What Can E-commerce Stores Learn from Amazon?

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There are quite a few different things that just about all e-commerce stores can learn from Amazon. If you own an online store and want to increase its profitability, you will need to take a close look at all of the things that this internet retailer giant does right. It can be difficult making it in this world unless you really know what you are doing.

In this article, you’ll get some insight into how you can improve your internet-based business by following some simple but effective tips. Amazon has set the standard for e-commerce, and there are numerous reasons for that.

A Customized Experience

One of the revolutionary things that Amazon did as an online retailer is to personalize each customer’s shopping experience. You can clearly see this when you look at the “Related to Item’s You’ve Viewed” section and others. When you create a more custom shopping experience for each person who visits your website, they are far more likely to keep coming back.

On-Site Reviews

Another great way to increase the likelihood of people buying from your online store is to include a section for customers to post reviews of the products they have purchased. This is something that really helped Amazon a lot, and it will really help the people who visit your site decide which products to buy. These days most people read customer reviews before purchasing an item online, so you will want to seriously consider doing this.

Stay Current with Business News

As successful as Amazon is, they are still always trying to figure out how to become better as a company. It is important that you stay current with business news on a daily basis so that you can make the right decisions for your business. There are many different websites to visit for business news, including Apex Beats.

Learn the Art of Promotion

Amazon is really good about promoting themselves and, more specifically, the deals they offer customers. Almost everyone knows about Amazon Prime and it’s because they generate a ton of buzz for it. If there are certain things that you can offer your customers to save them money, you will need to make sure they know about it.

Make Searching for Products Easier

It should be the goal of any online merchant to make searching for products as easy as possible for those who visit their site. The last thing you want is for your customers to have difficulty locating what they want because they’ll likely get frustrated and go somewhere else. Amazon makes doing this incredibly simple and easy, so you will want to follow suit and do the same.

While it may seem like it’s nearly impossible to succeed as an online merchant sometimes, there are quite a few things that you can do to increase your chances of making it. Every single e-commerce business owner should take a close look at Amazon to see what they are doing right because there are a lot of them.

What Should You Do Before Starting A Business?

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If you like the idea of being your own boss and starting a business, then there are a number of things that you need to think about and do, before you leap right in. Just jumping in at the deep end can mean that you make avoidable mistakes, or even lose a lot of money. Taking the time to step back and think about what you need to do first is always the best option.

Do Your Research

Before you begin any major product, and particularly before you sink your life savings (or someone else’s) into a new business, you need to do your research. You should look into the industry you’re planning to become join, and see how unique your business idea is. You may need to change your plans slightly, or even put things on hold until you can come up with something different. Even if you do have an idea that’s different, it’s always good to be aware of your competitors and keep ahead of them whenever possible. This is also the time to consider your target market. Once you know who they are, you will be able to target your marketing and design ideas towards them.

Legalities

When you start up a business, there will be certain legal aspects that you need to deal with. Firstly, you’ll need to choose what its legal structure will be. That could be a limited company, an LLP, or you might want to work as a sole trader. Each option has different tax implications, and the liability of the owner will change too.

Speak To Consultants

It makes no difference if this is your first company, or whether you’ve run many different businesses before, it’s always worth speaking to consultants about various aspects of your business. Financial consultants and marketing experts such as the ones you can find at http://netwaveinteractive.com/marketing-services/marketing-consulting/ have many years of experience in their sectors, and this kind of investment can pay huge dividends when it comes to an understanding of how business works. Starting off on the right track with a consultant behind you can prove to be an extremely shrewd move.

Look At Your Finances

Starting a business is not a cheap prospect. There are many different start up costs, so understanding where the money for these will come from is the first thing to look at. You might consider asking your bank for money or going to investors. You might want to look at crowdfunding. There will be an option that works for you, so take your time in finding it. Whichever route for funding you choose to take, you will need to write up a detailed business plan. Your business plan will have to include all of your expected costs for running your business including electricity, rental or mortgage costs, staff costs, stock and machinery costs, and more. This is another reason why research is essential; if you can show that you understand how much you will be paying, and why it is worth paying that amount, then it will be far easier to find the capital. As well as that, it means you can budget more easily, and you’ll know how much profit you need to make.

Viral Marketing: What Is It and How Can You Use It?

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Digital marketing grew rapidly these past few years. There are more instruments to use and campaigns to run today, allowing businesses – from small businesses to giant enterprises – to achieve their marketing objectives in an efficient and measurable way.

While content marketing and social media are very popular, more businesses are turning to viral marketing as a way to generate buzz and attract a bigger audience. What is viral marketing and how can you use it? We are going to answer those questions in this article.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a type of marketing campaign that utilizes existing websites and networks of users to deliver key marketing messages to a wider audience. By targeting key users on different platforms, the same marketing messages can reach a vast number of viewers in a relatively short amount of time.

Viral marketing differs from conventional content or social media marketing in one particular way: this type of campaign relies on the content of the campaign to be interesting enough for it to go viral. When the campaign is configured properly, a simple marketing message can get thousands of shares and re-shares across multiple platforms.

In most cases, viral marketing uses video content. Audio-visual contents work better in attracting user engagement and persuading the audience to share the content with more people. At the same time, video content adds that extra dimension for a bigger chance of going viral.

How Can You Do Viral Marketing?

From the definition of viral marketing itself, it is easy to see the elements you need to prepare for a successful viral marketing campaign. For starters, you need to determine the platforms you want to target for the campaign. Aside from popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we also have sites that specialize in viral and funny content such as apextribune.com.

Understanding the platforms you’ll be using and the audience you want to target is important. The insights will help you tailor your content perfectly; once again, the goal of fine-tuning the message is to increase its chances of going viral once viewers start seeing it.

Once the campaign is carefully formulated, you can start executing the plan and let the audience to the rest. Keep in mind that not all content will go viral upon impact. That brings us to the next part of this article: how to go viral.

How to Go Viral

There is no definitive secret or recipe to going viral. The biggest challenge of viral marketing is getting the campaign accepted by the audience the right way. Only then will you see the impact of the campaign amplified to new heights.

That said, you can take steps to increase the chances of your campaign going viral. Adding gamification, understanding the audience’s taste and preferences, and using content that relates well to the target viewers are some of the tips you can use to get started. Do it right and viral marketing can catapult your brand and your products or services like no other digital marketing instrument.

If You Want to Work From Home, These Things Will Help You

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If you’re about to embark on a home working adventure, you need to be sure to think about the challenges you’ll face and how you’ll deal with them. It might seem like a great way to get away from your dour office and skip that morning commute, and that’s all great. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that working from home is all fun and games because that’s definitely not the case.

There are many of ways in which working from home can become unworkable for you if you fail to approach it correctly. We’re now going to delve into some of the things that will help you to get your home working experience right the first time.

Ergonomically Designed Office Furniture

The furniture that you use every day of the week in your home office is clearly going to have an impact on how you experience your. If you don’t feel at all comfortable when you’re working at home, you’ll feel annoyed and your work will ultimately suffer. That’s why you need good office furniture that has been ergonomically designed to fit the needs of your body each day.

A Dedicated Work Area

A home office is going to be essential because without a dedicated working area, you’ll really struggle to get your head down and focus on your work when you’re at home. That’s clearly a pretty big issue and it’s not something you can ignore. Your workspace should be apart from the rest of your home if possible. It’s not a good idea to just work on your laptop on the sofa or at the kitchen dining table. You’ll quickly realise why those arrangements are bad.

Strict Rules for Yourself

When you don’t have a boss looming over your shoulder and getting you do to all the things that need to be done, the task falls to you. Without proper structure, you’ll just get distracted and you’ll end up failing. That’s why you should set strict rules for yourself that you can follow each day. It’s entirely up to you to decide on those rules but it’s definitely worth giving some thought to.

Locks on Your Office Door

If you’re trying to work from home and you have a family to think about too, you’ll have to find a way of shutting them out and making sure that you don’t get distracted by them. Something as simple as putting a lock on your office door in order to shut people out while you work might not be such a bad idea. There tend to be more distractions for home workers than office workers, so bear that in mind.

Some Form of Financial Security

There are many ways to become financially secure, and that security will be really important if your home working is tied to a new freelance or sole trader career. This is the case for many people who work from home, but it can be risky and precarious if you’re not careful. You might want to save before starting on this path, or you could turn to investing. AlgoTerminal’s backtesting software can help you plan your investments and see good returns. It’s definitely an option to consider.

Time Away From the Home When Work is Done

When you spend your work time at home and you spend your spare time at home, your home can start to feel like a bit of a prison for you. Having time away from your home is definitely important so make sure you do try to get out of your house when your work is done and you have some spare time on your hands. Otherwise, you’ll get sick of the site of those four walls.

A Plan B

Working from home is one of those things that always seems like a great idea, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it works out that way. It’s certainly not an arrangement that works for everyone who tries it, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that it’s not right for you. If that’s the conclusion you arrive at, you need to have a plan B. So make sure you think about that now rather than leaving it until later.

Working from home can be really positive for you if you approach it in the right kind of way. Approach it incorrectly and it can quickly become a real nightmare for you, so make sure you think carefully about all the topics covered here. They might really help you make a success of your home working future.

5 Simple Marketing Tips for Improved Brand Visibility in 2018

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 5 Simple Marketing Tips for Improved Brand Visibility in 2018 | Marketing and SalesFor some time now, having an online presence has been crucial in business. As more consumers turn to the internet to shop, search and even socialize, ranking #1 on Google can put you in front of your competitors and increase conversions. While the internet proves far more competition than ever before, this ease of virtual accessibility can be both a dream and a curse. While it expands reach, allowing companies to access a global market, the increase in opposition means it’s also far more difficult to engage your demographic. Plus, 2018 means new ways of marketing your business digitally, as our ever-increasing world becomes more dependent on technology.

However, even in an ever competitive space, there are many ways to give your brand the advantage, so that your company has a fighting chance. Here are five marketing tips to increase your brand’s visibility this year.

Maintain Your Blogging Schedule

In 2017, many companies tried their hand at blogging, incorporating a blog into their business’s website. By doing so, you’re allowing yourself, as an employer, to become a trusted and knowledgeable authority figure in your industry; writing and publishing content that caters to the needs of your audience, whether it’s for your customers or clients, improves your business’s reputation and makes your business seem more reliable. You’ll become a reliable and trusted source for certain areas of business, and if your posts are well-written, engaging and offer something of worth, people may share your blog posts, organically elongating your reach.

Throughout 2018, you should continue to maintain your blogging schedule (posting at least 2 or 3 times a week). According to Hubspot, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got 3.5x more traffic than companies that published a mere 0-4 monthly posts; 53% of marketers also admitted that blog content creations are their top inbound marketing priority. Therefore, create a schedule where your team continues to blog regularly so that your business can continue to publish consistent posts.

Choose the Best Social Media Platforms

There are many social media networks up for grabs. However, you should only select the ones that relate to your audience and key demographic. Trying to tackle them all is hugely time-consuming and can cost unnecessary money. By selecting the key social media platforms for your business, you will generate true results from your marketing efforts.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the go-to for many businesses, and they seem set to continue being popular throughout 2018, but if your business cannot thoroughly utilize them, you should look for alternatives. For instance, Instagram is a social media platform tailored for photography; this is ideal for fashion labels, artists and even website designers, but for SEO companies, it may not be so fruitful. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, can help most companies, and all businesses should set up profiles with both platforms. Both Facebook and Twitter are also ideal for sharing your blog posts with customers, helping to improve a brand’s visibility.

When looking for a social media platform that drives the best conversion rates, you should consider the following:

  • Facebook continues to be the most popular, with over 1.94 billion users and drives a conversion rate of 1.85%.
  • Instagram’s popularity is continuing to rise and is becoming the number social media platform for e-commerce businesses with a conversion rate of 1.08%.
  • YouTube produces a conversion rate of 1.16%, Twitter 0.77% and even Pinterest brings in a rate of 0.54%.

Also, there are various tools you can use to make your brand stand out through the above social media channels. Software such as Clickfunnels and Leadpages allow you to create beautiful landing pages that effectively advertise your products and services to consumers. These software tools include templates for you to quickly and easily create stunning pages that will excite your prospects and turn them into subscribers and customers.

Master Instagram Stories

It’s predicted that by the end of 2018, nearly half of all Instagram users will be fully utilizing Stories, meaning brands should grasp this particular practice and master the art of crafting and engaging and interesting Instagram Story. Stories are ideal for businesses to stay on top of people’s minds, create a digital community and publishing exclusive behind-the-scenes or launch footage. Instagram Stories is perfect for engaging with Gen Zers, who are 22 years old or below.

The Rise of Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR), has impacted mobile gaming with the likes of Pokémon Go. However, Apple announced that the iPhone 8 and X would incorporate a chip that allows the phones to provide the users with AR experiences that are likely to soon appear in social media. Although AR is still being developed and is a new feature, it’s likely to make headway. It’s conceivable that brands will soon be able to project their products into the homes of social media users.

Continue with SEO

Google is continuously releasing algorithms in the hopes of providing relevant and useful search results to their users. The latest algorithm was Google’s Fred, which saw the end of overtly ‘spammy’ websites, which profited from adverts rather than a user-friendly experience. If you’re wondering how to market your product on Google using SEO, then businesses are expected to cater to the user, rather than for profit, while incorporating the new SEO trends for 2018. For instance, long tail keywords are more effective than ‘caveman keywords’ due to the increased popularity of voice search through Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. It’s forecasted that in 2020, at least 50% of all searches are going to be through speech or images. How can you ready your business for this, then?

Instead of imputing broken sentences such as “best Italian restaurant New York,” people are more likely to speak in fuller sentences like “what’s the best Italian restaurant in New York City?” Therefore, the use of punctuation and more conversational language will be a game changer in the business of SEO.

Technology and digital trends tend to adapt and change frequently, and so businesses have also to adapt accordingly. It’s imperative that your business keeps tabs on the trends as they are as successful as they are fleeting. While many continue to prosper, 2018 could bring in many new digital marketing trends no one is prepared for, making others extinct. Remain knowledgeable, and your brand’s visibility will continue to increase.