Search Engine Optimization: Can You DIY in 2023?

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

When you have a website or other online presence, you know that you need to use SEO or Search Engine Optimization to get your business links ranked at the top of internet searches. But can you do it yourself?

Can You Do Your Own Search Engine Optimization?

My answer is yes, as part of a guerilla marketing strategy. Eventually as you grow your business you will likely hire an expert, but in the beginning there are a number of things you can to improve your rankings.

Doing Search Engine Optimization is a lot of work

Search engine optimization is a lot of work and requires learning some things about the internet. Even though SEO is a good strategy to make your website known and to get more leads and customers, it takes time and effort. Starting out, read some related blogs or articles. Watch a webinar. Ask other business owners and partners how they tackle this truly important strategy.

With SEO, there are plenty of things you can do on your own that won’t cost you anything but a few brain cells:

Know Your Business Keywords

As you attempt doing your own search engine optimization, the first focus point should be keyword research. You must know the words or phrases people are using to find your products or services, which drive them from search engines to your web site or social media channel.

While you know the names, characteristics, catchwords, and jargon associated with your offerings, don’t assume that buyers do. Do a little digging to discover the verbiage being used in internet searches – try using some free tools like Google Ads or Google Keyword Planner.

Future outlook for Search Engine Optimization

Voice searches are rising, and are expected to be used for half of all searches. This will necessitate using more conversational phrases instead of individual keywords.

Check Out Your Business Competition

Looking at your competition’s online presence can help you figure out how you can get more visitors and sales. While you shouldn’t just copy what your competitors are doing, it can be quite useful to see what they do and how they do it.

Conduct your own searches for services or products that you offer. Click on the website results that Google returns and do a little investigating:

  • How does your competitor rank in search results compared to your company?
  • Do they have a comparable business model to yours (similar pricing structure, services, products, online storefront)?
  • What they are doing well (branding, easier navigation, more photos or testimonials)?
  • How do they engage with their prospects (pop-ups, videos, trade shows, person-to-person, etc.)?

How Social Media Can Help Search Engine Optimization

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are incredibly important in terms of search engine optimization.

While having a YouTube channel doesn’t by itself rank you higher in search results, it starts a chain of events that does. Worthwhile content gets followers, who share links with others … your brand grows, traffic increases to your site … website shows up higher in searches.

If you don’t have a social media page, build one! It continues to be one of the best ways to share your content and to drive more targeted traffic to you.

Think Your SEO Strategy Through

After completing the earlier steps, you can now look at your website from a different perspective. You should have a clearer idea about what your target audience is looking for and how your competitors are offering it.

Now, take a look at your website again. Choose the most important pages and the right keywords to get consumers there. Driving traffic to these pages is what will create interest, draw them into a funnel and, ultimately, make a sale.  There are many companies out there that are better than outreach monks when it comes to link building.

Recommendations to Improve Your SEO:

Pop-ups within your site are a great method to drive your web visitors to connect with your sales team or to go where your products and services can be purchased. Be careful in your design, though – as of 2017, “intrusive” pop‑ups (ones which that a mobile user has to dismiss before being able to access the main content of the page) will get you penalized by Google.

Include your target keywords in: content, images, all types of links, and in URL slugs (ex: www.mywebsite.co/keyword).

Polish up your content – it should be:

…   typo-free

…   professionally written

…   keyword-rich

…   mobile-optimized (test it)

…   of value and relevance to your target audience

Optimize your website by:

  • following Google guidelines
  • avoiding broken links
  • partnering with other site owners to provide backlinks to each other’s pages
  • making it user-friendly (test that, too)

Keep it Your Content Fresh

Content is crucial in any SEO strategy. However, we understand that you may not have the time to publish a blog post every day.

You just need to strike that balance in making Google happy by publishing new content frequently. The main focus should always be ensuring that your content is unique, valuable, and consistently refreshed. Good, relevant content ensures people will share it.

Remove stale website copy

Don’t forget that publishing content with relevant keywords is not just about text – there’s also videos, photographs, imagery, and infographics, among others.

Analyze Your SEO Results

Measuring your results is crucial to knowing if your efforts and strategy are paying off. After all, how can you know which page gets the most visitors? Or the pages where your bounce rate is higher? Or what content leads directly to purchases?

Find the right website analytic tool for you, based on the data you want to collect as well as its ease of use, power, and cost. There’s Google Analytics, SEMrush, and Clicky, to name a few. 

SEO may not be what you thought would keep you up nights, but it can’t be ignored in the quest to guide traffic to your stuff.

Summary: Be Persistent With Your SEO

Unfortunately, SEO is not a once-and-done job. Due to the continually changing universe of factors like search engine formulas, terminology, marketing trends, and user devices, you’ll need to regularly review and analyze what gets your links high on search results and drives consumers to your products and services.small business coach

6 Plumbing Industry Trends to Keep Track of in 2023

plumbing industry trends

6 Plumbing Business Industry Trends to Keep Track of in 2023

If you’re in the plumbing industry, you are most likely not bothered about technological trends in your line of work. But as everything in our life has been affected by technology – so is your business.

As a plumbing business owner, it is vital to stay on top of emerging trends and make sure that your business is constantly evolving to meet the market’s needs.

Here are a few steps that you need to take note of to future proof your plumbing business:

  • Using technology as a way of effective plumbing contract management

As you expand your plumbing business and hire more subcontractors, coordinate multiple projects, and take follow-ups from clients, managing your business is going to become tougher and tougher. But technology can become your savior here if you adapt and switch to plumbing software.

Well-designed plumbing software can help you collaborate in real-time with your management, even if they are not onsite together, and keep track of what everyone is doing.

You can easily schedule, dispatch, assign team members for plumbing jobs and monitor their time spent on the project.

  • Offer clients easy online payment options

None of your clients want to pay cash anymore. Most of them would prefer the convenience of digital payments. Purchasing plumbing software will also give you the advantage of generating personalized digital invoices for clients and collecting digital payments.

You’ll also be able to keep a much more organized track of your accounts since everything will now be available electronically.

  • Another Plumbing Industry Trend is to Increase your online presence

Think about it — if people are looking for any business, even plumbers, they look for information online. Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth publicity is also great, but people also look for any business they want to hire online.

Paid digital ads might not be the need of the hour when you’re just starting out, but it is important to have a website that has its SEO and keywords in order so that you show up in search results when people are looking for plumbers in your area.

A strong social media presence and engaging with people in groups related to plumbing are also great ways to capture an audience’s attention and attract more clicks on your website.

  • More customers are looking for your business on their mobile

If customers are looking for your website online, you need to make sure the website is responsive and built with some expertise.

Would you employ a plumbing business that might have good reviews, but if you try to access its website, you just can’t log in?

Not really, right?

A large percentage of clients will look for your website on their phones — so it is important to ensure that your website looks great on any screen and can be used on a web browser as well as a mobile device.

Online presence counts, but it’s the right kind of online presence you have to emphasize on.

  • Online reviews are essential for Plumbing Industry Trends

Your reputation is important for your business, and now online customer reviews matter as much as word-of-mouth reviews from your clients.

You can ask your clients who are happy with their work to leave a good review on your website, and if you do get a negative review, it’s important to respond as diplomatically as possible.

  • Give attention to remote and mobile-first communication

Clients now prefer digital communication over face-to-face communication. This translates to assisting clients on a video call for the plumbing business to start diagnosing the problem and coming up with a virtual collaboration with the management. If the client can solve the problem through assistance on a video call, you only need to send a few, if any, plumbers on site.

Taking your plumbing business online may seem a little unnerving, but as the competition grows, so has the demand. The US Bureau of labor statistics estimates almost a quarter (24%) growth for the plumbing industry by 2024 from the last decade. As a plumbing business owner you need to take these vital steps to make sure your plumbing business is future-proof.

Author Bio:

plumbing business

 Akhil Rajan is a Customer Success Specialist at Zuper, an intelligent workforce management platform for service-oriented businesses. Working with customers on a daily basis, he has a deep understanding of their needs and pain points and so he is able to contribute to the marketing strategies for Zuper with the content he writes. He writes on topics like how to increase workforce utilization, how to reduce the service turnaround time and increase workforce efficiency, customer adoption, cost reduction strategies, etc – to name a few. He is often found buried in books or playing chess in his free time.small business coach

How To Market Your Printing Business On Instagram

printing business

The printing business is visual in nature. You can’t market it online without publishing quality images, videos, animations, and other multimedia content that attract potential customers. When it comes to promoting it, one of the best social media platforms for the job would be Instagram. 

Instagram allows businesses to share images, short clips, animations, and other visual content. On top of that, this social media app is home to almost a billion active users. For this reason, many businesses use it as a powerful weapon.

Also, you may consider working with design products that may help you sell more. See more options that would provide high-quality designs and services for you to effectively market through IG. 

However, establishing your presence on the platform may not be as easy as it seems, considering its algorithm and intense competition. Therefore, it’s important to know the following techniques below to help you market your printing business on Instagram. 

Optimize Your Instagram Business Account

When promoting a business on Instagram, creating a business account is crucial. However, that’s not enough to keep the customers and audiences coming. You need to optimize it to help people smoothly find specific information.

On top of that, it’s important to understand that your profile should only contain relevant content about your company. It should not promote you or anything that has nothing to do with your printing business.

Here are some tips for optimizing your Instagram business account:

  • Include Your Website Link

It’s a good strategy to include working and clickable links under the account name and description. Adding links to your Instagram profile will help boost your traffic and increase sales opportunities. Furthermore, always ensure that your landing page points directly to what leads would want to see, such as your product catalog, discounts, and design gallery.

  • Use A Relevant Name And Photo

Using a relevant name and profile image will help people identify and recognize your business once they see it. Also, it’d be best to be as consistent as possible across other social media platforms. Additionally, make sure that your name and image remain professional at all times.

  • Create An Interesting Bio

Your bio is the first thing people see when they visit your profile. So, it’s important to keep it informative to grab the attention and interest of your visitors. This is your opportunity to convince people to follow you and eventually purchase your products and services. You may also include relevant keywords about your business, hashtags, and emojis to keep it engaging.

Produce Amazing Content

The journey to using Instagram for business purposes starts with creative and eye-catching content. It should communicate and interact with your audience even without them reading the caption. The brain usually processes visual content anyway. In fact, images are more quickly processed by the brain.

Therefore, it’s crucial to produce content that will not annoy or irritate visually. If you don’t know where to start, you might want to consider the following tips below:

printing business

  • Take A Look At Your Competitors

Analyzing the activities of your competitors, especially those with a huge following, may help you create engaging content that drives engagement and boosts positive impressions. You may copy their content strategy to steal followers and make them yours. 

  • Avoid Hard Selling

Instagram users hate content that shows direct intent to sell a product. Make sure that your images and videos speak for themselves without telling your audience how great your products or services are. This is also a good tactic to build trust and show your viewers how reliable you are.

  • Optimize Image Size

Make sure that your images are professionally sized and cropped to avoid blurry and pixelated content, especially when zoomed in. In addition, it’d be best to consider square images and try to crop out parts that have nothing to do with the content. 

Furthermore, one way to ensure high-quality photos is to double their image resolution. So, for instance, you may use a 1224×1224 resolution for a 612×612 frame.

Take Advantage Of Instagram Features

Through a decade of service, Instagram continues to evolve and release significant updates from time to time. These internal upgrades have brought many features that make Instagram a one-stop app containing everything you need to market your printing business effectively.

Here are some business-worthy Instagram features you might need to utilize:

  • Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories allows everyone to share images and short clips that last for 24 hours. After the time limit, stories will be gone and archived. When publishing stories, avoid plain and lifeless content. Instead, add emojis, stickers, GIFs, animations, and product tags to entertain and make them more engaging.

  • IGTV

IGTV allows people to publish long videos and shows to promote their brand. This is extremely popular with influencers who want to engage more with their followers. You can publish behind-the-scenes content or anything that captures your audience’s attention. Also, it doesn’t have to be professionally edited. As a matter of fact, more people are attracted to content that looks natural.

  • Instagram Reels

The Instagram Reels feature is similar to Stories. It allows people to create short and engaging video clips that help bring their ideas to life. But unlike Stories, it has no 24-hour time limit and can be viewed and revisited on the profile. You can use it to highlight product benefits or new product teaser trailers.

  • Instagram Shopping

Instagram Shopping is one of the latest features that help your audience to purchase your products or services from your images and videos. You may add shopping tags on content that features your product. These tags present the product name and prices to inform your audience. This feature provides your business with a storefront for people to know more about your products.

Final Words

Instagram is an effective and powerful social media app that’ll help you take your printing business to the next level. However, establishing brand authority and awareness on the platform may not be that easy, especially now that the competition is rising. 

Fortunately, there are smart techniques that’ll guide you through marketing your business on Instagram. These include optimizing your business account, creating engaging content, and taking advantage of its in-app features.

Following these strategies will help you build a stronghold that opens tons of sales opportunities for your business to grow and prosper.

small business coach

7 Tools to help improve your digital presence

digital presence

Seven Tools To Help Improve Your Digital Presence

Having digital presence is a new normal for any business, big or small. If you neglect this crucial thing, you will lose an unaffordable number of your potential local customers because 97% of them are looking for you on the internet. So, preeminently, digital presence is a must-have for any business, but how much does it cost? The cost can sometimes be your precious time that you must invest only in your core business operations, or it can be the hefty fee of a digital marketer other times. What if we tell you that you can cut these costs and improve your digital presence as well? Isn’t it a great deal? For sure, it is. There are tons of tools that can help you with it, but we will familiarize you with the best ones only. With a dizzying number of tools out there, it can be tough to know the best tool for the job. So, this blog takes a look the best seven tools to help improve your digital presence:

  1. Happyscribe
  2. ManyChat
  3. Buffer
  4. BuzzSumo
  5. Creatopy
  6. Hubspot
  7. Writesonic

1. Happyscribe: automatic subtitle generation software

When it comes to positioning your offering in peoples’ minds, video content is of great significance. As important as it is, it must also be well-planned and well-executed; otherwise, it may turn into a mere expense on your business. One such significant part of a video that you must not undermine is video subtitles. As many as 6,500 languages are spoken around the globe, and your potential customer understands hardly any of these other than their native language. So, what is the key takeaway? Should you create a separate video in every language for your potential customers? Fortunately, No, when you have an option to use software for automatic subtitle generation. Subtitles play a vital role when a business wants to communicate with the masses. Not only do they serve this purpose, but they also cut the cost significantly. Imagine finding the needed voice-over artists for each language you want to target; isn’t it a hefty process, both cost-wise and duration-wise? Yes, it is. So, the solution is to have the subtitles for each of these languages and add them into the same video. What’s more beautiful is that you can also cut the cost of subtitle writers by letting Happyscribe, an automatic subtitle generator, handle the job. With Happyscribe’s automatic subtitle generator, you will be able to get subtitles for your videos in minutes. It’s as easy as uploading your video, selecting the languages you need, and clicking “Start.” AI is, undoubtedly, intelligent but still not as intelligent as its creator, humans. Happyscribe, with its automatic subtitle generator, offers 85% accurate results, but if you want to scale it up to 99%, Happyscribe offers a human-made subtitle generation service as well.  

Pricing

  • Automatic subtitles: €0.20/minute
  • Human-made subtitles: €1.70/minute

2. ManyChat: automatic interactive conversations

digital presence

In the world of smartphones, social media, and instant messaging, it’s important for a startup to have an effective way to engage with their customers. You can do that with ManyChat. With ManyChat, you can automate interactive conversations with your customers on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Shopify, direct SMS, and more. The more interactive your conversations are, the more loyal customers you will have. ManyChat helps you grow your brand and provide a better customer experience. Through automated conversations, you can provide your customer with a more personalized experience. ManyChat is the leading Chat Marketing Platform globally, with 1 billion conversations powered by the company every year. It’s clear that ManyChat is the best choice for any company looking to grow its customer base. There are so many reasons to love ManyChat. As many as 1 million businesses trust it with their growth. Also, you can enjoy a high CTR rate130% more than the industry average.

Pricing

  • Free: $0/month
  • Pro: $15/month

3. Buffer: social media management tool

Buffer is a social media management tool that will allow you to reach more people with your social media posts. This is accomplished by scheduling posts and allowing you to post while on the go. It’s a great tool to use if you want to reach more people and stay authentic and interactive with your followers. It is great for any startup to measure their social media performance, content, messaging, and more. It’s easy to use, and it takes the guesswork out of social media. With Buffer, you don’t have to worry about handling customer queries, responding to comments, or managing social media. It’s all done seamlessly, so you can focus on what matters most to you.

Pricing

  • Free: $0/month
  • Essentials: $5/month per social channel

4. BuzzSumo: a content research tool

BuzzSumo is a tool that helps you find the best content that has performed well, and also helps you find influencers to collaborate with. You can find out what content has worked well in the past, and what content you should be creating. This can help you create content that resonates with your audience. It is a social media intelligence tool that’s perfect for any marketer. It’s great for finding high-performing content to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. It also helps you track comments and trends in real-time to respond to feedback in a timely manner.

Pricing

  • Free: $0/month
  • Pro: $99/month
  • Plus: $179/month
  • Large: $299/month

5. Creatopy: ad design automation tool

With Creatopy, you don’t need to worry about hiring someone to make your ads for you. Their automated tool will do it for you, and it won’t be complicated or take up too much of your time. You can also build ads in various sizes and promote them across a wide variety of platforms and devices. Creatopy’s ad designer is perfect for designers, digital marketers, and advertisers looking to make beautiful and engaging ads.

Pricing

  • Free: $0/month
  • Create: $17/month
  • Automate: $35/month
  • Enterprise: custom pricing

6. Hubspot: CRM tool

Hubspot CRM is an easy-to-use, powerful CRM platform. It has all the tools you need to create the best customer experience. If you’re looking for a CRM that will help you manage your marketing, sales, content, and customer service needs, you should look into Hubspot CRM.

Pricing

  • Starter: starts at $45/month
  • Professional: starts at $800/ month
  • Enterprise: starts at $3,200/month

7. Writesonic: AI copywriting tool

To improve your digital presence, you need to share written content on your social media handles daily. For that, you can either choose a copywriter who will demand high fees or Writesonic that provides similar results at a lower cost. Writesonic can generate high-quality, human-level copy for you in seconds. It knows what your audience likes and how to write copy that resonates with them. You can use this for social media posts, emails, landing pages, and more.

Pricing

  • Free Trial: $0
  • Basic: $15/month
  • Professional: $45/month
  • Startup: $95/month
  • Agency: $195/month

Conclusion on Improving Your Digital Presence 

We hope you enjoyed our blog post highlighting seven tools that can help improve your digital presence. The more active your digital presence is, the more likely it is that people will find you and the information you have to offer.

Using these seven tools, you will see significant improvement in your digital presence. Thank you for reading this article. We hope it will be a great help for you.small business coach

5 Tips For An Effective Digital Campaign

digital-campaign

Five Tips For An Effective

Digital Campaign

There’s no doubt that digital marketing has been getting plenty of attention recently, particularly when the pandemic hit the world. Regardless of industry or type of business, this marketing method has proven to be successful in reaching the right audience and drawing more revenues. That is if the digital campaign is compelling enough. That’s why it’s crucial that, as a business, you know how to create a solid digital marketing strategy that can help you achieve your organization’s objectives. 

As more consumers shift to digital marketplaces, now might be the time to consider investing in various online marketing techniques. It may take a few hits and misses before you can build an effective digital campaign that you can stick to moving forward. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try and try until you find your match.

That said, take a look at the following tips that might help you in carrying out your marketing goals.

  • Target The Right Audience

A digital campaign is only effective if it impacts the right audience. That said, it’s essential that you’re able to identify who your potential customers are. Only then will you be able to target them efficiently. Targeting the right market starts with creating buyer profiles that can potentially be your ideal customers.

In most business-to-business (B2B) organizations, one challenge is to go beyond the typical characteristics of a target audience. It’ll be more helpful to identify a customer persona or a fictional character that represents your ideal consumer. Certain factors come into play when you think of B2B buyer persona examples, including their lifestyle, purchasing power, social network engagement, and interests. As you can see, a buyer persona involves more than just a customer’s name, age, and location.

Buyer personas are more specific, data-driven, and valuable so that you can target the right consumers. The distinction makes it more efficient to know which personas are more likely to pay attention to your marketing efforts. In that sense, your digital campaigns can be as effective as you’d hope for them to be.

  • Make It Mobile-Friendly

small business coach

It’s no secret that more and more consumers rely on their handheld devices when accessing information or buying anything online. The convenience that mobile gadgets offer is often unmatched, particularly among people who are always on the go. So, it’s only clever to ensure your digital campaign is compatible with mobile devices.

Having a website is no longer enough if your goal is to make your campaigns effective in more ways than one. No matter how optimized your platform may be, if most of your audience can’t view it using their smartphones or tablets, you can’t deem it effective or impactful.

Aside from making sure your digital marketing strategy is mobile-friendly, you shouldn’t also forget to consider your site’s responsiveness, simplicity, and functionality. When online visitors are impressed with your website, they’re more likely to stay longer and hopefully click on your calls to action.

  • Constantly Boost Your Social Media Presence 

It’s a no-brainer that having a social media presence is critical in digital marketing. The challenge lies in how you can boost and maintain that presence to keep your audience engaged and connected to your brand. With so many tasks and responsibilities you need to juggle as a business owner, it’s easy to get lost in the midst of it all and overlook the significance of social media in the effectiveness of your digital campaign.

new business

Updating your social media pages is a good start. If customers can see you’re consistent in posting content, they’ll know that you’re active on your accounts. Viewers and potential customers will feel more connected with your business. The posts don’t always need to be long or full of effort. Simple memes with engaging captions can already make a difference in boosting your social media presence. You can also consider automating your chat responses so inquiries will always be attended to no matter what time of the day it may be.

Social media platforms are also good for measuring the effectiveness of an ad or campaign. The different tools and features you can use can give you analytics and measurable data that can help gauge how many people were reached by your campaign. You can also get data on where those people are located, their shopping patterns, and their interests.

  • Create Valuable Content

Digital consumers will always appreciate valuable content. If you want your campaign to be effective, create content that can offer something of value to your customers. Provide solutions to their daily predicaments and let them know your brand is there to help them out. Aside from being useful, your content should also be entertaining and empathetic if you want to reach more people and create an impact.

Also, keep in mind that search engines always favor original content. Repurposing your materials may be acceptable at some point, but make sure you reproduce them so that the content won’t get flagged as a duplicate copy. This is one way you can use content marketing for your digital campaign.

  • Use Engaging Visuals

With so many campaigns, products, and services being offered online, consumers know that they have many options. So, their attention span is getting shorter and shorter. As a result, drawing their curiosity can prove to be quite tricky. If you want to keep them engaged and have them keep reading or viewing your campaign, make sure your visuals are appealing enough. Be it photos, videos, or text, they won’t keep reading unless it’s something that piques their interest. 

Photos and images should be high-resolution, while video content can include product reviews, product launches, tutorials, interviews with experts and actual customers, or press releases. Customers like campaigns that tell a story. You can also think of a particular advocacy that they can relate to or that they can connect to your brand.

The Bottom Line on Making a Digital Campaign

Creating an effective digital campaign is not an easy task to begin with. However, that doesn’t mean you should give up and make do with what you have concerning your marketing and advertising efforts.

You might want to take note of the tips above if you need help figuring out how your digital campaign can reach more audiences, engage buyer personas, and prompt customers to click on your calls to action. With the right strategy, you can develop a digital campaign that represents your brand and that can help convert leads into sales.

small business coach

6 Ways to Bring Remote Teams Together to Bond

remote teams

Six Ways to Bond Remote Teams

One of the many revealing truths that have been unearthed by the pandemic is the importance of keeping good team morale. It can be a challenge to develop and maintain good team morale when you have remote teams.

The pandemic has presented many challenges for workers, and adjusting to the demands of remote working is often a steep ask for employees who are accustomed to the office lifestyle.

With many teams separated by distance and still unable to deal with internal issues face to face, it’s critical that we’re able to maintain strong bonds and keep our employees smiling in order to adjust to the new normal.

For business leaders looking to support morale, keep their teams working collaboratively, and maintain their company culture, communication and social activities are key. So, here are six ways that you can bring your team together.

1 – Zoom Yoga
Yoga for team building is not a new concept. Teaching your team simple yoga moves like the downward dog, and child’s pose can be highly beneficial for stress management, and overall health. In fact, YogaJournal.com lists as many as 38 benefits. So, go ahead and choose a small break in the day to hold an optional yoga class via Zoom or Teams and allow your team the chance to take a deep breath.

remote teams

2 – Coffee Breaks for your remote teams
A common complaint among remote workers is one of a blurry work-life balance. It’s easy to become distracted and end up working late into the evening, or eating into days off to meet your demands. For workers with children or other responsibilities, this can be even more pronounced. One way to combat this is through good diary management, but also by encouraging regular coffee breaks. Scheduled coffee breaks can also be a perfect moment for an informal catch-up call where you can cut the work chat and strengthen bonds.

 

3 – Team games
Along with coffee breaks, employees often miss some impromptu fun with their team. You can replace Friday bar drinks with a virtual quiz, or test your best poker face with a Zoom version of online poker. For added incentive, you could play for money or prizes, but as explained by Poker.org, you don’t always have to play with real money.

4 – Playlists
We know that music is pleasurable, but it may also be a way to enhance our social connections. According to research by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), when we try to synch with others musically (even when that person is not visible to us) we tend to feel positive social feelings towards them. As a business leader, you can capitalize on this by creating a collaborative Spotify playlist. Employees can add their favorite tracks, share new discoveries and ultimately march to the same tune as their colleagues.small business coach

5 – Pet Pics
Another popular endorphin booster is our pets. VeryWellMind.com explains how scientific evidence from psychological research proves that viewing certain animal pictures can combat stress and make us happier. While a bring your pet to work day may be off the cards, you can still encourage employees to include their pets on team calls, and in group chats.

6 – Group Chats with your remote teams
In the past, some business owners have been skeptical about encouraging online communications between colleagues. Fears over distracting email threads, and the potential for arguments have slowed down what should be a natural evolution of our work communications.

Yet, group chats are becoming more popular in the age of remote work. While WhatsApp and Facebook chat groups may press a little too close to home for most workers, tools like Slack can prove to be the perfect fit.

With Slack, you can create channels such as #memetime and #recipes where employees can test their gif game, and share their favorite meal-time treats, alongside project focused channels for more regular work discussion.

Maintaining employee morale during a global crisis is challenging, but it’s not impossible. By employing your efforts to improve communication, strengthen bonds, and allow your employees to be themselves you can prove to them that you care. Unlock your team’s potential with these six tips, or read Small Business Coach‘s advice on further remote work solutions.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Hire an Online Marketing Agency

agency for online marketing

How you approach your online marketing is one of the most important decisions you will make. You may perform your marketing in-house or hire a marketing firm to do it for you. A web-based digital marketing business with experience in everything from websites to social media and online advertising will be required. The goal of digital marketing is to boost sales through promoting the company, brand, and developing consumer loyalty. This is accomplished by the application of quantitative, targeted, and interactive digital technologies.

A digital marketing arena is made up of a variety of marketing components that are all gathered under one roof. SEO, social networking, pay-per-click advertisements (PPC), website design, content, and data reporting are some of these aspects .A digital marketing firm gives you the option of outsourcing all of your internet marketing tasks to one organization. Digital marketing has the ability to expand your business more quickly than most other marketing methods. You can get your campaigns up and going quickly by hiring a digital marketing agency. You would not have to deal with a steep learning curve or building a team. Within weeks of establishing a plan, you can see your campaigns live.

The five reasons to hire a digital marketing agency are as follows:

 

1. Enhancing your Marketing Strategy

marketing strategy

If you are sure in the value your company offers but are having trouble reaching more individuals who may benefit from it, it is time to reconsider your marketing plan. Working with a marketing firm will provide you with experienced advice so that you may build a solid foundation for anything marketing-related. This might entail producing new marketing materials to give your company a more uniform appearance and feel, or it could entail utilizing new platforms to reach a larger audience. In any case, it depends on the type of business you have, therefore it is better to go to a marketing firm to figure out what your company actually requires.

2.Focus on your Business with Online Marketing

There is a reason why the world’s most well-known businesses outsource their marketing. Apple, Google, have all been known to use marketing companies. However, the most of us entrepreneurs do not manage global demands; instead, we run small to medium-sized enterprises that may be local, national, or even worldwide in scope. The important element to remember is that the world’s top brands keep focused on their company and outsource their marketing to experts that provide results. Because marketing is such a vast field, even companies specialize in areas like SEO, social media, video, paid advertising, and conventional marketing. It is an important to note that not all digital marketing strategies will work for you. Some may have unfavorable consequences, while others may be quite beneficial. A qualified business will make great recommendations regarding which techniques will produce the finest results. They will provide a new perspective to some of the earlier work your team has done. They will evaluate your marketing efforts and come up with fresh ideas based on consumer feedback. When it comes to social media marketing, for example, a digital marketing agency may assist you in determining where your target audience is most active. They will figure out which kind of material appeal to them the most, as well as how they share and consume it. This will make your social media marketing more efficient.small business coach

3. Shortens the Expenses

When considering whether or not to engage a digital marketing agency, many companies compare the cost of running an in-house operation versus the cost of hiring one. You will be surprised to learn that using an agency saves you money in the long run. You would not have to pay payroll taxes because agencies work as independent contractors. You also save money on benefits, health care, and wages, which are all ongoing expenditures of employing full-time staff. Some of the tools you will need to conduct the campaigns may need a large one-time fee or recurring subscriptions. You would not have to invest any money on digital marketing tools because most respectable companies already have them.

4. Scalable Service

The scalability of a digital marketing agency makes it your greatest option for online growth. In most cases, you will need to grow your team size if your company’s needs change or you want to try something new. This means that your business will demand additional resources to maintain and fuel its growth. With a marketing agency, this is not the case. There will be no need to increase your present staff because there would be no limitations. As your firm expands, a reputable corporation will typically accommodate your demands. Depending on the size of your organization, they provide a choice of plans and packages to select from. It is an ideal to work with a scalable and adaptable firm, especially if you are targeting a new market.

5. Selection of Agency for your Online Marketing

marketing agency

Before you go looking for a marketing firm to collaborate with, you might want to put your brakes on. There are a lot of agencies out their like digital marketing agency in Cairo, but not all of them will deliver what they promise. Choose the appropriate business since digital marketing is a lengthy and ongoing process. Avoid firms who guarantee immediate or rapid results. Before making a selection, find out what a company’s primary limits and specializations are. Allow them to tell you about the main industries they cover, as well as some of the tools and strategies they employ. You can request reports on their previous and current projects if necessary to assess their performance. Determine the agency’s web assets’ online performance as well. Their search engine ranking contributes to the strengthening of your relationship with them. Don’t forget to double-check their industry experience. For most small businesses, hiring digital marketing experts at the outset of a campaign is just not an option. This is a lengthy procedure that needs careful consideration. Furthermore, your employees may take a long time to master all internet marketing methods, such as SEO and social media marketing.small business coach

Measure Twice-Cut Once: How a Carpenter Taught me Marketing!

marketing

Measure Twice-Cut Once: Marketing Lessons from a Carpenter

Marketing for small businesses is frequently a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. I learned a lesson about successful marketing while I was working my way through college. Although I didn’t realize the application of the knowledge until later, this lesson has stuck with me.

One summer, while going to college, I worked for a company that made kitchen cabinets. My job was to cut the front frame where the cabinet doors attached. On my first day of work, I asked the Head Carpenter what was the most important thing about the job, besides not cutting my fingers off? He said to always remember to “measure twice – cut once”. As we became friends, he jokingly reminded me for most of the summer; “measure twice, cut once”, it almost became my nickname. To this day, when I drag out a piece of wood to cut for a home repair project, I still laughingly say, “measure twice – cut once.”

Sales and Marketing Activities Today

Fast forward to today. I have since realized that I owe much of my success in the world of sales and marketing for small businesses to that same rule of measuring, not measuring wood in this case, but my sales and marketing activities. As salespeople, we face an ever-growing list of sales and marketing activities that we can spend our time and money on; many of these tools are more powerful than we could ever have imagined. The likes of Facebook, Email, Twitter, LinkedIn, the Web and who knows what’s next are constantly pulling us to choose them to be the next marketing concepts.

marketing

 Why is Measurement in Marketing for small businesses so Important?

As small business owners, we might say that we’ve reached a point of too many choices and not enough time. But too many choices is exactly the point why measuring is an absolute must. It’s easy to just grab on to the latest-greatest marketing thing, especially if everybody else is doing it or it’s getting the latest press. So, pick the latest-greatest, choose the easiest, pick the cheapest; I don’t care. What I care about is that you measure twice and cut what doesn’t work because you don’t have the time or budget to waste chasing down every narrow little marketing idea that pops up.

The role of measurement in sales and marketing activities today

When it comes to making informed marketing decisions, measurement plays a key role. However, keep in mind that there are many marketing concepts, and some of them could be considered intangible (i.e., brand awareness). Below are four examples of what I believe is important for any business looking to gain a competitive advantage through effective marketing: choosing an approach that uses all available resources; developing promotional activities based on customer needs and behaviors; effectively addressing competition; and understanding consumer decision-making processes. Now let’s take a closer look at each one:

Choosing an approach that makes use of all available resources: help you streamline your efforts, so you’re not wasting money on techniques or marketing concepts that aren’t bringing in results; help find the right balance between all the different activities (i.e., advertising, new product development, sales promotion) to ensure they work together effectively without being redundant or conflicting; and give a clear focus for all marketing activities by helping you stay true to your overall business goals and objectives.

Developing promotional activities based on customer needs and behaviors: help marketers figure out who their target market is; what products/services the company offers; which channels should be used for promotion (i.e., social media as opposed to television commercials); how customers are likely to behave when exposed to specific tools/techniques (or how effective each one is at getting customers/clients to respond); and what type of communication will be most effective.

Effectively addressing competition: helps you understand how well your competitors are doing; the strengths and weaknesses of the organization (through analysis of competitor activity, resources, etc.); where they get their money from; how successful they are in different regions; which products/services have the highest demand and so on… In short, it gives you a complete picture of the market and your competitive environment.

This is important because you must develop an appropriate strategy using great marketing concepts to stay ahead of them or even take over their position in certain areas. Keep in mind that this work can be time-consuming, but it could give you a significant advantage over your competitors if done correctly.

Understanding consumer decision-making processes:  This can help you develop products/services that customers will buy; pinpoint how sales are made (i.e., who makes them, what channel they’re made through etc.); inform the creation of promotions by showing which types of products/services make customers happy and most importantly: where are competitors failing.

A practical example of NIKE

Here we consider the role of measurement in sales and marketing activities today by taking an example of a sportswear company, Nike. They had a clear target market segment for their products: those who were into sports, yet they managed to make this brand available to everyone. They used proper indicators to do so. So, when it comes to marketing for small businesses, the same technique applies, which means if you want your business to grow, you have to use certain metrics and marketing concepts to help analyze progress towards targets.

Let’s consider how the proper indicators were implemented during Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign by focusing on their main target market. To reach this market, they toned down their approach, chose to appear youth-oriented and put all the focus on sub-brands. And it worked! To me, that is a perfect measurement., which can also be applied to marketing for small businesses.

 How can market measurement help in marketing for small businesses?

As a small business owner, by changing in some way or another, your marketing campaign can be more effective. Setting the right targets and monitoring them is important, but it’s equally significant to measure if such a change is really working. That’s what we must learn from these companies who are taking their market measurements seriously, and as a result, are benefiting from them.

In addition, the performance of your marketing for your small business needs to be measured so that you may identify areas where improvements are needed or changes need to take place. Through proper measurement, you’ll get an idea of how successful your advertising was by comparing past performance with current performance via indicators like cost per impression or click-through rate. This way, you can take a calculated decision on what to change and how.

One significant point here is that it isn’t only about the eventual results but also the process used. For example, utilizing social media channels to gain attention provides businesses with more opportunities to get noticed than from traditional marketing concepts such as television or newspaper advertisements.

 What are the tools for market measurement?

In marketing, two main types of measurement are used to determine if the market is responding positively or negatively towards a change in your strategy – qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative Measurement

Qualitative tools provide you with customer feedback and focus on product development. Examples include focus groups and brainstorming sessions, allowing marketers to get valuable information about customers’ thoughts and feelings towards product features, design, packaging, pricing and advertising. In fact, such feedback can help businesses gain an overall understanding of what their prospects want.

marketing

Quantitative Measurement

Tracking sales figures over time is one way to measure if changes were effective or not; it’s often simple information that can be collected through business systems like sales reports from accounting software. The amount of money spent on marketing campaigns, the number of new customers, and sales figures are all examples of quantitative measures.

Other tools for market measurement

Analysis: Analysis is a fundamental tool for market measurement because it helps brands track their progress towards business goals or marketing objectives. When it comes to marketing for small businesses, analysis can be used to help you see what marketing activities are working best and which ones have little impact. This way, you can focus on the things that work and avoid those that don’t bring in results. A few examples include: how well your website performs in terms of visitor traffic; whether visitors respond better to a video or text; who influences most other customers (i.e. high-value customers) within your target market; and what customer segments have led to increased profits the most (i.e. new vs existing clients). Even if you’re unsure what marketing concepts you need to implement, analyzing all the available information will become clearer.

Then, you need to measure your results. With the right tools, such as contact management software (and I’m sure there are many solutions out there), it’s easy to keep track of all contacts and leads generated from your marketing campaigns. This way, you can see the status of the communications being made with prospects/customers at any time and place.

Also, check how well your company’s website communicates its message through measures like traffic on a specific page, conversion rate; return customer rate; bounce rate; how long people stay on each page and what pages they visit most often. The list could go on…

Social media: is another important tool for market measurement in marketing for small businesses. Nike, (though not a small business) not only monitor their brand’s performance but also measure the results of individual posts and how they can be improved on. For instance, there is no difference in what you post online if your message or image does not reach the target audience because that’s what needs to be recognized by this company for it to work well using social media marketing concepts. And they do this; they take note of what works best (for instance, the happiness index), and that’s how proper use of measurement should work in developing successful campaigns in respect to marketing for small businesses.

So nowadays, we don’t just buy stuff because something looks good anymore. It must be the right product at the right price and accompanied by great service. Businesses that consistently do this are thriving, while others are failing. That’s why measurement plays such a big part in understanding which marketing concepts is most effective in marketing for small businesses.

Social Media Analytics:  a recent post by Hubspot states, “By measuring the performance of social media against specific business objectives, brands will be able to determine what is and isn’t working—and improve upon it. In fact, 84% of U.S. marketers said they are using social media analytics right now to do that very thing (HubSpot). Clearly, this practice alone can ensure maximum returns on investment for your brand’s marketing activities online.”

Make sure you measure results regularly – at least once a month or so — while also considering long-term results, such as how well a campaign resonates with customers over time. If there are any setbacks in sales or even if there are successes, you can still monitor these areas, too (in addition to your sales pipeline). Be sure to note important shifts in customer behavior and, whenever appropriate, adjust strategies or marketing concepts accordingly.

Another benefit of Social Media Analytics for marketing measurement is that you can easily view “the social media landscape” (as well as your competition) in one convenient place; the vast amount of information that you gather could strategically guide future campaigns. It also helps you to understand what’s working, what isn’t and why this is happening so that you can measure and cut as necessary.

This may seem obvious, but it’s important to remember that there are many factors involved with marketing measurement. One very significant factor is how much data you have on prior marketing activities. For example, is your knowledge based only on qualitative or quantitative data? Is there a clear overview of all contacts made with prospects/customers?

You should definitely strive for an accurate record of all leads generated from your efforts because this will help when it comes time to making sales presentations. With this information in hand, you could even create reports that show your growth over a certain period of time (such as half a year), which is valuable for forecasting and determining what will work next.

Measurement is vital in marketing for small businesses, to track your progress towards marketing objectives and learn how to improve marketing efforts.

Levels of market measurement

Top-down measurement is the traditional way of evaluating sales results, which advertisers and marketing managers use to track progress towards their goals. This method looks at sales and profits while also analyzing the number of new customers. It also looks for changes in customers’ needs and wants because these shift constantly; this could be due to demographic changes or economic downturns, for example.

Top-down marketing measurement also looks at a brand’s marketing costs compared to the size of its market share and profits. To do this, marketers use the incremental sales figure (which is your increase in sales as a percentage over last year). This figure allows you to calculate what you can spend on advertising without considering how much it costs you in efficiencies. Also important is the ongoing tracking of financial results via systems like accounting software. We want to know that we’re getting better rather than worse over time; if not, then we need to question why and make changes to our marketing concepts so that our business stays successful.

Bottom-up measurement provides a more specific analysis, which means looking at each individual customer’s buying process with you. For example, how did they find out about your company? When did they make a purchase? How many repeat purchases have been made, and at what frequency has this occurred? Bottom-up measurement can be applied to any department within the organization to identify which individual performers are contributing most towards overall sales and profitability.

According to Jack Welch – former CEO of General Electric, bottom-up measurement means looking at the numbers in great detail from every angle possible. He also said that managers shouldn’t just look at basic financial results; but also apply more creative methods of analyzing all data available, including direct feedback from customers. In order for these measurements to work, companies need to commit time and resources to them regularly. Not just when the company is doing badly, but all the time. That way, we can see how it performs over longer periods, such as months and years.

In his book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins talks about how an effective measurement program consists of a few simple but important factors. The first factor is that good measurement should be quantifiable (that means the underlying data should be measurable). Is your sales process pretty much understandable by most people? If yes, then you are probably measuring well; but if not, then either you need to make changes to those measurements or rewrite them in simpler terms for everyone to understand what they mean. This concept is best applied in marketing for small businesses.

Consistency:  The next aspect of successful measurement programs is consistency because this makes it easier for managers to understand the data. When conducting marketing for small businesses, you should have a standard way of reporting sales results each month, for example, because this helps you compare performance over longer periods and see what’s working well and what isn’t.

Precision: Precision is another important factor in measurement systems; if you want your numbers to be an accurate portrayal of how the business is performing, then they need to be precise. This also means that if problems are highlighted by an analysis of the measurements, then people need to ask why these problems exist so that change can happen.

Collins says that measurement must be managed with discipline; some people might not like it when told where their weaknesses lie, but it’s very useful information nonetheless. What does ‘management with discipline’ actually mean? Basically, it means that everyone in the company has some sort of measurement system. If they don’t like what they see as a result of this measurement, then it should encourage them to find ways to improve their performance and achieve better results.

Digital-Marketing-Strategies

Another important fact about good measurement is that it encourages employees to think outside the box by providing them with detailed information about how the business operates and where opportunities exist for improvement – whether in terms of sales or customer service. That way, we can identify problems before they become too serious; and make sure our customers are receiving an ideal level of service so that they will continue to shop with us.

Also, linking your measurements with budgets makes sense because it brings in a degree of planning and control. In your marketing for small businesses’ journey, ask yourself whether your marketing concepts are helping you achieve your budget objectives? If not, then maybe some changes need to be made to your measurements.

I really enjoy the quote from Napoleon Bonaparte that says, “Measurement leads to control and eventually mastery” because I think it shows how everyone in an organization needs metrics or measurements to monitor their performance; making sure they achieve their required results. This is important if we want our business to grow, as well as stay profitable for a long time.

Compliance with legal requirements is another reason why companies need measurement programs – particularly if their marketing concepts involve any kind of financial transactions where large sums of money are involved, such as retail commerce or banking institutions, for example. Basel II is an important example of a set of principles and guidelines from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision that institutions must follow if they want to expand their operations into new countries or markets.

It helps to ensure that capital adequacy standards are met, meaning financial institutions have enough money available if anything unexpected happens. A measurement program can help banks measure how much capital they have at any given time, helping them to predict whether additional cash will be needed by the business. That way, companies don’t run out of cash when it’s most needed – such as in difficult periods where lots of customers are asking for refunds and charge-backs, for instance.

Measurement, in relation to marketing for small businesses is vital for any business to not only track its progress towards marketing objectives but also to learn how to improve marketing efforts.

Measuring twice and cutting once in marketing:

This simply means making sure you check your numbers twice and take the time to learn from successes and failures. Measurement is a continuous process that will help marketers and small business owners you find out what works best for your business.

Remember: measurement is one of the great marketing concepts that can be used by anyone (whether you are marketing for small businesses or big one) to understand customer behavior, gain insight into how campaigns are performing, or even just get a better grasp on the changes in your industry. Don’t forget, though, that there are many other ways besides quantitative measurement of how successful marketing efforts are; qualitative measures such as interviews (i.e., focus groups), surveys and questionnaires should not be overlooked when undertaking marketing for small businesses. The more information you have about your audience, the better results you can expect to achieve.

How can you apply market measurement strategies?

While reading this article, whether you were aware of it or not, you’ve been applying market measurements by analyzing what you read through your critical thinking skills and how much value they provide to you.  The same applies to businesses that apply market measurement strategies.

You can apply market measurement strategies in 10 ways as listed below:

  1. Evaluate existing marketing campaigns and advertising investments
  2. Determining the effectiveness of marketing efforts
  3. Determine how well your product/service is perceived by target customers
  4. Tracking changes in consumer behavior patterns over time
  5. Project potential changes in customer needs/desires for future products or services
  6. Identify new opportunities to increase sales and profits through effective segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies
  7. Develop appropriate pricing levels based on economic conditions (i.e., recession) that are going to affect demand for certain products or services
  8. Monitor competitors’ activities toward learning what works best from a particular campaign, then using it as a benchmark for future references
  9. Understand how different strategies contribute to overall performance (i.e., sales and profit)
  10. Help answer the question: “what else do we need to know?” about a particular situation or problem

Summary

You might say that we’ve reached a point of too many choices and not enough time. But too many choices is exactly the point why measuring is an absolute must. It’s easy to just grab on to the latest-greatest marketing thing; especially if everybody else is doing it or it’s getting the latest press. So pick the latest-greatest, choose the easiest, pick the cheapest; I don’t care. What I do care about is that you measure twice and cut what doesn’t work. Here’s an article on results from using a tactical marketing plan.

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The Importance of Links in Instagram

instagram links

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet. Over 200 million people actively use this platform on a monthly basis. This mass amount of consumer traffic is one of the main reasons why business owners invest time and money in advertising on this platform. If you are a business owner trying to gain traction on Instagram links, you need to devise a plan of attack.

One of the first things Instagram users will notice about your business is your profile. If this profile is properly optimized, you will have no problem driving a consistent stream of sales leads to your page. Links are a great way to add context to your Instagram page. However, our linking options are limited on Instagram, which is why you need to get crafty.

Here is important information about using links on Instagram.

The Importance of Links in Instagram

The main goal business owners should have when using Instagram is finding and nurturing leads. One of the best ways to keep Instagram users interested in what your business is doing is by creating posts frequently. Using tools like Sked Social can make creating and scheduling new Instagram posts much easier. As you start to create these posts, you need to figure out how to insert links to your business website.

Putting these links in posts creates a direct link from your Instagram page to your website. The more people you can drive to your website from Instagram, the easier it will be to increase the number of viable sales leads you receive.

instagram links

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Linking On Instagram is Difficult

The designers of Instagram had the goal of making this platform self-contained. This self-contained mindset really gets in the way when trying to insert links in your Instagram posts. When adding links to in-feed posts, they will not show up as clickable links. This means that Instagram users have to copy and paste the URL in a post to visit the website in question. Generally, Instagram profiles are allowed a single link in their bio section.

If an Instagram page has over 10,000 followers, they can add swipe-up links to their posts in Stories. However, these posts are designed to disappear after 24 hours.

Best Hacks for Your Profile

In the past, linking on Instagram was an extremely challenging task for business owners. Over the last few years, more technology has been created to address this common Instagram marketing issue. For instance, companies like Sked Social provide consumers with tools that allow them to create graphic links and buttons for their Instagram posts. When using this tool, you can track various metrics to see how much traffic these links are generating on this social media platform.

instagram linksHow To Use Linking On Instagram Successfully

Now that you know more about how to link on Instagram, you need to consider how to use this tool to your advantage. Simply inserting a link with no context in your Instagram posts can confuse your followers. This is why writing a detailed call to action is so important. The call to action should let Instagram users know exactly why the link is there and what they stand to gain by clicking it.

You also need to avoid over-using linking when trying to expand your reach on Instagram. Using these links sparingly allows you to highlight their value.

It’s Time To Start Creating Posts

Putting the tips in this article to use allows you to drive more traffic to your website. Posting new Instagram posts on a daily basis will help you keep your followers engaged and interested. If you don’t have the time or experience to create these posts, then working with a social media marketing professional is a wise move. Check out this post on Getting Reviews and Social Proof.

 

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51 Best Start-up Ideas to Try

start-up

Creating an excellent idea for a small business to start-up can prove a daunting task, especially with the apparent feeling that all the great ideas for business are already taken. However, it’s still possible to expand on a current set-up or build on a much older idea. One thing is sure; being self-employed presents far more benefits than the challenges that come with it, and it is, thus, completely worth the effort. Over the years I have done 12 business startups, and that really adds spice to my life.

As a business coach I work with many business owners including entrepreneurs who are doing startups. For the most part these amazing clients are successful. All it takes is a good idea and a willingness to learn, learn, learn and work, work, work!

That said, here are some start-up ideas to inspire you, which you could implement this year!

business startup

51 Small Business Ideas to Try in 2022

Let’s get creative. Find inspiration as you explore this exhaustive list of ideas from varied fields like nutrition-based, travel, writing, etc., and take up what works for you.

  1. Specialty Travel Tour Organizer

For a travel-based start-up, consider a specialized travel tour company. This company would offer the service of catering for travelers’ individual lifestyle preferences, taking into consideration varied aspects as travel preferences of travelers, diet-preferences, or even age of travelers. Such a company will specialize in attending to a well-defined set of preferences travelers have and would exist to meet those needs.

  1. Develop an Airport-Centric App

Consider setting up an all-inclusive app that enables travelers to navigate through airport information and make informed decisions in real-time. This is seemingly non-fallowed ground when it comes to start-up ideas and could be quite lucrative. While it is apparent various travel apps exist, an all-in-one app that shows information like amenities, TSA line wait times, ground transportation options, and airport maps could be quite useful to travelers.

To reach a wider audience, you can run your app on both iOS and Android. To achieve this, you can find a Flutter or
React Native developer for hire. Therefore, there will be no need to develop two separate apps for different platforms.

  1. Wedding Destination Planner

If you’ve ever been close to someone who did a wedding, then you know planning such events isn’t as seamless as the event may seem to unfold, and you could step in to relieve the hosts of weddings of the stress as a wedding venue planner. This would also allow you to explore various parts of the globe as you pick out suitable venues for weddings based on the couple’s preferences. Though working hours for this start-up may be extended and pressure ever great, yet if you love exploring new places, then you’d do great with this option.

  1. Creating Local Guides

If you’ve ever been a tourist in a place you’ve never been to before, then you know having a local guide could mean the difference between life and death, and that could be an excellent start-up option – making local guides. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re versed with the locality or not. You could help tourists enjoy off-the-beaten-path experiences in your locality with themed guides and highlight attractions. And it doesn’t need to end there; you could get in touch with companies in your area and land advertising gigs as well.

  1. Setting up a Local Grocery Delivery Service

With very minimal start-up cost, needing virtually just a cell phone and a vehicle, to begin with, a grocery delivery service is a great option to consider. You could stand in the gap to aid senior citizens or people who are just too busy to pick up their groceries themselves and make a living while doing it. You could set up partnership agreements with local grocery stores in your area and get to work.

  1. Become an Event Planner

Consider setting up an event planning company in your community. To achieve such a feat, networking and careful research are necessary to succeed. It is also interesting to note that you could set up and run such a company remotely for ultimate flexibility.

  1. Open a Coworking Space

With the rising popularity of remote working, you could capitalize on this by setting up modern coworking spaces. Simply select a suitable location, incorporate necessary and sought-after amenities, and reach out to the community for primarily local impact.

  1. Meal Preparation Business

The world has gotten a lot busier than it used to be, and people no longer have the time to cook their food all the time, and where there’s a problem like this, you could provide the solution with a meal preparation business like restaurants. You could focus on generally ordered foods or diet-specific options, all depending on the community you find yourself in.

  1. Devise a Food Waste Solution

Developing a solution to deal with food waste would not only make you a lot richer. Still, it would significantly impact the food industry, helping grocery stores and restaurants save a lot of money.

  1. Capitalize on Veganism

Veganism has been on the rise in the past decade, and being able to provide plant-based food options can be a great business idea to consider. Setting up a vegan supermarket, restaurant and rolling out vegan alternatives of traditional foods are great places to start.

  1. Start a Dropshipping Business

The e-commerce dropshipping model is quite fascinating because you don’t have to purchase inventory upfront. Selling high-end products with low shipping costs would prove quite lucrative and could become profitable quickly if you do thorough competition research.

  1. Deal in Zero-Waste Products

Not only is this a smart option, but it is eco-friendly and an ethical thing to do. Zero-waste products include reusable and recyclable products like reusable bags, bamboo toothbrushes, and even zero-waste packaging materials. Such products would appeal to a world plagued by climate change.

  1. Curate Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes have become quite popular and a lucrative business venture. Simply identify a niche and curate this specific set of items to modern customers.

  1. Produce Pet Products

Over 85 million U.S. households have at least a pet, and you could tailor your business to meet the needs of these companion animals. Consider making toys, clothing, and accessories for pets.

  1. Deal in Phone Accessories

The average person owns a mobile phone, and dealing in phone accessories has the potential to flourish in almost any setting. Though there is apparent saturation in the field, there is always room for one-of-a-kind smartphone add-ons.

  1. Engage in Electronics and Mobile Phone repairs

You could consider engaging in electronic equipment repairs and, especially, mobile phones, helping people get their electronics working again.

business startup is hard

  1. Create Custom Clothing

You can become a custom clothier, dealing in custom clothing, such as using dye sublimation printers for designs on garments, or rendering tailoring services if fashion is your thing.

  1. Sell Vintage Goods Online

Like it’s said, “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure (or something like that)!” you could consider dealing in used merchandise, selling thrifted, vintage, or upcycled items online, and there are tons of sites to make that possible.

  1. Become a blogger

The key here is to identify a comfortable niche like sports, technology, lifestyle, etc., and create engaging content on the subject. With time, as the audience expands, you could make money via advertising, affiliate links, and even sell products.

  1. Write E-book

Perhaps you’ve got a way with words and know-how to present stories in ways that captivate and arouse the desired emotional response in the readers. You could put those skills to use by becoming a self-published e-book writer and selling your work on virtual platforms.

  1. Consider Ghost-writing

Perhaps you have the skill to write, are good with words but don’t mind always attaching your name to your work, then consider becoming a ghostwriter for other busier professionals. It’s a great option to consider with minimal start-up cost.

  1. Become a Resume Writer

Everyone needs a resume, but not everyone can write out a great resume, and if you’re good at something, then you don’t have to do it for free. You consider resume writing as a great start-up, with little start-up cost attached.

  1. Become an Online Coach

If you desire to see others achieve success and attain their desired goals in whatever aspects of their lives, online coaching is a great start-up option to consider. You could set-up a YouTube channel with niche-tailored resources to help people reach their goals as you reach yours.

  1. Engage in Website Flipping

Website flipping involves buying a website, making alterations to the site, and then selling it to make a profit. Such a start-up would require some starting capital as well as some tech skills in web development but could quickly pay off.

  1. Engage in Web Development

As the world increasingly becomes digital, the need for custom websites continually increases. As such, skills like mastering programming languages and working with WordPress could really come in handy and open doors for a lucrative start-up.

  1. Start a Podcast

A podcast could be a great start-up, especially if you find that you’re knowledgeable or passionate about a particular subject matter.

  1. Be a Social Media Influencer

If you can successfully build a following large community on social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube, you could create a stable income source through influencer marketing.

  1. Create Online Courses

If you have hobbies that people could be interested in mastering, then you could set-up online courses to teach these skills. This is entirely dissimilar to coaching as it’s more passive but will still yield a meaningful income.

  1. Become a Marketing Consultant

If you have digital marketing skills, then consider becoming a marketing consultant helping small businesses engage their audiences by providing SEO, social media, or copywriting services. Even without the necessary experience, you could take online courses to get you started.

  1. Engage in App Development

Your big break could be in creating an app. All it takes is the right skills and a great idea, and you could get the jackpot. And what’s interesting is, you don’t need a lot of coding skills nowadays to build a great app.

  1. Make a Smart Appliance

In an incredibly digital world, developing a healthy and needful appliance could be the big break you desire. All it takes is a great idea. To be inspired, carefully consider the average person’s daily life and figure out what tasks at home or at work would be significantly facilitated using an appliance.

  1. Look to Virtual Reality Experiences

VR is the future, and that future has already begun. Join the community making VR by creating virtual reality experiences or accessories.

  1. Develop a Dating Site

While it is true there are tins of dating websites and apps out there, you could stand out from the crowd by presenting a niche-tailored dating website targeted to meet the needs of a rather specific group of people.

  1. Develop a Chatbot

Even with really knowing much about coding, you could create a chat box that uses artificial intelligence to communicate with people—to help businesses improve their communication.

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  1. Offer Matchmaking Services

This is a step further from just setting up a dating website; it requires a more active role in accessing, based on the users’ provided info, who is best matched and most suited for who. Matchmaking could be completed online or in person, helping you make money and develop relationships simultaneously.

  1. Become a Virtual Assistant

Online assisting is quite a promising start-up alternative, as it can help in administrative tasks in both professional and personal lives.

  1. Reinvent Exercising

Exercise is essential for healthy living, but it can get boring, especially when it comes to following the exact same routine daily. So then, how can people exercise but still find ways to have fun while doing it?

  1. Eco-Friendly, Health-Friendly Makeup and Beauty Products

Yeah, that’s quite specific. As more people become aware of the environment and the need for eco-friendly products, even makeup and beauty products should align to such standards. Creating safe and eco-friendly beauty products could be an excellent start-up option and one that hasn’t got a lot of congestion.

  1. Try a Food Truck

Perhaps, starting a restaurant may have been the idea, but you could consider a food truck instead. And moreover, you can hire someone by using food service interview questions. Even though you’d most likely need the qualification and background in food handling, a food truck may be more feasible a start-up idea compared to a restaurant as it would require less workforce and fewer resources to pull off.

  1. Start an Organizing Company

Some persons have a knack for organization – keeping things neat and tidy, where everything has its place, and others do not. If this is your thing, you could engage the start-up idea of organizing homes, offices, kitchen utensils, bookshelves, etc., for people who are clearly not gifted or less busy doing it themselves.

  1. Interior Design for Your Professionals

Everyone (or almost everyone) will appreciate a well-designed house, one that feels like home, but not everyone can achieve that. It requires picking out the right furniture, setting up with the right design, decoration, paint color, and even smell of the house. And if you have an eye for decorating, then interior designs could be a great start-up to consider.

  1. Become a Freelance graphic designer

It’s all about pictures in a social media age, and you can capitalize on that as a great start-up option. Decide the projects you work on, apportion your time and build a portfolio. You could consider graphic content for websites or blogs to company specifications for all manner of projects.

  1. Start up a Translation Gig

Do you speak more than one language? Then you could offer translation services. For optimum results, you should identify a particular domain or specialize in, like medical, transportation, finance, etc. You could expose yourself to tourists and get paid to aid in communication.

  1. Engage in Photography

Photography is arguably more of an art than science, and you may just have what it takes to excel in it. You can test yourself with small family events and build a portfolio with referrals. As you get known in the community, more gigs would come your way, which is progress. Also, use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., to make your rade known.

  1. Set-up a Handyman Service

Perhaps you may be good at fixing things and improvising solutions when things fail. Or maybe, people around you always need your attention when things need fixing; then consider becoming a handyman. Find a domain that works for you and grow by asking for referrals.

  1. Become a Woodworker

If you’re good with wood and delight in crafting out beautiful furniture, you could set up a woodworking business. You can start out with a local base, meeting locals’ needs in the community while building an online following as you showcase what you can do.

  1. Become a Videographer

Though videography is a start-up that would require some capital upfront to invest in the right equipment, its demand will never run out. So, give it a shot. Create samples and advertise online, and have interested viewers queue up to demand your services.

  1. Car-detailing specialist

Cars – who doesn’t love ’em? Car dealing specialists are in demand highly, and if you can pay attention to intricate details, then this may be your big break. You may also need to be mobile, and you should have the necessary flexibility, transportation, and equipment for the job.

  1. Home inspector

This is a more formal start-up option and may require certification and a great deal of expertise. You can supply services like confirming licensing requirements and inspecting land assets for sale or purchase. You may need to take a few courses on the subject for this start-up and expand your knowledge and expertise.

  1. Housecleaner

With almost no qualification whatsoever, you could start-up a house cleaning gig. To succeed at this, you should consider making your services known through the community to get more bookings, clients, and, of course, more bucks.

  1. Personal chef

We all need to eat, but not everyone has the time to cook and are comfortable eating out. As such, you could provide the service of becoming a personal chef. This is especially needful for special-diet individuals like vegetarians or patients. And as an added hack, you could group clients with similar feeding preferences and cook for them in bulk.

How to Choose the Best Start-up Idea

As much as these ideas are all great and you’re feeling anxious to jump on that idea, there are a few things you must consider. First, there must be a need you’re meeting in choosing that start-up; there should be demand for what you’re considering in the locality you’re envisaging. No matter how appealing the idea on this list is, you’d be setting up for failure if there isn’t a demand for it in the community you desire to start up.

Secondly, you should have a well-articulated business plan. Where there’s no plan, there’s ample room for failure. The business plan will help your business stay on track, so it’s a must-have.

You should also take into consideration your skillset, what you can do, and choose wisely. Even if you desire to learn the new skill, you should still assess whether it’s a feasible route to take.

To wrap things up

The opportunities for start-ups are limitless; all it takes is an opportunistic vision to jump on every demand and start-up a business. Whether or not you choose from this list, stay motivated and strive to succeed. Read this article to view a Business Startup Checklist.

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