How to develop a digital growth strategy for your business
When it comes to turning a small business into a large one, it is never so easy. But if you feel it’s not good enough for you or your business, or if you believe that staying small doesn’t really guarantee the survival of your business, there are a couple of real life examples that companies have successfully used to transition from that small start-up business to a full fledged business. As you embark on creating your digital growth strategy, the first thing you should consider are the fundamentals of an intensive digital growth strategy. Each fundamental brings more opportunities for an unprecedented growth, but also a little risk. They are: WE RECOMMEND: How outsourcing can help your start up business Online Market Penetration: This particular growth strategy is less risky for any business, because the idea is to understand how your product will reach more customers through various mediums online. You can find out how to sell more of your current products to current customers, while analyzing the possibility of expanding to other online territories. Online Market Development: The next fundamental you’d come across on this growth ladder is to come up with a way of selling more of your current products to a growing market – offering your product or services to customers in other cities, states or countries. For example, as your business grows, your product or services may be in demand in other locations, but you may never know if you do not devise a way of expanding your business. Alternative Digital Platforms: This digital growth strategy involves pursuing customers in a different way such as, for example, selling your products through media platforms, apps etc. The customer behavior is drastically shifting and in order to stay on course, you need to match the shift by being visible on these digital platforms that your customers are moving to. Product Development: This is one strategy that is very key. It involves developing new and exciting products to sell to your existing customers as well as to the new ones. If you have a choice, you would ideally like to sell your new products to existing customers and market your products to new customers to increase your sales force. If you decide to follow one of the Intensive Digital Growth Strategies, you should ideally take only one step up at a time, since each step may take a longer while than the other, and of course the effort it would take to achieve each step. The cue is that sometimes, the market changes without warning, and it forces you to take immediate action. Sometimes, you have no choice but to take more steps.
REVEALED: 5 Digital Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2020
We have watched the rise of internet users over the past decade, Google playing a huge role across major continents of the world to connect millions to the internet for the first time. While you may find yourself in a position to maintain the pace of digital revolution, there is a lot to suggest an optimistic outlook for your business in 2020, but this will depend increasingly on your willingness to adapt and compete with industry players, innovators and tech leaders. Below are 5 digital marketing trends you should watch out for in 2020: User Generated Content: While you may be aware that this isn’t new, user-generated content is transforming everything from reviews to information research and discovery. Amateur created content is massive, real and will continue to grow not only in size but also in importance across online platforms and content type. Everyone has an opinion and wants it to be heard! Review sites will also become more important in the marketer’s armory. Many businesses would leverage on UGC to drive brand perception. Mobile Apps to replace website: With smartphone rapidly in use, more companies will take heed and employ mobile enterprise applications to effectively mobilize their sales force. Mobile apps will allow many companies manage resources such as inventory and their supply chain using mobile phones, either through SMS or Web-enabled applications. The steady increase in the number of mobile users will continue to fuel this trend. ALSO READ: How to boost conversion rate of your website. Increase in Vlogging: The ever-rising of vloggers and the popularity of video content sharing has changed the dynamics of consumer/brand interaction online. According to a recent survey, over 75% of users on social media say that they are likely to patronize a business if they promote video contents. Sites like YouTube have introduced innovative ways that people can watch and share video content. Facebook has already released the concept of video images for profiles, and many people are already using video as a profile instead of a picture. The Rise of TikTok: A new contender has entered the arena, most especially for young people, that contender is TikTok. A social media app that allows users to post short lip-synced, music, talent or comedy skits. In 2019, TikTok hit 524 million active users worldwide, while in China, it hit over 150 million daily users and counting – a strong platform for social media marketing. To leverage on this trend, business would now have TikTok accounts to target the right millennial audience with funny and exciting short video contents. Focus on AI in Marketing: In 2020, a lot of emphasis would be placed on the implementation of Artificial Intelligence to promote business. For example, the existence of voice search will greatly increase relevance in the online development of search. Online services will now create voice query analysis and rework their content to reflect this development. This would impact user experience when it comes to google searching as voice makes it more easy to communicate what a user is searching for. ALSO READ: Four reason why digital marketing matters
Canadian Ecologist, John Lieber, talks about sustainability and environmental change.
We had the opportunity and pleasure to interview the highly knowledgeable and delightful John Lieber. In addition to being an ecologist and urban planner, John is a LEED AP (BD+C) and ISA Certified Arborist. He has participated in wide range of environmental planning project across all sectors. He is currently working with the City of Toronto but also consults. TFA: Please tell us a little bit about yourself? JL: I’m an ecologist, urban planner, and sustainability advocate. I work with the City of Toronto but also consult with my firm Jungle Capital. TFA: What inspired you to become an ecologist? JL: The source of so much heartache in the world comes from the mismanagement of natural resources. I want to reduce that heartache and change the narrative of human beings from a destroyer of nature to a creator of it. TFA: What do you think a person can do to help the environment? JL: Fill every space they command with plants. Vote for environmental leaders. Donate to non profits. Be optimistic. TFA: What are some of the environmental projects you have taken up? JL: I have wrote Op-Ed’s such as my piece “Urban Ecology: A Bright Future for Sustainable Cities” in Revelator News, participated in high profile urban planning projects such as Toronto’s Parkland Strategy, and was invited to the United Nations Climate Action Summit by the Secretary General for my Natural Based Solution contribution titled “Ecology Positive Cities Framework” which incentivizes plants on and within buildings. TFA: In one statement, what message do you have to the coming generation? “Do what you can where you can. Care for life and create new life. Sacrifice consumption for discipline. Dream bigger. Out work those with bad intentions. Embrace positivity and self love. Learn how things around you operate. Get rich, Get powerful and then change what needs to be changed” – jOHn lieber Connect with John: Twitter: @jungle_capital LinkedIn: John Lieber Facebook Group: Environmental Professionals Instagram: @jungle_capital Podcast: Jungle Capital YouTube: Jungle Capital Tik Toc: Jungle_Capital
Creating a strong work ethics
Work ethics not only includes how you feel about your job, career or vocation, but also how you carry out your job responsibilities. This involves attitude, behaviour, respect, effective communication, and interaction; in simple terms, how one gets along with others. Work ethics displays many things about whom and how a person acts. Honest and accountability are some of the characteristics that make up a strong work ethics. Essentially, work ethics break down to what one does or would do in a situation. Many people are often faced with the challenge of doing what is right and acceptable versus what is wrong and under the table. If you study many companies whose work ethics include honesty, trustworthy and progressive, you would find our that they have a rather negative impact on other people. This has made people nonchalant about the way people do things that are questionable or believe it doesn’t matter. The truth is, honesty, doing a great job, valuing what you do, having a sense of purpose and being a part of something great are examples of work ethics that are important. In order to keep your conscience in check, you need to create a proper work ethics – having the desire to do what is right at any given situation. Work ethics are intrinsic; they come from within. A question may involve where they came from, if they come from within. Philosophically, this may lead to various perspectives; however, the truth about work ethics, and where they come from are answered from a Christian overview. Work ethics come from God the creator. God made humans in His image, and His word proclaims these various work ethics — honesty, integrity, doing a job well, keeping things in check, and accountability factors. But these work ethics can be instilled and cultivated, so that they become a habit – one that would not depart from you.
Effective strategies that can help boost your career
Do you remember starting out your career? Who was your first boss and how was your relationship with them? I’m pretty sure you didn’t learn how to have an effective and successful relationship with your boss from the beginning. Because that’s not something your company teaches you. You learn that through experience — and, sometimes, through mistakes. Some of those mistakes can really cost you a lot on your career advancement, so is it okay if I try to help you avoid them by showing you some strategies right now and as quickly as possible? The truth is, when you are building trust with your boss, you need to respect his or her time, and most especially their space. They would in turn trust you implicitly. Your boss has to have complete faith in your ability to deliver 100%. This trust is the bedrock of your relationship. Build it from scratch and re-instill it on a daily basis. Do not ever waste their time. Bosses are busy people, and so many employees don’t understand this. Don’t choke them by interrupting their conversations with other people, don’t invade their privacy. You’d just be shooting in the wrong direction. Schedule meetings and stick to time. Always remember, time is of essence so be punctual, and don’t go over board. At this stage of your career, I’m very sure you have your own strong opinions about your current boss (For every boss I worked with, I always had a solid and unique opinion about them). My joy is that you’ll put these proven strategies into practical use, as they will help you climb the ladder of success faster in your chosen career. I wish you all the success you deserve in your career journey!
Four Reasons why Digital Marketing Matters
Why does digital marketing matter so much that everyone has it on blogs, social media, online stores, online ads, emails and more? The truth is consumers are turning ever more to the online marketplace. Below are four important reasons you should digitally promote your small business. When it comes to making decisions for your business or services, customers now use online research to aid their choices. Did you know 75% of consumers now research businesses online? Five out of every ten will depend on social media or review sites to conduct their research. When prospective clients are looking for you online and your business is not visible, they won’t see you; however, they will see your competitors the possibility of your customers going for your competitors could be high. So endeavor to create a very strong online presence for your business. Creating SEO related contents is one important tactic that you can adopt for your business. It needs a more flexible approach that can adapt to the constant landscape change, while ensuring that your business methods are data driven and targeted to your key audience. Over 62% of small businesses use digital marketing, which means that you may be in the minority if you do not have a digital marketing strategy for your business. As long as you are not visible to potential customers, they are finding out about your competition, giving them sales instead of you, which becomes a challenge for you by the time you start to notice this. More than ever before, people now have more access to the online world. Online search is already a big part of the customer experience. It looks unlikely that it is going to change; but in fact, it is almost certain the importance of the online market is going to continue to increase tremendously. In summary, any business that doesn’t tap into the digital marketing space is going to end up losing out on all the awareness, branding and potential return.
3 Trust Elements of Top-Performing Landing Pages
If you ever thought about creating a landing page for your business, these 3 amazing elements are the things you should look out for to achieve a high converting landing page. So, here are 3 elements that could help you achieve an effective landing page: Prove that you’re experienced: How long have you been doing this landing page thing? What’s your background? Or, if you offer a service, how long has it been in existence and how does it perform in the competitive environment? This is the obvious part of building trust. You need to answer these questions in all honesty. But you’re probably already doing this. This is what most businesses or entrepreneurs are actually good at; talking about their experience or longevity or what they’ve been doing all this time. Provide Social Truth: Don’t you just love it when people say very nice things about your business? Now before you say “but I don’t have any testimonials yet,” you need to start thinking of creative ways to provide the social proof you need to at least start the trust ball rolling. Maybe no one has used your “stuff” yet, but certainly there are people (smart, respectable people) who know you and would endorse your business or the service you provide. Be a Resource: Give your visitors the things they need. You should use this strategy on your sales pages even before you get to the transaction of email or money exchange. Be helpful and remain helpful. People would always remember you for this.
How to Boost the Conversion Rate of your Website
Don’t get it mixed up. The efforts you make in driving traffic and increase your ranking on search engines is often confused with those for increasing conversion rates for your website. But now that user experience is improved and fast becoming a criteria for search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization, these are now becoming a complementary process in promoting and marketing your business. The efforts you put into SEO won’t ruin conversions on your site. And your CRO (conversion rate optimization) strategies won’t harm your search either. When creating your marketing plan, you might want to consider creating different pages for different stages of your conversion funnel. This would depend on the strategy you create and your business’s needs, you might also find yourself designing SEO-focused pages in correlation to CRO-focused pages. Changing your focus means a change in content. You would now produce contents that are valuable to your niche, and would get your site rank better rather than creating content to convert your visitors in to buyers immediately. As you create each page, it should have a goal towards micro or macro conversions, displaying soft CTAs (calls to action) or hard CTAs. You might start to wonder if your SEO-focused content is going to interfere in these conversions. Not too worry, it won’t. As Google’s algorithms focus on predicting and addressing visitors’ behavior online, great opportunities arise to combine your SEO and CRO strategies for a powerful marketing campaign.
What is The Next Revolution in B2B Sales?
In 2019, Digital tools and trends drastically changed the way B2B organizations sold to their customers. But what is to be expected in 2020? We have seen how digitization introduced new customer touch-points, the sudden need for mobile strategies, and more customer-centric organizational structures. Buyer behaviors changed, as did the way B2Bs businesses had to market. Now, B2B marketers are fired up to witness another significant revolution in sales – possibly the biggest ever. Here’s what you need to expect in the changes of B2B sales in 2020. As a B2B, your customers will thrive to be digitally savvy businesses who want to know how your product or service will impact their bottom lines. Currently, It is no longer enough to offer an outstanding product or service – you must also optimize your UX. At every touch-point with customers, your brand must deliver an astonishing UX. This includes your landing page or website, mobile applications, physical store, voice calls, and virtual communication. Cover all the basics to impress today’s business people. Customer retention and loyalty is significant to the long-term success of your B2B. Promote brand awareness and spread your word-of-mouth advertising by prioritizing customer support. In terms of offering customers the product or service they so desire, digital marketers today must focus on value rather than price. It is not enough to be the cheapest in your sector. You must provide the best value for the best price. To make customer experience a core objective at your company, you should focus on what makes your brand unique. This is one major reason customers will choose you instead of your competition. Let this be a core aspect of your business strategy.
How Outsourcing Can Help Your Startup Business
There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there with amazing talents, but one mistake they tend to make is that, they believe that have the ability to do it all. This can really slow down down the growth of the business. By outsourcing the day to day business tasks, the entrepreneur has more time to really focus on generating income and improving his or her workforce. Most entrepreneurs have long seen outsourcing as a strategic tool meant for huge businesses, but the technology behind outsourcing has made it an accessible tool for small and medium businesses. Indeed, outsourcing has made a positive impact on the success, growth and productivity of businesses. These days, small and medium businesses are outsourcing tasks. Why? because technology has gotten to the point where experts are able to work from anywhere in the world. In addition, the availability and accessibility of qualified professionals and experts who are no longer in the corporate world, for example, virtual executive assistants, marketing managers, graphic designers, copywriters, web developers, HR consultants, PR directors, IT specialists, and the list goes on. These freelancers come on board as subcontractors and save the small business owner the hassle of paying costly expenses associated with payroll taxes and costs such as health insurance and workers pension, as well as the confinement that growing a company in-house can present. Honestly, the first few steps you take towards outsourcing can be time-consuming, but when you figure out how to build your business with help from external professionals, this can produce an increase in efficiency and economical of scale. Successful entrepreneurs realize the inevitable power of outsourcing to handle areas of their businesses that are critical but simply don’t make have the time or expertise to deal with personally.
