by KevinPosted on Posted in Marketing — No Comments ↓

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Customer reviews play an integral role in where people spend their money. Online Google reviews appear next to a business listing in Google Maps. To ensure confidence, trust the ratings and reviews for a business, Google has updated on April 12, 2018, guidelines for Google My Business.

The new policy states, “Don’t discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.” All requests for online reviews from customers must be unbiased. Google guidelines appear to enforce against review software platforms. Google implemented this to prevent review gating. In another words, it is not recommended for businesses to drive customers into two separate funnels. One funnel is a private one for the unhappy customers to leave private feedback that are never sent the option to leave a review publicly. The other one is public for happy customers that had positive experience to leave reviews on Google.

In conclusion, businesses do not fear asking every customer for reviews. If your business is not comfortable asking for reviews, this can indicate problems in your business. Furthermore, make sure your reputation management platform is compliant with the new guidelines of Google.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Marketing — No Comments ↓

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Online positive reviews are beneficial to your business. Positive reviews provide a strong impression of your brand as well as increase your business’s visibility for local search results.

For those businesses who use a reputation management platform, it is not recommended to solicit reviews on Yelp. Yelp has a policy to ensure all reviews are not influenced by businesses. Asking your customers for reviews on Yelp is a violation of their policy. Never ask your staff to compete to collect reviews. Also, never offer discounts or payments in exchange for reviews.

The nature of a violation is also going to come into play. Yelp is upfront about the severity of a violation and the penalty. Yelp will remove reviews that are in violation of their policy. In addition,Yelp uses IP addresses as one way to determine the legitimacy of a review. When a user’s IP address is not a match to the geographic location of a company being reviewed, Yelp will flag the review and consider it spam. According to Yelp, “Every Yelp review is automatically evaluated by Yelp’s recommendation software based on quality, reliability,and user activity on Yelp. More often than not, those useful reviews come from active members of the Yelp community.” Yelp uses an algorithm for determining the reviews that will be displayed on the business’s page on the site. Therefore, do not ask your customers for reviews on Yelp.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Featured, Security — No Comments ↓

hacker-3081816_960_720 Cyber crimes are on the rise. According to Gemalto, almost 2 billion data records around the world were lost or stolen by cyberattacks in the first half of 2017. The report also states that the number of breaches reported by companies continue to rise. Hackers use many malicious tricks to penetrate through email, web browsing, and mobile apps. In addition, hackers exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in software code and online hosts.

Companies need to be alert and take preventive action to prevent cyber attacks. Computers and personal information stored in databases and on servers need to be encrypted. Encrypt data for bank routing digits to employee social security numbers. Use encryption for your most sensitive files such as tax returns or financial records. Make nightly backups of all your important data, and store it in another location. Protect your system from incoming malware and bots by using a firewall. Check your security system and keep software updated with patches. Use antivirus and antimalware software as HitmanPro and Malwarebytes as a line of defense. Update your operating system to keep your computers current and secure from being hacked. Restrict access to sensitive information to only a few people.

Implement a policy of creating strong passwords. Passwords must be strong and changed regularly. Use an unpredictable combinations of letters, characters, and numbers for strong passwords. For an organization to be truly safe, each member must understand what threats exist. Understand where they come from and follow data security. Moreover, send emails to employees about the threat of cyber attacks. Therefore,do not lose consumer trust in your organization by allowing a data breach.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Video — No Comments ↓

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Video is a high value, powerful and compelling strategy to deliver interesting content. Recent research reveals that video advertising is increasingly growing and used to drive interest, buzz and downloads in the mobile app economy. Video ad spending has accounted for 41% of total social spending. People watching videos on mobile devices continues to climb. Mobile users like to watch short videos no longer than two minutes.

Video advertising is an effective way to reach customers on mobile and cross-screen. In fact, Forrester Research reports one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Both large and small advertisers alike enjoy the reach and the abiltity to target the right audience using online videos. Brand advertisers utilize online video, which extends web reach with marginal incremental costs. Small businesses like the fact that videos ads provides them with a television advertising presence at an affordable rate.

Time is now to incorporate video ads into your marketing. To run successful video ads, develop a cross-channel strategy that utilizes a variety of delivery methods to engage users. Run the videos ads on all devices. Develop video ads that are engaging to potential customers. Mobile video ad space combines the power of sight, sound and motion. This leads to drive higher conversion rates and encourages more user engagement. Moreover, video advertising benefits are worth the time and investment. Therefore, connect with potential customers by implementing video ads.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Mobile Advertising — No Comments ↓

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Mobile is an important channel that has changed everything. It has revolutionized the way people communicaticate with each other. Mobile is the world’s most personal and important communications channel. Globally, mobile drives the most traffic.

A mobile phone is an omnichannel device. According to Forbes, 91 percent of smartphone users keep their phones within arm’s reach. Consumers carry their mobile phone wherever they go. People use their mobile device to search and find a local business. When a mobile user is ready to buy, a superior mobile experience makes the decision easy.

Mobile marketing is profitable and so do not ignore it. Businesses need to align digital experiences with the behaviors that mobile users expect. Digital marketing channels have leveled the playing field more than ever. By utilizing online marketing channels, it tends to be better targeted than traditional advertising. In digital advertising, you pay only by reaching people interested in your product or service. A majority of money spent on digital advertising is targeted towards mobile. Furthermore, consumers are more likely to recommend and buy from a business that delivers a better mobile experience than the competition.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Mobile Advertising, Mobile Web Design — No Comments ↓

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Are you looking to improve your customer engagement? Are you looking to build a brand? Are you looking to improve your customer loyalty.

Mobile apps play an important role to your business marketing strategy. Regardless of a business size, all businesses need mobile apps. If you do not have an app for your business, time to develop one. According to a Gallup poll, almost 90 percent of mobile phone time is devoted to using apps. The report also states that Americans spend more time using their mobile phones than watching TV. A survey by Clutch reports that 42% of small businesses have a mobile app, and 30% plan to build one in the future. Users enjoy the convenience of apps, which they can download and use on their mobile phones. In addition, users pretty much carry their phones with them wherever they go.

When developing your mobile app, come up with a purpose of the mobile app. Mobile app purpose can be to provide utility or value to users. Another purpose of a mobile app is a solution to a problem that does not exist on other web properties. A mobile app can build a brand, improve customer engagement and customer loyalty. Mobile apps have the capability to keep track of rewards points, send push notifications on discounts and new products. Personalization is also important on mobile apps. Personalization can be demographics, behaviors that users take in the app. Therefore, implement a mobile app into your business strategy.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in E-Commerce — No Comments ↓

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Is your product selection outdated? Does your ecommerce site need a new fresh look? Does the functionality of your ecommerce site work?

More proof to update your ecommerce site is high rent. High real estate costs in prime locations make it expensive and difficult to keep stores open. CoStar Group reports that more than 90 million square feet of space is expected to be vacated this April.

Time for businesesses to update their ecommerce website. Sites that are out of date do nothing to increase their sales. Outdated sites also lead to lower conversions and higher bounce rates. According to EMarketer, Ecommerce will be $4.479 trillion by 2020. Your business ecommerce site needs to deliver the experience that customers expect. Online shopping that is more tailored to an individual shopper’s preferences. Personalize experience for online shoppers will help brands increase sales, loyalty and trust. Develop a shopping app to increase online sales.

Make the ecommerce site easy to use and navigate. Utilize videos for the products. Have the capability to search and find the products. Program the website to be able to zoom in and out of products. Close the deal with shoppers and minimize cart abandonment by making it extremely easy to complete a transaction. Moreover, make it easy to do mobile purchases on your ecommerce site.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Marketing, Social Media — No Comments ↓

human-3175027_960_720Do you have time to do social media? Do you have the manpower to do a social media campaign? Do you need help coming up with content?

As an entrepreneur, there is limited time and resources to do social media. There is limited manpower. Typically, businesses use Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram profiles. Small businesses should also use LinkedIn, YouTube, Google, and Pinterest.

Entrepreneurs need a social media strategy. The goals of social media can be brand awareness,lead generation,content delivery,SEO, Increase traffic as well as customer acquisition. Social media needs to be updated regularly. Each blog post,image,video, or comment that you share is a chance for someone to react. This could lead to a site visit as well as a conversion. Utilize social media to promote your brand promotion, marketing message broadcast, as well as company updates.

Social media is capable of promoting your brand at very little financial cost. Therefore, the longer you wait to do social media, the more you lose. Moreover, integrate social media to gain more customers, more traffic, and more conversions.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Marketing, Video — No Comments ↓

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Do you know who the largest search engine and second largest search engine is? The largest search engine is Google and YouTube owned by Google is second. Bloomberg reports that YouTube accounts for half of all Google activity

Determine how your business video can add value to the experience of your client and decide on an approach. Your business cannot afford not having videos. Videos are essential for your business. Forbes reports that the importance of video. Their study cites that 65% of business executives visit a vendor’s website after watching a video. In addition, more than 80% of them are watching more online video today than they were a year ago.

More digital means more videos. A video is an avenue that allows you to increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website. Videos are a prominent way to showcase your brand to your customers. Demonstrate how to use your products in a video. This helps your business stand out. By utilizing videos, increase exposure to your brands and build trust. Videos signal to the search engines that your website has good content. Videos help your search engine ranking. Adding your business video to your social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel, is an effective way to generate more attention and reach your audience. Furthermore, implement videos into your marketing. Therefore, integrate videos to personalise your business.

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