The Benefits Of Mobile Apps For Your Brand

/in , /by

Lots of the most successful companies have mobile apps for their customers and clients at the moment. However, many small business owners are yet to take the step. With that in mind, this post will highlight some of the benefits of releasing a mobile app for your business. Hopefully, this article will set the record straight once and for all.

Benefit 1: You’ll reach more people

There is no getting away from the fact that consumers like using mobile apps when making purchases. That is because it’s convenient, fast, and reliable. Also, your application will appear in relevant app stores, so some people might download it having never encountered your company before.

Benefit 2: You’ll sell more products or services

The ease with which consumers can make purchases using mobile apps means they tend to spend a little more than they otherwise would have done. In most instances, they only have to click a couple of buttons to spend their cash, so you’ll sell more products or services.

Benefit 3: You’ll have direct access to your customers

When customers download mobile apps, they give you direct access to their smartphones. You can place advertising or news alerts on your app to ensure you always get the best results from any new marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to release a mobile app after reading that information, you just need to build a relationship with professional developers. You’ll also want to make sure your company’s CTO takes a look at the infographic below.


Designed by Global App Testing

Selling Your Products: DIY Or Distributors?

/in , /by

When you manufacture a product that you are proud of, the goal of your business is to get that product into the hands of as many people as possible.

There are two primary options for this:

DIY Selling

As a DIY seller, you will be responsible for:

  • Selling the product for yourself. This can mean pitching and selling to retail stores; selling the product online using an ecommerce site; or selling through a third party.
  • Dealing with customer issues, returns, and refunds.
  • You will also be responsible for photographing the product to be sold online.
  • You will package and send all products.

The alternative option…

Distributor Selling

A distributor effectively acts as a middleman, so your products are no longer your responsibility when they have left your warehouse.

  • The distributor will buy your products directly, and then sell them on wherever they see fit.
  • A distributor will usually sell to a retail store. The store is then responsible for customer service, sending the items out if they sell online, and all the associate work.

When you have a product to sell, it’s vital that you work out which is best for you. Below is an overview of all the different areas you have to consider, as well as some suggestions as to which option might best suit your needs.

Workload

If workload is a problem for you, then you may want to consider distributor selling. After all, you’re a manufacturer; you just produce the product. You may not have the skills and connections required to pitch the products to store; nor do you have the time to build a good customer service department or send large amounts of packages on a daily basis.

If you opt for DIY selling, then you have to be aware that your workload is likely to be substantial. You’re going to be responsible for the entire process; the manufacturing of the product, the pitching to stores, the advertising, the sales, and the customer service. If you are a small business then this is usually manageable due to the smaller quantities of products you are responsible for. Larger businesses, dealing with higher product numbers, may find this more difficult; outsourcing some of these tasks to a distributor will likely be beneficial.

Profits

Of course, it’s important to consider which of the above options will make you the most money.

It is easy to assume that DIY selling is the winner here, but there are hidden costs that you have to be aware of. When you sell your own products, you can charge the retail price for them, which should mean that you make more money. Distributors will buy at a wholesale price, which is usually substantially lower than the retail price.

However, with DIY selling — if you want to do it right — you are going to incur additional experiences. You’re going to have to find top Magento developers to help you build the most user-friendly ecommerce store; you will need to pay for web space and a domain name; you’re going to have to take product photographs; and you’re going to have to pay shipping costs to get the items to customers. You will have to run the numbers and ensure that these costs are factored into your purchase price.

Despite this, DIY selling is more lucrative if you are a small business, so stick with this method if it is working for you. As you grow in future — or if you are already anticipating a high number of orders, you may want to consider expanding into distributor selling.

Simplicity

When it comes to evaluating the choices on the basis of simplicity, there is a clear winner: distributor selling. Distributor selling takes a huge number of problems off your hands; you don’t need to worry about marketing, pricing, interacting with customers, or any other such issues. You can just focus on what you’re good at; making the best product you possibly can.

Involvement In The Business

As useful as the simplicity of distributor selling is, it does rather separate you from the process. This is useful, but it also means that — ultimately — your business is in the hands of others.

This separation from your end customer can be problematic, especially when considering the future of your business. You will not have the opportunity to directly see what customers are buying, which products are doing well, and which are performing poorly. Instead, you will get this information second-hand, often months after the data was collected; you only find out when the distributor places another order.

If you’re in the early days of your business, you need customer feedback. You need to know, as quickly as possible, which items are proving a hit– so you can make more of them. You also need to know which items aren’t really working out; you shouldn’t keep manufacturing a product which is not selling well. Gathering this data for yourself with DIY selling is worth doing, so this may be your best choice in the founding years of your business.

By the time you have been in business for awhile, the need for immediate feedback and direct customer interaction is reduced. You will have built a name and a reputation, and you should also have honed your business instincts so you can have an idea of what products might be a success.

So Which Is Best?

Reading through the above, the solution is rather stark.

If you are a new business, a small business with no immediate plans for growth, or a lifestyle business, then your best option is almost certainly DIY selling. You have more control, you have access to the data, and you stand to make more money from individual sales. It’s unlikely businesses of this size are producing enough products to make selling for wholesale price a viable option.

If you are a medium to large business, or have immediate expansion plans that want to turn into a reality, then distributor selling might be the best choice for you. You can focus more on your product and less on your sales techniques, and you’ll be manufacturing a high enough volume to make wholesale prices worthwhile.

Hopefully this guide has been able to assist you in making the right decision for your company. Good luck.

How to Get Your Business Noticed

/in , /by

Whether you are just starting out in business, or have been running your own firm for the past decade, it can be difficult to get your business noticed in today’s increasingly competitive world. While you might previously have been the market leader in your field, any reputation or titles that you have earned can be taken away in a heartbeat, if a competitor is able to provide the same services for a quarter of your prices. Costs aside, a poor marketing strategy or failure to embrace change could be seriously impacting how your business is perceived. Just as large corporations such as Apple, Pepsi and Mercedes have had to adapt and change their business strategies over time, then your business will also need to consider new ways if you want to ensure that you retain your loyal customer base and continue to build upon your reputation.

Social media

You might already be using social media to some extent, but are you using it effectively? Anyone can open a Twitter account or a Facebook page, but failure to keep it updated or respond to customers’ questions or complaints will cost you dearly. In today’s digital world, social media can make or break your company in an instant, so it’s essential that you check your social channels on a regular basis. While not all companies can afford to have a dedicated resource to do this, with some common sense and careful planning you can ensure that you are using social well. First, draw up some stock responses that can be used in the case that you do acquire a troll or negative product feedback. Next, consider using tools such as Hootsuite to automatically schedule posts, no matter the time of day. Finally, keep it fun and light – no one likes to read lengthy copy. Injecting some humor into your social media will get your noticed, and you may even attract new followers too.

Branding

You might have had the same branding or company logo for the past five years, so why not consider injecting it with a new lease of life? Companies such as SmashBrand can help review your design, and suggest potential new ideas that will help your firm stand out from the crowd. Sure, you might love your branding but do your customers? If you want to make sure that you continue to grow and expand your client base, then out dated imagery could be cramping your style.

Check out the competition

Ok, it might sound a bit odd, but do make sure that you check out what your competition is doing – and be sure that you do it better. Have they launched a new company website? Are they experimenting with new branding or marketing strategies? If they are upping the ante, then this is a sign that you should be too. So, make sure that you don’t get left behind, and be sure that you use your competitors to help spur you on.

From changing your branding to updating your social media channels, make sure that you give your business a makeover if you want to get noticed.

4 Amazingly Effective SEO Strategies for Content Marketing

/in /by


 
When it comes to generating web traffic and online brand awareness, few methods are more effective in the long-term than search engine optimization (SEO), which is simply the practice of optimizing your website and marketing efforts to facilitate higher rankings in the search engines. Since all of those search results are linking to content, the primary driving force behind any SEO campaign is content creation/marketing. Although site owners and marketers should always aim for quality over quantity, to a degree it really is a number game. The number of posts you have online at any given time will directly affect your brand’s visibility. With that said, here are four strategies you can use to achieve expansive results in any content marketing strategy:

1. Geo-Targeting and International Marketing

Sometimes, expanding into foreign markets is all it takes to tap into an extra group of visitors that you might’ve previously overlooked. This is worthy of being mentioned first because it’s something that many marketing campaigns fail to take into account. While global brands can benefit tremendously from international marketing – click here for more information on that – local brands should also be using geo-targeting techniques to increase the amount of traffic generated in the regions where they conduct business.

2. Guest Posting and Allowing Guest Authors

Another way to get your content in front of new eyes is to volunteer to post your content on relevant blogs and sites that allow guest posts. By guest posting on high authority sites and then linking back to a page on your own site, you’re not only attracting direct referral traffic but you’re also improving your SEO stats by increasing the number of high-ranking inbound links that point to your site. Likewise, posting an open invitation for guest authors will give your site fresh new content for free.

3. Infographics, Videos, and Other Media

You could be losing a large chunk of traffic by not producing and promoting infographics, videos, GIFs, sideshows, reports, presentations, and other forms of media content. Infographics can spread like wildfire if they contain a number unique and useful statistics, as they tend to be linked back to as resources by bloggers.

4. Focus on the Social Networking Side of the Coin

Finally, staying active on social media is a duty that no brand should neglect, especially if you’re trying to promote content to generate additional traffic and awareness. Having a post go viral on a site like Facebook or Twitter is a great way to build massive momentum and dozens of strong inbound links in a matter of days.

Content Marketing Has become the Crux of SEO

Not too long ago, SEO was ridden with sneaky, short-sighted tactics that often involved nothing more than seeking out random links from sites that match a set of criteria. However, in recent years search engines like Google have evolved past a purely metrics-based approach and are now able to more accurately discern what quality content reads and performs like. Since the goal of the search engine is to provide links to the most relevant content, it was only a matter of time before content quality became the core issue in SEO, so take note and adapt your SEO efforts to follow suit.

Why Your Company Needs a Mobile Marketing Strategy

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
As a business, you want to make the best of your brand as possible. That means you need to have an effective marketing strategy that will attract customers and encourage them to make a purchase. You might not think that you need a dedicated mobile strategy when it comes to marketing. However, when you consider that most searches online now happen on cell phones and tablets, it makes sense to have one.

What Type of Mobile Marketing do You Need?

When you think about mobile marketing, you are probably thinking about those ads that pop up on games. Although they are a good way to get your brand in front of people, they aren’t the only way to advertise on cell phones.

  • Over 80 percent of mobile use involves apps, so it is the perfect medium to get your brand in front of your audience. While you can create your own app for your business, it isn’t essential. There are many other ways such as Google AdMob to get your advertising onto other creator’s apps.
  • If you are a company that wants to attract more local people to your business, then you can use location-based marketing. It enables ads to be shown to the user if they get near to the location.
  • Another useful type of marketing is SMS based advertising. You are able to send targeted SMS messages to your customers with details of deals and special events. Companies such as Reach Interactive provide you with the ability to send bulk SMS marketing campaigns to your audience which can help retain customers as well as new clients.
  • When someone searches on their cell phone, they will often see targeted ads on the search results. These types of mobile search ads are different from those on laptops, and you can direct users to a different part of your site if you wish.

Email Marketing

People use their cell phones continuously; they check their emails on the go rather than wait until they get home, and that means you can use email marketing to reach your customers. The trick is to keep the content engaging and try to tailor the emails to your customer’s tastes. You can also offer promotional codes, deals and money off coupons and a link to your website to make easy for them to buy.

Make Your Site Mobile Friendly

There is no point trying these mobile marketing techniques if your website isn’t mobile-friendly. You want all your content to be visible and easy to read on a small screen. Otherwise, you may find that viewers will be put off and click away. If you have made the site yourself using a web builder, there are usually options to convert it into a mobile-friendly version so that you can test your design to make sure that it works properly.

Your marketing campaign is a vital part of your business and adding a mobile element along with the other parts of your campaign will allow you to reach your customers much easier.