Facebook Marketplace

Why Facebook Marketplace Is Not Just Another Sales Channel

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The recent launch of Facebook’s new Marketplace service has been met with more than a little acclaim in Australia and elsewhere. It’s now possible after all, for individuals to buy and sell items among people in their immediate local communities.

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Will Facebook Marketplace eventually kill off the suburban garage sale? Probably. The service, after all, is available directly through Facebook Messenger, an app used by over 450 million people each and every day.

Why Local Businesses need to Start Looking at Marketplace

However, while Facebook Marketplace is being marketed as an easier, more localized alternative to platforms such as Ebay for everyday users, Marketplace has phenomenal potential for local business owners also.

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Instagram Followers

How to Get More Instagram Followers

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1. Make your prof pic and bio amazing and noticeable

The first thing people see is your Instagram biography and picture when scrolling through Instagram. Make yours pretty to look at and different enough to click on. This can include plenty of emojis and any awesome quotes you want to feature in your bio. Make your name catchy and relevant to your brand as well. You want to catch the attention of the other 400 million accounts out there so have fun with your profile and don’t be afraid to stand out.

Trying different combos of C a P i T a L letters also gets you noticed. Play around and have fun with your bio and pic.

2. Pick 1 theme and don’t post selfies or #kidpics

You want your theme to be exactly what your audience loves to look at and can’t live without. If you sell shoes, post gorgeous shoe pictures, hashtag relevant #shoes, and throw in a few inspiration quotes on top of some of your shoe pics.

You just went to the park with your kid? Save that for your personal Instagram if you want to retain followers on your business’ themed account. This will promote trust and a loyal following of interested people.

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Audience Segmentation

Audience Segmentation 101: Your Guide To Gain More Targeted Customers

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In the business world, it’s important to gain the right customer base the first time in order to see positive results in your profits and from your marketing efforts. The problem is with such a broad spectrum of customers, it can be hard to work out exactly how to target the right customer so you can see more conversions and sales overall. If you’re in this predicament, here’s an expert guide on audience segmentation and how you can use it to gain more targeted customers for better ROI.

Audience Segmentation Can Improve Your ROI and Customer Base

Audience segmentation can help you improve your profits because it can drive in more customers that are directly related to your business and what you’re offering. Segmenting your audience is the process of narrowing down your audience until you have the most relevant customer. Why does it improve your customer base and ROI?

  1. Because it allows your business to market to the right and relevant audience.
  2. Because you place more money into the right marketing areas instead of the wrong ones, lowering your spending. This in turn gains you more profits.

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Email Marketing

Top Techniques for Creating A Solid Email Marketing Campaign

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When in the process of setting up a small business and marketing it for more sales, it’s important to look into all avenues of marketing to ensure you don’t miss out on any potential customers. One marketing method that’s used by many small businesses is email marketing. Email marketing is not only a cost effective strategy to use but has the potential to build a stronger relationship with your future customers. So how do you create a powerful email marketing campaign? This expert guide will give you the top techniques you can use to create a solid email marketing campaign.

Best Practices For A Great Email Marketing Strategy

Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience is the first thing you need to consider when creating a powerful marketing strategy. The idea of audience identification is so you don’t market your business to the wrong people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer. This just wastes your time and theirs. So how do you identify your target audience? The answer is audience segmentation. Audience segmentation is the process of breaking down your potential customer base and working out specific content that is targeted for them. You can start this break down process by placing your audience into selected categories. These categories include:

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Small Business Marketing - Online vs Offline

Is Online Marketing a Better Match for a Small Business than Offline Marketing?

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The question of whether online marketing trumps offline strategies is often treated as a hypothetical one – most marketers have tossed offline by the wayside and placed 100% of their focus on newer (and more successful) online methods.

But is online marketing always the best match for a small business? Let’s first take a look at how online marketing can benefit your business. I’ll also consider the question of whether offline marketing really is antiquated and not worth doing, or if there’s something left in the tank of old school methods.

Deep Dive Analytics

Online marketing can give you an excellent overview of the performance of each and every dollar you spend. Free inbuilt tools on Google Analytics, for example, allow you to set goals and track the flow of your traffic. You can analyse where your audience is exiting your site, which landing pages perform best – and that’s just the start.

Analytical tools allow you to deep dive on the specifics of your business performance, allowing you to tweak and adapt in real time. You can respond to market shifts quickly by viewing the results of complex calculations with just a few clicks.

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Small Business Branding

Keeping It Simple to Stand Out

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Branding is more important for big corporate business right?

Wrong.

Branding is even more vital for small business, where there is usually limited time and budget available for promotion and you can’t afford to waste it on marketing that doesn’t work.

Without a brand. most businesses end up with WOFTAM marketing – a waste of flipping time and money, because they lack the simplistic yet clear message that a brand provides.

A brand is like a compass for your marketing, keeping you in the right direction, ensuring your message is on-brand and that you consistently stand out and engage with the right target audience.

And standing out is crucial when competition is fierce.

Without a strong brand a small business disappears amongst others in the industry, leaving you competing on price alone and that’s a race to the bottom. That’s especially important for service providers where you are exchanging your time for money.

Without a clear brand direction you tend to get a bit lost, you waffle and flounder when it comes to explaining why someone should choose you.

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How Small to Medium Sized Businesses Can Use Video Content Marketing

How Small to Medium Sized Businesses Can Use Video Content Marketing

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For a long time, content marketing has been a key channel in any successful online strategy. Quality, unique content is the best way for companies to increase their social signals, obtain natural inbound links and engage prospective customers en masse.

Recently, more and more brands are turning to video content marketing. And for good reason: it’s estimated that by 2017 video will make up nearly 70% of all consumer traffic. Currently YouTube receives more than a billion unique visitors every month. A well-crafted video can say a lot about your brand in a short space of time. This makes it an effective way to get your brand’s messages out quickly to many people.

We often hear about successful video marketing campaigns from global companies with huge advertising budgets. But how can small and medium sized businesses with more conservative budgets leverage the power of video content? We look at a few simple ways companies can increase the reach and impact of their campaigns.

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6 ways to use your email signature to promote your project for free

6 ways to use your email signature to promote your project for free

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It’s often hard to allocate resources in marketing, especially for small businesses. Spending a large portion of your marketing budget on a large campaign might lead to an expanded customer base, tons of new sales leads and increased brand awareness. Or it might not. Calculating return on investment is tough.

If you need to promote a new product, a webinar, event, or website, and you can find a way to boost your project on the cheap (or even for free!), then you’ll be ahead of the game. Email signatures are an often overlooked way to convey your marketing messages. Here are a few email signature tips and tricks you can use to do email marketing on a shoestring budget:

1. Include a link to the landing page

Hopefully you’ve set up a landing page for your project. If you haven’t, go and do that now! Landing pages are a great way to describe your project and gather email addresses for participants. If you include the link to your landing page as part of a well-designed banner in your signature, you can really you’re your reader’s attention. This way, even if you’re not emailing someone specifically about the new project, they can still access the necessary information if the banner sparks their interest.

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Branded Emails - Market your business with every email you send

Branded Emails – Market your business with every email you send

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What if you can use the power of email broadcasting in every email you send out rather than in just one campaign?

Well now you can and it’s called branded emails.

Branded emails can be designed like the emails and e-newsletters you send out in your email marketing campaigns. They’ll be branded in your logo and colours, and contain high-impact graphics, images and links to your website and social media pages.

It’s easy to do. You don’t have to download any new software or install a new application. You send a branded email just like you would a regular email, using your normal email programs such as Outlook, Macmail, Gmail and so forth.

Why you need branded emails :

Your brand is a powerful asset. It represents who you are and what you do, and reflects the personality of your business.

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