Optimizing Your Online Presence For Global Expansion

June 21, 2017 / nancyrubin / Leave a comment

Widening your net to land a much more international audience is a great way to grow your company and get your product, service or even just your brand into entirely new territories. However, it isn’t as simple as many would naively believe, especially when you consider you have to cater for all the nuances that come with an international audience: cultures, laws and online behaviors.

That is why we have come up with a few things you should consider when it comes to launching your global marketing strategy; the reason being these will help you successful cater to the new audiences you hope to reach.

Going Cross-Culture

If you want to be a success across multiple cultures then you need to understand the cultural barriers that you and your business will need to overcome. Of course, a great place to start is having a website that has been translated into multiple languages because this will give you a huge advantage. However, the deeper you are able to delve when it comes to understanding other cultures the more you will able to tweak your strategy to meet the different nuances. As such, we recommend you learn from people in the target audience you are hoping to reach.

Different Laws

Every country – and often every region – has different regulations when it comes to products, marketing, and sales. As such, it is worth making sure you know the local regulations on all three of these fronts before you commit to launching your online campaign. To give you some more context, doing business in Russia will mean different product laws to doing business in America with regards to chemicals used, safety standards, packaging designs, language used and quality assurances. The same goes for advertising laws. While America is very relaxed on competitive messaging, places like Germany and Belgium have much stricter regulations.

Search Engine Needs

Choosing the right search engine, localizing content and understanding how keywords are interpreted; these are areas you need to give careful consideration to. Every region uses different search engines, so you need to know which is used by your target audience in every location you are launching in. Yes, Google has the top spot in English-speaking countries, but local markets tend to be best served by local search engines. Another thing to bear in mind is translations. It isn’t enough to just directly translate your content; you need to localize the messaging and the product to each market you are looking at serving. And let’s not forget the importance of knowing what the native keywords to use are.

Website Design

You may think you have got the perfect website in terms of design and user functionality and, yes, that may well be the case for your American market. But it doesn’t mean it will be for the Russian market. Simple things like the colors you use can have a completely different meaning because they are so deeply ingrained in cultures. White in the western world means marriage and purity, but in the Eastern world and Africa, it symbolizes mourning. That’s just the start as well. You’re social media accounts will need to be setup to adapt to the different languages too, while most of the customer services do’s and don’t will need to be addressed as well. You’ll also need to make sure that your users see the cost of something in their local currency and you’ll want to save yourself the headache of having text that can’t be translated in your graphics.

Is Quality Web Hosting Important For SEO?

June 20, 2017 / nancyrubin / Leave a comment

Businesses should never underestimate the importance of online presence for their success. But being merely present isn’t enough. Your website has to be noticed by potential customers, and in time, its popularity will surely grow, as well as the business itself. So, what else is important other than the presence? Well, quality, of course. This includes ease of navigation and an organized and visually pleasing site. Is this enough? No. Where you decide to accommodate your blog also plays a big role, especially in a world where search engine optimization is essential for every business, that is, if you want to generate traffic. Let’s see exactly how your web host impacts your SEO.

High uptime percentage

If your website is often inaccessible for a long time due to problems with the server, the search engine spiders can notice that during one of their checkup visits. They will then record it as unavailable and move on to the next site. What does that mean? Well, your web page will probably be recorded as unreliable and your rankings will go down. As a result, your website will not be ranked highly in search results, and you will lose a lot of potential visitors. A good website host should offer at least 99% uptime.

Loading speed

In 2010, Google explicitly specified speed as a ranking factor, and this is something that has been a long time coming. Users love fast websites, and low loading speed will only chase them away to another page. Too busy servers can be blamed for this situation. However, while the loading speed does, in part, depend on the web host, it is not necessarily the provider’s fault. The coding and configuration of your website can play a significant role in the total loading speed.

IP address

What’s so special about the IP address that could impact your search ranking? Well, believe it or not, it’s the physical location of your web host. In order to get higher rankings, you should choose a web host that is located in the same country as your company. IP location can impact another SEO factor – speed. Targeting the users in the same country where the host server is located will enable faster loading times.

SSL as an important SEO factor

More and more websites are using https to protect user data in web traffic. That is why Google has marked SSL as an SEO ranking factor. Although it is still a minor ranking factor and it doesn’t have too strong an influence, it looks like it will become very important in the near future. You can move your site from http to https but it will require some changes to make your website fully operational.

Security

Poor website security can really hurt your SEO. Google will not hesitate to penalize websites which are susceptible to hacker attacks, spam messages, and fake backlinks. If something like this happens, you will probably need a lot of time to identify the fraudulent page and have it removed. This gives Google time to impose the penalty. Websites that are prone to malware are also backlisted by search engines. If you choose a reliable SEO friendly host that has security technology options available, you should be able to avoid all of the mentioned problems.

Tech support

Although tech support isn’t an SEO factor per se it can play an important role in the way you manage your website and handle challenging situations. Let’s suppose your website goes down. You’re trying to get tech support on the phone and no one is answering. By the time someone finally picks up the phone, Google has already figured out your site is down which pushes it lower down the ranking list. That’s why it is imperative to find a web host that offers 24/7 support that actually works. If your website goes down, there will always be someone to react straight away.

Although a critical factor in determining your website’s SEO rankings, web hosting is often overlooked. By making an informed decision and constantly checking your hosting quality, you will help increase your search result rankings, and ensure that users enjoy the experience of your website and always come back for more.

Guest Author is Alex Williams is a journalism graduate, and a rookie blogger trying to find my luck. Blogs are the perfect opportunity for presenting yourself to wider audience, getting the chance to showcase my expertise and receiving recognition. I am a regular contributor at Bizzmark Blog

Let Your Website Do The Talking

May 25, 2017May 26, 2017 / nancyrubin / 1 Comment

When you’re operating a business, whether from an office or your own home, you need to have an online presence. It is through this that you will be able to gain custom. This isn’t necessarily just through your own website; there are so many more platforms to be used in conjunction with this, especially social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. It’s through the combination of all of these that you have got the recipe for online success – it’s just about finding out the dashes and sprinkles of your own branding and personality to add to it and following it down to a tee rather than deviating off down other paths.

Make It Stand Out

There are a myriad of different ways to get your website to stand out, but the most obvious (and the one that needs the most attention) is the design of it all. If you are not too au fait with getting websites built yourself, it’s time to outsource to somebody who does. There are plenty of freelancers available online for you to get in touch with. Look for somebody who has been highly recommended by people who have used them before; there are usually websites with reviews on them that have come from trusted sources. These people are living off the recommendations that they to get their next job, and so they want to impress you. Make sure that you communicate your ideas clear and effectively to get the best job done for you. Include what you want from your website, who your target demographic is and other bits and bobs that you want added in – maybe a few online games, for example, if your site is more child-orientated. Remember: the longer that you keep the customer on your website, the more invested in your business they will be.

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Keep Them Coming Back

After the design of your website, you need to ensure that you are keeping those who have originally visited coming back. This can be for a number of reasons; those who are bloggers and are living off the revenue of their website may be wanting people back on their site so that they can generate more money via sponsored links and posts. For those who aren’t generating any money, it’s still important to keep a good presence. Whether it’s through small updates to your website, blog posts informing your customers of what’s going on with your business (even just a quick update can be enough to satisfy their interest!) or links to your social media accounts, these are all things which will keep your site active and current. The last thing that somebody wants is to head over to a point of information and find out that it hasn’t been updated in months (or in some cases years – shocking, isn’t it?). You have to keep up to demand when you’re in business and recognise that the majority of this demand is now coming from the digital side rather than in person.

How to Get Started With Digital Marketing

April 21, 2017April 21, 2017 / nancyrubin

The digital marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving. Nowadays, it is a competitive challenge to impress the viewers and meet their ever growing expectations. However, choosing a career in digital marketing is quite exciting and profitable. The demand for skilled digital marketers is high, due to the competitive market and a need for businesses to stand out in the crowd.

Moreover, becoming a digital marketer is difficult enough and finding a suitable job will require both wit and skill, alongside determination. As same as customers have to be impressed by marketing efforts, so do the employers need to be impressed by marketers that are looking for employment. Here are a few tips on how to get started with digital marketing.

Work on Yourself

As mentioned, digital marketing industry is constantly changing and shifting directions. What was a big hit today may as well be a thing of the past tomorrow. That is why it is important that you work on yourself and improve your knowledge and skills regularly.

Whether you graduated from marketing school or you are self taught, having something more to add to your portfolio may be beneficial in finding good employment. Additional certification or a degree in some marketing course can help you out, but it may not be necessary. Some employers like to read your biography, while some prefer to see what you can do.

Furthermore, you should always make time to update your knowledge and learn about the industry’s news by reading posts from websites that are on top of the marketing industry such as The Moz, HubSpot etc. The key for growing in digital marketing is by staying updated at all times.

Build your Online Presence

The best way to convince employers that you can build their company’s online presence is by building your own first. After all, the best way to get noticed and show your potential before employers start testing you out is by having some successful personal projects.

A good example would be to start your personal website and support it with a blog. You can pick a topic or a niche to write about or simply write about yourself. Your blog will be your pet project, so make sure you develop it well and implement different strategies to drive traffic to it. You may as well test out your SEO skills on your blog.

For instance, make sure you have fast website speed, because it is a well known fact that viewers have zero tolerance for slow loading pages and sluggish blogs. Besides, site speed affects rankings and it is one of the most important aspects of SEO. Use your skills to increase your website visibility and popularity enough to impress anyone, so when employers ask what have you got to show, you will have an ace up sour sleeve.

Learn Different Skills

In the world of digital marketing today, marketers who possess knowledge and skill in several different areas of expertise are highly sought after. However, this does not mean you have to be an expert in all aspects of digital marketing, but it is valuable to know at least the basics for all and have expertise in at least one or two.

For instance, your specialty is content marketing and SEO but you know your way around social media marketing, content writing, e-mail marketing and so on. These types of skills or variety of skills, usually referred to as T-shaped marketer by The Moz, will increase your chances of landing a good job or making a profitable career in digital marketing. You are probably already familiar with different digital marketing strategies, so don’t hesitate to hone your other skills and improve your knowledge. After all, they will be very useful to you in both landing a good job and building a name for yourself.

As digital marketing industry is improving and growing, so should digital marketers. Staying informed and updated on the latest industry news will help you keep up and not miss out on anything important. Remember, if you are looking for a good employment you should have skills to back you up.

Oscar is a writer from Sydney and one of the editors at Bizzmarkblog. He enjoys conducting research in the vast fields of business and marketing and writing about the useful insights he gathers on a daily basis. Follow Oscar on Twitter.to stay updated with his latest posts.

5 Online Marketing Services Worth Outsourcing

March 28, 2017 / nancyrubin / 1 Comment

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Much of online marketing can be done oneself, however there are some areas where it pays to outsource. Here are a few of those areas that are certain have a noticeable effect on your online presence, getting your more leads.

SEO

Good search engine rankings will make it easier for people to find your services. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) companies aim to improve your rankings through a variety of methods. Whilst there are ways to improve your own search engine rankings, you have a lot bigger chance of making it to page 1 with a specialist company behind you. SEO is generally not cheap, although you may be able to tailor your campaign to suit your budget.

Pay-Per-Click advertising

One of the trialled and tested forms of advertising is PPC (pay-per-click) ads. This allows you to place ads anywhere you desire. Every time someone clicks on one of these ads, you pay the current CPC (cost per click) from your budget until your entire budget has been spent. This way, you’re only paying for the ads that actually generate a response. There are many PPC companies out there that can design you an ad that will get people clicking.

Social media advertising

You can do a lot of marketing on social media for free, but there’s no denying the positive effect that a paid social media campaign can have. Sites such as Facebook have their own in-built system for promoting posts and pages, which you can tailor to your own budget. You can also invest in a Facebook advertising agency to further get your name out there. Similar advertising methods apply for other social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Linked In.

Web development

In the beginning, you can get away with using a WordPress site. But once your business has started to really grow and you’re getting regular visitors, it can be worth paying a web developer to make your website that bit more unique and professional. This may allow you to fully customise your website to your image. There are also other approach you can take that are more affordable such as paying a website reviewer to tell you what faults your site has and then acting on these faults yourself. For those that aren’t even comfortable using WordPress, there are companies that can also use this for you.

Data analysis

This is still very much a new field and involves analysing huge amounts of online data to find out who your target audience are, where they’re visiting your website from and how which posts they click on. Installing a Google Analytics plug-in onto your site can enable you to do most of this for free. However, some digital marketing companies may be able to provide more advanced methods that may be useful researching into the popularity and audience of other trends and brands, allowing you to alter your own methods and get ahead of the game.

Why The Natural Connection Works Much Better Than Ad Bombardment

March 17, 2017 / nancyrubin

Every business needs to work at getting the most out of their target market. For a lot of businesses, advertisements are a crucial part of reaching more people and creating leads. When they’re targeted well, they are certainly good at doing that. However, a marketing strategy that relies entirely on advertisements is far from cost-effective or even time-effective. If you want marketing efforts that cost less and have longer-term benefits to offer, then you need to think about fostering the natural connection customers. You need to think about making your marketing inbound.

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Take part in conversations

When you get people interested in your brand and in your products, capitalize on them. The best thing you can add to a brand is positive word-of-mouth. For instance, consider asking for testimonials and building them up until you have enough to feature on your site to make good use of positive social proof. Make sure you’re working on keeping social media channels active and participating in conversations about the industry or other topics relevant to what you do. Don’t be afraid to even have a little fun with online communities. The personable, human approach on social media shows that there’s a human core to the business. That’s what makes a brand memorable.

Make your business easier to find

On the internet, you’re not just competing for the customer’s money but for the attention you require in order to convince them that your business is worth that money. Visibility is crucial and while outreach might inform more people of your business’s existence, you might be able to see more cost-effective results by targeting those who are actively looking for your services. Search engine optimization ensures that your site appears in those kinds of searches and in a better position than your competitors. Techniques like using meta-data properly, content marketing, and link-building as mentioned in http://theprauthority.com/link-building-and-why-you-need-it/ all contribute to giving you a place of prominence on search engines. It’s well proven by now that people trust what they see on the first page of Google much more than they do what they see in a corporate branded advertisement.

Have the site do more

The website is supposed to do a lot more than giving people information on what it is you do. It’s supposed to convert visitors into customers. As https://conversionxl.com/ways-to-increase-your-conversion-rate-right-now/ states, there are plenty of ways to create a site that is better at making customers. Elements like calls-to-action, clean navigation, and concise text providing a clear value proposition are all necessary. Too many businesses make their websites too complicated, too crowded, and not truly focused on the customer at all. A strong website can be a fantastic tool for building leads naturally if you use it right.

The best marketing strategies weigh heavily on the inbound side, using advertising when they can capitalize on a new offer or a seasonal high in the business. If you’re just constantly trying to throw ads out there, you’ll find that the customers you do win might not be enough to support your marketing costs.

eCommerce Site Branding Done Right

March 13, 2017 / nancyrubin

The website is the most important marketing channel on today’s market. It is essential for the development of an eCommerce business operation and that is why entrepreneurs need to invest both time and funds in branding their online stores.

A digital brand is a very valuable asset. It can turn a small eCommerce operation into a highly profitable business entity. Skillfully-branded retail platforms improve a company’s reputation and sales and make their business process easier. In this article, we will share eCommerce branding tips and tricks that will help you to establish a better web presence and attract new customers.

Find a Memorable Domain

The domain name gives you a place in the World Wide Web addressing system, defines your brand, and adds credibility to it. Today, good domain names are not easy to find, especially the ones with the .com extension. That is why you should start searching for a domain name before you incorporate your business.

The domain name should be short, memorable, and easy to type in. It should also contain some of the most searchable keywords from your industry. If your online store uses an eCommerce platform, you can register your domain name directly on the company’s website, so you do not need to buy it from hosting companies.

Mission and Slogans

A company mission and its slogans are usually placed in the most visible part of the website- the header. That is because these messages add value to your business and motivate indecisive consumers to make up their minds. Both of these messages should be short, effective and memorable.

The purpose of the mission statement is to clarify your company’s long term goals. It is not only used for marketing, but also as a basis for the development of a more comprehensive business plan. Slogans, on the other hand, are only made for promotion, and that is why they need to be likable to the targeted audience.

Colors and Logo

Consumers often choose companies according to the visual attraction. That is why the visual identity is one of the most important promotional features. It consists of a logo and a set of colors used on a company’s website, marketing materials, staff uniforms, etc. These colors should represent some of the most important values the company stands for. When choosing company colors, entrepreneurs need to consider how each color combination influences the consumers’ minds.

Many design experts consider logos as visual cornerstones of the brands they represent. The company logo should be artistic and memorable. When creating a logo, entrepreneurs need to ensure that consumers will be able to connect the chosen design with the company’s values.

Informative Product Pages

Consumers hate online stores that do not offer substantial information about the products they are selling. Blank product pages can drastically decrease online store’s sales and damage their reputation. Product pages should contain elaborate information about the product and its extra features.

Consumers also like product pages with high resolution imagery, teasers, and video tutorials that explain the product’s use and maintenance. You can also add 360 imagery and a link to a product manufacturer’s web page where consumers can find more information about the production process.

Content Marketing

Since eCommerce companies’ revenues depend on website traffic, entrepreneurs need to use different types of digital marketing to attract more people to visit their web pages. Content marketing is currently the trendiest and the most efficient form of digital advertising.

By posting lots of interesting and useful content, companies can attract new visitors and improve the loyalty of their current customers and prospects. Before you start creating content, you should create a comprehensive content strategy that will serve as a basis for meaningful a content marketing operation.

Social Media Marketing

Social media presence is very important for eCommerce companies. Different social networks allow companies to interact with their customer base and target consumers through highly precise advertising. A social network timeline is a great place for promoting discounts and special offers. These promotions can be enhanced by boosting posts and making use of advanced social analytics.

Importance of Branding

Online branding is very important for eCommerce businesses because it can easily set them apart from their competition. Presenting your offer in a unique way is a critical factor for business success in one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Only by using advance branding solutions, entrepreneurs can ensure that their online stores will be noticed and that consumers will recognize the value that stands behind their offer.