2023 Video Marketing Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

With so many online businesses, brands, and influencers out there today, it can be difficult to stand out among the competition. Videos are needed to stand out. They are no longer only a marketing strategy; they’re also a social strategy for increasing traffic and awareness.

What is Video Marketing?

The concept of using videos to promote and sell your brand, products, or services is known as video marketing. You shouldn’t rely primarily on videos to market your product or services, but videos should be included in every aspect of it in some way.

Whether it’s a short clip of your brand endorsers using your latest product, customer testimonials, or demonstrations of how your services function, video marketing conveys to your potential customers that you’re a real brand and that you are run by a real person, and have real people who can speak for you.

Video marketing has been shown to improve your search engine ranking, increase click-through rates, open rates, traffic to your website or social media, and conversion rate. You’ll understand why videos are amongst the best strategies to grow your business if you keep reading.

The Importance of Video Marketing to Business in 2021

Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered how we do almost everything — our lifestyle habits, socializing habits, shopping habits, and so much more. Consumers are so choosy about brands they follow and buy from these days that without some form of video marketing, you have already lost potential customers.

Every business should employ video marketing. It is such an essential tool that must not be overlooked. People shop online in a different way than they used to, and they are presented with several options in every category.

You’re more likely to capture your customers’ attention if you use video marketing as your primary marketing tool. People’s attention is captured in seconds by videos, and if the first few seconds of your video demonstrate the value you can contribute to their lives, they’re already hooked.

Ensure your video starts strong so you can capture your viewers’ attention in the first few seconds when they click on it.

The majority of online shoppers indicate that a video they watched inspired them to make a purchase. People are significantly more inclined to purchase a product or service after seeing it in action than if they have never seen it in action.

When you utilize video marketing to promote your business, you increase the likelihood of people visiting your website, going through the product or services you have to offer, and then making a purchase.

Finally, video marketing makes it possible for you to reach a large number of new people. Videos are an excellent tool to attract new customers and secure their loyalty. Regardless of whether you post the videos on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, you’re increasing the chances of attracting new customers who might not have seen your business before.

Another good thing about these platforms is that you can easily create paid adverts on them, allowing you to reach even more people than you ever anticipated.

Steps for Creating an Effective Video Marketing Strategy in 2021

Now you know the importance of video marketing to your business, we shall be considering the steps to creating an effective video marketing strategy.

It can be difficult to come up with a video marketing strategy for a business because there are so many different aspects and functions of video marketing. It’s also important to note that many factors go into determining which strategy is best for your business.

If you’re not sure where to begin, here are some steps you can take to create an effective video marketing strategy in 2021.

1. Start with your business goals

Your business goal should be at the forefront of your video marketing strategy. What exactly do you want to achieve? Video content can help you increase sales, build consumer trust, and boost your brand awareness across different platforms.

Spend some time determining what you want to accomplish with your video content so that you can have a video marketing strategy to reflect those goals. For example, if you want to expand your audience, being creative and thinking outside the box is a fun way to go about your video marketing.

Remember that your competitors already have a good marketing strategy in place, so your business goals are what will help you come up with a video strategy that sets you apart and gives you an edge.

2. Define your target audience

To create an effective video marketing strategy, you need to know who you’re making the video content for. So, another step you have to take in developing a video marketing strategy is to define your target audience. You need to figure out who they are and what they care about.

Consider what challenges your customer base is having and how your product or service can assist them in solving the problem. Also, conduct some market research to find out where your target audience spends their time online. No matter how excellent your video marketing is, it won’t do you any good if you put it on platforms where your target audience is not even present.

The key to knowing your target audience is to develop your buyer’s persona. It’s great if you already have one. Creating a buyer’s persona is mostly done when a company is building its product or service offerings. We can presume that the people you want to buy your product are the same people you intend to reach with your video.

3. Plan your approach

To offer yourself the best chance of success with video marketing, we recommend following a well-thought-out strategy and employing the appropriate tools. Things like a web-based media schedule, a simple-to-utilize video creator, and the right scheduler will help you stay in control of your responsibilities.

Conclusion

The rise of video marketing presents your brand with a unique opportunity. As consumers continue to opt for video content, it will be in the best interest of your brand to connect with them using video.

August 25, 2021

Importance Of Competitive Marketing Analysis For Business Growth

Data gathering is an ongoing process for businesses that want growth. Market situations change now and then, making revision of strategies and points crucial before proceeding with market analysis. Every successful product and service currently in the market has, at a time, done substantial market analysis. It is an important step when developing any marketing plan.

Market analysis of customers and competitors is essential to the process of introducing a new service or product to the market. It also helps keep you a step ahead of your competition. At the same time, the customers get the necessary information to help them make the right decision. An analysis is useful for getting insights into traits of customers, demographics, and trends.

What is Market Analysis?

Marketing analysis refers to the process of evaluating and monitoring all market trends. It involves data collection. If carried out effectively, it will give you valuable insights into shifts in your customers’ expenditures, ongoing market trends, competitors, and economic conditions.

Importance of a Market Analysis for Business Growth

A competitive market analysis will help to determine products sustainability within a specific market. Its focus on behavioral changes makes it easy to assess the buying patterns of customers. Businesses that want essential information to help them make better decisions need to carry out a thorough market analysis.

Here are some reasons why it is important:

A better understanding of your customers

Your business can use market analysis to collect a comprehensive profile for an ideal customer. It will give you an idea of the market size for your business. It can also lead the way in how you make specific marketing campaigns using your insight of customer’s gender, income, age, and location. In other words, it gives you a complete map of your customers and their needs.

Analyze your competitors

Your competitors will always try to take your customers. They research to know what your customers want. To stay ahead of them, you should do the same too. You can identify key players in the market with effective market analysis.
Moreover, research will give you an insight into how your customers see the product and services that you are selling.
Additionally, market analysis is significant when evaluating your competitors. With it, you can know how your competitors react to any new product or service you introduce to the market. It will also help you to identify any weakness in the strategy of your competitors. Knowing all of these will help you gain success in your business.

Test before launch

Resist the urge to jump straight into the marketing of any of your new products. You must test the product and services before introducing them to the market; this is necessary in the business world. Analyzing the market will provide you with the strategy to market the product.

Also, you will save money by testing products before introducing them to the market. This will ensure that the product you later deliver to the market is a good one. A good product will easily connect you to potential customers, which is good for business.

Help in business growth

Market analysis will help you understand the needs of your customers easily. You will also know the best marketing campaign to make use of when introducing your product to the market. Similarly, it helps in the classification of all market trends, allowing you to reach your target audience with relative ease.

Another crucial part of a successful business is finding out mistakes. An effective analysis will make it easy for you to predict shortcomings in your business. You can save money from additional expenses this way. Research to know the cost-effective strategies and ways to minimize risks for your business.

Helps to save your business

Knowing the proper way to go about market research will keep you in business. Big brands are aware of this. For instance, Nokia could not meet up with trends because they didn’t understand the need of their customers. Brands like Netflix and Apple utilize the insight they get from market research to close the gaps they can.

How to Conduct a Market Analysis

The nature of customers will continue to change. Conducting a market analysis will let you understand the changes. It is then proper that you know how to go about your analysis of the market. Also, an analysis will help you gather the information that can be useful in the marketing of your products and services. Here are important things you should do during analysis:

1. Evaluating product and price

Product and price evaluation is one of the things you should do during market analysis. With proper evaluation, you will know what improvement is needed for already existing products. Also, knowing the buying capacities of your target customers will help you decide on the pricing.

2. Analyzing target groups and customers

The niche you are planning to market should be a priority when conducting market research. This will help you focus on essential targets. You can also target customers by sending them promotional messages about the products and services you are giving out.

3. Advertising analysis

A way of letting your target customers know about your products and services is through advertising. The ads you do can either be offline or online. Creating prompt ads is effective at making customers take action.

4. Promoting analysis

Through promotion, you can know the performance of your offers, since improving future performance for your products through advertising is for a small time. The analysis will let you know the proper channel through which you can effectively deliver your products to potential customers.

5. Analysis of sales

Analysis of sales covers all the data related to price. Getting these data will help you know how to adjust prices. It will also help you know if a discount can be offered to customers. When doing market analysis, take the sales report step-by-step.

Conclusion

Mistakes are reduced when a competitive market analysis is done. It will help you get over possible problems with your business. Use the available tools at your disposal to research so your business can be successful.

August 20, 2021

Improve Your Sales With An Effective Branding Strategy

With competition constantly increasing in both international and local markets, businesses are finding it more challenging to make their brand stand out from the competition. Irrespective of the size of your business, branding will help you capture your target customer’s attention and create a personalized experience. Branding can also help you gain a competitive edge in the market by causing your prospects to value your brand over others.

Most businesses fail to comprehend the direct relationship that exists between sales and branding, as well as how branding is an effective way to boost sales. Customers frequently discover that the allure of a brand outweighs the cost of a product or service provided by that brand.

In this guide, we shall discuss some ways you can use an effective branding strategy to improve sales for your business. Before we go on to look at some of these ways, let’s first discuss what branding is briefly.

What is Branding?

Branding is basically how you define your business to yourself, your customers, and your business’s stakeholders. It refers to you giving your business a unique identity that is more than just a representation of its name and logo. Your business brand identity defines what the business is all about, as well as how it creates value for others.

The market has grown savvy enough to identify sugar-coated marketing strategies, and so you need to put out a genuine and strong brand identity.

Importance of Branding to a Business

The importance of developing a strong brand cannot be overemphasized. A good brand is the glue that binds your organization’s diverse parts together and keeps customers close. It will help you keep your current customers, as well as attract new ones.

Below are some of the importance of branding to your business.
• Branding separates you from the competition
• It creates trust
• Branding builds and maintains customer loyalty
• It increases the perceived quality
• Branding impacts first impressions
• It inspires action
• Branding encourages word-of-mouth promotion
• Brand loyalty improves customer acquisition and engagement

Effective Branding Strategies You Can Use to Improve Sales

Below are effective branding strategies that will help increase sales for your business.

1. Create a brand identity with a unique story

You need to create a brand identity for brand awareness marketing. A brand identity is more than just creating an appealing logo or a catchy name for your business. To have an effective branding strategy that will attract customers, you need to be brave with your storytelling.

Your brand story should emphasize your business mission and values, your customer service, and an emphasis on building goodwill for your business. Your company’s website can be used to tell a unique story about your brand. You can also do this through advertising.

A unique and bold advertising message that differs from that of your competitors can have a significant impact on your prospects’ purchasing decisions.

2. Find a niche or hyper-focused audience

Most businesses spend much on demonstrating who they are and the kind of products and services they offer. While this is an essential aspect of marketing, you need to also figure out your target group or the people you are hoping to sell your products or services to.

Finding a niche or overly focused audience that will listen to your marketing message and is interested in buying what you sell makes it easier for your company to draw the audience to your sales funnel.

When you know your target market, you can easily design personalized strategies and employ re-targeting to create a positive brand image for your prospects. With this, you can significantly improve your sales with less effort.

3. Create clear and consistent messages on all marketing platforms

In marketing and sales, trust is extremely vital. Customers who trust a brand are more inclined to buy it and promote it to others. Trust is built with the clarity and consistency of your marketing message. If you want your brand to stand out from competitors, ensure that your brand awareness marketing is consistent and clear on all marketing platforms.

Whether you’re utilizing social media marketing, billboards, TV advertisements, or any other form of marketing, your message on each platform should be clear and consistent with other ads on other platforms. The branding strategy you adopt should be able to build your business credibility, and in turn, help to boost sales.

Nike, for example, is a well-known sports brand with a motto “Just do it” that is constant across all marketing channels. This tagline defines their determination and value of confidence in taking action without hesitancy in sports. This has aided Nike to build a unique brand to attract customers all through the years.

4. Use branding techniques that are visually-appealing

Using visually appealing marketing for your brand is another unique strategy for increasing sales. Visuals and colors have a significant impact on how well people respond to your ads. It helps your customers to retain a distinct brand image of your company in their minds.

A brand design has several important components. Some of these components are brand color palette, animation, logo, fonts, and so on.

5. Use AdSense auto ads and re-targeting

The goal of branding is to get your customers to remember your brand whenever they want to make a purchase decision. Paid advertisements and re-targeting are excellent ways to keep your brand in front of your target audience regularly.
With Google algorithm and machine learning technology, ads are automatically placed on websites that are effective for increasing awareness. As a result, your online adverts can reach your target audience, resulting in a greater return on investment for your business.

Conclusion

An effective branding strategy helps to improve sales. If a business can employ an effective branding strategy, it will attract more customers to the sales funnel.
Brand positioning in the market is essential in increasing the visibility and awareness of your brand. It distinguishes your business from the competition and makes it memorable and unique for your customers. This aids your business in improving sales and getting greater ROI.

August 12, 2021

MalCare’s Bot Protection for WordPress: Why Your Site needs it?

Your WordPress website can suffer considerable damage caused by pernicious parasites such as bots. Bots can be used to hack your website, bring it down, and steal your data. A WordPress website is a top target because of the pricing and product information. Bots can be used to sell such information to competitors, thus making them a security threat.

What Exactly Are Bots?

Not all visitors to WordPress websites are human beings. This is a fact, and some of the traffic experienced on websites is due to the presence of bots. Bots are computer programs specifically designed to visit your site for many different reasons. Some of the reasons may be good, but many of them are harmful and can cause damage. Here is a description of bots:

Bad Bots

The activities of bad bots can cause internet traffic. Most times, they are responsible for the entire things we do not like about the internet. A slow website, scraping, spoofing, data privacy violation, and theft are some bot activities. Other signs of bad bot activity may be the inability of users to effectively use your store, or you get a lot of spam in your comments.

Good Bots

You may be tempted to block bots after knowing of their bad effect. However, this is not the solution because some bots are useful to many websites. For instance, bots are used by Google to index your website, allowing people to find you easily. Giving GoogleBot unlimited access to your website is good for the SEO of your website.

Bot Damage

A bot can damage your WordPress website. Spambots can attack your website with brute force, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data and information. In addition to this breach, these bots can overload your website with several requests. This can increase the activity of your website, making it difficult for a legitimate user to access it. A bot can completely bring down a website.

Why is MalCare the Best WordPress Security Tool?

MalCare is a security plugin for WordPress. It is an important one that should be integrated into your website because of the increased frequency of data breaches and cyber-attacks. It is a priority that your site is kept safe, and MalCare’s protection can help with that. Its bot protection is an automated security plugin that will smartly fit your website.

Why You Need MalCare’s Bot Protection for Your WordPress Website

MalCare bot protection is an effective security plugin that works straight out of the box. You don’t need to configure, update, or monitor anything before you can make use of it. The only thing that is needed is just the installation. Once installed, you get the best protection for your WordPress website. Here are some reasons why you need this security plugin:

1. Blocks Bad Bots

Partnering with top hosting providers, MalCare’s firewall offers protection for more than 250,000 websites globally. The data from each of these websites are analyzed, and bad IPs and spambots are blocked preemptively. The up-to-date protection that it offers is important for the ever-evolving types of cyber threats.

2. Single-Click Malware Removal

Aside from its protection against malware, this security plugin on WordPress can instantly remove malware with just one click. The single-click malware removal is present on its dashboard, making it easier for you to perform this cleansing task without having to wait for support from any security professional.

3. Customer Support 24/7

A live customer support service is needed at a time that something goes wrong with your WordPress website. MalCare’s bot protection offers you 24/7 live customer support because you may need their service urgently. It is a welcome step to have a professional help keep all data and information on your website safe.

4. Comprehensive Firewall Protection

With MalCare, you already have an in-built web application firewall. All IP requests and incoming traffic are monitored by the firewall. This helps to prevent the authorization of malicious requests. The firewall also helps keep your website safe from automated bots and hackers trying to gain access to it.

5. Real-Time Protection

For the protection of your websites against bad bots to be of use, it must be done in real-time. The request must be denied instantly, even before it gets in. The requests should never reach the website servers, thus preventing attacks such as brute force attacks and credential stuffing from causing downtimes and slowing down the website.
Not allowing it to reach your server will protect your website from attacks that may cause downtimes and credential stuffing.

6. Regular Updates

Cyber-criminals are always on the lookout for new ways to attack your website. To stop this, your virus protectors and hosting providers must keep their systems and software up to date. MalCare provides regular updates to help you secure your website from the latest viruses.

7. Login Page Protection

Aside from the use of your password, MalCare provides you with additional login protections. It allows you to view a request for login if there have been multiple failed attempts. It also offers two-factor authentication and CAPTCHA Login Protection for keeping your WordPress website safe from intruders.

8. Doesn’t Slow Website Down

Bad bots need to be blocked by your WordPress spam bot protection even before it loads. This helps to minimize the number of resources these bots use on your website. To analyze all data created by bots, a lot of processing power is required. MalCare servers do this heavy lifting to make sure that no load is put on your website.

9. Never Blocks Valid Request

To detect disastrous behavior in bots, requests are analyzed by MalCare based on a matrix of 25+ characteristics. Good bots like GooglBots and other search engine crawlers are allowed to pass through your site without any issue.

Conclusion

An effective WordPress security solution must be complete. This will help secure your website from attacks. Best of all, malware detection is packed in MalCare. This security solution is affordable for both small-time and large business enterprises. It is a dynamic tool that can easily be integrated into your WordPress site.

August 2, 2021

Future Of Social Media Marketing: Trends You Need To Know

In terms of digital marketing, social media has become one of the most integral parts of people’s lives, and that too within a short period. This has led to digital marketers focusing upon this segment of society. The concept of social media was introduced, so that it becomes a medium for people to get to know new people, get in touch with their old friends, and stay connected for a very long time. But in today’s time, social media platforms are being used for a wide range of other commercial activities, such as branding of businesses, advertising, increasing the reach of the website, enhancing the website traffic.

It is also a great platform for businesses to connect to the target audience and convert them into potential customers. But this is not as easy as said. If you want to tap into the potential of social media, it is essential that you keep up with the latest trends and embrace the latest strategies of social media marketing.

By understanding the latest trends of social media work, you would be able to keep up with your business marketing and always stand out from the crowd.

What are those latest trends of social media that will become the deciding factor for the future of social media marketing in this digital world?

#1 Transformation Of The Social Media Marketing Strategy With Live Videos:

In the coming years, people would be experimenting more with live videos and aim to enhance video marketing. It has been already observed that videos are considered more engaging than images or even content, and this popularity will keep increasing even after 2021. By considering this latest trend and the popularity of live videos, it has become quite essential for businesses to explore video creation and integrate such videos on a regular basis to build connections with their target audience. The live videos can be easily broadcasted on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Instagram.

#2 Working With The Ephemeral Content:

Have you heard about Ephemeral content or even developed strategies to use such content? Well, if you have not, then businesses should start focusing on it right now. Ephemeral content is so potent that it can be helpful in increasing the engagement of users on the website. But what exactly is Ephemeral content? Well, when you come across any type of short-duration content that would vanish after a specific period. For instance, the Facebook and Instagram stories are the best example of Ephemeral content because they would vanish after 24 hours after being published. These stories are extremely trending and very convenient as well. Whether you are having a small business or large, you can make use of these stories to increase user engagement and make it entertaining.

#3 You Can Include The Chatbot Communication Through Social Media Platform:

Another important trend that will dominate businesses in the coming time is communication through chatbots. Whenever the customers are communicating with the service department, they should not feel like they’re conveying their grievances to any sort of computerized machine. So there is always a need for chatbots. With the help of chatbots, communication with the customers or website visitors would become extremely easy, and there would be no wastage of time. These chatbots are powdered with AI and have solutions for all the queries of the customers/visitors.

#4 The Growing Trend Of Influencer Marketing:

You might be familiar with the word — Influencer Marketing. It was introduced a few years back, but it is dominating the digital marketing world since 2019. But this trend is now spreading everywhere and will continue in the coming years as well. It is a great opportunity for business brands to collaborate with influence marketers to promote the products and various commodities of their business brands. The influencers already have millions of followers, so it becomes easier for your business to reach out to a large number of customers in one go.

Summary:

Social media is not just for communicating with friends and acquaintances, but it has found a greater purpose. Social media is the best platform for businesses to advertise their products/services and the brand at large. So if you are owning a business, then it is the best time that you should understand the significance of the social media platform.

July 21, 2021

How To Improve Your Search Rankings With Content Marketing

Let us not debate about the fact that content is king. The internet was created to facilitate the exchange of content. Sure, it has many other uses today — social media and e-commerce, to name a few — but the need for information remains at the heart of every online decision we make. We click on links, bookmark web pages, use search engines — all to find information that is relevant to our interests.

It should come as no surprise, then, that content is king, and that it also reigns supreme over search rankings. After all, the primary purpose of a search engine is to determine which website is the most relevant to the user’s query. The higher the number of quality content you have on your site, the more likely it is to appear at the top of search engines’ results pages when users make those searches.

Given the value of those user clicks, most websites today rely on Search Engine Optimization (SEO and even hire an SEO firm) to keep their sites search-friendly. One of the most important aspects of any online marketing approach is SEO. It determines whether your website will appear high in search results and hence, be noticed by more people. And what is the key to this? Well, we believe it’s high-quality content.

How to Use Content Marketing to Improve Your Search Rankings?

Below are some tips for beginners on how to use content marketing to improve your search rankings.

1. Create contents that are beneficial to your target audience

The main goal of content marketing is to pique your audience’s interest through articles that answer questions they may have and provide them with the information they require. This means that when you write a blog post or send out a newsletter, it shouldn’t come across as a sales pitch for your product. Rather, it should be a carefully considered and formed piece that will benefit your customers.
What do you believe your target audience would be interested in reading about? What are some of the most common questions you get from customers?

Create a list of the topics and questions you believe your target audience is interested in, and then start writing about them. This will allow your site to be of help when other users begin to ask the same questions or look for information on those topics.

2. Select the right keywords

When searching online, most users don’t take the time to write long phrases describing what they’re looking for. For example, instead of searching, “how can I get rid of this pimple? Which products should I use?”, they simply search for “pimple removal tips.”

It often comes down to keywords. It’s a good thing that online tools (like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Soovle, KeywordTool.io, and Jaaxy) are now available to assist you in figuring out which keywords your target audience is searching for.

Incorporating high-ranking keywords into your content improves its chances of ranking higher in search results. Brian Dean of Backlinko says that using the aforementioned keyword tools resulted in a 62.2 percent increase in his site’s organic traffic within six months.

Keep in mind that keywords should be utilized sparingly and within context, rather than strewn throughout each sentence you write. If you fail to do this, search engines may not tag your content as relevant but as spam.

Search engine algorithms can easily determine the frequency of a keyword and the existence of other useful terms within the article. So, in addition to choosing the proper keywords, make sure you employ them naturally.

3. Remember the basics of SEO

The fundamentals of on-page SEO (that is, SEO efforts that are limited to your website) are in place to lay the groundwork for a search-friendly site. These basics will give your content the extra push it needs, making it easier for online users to find them.

Here’s a quick rundown of the basics you shouldn’t overlook:

Title tag. A search engine displays the page’s title tag when it lists your web page as a result. This will determine whether or not visitors will click through your site. So, ensure that your title tag is definitive of what these visitors can expect from the link. A keyword can even be placed on the title tag as long as it doesn’t come across as forced.
Meta description. A brief overview or summary of your content can enhance the likelihood of a user clicking on your website. So, always remember to write a clear meta description to increase the likelihood of users visiting your site and reading through the content you are posted.
Image Alt tag. The idea that a picture is worth a thousand words is very popular today. However, search engines are still unable to fully understand what your image is saying. You can make your pictures more search-friendly by adding image alt tags to perform as captions.
Tagging. If you are managing a blog for your site, ensure that the entries are grouped or categorized through content tagging. This will make it easy for new readers to navigate through your blog, as clicking on a particular tag allows them to browse through the contents that are related to that topic.

4. Build inbound links to your posts

You’re probably aware that obtaining inbound links, also known as backlinks, is critical to a successful content marketing plan. The more links you obtain from other websites, especially high-quality links, the more Google views your website as a source of useful content.

You can build links to your site through several ways; email outreach is one. According to a study conducted by Brian Dean, 91.5 percent of outreach emails are discarded or ignored. However, Brian’s team also discovered that link-building outreach emails have a 21.9 percent response rate.

Reaching out to brands or people that already know you are one of the top methods for generating inbound links through email outreach. These brands or people may be following your LinkedIn account or may have mentioned you in their previous posts.

When reaching out to prospects, you may also consider their interests. Joining groups and communities on social media can help you gain access to others who may be interested in or who engage with the blog topics you typically write about.

Other Ways to Improve Your Search Rankings Through Content Marketing
Other than the tips already mentioned, some other ways with which you can improve your search rankings with content marketing are:

Creating pillar pages and topic clusters
Harnessing the power of internal linking
Being a thought leader

Conclusion

Great content is the key to improving your search engine results. Content marketing will not only improve the chances of you gaining more customers and visitors to your website but also add value to the services and products your business offers.

July 16, 2021

How To Secure WordPress Site? (With & Without Plugins)

In the digital era, every major or minor thing is being handled online through websites and various other online portals. But along with all this ease and convenience, there is always a threat of cybercrimes or data breaches. Due to this reason, it is quite essential to keep your website highly secure so that no one can hack it and leach on the customer/client data.

If you are not keeping your website secure, the customers won’t find the brand reliable or trustworthy, which is not good for the reputation of a business. So how will you make sure that your WordPress website is secure or not?
WordPress platform is considered to be the most popular platform in the entire market when it comes to websites. Almost 40% of websites run on WordPress. When it is having such a big consideration, then the security of the WordPress websites becomes the biggest concern. There are many unethical hackers who are always in the search of loopholes and WordPress platform vulnerabilities that could be used for their benefit. But it is not possible.
There are multiple ways in which the WordPress website can be secured with the use of plugins and even without them. So let’s understand it one by one.

Keeping The WordPress Website Secure Without Plugins:

1. You Must Keep The Website Upgraded:

Although the WordPress websites are free and open-source, which enables the auto-up-gradation of the minor functionality. But for major things, you should get them checked regularly and keep them updated. You must browse through the backend to check whether the regularly used plugins are updated or not. If there are some unused plugins, get them removed. Besides this, you should check the latest version of the themes and keep them updated.

2. Make Use Of Strong Passwords And Have Multiple User Permissions/Authentications:

Usually, the WordPress website hacking takes place due to weak passwords or if there is no user permission. To keep your WordPress websites protected, you should set strong passwords and have 2-factor authentication. This would be helpful not just for the admin but also beneficial in protecting the database.

3. You Should Choose A Secure WordPress Hosting Website:

If you are hosting your WordPress website on the shared hosting services, then there is a threat to your website due to the cross-website connections. This increases the chances of your website being hacked. So you should choose the hosting provider that keeps your WordPress website secure and automatically keep updating the security parameters.

4. You Can Put A Limit On The Number Of Login Attempts:

This might seem very insignificant right now, but it is an effective way of keeping WordPress websites secure from unethical hacking.

Now that you have understood how to keep your website secure without the use of plugins, next you must learn how to keep the website secure with the use of plugins.

Secure Your Website With Plugins:

1. You Should Install A Plugin For Maintaining Data Backup:

With such data backup plugins, you can restore your website even if it gets hacked by malicious activities. You can have the backup of the entire website to a different location where the hackers can’t reach out and not at the hosting server. It will increase the level of security. A few popular data backup plugins are — VaultPress and BackupBuddy.

2. WordPress Sucuri Security Plugin:

Once you are done with the backup process, it is the right time to focus on the actual security parameters. For that, you need to install the Sucuri security plugin. With the installation of this security plugin, you can enable the features like tracking the malicious activities, keeping a tab on the malware scanning, monitoring the failed login attempts, and finally keeping the WordPress website secure. There are various other plugins that can be used for increasing the security of the WordPress website. To name a few such as WordPress website security plugins — File scanning, Security hardening, WordPress Security Alerts, Malware scanning, Firewalls. These plugins are known for increasing the security of your website and keeping it protected from unethical threats and attacks.

Summary:

WordPress is considered the best CMS as compared to other frameworks. Due to these reasons, most of the websites are built on WordPress. When the CMS is in so much demand, it is essential that the security features provided by WordPress should be up to the mark. You can follow the aforementioned points to keep your WordPress website protected.

July 6, 2021

Ecommerce Website Design: 6 Components You Need To Know

Ecommerce businesses are becoming one of the fastest-growing business sectors that are attracting the largest number of customers, registering growth in revenue, and helping businesses grow in the right direction. The ecommerce businesses were in an all-time high demand even during the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. Do you know the reason behind it? Ecommerce businesses provide easy shopping facilities and increase the convenience for the customers. Besides this, the ecommerce business focuses on meeting the requirements of the people and keeps improving with every passing phase.

Although most of the ecommerce businesses are doing just great, there are some who are still struggling and not noticing growth in their ecommerce business. So why is that? It is because they might have made a few mistakes in their ecommerce business website design. When you are having a well-designed ecommerce website, then you can be assured that you will have huge web traffic. This in turn will help you to encourage potential customers to make a purchase, increase the business sales and generate higher revenues. But to have such an ecommerce website, it is essential that you are having these 6 important components in the website. So what are these 6 important components of ecommerce website design? Let’s find out!

#1 Your Ecommerce Website Must Have A Clean Look And Minimalistic Design Approach:

If you want your ecommerce website to become a success, then it is important that your website is able to influence the target audience and grab their attention. If your website appears completely cluttered, then the target audience will not have the clarity, and they might abandon the website as soon as they visit it. Your ecommerce website is the best representation of your business, and thus you should keep it minimal with the best designs. You must choose the templates that look elegant, have appropriate typography (all aspects about the font type, size, line length, and spacing), and make the right use of colors, which represent your brand. The minimalist ecommerce website will not just impart an impressive look but also load faster.

#2 Your Ecommerce Website Must Provide Easy Navigation:

The ecommerce website should be designed in such a way that its navigation features should help the target audience to reach the products they wish to view in a simple and fast way. Having good navigation will improve the user experience of the website and will help in increasing lead generation. If the navigation feature of the ecommerce website is poor, it will definitely lead to higher bounce rates rather than improving the business.

#3 The Product Images And Description Should Be Up To The Mark:

When you have an ecommerce website, the most essential aspect is the product images. If the products images are clear and of high resolution, it will help in increasing the conversion cycles. High-quality product images have the potential to attract the target audience. Besides this, the description of the products should be detailed, as it will help the customers understand what they are buying.

#4 Ecommerce Website Should Have An Easy And Convenient Checkout Process:

Another important thing that is a must on an ecommerce website is the checkout process. The checkout process must not have more than 2 or 3 steps, and it should lead the customers to the final payment page within a few seconds. Besides this, you must ensure that the payment process is perfectly secured. As it deals with the confidential data of your customers.

#5 Ecommerce Websites Should Be Mobile Responsive:

Well, this is an important factor that will decide the success of your ecommerce website. Nowadays, almost 80 to 90% of the population is making use of smartphones for online shopping and with various transactions. So it is essential for the ecommerce website to be compatible with all smartphones or mobile devices.

#6 Location Of The Search Bar Should Be Appropriate:

A search bar is an important component of an ecommerce website. But it should also be located in the right place. The search bar is usually used by the customers to search for products they are unable to find directly. The search bar must be placed in the upper right corner, which could be easily visible to the customers, and they do not have to search for this option. It will improve the user experience of the website.

Summary:

Having an ecommerce website is really great but to make it a success, generate revenue for your business, and improve customer loyalty, you need to make sure that the website is designed in a perfect way.

July 2, 2021

7 Keys To Have A Successful eCommerce Website

The E-commerce industry is booming across all countries. Most people, in this digital era, consider e-commerce products and services to be extremely reliable and trustworthy. But even after an upsurge in the e-commerce business or industry, there are many who are unable to make their e-commerce website a success.

So what’s the reason behind it? Well, the main reason is the businesses and developers are not focusing on the essential elements of the major and successful e-commerce website. Are you aware of the 7 major or key elements of a successful e-commerce website?

If not, then in this article, we will explain all the important 7 e-commerce website elements that will make your website a success.

#1 It Is Always A Good To Have A Mobile Responsive E-Commerce Website:

In the digital era, most often, people are dependent on their smartphones for all the basic things. This also includes online shopping. Every time, your target audience will not be using their desktop or laptop for purchasing products or doing online shopping. So it is quite essential for an e-commerce business to have a website that is mobile responsive. You can consider it as one of the most important investments for your e-commerce website.

#2 Focus On The Security Of The E-commerce Website:

People are whole-heartedly adopting e-commerce websites for making their shopping experience easy and convenient. But there is always a certain doubt in their minds about security. People log in to your website and share their important and confidential data with the business. Hence it is the responsibility of the business to ensure that you are taking all the security measures and integrating them into the e-commerce website to increase reliability and trust. The security parameters must ensure that none of the client or customer data is shared with any unauthorized personnel.

#3 Your E-commerce Business Site Should Be Simple And Elegant

One of the most important aspects of an e-commerce website is to make sure that your target audience does not get confused while navigating through your website. People would find it extremely difficult to find the right products, purchasing guidelines, and even getting through the contact information if it is not presented in a proper manner. Thus it is necessary that care needs to be taken to make sure that your e-commerce website has a simple yet dynamic design.

#4 You Should Be Very Particular About The Product Images And Description Provided In The E-commerce Website:

For an e-commerce website, it is quite common to have multiple products on a single web page and support multiple such web pages. To make it easy for people to check the products and descriptions, it is essential that you are adopting an 8 image approach along with a proper description. With this approach, you would be able to provide perfect information to the customers and enhance the conversions.

#5 Integrate An Effective Search Tool:

It has been suggested that to make your e-commerce website a success, it is essential that you have a convenient search tool. If the website visitor is unable to find what they are looking for, they can easily opt for a search tool and reach the product or services they are looking for. Thus, having a filtered search is something that a user would always be looking forward to in an e-commerce website.

#6 Design Elements Of An E-Commerce Website: Colors/Fonts/Graphics:

For any e-commerce website, the design elements play a vital role — colors, fonts, and graphics are the key to ensure whether your users will have a good experience or not. To make your e-commerce website a success, you must have at most two major colors for the website and not a combination of multiple colors. Even the graphics for the website should be decent and not very confusing. If you are specific about these things, there is no way your website will not be successful.

#7 You Should Have A Set Of Recommended Products For The Users:

When you provide a feature for recommended products, you are making it easier for the customers to browse through additional sale products. It will not just improve the shopping experience of the users but also increase the sales of the business.

Summary:

E-commerce businesses are extremely profitable, but not for everyone. You need to ensure that all the elements are used in the e-commerce website, which will make it a success. The aforementioned elements of e-commerce are the best ones, and it is essential to have them integrated into e-commerce websites.

June 25, 2021

8 Smart Ways to Use Social Media to Increase Your Business Growth in 2021

In the digital era, every business is striving hard to have steady growth, and this kind of growth will be possible only through the constant inflow of new clients and customers. If you ensure that the customers are reaching the final phase of the conversion funnel, you will increase your business revenue and thus have better business growth.

But does your marketing and business analysis team know how to cater to the customers? Are they targeting all the relevant spaces to attract more customers? In this digital era, the most important platform that will help you expand your business reach is Social Media.

Many of you might not be convinced by the power of social media and how it would be helpful in getting your business to a better level. Here are some of the essential 8 ways, which would be discussed in this article, to help you understand the significance of social media and how to use it for your business.

#1 You Can Use Social Media For Increasing The Business Leads:

According to the social media experts, it has been observed that whether you have a large business or small, you can integrate social media for increasing the leads of your business. And to be specific, through social media platforms you are not just getting leads but qualified leads by employing advanced targeting.

Use a wide range of social media platforms for promoting the published content on social media and make sure that it is compatible with the interest of the target audience or the followers of your business. You can also make use of graphic designs, which are significant to your brand positioning and are visually appealing. To generate high-quality leads, it is essential that your reader or the audience of social media finds it interesting. (Note: Always includes call-to-action to encourage your prospective leads to take the next step).

#2 Social Media Can Help You In Improving The Search Engine Ranking:

A simple fact, which every business must know, is that with the integration of social media, the number of social shares increases, and thus the domain authority of your website also improves.

When the social shares increase, it will increase the number of customers who have a better understanding of your brand and thus build trust. It makes your brand look more reliable to the customers and increases business growth.

#3 Employ Social Media Strategy To Increase The Business Website Traffic:

You might be thinking that small businesses make use of social media to increase web traffic. According to the survey of the Social Media Examiner, it has been revealed that almost 70 to 80% of traffic increase is accredited to social media influence. So make sure your business has a strong presence on social media platforms through regular posting and sharing of the content and then generating traffic.

#4 Use Social Media For Monitoring Your Competitors:

You can have a strong presence on social media and keep monitoring the activities of your competitors. It will give you an idea of how and in what ways they are trying to gain loyal customers and grow their business. You can have a better understanding of your competitors from the content that has been posted by them. This can help you fine-tune your strategies.

#5 Social Media Helps In Developing Trust With Your Customers:

In the digital era, social media is not just an online platform where a large number of people gather but offers features beyond that. You can use social media platforms to gain and build the trust of your customers and increase the reliability of your brands. Besides this, it has been proven that more than 80% of the businesses (small/large) were able to gain loyal customers through social media platforms.

#6 Integrate Social Media In Business To Generate Brand Recognition:

To gain customers and grow your business, it is quite essential that you are increasing the awareness of the brand or business. Social media is one of the most effective ways in which you can reach out to multiple target audiences just with one post!

#7 Are You Willing To Introduce Your Brand As Topical Authority – Integrate Social Media In Businesses:

You might be wondering how social media could probably be the tool to increase the topical authority, right? But let us tell you that social media can help you in improving niche marketing and branding to increase the growth of your business. Through niche marketing, you can ensure that the topical authority of your business could be raised to a significant level.

#8 You Can Generate Lead Magnets Through Social Media:

To grow your business, you would need customers, and through social media, you can implement lead magnets to grab the attention of prospective customers. Through lead magnets, you can make offers to the customer, provide discounts and ensure that the customers will stay loyal to your brand and business.

Summary:

To grow your business, you can undertake a wide range of marketing strategies and methods, but the best and most effective is to consider social media. It is not just convenient but also helps you to capture qualified leads easily and take the website to a higher level.

June 17, 2021