring in new customers, original content is the best way to do it. If you want to promote an old business online, authentic content is the way to go.

Google will look for keywords and page speeds, etc., to rank a web page, but if the content is bad, it’s going to disregard it anyway. Their AI web crawlers are more efficient now as they understand language and interpret it better than they did before.

Wrapping It Up

Although there are many more SEO changes in 2021 that are equally effective, the six mentioned in this article are the core features. They will help you prepare better content for search engine ranking. Let’s recap them!

The first one was the newest NLP model from Google to improve search results. This can help you search audiences of different languages and prepare more global content.

The second one was Core Web Vitals metrics to improve user experience through page speed. Ultimately, happy visitors return.

The third one is an improved Google feature for ranking long-form content. So, if you want to write valuable pieces, instead of keyword-stuffed articles, this feature will be helpful.

The fourth and fifth are for keyword research, one for text and another for voice search. SEO writing is incomplete without keywords, but finding the right keywords for the right audience is crucial!

The last one is the ultimate feature that will help you rank on search engines. With the help of the other five, you can write great content prices with original and new information for your audience.

The post All the Latest SEO Changes in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Use Gamification to Build and Motivate Your Remote Team

posted on December 22, 2021

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Workplaces are changing, with remote teams increasing in popularity.

Remote workers don’t have the distractions of an office environment. But, they don’t have the engagement or social interaction of joint working spaces either. That can lead to unmotivated and unproductive employees.

To prevent this, companies have turned to gamification to provide engaging experiences and build a winning remote team. But what is gamification, and how can it help?

Here, we’ll go over what gamification is, how it works, and the strategies you can use to motivate your remote team.

What is gamification?

Gamification involves using and applying gaming principles to work tasks or processes to make them more appealing to employees. It could be in the form of a competition, leaderboard, achievement, or points system.

The goal of gamification isn’t to turn work into a game, but to use game-based elements to drive employees to be more productive, engaged, and motivated. It assists businesses in reaching goals, improving business practices, and better managing a remote workforce.

Why is it important for remote teams?

In traditional offices, there’s a strong sense of community, culture, and belonging. Employees can interact socially, foster strong relationships, and collaborate effectively.

In remote environments, workers can feel isolated. With fewer social interactions between employees, working relationships aren’t as strong, and communication can suffer. Groups can form, creating communication silos, and employees can be left out.

It has a massive impact on your business. With employees feeling demotivated, their productivity decreases, and business goals and success are impacted.

Additionally, unhappy employees and fragmented workspaces lead to low retention, affecting recruitment and onboarding.

Gamification can provide motivation to up productivity of employees, improve their experience, increase their satisfaction, and help them socialize.

By adding a fun gaming element, you can drive certain behaviors to enhance the abilities of your remote team.

How does gamification work?

Below are four things to consider when creating any gamification strategy to motivate your remote team.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Define your goals and outcomes

Understanding what you want to achieve is imperative to employing the right tactics to motivate your remote workers. Additionally, it helps identify ways to track and monitor the progress of employees.

After all, gamification is about getting the best out of remote teams to boost company growth and success.

Consider your goals. Make them specific and achievable. For example, you may want to increase the number of cold calls your sales teams make.

Once you have a goal, you can look at ways to encourage your employees to hit targets. This is where defining your outcomes are important. What happens once your team hits their target? What stops them from lowering productivity? What incentives do you have to keep them motivated?

Consult employees to ensure your goals are attainable and see what incentives will boost your remote teams.

Choose game elements for your team

Consider the strategies and elements that work best in motivating your team to reach your defined goals.

Every remote team is different and has different challenges. While some employees thrive in a competitive atmosphere, others prefer a stress-free environment. Which is best for your team?

For example, using hackathons in corporate innovation can inspire employees, and encourage creativity and collaborations. But, some employees work best on their own.

Choose game elements that suit your employees, bring out the best in them, and which are driving factors to increase their engagement and productivity.

Focus on the user experience

Games are based on the user experience, and your gamification should be no different.

Consider asking your employees about different gamification methods and how to implement them to promote ease of use. If you’re using apps, choose or design ones with a simple, intuitive interface. This way, employees will be motivated to get involved.

Image courtesy of TalentLMS

Track and measure

The overall aim of gamification is to motivate remote teams and drive business success. So, to know if it’s working, you need to track the progress of your gamification strategies.

Use KPIs and metrics to track and measure how your employees are doing. These will depend on your defined goals. For example, if your goal was to improve communication between employees, you could measure the number of messages sent by each employee through a chat.

It identifies areas where your tactics are working and where improvements are needed to overcome the downsides of remote work and motivate your remote team.

What can you gamify?

Almost anything can be gamified to improve the productivity and engagement of your remote teams. Some areas you may want to gamify to boost remote employee morale and motivations include:

  • Onboarding
  • Employee training
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Relationships

Gamification strategies to motivate your remote team

Use badges

Badges are an ideal way to appreciate employees and provide incentives to reach goals.

For example, you could give employees badges for reaching set goals, to acknowledge their skills, or to appreciate their work ethic.

When giving badges, focus on why an employee achieved it rather than how many each employee has. It will enable you to identify employee strengths and weaknesses and track their progress over time.

Make communication fun

Communication is essential for remote employees. But remote working communication is often through a virtual phone system or formal emails.

While a workplace focuses on work, informal communication is essential to foster good relationships and build better collaboration.

Gamification can encourage more communication and important social interactions between employees.

For example, encouraging emojis or gifs in messaging apps or having a weekly show and tell can move employees away from a stiff disconnected environment to an open, welcoming space.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

As well as boosting morale, it brings employees closer, leading to greater collaboration and team-working. You can additionally track which employees are getting involved and which aren’t, allowing you to find areas of improvement.

Onboard new employees

Good employee onboarding is vital. It helps train new employees, improves employee retention, and provides an incentive for recruitment.

But onboarding can be filled with tedious tasks, like paperwork, setting up accounts, and learning about company practices. Using gaming elements will make this engaging.

There’s a couple of ways to do this. First, employ challenges, checklists, and progress bars to show employees in a visual way how far they’ve gotten in the onboarding process. Use leaderboards to promote healthy competition to get through onboarding effectively.

Secondly, use games to help new workers learn about products and practices. For example, ask sales or marketing employees to imagine aliens have landed, and it’s their job to describe a company product or service to them.

Ask your employees to present their sales pitches to the team. It’s a fun icebreaker activity that motivates new employees to learn about company products without sifting through lists of specifications.

Employing similar methods in recruitment can help attract new employees and build a better remote team.

Make employee training enjoyable

Training is necessary for business and employee growth. However, you may have a low uptake in training for remote employees.

Use gamification to train employees engagingly. Instead of just giving them training videos to watch, plan competitions or fun exercises around each video to show off their new skills.

For example, if you’re teaching a cold email masterclass, challenge employees to write compelling content to market their favorite foods and send it to their coworkers. Have the employees vote on which they think is best.

It reinforces the skills they’ve learned, encourages remote employees to work at the same pace, and provides them with a fun, social task to look forward to.

Image courtesy of TalentLMS

Offer rewards

An employee of the month scheme is an effective way to recognize and appreciate employees who perform outstandingly.

It often comes with perks, such as movie tickets or gift cards, promoting healthy competition and providing incentives for employees to be more productive.

When it comes to gamification, leaderboards can show employees how they compare. But after the initial novelty wears off, productivity can lower, and engagement can wither.

Using incentives gives employees an aim. It’s essential to drive remote employees to stay motivated and engaged.

It can also be a selling point for recruitment, as it shows you value workers that perform well, enabling you to build out your remote workforce.

Scavenger hunts

Information is shared widely in traditional offices. If a worker finds a useful document, they’ll mention it to a colleague instantly. This doesn’t happen in remote spaces.

Instead, have scavenger hunts for employees to find information in company intranets, and learn about new tools and technologies, such as what a wifi call is. Pair employees up to further facilitate engagement and collaboration.

Is it all fun and games?

Gamification fosters stronger working relationships, engages employees, and motivates your remote teams. With happier and more productive workers, it enables you to reach your goals, driving business growth and success.

It’s about bringing a new concept to the table, like with workflow improvement ideas to evolve with changing office environments.

However, finding a balance is critical to ensure productivity alongside a fun working environment. It’s vital to define your goals and identify the gamification activities that will work best for your team.

Ensure you track and measure crucial KPIs and metrics to ensure your employees are on the right track.

After all, gamification isn’t all fun and games.

The post How to Use Gamification to Build and Motivate Your Remote Team appeared first on SiteProNews.

Top 6 CRM Software for Small Businesses

posted on December 20, 2021

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Running a small business is not an easy job. The growth of a small business is one of the most common challenges that almost every entrepreneur faces. The growth of any business, irrespective of its size and kind, means more customers, more revenues, and a minimum turnover of employees.

With the invention of the latest technological gadgets and software, Customer Relationship Management software, often referred to as CRM software, has become of great value to small businesses. As the name indicates, this software is used to build and maintain long-lasting relations with existing and potential clients.

Why Do Small Businesses Need CRM Software?

Just like an established business, there is so much going on within a small business. CRM software can be beneficial for small business owners in many ways.

  • CRM software allows business owners to organize their contacts. As the business grows, its customers base also expands. This means that business owners need different software to organize their contacts. Organizing contacts helps to run sales and other processes smoothly.
  • CRM software is used to keep track of business sales by giving an overview of different sale metrics, including calls made to customers and booked deals. It allows easy communication with customers and potential buyers.
  • CRM software is also used for customers segmentation. CRM software has all the data about potential clients of the SME, and it can be used by digital marketers and sales teams to do customer segmentation easily. The tool divides business customers into multiple groups based on deal size, location, and other factors.

Top CRM Software for Small Businesses (SMBs)

If you are a small business owner and looking for CRM software to grow your business, the following list of the top six CRM packages are specifically designed for SMBs:

1. Hubspot

Most small business owners recommend Hubspot for organizing and maintaining contacts and looking into sales. It comes in a completely free version and is considered the best tool for maintaining the contacts of small businesses.

Features:

  • It helps the owner and management keep track of business activities.
  • It organizes business contacts.
  • It keeps a record of, and tracks. business deals.
  • Data is managed in a detailed dashboard that is visible and that can be accessed by all team members.
  • Besides using the CRM tool to maintain the contacts of your business, it also increases inbound sales as it is integrated with some of the famous shopping apps, including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Shopify.
  • Pricing: Free, or upgrade to a paid version (starting at 41 EUR / month).

2. SalesForce

Next on the list of the best CRM tools for small businesses is SalesForce. Did you know that SalesForce is one of the appreciated and most used CRM software among small businesses management?

Features:

  • It allows management to keep track of the business’s valuable customers by noting down successful deals.
  • The software offers a basic edition,”lightening essentials.”
  • Lighting essentials helps small business owners to grow and reach their potential clients by providing an advance contact manager. It includes email configuration, customization, and follow-up reminders.
  • Pricing: Lightning Essentials package ($25/month/user), Lightning Professional ($75/month/user), and more.

3. Zoho

Zoho is one of the most loved CRM software, and small business management appreciates every feature.

Features:

It is said that Zoho is more than customer management software. It is also includes:

  • A sales and marketing feature to increase inbound sales. it is built with:
    • Lead scoring
    • Website visitor tracking and
    • Sales signals

However, to upgrading features, businesses have to invest in the upgraded-professional edition of Zoho.

  • Pricing: Free version, Standard ($12/month), Professional ($20/month), Enterprise ($35/month), and more.

4. The Real Estate CRM

Another addition to the list which is easy to use and needs no special training is The Real Estate CRM.

Features:

  • The interface of the software is divided into five sections: dashboard, people and organizations, sales pipeline, calendars, and tasks.
  • The Real Estate CRM is not only used to keep track of valuable real estate business clients and maintain a healthy, yet long-term relationship with them but can also keep track of business sales.
  • Another important feature that makes this CRM software loved by everyone is that it can be installed on both PCs and smartphones. Smartphone installation allows small business owners to contacts clients easily.
  • Pricing: contact the company for pricing.

5. Converge Hub

ConvergeHub is cloud-based CRM software specially designed to cater to the needs of small businesses.

Features:

  • With this CRM software, small business owners and management can store and keep a record of contact lists. By keeping a record of the business sales, Converge Hub also lets management know which client is the most valuable for the business.
  • The tool is used to arrange campaigns and manage other sales activities.
  • ConvergeHub is featured with built-in SalesForce automation and marketing automation modules too. It can be coordinated with shopping platforms to increase business sales.
  • Pricing: Starts from $9/user/month (Starter package) up to $59/user/month (Premium package).

6. Microsoft Dynamics 360

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is software can be used for maintaining business contacts along with sales and marketing.

It is not that simple to use, especially for first-time users, but the excellent features are worth investing some time in learning.

Features:

  • This software can be tied to LinkedIn to reach more potential clients and maintain valuable relationships with them.
  • Pricing: € 42.20/user/month.

Now You Can Choose Software to run your Business Smoothly

Running a small business and maintaining business contacts is not an easy thing to do. If you are a small business owner and looking for reliable CRM software, the aforementioned CRM software will make the decision-making process easier for you.

The post Top 6 CRM Software for Small Businesses appeared first on SiteProNews.

9 Coupon Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Results

posted on December 17, 2021

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When buying items and services online, few people expect to pay full price. With so many merchants giving new customer discounts and digital coupons, there’s a good chance you’ll find a coupon code to use on your next online purchase.

Coupons and discounts are frequently used by retailers in their marketing efforts to promote sales conversion rates and client loyalty.


Consumers can’t resist the opportunity to pay less for a product they want to acquire, no matter what client group your firm targets or how exquisite the things you sell are.

You may improve sales while creating brand loyalty using a coupon marketing plan, among other things.

We’ll examine the specific actions you need to take to start using coupons in your marketing plan in this post.

Determine the Sort of Coupon You’ll be Using

Coupons are available in a multitude of formats and sizes. Despite the fact that they all work in the same way, the slight distinctions between each coupon type might have an impact on how customers perceive cashback and act subsequently.

Set a Percentage

A percentage discount on a product’s original price is the most typical coupon. According to research, “percentage off” coupons are the most popular coupon kind, with 74 percent of internet buyers preferring them.

Various Coupon Marketing Modes


Free Shipping

This form of discount reduces a purchase’s shipping expenses, which is the most common cause for customers abandoning their online shopping carts. Although this sample may not appear to be a standard coupon, it functions just as effectively.

If you haven’t previously, we recommend starting with a percentage-based coupon because it’s the most popular and easiest to use. Any of the other coupon kinds may be tested to discover which one converts the best and generates the highest average order value.

Promo Codes

Promo codes have grown in popularity as e-commerce has grown in prominence. This type of discount is easier for the client to complete at the point of sale than downloading a coupon.

These codes are usually applied during the checkout process and consist of a combination of brand-unique digits and letters. They can be one-time-use codes that are tailored for a specific user or a generic code that can be shared.

Automatically Applied Discounts

Automatically applied discounts are becoming more popular since the customer does not have to do anything to obtain a discount. These are effective for e-commerce businesses because they entice clients with a discount offer, which reduces shopping cart abandonment and churn rate.

Coupons That Can Be Downloaded

Consumers may get these sorts of vouchers from a variety of places. Customers can get coupons straight from a company’s website, via email, or through social media. Most of the time, these coupons can also be accessed via mobile devices.

Coupons on Mobile Devices

Mobile-only coupons are offered by e-commerce platforms that have incorporated mobile applications into their operations in order to boost sales in this channel.

How to Optimize Your Coupon Marketing Strategies

Coupons, when handled effectively, may contribute a significant amount of top-line income with only a minimal marketing budget. It comes at a price, but it pays off handsomely. Here are a few of the most significant advantages of implementing coupon campaigns into your marketing strategy.

1. Customers That Are Loyal Should Be Rewarded

You may and should utilize discounts to reward loyal consumers if you have a loyalty club.

As an example, if a consumer spends a specific amount on your site, you might reward them by giving them a discount ticket for their next purchase.

According to one study, 76 percent of buyers desire customized offers based on their previous purchases.

Offering incentives based on prior purchases is a terrific way to tailor offers for your subscribers.

2. Boost the Effectiveness of Your Referral Campaign

The majority of referral schemes are based on coupons and discounts. Existing customers and new acquisitions, or “friends,” are both eligible for referrals. Each person earns a coupon for completing a task.

An existing customer brings a new prospect into the business and gives them a coupon to use. The original customer receives a discount or incentive code that may be applied to their next order after the new prospect, now a customer puts in an order.


3. Obtain Feedback From Customers

“Get 10% off by taking a 5-minute survey!”

These brief surveys may help you improve your business in a variety of ways, and they’re worth far more than the 20% discount. This data, taken together, might help you create a far better experience and reduce your need for discounts in the future.

4. Include a Time Limit

“Order before December 25 at 12 p.m. for a 30% discount!”

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, is a powerful conversion motivator. Customers will be pushed to check out as a result of the time constraint. Make your window of opportunity as realistic as possible, but not so far into the future that it loses its usefulness.

5. Holidays Should be a Priority

You may help clients rejoice by using “Santa Claus” as a promo code for Christmas or “USA” for the 4th of July. Using popular culture in your marketing techniques is also more applicable and remembered. It’s a yearly campaign that may be tweaked to match your company’s demands.

6. Shopping Coupons for the First Time

The importance of first impressions cannot be overstated. I’m sure we all looked on the internet once in search of a warm welcome offer for a brand with which we’d never done business.

You can simply find a welcome offer on your website, whether you’re a new brand or wish to extend your customer base.

7. Existing Customers’ Referrals Should Be Rewarded

If you’re like most business owners, you understand the value of word-of-mouth marketing.

The issue is that few marketers incorporate a predictable and repeatable referral mechanism into their campaigns.

The figures couldn’t be more telling. According to research, 83% of happy consumers are likely to recommend items and services to others. However, just 29% of people really do.

Discounts are thus a strong incentive for customers to recommend their friends and family.

8. Larger Purchases Get Discounts

The more items you buy, the more money you’ll save!

This offer is quite prevalent in the fashion industry, especially for more expensive businesses who wish to entice customers to convert.

This method may also be used by B2B enterprises who wish to focus on a certain item. On a hierarchical level, consider it a pricing plan.

9. Provide Subscription Discounts

Customer retention may be improved in a variety of ways.

Consumers today prioritize convenience over anything else. And the sooner and easier they can obtain what they require, the better.

You may give a discount on your subscriptions to encourage prospects to pick a subscription over a one-time purchase.

Most businesses can afford to do so because they know it will boost their customer lifetime value (LTV) and allow them to return their investment in the long run.

Advantages of Coupon Marketing

Attracts the attention of customers

Discounts may be utilized to attract more people since people desire to buy things. If your offer is only valid for a few days, please make it clear that your reduced items are promoted. People will rush in to have a look if they know they only have a few days to complete the task.

Boosts Your Brand Reputation

A company’s image can be improved by providing discounts to specific groups, such as the elderly or the military. If a firm gives discounts to individuals in difficult circumstances or those who may face financial difficulties as a result of a lack of revenue, it is demonstrating that it is attempting to assist people. Because many people think of businesses as money-hungry, any deviation from this perception might help them improve their reputation.

Helps in Obtaining Sales Goals

Every week, month, quarter, or year, many businesses set sales goals. If a corporation is on the verge of missing such goals, discounts may be used to help the company meet or surpass its sales projections.

Increases the Amount of Space in Your Store

Discount codes allow your store to make room. Items that you don’t expect to sell may sit in your business for months. By lowering the price and making room for additional things, you increase your chances of selling them. Reduced products that you don’t intend to sell should be placed towards the front of your store to account for every customer.

Allow Customers to Select You Over the Competition by Making It Easy for Them to Do So

Discounts, according to studies, make it less likely for buyers to compare your products to those of other competitors. This will allow new customers to choose your products and offer you an advantage over your competitors.

The Bottom Line

Coupons are an appealing strategy to increase volume and sales. Including them in your marketing mix can help you swiftly grow your consumer base and temporarily boost your conversion rates. While there is no genuine substitute for delivering high-quality items at reasonable prices, coupons can help supplement such efforts when the competition heats up or consumer expectations demand it.

Because becoming hooked on couponing may be a highly pricey, unsustainable tactic that many businesses can’t afford, plan ahead and budget properly. Coupons alone will not help you establish brand equity, but combining a clever coupon strategy with a high-quality product can.

The post 9 Coupon Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Results appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Screen Guest Post Submissions for Your Blog

posted on December 15, 2021

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Guest posting or guest blogging is one of the most effective off-site SEO strategies. Publishing content to another site can bring more attention to your website, company, and products. You essentially get some promotion from a high-traffic website with thousands of regular readers. Getting backlinks from reputable sites also boosts your domain authority, a crucial ranking factor for search engines.

That said, what’s in it for the host? Should you allow guest posts on your blog?

How Does Guest Blogging Benefit the Host Site?

The common practice of guest blogging is a system of equivalent exchange: You submit high-quality and original content to another site, and you get a backlink in return.

The one who submits content gets a quality backlink and exposure to the host site’s audience, while the host site gets fresh and original content.

Allowing guest posts can have other advantages, such as:

  • It’s an opportunity to publish content from other industry and niche experts.
  • You can provide your audience with a different perspective.
  • You can build a relationship with other reputable sites and companies.
  • You reduce the content you have to create for your blog.

In some cases, bloggers open for guest post submissions when they encounter changes that can potentially affect their writing schedules, like a company expansion, a rebrand, or traveling.

Why Do You Need to Screen Submissions?

If you’ve pitched a few ideas and manuscripts before, you might notice that some sites are quite strict with their submissions.

That’s because host sites also stand to lose and gain something from the exchange.

In most cases, allowing guest posts will get you a lot of submissions. Since it’s a well-known SEO strategy, people are always looking for sites willing to host content and give them backlinks. However, not all of those submissions will be high-quality, original, or relevant to your blog’s theme or content. Additionally, not every author is going to be qualified.

Remember, content and backlink quality are SEO ranking factors. This means hosts can’t publish low-quality content and link to low-quality sites. So you can’t just accept every submission that comes through.

This means you need to look out for two crucial things:

1. Submission Quality

The guest post itself should be high-quality. It needs to be relevant, original, well-written, and proofread. It needs to be free of rookie errors like spelling mistakes and bad grammar.

2. Backlink Quality

Since you’re getting content, you need to give backlinks in return. However, you don’t want to link to low-quality sites. Watch out for spam, duplicates, and plagiarized content.

3 Ways to Screen Your Guest Post Submissions

When it comes to submissions, you must have a system to check the content, the author, and their website.

Here are some tips to help you create a streamlined and effective screening process:

1. Have A Clear Guest Post Guideline

Screening guest posts can be a lot of work, but it’s only the first step to publishing guest posts. You still need to review, edit, and reformat them before they go live on your blog. However, restricting possible irrelevant content from the start should help reduce the emails and submissions you have to go through.

Since guest posts are a viable marketing tool, a lot of people are eager to get their manuscripts published. However, you don’t want to get gardening and maintenance articles clogging your emails if you’re running a digital marketing blog.

So, be clear about what you want from guest blogs and make sure they’re accessible through your website.

Here are a few crucial things you need to include in your guidelines:

  • Allowable topics, themes, and content
  • Minimum and maximum word count
  • Acceptable document files (i.e., .docx, HTML, etc.)
  • Desired writing styles (i.e., the tone, formatting, and delivery of your ideal submission)
  • Details you want to be included in the pitch (i.e., author details, links, previous work, etc.)
  • Submission instructions (i.e., links to forms, emails, attachments, etc.)

In short, be very detailed about what you want from the submissions. For example, if you need author headshots, brief bios, links, attached images, or other specific details, make sure to include them all in your guidelines.

If you’re getting a large volume of submissions, you can also include your estimated turnaround time. Some guidelines are even frank enough to say they’ll ignore and won’t reply to pitches they don’t like.

2. Ask for Title and Outline Pitches

Manuscripts can range from 500-3000 words. They not only take so much time for authors to write, but it’s a lot for you (or your editors) to read through.

One way to make it easy for both parties is to only allow title and outline pitches. This will enable you to look at the crucial parts of the pitch without going through the entire 1000-word manuscript. In most cases, the title and summary are enough to give you an idea of what the content will be.

Of course, don’t forget to look at the author’s website and do some research on their past writing ventures. An applicant or author’s credentials can hint at the quality of writing to expect. Fortunately, most authors will try to layout their qualifications, as they’re trying to convince you that they’re a reputable source who will deliver a great guest post.

Finally, make sure you set deadlines. Asking for titles and outline submissions means that the applicant doesn’t have to write anything until you’ve approved their pitches. Setting reasonable deadlines makes sure your publishing schedule is unimpeded.

3. Use Online Forms

Some hosts prefer that submissions are directly emailed to their editors. However, using forms can make it easier to sort data that are being submitted.

You can ask people to submit the title, summary, and outline along with an attached manuscript. Then, you and your editors can just look through the titles and weed out irrelevant content. On the other hand, if a title or summary sounds fantastic, you can immediately open the attachment and review the manuscript.

Additionally, you can also ask authors to fill in information about themselves. Ask for their names, website, a brief summary of their qualifications, as well as links to previously-published content. This will allow you to see whether it’s worth linking to their websites.

If their company or products are associated with thin content, plagiarism, link farms, or spam, it’s best to steer clear of them.

Bottom-Line

Like most SEO experts would tell you, your content should always prioritize “quality over quantity.” So even if you’re not getting as many submissions as popular sites, you still need to make sure your guest posts benefit your website’s SEO.

Otherwise, you’ll end up publishing spam and low-quality content, which can start to affect your rankings.

The post How to Screen Guest Post Submissions for Your Blog appeared first on SiteProNews.

When Should Your Business Use Microservices Orchestration?

posted on December 13, 2021

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There’s a time and place for everything. Not only does that mean that microservices orchestration requires certain conditions to be beneficial to a business — it also is the core idea behind orchestration in the first place. When your microservices function without orchestration, a business can easily fall into chaos. But how do you know that your business is ready for this type of orchestration? How do you know your business has a need for its various services to be handled in a centralized manner, with everything from business logic to timing becoming part of the master process? Well, you might not know. Unless, of course, you come across a checklist that lays it all out for you so you can make the right decision. Here’s what we came up with for you:

1. When Your Business Uses Several Microservices

One of the most telling qualifiers for a business that should use microservices orchestration is when the business has several microservices that are essential to its chief business output. Whether it’s in-house production for a white label service or a boutique, your chief business output might require various products to create the end result. And in that case, it’s always best if you orchestrate microservices with a tool that makes the process simple to control and to monitor. With something to visualize the overall process, you can identify bottlenecks at various stages and microservices to address problems more quickly, rather than having to inspect each part of the process individually. Again, if your business process consists of several micro-processes, orchestration is a solution that can aid you greatly.

2. When Timing Is Crucial to Production

While some elements of a process can wait for other steps to complete, there are some processes or micro-processes that are sensitive to timing. Whether that means that production should be slowed to await all finished components or whether that means you’ll have to automate times for specific deliverables or materials to become available during the process, orchestration can accomplish exactly that. With a set of rules that defines these timing constraints, you’ll find your business able to carry out what it means to, without putting at risk any time-sensitive deliverables or resources. Everything can be orchestrated to keep the process moving at the rate that’s optimal for quality production on your end.

3. When You Need Business Logic Centrally Stored

More than keeping in mind things like timing and the number of components within your process, you might have to consider how your business logic gets stored. When much of it is stored within the applications and containers of your process, then its likelihood of being fixed in a timely manner depends on a lot of factors, including how complex the rest of the application’s logic is. In addition, you risk error or time loss every time your business logic requires an update, and in some business settings, that can happen very often. So, if your business processes require regular and consistent updates to the business logic that’s essential to your workflow, you might need said business logic centrally stored. While some keep this logic on a separate Business Logic Engine, you also have the option of using a workflow orchestration tool to manage this code and to disseminate it to the many microservices of your operation without much effort at all. This kind of implementation helps to eliminate potential errors in the code updates, as well as to keep it stored separately from the operational logic that keeps each individual application in working order. Having a centralized, tiered approach to the storage of your business logic and other essential programming makes the process much more secure in the event of something happening to a single vital component.

4. When Your Process Uses Multiple Languages

The benefit of having numerous different microprocesses is that they have the ability to work independently on various tasks at their own defined rates, rather than relying on the time allotted after one specific step is finished. All of these applications can work at the same time — but they often don’t share the same programming language, which means that some of the deliverables can suffer in quality if there isn’t a way to properly communicate between them. In these cases, the options are limited: you either are forced to manually handle the transfers between silos, to let them proceed and risk a loss of information, or to implement a language-agnostic method of information transfer between each microservice. If that final choice sounded like the best one to you, that’s because it is. It’s what a great workflow orchestration tool does for various microservices being used together, to create usable deliverables in each instance without the worry of application compatibility.

5. When You Want to Scale Your Business

It’s not outlandish to want more. More clients, more workloads, more production. But you have to be prepared for it if you want it. And that’s why businesses who are looking to scale their workflow to allow for more instances, higher throughput, and overall better service to a wider audience, all need to orchestrate microservices in order to create the best possible process they can. With the emphasis on throughput being so strong, it’s important to know that your business process is inherently designed to run with or without you behind the wheel — and that’s something an automated orchestration tool will easily accomplish.

The post When Should Your Business Use Microservices Orchestration? appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Effective Tips for Building an Email Sequence that Works

posted on December 10, 2021

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Email marketing fell out of favor when social media came along. Marketers started to dismiss its value and made the move to social media. Now, email marketing is bigger and more important than ever.

Once you have a customer’s email address, you have immediate access to their inbox. That inbox is as good as marketing real estate gets. You can send email after email at no cost, giving you plenty of opportunities to generate profit through effective CTAs.

The main challenge of email marketing is relevance. If your email communications aren’t relevant to the recipient, they’re simply a waste of time for all involved.

The solution is better email sequences. Here’s what you need to know:

Email Sequences: A Quick Guide

Before we look at the seven tips for building better email sequences, let’s take a quick look at what these are.

Email sequencing is simply the practice of sending an automated email to reflect where a specific customer is on their buyer’s journey. As those customers make their way through the sales funnel, specific and targeted emails are triggered automatically and delivered to that prospect’s valuable inbox.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

There are seven types of vital email sequences. These include:

  • Lead nurturing
  • Conversions
  • Engagement
  • Onboarding
  • Re-engagement/Abandoned shopping cart
  • Follow-ups after a sale
  • Renewals

There are also some pre-and post-purchase email sequences to have at your disposal, including:

  • Welcome emails to new potential customers
  • Back in stock messages
  • Thank you for purchasing emails

If you’re already using these email sequences, then you’re ahead of the game. It takes time to build a thorough email sequence that hits the mark every time an action is triggered. However, once you have everything in place, it becomes a simple matter of implementing the following tips to ensure that your email sequencing works more effectively.

7 Tips for Building a Better Email Sequence

Follow these tips, and your email sequences will have significantly more impact. Get them right, and those emails can quickly become the key to more sales, better customer loyalty, the development of brand ambassadors, and company growth.

1. Focus on the Evergreen


There are many benefits to email automation in 2021. Once you have your email messages in place, your first step to improving them is to ensure that those emails can be sent automatically at any time and remain relevant.

Evergreen content is essential if you want your emails to be enticing enough to open. Don’t include email content that’s date or season-specific when optimizing your email sequences. While those time-specific emails have value for newsletter subscribers, they should not form part of your email sequencing.

Image courtesy of DigitalMarketingInstitute.com

Instead, create email content that won’t expire. That way, your customers will receive timeless messages when they’re most amenable to them, and you won’t waste time adding and removing content from your sequence templates. There are plenty of writing tools for digital marketers that you can make use of to enhance your email copy.

2. Always Personalize

A personalized email is always more likely to be opened and read – today, that means more than simply automatically adding the recipient’s name to the opening line. Instead, focus on where that customer is on the buyer’s journey and personalize that information.

That means ensuring that you have taken the time to develop a target consumer profile and are aware of the value of analytics when monitoring your sales funnels. Fortunately, personalizing emails based on buyer journeys is easier than ever. Most email providers will have some form of personalization tools that you can use.

Tailor your messages and your CTAs based on your understanding of your customers’ pain points at every stage of the sales funnel. Then personalize your email messages using names and personal information alongside sales funnel-relevant CTAs.

3. Know Your Email Marketing Goals

Just like all marketing, your email sequencing strategy needs to have clear and measurable goals. Without specific aims defined in advance, you’ll have fewer ways to determine how effective your triggered emails are.

This can vary by industry, and a VoIP phone provider will have different goals and strategies from a small ecommerce business selling jam. For example, technology brands will tend to require more follow-up email sequences and a small ecommerce store will likely send more abandoned shopping cart emails.

A good rule of thumb to remember is that the more expensive your product, the longer and more detailed your email sequence messages will usually be. Identify your goals, and then ensure that your email messages are optimized to meet those goals.

Image courtesy of SmartInsights.com

4. Using Multiple Email Sequences

The buyer’s journey is just that: a journey. Sending out a single email throughout the entire buyer journey might have a positive effect, but it can be dramatically improved by combining and delivering multiple messages at the right time.

The goal needs to be to establish an interwoven mix of messages that reflect different stages of the sales funnel. Delivering a simple conversion email at the right time is vital, but you can also include additional sequence content to add further impact to those emails.

By introducing your most potent marketing messages at the right time, you greatly enhance your ability to move that customer along to the next stage of the buyer’s journey. Use multiple sequences at once, and you might even jump straight to a sale.

This approach needs to be taken slowly. Get used to strategies like email retargeting before moving on to combining multiple email sequences at once.

5. Align Emails and Your Website

Your website is one of the best tools at your disposal when it comes to working out how effective your email sequences are. Every email marketing message needs some form of CTA, and by using your website analytics, you can watch in real-time how well those CTAs are working.

If your email sequence has been triggered because of an abandoned shopping cart, a personalized email highlighting the benefits of that product should have a link to a page focused on those benefits. That landing page will then have its own CTA, such as making a purchase.

By watching where customers travel from their email message to a web page, you can assess the effectiveness of your email content and CTAs. Using the right email software can make this much easier to track and measure.

6. Aligning Your Sales Team

Business comms continue to grow more advanced, and the future of these will rely on unified communications platforms. What does UCaaS stand for? UCaaS refers to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). This type of software allows businesses to align all their communications from a single point. This means no more toggling between apps. Everything you need to communicate effectively is in one place.

Just as your communications will be aligned, so too must your departments. If your email marketers are not working in alignment with your sales team, then there’s no doubting the fact that you’re losing sales.

Using your sales team to complement and reinforce the messages you send out during your email sequences is more important than ever. While the marketing team can focus on creating the best campaigns, executing them, and then monitoring the results, the sales team should be tracking each triggered email sequence.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

By doing so, they can take over at critical points in the buyer’s journey. Utilizing the core skills of these two different teams and playing to their strengths is one of the best ways to build an email sequence strategy that works.

7. Cross-sell and Upsell on Post-Purchase Emails

You’ve likely seen this type of marketing strategy before. Once you’ve made a purchase, the company sends you an automated thank you email. Often here, though, businesses miss a trick.

If that thank you email is opened, then you have the chance to make another sale. That customer has already shown trust by buying from you. They may also be willing to purchase a related product, especially if you give them a reason to do so (such as discounts or special offers).

Whether you’re selling a hosted IP PBX service or something more tangible, taking advantage of those after-sales email messages is essential.

Email Sequences: The Must-Have Marketing and Sales Tool with Real Impact

Emails are still one of the most popular and commonly used forms of communication in the business world.

Developing an email marketing strategy is now considered one of the most critical steps for a marketing team to develop. Unfortunately, email sequences and their value are often overlooked. That’s largely because consumers and businesses alike can end up being overloaded with their unopened emails.

The key to building an email sequence strategy that works is to ensure that you create the messages that resonate, don’t overdo your communications, and make the best use of your sales team and your CTAs.

When developed well, email sequences are one of the single most powerful digital marketing tactics. Start designing yours today, and they could be the key to making more sales than you ever dreamed possible.

The post 7 Effective Tips for Building an Email Sequence that Works appeared first on SiteProNews.

SEO 101: Where Exactly Should You Place Your Keywords in Your Content?

posted on December 8, 2021

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Google handles an average of 6.9 billion searches per day. Every. Single. Day. Before the pandemic, the number was closer to 3 billion, but with most of us spending so much time indoors we’re pretty much googling everything now.

Do note that this is just one search engine. Granted, it’s the biggest one but it still doesn’t account for all the searches in the world.

When people spend more time online, SEO becomes more important…again. With a looming crisis on the horizon, you want every competitive advantage you can get while the getting’s good.

If you’re a regular on SiteProNews, you know I’ve written a lot about SEO intent and choosing the right keywords, so I won’t rehash this. Today, I’d like to talk about something seemingly basic because as it usually happens with basic things, it often gets overlooked.

So, you’ve found the right focus keyword. Now all you have to do is make it shine. Where do you place it for a maximum impact?

Here’s the roadmap my agency uses to get our clients’ content on the first page of Google:

1. The URL

Adding your focus keyword in the URL is probably the first item on the list of overlooked things. If you use WordPress, for instance, you’ll see that the editor automatically creates an URL for you.

Don’t assume that the machine is smarter than you. Double-check it and make sure it has the entire keyword in it, especially if you’re using a long-tail keyword (which I highly recommend).

Having your focus keyword in the URL tells both Google bots and human readers that they’ve landed in the right place for that topic. You’d be surprised at how many human readers analyze the URL before clicking on it.

2. The Title of the Article

Not everyone reads the URL. But everyone reads the title, so this is a key placement for your keyword. If possible, try to use an exact match of your keyword.

However, don’t sacrifice readability or a punchy, sexy title just to fit in an extra-long keyword. You’ll have plenty of other opportunities to use it.

3. The Meta Description

Ideally, start your meta description with your focus keyword. The more prominent its spot is, the more clear it makes the topic of your content. Again, this works wonders for both human readers and search engine bots.

This is what one of our high-ranking articles looks like in SERPs:

The keyword (in bold) is at the very beginning, promising users an in-depth look at exactly what they were looking for. This is one of the factors that attracted a lot of readers to our article and even a lot of new leads that easily converted into clients.

4. The First 100-200 Words of Text

Yes, we’re still in the realm of making things clear as soon as possible. Try adding your focus keyword in the very first paragraph or at least before you hit 200 words.

Not possible? Add a close variation of your keyword.

5. The Last 100-200 Words of Text

Finish strong. Add the keyword in your last paragraph, as close to the end as possible.

For extra points, add it to your final CTA too, but make sure it’s not part of the anchor of a link that leads to another page.

6. The Alt Tags of Images

The relevance of keywords in image alt tags has been quite a controversy in the SEO world. From my experience, it never hurts. At the very least, it will take your image higher in SERPs, if not the entire article.

Additionally, fill in all the fields in the image description. Don’t repeat the same keyword. Add variations of it instead or LSI keywords.

7. Headings and Subheadings

For legibility purposes, your content should always have subheadings, especially if it’s over 300 words long. And these subheadings should have the focus keyword in them.

If you use more than one type of subheading (H2, H3, H4) add your keyword in at least one of each. Again, don’t overdo it – the keyword shouldn’t be everywhere.

8. Throughout the Text

Sprinkle your entire text with your focus keyword. But (and this is very important!) don’t overdo it. Gone are the days when a 5% keyword density was acceptable. Stick to less than 2%, ideally less than 1%.

This is more than enough if you use it in all the other places mentioned above and if you also use variations of it and LSI keywords.

Final Thoughts

As always, my recommendation is to aim for balance and, most of all, readability. If you feel like your keyword doesn’t sound natural in any of these places, ditch it without remorse. Never sacrifice readability and a good flow for SEO purposes. Readers hate it and, ironically enough, so do search engines.

Need help with striking this balance AND ranking high in SERPs? My team of expert SEO writers and I are just a click away. Let’s talk!

The post SEO 101: Where Exactly Should You Place Your Keywords in Your Content? appeared first on SiteProNews.

The Top 9 Common Cloud Migration Challenges and How to Deal With Them

posted on December 6, 2021

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Cloud migration, put simply, is moving digital assets from a physical data center to a cloud infrastructure. Completing this migration process can take a long time and a lot of effort – while it can be explained in a single sentence, cloud migration is certainly easier said than done.

Although the migration process can create a lot of challenges, the rewards are certainly worth it. It’s hard to say what the biggest benefit of cloud computing is, as migrating processes to the cloud can improve everything from accessibility to cybersecurity.

If you are struggling with cloud migration, you’re not alone. We’ve listed a few of the most common challenges encountered during the migration process below, alongside some potential solutions.

1. Resistance to Change

If you’re currently working in a position that does a lot of IT troubleshooting, you’ll know that a lot of the time it’s people that cause the problems, instead of the computers. With cloud migration, it’s much the same. Some individuals in your team might see the migration as unnecessary or disruptive.

The best solution for convincing employees to buy into cloud migration is making sure the cloud service you’re using is intuitive and user-friendly. The easier your systems and applications are to use after cloud migration is complete, the more attractive the migration process will seem to workers.

This challenge may have added difficulty if your company still has many Covid-19 restrictions in place, as it’s especially hard to get everyone on the same page when you’re in a remote working environment. However, cloud computing is particularly useful for creating a collaborative remote working environment, so you should relate these benefits to remote workers who are less receptive to cloud migration.

2. Hiring New Personnel

If you don’t have any cloud experts employed, but you’re interested in cloud migration, then you’ll need to hire new personnel to help with the process.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

The challenge here is finding someone with in-depth knowledge of how to implement a cloud migration who you can also train to have an intimate knowledge of the digital assets you’re trying to migrate. For your cloud experts to be truly useful, they must understand your company’s systems and applications as well as they understand the cloud.

Once you’ve verified their cloud credentials and trained them in your company’s applications, another challenge is ensuring that new personnel understand your company’s standard operating procedures, and work well with your existing team. However, this should be addressed in any good onboarding program and isn’t unique to cloud migration.

3. Training Current Personnel

Although you’ll need a core team of experts working on the migration process, it’s important that all relevant employees are appropriately trained and educated.

This can be a particular challenge in two areas. First, you need to educate executives in your company. It’s important they understand that cloud migration is a valuable initiative and is worth the cost in time and money.

Secondly, you need to train the people who will be using the newly-migrated applications so that they adopt the new cloud-based system welcomingly. A good idea is to reinforce the usability and convenience of the system, as we suggested in our first section on Resistance to Change.

Make the cloud a focus of the training, but don’t forget about the details that are vital to the standard training process as well. Ensure you’re training the right people, make sure your trainers understand the topic well, and (if anyone is working remotely) make certain that you’re using a suitable communication tool.

4. A Lack of Planning

Although you may be impatiently waiting to enjoy the benefits of cloud computing, cloud migration is not something you can walk into blindly. It requires a lot of time, effort, and money, so make sure you have a financial plan and a good understanding of how the migration will affect your operations.

With that in mind, it’s smart to try processes mapping before you begin the cloud migration. This will allow you to see what the most integral processes in your business are, so you can decide what can be delayed while cloud migration occurs and what must continue.

You also need to analyze the current state of your IT team, any ongoing issues with your day-to-day operations, and your budget before you even begin to plan for cloud migration. The impact of the process will be wide-ranging, and although it will be a huge improvement once finished, the more you prepare, the less disruption you’ll face while the migration occurs.

5. Financial Costs

In the long run, cloud computing saves your company money by improving efficiency and lowering hardware costs. However, the migration process itself can be expensive. You need to budget for training and hiring staff, bandwidth costs, and the cost of any new automation tools you might need. If you don’t, you might run out of money before you can enjoy the benefits of a cloud-based system.

Image Courtesy of Unsplash

Spreading your money too thin is one of the more common mistakes. Don’t undertake a big process like cloud migration if your finances are still recovering from the computer telephony integration service you’ve just installed or the new equipment the shipping team ordered.

A good solution to costs is to migrate in increments. Not every asset needs to be cloud-based immediately, so migrate systems in order of importance. This turns one huge, expensive project into a series of smaller, cheaper tasks.

6. A Lack of Documentation

A lack of documentation is an enormous hurdle when it comes to cloud migration. “A lack of documentation†in this instance refers to a lack of information regarding how the app you’re trying to migrate actually works.

Say you’re trying to host your business VoIP system on the cloud, but the features were designed or installed by a team that is no longer with the company. You’ll need to spend some time looking into how the system works, and more importantly, how you can migrate it from your legacy infrastructure to the cloud.

Automation can help greatly with this. If you’re struggling with a lack of documentation, invest in discovery tools – these are specialized kinds of software that can scan your network to identify and categorize all the hardware and software that you’re currently using. Discovery tools also map out how each of these assets interacts with one another, a must-have for cloud migration.

7. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity should always be a concern if your company has important data stored. When you’re migrating to cloud computing, you need to make sure that you maintain the same level of security.

Luckily, there are many, many different security solutions you can implement to protect your data – everything from data encryption to artificial intelligence can improve your cybersecurity. Protecting a cloud network is similar in many ways to protecting your data center. Measures like two-factor authentication and malware protection are still very useful.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

The first thing people tend to think of when cybersecurity is mentioned is protecting your company files from hackers, but with the cloud, you also need to be aware of the security risk posed by employees. One benefit of cloud computing is that it can be accessed off-site, so you need to make all relevant employees aware of how to keep their passwords (and therefore any sensitive data) safe.

8. Going Live Without Testing

As with any new technology, you need to test your systems thoroughly after migrating to the cloud. You need to make sure that all the features you used previously are still working, and you need to ensure that any new functionality that’s available due to the cloud migration is working too.

Testing is vital because of the scale of cloud migration. If you go live with a system after it has been migrated, and problems emerge that you didn’t test for, fixing them is much more disruptive than it would be before taking the system live.

If you and your staff don’t have a lot of experience in software testing, consider hiring a specialist to make sure all of your systems are in working order. If you do intend to undertake the testing yourself, make sure you’ve done your research – there are a lot of software testing myths that could have serious ramifications if you aren’t aware of them.

9. Underusing Automation

Considering the quality of the available tools for process automation, there is no good reason for not automating at least part of your cloud migration. RPA (robotic process automation) is fantastically useful for cloud migration, considering the number of repetitive and rules-based tasks involved.

The software testing we mentioned in the previous section can be automated, as you can automate processes like workload testing. The discovery tools discussed previously are also a hugely useful form of automation.

Image Courtesy of Unsplash

Automation is handy for reducing the human labor needed for repetitive tasks, but it can also take care of some of the technical parts of migration for you like optimizing your network. This removes some of the need for human cloud experts and can cut down on training and hiring costs.

Difficult, But Far From Impossible

We won’t lie – successful cloud migration is tough. As we’ve shown in the article, there are a lot of potential challenges. However, we’ve also laid out a ton of solutions. There are innumerable resources online discussing the best way to approach cloud migration and a ton of tools for cloud migration that help automate and streamline the process. If you hit a stumbling block, don’t be afraid to search around – there is sure to be a solution.

The post The Top 9 Common Cloud Migration Challenges and How to Deal With Them appeared first on SiteProNews.

How Instagram Became a Non-Stop Streaming Reality Show

posted on December 3, 2021

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Despite being a marketer, I managed to stay away from the influencer mania on Instagram — save for a few exceptions I had to research for my work. A few months ago, I decided to start following some local and some international influencers – just to check it out.

You know where this is going, don’t you? Yes, I got sucked in.

A few days ago, I found myself wondering if Chiara Ferragni’s daughter is OK (don’t worry; the kiddo is fine and out of the hospital by now). If you’ve been living under a rock, Chiara Ferragni is the world’s most famous influencer. With 2.5 million followers on Instagram, she sets the tone for everything fashion and beauty.

Prominent as she may be and cute as her daughter may be, I was still left wondering why I even cared for someone I have never met and most likely never will. Why is someone I have never met passing through my mind, albeit briefly?

Long story short: because I was invested. To harness that “authentic”, “real” vibe, influencers don’t just share things they do professionally: runway shows and new make-up line launches in this case. They invite you into their homes and into their lives until you feel like you have a real stake into what happens with them.

How Did We Get Here?

Remember the days when you’d login to Instagram and see photos of your friends’ holidays, their families, and occasionally their fancy meal? These are the same days when glamour shots were reserved for actors and singers.

But all that was when Instagram stories weren’t a thing. Today, all that has changed. Influencers are streaming 24/7 and you pretty much know all there is to know (or all they are willing to share) about their lives. You can add up to 100 stories per day, every day. 100 photos or videos are more than enough to document someone’s life in excruciating detail.

It’s an on-going, non-stop reality show. The only differences between Instagram stories and reality shows are that you can choose your characters and switch between shows anytime. If your favorite influencer hasn’t posted anything in the last four hours (the audacity!), someone in another time zone is definitely working hard at showing you their favorite morning routine or a cute photo of them sharing a late breakfast with their significant other.

Much like in a reality show, the life influencers broadcast comes with a script. But it’s scripted “lightly” enough to give the impression of authenticity. More recently, you get to see more than the usual glamour life. You see life as it is (or, as it fits their brand image) with its up and downs. There have been countless influencers sharing their personal drama online and crying on stories or live videos.

Just like in a reality show.

Has the Death of Traditional Media Birthed a New Kind of Media?

But why do we flock to influencers’ feeds? Is it because we trust them or is it because we look for inspiration? What makes us say we absolutely love someone we’ve never met or grab our digital pitchforks when an influencer does or says something controversial?

Interestingly enough, one study suggests that the lack of trust in traditional media has led to the recent influencer inflation. Most people believe that reporters are paid to cover a story and ignore another – and I’m talking about payment other than their salary.

Here’s where things get even more interesting: the same people know for a fact that influencers are paid to recommend a product or another. Oftentimes, influencer fees are public. Still, people appear to trust them more than they trust the press.

But do they, though? Another study found that only 3% of people are actually influenced by celebrity influencers, while 30% trust non-celebrity bloggers more because they seem more authentic.

Ironic, isn’t it? Non-celebrity bloggers are typically those that disclose far less about their private lives than Instagram “royalties”. Has this open-door policy stopped working? Or is it time to re-name this industry?

Influencer Marketing or Entertainment?

If influencers don’t really influence viewers, can we still call them that? Recently, more and more people are switching to the term “content creators”, although others argue that there are significant differences between the two terms.

I’m with the latter category here.

To my marketing mind, a content creator is someone who creates content on a topic that they excel at: chefs are a good example here, along with doctors who choose to educate their audience in a more informal way. This type of content comes from a place of authority. Choosing the right make-up palette or the best exotic destination for your next holiday is more a matter of taste than authority.

In fact, you’ll see that more and more social media stars use disclaimers to say that you should use the products they recommend at your own risk. They cannot be held liable if the face moisturizer they recommend flares up your eczema – they are not medical professionals.

So, if they don’t influence and the content they create isn’t authoritative content, what are these people whose lives we like to watch? For me, the answer is simple: they are entertainers.

You soak up their stories with the same interest that you soak up a new trending TV show. When the first season ends, you wait impatiently for the next one, much like you wait for your favorite influencer to post another story. Heck, you may even turn against an influencer you once loved just like Game of Thrones fans endless ranted about the show’s rather bland ending.

One important thing, though: when a TV show reaches its final season, your life doesn’t change. Sure, you may be a bit sad that you won’t get to see your favorite characters again. You may even join the fandom and talk about it for years to come (Star Wars, Star Trek, or Doctor Who communities are great examples here). But you know (I really hope you do!) that your life won’t be neither better nor worse without a TV show in it.

The same goes for social media stars. In my three months of following the activity of approximately 10 social media stars, my feed changed a lot. Some of these influencers eventually dropped lower on my feed and I literally forgot all about them and their existence.

Was my life better or worse than when they help prime real estate on my screen? Neither.

Please keep this in mind when/if you start comparing yourself to a social media star: these people are entertainers. There is a branding strategy behind each of their stories (yes, even the ones that seem to be raw emotion and nothing else), just like there is a strategy behind every episode of Keeping Up with The Kardashians. As “lightly” scripted as their feeds are, they are still scripted. If you think it’s foolish to compare your life with that of Daenerys Targaryen (because you don’t have any dragons to nurture, obviously!), it’s equally misguided to compare it with the life of a social media star.

As always, there is more to their real lives than what you see on Instagram stories. Oftentimes, that “more” refers to compromises that you wouldn’t be willing to make. So any comparison between your life and what you see on any screen is moot.

The post How Instagram Became a Non-Stop Streaming Reality Show appeared first on SiteProNews.

Pros & Cons of Rebranding Facebook to Meta

posted on December 1, 2021

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One of the most well-known internet platforms, Facebook, is rebranding to signal and embrace futuristic ideas, with the term metaverse. The name Metaverse is the latest keyword to capture the imagination of the tech industry in such a way. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he changed his company name to Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short.

What is Facebook’s Plan for the Metaverse?

Mark Zuckerberg describes it as a “virtual environment” that you can step into. It’s an endless world of interconnected virtual communities, where people can meet, work, and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, or other devices.

The virtual environment created by Facebook can also do things like go to virtual concerts, travel online, view or create art and virtually try on or buy clothes.

Facebook has launched a meeting software for enterprises, called Horizon Workrooms, for use with its Oculus VR headsets. Create a metaverse experience of seeing coworkers in a video call box, employees can join them in a virtual office, and users will be able to move between virtual worlds created by different companies.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Changing Facebook’s Name to Meta

In the development of the virtual environment built by Facebook and at the same time changing the company name to Meta, there are pros and cons. Here are the results of my analysis of the pros and cons:

The Pros of Rebranding Facebook to Meta

The Metaverse Environment Is Centrally Designed

Many existing metaverse platforms are based on blockchain technology which makes central control impossible. Dave Carr, communications lead at the organization that runs the virtual world Decentraland, said: “In this virtual world, people are using cryptocurrencies to buy land and other digital objects in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).â€Â

By combining blockchain technology and NFT crypto, it will make it easier for people to sell limited edition digital objects like NFT, display them in their digital space, and even resell them to the next person safely as quoted by Reuters Carr also described Decentraland’s metaverse environment as decentralized and Facebook’s plans are likely centered.

Virtual Reality Is Getting More Popular

The reaction from early metaverse adopters said the inclusion of Facebook could increase interest in the virtual world concept in general, attract more users and support the development of multiple virtual worlds.

Tristan Littlefield, the co-founder of the NFT company nft42 and a metaverse user since 2018, said his first reaction to Facebook’s announcement was that a giant like Facebook is stepping in and just throwing billions of dollars away, could be a positive thing “because of the emergence of new people it will bring into space.

Support the Development of Multiple Virtual Worlds

This technology will also incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media. According to “The Metaverse†Document the right way to break through consumers’ ignorance of VR is to deliver what the users expect and want.

The document also states, that envision users developing virtual advertisements through a digital world, which is filled with virtual goods that can be purchased. In addition, there will also be virtual people who get married and spend time in this space called the ‘Metaverse’.

According to an analyst who follows new technologies, Victoria Petrock, “this is the next evolution of connectivity where it all starts to come together in a seamless doppelganger universe, so you live your virtual life the same way you live your physical life”.

The Cons of Rebranding Facebook to Meta

Increased Scrutiny of Facebook from the US Congress

Facebook is also facing increased scrutiny from the US Congress and the media after a former employee, Frances Haugen, leaked documents or reports dubbed the “Facebook Papers†revealing various problems on Facebook that were ignored and not resolved properly.

Internal research also reportedly shows that Facebook is aware of drug and human trafficking issues on its platform but has failed to take adequate action to address the issues.

To add to the growing story surrounding Facebook, a new report from The New York Times now claims that an internal study commissioned by the company found the “Like†button on the platform to be causing “stress and anxiety†among many users.

Meta Has Been Registered as a Trademark in The United States

The Guardian reported that the change of Facebook’s name to Meta was challenged by Meta PCs Arizona, a computer startup for gamers based in Arizona, USA.

Zack Shutt, the co-founder of Meta PCs, said the company was listed in November 2020, and their team was not aware of Facebook’s plans to use Meta for rebranding, until last week when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced it.

He revealed that Meta had been registered as a trademark of his company’s products, and received an official certificate in August 2021, or about two months before the change of Facebook’s name to Meta.

Zack Shutt and another Meta PC founder, Joe Darger, said they would not sell the Meta name, for less than $20 million, if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to acquire the name.

META Gaming PCs

Changing the Company Name Does Not Necessarily Increase Trust

Forrester’s Vice President and Research Director, Mike Proulx said that if Meta doesn’t take its (privacy and security) issues seriously, no doubt the same problem will come to Metaverse as well.

From the results of Forrester’s research which surveyed 745 people in the US, Canada, and the UK, the majority (75 percent) thought that changing the company name did not necessarily increase trust in Facebook.

One of the lawmakers from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argues that Meta has the potential to be a bad threat to state institutions and also its users.

Summary

Will the pros outweigh the cons for the user? It’s hard to say when so much of what we know about the metaverse is speculative. It’s a big job, and we need the tech giants to take control because they’re the only ones with enough resources to bring the metaverse to life. As for how it turned out, only time will tell.

The post Pros & Cons of Rebranding Facebook to Meta appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Traffic

posted on November 29, 2021

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Even if you’re not in a technical position, you’ve likely heard of search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization is a powerful tool that drives business in all industries, no matter if you own a small business or are a Fortune 500 executive. You can optimize your pages to appear higher in search engine results by producing high-quality content.

Your website’s rank for the correct search queries will determine how much traffic you can drive to it. After all, many internet users — a whopping 75% — tend not to look past the first page of search results. SEO is a must-have part of any digital marketing strategy to grow your company. With so many people using the internet to search for what they need, it’s impossible to ignore SEO.

In our recent State of Content Marketing Report, 67% of content marketing professionals surveyed indicated that improving SEO performance is a top priority for their company. Another 73% stated that they use their SEO skills and tools frequently to improve content marketing results. To remain competitive, it is important to learn how to improve your search engine rankings.

Do you feel lost? Continue reading to learn SEO tips and search engine optimization strategies that even novices can use in their work. These non-technical SEO tips will help you see quick results.

1. Create Content Around Primary and Secondary Keywords

Keyword research is the heart of any SEO strategy. Keyword research is the key to creating great content. Searchers will find your site by knowing how to use both primary and second keywords.

Your landing page should have your primary keyword as its main focus. The page should contain a strong description and possibly connect to your brand. These keywords should be the main focus of your content.

Secondary keywords are words that support the primary keyword and can be included in your content in a natural way to improve your search ranking.

Start your keyword research by identifying long-tail keywords that are relevant to your audience. Say you run a DIY home improvement blog. Using our Keyword Overview Tool, you can start by searching for “DIY home improvement” as your target keyword and then expand to include more keywords from there. You’ll see the search volume and difficulty of ranking for your primary keyword in your area, along with related terms that you might be interested in.

2. Use Short, Descriptive URLs

There are also some not-too-technical ways you can optimize your SEO efforts when it comes to on-page SEO. For those just beginning in SEO, it is easy to improve your SEO rankings by structuring your URLs.

A URL that is effective should:

  • Use keywords: Your URL should contain one or more keywords that you are targeting.
  • Be easy to understand It should be easy to read and cater to the human eye.
  • Be concise Using shorter URLs is preferable. Keep them under 60 characters. Search engines won’t accept URLs longer than 60 characters, which could cause you to be pushed further down the results pages.

3. High Authority Websites Have High Quality Backlinks

Link building is an important component of any SEO strategy. It’s also relatively simple to begin. Backlinks are an important ranking factor. They come in two types: nofollow and follow, with the latter having more ranking weight.

Backlinking refers to the linking of other websites to your website as a source for information. These links are a sign to search engines that you are an authority on a topic and should be pulled up in the rankings. Higher rankings in online searches will be achieved if your website has more quality links.

Bloggers, journalists, and other companies will recognize you as an expert in your field, and may link to your content. However, this doesn’t always happen instantly. You may have to do some research before you start.

You have many options to create links to your site. Here are some strategies to consider:

  • If you have something to share or an interesting infographic, consider writing a guest blog post for other outlets.
  • Reach out to publishers for any data or research you have done to support your site content.
  • Look for directories and listings in your industry and get your company listed. It may mean joining professional associations, networking groups or business organizations. However, it increases your credibility.

How do you determine where to get backlinks? Use our Backlink Gap Tool to compare the backlinks for your site with four competing URLs. This will allow you to compare which websites link to your site more than your competitor, and vice versa. To help you target high authority sites with your initial link building efforts, you can organize the list by authority score.

4. Try to Rank for Featured Snippets

Google’s Featured Snippets are a highly desired spot that digital marketers want to reach when it comes search engine result pages (SERPs). Featured Snippets are at the top of Google search results, and they have a high chance of attracting lots of organic traffic. Optimizing your content is key to achieving this position.

First, decide what content you would like to be a featured snippet. Choose something that will make internet users click on the link. You should also carefully examine the keywords in Featured Snippets. Studies show that a piece of content that asks a question is more likely to have a Featured Snippet.

5. Format Your Content for Search Engines

While the words you choose are important, how you present your content is equally important. You want your content to be clear, concise, understandable, and easy to read. However, search engines will also require that you adapt your formatting. To improve your organic search ranking, you will want to use headings and subheadings in your content.

It is important to know how to organize your paragraphs and sentences. A sentence should not exceed 20 words. You shouldn’t have more than 20 words per sentence, but you don’t want your paragraphs to be too long either.

6. Do Not Forget Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Keywords have a significant impact on the content you create, but did you also know that they should be included in page titles as well as meta descriptions? These two elements are basic HTML components that can help you optimize your page and pack a punch. They’re also easy to edit for beginners.

Most platforms offer an easy way for you to modify your page title or meta description. WordPress offers two boxes, “SEO title” or “meta description”, that can be edited.

These items will show up in search results. These short sections could be enough to convince an internet user to click on your site. This is a lot of power in so few words. Make sure your words are powerful.

7. Take Out Anything That Loads Slowly

Did you know that page load times can impact your SEO? Higher bounce rates are common for pages that take longer to load. 

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free SEO tool to check the speed of your site. You can add your URL to get a range from zero to 100 with 100 being fastest. You can also compare the speed of your mobile website to your desktop site.

Do yourself a favor. Take a look at your website. Do you have any plugins or elements that slow down your website’s load times? You’ll see an increase in traffic if you remove or restructure them.

The post 7 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Traffic appeared first on SiteProNews.

4 Effective UI Improvements to Skyrocket Website Conversions

posted on November 26, 2021

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One of the most significant barriers for websites to get conversions is the website itself, precisely due to the User Interface (UI) and UX (User Experience).

Today, there are many ways to build a unique website without spending too much time or resources. These easy tweaks will help boost user experience and boost the website’s conversion rates.

Note: there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for improving UI. As we move into an increasingly connected world that has seen the most significant shift to online since WWW was introduced- it is now even more crowded and competitive.

Image courtesy of <a href=”https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/internet-statistics”>Broadband Search</a>

Getting in front of consumers ahead of your competitors has never been easy. And now, thanks to social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Pinterest, social and online presence have become one of the most vital parts of a business today.

What is UI?

The user interface is the website’s design that supports the user’s experience (UX) when browsing. Therefore, almost all website elements, including buttons, search bars, CTAs, icons, and text layout, can be considered UI design elements.

Researching and refining how your users interact with your site is a great place to start to boost conversions and generate more leads. User experience ensures users find valuable services and products on your site as efficiently as possible.

For all businesses, one of the main aims is to generate more sales. More sales equate to steady growth and better financial outcome. UI, along with UX, plays a vital role in this growth.

There are some fundamental components of UI that make for a more effective website when placed together.

The site’s usability and its visual design and interaction design affect users’ interpretations and use of a site. Therefore, the site’s information architecture is vital as it ensures users can access the information they need.

Wireframing is an integral part of UI. It is a visual guide representing the site’s design framework, outlining how buttons, tabs, and menus respond to users’ actions. It helps to make sure users can easily navigate throughout the website.

When building a substantial brand value and reputation, businesses must emphasise a high level of user satisfaction across all areas, including the website. As e-commerce continues to grow, online shoppers have higher expectations when it comes to the online experience. Therefore, online stores opt to push to satisfy the needs of their customers as the top priority.

A representation of the steady growth of e-commerce from 2000 to 2020 with a significant increase toward the end thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic: Statista

The need for a brand to get its online presence and site right has never been more critical than now. In addition, a well researched and thorough UI can effectively grab consumer attention and enhance user experience, thereby improving ROI.

UI Design Elements

UI elements of a website consist of parts and elements that designers use to improve the development of apps and websites.

An online study found that improving a site’s navigation may help increase the conversion rate by as much as 18.5%. Therefore, all websites must pay attention to the UI and UX. Here is a look at four practical ways to improve UI:

1. Improve conversion with persuasive CTA

A highly effective call-to-action (CTA) button does what it says on the tin and helps to deliver a direct yet straightforward statement for the user. In addition, it gives clear directions to the user concerning what to do next, and upon clicking the button, it provides the users with the idea that they are visiting a different website.

With great design and UI that is simple yet catchy, CTAs are crucial as they guide consumers into the sales funnel where conversions happen.

Image courtesy of GoSquared

With a focus on mobile users, presenting a large area responsive to a tap or a click on a call-to-action button is essential to leading the user to the right destination.

Unfortunately, many buttons on a website are purely graphical and embed small link texts, which work well for viewing sites on a desktop but are not very mobile-friendly. Designs like this can cause frustration to users and deter them from using a website altogether.

Also, we advise you to use a standard colour of red for each type of call-to-action button. If your website visitors get used to a particular colour for a specific button, they will subconsciously be more attached to it.

When designing a template, make sure to pick the right colours for each type of CTA button. If a call-to-action button is too small and not clickable, chances are there will be fewer clicks, and conversion rates can drop significantly. Make sure that all-important links incorporated into the button are identified quickly and have a correct anchor.

Tip: Do not play around with button colours too much. If your “Get Started†button is colour blue, try keeping everything consistent (i.e. avoid using a different colour for the same button on a separate page) – this may confuse the user.

2. Use white spaces effectively

The first step in improving conversion rates is to pay attention to the psychology of colour.

Make it the goal to remove all excess clutter and noise from a page. Then, replace the white space with the images that matter. Adding a background image to one page is possible, but it is essential to ensure it doesn’t distract users from the aspects you want them to see.

White spaces allow users to scan the website smoothly without being too distracted by any clutter or unnecessary elements on the page. White areas are a great way to increase click-through rates. For this reason, keeping an adequate amount of white space on a page can lead to more leads and a higher conversion rate.

Furthermore, white spacing makes information on the page look more clear and defined.

The use of white space on Apple’s website promoting latest handset

However, using colour in the right way can be tactical leverage for any business with this in mind. Using colours is effective to help focus the user’s attention to specific parts of the page and work well for actionable elements such as CTAs.

Tip: Using warmer tones like orange and yellow attracts the eyes the same way red does, expanding against darker, colder tone colours such as blue and green. Highlighting these crucial elements of the page ensures they do not get lost.

3. Link padding

Anchors and links present on the site by default are usually the same size, keeping in line with the rest of the elements on the page. Unfortunately, this means they can only span that specific area to remain clickable, such as the height and width of the text.

Expand the clickable area for superb usability of the link. Adding extra padding to the text can also be done by converting the link into a block element, making it appear more extensive and inviting.

You can use the following simple code to increase the padding of the link:

a {
display: block;
padding: 6px;
}

A larger area will, for obvious reasons, be more clickable and easier to use. This method also makes these links more mobile-friendly, giving users less chance of missing the link. Converting links into blocks also helps make the text area span the entire width of the box, making the theme ideal for sidebars.

Adding a healthy amount of padding to the link is essential as it ensures the link itself is visible enough to be clicked.

Tip: Do not overuse padding on text links (i.e. links that are not buttons). These may confuse and frustrate mobile users when scrolling down. Users can accidentally click the link without intending to do so.

4. Design based on users

Sometimes it is easy to get carried away with designing your new website. However, it’s increasingly important to offer your user what they want compared to what your business thinks they might like. Thinking about the consumer, what they need, and the types of things they would look for will help construct a better, well-thought-out website tailored to users’ needs.

A timeline indicating progress on the site is one of the best UI elements to include on a site. The timeline helps users understand where they are in the sales funnel and essentially helps them in and out sooner.

Use tools like Google Analytics and Finteza to determine the pages your users stay on, how they go from page to page and where they drop off.

Unfortunately, design elements are of much concern to users. Yes, they help make sites look attractive. Still, the baseline is that consumers want to get things done in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of hassle and frustration. A good design will have all these elements integrated. In addition, the easier the sales process can be, the more inviting it is for users, giving them a positive shopping experience and making them more likely to come back.

Tip: Use heatmaps to determine the website areas where your users seem to be focusing most. Determine the areas that need tweaking, then use them to display the most important CTAs.

One of the main points to consider when creating and having a website is that it needs to constantly be updated to work best for those interacting with it. Make sure to run tests and audits, helping you keep on top of the competition.

The post 4 Effective UI Improvements to Skyrocket Website Conversions appeared first on SiteProNews.

11 Most Promising Open-Source Technologies

posted on November 24, 2021

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Open-source technology, by definition, is software anyone can use and modify for free. It gets developed by a community of programmers with no other goal than to create something awesome. So in a world where most of the tech industry orients towards making a profit, open-source technology is truly worth celebrating. It speaks to the passion that IT professionals share for building applications. And whether you’re looking for something for recording your voice or helping you build the top mobile casinos Canada, there’s free software for pretty much all purposes. But, obviously, some of them are more beneficial than others. Here’s our top open-source technology list to help you pick the best software for your various tasks. Let’s dive in.

1. WordPress – Open-source Technology to Build a Fully Functional Website

One of the top reasons why we use open-source technology is that it’s better than similar editions of paid software. That’s the case with WordPress. The platform that started as a blogging site now offers both frontend and backend management, handy eCommerce features, and lots more. Plus, WordPress has thousands of available plugins to cater to all types of online pages. So it’s no wonder that over one billion websites are using it.

2. Krita – for Those Who Enjoy Getting Creative

If you’re someone who enjoys creating digital art, and maybe you even do it professionally, discovering Krita will be a treat. You can use this open-source technology for web development tasks like editing graphics, digital painting, color management, etc.

Plus, if you’ve always wanted to try your hand at 2D animation, you can do that also with Krita.

3. KeePass – a Password Manager like No Other

What makes KeePass stand out from all the other password managers? Firstly, it’s super easy to install the software. But most importantly, it comes with all the industry-standard features that keep your accounts 100% secure. You’ll get two-factor authentication and AES encryption to protect all your stored details. And the cool thing about KeePass is that you can double-guard your database by carrying the program with all the passwords on a USB stick. That way, even the best hacker in the world won’t be able to access your details.

4. The Ever-Popular VLC Media Player

With this open-source technology, the introduction is unnecessary. We’ve all probably used the VLC player at some point in our lives. Whenever there’s a video or audio format that no other media player can play, VLC mostly does the trick.

Other than playing all imaginable types of files, VLC also enables you to add subtitles from pretty much any source. And it also works as a server to stream all sorts of media from DVDs to MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 files. So if you’re looking for software that can receive network streams, VLC is a tried and working solution for that endeavor.

5. Audacity to Make Sounds

The thing is that sound recording software is often pretty expensive. So people who are interested in processing audio as a hobby are not too keen to purchase it. Luckily, Audacity offers an excellent free alternative. It comes with a multi-track sound recorder you can use to tape your music, conversations, or any other audio. The program also enables you to slice, cut, and mix the sounds and then tweak the result to make it sound as pleasant as possible to the ears.

Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash

6. Advanced Video Editing With Shortcut

With open-source technology, the advantages come from the developers’ teams keeping working on the product even long after its release. So in time, they’ll update the software, add new features, and hone the software to perfection. That’s what has happened with Shortcut. When it first came out, the interface was pretty bland. However, it now has an intuitive timeline, lockable panels, and lots more. The latest edition even lets you add numerous effects to your videos without losing any quality. Plus, you can use it for some top-class color grading.

7. Python Makes Coding Easier

Python is an open-source technology platform used for coding. And because of its extensive list of standard libraries, it has become many developers’ first choice for a programming language. The libraries make coding much easier since they give you ready-made code snippets to use in your projects. So even some of the most prominent tech companies like Facebook and Google use Python for their programming.

8. Use PyTorch to Build Deep Learning Software

This one is a machine learning framework for super-advanced tasks like deep learning research computing via tensors. But what makes it noteworthy is that PyTorch is the platform big companies like Tesla use to build deep learning software for their autopilot feature. PyTorch comes with a plethora of libraries and features that make this free tool an invaluable asset to all tech research labs.

9. Build LEGO on Your Computer via Stud.io

We’ve all probably played with LEGOs when we were children. However, as the sets were pretty expensive, most of us probably never got to build our dream LEGO projects. But you can now do it digitally via the Stud.io platform. And once you’re happy with the results, Stud.io even directs you to the nearest shops where you can buy all the necessary parts for your ultimate LEGO construction.

10. Compose Documents with LibreOffice

LibreOffice is compatible with most formats, displays a dynamic word count, and keeps the interface simple and traditional. It’s nothing too flashy, but you wouldn’t expect that from an office platform anyhow. LibreOffice is reliable, constantly updated, and completely free. And that’s enough to make it one of the best software of its kind.

11. GIMP – a Tool to Edit Images

Gimp is an open-source tool you can use for photo editing. With a customizable interface, and extra support for filters and layers, its flexibility is quite close to Adobe Photoshop. But so is its complexity. So it can take quite some time to learn to use all the advanced editing tools, masks, additional plug-ins, etc.

In Summary

So this was our overview of the best available open-source mobile technology in 2021. Whether you need to edit your videos, write code for web development, or build your dream LEGO project, there are tools available for all of that. And the best part is that they’re free of charge.

What are some of the best open-source technology examples we missed? Let readers know your favorites in the comments.

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