Marketing Insider Group published the post Top Resources and Tips for Developing Blog Topics Your Audience Loves.

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By: Michael Brenner
Title: Top Resources and Tips to Develop Blog Topics Your Audience Will Love
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/top-resources-tips-develop-blog-topics-your-audience-will-love/
Published Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:00:37 +0000

How can you determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns Do you track ROI? To improve performance, you can A/B-test ads. Perhaps you create slick reports using a fancy Google Data Studio dashboard.

You may still be wasting money. This is because many businesses only measure the effect of marketing after it has happened. It is important to know the cost per click for your search or social ads. However, it can be more useful to understand the overall impact of your marketing campaigns.

This is where SWOT analysis can be of great help. SWOT analysis (strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats) can be used to analyze marketing campaigns. It allows you see the whole picture and tackle challenges head-on.

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis can be used to identify key business challenges and strengths. It considers your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

SWOT analysis does not only track metrics and show which ads are performing better, but also gives you a high-level overview of the impact of your marketing to help you improve it.

What are the benefits of SWOT analysis in marketing?

You already know how to track the results of your Google Ad campaigns or Facebook posts. To uncover the most important factors that impact your marketing, a SWOT analysis goes beyond standard metrics such as ROI, CPC and CAC. It looks at the customer satisfaction, competition, and failure to promote your assets.

This data can be very powerful, especially when it is available when you most need it. Airtable found that 46 percent of marketers believe their team is held back by insufficient data. A SWOT analysis is a good way to start.

There are other benefits to SWOT for marketing:

• A better understanding of which marketing channels you should focus your efforts on
• This tool helps you to fix any weaknesses in your marketing materials or ads
• It is easier to spot potential threats to your campaigns before they affect your bottom line
• It allows you to take advantage of the strengths and assets you already have
• Marketing goals can be improved over time

A SWOT analysis will ensure that your marketing budget is well-used. The average business spends 12 percent of its total budget on marketing.

What are the drawbacks to SWOT in marketing?

Although I love SWOT analysis in marketing it does have its limitations. First, it won't give you useful insights if your shortcomings aren't being fully disclosed. To be effective, this type of analysis needs to be honest and self-reflective.

Complex factors can be hard to analyse, which could either be a weakness of a strength. Running ads on TikTok may have the highest costs and generate more leads than other options, which could be both an advantage and a weakness.

Here are some other restrictions to be aware of:

• SWOT analysis can be very time-consuming. Before you start, make sure you have the right people and the time.
• It is possible to get overwhelmed by too many ideas for improving your marketing.
• Although it can generate lots of data, it doesn't give you any instructions on how to use those data.

Knowing the limitations of a SWOT analysis will help business owners and marketers better prepare for success. How do you conduct a SWOT analysis now that you are aware of its limitations?

How to Do a SWOT Analysis of Marketing Campaigns

First, determine the scope of your SWOT analysis. You can decide whether you want to analyze your entire marketing strategy or just a part of it. You might choose to concentrate on your content strategy, SEO or a particular ad campaign. It is important to define the parameters of your analysis in order to stay focused.

There is no single right way to do a SWOT analysis. This is because every company has a unique marketing strategy and faces different threats.

This guide will help you get started. However, don't hesitate to leave out questions that aren't relevant for your business. You can also add questions that give you a better understanding of your marketing campaigns.

1. Analyze your marketing strengths

What are you good at? When you look at a campaign, consider what elements are working well. Is your landing page more successful at converting than ads that are targeted to people?

Begin by asking these questions, and then documenting your answers. You can adjust the questions to help you focus on a specific campaign or an entire marketing strategy.

1. What makes your company or campaign stand out from the rest in your industry?
2. What do your customers love most about your company/product/services?
3. What are the positive attributes customers associate with your brand's image?
4. What is your unique selling point? Does it work?
5. What are your resources that you have that others don't? This covers people, financial resources, as well as expertise.
6. Which campaigns have the most success? You should consider not only conversions, but also lifetime value of the acquisition and cost per acquisition.

Keep in mind that your answers and questions may vary depending on whether your question is about a campaign or the overall marketing strategy.

How do I find Strength Data

Answer the questions below with care. Instead, you should use data to help you answer the questions. These steps may vary depending on the business.

• To understand the customer's perception of your business, conduct a satisfaction survey such as a net promoter score.

• To better understand which campaigns are most successful, pull campaign data from different tools into one dashboard like Power BI and Google Data Studio.
• Ask your employees questions to gain a better understanding of your company's resources and the perceptions of your team.

2. Find your Marketing Achilles Heel

This part is often the hardest in a SWOT analysis. This is because it's important to be open with yourself and admit to where your campaigns have failed.

Ask questions. You can adjust the wording to suit your campaign or overall strategy.

1. What are your customers most unhappy about your company?
2. Negative reviews often include complaints.
3. Why do customers churn?
4. Why don't customers return to you if you sell products?
5. What can your campaigns do better?
6. What are your biggest marketing challenges?
7. Which part of your funnel are you losing the most customers?
8. What are your competitors' winning strategies? This could be strategies or platforms that they excel with.
9. Which resources are you short?

Nearly 40% of marketers say they don't have a marketing strategy. This can be limiting. Your weaknesses are the first step in creating or improving your marketing plan.

Where can I get Weakness Data

You should also be looking for weaknesses in your strengths, such as through employee and customer surveys. You might also look for weaknesses in these other places:

• Customer reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, etc.
• In support tickets. You may have to address repeated complaints regarding the same topic.
• Competitive analysis.
• Data from exit interviews, for employees or customers.
• Google Analytics allows you to analyze your exit pages. What are the reasons customers leave these pages?
• Time-on-page. Are customers spending less time on important pages of your marketing funnel?

3. Find Opportunities

This is my favorite part about SWOT: looking for areas where you can grow and build upon your previous successes. What are the best areas to make improvements and have the greatest impact? This step will help to identify the problem. These are the questions you should ask:

1. What can you do to improve your marketing funnel?
2. What marketing message resonates with customers? What marketing messaging can you use on other platforms?
3. Which brand advocates are most vocal? What can you do to use them more effectively
4. Are you maximizing the potential of your tools and budget?
5. What marketing channels have exceeded your expectations?

Where can I find opportunities Data

You should have seen a few potential opportunities by now. You've probably already noticed some areas you can improve by reading customer reviews, reviewing support tickets, or digging into GA data.

Try to take a step back, and look at the data with an open eye. Which platforms or strategies are most likely and most effective in achieving the best results? Make a list. Also, take a look at:

• Competitive analysis data
• Industry news and trends
• Marketing blogs
• Emerging markets

Sometimes, a new perspective is the best way to see potential opportunities. My team can help you consider your options. We are happy to share our ideas and help you create an effective strategy.

4. Find Threats

Over the years I have noticed one thing that the most successful brands share: their ability to spot threats and adapt before they become major issues.

Many websites were affected by Google's Panda update. This updated targeted spammy and thin content. People who had seen it coming had made changes already and weren't as affected. This should be your goal: to see the threats and then take action.

These are some questions to think about:

1. Economic trends How can economic trends impact your industry? Examples include rising costs, increased gas prices, remote work and so on.
2. Marketing trends What are the current marketing trends? Google, for example, is removing third-party cookies. How will this impact your marketing campaigns and other activities?
3. Technology trends What technological innovations are coming? But could automation be a bad thing?
4. Relationships On what relationships can you rely such as brand ambassadors and vendors, manufacturers, contractors, and manufacturers? What would happen to your business if these relationships were broken? What can you do to minimize the damage?
5. Intuition What's everyone else doing? It is important to understand why this feeling bothers you, and whether it could be a threat to your future.
6. Audience Consider your target audience. Are they moving out of your market? Are you seeing a shift in the market?

Where can I find Threat Data

You might have identified threats in reports or surveys that you've done. You might be able to spot threats that you didn't know about by looking back at those reports. You can also look elsewhere for threats:

• Technology blogs and publications
• Competitive analysis reports. What are the changes made by your competitors and why?
• Industry experts' blogs and newsletters. What do they worry about?
• Begin a brainstorming session together with your team. You can list all possible threats that you come up with. It can be re-examined later to determine if action is necessary.

Commonly Asked Questions about SWOT for Marketing

What can a SWOT analysis do for my marketing ROI?

This provides an overview of your marketing campaigns, allowing you to better plan for the changing marketing landscape.

What is SWOT?

There are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

How frequently should I conduct a SWOT analysis for marketing?

A SWOT analysis should be performed every six to twelve months, or whenever there are changes in the campaign ROI.

Is SWOT possible for small-business marketing?

Yes, you can use SWOT to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns for any size business. This is especially useful for small businesses looking to differentiate themselves from the rest.

Conclusion: SWOT helps marketers make smarter decisions

Now it's time for you to put the information to use after you have completed your SWOT analysis.

What can you do to improve your strengths? What can you do to minimize the negative impact of your weaknesses What can you do to make the most of the new marketing opportunities? How can you prepare to face the challenges you will face?

This approach can be used to analyse your entire marketing strategy, or to focus on specific campaigns such as your content marketing. It will provide the information you need in order to launch more successful marketing campaigns.

Do you have a SWOT analysis? What are you doing wrong?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: How to Do an Effective SWOT Analysis for Your Marketing Campaigns
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/swot-analysis/
Published Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Marketing Insider Group published the post 4 Ways Blogs Can Help Your Business Grow Now.

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By: Michael Brenner
Title: 4 Ways a Blog Can Help Your Business Grow Right Now
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/4-ways-a-blog-can-help-your-business-grow-right-now/
Published Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:00:26 +0000

According to Harvard Business School, companies face the greatest challenge when launching new products.

This is why 30,000 new products are introduced each year. At least 95 percent of them fail.

Although products can fail for many reasons a solid product marketing plan can help you to minimize risk factors and increase your chances of success.

What is Product Marketing?

Product marketing encompasses the entire process of bringing new products to market, including the research and development phase through to launch.

Companies of all sizes use it to understand and fulfill customers' product requirements.

A solid product marketing strategy can help you launch your first product, or your fiftieth.

Product Marketing

Product marketing's main purpose is to increase sales. A product marketing strategy that is effective can bring more than just profit.

Product marketing is a great way to market your product and get more targeted advertising.

A strategy should answer questions such as “What product gap is required?” and “How does my product differentiate from the rest?”

Product marketing gives you a better understanding of your customers.

• Who are your target audience?
• What are they buying?
• What is the main reason they make a purchase?

You can improve your value proposition up to 82% by creating buyer personas.

You'll also be able to gain new insight about your competitors. This is not a problem for small businesses but it can be a concern for larger companies. However, nearly 90 percent Fortune 500 companies use “competitive intelligence”, which must speak for its value. Get ahead of your competition if you want to grow.

Examples for Product Marketing

Let's first look at two successful brands for their product marketing campaigns before we dive into our own strategies.

1. Poo Pourri

Poo Pourri is an excellent example of a company that successfully promoted a product for a taboo topic (a toilet spray that removes unpleasant odors from the bathroom). Because everyone poos, it does this with humor and relatability.

They placed their product in the best possible way.

Their first ever video advertisement was ranked number five on the platform in 2013. It also earned the brand a cult following, which has grown over the years.

What can other brands learn from Poo Pourri?

Find your platform first and work hard. Poo Pourri used video ads in its early years to expand its audience. The brand could also use online and television advertising, where it was able to be funny.

Brand also used customer personas in its favor. Everyone poops. But not everyone needs to use the toilet.

Instead, they targeted specific markets and situations in order to make their point.

2. Tesla

What comes to your mind when you think about Tesla? Electric cars. Clean energy. Solar power.

These keywords are what you will associate with Tesla. This is because they have built their entire identity around their brand statement.

Here's a small excerpt of Tesla's brand message:

Tesla builds all-electric cars, but also infinitely scalable clean power generation and storage products. Tesla believes that the faster the world moves away from fossil fuels, the better.

Tesla was able to effectively dominate the electric vehicle market. Although it knew that it had a target market in this space, Tesla never changed its brand statement when it developed electric vehicles and other clean-energy products.

How has this success been achieved? Tesla currently holds about 75 percent market share in electric cars, with the Model 3 being the most-sold vehicle globally in 2021.

6 Product Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business

These six product marketing strategies will help you to become a success story, just like the ones above.

1. Combine with robust content marketing

Have you ever thought your product was too boring for content marketing to make an impact on it? You might be wrong!

Blendtec, a manufacturer of commercial and residential blenders, has launched a series videos to make their boring product more entertaining. It was called “Will It Blend?” and is exactly what it sounds.

To inject humor and curiosity into their product lines, the company would experiment with blending inedible ingredients in blenders.

What did it result in? The result? A 700% increase in sales during its first three years.

Your content marketing strategy does not have to be extravagant, but it can still be very successful. You can include a variety of content types in your strategy.

• blog posts
• Videos
• podcasts
• Infographics
• White papers
• Downloadable guides

It is enough to make sure your content marketing is engaging.

1. First, find out what your customers want.
2. The second step is to push them on their pain points.
3. Through storytelling, you can agitate that pain.
4. Offer to solve their problem.

These four points will ensure that your content marketing strategy is strong.

2. Create a product launch plan

Product launches don't always go as planned.

Gartner estimates that 45 percent of product launches are delayed for at least one month. This can cause poor results and a chain reaction.

This is a hard pill to swallow but it should be enough to motivate you to create a detailed product marketing plan.

It must be efficient, timely, and effective. Consider these three steps:

1. Pre-launch.
2. Launch.
3. Post-launch.

The pre-launch is heavily centered on research and development. Think about your industry, your customers, and the benefits your product offers that no other product can.

This stage will require extensive involvement in beta testing and finessing the messaging for your target audience.

• What are some unexpected pain points that arise during beta?
• What does feedback look like?
• What could you do to improve your product and messaging?

Launch is about getting your message across to the right people. This includes choosing the right channels and hosting multiple events online and in person to create buzz.

post-launch requires you to compare your actuals and targets. Did you do as well as you expected? If not, what is the reason?

An unsuccessful launch does not mean you are losing your momentum. You should not lose momentum after the launch and shift your focus to keeping existing customers.

3. Retarget your existing customers

Why?

Your greatest source of revenue will be your existing customers. You can double your company's revenue with a mere 5 percent increase in customer retention.

Retargeting existing customers is an important step to increase retention rates. Customer service is a key factor in customer satisfaction. This is marketing to existing customers directly to address their needs, and to instill brand loyalty.

How does it look?

Here are some ways to retarget customers already in your database:

• Create customized ad campaigns to reach customers who are not already customers. This should emphasize brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. What keeps customers coming back to you? Profit from it.
• Create a retargeting campaign email for customers who haven’t bought in a certain time frame. Segmentation can be used to create different campaigns for customers who have not purchased in the past 3 months, 6 months, or more.
• Be more aggressive in retargeting campaigns. Customers who have converted before are more likely than those who are new customers. This means that you can afford a higher Cost per Conversion (CPC), for retargeting campaigns.

Your retargeting strategy should remind customers why they bought from you. You should place a lot of emphasis on the first experience and the value you offer.

4. Resolve Customer Problems

It is estimated that 63% of B2C customers and 76% of B2B customers want businesses to anticipate their needs and respond accordingly. Understanding your customers' needs and providing solutions is key to unlocking their potential value.

Although pain is an essential part of any marketing strategy it can be easily overlooked by e-commerce. Here are some reasons pain is so important.

• A customer can be moved to action by pain.
• A customer can feel relief from pain.
• Conversion funnels can be squeezed by pain.
• Conversion rates can be improved by pain.

As we have discussed in the content marketing section of this article, the key to a product marketing strategy that works is to identify the pain of your customers, remind them about it, and then offer the solution.

These insights are a result of a solid market research strategy that includes keyword research, competitor reviews analysis and customer surveys.

Qdoba is one example. Qdoba knows that adding ons such as guacamole and queso can be a problem for their customers. They don't add any extra charges:

Your product purchase doesn't end at the pain points. As part of your customer service journey, you should have a plan for customers who experience pain. An example: A problem with the product.

This includes customer reviews monitoring, live chats with customer support agents and reading the results of customer surveys.

5. Reevaluate Product Positioning and Enhance It

You don't have to abandon the markets or marketing strategies you used when you launched your product. Launch may have opened up new markets for your product, or provided a unique value proposition.

You and your product team should have answered these questions prior to launch:

• What was the purpose of this product?
• Who is this product for?
• What problems does this product solve?
• What makes this product so special?

After the launch, it is time to evaluate whether your answers and those of your team were correct. What are the new answers and how does it differ from the original plan if they don't?

This difference can help you to reposition your product in an ever-changing marketplace.

How you reposition a product is dependent on its cost and the product. Repositioning a product that is not profitable can be done in a number of ways, including repackaging it, remarketing to a new audience or adding new features.

You have access to customer feedback and insights that are invaluable. This is something you didn't have during the product launch. This information can be used to create a complete product positioning strategy.

6. You might consider changing your pricing structure

A change in your pricing structure is another way to reposition your product. If you are not seeing a profit on your product, this is a good option.

It is easy to change your pricing by lowering or increasing your price, or running special promotions.

Follow the example of Peloton or hundreds of companies that have successfully adopted the “good-better best” pricing approach.

The good-better best pricing strategy involves three levels of the same product, each with an increasing value. This allows you to make your product more available to new customers and increase spending for customers who are more discerning.

You have four choices to choose from, if you want to continue the Peloton example:

1. The Peloton Bike, starting at $1195
2. The Peloton Bike+ starts at $1,995.
3. The Peloton Tread (starting from $2,345)
4. The Peloton Tread+ (beginning at $4,295)

The Peloton Bike, and the Peloton Track are both unique products. However, they offer one experience: a home exercise device.

You can offer your product at different price points to increase the availability of the product to more people. This is a great way for companies to expand their market reach.

Product MarketingFrequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the four types?

There are four product categories that can all benefit from product marketing. These are convenience goods and shopping goods as well as specialty goods and unsought products.

How can product marketing benefit companies?

You would be wrong to think that product marketing is not possible for your business. A planned approach to product launches and sales can be beneficial for any company, regardless of size.

What types of product marketing are there?

Product marketing can encompass more than 20 different marketing activities. Advertising, branding, product management and product development are all possible examples of product marketing.

What's the difference between product marketing and marketing?

Marketing is only one subset. Marketing can be described as a broad term that includes activities such as marketing communications, operations and project management.

Marketing strategies for product products

A product marketing strategy will help you reach all milestones within a given time frame, from product development through customer analysis and launch.

This will allow you to launch your product on-time and increase your chances of success.

You'll have a much better start to your business if you have a solid plan for product marketing that anticipates customer needs and mitigates risk.

What product marketing strategy will you use to promote your product launch?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: 6 Product Marketing Strategies That Will Get You More Sales
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/product-marketing-strategies/
Published Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Are you looking to become more successful in Amazon advertising?

Amazon has millions of customers and is the ideal place to grow your company. It's not as easy as just putting up products and hoping for sales.

Ads can be a great help sometimes. Let's look at the best ways to use them.

What is Amazon Advertising?

Amazon advertising is paid advertising, which runs on a pay per click model. You can have your product listing featured at the top of Amazon's search results based on selected keywords.

Pay-per-click advertising is a way to pay only when someone clicks on your product.

PPC is extremely efficient as you only need to pay when your target audience has been reached. Amazon advertising allows you to convert and sell your product.

Amazon is a search engine. As with many search engines, click-through rates drop significantly if you aren't in the first few results. It takes time to build this kind of presence, so an Amazon advertising strategy can be a great way for you to get exposure quickly.

Amazon sells over 2.5 million products in the U.S. You can avoid this by mastering Amazon ads manager.

Amazon Advertising

People live busy lives. Amazon's convenience is one of the main reasons it has grown in popularity.

• You have instant access to a wide range of products.
• It makes it easy to pay for your order.
• It delivers quickly so that customers can get their orders promptly.
• To buy products, people don't need to leave their homes.

Amazon values the value of people's time and is one reason it has been so successful. This is also why Amazon ads can be so profitable for businesses.

People don't have time to look through pages three, four, and five of Amazon's results. People expect to see the most relevant results on page one. If your product isn’t there, your sales will suffer.

It's difficult to differentiate your brand from other sellers on Amazon. While you have complete control over your brand when you sell products through your own ecommerce store, Amazon requires you to follow its regulations.

You have very little control over the way you build your brand. This means that you are dependent on being at the top of search results.

The return on investment is the proof.

Amazon ads can be a great way to get immediate results. Empire Case, a seller of accessories and mobile phones, has seen a regular ROI of 200+ percent.

Amazon Advertising Examples

While I have discussed some of the benefits of Amazon Ads, how does this apply in real-world situations? These examples will show you that a well-crafted Amazon advertising strategy can make a big difference.

Alexandra Workwear Sales Increased by 300+%

Alexandra Workwear, a manufacturer and distributor of work uniforms, saw their sales grow by 372 percent over the past year through Amazon advertising. They also achieved a 500 percent return-on-investment (ROAS)

They used a simple strategy to achieve impressive results. They:

1. Create a “sponsored products campaign” using Amazon's ad platform.
2. To find new keywords, used the campaign-builder.
3. To increase search impressions by 80 per cent, we used aggressive bidding strategies.
4. Each product was given A+ content.
5. Product page copy and optimized product images
6. Sponsored display ads were run to complement the sponsored product promotion.
7. They grew their reach and increased sales.

This case study not only reinforces the notion that being at the top of search results is important but also highlights how crucial it is to optimize product pages.

If your product pages don't convince enough customers to sell, it's not worth increasing your Amazon ads budget.

You must make the most of all organic tools available to you. This means creating high-quality images and great copy, as well as using elements such fantastic content.

Lenovo Improved Brand Awareness by 19 points

These Amazon advertising strategies are not only effective for small brands, but also for global companies like Lenovo.

Lenovo created a YouTube video of 15 seconds to promote its Yoga laptop.

According to Brand Lift, the ad campaign resulted in a 19-point rise in brand awareness, an increase of perception as a premium brand by 5-points, and a 9 percent increase in purchase intent.

These numbers are enormous for a company like Lenovo. So how does it manage them? They:

1. To identify the right audiences, I used Amazon's Ad Manager.
2. Specific groups targeted (e.g., lifestyle tech enthusiasts, people who are in the market for laptops and audiences with high purchasing propensity.
3. Reached six million people.

This is the key takeaway: Targeting.

Do not assume you know who your audience is or what they want. Make sure that your Amazon ads reach the right people.

Amazon Advertising Prices

Are you ready to get started with Amazon advertising?

You must first establish your budget. How much should you budget?

This is a difficult question to answer as it depends on the industry.

Amazon ads CPC average in the U.S. was $1.20 per click. However, this guideline is only a guide. CPC algorithms sell each impression to the highest bidder. Other factors play a part, but the price of the bid is a major factor. The more competition you have, the more you will pay.

Your conversion rate is the most important factor in determining your Amazon advertising costs.

You can sell 100 products if you spend $1 per click and convert 1 percent. You might be paying $2 per click but if you convert 5 percent of those clicks, $100 is going to make you five sales.

It is important to search for keywords that are most relevant to buyer intent. Although they might be more expensive, higher conversion rates will result in a greater return over the long-term.

Amazon Advertising Strategies – 9 Tips to Drive Revenue

Let's look at the Amazon advertising strategies that will help you increase sales.

1. Identify Your Goals

Clearly defining your goals is an important step in any type of marketing.

What are you looking to accomplish with your Amazon advertising?

It's not about how many sales you want, or what ROAS. This starts with asking questions such as:

• Do you want to increase brand awareness like Lenovo?
• Are you looking to increase the traffic to your product?
• Are you looking to increase conversions and sales?

While many people focus on Amazon's sales, there are so many other advertising options.

It is important to note that people who write down their goals are approximately 50 percent more likely than others to achieve them.

2. Select the right Amazon Advertising Campaign

You will need to choose which campaign type to run for your Amazon advertising.

You'll see different campaign types when you log into your Amazon Ads Manager.

• Sponsored Product: Display your products at search results' top.
• Sponsored brands: Feature your brand in the shopping results.
• Sponsored Ad Display Ads:Display advertisements across relevant Amazon pages.
• Stores Showcase your brand and showcase products.
• Audio AdsWatch the free tier on Amazon Music.
• Video Ads Play on connected TVs, publisher channels, and networks.

Your goals will dictate the format you choose.

If you want to increase brand awareness, you could choose to run an audio, video, or store campaign. Sponsored products, brands or display ads may be the best choice if your goal is to increase sales.

Amazon advertising has a lot to offer. They make it easy to set up your campaign and manage it, regardless of what format you choose.

3. Establish a budget

Before you start to invest in Amazon ads, it is important that you have a clear understanding about the amount you are willing to spend.

You don't want to go over budget or cause financial problems. Amazon advertising should increase your profit margin and not decrease it.

Amazon's ad manager may make suggestions and let you know if you should increase your budget. However, ultimately you must decide.

Amazon isn't your only option for advertising. Google and other social media platforms are equally valuable.

You can set a budget you are comfortable with, and then let it run for a while to see what happens. When you have data, you can make an informed decision about increasing or decreasing your budget.

The digital ad market is an essential tool for marketing. It's worth more than $560 billion. Your Amazon advertising strategy must be within your financial constraints in order to make it work.

4. Select the right products to promote

Amazon advertising should have maximum impact. You need to select the right products to promote.

There are millions of products available on Amazon, and lots of competition. You may also have products that sell for less than what you would spend per click. Your products will perform better than others.

Find the right ones for your Amazon ads. Your analytics will provide the answers.

1. Go to Amazon Seller Central.
2. Second, determine how much traffic each product is receiving.
3. Compare which conversion rate is the best.
4. Consider the cost of keywords that you would like to use.
5. Calculate your ideal profit margin.

This information will be vital in helping you decide on the products that you should promote.

Choose ones that have high conversion rates and aren't too crowded with traffic, as this is where there is the most potential.

5. Select the right visual assets

E-commerce has one drawback: Customers can't physically see the products before they buy them.

This can be overcome by providing high-quality images.

Customers will be able to inspect your products the same way they would in a store. This will result in increased sales.

360-degree rotating images can be a powerful tool in this regard. They have been shown to increase ecommerce conversion rates by up to 27 percent. Good images are essential for understanding the finer details of products. Humans are visual creatures.

6. Write clear, engaging copy

When it comes to Amazon product pages, you'll often see both the neglecting and the overstuffed keywords.

The copy you write has a direct effect on conversion rates, so it should be an integral part of your Amazon advertising strategy.

While keywords are important, it's also important to be specific and informative.

1. Your business story is important.
2. Highlight the benefits of your products, not just their features.
3. Create your brand identity.

You can also optimize this area.

To find out which ads work best, run some A/B testing. Make sure that your copy is helping you get the most from your Amazon ads.

7. The Right Audience

We saw this in the Lenovo case study. Amazon advertising is all about targeting the right audience.

It can be tempting to sell your product to everyone. You need to be focused on your sales to maximize your profits. There is no need to pray and spray.

This can only be achieved if you have Amazon ads that are reaching the right people.

It's possible to find a new audience that seems to be a good fit for your site and drive a lot of traffic to it, but it's not worth the effort. Clicks without sales can eat into your budget. This is what happens when your targeting isn’t right.

8. Negative Keywords can be added

Negative keywords are another thing that can eat into your budget.

Amazon's algorithms can be quite smart. They can understand the relationships between keywords and determine which ones may be relevant to your product. They don't always get it right.

If you run an automated campaign, you will see that you get clicks for keywords that aren't related to your product. These keywords are important to add to your list of negative keywords so that you don't appear for the query again.

You might advertise for keywords related to Pickleball, and Amazon determines that Pickleball is closely related. If Pickleball-related queries get clicked, you might want to include them in your negative keywords.

You could lose your money otherwise

9. Optimize and Test Your Ads

Optimizing your products for online sales is key.

It's hard to learn from the data that you collect if you don't. Split tests are a way to use the data you have. You can change one element in your Amazon advertising strategy to see how it performs against the control.

You can determine which strategies work by testing each element of your Amazon ads or product pages.

Commonly Asked Questions about Amazon Advertising

What's the difference between managed and self-service amazon ads?

Amazon self-service ads allow sellers to control their campaigns while managed Amazon ads can be controlled for them. Managed Amazon advertising typically requires a minimum of $50,000.

Can I schedule ads in Amazon advertising?

Yes! Yes, Amazon ads can be programmed. Log into your Amazon ads console to select the campaign that you wish to edit. The drop-down menu will show you a table called more. You'll see a drop-down tab titled more. This allows you to select when your ad will be shown.

What are the various types of Amazon ads available?

Amazon offers six types of ads: display ads, sponsored brands and sponsored products. Each type has its benefits so it is worth looking into them all to determine which one best suits your brand.

What are the advantages of Amazon Advertising?

Amazon advertising allows you to reach large audiences with high purchasing intent. You can also target your ads with the tools of Amazon, so you reach people most likely to benefit from your brand.

Conclusion: How to Make Amazon Advertising Success

Amazon advertising has many great benefits. To get the most out of your money, you need to choose the right strategy and then fine-tune your approach by trial and error.

Amazon has many great tools that can help you target the right audience and manage your finances, but you need to go further.

Advertising money requires that your product pages are fully optimized. You also need to use your analytics to help you learn from your data.

You can master the art of Amazon Advertising through A/B testing and incremental improvements. This will make a huge difference in your business.

Are you currently using Amazon ads? Are you using Amazon ads?

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By: Neil Patel
Title: The Keys to Success With Amazon Advertising
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/success-with-amazon-advertising/
Published Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Permission Marketing: Do You Love It or Hate It? Marketing Insider Group published the first version of this article.

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By: Michael Brenner
Title: Permission Marketing: Love it or Hate it?
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/permission-marketing-love-hate/
Published Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2022 14:00:00 +0000

Every day, companies use the term “grow”. How can you increase your market share, revenue or brand awareness? How do you seize this opportunity? Problem is, you are asking the wrong question. It's not about how you do it but rather who can do it. Your employees are the key to business growth. How they work together is what will determine how your company grows. Your culture is shaped by your employees' skills and attitudes. This will ultimately impact your ability to grow. People who bring out the best of themselves and others are essential to accomplish great things. These are 7 habits that teams that always strive for gold – and succeed.

Habit 1 – Adapts to Change

Companies do not fail due to changes in their environment. They fail because their employees are unable or unwilling deal with them. It's similar to steering a ship through rough waters. The company captains can plot a new course but the crew must be able to execute new orders and continue on in the storm. Is your team resistant to change? Do they insist on sticking with an outdated map? Do they panic and try to grow in all directions, losing their focus and structure, and operational efficiency?

Jeff Boss, author of Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty In Uncertain Situations, says that adapting to change and adapting as a team are the two most important things in today's business age. Before your people can make an impact in their industry, they must be able to manage the uncertainty of industry and organizational change.

Habit 2 – Communicates Effectively

Ironically, even though it is easier to reach people via email, group chat apps and mobile phones, information overload has made it more difficult to communicate with them. Everyone knows how frustrating it is to scroll through emails, sit through interminable meetings, or go around circles due to unclear directions or ambiguous processes.

Communication is key to success. It means communicating clearly and at the right moment. Poor communication can lead to mistakes and delays which affect performance and profit. According to The Holmes, Report miscommunication can result in a revenue loss of $62.4 million per company and a loss of productivity cumulatively of $26,041 per employee.

Habit 3 – Takes Initiative

John Maxwell stated that leadership does not refer to a position. It is about the ability to influence others or make a difference in one's own sphere. No matter what title you hold, you are responsible for the tasks assigned to you. You are proud of your job and your abilities and understand that you can't let your team down if you don’t deliver.

If a team wins, it is not because of a superstar player. It's because everyone brought their A game. This attitude can be instilled in your team members and will help you build a team that brings out the best in everyone. Ralph Nader said, “The role and responsibility of leadership are not to produce more followers but more leaders.”

Habit 4 – Innovates and Learns

Kodak. Toys R Us. Compaq. Compaq. They were unable to innovate despite having more resources, employees and, at the time, brand recognition.

Business is a moving escalator. “The world is changing around you. Customer expectations are changing. Competitors are always catching up to your business and threatening it with taking it away,” Jackie Fenn, a Gartner innovation specialist, said.

Teams that win don't just meet deadlines today, but also look forward to tomorrow's possibilities. They can reframe problems and find better solutions. They encourage their team members to exchange ideas, explore new approaches and take risks.

Habit 5 – Makes an Organizational Impression

Henrik Bresman and Deborah Ancona, both management experts, wrote in their book X Teams that it is dangerous for teams not to focus on external factors and how they can interact with them. It is important to have the ability to impact your company and industry. The book describes three key “phases” of the team: Exploration (or understanding the stakeholder), Exploit (move form ideas and opportunities to execution), and Export (handover work to clients or the marketplace).

Habit 6 – Creates a Culture Of Support and Safety

The “Trust Fall” is a popular team-building game. You stand with your back to your partner and fold your arms. Next, you lean back. While your first instinct may be to jerk back if you lose your balance, this exercise forces you into a state of complete surrender and to trust that someone will catch you.

Team members must trust each other every day of their workday. They take professional and emotional risks when they discuss ideas in a meeting, ask for feedback or voice disagreements, or talk about how stressed they feel during lunch breaks.

While some teams might feel supportive, others may not feel safe. For example, while everyone seems to get along on the surface there is a lot more passive-aggressive behavior and hidden politics. There's also fear of breaking the boat.

To be successful, teams must have safety. Google's Five Keys to Successful Teams Study found that trust-based teams were more likely than others to quit, to reap the benefits of diverse ideas and to earn more revenue. They also had twice the performance ratings.

This makes perfect sense. If you believe that even though you may disagree with one another, you are always on the same side it is easier to communicate, create and resolve conflicts.

Habit 7 – Manages Tasks Well

Talent wins games, but teamwork is what wins championships. Because they are skilled at managing their time and coordination, the best teams can consistently achieve their goals. Although they may make mistakes or encounter delays, they are able to recover from them.

Although there are many programs that can be used to manage tasks and projects, these programs can only provide a process and track the progress. The success of teams depends on their ability to plan, troubleshoot and coordinate their efforts. Too often companies invest in software but not in their people. Is there a real reason why a team fails to meet its deadlines and targets? Are they lacking in time management, goal setting, or problem solving? Are they lacking in communication or resources? Task management requires many skills and factors. Once teams understand and fix what is holding them back, they will be more productive and efficient.

Build a winning team using Grow

Are your teams displaying these traits? To perform better, use Grow to become more engaged, committed and effective. The subscription allows teams to access a digital program that guides them in their leadership development, both individually and collectively. It:

• This allows individuals and teams to become more aware of their strengths and opportunities.

• Individuals and teams are equipped to develop development plans

• Keeps track of improvements

• Provides a place for team members and their friends to interact with one another

It takes time to build a winning team. It takes hard work and a willingness to learn and grow. Partner with other teams to grow so they can access a reliable, tested and efficient guided digital program that helps them improve their leadership skills at both the individual and collective level. This will ensure holistic improvement and consistent results.

Where can teams get started on their journey to build a winning team? How do you get your team started? It is important to understand your team's structure and how it works. Then, you can determine if you are getting the results you want. Click the link to learn how you can start team development.

Contact Us

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By: Edu Legaspi
Title: Built for Success: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teams
Sourced From: grow360.com/blog/built-for-success-7-habits-of-highly-effective-teams
Published Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2020 08:16:00 +0000

Marketing Insider Group's post How to Market Your Business Online: A Complete Guide appeared first.

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By: Michael Brenner
Title: How to Market Your Business Online: The Complete Guide
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/how-to-market-your-business-online/
Published Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2022 10:00:56 +0000

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links we may earn a commission.

I’ve been building websites for years. And it’s way easier now than it used to be.

You can go simple and build something lightning-fast or take your tired, old site to the next level. Nowadays, you can accomplish either with no programming or design experience necessary.

There are a handful of popular options that will get you to where you want to go. However, the best options for website builders have distinctly different strengths and limitations.

I use WordPress because I can do exactly what I want and deliver a quality experience to the millions of visitors to my blog each month. It might work for you, but some of my other top picks could work better, depending on what you are trying to do.

Below are my reviews of the six best website builders you can start using today. In each, I go in-depth about why each product is so good for particular needs and use cases.

Take control and manage every detail of your site. Or, use my number one pick to have the website build itself (seriously). It’s your call.

#1 – Wix Review — The Best for General Use 

Wix is a really easy website builder that can help you create just what you want. Start with one of its many, many templates and customize from there.

You don’t need any web design experience to put together a sharp website.

Doesn’t matter your goal… A blog, company page, or online store.

Wix is the Swiss Army knife of website design for anyone who wants a beautiful site with options without hard work. It’s so easy for anyone to use.

In fact, it’s so easy that you can sit back and let Wix build your site for you. If you don’t feel like dragging and dropping site elements into place, simply answer a few questions and Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) will whip up what you need in just a couple of clicks.

Wix really goes the extra mile to enable anyone to build an effective website and offers a lot of extras to help them gain traffic.

Most of the Wix paid plans to give you $300 in free digital ad vouchers so you can market your new blog or eCommerce store with no extra spending on your part.

Plus, there’s a lot more marketing you can do for free to reach the first page of Google through employing my SEO strategies for Wix sites.

On top of all of that, Wix’s paid plans are quite competitively priced:

Pros of Wix 

Here are the best things about Wix:

• Powerful app market – Wix has an enormous amount of add-on features that you can access through their app market. Want to book meetings directly on your site? They have got you covered. Want a live chat pop-up box? Simply click and install it on your site.
• Covers every need – Wix covers most of the needs of people looking to set up a website. This includes setting up an eCommerce store, blog, or even just a simple information website.
• Lots of templates – Wix has a wide variety of templates that you can choose from to get your website up and running quickly. Their templates are well designed and take the user experience into consideration.

Cons of Wix 

Here are the weaker parts of Wix:

• No migration – A huge downside with Wix is that you’re locked in, so you cannot take the code of your website somewhere else later on. This can cause problems if you quickly need to scale your business.
• Jack of all trades, master of none – Wix’s main strength is also its weakness. Although it has many features, it cannot compete with the quality of niche website builders.

Who should use Wix?

• Small businesses – If you are offering a service such as legal advice or marketing, Wix is a solid website builder that will handle all of your needs. If your focus is selling products online, avoid Wix.
• Freelancers and professionals – In a similar manner, Wix is great for professionals who want to showcase their personal brand. It will allow you to cover all the potential bases of highlighting your portfolio, such as taking meetings and even blogging.

Try Wix for free today.

#2 – Zyro Review — The Best for Multipurpose Business Sites

For many businesses, building a useful website isn’t as simple as committing to a web store or a simple one-pager with contact information. It can be frustrating to have to commit to a site builder that has separate plans for standard pages and eCommerce.

Zyro makes it easy to take your business website in any direction you need.

And “easy” is the operative word for the overall experience of building a site on Zyro.

After signup, you can choose to build your website from scratch, work from one of 140 templates, or use their AI-powered site builder.

Once your site is built, Zyro’s pricing plans encompass all of the features you could need. From the basics, like blogging tools and email service, to specialties like ecommerce, live chat, inventory management, and remarketing, you can get it all in one package from Zyro.

If you need something basic with room to grow, you can start on the cheapest plan.

Or, if you want your business website to handle content marketing, online sales, and customer service right out of the box, opt for Zyro’s higher-octane plans, which still come at a price that is near or better than of the other big names in eCommerce builders.

Plus, if you sign up using this link, you’ll get an even better deal to start with.

Pros of Zyro

• Great for novices or those in a rush – With Zyro’s site-building options, you can have AI whip up a site for you in minutes with just a few inputs on your end. Or, start from a beautiful template and make easy tweaks to have it match your brand identity. Plus, you’ll have the benefit of Zyro’s 24/7 support if you ever get stuck.
• Free hosting on every plan – Zyro is a subsidiary of Hostinger, one of the best web hosts available today. So, not only do you get hosting taking care of on every plan, but you get the reliability and performance that Hostinger is known for at no extra cost.
• Constant improvements to the platform – It’s reassuring when you choose a website builder that cares enough to keep adding new features and improving the overall user experience. Some excellent features that Zyro has recently rolled out include scheduling blog posts to publish later, an email linked to your domain, support for multiple authors on a blog post, and improved formatting.
• Helpful growth and customer relationship features – On any of Zyro’s four plans, you can wield Facebook and WhatsApp messaging embedded on your site, create remarketing lists for failed conversions, collect visitor information via Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics and Tag Manager, and integrate apps with ease, such as calendars for appointment scheduling.

Cons of Zyro

• No free forever plan – Unlike some other site builders, Zyro doesn’t have a completely free package to offer. You can build and test your site completely for free with a Zyro account, but in order to publish it to the web and have it available to visitors, you’ll need to pay for a plan. You do get a 30-day money-back guarantee, though.
• Limited products – Other eCommerce site builders offer you a generous or unlimited number of products you can sell. Three Zyro plans support listing products on your site, but two of them cap your allotted number at just 100.

Who should use Zyro?

• Businesses who need more than a web store or contact page – If your company wants an all-in-one solution for blogging, eCommerce, and customer service without breaking the bank, Zyro offers affordable plans that tick all the boxes.

Get started on a Zyro plan today.

#3 – Weebly Review — The Best for Beginners 

Not far behind Wix is Weebly, which is a drag-and-drop site builder that prides itself on its ease of use.

Weebly delivers site-building with a simple user experience and short learning curve. It doesn’t bombard you with features or a complicated interface, making it fantastic for anyone building a webpage for the first time.

Despite being so beginner-friendly, Weebly does not skimp on features. Bolstered by being acquired by Square in 2018, all Weebly plans allow you to add eCommerce features to your website with the same level of ease.

Even its free plan lets you add a shopping cart and unlimited products to your Weebly site. It’s fantastic for local stores because you can also utilize inventory management and in-store pickup on all site builder plans.

Pros of Weebly

Here are the best things about Weebly:

• Simple and easy to use – Weebly has a simple interface with drag and drop mechanics that just work. Everything feels natural and intuitive. It also helps that they have an onboarding mechanic with email and popup explanations when you get started.
• Migration – If you decide you want to host your own website, Weebly makes it easy for you to take your site off their platform.
• Affordable – Compared to other generalist website builders, Weebly has one of the most affordable pricing structures, including a feature-rich free forever version.
• Great customer support – Weebly has a powerful customer support team who are active every day of the week. They typically reply within 1 day by email or even quicker via their live chat or phone lines.
• Online store capability – Weebly allows you to set up a web store powered by Square. If you’re already using Square as a payment processor, Weebly allows a cheap and easy way to start selling products online.

Cons 

Here are the weaker parts of Weebly

• Lacks diversity of function – The tradeoff of using Weebly is that it is not as powerful as Wix. For example, there are fewer features. In addition, some features such as their content management system and analytic tools are much weaker than competitors.
• Limited customization – As Weebly uses a drop-and-drop interface and themes, the customization can be quite limited. Wix also has this problem, but they have more tools at their disposal to solve this issue.
• Scaling problems – Weebly is simply not a great platform if you have plans to grow your website in a significant way: it is just a simple website builder for day to day users.

Who should use Weebly?

• People who need simple websites – As a rule, you should use Weebly if you are not very tech-savvy and want to set up a simple website quickly. One category of users would be associations or clubs who want to set up an information site about their group.

Try Weebly for free today.

#4 – Web.com Review — The Best for Building Landing Pages

Web.com is a lot like Weebly—it’s fantastically easy to use, with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that lets you mold any available template to your needs. And it comes at a great price and with great support.

But I think Web.com’s website builder shines brightest for a particular need: setting up landing pages and single-page sites in a snap.

Seriously, it’s so easy with Web.com—start from one of their 126 templates, then just tweak the colors, swap out some imagery, replace the copy, and add a custom form. Voila, you have a gorgeous landing page, done in about 15 to 20 minutes.

You can build a ton of unique landing pages in one sitting or make simple or temporary websites with ease. And at a competitive price, too.

Pros of Web.com

• Email accounts – Web.com gives you five email accounts to match your domain. That’s a boon for folks building landing pages with Web.com—not only can you get multiple sites up in a flash, but each can have separate associated email addresses for doing split testing or for collecting contest entries in a place where they won’t overwhelm someone else’s inbox.
• Free domain for one year – Web.com will throw in one year of an available domain for free when your purchase one of their website builder plans.
• Very affordable – Everything I mentioned above is in the Starter plan, which starts at $1.95 for your first month and then is $10 per month after that. You can save big, though, if just go for a full year at checkout—that’s just $50 for the whole 12 months, a savings of over $60.

Cons of Web.com

• No building from scratch – You are somewhat penned in by the templates available to start from. It’s easy enough to customize them far away from the original look, but some elements are permanent or at least inflexible, which can make it harder to quickly build the exact site you had in your mind.
• Limited eCommerece features – Web.com also has Marketing and eCommerce plans for their website building service. They’re a little more expensive and more appropriate for standalone business sites, especially for local and small businesses. But more advanced selling features are missing overall.

Who should use Web.com?

• Salespeople and marketers working on multiple campaigns – If you want to knock out landing pages in no time flat and get the useful benefits of email and domain included, go with Web.com and enjoy every bit of value you get from their Starter package.

Get started with Web.com today.

#5 – Shopify Review — The Best for Ecommerce

Whether you’re selling jewelry, electric scooters, or tax preparation services, why would you mess around with a site builder that doesn’t specialize in ecommerce?

Shopify powers over 1 million merchants in 175 different countries, so it’s no surprise that they’re one of the biggest and most trusted ecommerce website builders out there. Only Amazon and eBay have more online retail transactions happening on them in the United States.

The Shopify software represents a complete end-to-end platform that allows you to set up, manage, and promote a store online. You can easily list your goods for sale, take payments, and fulfill orders – all under one roof.

Pros 

Here are the best things about Shopify:

• Ecommerce specialty – The main draw of Shopify is that it is a niche website builder focused on setting up an ecommerce store. This means that all their features and processes are geared toward that end, resulting in a powerful platform that can help maximize sales.
• Security – If you are going to be handling transactions, you need ways to keep your site safe and customer data secure. Shopify stores have strong cybersecurity measures in place which a self-hosted website would typically lack.
• Integrated sales channels – Shopify has strong integrations with other platforms, such as Facebook and Amazon. This allows you to streamline your sales by managing your catalog on each platform under one roof.

Cons 

Here are the weaker aspects of Shopify:

• Niche focus on eCommerce – Because the focus is on eCommerce, Shopify lacks some of the features and finesse of other website builders. For instance, their content management system is very limited compared to WordPress.
• Transaction fees + monthly fees – With each sale, you make on Shopify, there is a transaction fee that ranges from 2.4% – 2.6%. Combined with payment provider fees, this can eat into your margin.

Who should use Shopify?

• Brick and mortar stores – If you have an in-person store and are looking to sell your products online, Shopify will offer you a solid footing in the digital world.
• Ecommerce startups – Entrepreneurs that are starting new brands or drop shipping will also benefit from the quick end-to-end setup that Shopify offers.

#6 – WordPress Review — The Best for Content Management

One of the oldest and most reliable website builders is WordPress. The platform has come a long way since it launched in 2003 and is the most popular content management system on the web today.

In fact, WordPress powers a whopping 37.6% of all websites.

As WordPress was around during the earlier days of the web, its focus revolved around content, which was the most prominent form of website at the time.

It maintains that focus to this day, with WordPress having arguably the best content management system out of all the different website builders.

An important caveat is that WordPress is divided into platforms:

• WordPress.org – This is the open-source (free version) of WordPress that comes with greater flexibility, but is harder for non-technical users.
• WordPress.com – This is the paid version. You can get help with the installation of themes and management but is generally less customizable.

Pros 

Here are the best things about WordPress:

• You have full control – Unlike other website builders, WordPress is fully customizable as the site is developed directly with code, as opposed to drag and drop interfaces. This means that you have much more flexibility in terms of design and function.
• Robust blogging and CMS – WordPress is built front the ground up with content in mind. It has some of the best tools for publishing and managing content including team management, advanced scheduling, and categorizations.
• Lots of plugins – There are over 52,000 plugins available for WordPress. You can measure and boost your SEO with plugins such as YoastSEO, or you could even add a new function such as a shopping cart.

Cons 

Here are the weaker aspects of WordPress:

• You may need help – As your WordPress site is developed with code, you will likely need help to install and update your WordPress theme. This can come with a hefty cost, particularly if you want ongoing changes.
• Learning curve – If you want to manage and update your site yourself, it can take some time to learn how to do so. Managing and scheduling posts are relatively easy, but updating how your site looks or installing a plugin is much more difficult.
• Security issues – As your WordPress site is self-hosted, you are more vulnerable to cybersecurity issues. Some of the plugins for WordPress also can act as a risk as well.

Who should use it

• Bloggers – If writing is your main focus, then WordPress is a great choice. The platform is designed for bloggers, optimizing content management, and SEO. WordPress will allow you to scale and get the most out of your content.
• Content-centric businesses – Likewise, if you are building a business that is content-heavy, such as a new website, WordPress will help you to manage the operational side of content production much easier.

What I Looked at to Find the Best Website Builder

Now it is time to take a closer look at some of the specific features to consider when evaluating a website builder.

Remember that although some website builders may fall into the same category, each may suit your needs differently.

For instance, you may be setting up an online shop and your primary consideration may be a low learning curve, whereas somebody else may be thinking about a platform that can allow them to scale easily.

Here are some features you should consider.

Ease of use 

Things to consider:

• Intuitiveness – Some website builders are easy to use and have simple interfaces with drag and drop functionality. This is useful as you won’t have to Google changes you want to make with the tool.
• Learning curve – If you are not great with technology, it is unlikely you will want to spend hours learning how to set up a website. Some website builders are much easier than others.
• Setup time – Similarly, you may want to get your site up and running immediately, particularly if it is an event you want to promote.
• Ongoing management – Needing external help to manage your site defeats the purpose of a website builder. It must be easy to manage in terms of updates.

If you are new to setting up online or are time-constrained, how easy it is to get started will likely be your primary concern.

Scalability 

Things to consider:

• Custom code – Website builders use standardized code, which are the building blocks of a website. These allow you to easily create a site with various features. In some cases, however, you may need your own custom features and the ability to write your own code.
• Migration – At some point, you may want to host your website yourself. However, not all website builders allow you to easily make this move. In some cases, you may have to redevelop your site from scratch.
• Integrations – You will probably create new goals as your website grows, such as running ads or embedding social feeds. Some website builders are more compatible with other platforms and are easier to integrate.

You should think strongly about scalability if you are already an established business looking to create an online presence. This is particularly true if you are already selling products at scale in the real world.

Startups in the fundraising process and are looking to scale fast or even change core features of their product should also take caution here.

Support 

Things to consider:

• Support channels – You will need to consider the different ways you can get in touch with support teams such as live chat, email, and phone. In-depth FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) are also important.
• Responsiveness – If your site breaks at 5 PM eastern time, but their support only works European hours, then you are in trouble. Some teams may also respond much quicker than others.
• Engagement – Unfortunately, some support teams are useless. Maybe they are being paid very little so they do not care, or they are overworked. Either way, you need support that can actually solve your problems.

If you plan on running a site with a lot of visitors and it happens to go down, the last thing you want is an unresponsive support team. This is especially true if you plan on driving a lot of traffic at a given time.

A website builder with a strong support team is also useful if you are just getting started online, considering you may still get stuck, even with simple interfaces.

Price 

Things to consider:

• Cost – Some website builders can be more costly, with some reaching upwards of $299 a month (for landing pages, for instance). Others are permanently free with the option to upgrade for a small monthly fee.
• Trial – Before you commit, it can be useful to take advantage of a trial offer to play around with the tools. You will likely find that some are a better fit than others.
• Hosting & domain – Most website builders will host your website on the web, which is typically included in the price. Some may also offer a domain as part of the package. Otherwise, you would have to purchase these yourself.

If you plan on making money from your website, either by selling products directly or to capture leads, then price should not be a key consideration for you. Make an investment in the best service for your needs.

However, if you just want to set up a small information site, then you could do with the cheapest options.

Generally, website builders that have feature depth are typically more expensive as they solve more specific problems.

Features 

Things to consider:

• Ecommerce shop – If you plan to sell things online, you need a website builder that allows you to do so. Consider sub-features such as payment processing and product catalogs.
• SEO – Some website builders have tools that allow you to rank better in Google searches.
• Marketing tools – You may also need other marketing tools, such as forms, pop-ups, and chat boxes.
• Community – In some cases, you may want to expand your website into a community where people can communicate and network (otherwise known as a forum).
• Analytic tools – Website builders may also offer analytic tools that help track traffic on your website or at least integrate with other tools that do.
• Niche features – Perhaps there are some special features you are looking for such as the ability to set up a crowdfunding campaign in addition to having a standard website.

The features of a website builder are the main thing to consider when deciding which route to follow. This is because they will have the most impact on your specific goals.

For instance, if you want to set up a landing page for a specific product, trying to optimize with a generic site builder will be a pain. It will probably lack the in-depth analytic tools that a dedicated landing page builder would have.

Also keep in mind that there are some features that you may not need now, but you could need in the future, such as if you plan on running paid ads to your blog posts.

Design 

Things to consider:

• Themes and templates – Website builders allow you to start with a predesigned website that is customizable to various extents. Some themes serve different purposes in terms of branding and utility.
• Mobile-friendliness – You will need to ensure that your website builder automatically makes your website easy for mobile users, typically with responsive design.
• Customization – It is likely you will want to make some changes to your template. You will need to consider the various customization tools available.

Regardless of your goal, you should always be concerned with providing a great user experience to the people who are visiting your site. It simply makes logical sense – if your site is hard to navigate, people won’t get the most out of it.

The actual design and branding are important too. For instance, some designs are more corporate while others are more welcoming. There may be a design template that really suits your particular brand.

And if you are selling something, you need to ensure that the design is optimized to increase conversions.

Now that you have a good understanding of the types of website builders and the features to look out for, it is time to take a look at some of the best website builders on the market.

Conclusion

An important thing to keep in mind is that the website builders listed above can serve multiple functions. Now that you have a solid overview, it’s time to look into the details of each platform.

Use my recommendations as a guide to get started:

1. Wix — Best for general use
2. Zyro — Best for multipurpose business websites
3. Weebly  — Best for beginners
4. Web.com — Best for building landing pages
5. Shopify — Best for eCommerce
6. WordPress — Best for content management

Follow the links to further explore each option. The best choice for you will come down to both your needs at the moment and where you plan on taking your website in the future.

After reading reviews like this one, make sure you take a step back and put your particular needs at the forefront of the decision before you commit.

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By: Neil Patel
Title: The Best Website Builders (In-Depth Review)
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/best-website-builders/
Published Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2022 08:15:00 +0000

If you're new to online marketing, you may be wondering which online marketing blogs are good for beginners. These articles will give you some tips on which blogs are worthwhile reads. Jay Bayer, a digital marketing strategist and founder of Convince & Convert, has made his name by producing engaging and quality content. His unique perspective is definitely worth reading. He's listed 17 internet marketing blogs newbies should check out. In addition, readers are encouraged to share their own recommendations.

KISSMetrics

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Convince & Convert

One of the best ways to boost the traffic of your online marketing blog is to use content marketing and conversion optimization techniques. The content on Convince & Convert focuses on practical tips for digital marketers. In addition to content marketing, the blog also covers topics related to social media, branding, and customer experience. Its weekly podcast, SocialPros, has an informative and insightful discussion on topics related to online marketing.

Ahrefs

One of the biggest advantages of using Ahrefs for online marketing is that it allows you to generate targeted, relevant leads by creating articles that rank highly on Google. Content like this helps businesses establish thought leadership, inspires current customers to buy more, and increases traffic to their websites. It also enables users to repurpose their content to reach new audiences on their preferred social media platform. Finally, it boosts domain rating and domain authority, two factors that are highly sought-after by Google.

Magnet4Blogging

If you are looking for an online marketing blog, Magnet4Blogging might be right for you. It shares tips and ideas on blogging and business. You can submit your own blog entry, as well as read other people's blogs. You can also join its mailing list for regular updates. This will give you an idea of who else is reading the blog and how they are using it. You can learn from other people's experiences, and use that knowledge to improve your own blog.

SearchEngineWatch

Listed at the top of the online marketing blog world is Search Engine Watch. The site features an eclectic mix of SEO and non-technical content. You can find out how to boost your SEO, learn about content marketing, and even learn how to use social media for business growth. You can even start an advertising campaign as a part-time job from home. The site is well organized and easy to find the subject you want to know more about.

WSI

For those of you who are not familiar with WSI and their online marketing services, let's take a quick look. WSI is a global network of digital strategy thought leaders with offices in more than 80 countries. Their expertise, specialist partner network and proven methodologies make them uniquely positioned to deliver marketing solutions around the world. With this blog, WSI experts share their insights and best practices from their digital marketing solutions.

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