If you’re in the market for a new web hosting service, HostGator is certainly an option that will come on your radar. It’s a reputable company within the web hosting industry. Like most web hosts, HostGator has a wide range of plans, options, and hosting types to accommodate the needs of different websites. Today, I want to put more emphasis on the HostGator Cloud. Cloud hosting is new compared to other types of web hosting. Rather than your website being hosted on a local server, it’s hosted on multiple remote servers. One of the biggest benefits of cloud hosting is the ability to scale on-demand. So it’s a great option for fast-growing websites with high volatility in their site traffic. For those of you who are interested in using the cloud to host your website, I strongly recommend that you review my analysis of HostGator Cloud. I’ll cover their plans, pricing, benefits, and everything else that you need to know before finalizing your decision.
HostGator Cloud Web Hosting PlansThere are three cloud plans offered by HostGator. The cloud uses premium hardware, low-density servers, and multiple layers for caching. As a result, this speeds up your page loading times. As your traffic increases, HostGator Cloud plans make it possible for you to increase your resources with a click on-demand. All of this happens without any downtime, reboots, or data migrations. Regardless of the plan you choose, you’ll have access to HostGator’s intuitive dashboard. From here, you’ll be able to monitor all of the metrics related to your website’s performance. That’s what you’ll use to allocate any additional resources accordingly. Basically, you have complete control of your usage with the HostGator Cloud. Let’s take a closer look at each individual cloud hosting plan. Hatchling CloudThe Hatchling Cloud is the entry-level cloud hosting plan from HostGator. It’s made for hosting one domain and has 2 GB of RAM. Like all cloud plans, the Hatchling comes with a free SSL certificate. Pricing for this plan starts at $4.95 per month as an introductory offer. Your contract will renew at $8.95 per month. You can add on SiteLock monitoring, CodeGuard site backups, professional email, and HostGator SEO tools for additional annual fees. This plan is best for new websites that want to be hosted on the cloud. Even though you can allocate new resources on demand, you’ll likely want to upgrade as your total monthly traffic increases. Baby CloudHere’s a quick glance at what the Baby Cloud offers compared to the Hatchling. As you can see, the Baby Cloud can host unlimited domains, and has twice as much available CPU space, and double the memory. The rate for new cloud customers is $7.95 per month, before renewing at $11.95 per month. Right now they’re running a deal where you can actually get the introductory rate reduced down to $6.57 per month, which is a great value. All you need to do is sign up and the discount will automatically be applied at the checkout. This is the most popular cloud hosting plan offered by HostGator. I’d say it will likely be the option that’s the most suitable for the majority of you. Business CloudThe Business Cloud is HostGator’s top-tier cloud hosting plan. Like the Baby Cloud, it also hosts an unlimited number of domains on a single plan. However, the Business plan comes with access to 6 cores, as opposed to just 2 or 4 cores on the Hatchling and Baby plans. Your HostGator Business Cloud also has access to 6 GB of RAM. It’s the only cloud hosting plan that comes standard with a dedicated IP address. This feature is not available on the Hatchling plan and it costs an additional $4 per month on the Baby Cloud plan. Considering that the Business Cloud starts at $9.95 per month, that extra feature is a great value. However, it’s worth noting that renewals jump up to $17.95 per month once your initial contract expires. Alternative Hostgator hosting optionsWhile the primary focus of this review is on the HostGator Cloud, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t mention the other hosting options offered by this provider. Cloud hosting isn’t for everyone. So if you’re in the market for a more traditional type of web hosting plan, you may want to consider one of these options as an alternative. Dedicated server hostingWith a dedicated server, your website will be renting a physical server from HostGator. This server will only be used for your site. It’s a faster option than shared or VPS hosting since you won’t be sharing any resources, storage, or bandwidth with other websites. Dedicated servers are ideal for those of you who are a bit more tech-savvy. If you want complete control over your server in terms of security and flexibility, this is your best bet. Pricing for HostGator dedicated servers starts at:
Compared to the cloud hosting plans, these dedicated servers are priced significantly higher. VPS hostingVirtual private servers from HostGator give you flexible software options. You’ll gain full root access, which gives you added control in your environment. The VPS plans are a step up from shared hosting, but not quite as in-depth or expensive as the dedicated servers. For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at how these VPS plans are priced, so you can weigh them as an option against cloud hosting.
If you’re already using cPannel for web hosting, SiteGround will migrate you to VPS hosting for free. Shared hostingIf you’re on a budget and don’t want to use the cloud, shared hosting is the bottom-tier plan offered by HostGator. Plans start at $2.75 per month, $3.95 per month, and $5.95 per month, respectively. The problem with this option is that you’re going to be sharing resources with other websites. So if those sites have traffic spikes or higher volumes of visitors, it will impact the metrics on your site as well. So if you want to save some money, but don’t want to sacrifice performance, cloud hosting will be a better option for you. Shared hosting doesn’t give you the flexibility to manage your resources the way that cloud hosting does. Benefits of HostGator Cloud for web hostingNow that you’ve had a chance to see some of the other types of web hosting offered by HostGator, let’s get back to focusing on the HostGator Cloud. The following benefits refer specifically to the cloud plans. So for those of you who are considering one of those alternative options, I can’t guarantee the same advantages. High uptimes and fast load timesWhen measuring the performance of a web hosting service, uptime and page loading speeds are two of the most important metrics to consider. Let’s take a look at how a HostGator Cloud test website performed so far this year. Over the past six months, HostGator Cloud had a 99.995% average uptime rate. That’s about as exceptional as it gets. As you can see from the table above, the page loading speed fluctuates quite a bit so far this year. The fastest average monthly response time was 280 ms, while the slowest was 736 ms. But on average, the response time in 2019 is 514 ms. Truthfully, it’s definitely not the fastest loading time we’ve seen. But with that said, it’s still very fast, and far from the slowest. Based on these numbers, I can’t say that you’ll be disappointed with your uptimes or loading speed if you decide to go with a cloud hosting plan from HostGator. User-friendlyHostGator Cloud is very easy to use. It’s a great option for beginners, as well as users who have more experience with web hosting. The cloud plans make it possible for you to allocate your resources as needed whenever you’re experiencing traffic spikes. That’s not the case with their other plans, which would require you to upgrade as you reached limitations on resources. Even if you’ve never done this before, the interface is very easy to manage. Another reason why HostGator Cloud is so user-friendly is because you won’t have to worry about outrageous pricing. These plans don’t surprise you with monthly overage fees when you exceed your plan limits. That’s a major downside of other web hosting plans. Lots of freebiesThe reason why cloud hosting from HostGator is so fast is because it doesn’t rely on typical servers. Instead, the servers from remote data centers work in unison with a person’s web browser to limit the number of resources required to host the website. Things like managed cloud resources, data mirroring, and integrated caching make this possible, which comes free with your cloud hosting plan. Furthermore, you’ll get free server monitoring to alert you if there are any hardware problems. When you sign up for HostGator cloud, you’ll have access to cPannel as well. As I said before, you’ll get a free migration if you’ve been using cPannel with your current web host. Easy access to customer supportHostGator Cloud comes with 24/7/365 customer support, which is crucial for web hosting. My favorite part about this is their support portal. Rather than having to pick up the phone or chat online, there’s a good chance you can find the answer to your question here. Here’s an example of a tutorial that explains the step-by-step process of how to add resources to your cloud hosting plan. HostGator has tons of these for nearly every aspect of cloud hosting. It’s a quick way to find a solution to your problem. With that said, phone support and live chat is always available as well. Personally, I prefer live chat as opposed to picking up the phone. But you’ll have both options depending on your personal preference. Other considerationsBased on the benefits that we just discussed, I think we’ve established that HostGator Cloud is a top choice to consider if you want to use cloud hosting. But with that said, there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind before you make that decision. I briefly touched on this earlier when we discussed the cloud hosting plans, but the initial rates are just introductory offers. When your contract renews, you’ll be paying more. Depending on your plan, you can expect prices to increase by roughly 80%. While HostGator has its fair share of freebies, there are also some upsells along the way as well. Some of these are automatically checked off in your shopping cart, so make sure you review that page thoroughly before you commit to anything. ConclusionOverall, HostGator is a reputable name in the web hosting space. Their cloud hosting service is a great option for those of you who want to take advantage of cloud website hosting. If you compare those plans to their standard shared hosting options, the cloud is the superior choice in my opinion. However, if you don’t think cloud hosting is for you then you could always consider VPS or dedicated server hosting from HostGator as well. For those of you who still aren’t convinced on the HostGator Cloud, you can check out my list of the best web hosting services for some other viable options. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/hostgator-cloud-web-hosting-review/
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Anyone can create a website. Just because you own or manage a website, it doesn’t automatically mean that you’re a natural born designer. But the design and layout of your website will have a huge impact on its success. In fact, 48% of people say that the design of a website is the top factor they use when it comes to determining how credible a business is. 38% of people will stop using websites with unattractive layouts. So if you want to create unique and beautiful landing pages without having to design them from scratch, you’re going to want to use pre-designed templates. WordPress is the best place to find these. That’s because WordPress is the most popular CMS platform in the world, and has been for the past seven years in a row. It controls nearly 60% of the entire CMS market across the globe. With more than 500 new sites launching on WordPress each day, it’s also the fastest growing CMS worldwide. 34% of the whole internet is run via WordPress. So if you were on the fence about using WordPress to manage your site, hopefully now you’re convinced. For those of you who are already using WordPress, you’re ahead of the game. Now it’s time to design the best landing pages for your WordPress site. With so many options to choose from, I’ve narrowed down the top 11 WordPress landing page templates to make the decision much easier for you.
1. LandkitLandkit is extremely easy to use, yet it’s designed for high performance. The hybrid composer page builder makes it possible for you to design your website without having to write any code. It doesn’t use many server resources, which makes it perfect for websites with high volumes of traffic. You can use the Landkit template to functionally present information in a way that’s attractive to your website visitors. Another reason why I recommend Landkit is because the landing page templates are so versatile. They can be used for pages related to things like:
The list goes on and on. Landkit makes it easy for you to change the colors to match your website color schemes. It’s also compatible with the WooCommerce plugin, for those of you who are using WordPress for your ecommerce site. Landkit has more than 70 page elements for complete customization. You can choose from 12 header styles, and add use the built-in WordPress mega menu. This landing page theme can be purchased for $49. 2. LandingThe Landing template from Themify is another versatile option for you to consider. It comes with a drag and drop page builder, making it easier than ever before to customize all of the page elements to your liking. Landing has more than 25 builder layouts for you to choose from, based on the type of page that you want to create. There are options specifically created for products, portfolios, marketers, events, ebooks, weddings, agencies, restaurants, mobile apps, personal pages, and more. I like this template because it has a responsive design on all devices, and it’s retina ready as well. Landing has cool header options such as:
These choices are ideal for those of you who want to draw more attention to background images and CTAs on your landing page. Another benefit of Landing is the fact that it has MailChimp integration, so you can use this landing page to collect email addresses. The standard Landing WordPress template costs $59. Developers can buy it for $69. 3. BeOnePage LiteBeOnePage Lite is meant to portray a futuristic and interactive design. This template can be customized to be colorful as well. It comes with a full-screen layout and slider that can be used to display things like images, videos, icons, and other graphics. Another benefit of this template is that it can support several different media files. The parallax effect of BeOnePage Lite ensures that all scrolling will be very smooth on the user’s end. It has a responsive design, with lots of customizable options for you to consider. BeOnePage Lite is a retina ready template that can be used as a landing page for virtually any website. So if you’re looking for a modern WordPress template that’s free to install, BeOnePage Lite should be taken into consideration. 4. FotonFoton was developed with software and mobile app promotion in mind. So for those of you who are creating a landing page to drive mobile app downloads or sell software, this template should be at the top of your list. You can import this template into WordPress with just one click. To customize your page settings, you can take advantage of the drag and drop page builder, which is extremely easy for anyone to use. No coding is required to use Foton. It has WooCommerce integration, slider revolution, and excellent support. It’s also fully responsive and easy to change color themes. Foton comes with free plugins and is optimized for SEO purposes. It has shortcodes designed for portfolios as well, such as lists, projects, sliders, galleries, masonry, and hover layouts. Transitions from page to page are very smooth. The font sets and icons are attractive and easy to change as well. Shortcodes for videos and call-to-actions are definitely ones that you’ll want to take advantage of. The Foton WordPress landing page template is priced at $59. 5. JevelinJevelin is another multi-purpose WordPress landing page template. Some of the top features of this theme include:
There is a great video installation guide, making it possible for anyone to install Jevelin, even if you don’t have experience adding landing page templates to your WordPress site. The fact that it has built-in capabilities with one of the best WordPress form plugins is another added bonus. Jevelin has great reviews from website owners who are using this template on their sites. The drag and drop builder paired with mega menus, custom widgets, social sharing functionality, and ecommerce support make it a popular option. This WordPress landing page template can be bought for just $59. 6. LaunchkitLaunchkit is definitely a one size fits all landing page template, which I’m not saying in a negative way by any stretch. I like Launchkit because it can be used for virtually any landing page for any business type. They offer versatile headers with all different types of media in mind. You can customize headers, CTAs, and forms in a way that positions them for high conversions. Launchkit has simple colors, so your website always looks good, regardless of the screen size or type that it’s being viewed on. Top features of Launchkit include:
This template comes with more than 600 Google Fonts as well. With that in mind, you should check out my guide on the best Google Fonts that go together on your website. For the reasonable price of $59, Launchkit is definitely one of the best landing page templates you can find for your WordPress site. 7. The GemIf you’re looking for a multi-purpose landing page that is optimized for high performance, look no further than The Gem. This template offers a creative design that’s modern and suitable for all different types of websites. There are more than 70 built-in concepts. So you can find a landing page that fits your needs.
These are just some of the many options that showcase the versatility of this WordPress landing page template. It’s fully responsive and looks great on both desktop devices and mobile screens. The Gem is compatible with WooCommerce, making it a top choice for those of you who have an ecommerce shop. With the visual composer, you can easily change elements on your landing pages with the drag and drop builder. The template is compatible with plugins and also comes with premium sliders. You can buy this landing page template for $59. 8. KallyasMore than 35,000 websites are using Kallyas for landing page templates. They have more than 65 live demos, with new ones coming out each month. I always like it when landing page templates offer lots of live demos because it makes it easier to give you inspiration for designing your own website. Top benefits of Kallyas include:
The one-click installation makes it easy for you to start editing your website in minutes. They have demos for things like weddings, makeup artists, bloggers, kids websites, membership sites, news, medical, sports, and dozens more. Kallyas has more than 100 pre-built elements into the template. This gives you seemingly unlimited options when it comes to customizing your landing pages. Kallyas is priced at $69. 9. SoftboxSoftbox is perfect for those of you who want a clean and professional design for landing pages on your website. It’s easy to choose your layout and customize the elements with some of their pre-built options. It works on all major web browsers, screens, and devices. Softbox is retina ready and fully responsive. They have templates designed specifically for home pages, blogs, and interior landing pages as well. In a word, Softbox can be described as simple. But when it comes to your website, simple designs have higher conversion rates. Compared to some of the other WordPress landing pages on our list, Softbox is offered at a lower price point. This template can be yours for just $39. 10. FusionThe Fusion WordPress template is designed with mobile app landing pages and portfolio landing pages in mind. So if you’re looking to showcase one or both of these things on your website, you should take a closer look at this option. It’s an ideal solution for agencies and developers. The pages can be set up so that creatives can showcase their products. This holds true for both firms or individuals as well. The typography is super clean. All of the design elements and whitespace is managed perfectly with this template, so the eyes of your website visitors are always drawn to the right spot on the page. Fusion has a simple shortcode builder and easy customization. Everything integrates seamlessly into WordPress for you to manage. This template has more than 1,500 retina icons, a revolution slider, and the ability to create a gallery with captions. It comes with over 500 Google Fonts, Contact Form 7, and an Ajax loading gallery as well. Fusion costs $49 to install. 11. LeadinjectionLast, but certainly not least, on our list is Leadinjection. As the name implies, this template is designed especially for generating leads. They have pre-built layouts for things like:
As you can see, these lead generation templates are extremely versatile and can fit the needs of nearly any website. The template comes with a Lead Modal plugin, that’s basically a popup on your site that can be used to generate leads. This can be based on timing, exit intent, or other trigger options. Leadinjection has all different types of opt-in forms for your landing pages as well. You can fully customize your CTA, and even add a click to call button for your mobile site. If this sounds like the landing page template that you want, it can be purchased for $39. ConclusionIf you need help designing a landing page for your WordPress website, I’m confident that you can find what you’re looking for somewhere in these options that I’ve listed above. I tried to include something for everyone on here. Some of these templates are made for multiple purposes, while others are made specifically for things like mobile apps, ecommerce, or lead generation. Price is another factor that you can take into consideration when making this decision. While there are some free WordPress landing page templates, the rest tend to be priced between the $39 and $69 range. So keep this list in mind when you’re on the search for the perfect WordPress landing page template. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/top-wordpress-landing-page-templates/ There are nearly 1.7 billion websites worldwide. This number continues to grow each day. What do all of these sites have in common? In one way or another, they all use some form of HTML. That’s why learning basic HTML is such a useful skill. Here’s the thing. You can definitely build a website without having to write a line of code. But with that said, once your site is live you should still know how to read and some HTML on your own. So whether you’re creating a new website, have an existing website, or you just want to learn more about coding, this is guide will serve as the perfect introduction to HTML for you. Let’s start with the basics. What exactly is HTML?
This acronym stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Basically, it’s the standard format used to create web pages, web applications, and documents. This computer language is a series of code that is typically written in a text file and then saved as HTML. When viewed on a web browser, this code translates to a properly formatted blend of text and other media. HTML is behind every web page you see online, including this page that you’re reading right now. Understanding hypertext and markup languageAs I’ve already mentioned, HTML stands for hypertext markup language. But those words don’t mean much to most people, so I want to break them down even further so you can fully understand the definition. The word hypertext dates back more than 50 years. It was invented to describe links in a document that make it possible for a viewer to jump to another place in the document or to a completely new document. This is something that we see and use every day in the modern Internet. Here’s a visual representation of what hypertext looks like. I’m sure you’re familiar with hyperlinks, which is a form of hypertext. As you browse online, you’ll see either http:// or https:// before every web page in your web browser. This stands for hypertext transfer protocol. Markup language refers to how documents and web pages are displayed. You see words that are bold, italic, or larger on a page. But behind the scenes, the markup language is the reason why certain components appear differently on a page. Markups are characterized by tags and attributes. Most of the time these tags come in pairs. There are start tags and end tags, which are also known as opening tags and closing tags. When to use HTMLHTML is the default language for all websites on the Internet. But it’s also used for various types of documents, such as ebooks. When an HTML document gets rendered by a web browser, all of the markup language and tags are hidden. The display automatically gets changed to display a reader-friendly version of the document (what you’re seeing right now). Do you need to learn HTML to create a website? The short answer is no. Unless you’re planning to build pages from scratch and pursue web development, you won’t necessarily need to know every single component of HTML. You can probably get away without knowing HTML if you’re using a CMS, website builder, or blogging platform. For example, if you’re using WordPress as your blogging CMS, the visual editor automatically translates your text to HTML. Working in the visual editor will display content similar to a standard email message or Microsoft Word document. With that said, there are times when visual editors don’t always work the way you want to. You might find yourself in a situation where you want to format something a certain way and it’s not getting displayed properly. Furthermore, your HTML also needs to be optimized for non-human readers. Search engine bots are crawling your website for indexing purposes. The way that your HTML gets read will have an impact on your SEO. Website accessibility also needs to be taken into consideration. Computers can translate web pages into sound for people with disabilities. They rely on the structure and quality of HTML for this. While the platforms on the market today make it possible to operate a website without knowing HTML, it’s still in your best interest to learn the basics. Choosing your HTML editorFor those of you who are planning to create web pages using HTML, you’ll need to use an HTML editor. These editors are the best way to organize your code and keep everything clean. Editors are great because they recognize whenever a new tag is opened. These tags are automatically closed by the software, ensuring that your code doesn’t have bugs. This also limits the number of typing and keystrokes you have to make. The best HTML editors let you preview your HTML to see how the content will look from a web browser. There are tons of options online. But I’ve narrowed down a handful of the top HTML editors for you to consider. You can also practice HTML with this free tool from W3Schools. That’s what I’m going to use to show you examples of HTML as we continue. HTML basicsBefore you start writing HTML, you need to understand the three main components.
These can be described as the building blocks or foundation of HTML. Once you learn what these are and how they work, it will be easier for you to move forward. I’ll go into greater detail on each of these below. TagsIn short, tags are used to distinguish HTML code from normal text. The way your document gets displayed will be based on the tag instructions. Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to make something bold. The tag for bold is <b>, which is pictured above. This compares to the text above it, which is <p>, or a standard paragraph text. Once the code is rendered, it’s displayed how we would normally see it on a web page, as you can see from the right side of the screenshot above. Now let’s say you wanted to make something italicized. The HTML tag would look like this: Pretty straightforward, right? All I’m doing is using the tags to change the way the text appears when it’s on a web page. Take a look at those tags closely. Do you notice a difference between the opening tag and closing tag? The closing tags have a slash, indicating that the italics, bold, or whatever other tag you’re using stops here. If that example above didn’t have a slash in the closing tag, anything written after it would continue to be italicized. Hyperlinks are also created with tags. Here’s what the HTML tag would look like if I wanted to hyperlink to the Quick Sprout homepage. This tag is a little bit more in-depth than the bold and italics examples. But the same concept still applies. There is an opening tag and closing tag with text in between. The way these tags are written determines what the result will look like on the web page. Every web page starts with a <!DOCTYPE html>. Then the first line of the file says <html> as well. You can see this on the three examples that I showed you above. This tells browsers how to read the code. ElementsAn HTML element consists of the opening tag, closing tag, and the content in between the two. So when we were going through different examples of tags, each example was a new element. For example, let’s take a look at some potential lines of HTML. When you look on the right side of the screen at the page version of this code, you see four total sentences and two paragraphs. Now, look at the HTML code on the left side of this split screen. You can see how the three different elements are identified. Elements can be simple, such as the bold example above, or they can be a bit more complex. The document above starts with an open <body> tag, and also ends with a closed </body> tag. So everything within those two tags can also be considered one element. But within that entire body, there could be dozens, hundreds, or thousands of additional elements, depending on how long and complex your content is. AttributesFor the most part, tags are used to define how content is displayed in HTML. But with that said, there are times when additional information within an element needs to be added. In these instances, you would use an attribute to define a specific characteristic of the element in question. Attributes consist of two things:
They are placed inside the start tag of an element. Here’s an example to show you what I mean. The attribute used here is align=”center” and it falls within the <p> opening tag. It means that whatever text comes before the closing </p> tag will have a specific characteristic defined by the attribution. In this case, the attribute said to center the text. We saw another example of this earlier when I created a hyperlink for the Quick Sprout home page. Beginner HTML cheat sheetThere are thousands of different ways you can write content in HTML. But if you’re just starting out with, there’s no reason for you to learn all of them right away. Instead, I’ll show you some basic HTML tags and explain what they’re used for. Then you can practice applying them in an HTML editor. Heading tags<head> … </head> These tags are used to showcase specific information on pages such as title tags and meta tags. Proper use of heading tags can increase your search engine traffic. Title tags<title> … </title> Your title will appear within the header of the page. It will give search engine crawlers more information about the primary content of a particular page. Paragraph tags<p> … </p> You’ve seen these throughout the examples that I showed you above. They denote a new paragraph of text. Hyperlinks<a href=”link”> … </a> This tag and attribute is used to display the anchor text for hyperlinks. The full link would be written in between the quotation marks. Images<img /> Image tags are used to present image files on the page. Tables<table> … </table> This tag contains all of the information related to content in a table. It also identifies content as a table. Footers<footer> … </footer> Anything in between these tags would be in the footer block of a page. ConclusionEvery website uses HTML. So if you’re building a website or currently manage a website, it’s in your best interest to know what’s going on behind the scenes of your web pages. I’m not suggesting that you should go out and start building pages from scratch without any experience as a developer. There’s really no reason for that. But you should have a basic understanding of what HTML is, how it works, and where to edit it on your website. Here’s what I suggest. Use one of the HTML editors that I showed you earlier to practice your basic coding skills. Then just go through and try to replicate some of the examples that I covered in this beginner guide. That’s the best way to get your feet wet with HTML if you don’t have any experience with it. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/beginners-guide-to-html/
Business
Why you need to focus on video marketing in 2019Online video is on an upswing this year. Even before the internet became capable of transmitting huge video data, video and moving pictures have always appealed to audiences. It is only a matter of time before the video content becomes the supreme medium on the internet. Video allows for a lot of creativity and it appeals to a wider audience. Video immediately satisfies the senses because you hear it and you see it. This is the medium that puts the audience right in the center of the experience. If you are a fanatic of sports, watching a game live, let’s say a basketball game, is certainly more exciting than reading about it on a blog. You get to see the action, a drama, and the impossible shots firsthand. Videos give facts exactly, so you don’t have to imagine anything. Facts are handed to the audience as effortless truth. Internet is becoming faster and faster and hosting videos and uploading files have become easier. Right now, people use sites specifically dedicated to video like YouTube but it wouldn’t be long before every website will be forced to come up with video posts or switch to video content entirely. YouTube has been such a success for users that it set new trends in social media and how we perceive the world. You can literally get any information you want and meet people across cultures and borders. YouTube gives us a glimpse of other places and experiences. Videos on the internet made the world smaller and information more satisfying. Social media like YouTube can be a trip to any place you choose to input on the search box. Video Marketing for Sales
Digital marketers should brush up on their skills on creating video content because video is the thing that will supplant other mediums in the years to come. Statistics show that 90% of companies are using video to promote products and services. Videos are necessary for a marketing campaign. Video has proven itself in producing real ROIs. 9 in 10 marketers have acquired a new customer from social media through video. 3/4 of consumers say video convinced them to buy or download an app. If you are an Amazon seller, you can make your products amazing and create further interest by adding a video on your products pages. Video marketing for Amazon Sales gives definite ROIs. Videos are helpful in making consumers learn. In fact, one of the ways brands make organic engagement is through producing instruction videos and demonstration of their products and services live on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. As an Amazon Seller, you can educate your customer by coming up with some short videos about your products. Unlike a Brick and Mortar, the product is not physically present so the only way you can enhance the customer’s experience is by making some videos. Brands and Video Marketing
Video marketing is being used by brands these days and they are making quite a few experiments on it. Most brands combine videos as well as blog posts in their marketing campaign. They use varied styles such as animation videos, explainer videos, corporate videos, and other types of videos that promise to be engaging. All these videos are geared towards telling their brand story to their market. Social Media and Video Marketing Trends
YouTube is the pioneer in videos and it is still the most convenient way to find videos of any kind online. Many entrepreneurs, gurus, entertainers, and ordinary people have found their niche audience on YouTube and made money. YouTube influencers are being used by brands to promote their products. YouTube is a juggernaut and tough to beat as the primary social media for sharing videos. Facebook connects people and it has a huge impact on people’s lives. There are billions of people on Facebook. It is the number one social media platform and has control over Instagram and WhatsApp. In 2018, Facebook introduced video-based advertisements on its platform. Since adding this feature ad engagement has increased. Video marketing on Facebook is especially important because a lot of customers are motivated to purchase products based on recommendations by friends and communities. Facebook has become the second most preferred choice for sharing videos behind YouTube. This year we will see the launching of Facebook Watch which is similar to YouTube long-form videos for users and creators. This feature allows videos to be recommended to users based on interests and what’s trending. Facebook has an algorithm that tracks user likes and they can recommend long-form videos for you that specifically cater to your desires and this gives them an edge over YouTube. QuoraQuora is a relatively quiet presence on the internet which has seen an increase in users in recent years overcoming the competition in how-to and peer to peer information from Yahoo and answers.com. Quora is targeting to build how-to videos similar to what is on YouTube within the environment of Quora itself. They want fresh videos on their platform and not embeds from YouTube. Quora is a vibrant community with highly engaged users so their videos will really find an audience within the Quora ecosystem. Pinterest is another social media site that is incorporating videos for the coming year. They have revitalized their format and added the Autoplay feature for videos. Pinterest is actively used mostly by women so brands and advertisers can really find a potentially huge market here. Ever since they started pinning a post on video content there has been a sharp increase in the sharing of videos on their platform. A brand who wants to sell to women can pin running videos and video ads which can produce ROIs. Live VideosLive Videos are on both YouTube and Facebook and there is a chance these types of video will get more popular in the coming year. Statistics show that people engaging in the LIVE video has had an increase this year and they spend more time watching Live videos than recorded ones. Live videos are great because you can get instant engagement. The audience can directly comment and ask questions. You can give your audience connectivity and feedback. Make Great Videos
Data and trends should convince you to take video marketing seriously in the coming years. However, make sure your video is interesting and engaging. Don’t just make any video, make an awesome video. How? Take a look at Moovly, a drag-and-drop video maker that allows you to easily make videos from scratch or using numerous professional-looking templates. Get started! Videos Should Tell StoriesYou need to be able to tell a good story in your video. An audience responds to emotions and you should make sure that your videos are stimulating and interesting. You should make your audience feel. Establish trust with your audience by establishing your brand values and goals within minutes. If you make smartphones, show how it connects people lives and how it enhances communications and contribute to good relationships. Help people understand the value of getting a smartphone. Emotions help your products sell and a study by Neuromarketing shows that using emotions is just as effective as appealing to the rational side. Video TypeThere are several types of video you can produce but you have to choose the right one that fulfills your needs and goals. One type of video are demo videos and can be helpful in generating interest for your products and services. These videos tell consumers how to use products and how it will exactly benefit them. ConclusionVideo Marketing in 2019 is going to be exciting as various social media have activated features to incorporate videos within their ecosystem. It would be interesting to see which innovation on video sharing will set the trends and gain an enthusiastic user base. Videos are fun and are a creative way to share information. As of now, 85% of Americans use the internet to watch online videos. Marketers should use video marketing to establish brand awareness since video has already proven its potential to create interest and engagement among customers. The post Why you need to focus on video marketing in 2019 appeared first on Moovly - Easily make videos online. from Moovly – Easily make videos online https://www.moovly.com/blog/why-you-need-to-focus-on-video-marketing-in-2019 via IFTTT from https://seanbrian0.blogspot.com/2019/06/why-you-need-to-focus-on-video.html As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, building a website takes lots of hard work. This is even more so the case for those of you who are creating an ecommerce site. In addition to your website design, architecture, and all of the standard website elements, you also need to figure out how you’re going to accept payments online. If you’ve never done this before and you’re just starting some preliminary research, there’s a good chance that you’ll come across two names; PayPal and Stripe. These are both industry leaders in the online payment processing industry. Both platforms will essentially let your customers buy products or services from your ecommerce shop, but the way that these services are provided are different from platform to platform. So what’s the difference between PayPal and Stripe? Is PayPal or Stripe better for accepting payments online? These are questions that I hear all of the time when I’m consulting with ecommerce companies.
Truthfully, you probably can’t go wrong with either one. But with that said, I want to give you as much information as possible about each platform so you can decide which one is right for your ecommerce business. Basics of payment gatewaysBefore we continue, I want to make sure you understand exactly how PayPal and Stripe work. There are two terms you need to know:
Payment gateways give ecommerce sites the capability to accept payments online. These gateways are like a middleman between a business payment processor and credit card network. PayPal and Stripe both have payment gateways, which you’ll need if you’re planning to authorize online payments. A payment service provider (or PSP for short) on the other hand is a bit more involved. PayPal and Stripe are both PSPs as well. They link businesses with merchant accounts by providing the technology required to process online payments, as well as other forms of payment. PayPal and Stripe group all of their merchants into one account, as opposed to each business having a dedicated account. Basically, both of these platforms have everything you need to authorize payments as an ecommerce website. PayPal for ecommerceEven if you have no prior experience with running an ecommerce website, PayPal is definitely a name that you’ve heard before. The company has always been known for payment processing. They have the reputation for being a safe and secure way for PayPal users to buy from merchants using a PayPal balance as well as a debit or credit account linked to their PayPal profile. But PayPal offers much more features and services to accommodate ecommerce shops. So the days of PayPal only being suitable for things like eBay or other P2P payment situations are long behind us. Now they have a variety of plans for launching a business, whether you want to sell online, in person, or both. You’ll be able to accept payments from credit cards, debit cards, PayPal credits, PayPal accounts, and Venmo as well. With PayPal, you can design your own shopping cart. They have customizable solutions that are fully scalable for growing businesses. PayPal offers three main plans for you to choose from. I’ll cover each one in greater detail below. PayPal CheckoutFor those of you who already have an existing payment processor that you’re using to accept credit cards on your ecommerce site, PayPal Checkout might be a good option for you to consider. Basically, you can just add the PayPal button to your current payments page with this supplemental plan. It’s easy to integrate with your existing ecommerce platform. Once the button is added, your customers will be able to use PayPal, PayPal credits, or Venmo to buy from your online store. Conversion rates are up to 82% higher when PayPal Checkout is added to ecommerce sites. That’s because shoppers can complete the purchase in just a click or two, if they have PayPal on their phones or if they’re already logged into PayPal on their computers. There is no setup fee or monthly fee for this plan. PayPal charges merchants 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the United States. PayPal Payments StandardThe PayPal Payments Standard plan is made for merchants who don’t have an existing payment processor or want to switch providers. In addition to the PayPal payment options, you’ll also be able to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover cards. Adding the button to your website is as simple as copying and pasting some code. The checkout pages will be hosted by PayPal. This plan will cost you 2.9% + $0.30 per US transaction. There are no monthly fees or setup fees for the Payments Standard plan. PayPal Payments ProPayments Pro is the top-tier plan offered by PayPal. It allows you to create a fully customizable checkout experience on your ecommerce site. Unlike the Payments Standard plan, website visitors won’t have to leave your site to complete the checkout process. It also has a mobile-optimized checkout process and easy shopping cart integration. Payments Pro gives you a virtual terminal, which makes it possible to accept payments over the phone as well. With the added features, this plan costs $30 per month, plus the standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Stripe for ecommerceUnlike PayPal, Stripe doesn’t have their services segmented into tiered plans. Stripe’s payment processing will be the same, regardless of what features you’re taking advantage of. With that said, depending on which tools you want to use, it will cost more. But the nice part about this is that you’re only going to be charged for the features that you actually want, as opposed to paying for a plan that includes tools you don’t need. You can easily add Stripe to your ecommerce site with just one simple integration. Once that happens, the platform makes it easy for you to accept payments, process them, settle, and reconcile. You’ll be able to process credit cards and ACH transfers both online and via mobile app payments. In fact, big mobile app brands like Lyft are already using Stripe. Stripe lets you build a checkout process from scratch, or select one of their pre-built templates. The platform has features for invoicing and setting up recurring payments for subscriptions as well. Let’s take a look at some of those add-on features I was talking about earlier. ConnectStripe Connect is made so that marketplaces and platforms can accept money and pay it out to third parties. It supports ecommerce sites, crowdfunding, on-demand businesses, and travel or event platforms. Take advantage of Stripe’s UI components that are pre-built, or use their tools to create and customize everything on your own. SigmaSigma helps businesses analyze data from stripe using SQL. It can help improve the efficiency of business operations, finance departments, data teams, and product management. It’s a great way for you to get to know your business better with data. Then you can make necessary adjustments based on your findings. Pricing for Stripe Sigma varies based on the volume of monthly charges. AtlasStripe Atlas is made for those of you who are starting an online business from scratch. The startup toolkit guides you through the process of forming a company, establishing IP ownership, filling out the right documents, and getting a tax ID number from the IRS. Atlas also sets you up with a new bank account and debit card for your business. There is a $500 one-time fee for using this service. Services like bank account maintenance, tax filing, and registered agents are not included in the setup fee. These are all billed individually at an annual rate. RadarRadar is Stripe’s fraud detection, prevention, and management tool. It’s designed to analyze your data and stop potential fraud cases before they are processed. They take data from your checkout flows, payments, and financial partners to determine irregularities. Stripe’s partnership with major credit card companies and banks make it possible for them to identify fraudulent charges before you need to make a dispute. IssuingStripe Issuing is made for ecommerce businesses that want to create, distribute, and manage both physical and virtual cards for in-house purposes. You can use these cards for things like employee expense accounts. It’s supported by Google Pay and Apple Pay as well. It’s also worth noting that Stripe Issuing is a beta program that’s only being offered in the United States. TerminalFor years, Stripe was better known for its online payment processing. But now they offer Stripe Terminal, which is a POS system for in-person payments. This is a great option for those of you who have physical store locations in addition to your ecommerce shop. You can get everything you need both online and in-store from the same provider. PayPal and Stripe comparedAs you can see from everything that we’ve covered so far, these two payment service providers are very different from each other. But with that said, they have some things in common as well. Deciding between PayPal and Stripe will mostly come down to personal preference and exactly what you’re looking for. Let’s take a look at some specific features to see how each platform stacks up against the other. PriceThe pricing for PayPal is very straightforward. Only the Payments Pro plan has a monthly fee, while all three plans charge 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Stripe also charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. But they do have custom pricing packages for things like volume discounts and multi-product discounts, which can be useful for those of you who want to take advantage of the products we looked at earlier. According to research Value Penguin, Stripe is more expensive than PayPal. It can be argued that Stripe has more to offer, which might justify that higher amount. But when you compare the cost per transaction rates head to head, both services are even. SupportBoth PayPal and Stripe offer excellent customer service and technical support options. They each have their own variation of a help center, with different tools, guides, FAQ, and resources needed to troubleshoot on your own. You can also get help using:
Based on all of this, I don’t think that I can definitively say that one platform has better support than the other, so this category is a tie. Ease of useStripe and PayPal are both easy to use. But with that said, Stripe is definitely more developer-friendly, meaning it could present more of a challenge to ecommerce store owners who don’t have that type of technical knowledge. PayPal is as simple as copying and pasting some code to get set up, which is about as straightforward as it gets. So I’d say PayPal is better for beginners, while Stripe has more customizable options for developers. ContractsBoth PayPal and Stripe offer pay as you go contracts. So you won’t get locked into anything long term and can cancel at any time. You also won’t be charged a cancellation fee by either service if you decide to do so. This category is another tie. ReputationPayPal always had a reputation for its P2P payments through third-party platforms like eBay. Although now they’re taking aim at providing more services for ecommerce sites. Stripe has always been known for ecommerce solutions, but not offers POS solutions as well. Both of these companies have the tools, services, and resources you need to run an ecommerce shop. They both have exceptional online reviews as well. PayPal is the most popular digital wallet in the United States and is the most popular mobile payment method in North America. There are more than 277 million PayPal users worldwide. Based on these numbers, I’d have to give the edge to PayPal in terms of reputation. But by no means am I saying that Stripe doesn’t have an excellent reputation as well. ConclusionIf you have an ecommerce shop and you’re trying to figure out the best payment service provider, both PayPal and Stripe are top options to consider. At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to personal preference. Based on the information I gave you above, you can decide which plan meets your needs the most. I can’t definitively give an edge to one platform over the other. I’d strongly recommend both options. For those of you who still aren’t sold on PayPal or Stripe, you can review my guide on the best payment methods for your ecommerce site to find some alternative solutions. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/paypal-vs-stripe-for-ecommerce/ If you’re on the hunt for a new web hosting service, Bluehost is definitely a top option to consider. This platform powers more than 2 million sites across the globe. All web hosting services are not created equally. I see so many new webmasters make the mistake of just going with the cheapest web host or the web hosting site that appears first in their Google search results. For something as important as web hosting, you can’t rush this decision. It’s crucial that you take the time to weigh your options in order to find the best web hosting plan for your needs. That’s what inspired me to write this guide. Since so many of you will likely come across Bluehost during your search, I wanted to give you as much information about this web hosting service as possible. I’ll explain all of their hosting plans, pricing, and discuss the best parts about using Bluehost. I’ll even tell you about a couple of cons associated with Bluehost, just to make sure you have all the facts before you sign up.
Bluehost Web Hosting PlansNot every website has the same web hosting needs. Bluehost knows this and has three different types of web hosting options for you to choose from.
Choosing which kind of web hosting plan to go with will vary based on how much you want to pay, your expected site traffic, and the type of website you have. If these terms are foreign to you, I recommend reading my guide on everything you need to know about web hosting. This will give you a more detailed description of the differences between these hosting options. Shared hostingIf you have a new website and you’re on a tight budget, shared hosting might be your best option. Bluehost offers four different pricing plans for its shared hosting services.
I know what some of you are thinking. If Plus and Choice Plus are priced the same, wouldn’t you automatically go with Choice Plus? All Bluehost plans go up in price once you renew. The advertised prices above are just the introductory rates. It’s worth noting that Plus renews at $10.99 per month, while Choice Plus renews at $14.99 per month. Bluehost has managed shared hosting platforms, meaning you won’t have to worry about managing servers or anything like that. VPS hostingVPS hosting from Bluehost is the middle-tier option of the three plans. There are three pricing options for a Bluehost virtual private server.
The biggest differences in these plans are the cores, SSD storage, RAM, bandwidth, and IP addresses. With the Standard plan, you’ll get 1 core, 30 GB of SSD storage, 2 GB of RAM, 1 TB of bandwidth, and 1 IP address. Cores, SSD storage, and RAM double at each tier for the Enhanced and Ultimate packages. Using Bluehost for a VPS gives you dedicated server resources. You’ll be able to use your RAM, CPU, and disk space, no matter what other users on the same server are doing. VPS hosting also has increased security, since you won’t be sharing an operating system with any other Bluehost users. Dedicated hostingPicking a dedicated server plan from Bluehost means you’ll be taking advantage of their top of the line services. These plans are made for those of you who are tech-savvy and want complete control over your server.
As you can see, top-tier plans come at higher price points. With VPS hosting, you’re maxed out at 120 GB of SSD storage, 8 GB of RAM, 3 TB of bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses. But dedicated servers from Bluehost go all the way up to 1 TB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, 15 TB of bandwidth, and 5 IP addresses. These plans will probably exceed the needs and uses for what most of you are looking for. But with that said, as your website grows and your traffic scales, you might want to consider a dedicated server in the future. Benefits of Bluehost for web hostingNow that you have a better understanding of the plans offered by Bluehost, it’s time for us to discuss what makes Bluehost a great choice for web hosting. Low pricing optionsIf you have a brand new website, you don’t need to be spending thousands of dollars per year on web hosting. With Bluehost, you won’t have too. As you’ve already seen, the introductory rates for Bluehost shared web hosting starts at just $3.95 per month. Being able to host your site for less than $50 is a great deal. All Bluehost shared hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate and free marketing credits. When you factor in the storage and bandwidth you’re getting, that’s a fairly decent value for the price. Overall, this is one of the lowest prices you’ll see for a legitimate web host. Great securityEven though Bluehost has some inexpensive pricing options compared to other web hosts on the market today, it doesn’t mean that they’re inferior when it comes to crucial security features. I’ve already mentioned that an SSL certificate comes standard, regardless of which plan you choose. Furthermore, their plans have a feature to hide the personal information that you used when signing up for a private domain. Lots of times hackers will target this information from website owners. Bluehost has features to prevent malware attacks, as well as tools used for automatic daily backups. You’ll also get a security tool that offers spam protection for the email address associated with your website. Again, this is all a great value considering how much these plans go for. Top loading speedsPage loading speed is something that always needs to be taken into consideration when you’re shopping around for the best website host. If your site takes too long to load, it’s going to kill your engagement metrics. People will abandon your site, and you won’t be able to drive conversions. It’s as simple as that. So let’s take a look the response time for a Bluehost test website. The average response time for Bluehost so far in 2019 is 352 ms. To put that into perspective, refer to my SiteGround web hosting review. SiteGround’s average response time over the same period of time was 662 ms, which is still fast. Bluehost nearly cuts that time in half. Easy to useYou don’t need to be a tech expert to host your website with Bluehost. Nearly anyone, regardless of their experience level, can find a beginner hosting plan from this platform. That’s definitely not the case with all web hosting providers on the market today. There are plenty of web hosts out there that are specifically designed for advanced webmasters. Whether you’re using WordPress or taking advantage of the Bluehost website builder, everything will be pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Excellent supportEven though Bluehost is easy to figure out, you may still find yourself in a situation where you need some help or guidance. In most cases, you should able to find an answer through their knowledge base page. This is essentially a support center that has how-to guides, tutorials, and articles with instructions for troubleshooting and FAQ. Simply search what you’re looking for, and there will likely be a resource to help you out. Furthermore, Bluehost has 24/7 phone support, which is great for those of you who like to be talked through problems. If you’re like me, you’ll probably just take advantage of their live chat agents. It’s a fast and easy way to get an answer without having to leave their website. High uptimesYou can’t give a web hosting review without referring to uptime rates. Take a look at where Bluehost stacks up compared to other web hosting providers in this recent study. Bluehost ranked second on the list with a 99.991% average uptime for the year. That percentage is identical to MidPhase, which ranked first on the list. Furthermore, you can see that Bluehost only had seven total outages on the year, which was the lowest for all hosts in the top five, including the top-ranking provider on the list. It really doesn’t get much better than that. So if you host your website with Bluehost, you can rest assured knowing that your site isn’t going to have much downtime throughout the year. Money-back guaranteeLike most web hosting services, you won’t get a free trial to try them out. But with that said, Bluehost does offer a 30-day money-back promise. So if you’re on the fence about using Bluehost, it’s comforting to know that you’ll get refunded if you’re not ultimately satisfied in the first month. But with that said, it’s worth noting that the refund only applies to web hosting costs. So if you use Bluehost for a domain name or other add-ons, those purchases are final. WordPress hostingIf you’re using WordPress, Bluehost is definitely a top option for you to consider. That’s because this web host is just one of the three “official” recommended choices from the WordPress website. DreamHost and SiteGround are the other two recommended web hosting services on this WordPress resource. With that said, you can still use nearly any other web hosting service on the market to create your WordPress website. But it’s definitely a positive sign that Bluehost is recognized as a WordPress partner. Other considerationsWhile Bluehost has its fair share of positive characteristics, it’s still not perfect. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention some of the shortcomings of this web host. High renewal ratesI briefly mentioned this before when we were discussing the different plans and pricing options. Like many other web hosting services, Bluehost jacks up the prices once you renew your subscription. Depending on your plan, the monthly rate will change as follows:
As you can see from this list, in some instances the price more than doubles. So it’s in your best interest to commit to a longer term plan if you want to get the best rate for the longest amount of time. Bluehost offers plans for 12, 24, or 36 months. So if you know that you’re ready to commit to this web host, I’d recommend going with a three-year contract when you first sign up. It will save you money down the road. Costly site migrationsIt seems like the majority of web hosting services out there will migrate your current website to their service at no cost. This is a major selling point for new customers. However, Bluehost does not offer free website migrations. For $149.99 they’ll migrate up to five websites and 20 email accounts. This gets handled by experts at Bluehost, so you won’t have to do any heavy lifting. But with that said, you do have to pay for it, which can be a turn-off for those of you with an existing site. ConclusionSimply put, I definitely recommend Bluehost as a web hosting provider. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular services on the market today. Bluehost has exceptionally fast loading times as well as one of the highest uptime rates we’ve seen in the last year. They offer different hosting types, plans, and options to meet the needs of any website. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a plan from Bluehost that is suitable for your web hosting needs. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/bluehost-web-hosting-review/ Everyone’s heard of “the cloud.” Broadly speaking, the cloud refers to remote storage. For example, you can store pictures from your smartphone or documents on your computer to a cloud storage space like Google Drive. This is different than storing files locally on something like an external hard drive. I’m sure you’re familiar with both of these scenarios, and you probably even use cloud storage for something in your digital life. Now when it comes to web hosting, the cloud is a little bit more in depth, but the same principles still apply. Let’s start with the basics. There are four main types of web hosting:
To fully understand the differences between all of these options, refer to my guide on everything you need to know about web hosting. But right now I want to put the primary focus on cloud hosting. Although it’s the newest way to host websites, the method has been growing in popularity over the years. This graph shows the cloud computing and cloud hosting market on a global scale in billions of dollars. While cloud hosting has been around for years, not many people know exactly how it is and how it works. So what is cloud hosting? Basically, your web host isn’t connected to one physical location. That’s not the case with shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers. Now that you have a basic understanding of cloud hosting, I’ll cover the benefits. You can use this guide as a resource to determine if cloud hosting is the best option for your website. Easy to scaleTraditionally, when you’re picking a web host you need to have some idea of the type of website traffic you’re planning to get. This makes it easier for you to pick a plan to fit your needs. It’s crucial that you get a web hosting plan with enough bandwidth, storage, and disc space. But there is a common dilemma that new websites are faced with all of the time. They have to decide if they want to get the highest possible bandwidth, even if they probably won’t come close to exceeding those limits. Or should they start with a lower bandwidth plan and upgrade as their traffic starts to increase? There are pros and cons to each approach. One the one hand, a top-tier plan will come at a premium price. You’ll end up paying for a service that you won’t need until your site grows. But the second option will cause slower page loading times as your website scales until you upgrade. Cloud hosting solves those problems. Since your website is hosted on multiple remote servers, you won’t have to worry about exceeding bandwidth. If one server is maxed out, you can always pull resources from another. All of this can be easily managed and configured in-real time. Here’s what that looks like if you’re using HostGator for cloud storage. Cloud hosting allows you to scale your server without having to get approval from the hosting provider, which you’d need with VPS, shared, or dedicated hosting. Flexible pricingIf you use a traditional web hosting server, you’re going to a pay a fixed monthly rate based on the plan that you sign up for. You’ll be charged this amount even if you don’t actually use all of the resources on that server. But cloud hosting is priced based on what you actually use. Here’s an analogy. Let’s say you go to an all you can eat buffet, where the food options can also be purchased à la carte. The buffet price is $20 per person. So that’s the most you’ll have to pay, regardless of how much food you eat. But if you only eat $10 worth of food, then you’ll only be charged $10 for that meal. That’s how pricing is structured for cloud hosting. The pricing also relates back to our previous point about being able to scale your resources on demand. For example, let’s say you just built a bunch of new backlinks and you’re expecting a particular blog post on your site to go viral. Rather than upgrading your entire plan (which you’d have to do with another hosting option), you can just increase the resources needed during that traffic spike. Then you can put everything back to normal when your traffic levels out. In this case, you’d only pay for the server usage that was actually being used during the surge. Here’s a look at the pricing page for DreamHost cloud hosting plans. As you can see, pricing is based on usage. Each plan has a maximum monthly rate. Even the fine print at the bottom of the page states that you’ll only be billed for what you use. This type of pricing structure is standard for most cloud hosting services across the board. Reliable serversAs I’ve previously explained, other types of web hosting options rely on a singular server. So if something happens to the server that your site is hosted on, then your site would be offline until the server was back up and running. You’re essentially putting all of your eggs in one basket. This can be a huge risk when you’re talking about something as important as your website. But cloud hosting uses multiple remote servers and resources. If something happens to one, the others will still be able to host your site. This means that your website will have high uptime and availability rates. In addition to potential problems with one server, cloud hosting will keep your site stable, even as traffic increases. We discussed this before when we covered the ability for you to pull resources from multiple servers to manage your site. Cloud hosting is also extremely easy to set up. For those of you who want to start hosting on the cloud right away, it can be a faster deployment option than something like a dedicated server or shared server. Speed and performanceThe majority of cloud hosting servers will provide lightning fast speed. They also increase the capacity of your website, which boosts your page loading speed. That’s because all of your content will get loaded from multiple server environments. This approach doesn’t put as much strain on a singular server, the way it would if you had a dedicated, shared, or VPS plan. If your website has lots of resource-intensive data such as videos, images, sound, and other media content, this is something that you need to prioritize. Another benefit of cloud hosting is that content can be delivered from the nearest remote server, which is another reason why loading times are so fast. At the end of the day, your website visitors don’t care what type of web hosting you’re using. They just want your site to be responsive and load quickly. That’s why your loading times will have such a major impact on conversion rates. By prioritizing page loading speed with cloud hosting, your website will ultimately perform better from the user end. SecurityCloud hosting is very safe from a security standpoint. Here’s why. Your website is isolated from any potential problems with a physical server. That’s because everything is handled remotely. This won’t be the case if you’re relying on a singular dedicated server that’s hosted locally. If a local server was compromised, then your website would be at risk. You won’t need to worry about that happening with cloud hosting. For example, let’s say something went wrong with one of the servers in your cloud hosting network. Maybe it was hacked, had a system overload, or hardware failure. Your site would be fine because it could just continue using one of the many other remote servers in the network. Everything would stay up and running without any downtime or delays. Best cloud hosting servicesNow that you know the top benefits of cloud hosting, I want to show some of the best cloud hosting services available on the market today. SiteGroundSiteGround is second to none in terms of reliability for cloud hosting. Their team fully manages your cloud, so you won’t have to worry about any maintenance for your hosting. SiteGround guarantees that you’ll have enough resources on the cloud to power your site. It will be fully optimized in terms of speed and efficiency based on your traffic and usage. Their platform makes it easy for you to add RAM or CPU on-demand with just one click. SiteGround also has an auto-scale feature, which adds sufficient resources to your site in times of where traffic spikes. I would definitely take advantage of this. That way you won’t have to manually add resources and track your traffic. Your cloud service with SiteGround also comes with powerful tools like a dedicated IP, free Cloudflare CDN, free SSL, private DNS, and daily backups. SiteGround cloud hosting plans start at $60, $120, and $160 per month. HostGatorHostGator has unmetered bandwidth and storage for all of their cloud hosting plans. They offer automatic daily backups as well as daily scans to protect your site from hackers, viruses, and malware. Their cloud system has integrated caching to ensure that your pages always load as fast as possible. HostGator’s intuitive dashboard makes it easy for anyone, regardless of their tech background, to manage the performance of a website. You’ll also be able to appropriately allocate any additional resources that your site requires based on usage and traffic. HostGator cloud hosting plans start at $4.95, $6.57, and $9.95 per month. DreamHostDreamHost is a great option for those of you who are price-sensitive. They offer plans that are are charged strictly based on usage. The maximum you’d pay each month is either $4.50, $12, or $48, depending on the plan you choose. You’ll have full root access and control over your cloud servers, so there are no restrictions for software or operating systems. The only downside of DreamHost is that they don’t offer live chat and phone support. But since their platform is so straightforward and easy to use, I’m willing to look past that for the bargain rates. ConclusionCloud hosting is growing in popularity. It’s become a reliable and flexible way to host websites in the modern digital era. There are lots of great benefits to cloud hosting. I highlighted the top ones in this guide. Overall, cloud hosting should be taken into consideration if you have a website that’s growing. The flexibility of the resources and pricing structures ensure that your site will have high uptime rates and fast loading speeds, even during unexpected traffic surges. But with that said, cloud hosting isn’t necessarily for everyone. If you have an ecommerce website that always has high traffic and want to make changes to your server based on the software you’re using, you might be better off with a dedicated server. For those of you who think cloud hosting is right for your website, I’d recommend using one of the three options that I covered in this guide. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/benefits-of-cloud-hosting/ Content marketing has arguably become the biggest buzzword in the marketing industry today. It seems like you can’t have a conversation with a business owner who has an online presence without the term being brought up. Every online “expert” claims to hold the secret to content marketing. But the reality is this. Like most marketing strategies, what works for one business won’t necessarily work for another. Content marketing campaigns will vary by industry as well. So what exactly is content marketing? By definition, it’s the process of creating and distributing digital materials online to directly or indirectly promote a brand, product, or service. But that definition is so broad. To have a successful content marketing strategy as an ecommerce website, you need to take an ecommerce-specific approach.
Your content strategy won’t be the same as a B2B SaaS company or a B2C local retailer without an online presence. I’ve seen countless ecommerce sites get so caught up in their marketing plan, that they actually lose sight of what drives their business. Rather than trying to copy the content strategy of a competitor (who may or may not have a good approach) you should be focusing on ecommerce conversions. Everything you do needs to drive conversions. That’s the ultimate way to survive as an ecommerce shop. So if you can’t directly or indirectly connect conversions to your content strategy, then it’s a wasted effort. That’s what inspired me to create this guide. I want to clear up any misconceptions that you might have about content marketing and how it works. I’ve outlined a straightforward content marketing approach that’s specifically designed for ecommerce shops. Ecommerce content marketing processBefore you start blogging or uploading videos to YouTube, you need to establish a clear plan for your content strategy. Remember, everything you do ultimately needs to drive conversions. This is something that I encounter all of the time when I’m consulting with ecommerce companies. They start to tell me about their plan, which sounds great in theory, but they don’t know the “why” behind the strategy. For example, let’s say you’re putting all of your efforts into advertising on LinkedIn. You saw some information online about how many users are on the platform and how much it’s been growing over the years. Must be a good place to deploy a content marketing campaign, right? For some businesses, sure. But that’s not the case for ecommerce. You would know this if you took the time to create a plan before putting a strategy in motion. I’ve simplified the planning process into three easy steps. It’s crucial that you follow them in order. Step #1: Identify your target audienceI know this may sound simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t know the answer to this question. Take a moment to see if you really know your target audience. Here’s the thing. Your target audience needs to be crystal clear before every content marketing campaign. Otherwise, it won’t have a high success rate and lead to conversions. Without knowing your target audience, you won’t know how to reach them.
These are just the basics that you need to know, at a minimum. Identifying the target market of your startup is something that you should have done a long time ago. But your overall audience isn’t always the same for individual campaigns and strategies. For example, let’s say your company sells sports equipment online. Your audience isn’t just “people who play sports.” You can’t tailor your content around that because it’s way too broad. High school softball players aren’t the same as middle-aged male golfers. Step #2: Learn their online habitsRemember, content marketing is all about distributing digital touchpoints online. That’s why it’s so important to figure out who your audience is. You need to know where these people live online. Otherwise, you won’t know how or where to distribute the right content. Social media is a great way to distribute your content. Here’s a basic breakdown of social media usage based on age. This will tell you more about your target audience, but it’s still not enough information. Sure, based on this graph, you could eliminate the possibility of targeting users over the age of 55 on Instagram and Snapchat since they only make up 9% and 6% of the population on those platforms, respectively. However, other times broad information like this can be misleading. Take a look at the Snapchat usage. 76% of Snapchat users fall between the ages of 12 and 34. So if you’re targeting younger consumers, like Millennials or Generation Z, this might seem like the place to do it. But you need to learn their habits as well. For simplicity sake, let’s continue using the example from before. You have an ecommerce sports shop, and you’re trying to sell equipment to high school softball players. If you assume that Snapchat is the best place to distribute your content, you’re making a mistake. You haven’t done all of the research yet. In fact, 49% of Generation Z females say that they prefer to use Snapchat for sending videos of themselves. 43% of that same group says they prefer using Snapchat for posting selfies. They don’t use this platform to interact with brands. However, 48% of Generation Z females say that Instagram is their preferred social media network for following brands. Even though Snapchat has a greater marketing penetration of your target audience, it doesn’t matter if they’re not using that platform to interact with businesses online. You can’t make assumptions about habits. I alluded to this earlier about LinkedIn. While your customers may be using the platform, that network is designed for B2B marketing, not B2C ecommerce shops. Step #3: Create and distribute contentOnce you figure out what platforms are the best places to distribute content for your previously identified target audience, now you can start to create content. If you start building the content before you go through the first two steps, it’s a big mistake. You might be wasting your time creating content that people won’t end up seeing or using. Let’s say you’re spending 90% of your content marketing resources on blogging. But your audience is consuming content on YouTube and Instagram. That’s not an efficient use of your resources. The type of content you create will also depend on who you’re targeting people based on their stage in the marketing funnel. This graphic is a great resource to give you inspiration for content ideas. A consumer who has never heard of your brand or ecommerce site will be targeted differently than repeat customer who knows what they’re looking for and is ready to make a purchase. Breaking this entire process down into these three steps simplifies content marketing for ecommerce brands. But if you mix up the order of these steps, it won’t be as effective. Types of ecommerce content marketingNow that you understand the approach behind content marketing for ecommerce sites, it’s time to look at some more specific types of content that you can use for your campaigns. Keep in mind, not all of these will be applicable for every campaign you run. The content will always vary and be based on who you’re targeting and the platforms you’re planning to distribute on. BloggingI always recommend starting your content marketing strategy with blogging. While this may not be the most popular approach for ecommerce companies, it’s very beneficial in terms of SEO. There are ways for you to scale your lead generation through blogging as well. Let me show you an example from Vinebox, an ecommerce store that sells wine. Here’s a blog post I pulled from their site about the benefits of drinking organic wine. So if someone is browsing online and searching for more information about organic wine, how it works, and the effect it has on their body, this post can pop up. People can navigate to this website even if they never heard of Vinebox. As an ecommerce shop, you’re competing with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other brands across the web. You can’t rely on all of your customers going directly to your site to buy. While this page serves as an informational guide on organic wine, it’s also designed for conversions. This is the final section of the blog post. The blog closes with two CTAs about buying organic wine directly through their website. It’s a simple, yet effective approach. You can definitely mimic this strategy for blog posts related to the products you’re selling online. Original photosThe biggest challenge of selling online is that customers can’t touch and feel what you’re offering before they buy it. They rely heavily on visuals for this. So it’s up to you to ensure that you have tons of pictures of your products from nearly every imaginable angle. This is necessary for your product pages, but you can also repurpose those images on other channels as well. For example, you can take an original photo of a model wearing the clothes that you’re selling and turn it into an Instagram shoppable post. Again, this is only under the assumption that you’ve done the right research and recognized this platform as a place to reach your target audience. Include photos in your blogs. Add them to your email campaigns. Share them on other social media channels. Keep taking original photos because you’ll always be able to find a use for them. Video contentThis piggybacks off of my last point about how consumers need to see your products before they buy anything. Images are somewhat limited, but videos can tell the full story. Just look at how big of an impact video content has on purchases. The more videos people watch about a product online, the higher their average order value is. Videos can also be repurposed across multiple channels. Your blog, product pages, email campaigns, and social media profiles are all great places to distribute. Furthermore, 90% of consumers say that videos assist their buying decisions. 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands they support. Videos on landing pages can increase conversions by up to 80%. Just adding the word “video” to an email subject line can increase your open rates by 19%.
The list of possibilities goes on and on. Video content must be incorporated into marketing strategies for all ecommerce sites. Product buying guidesProduct buying guides are essential for the same reason as blogs. They can be used to drive organic traffic to your ecommerce site when people are looking for more information about specific products. The biggest difference between product buying guides and blogging is that they will each target different types of people. Blog posts are typically ToFu (top of funnel) content since the consumer is still in the product and brand awareness stage. On the other hand, product buying guides are MoFu (middle of funnel) content as the consumer reaches the evaluation stage of the purchase process. Make sure that all of your buying guides have CTAs to drive conversions. Email marketingTruthfully, email marketing isn’t just an ecommerce-specific content marketing strategy. But with that said, there are definitely ways that your ecommerce shop can leverage emails that other businesses cannot. Here’s a look at how B2C marketers are using email marketing. Your ecommerce site can take this to the next level. Any time someone makes a purchase on your website, you have the opportunity to send them a drip campaign that’s relevant to that order.
That’s four emails that you have an excuse to send. All of them are relevant to the customer and provide information that they want to see. You can use these messages to drive more conversions. Provide discount codes off of an upcoming purchase. Show product recommendations based on what they bought. If a customer buys a surfboard, send them an email about a wetsuit. If they buy workout shorts, send them an email about more new workout gear. Customer storiesThere are lots of different formats you can use to tell a customer story.
These can be in text format, image format, videos, or blog posts. Display them on your homepage. Create separate landing pages for customer stories. Share them on social media. If you look back to the content marketing funnel that we talked about earlier, customer stories fall into the BoFu (bottom of funnel) category. At this point, the consumer is close to converting. The customer stories can be the factor that drives them to complete the purchase process. Interactive contentAdding interactivity to your content strategy is a great way to bring a personalized touch to the customer. Here’s an example from the Beardbrand website. When you land on their homepage, you aren’t shown any specific products, and they don’t have any CTAs saying something like “buy now.” Instead, there is an original photo of three men, each with three very different beards. There is a link to a quiz that will “help you find the perfect product.” This interactive quiz makes the customer feel confident about the product that they’re purchasing. By answering a series of questions designed to meet their needs, it gives them an incentive to buy. ConclusionThere are lots of misconceptions about content marketing and how it works. As an ecommerce business, you need to look for strategies that are specific to your industry. Before you do anything, you need to know the process for ecommerce content marketing.
When you take this approach, everything else gets easier. Just remember that every content strategy you apply needs to ultimately drive conversions. Keep this guide as a reference, and use the examples I listed above as inspiration for some high-converting content strategies. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/guide-to-content-marketing-for-ecommerce-websites/ It doesn’t matter what type of business you have or what industry you’re in; everyone needs to incorporate email campaigns into their marketing strategy. There’s a common misconception that email marketing is dead. That’s just simply not the case. So for those of you who are struggling with your email strategy, there’s a good chance that you’re making some mistakes. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying this to discourage you. This is actually good news. All this means is that you need to make some adjustments with your approach to have more success. One of the reasons why email marketing is so useful is because it delivers a high ROI. For every $1 you spend on email campaigns, you can expect an average return of $32. 81% of small business owners say they rely on email as their primary customer acquisition method. Additionally, 80% of small businesses say that email marketing is their primary method for customer retention as well. Even if you’ve been having decent success with your email marketing campaigns in the past, you can still benefit from this guide.
Without even realizing it, you might be making mistakes that are holding you back. So if you’re ready to take your email strategy to the next level, review and correct these eight mistakes that should be avoided at all costs. 1. Not welcoming your subscribersYou just added a new subscriber to your email list. That’s great news! This person was navigating through your website, made their way to a landing page, saw your email value proposition, and filled out the form fields required to sign up. They took a lot of steps, so clearly they’re interested in your website and brand. Now what? If you’re not planning to contact them until you send your next newsletter or coupon, then you’re making a big mistake. Welcome emails should be triggered immediately after a sign-up. That’s because they have the highest open rates compared to every other email category. This makes a lot of sense. Think about it for a second. Why did this person sign up? Maybe you have an ecommerce shop and you promised something along the lines of exclusive discounts or offers for people who opt-in to your email list. Obviously, this visitor wants to buy something. They’re on your site right now, and probably still have the browser open. But if you wait a day or a week to send that email, it’s going to be extra steps for that person to go back to your site and make a purchase. By now, the want or need for whatever you’re offering might be out of their mind. On a per email basis, welcome emails generate 320% more revenue than other marketing messages. With that in mind, you can refer to my guide on how to generate sales with welcome emails. Furthermore, welcome messages have a 336% higher transaction rate as well as a 196% higher click-through rate than any other email you send. You need to take advantage of this. Yes, ideally you want this subscriber to be engaged with all of your emails down the road. But there’s no reason for you to wait. Get them to convert now by triggering a welcome as the first message in a drip campaign as soon as they sign up. 2. Forgetting a call-to-actionYou think about your business and website all day, every day. Nights, weekends, holidays, it doesn’t matter; your business is always on your mind. While it would be nice to think that your customers feel the same way as you do, that’s just not the case. So sending them a “hello” or “just checking in” message for no reason doesn’t add any value to their life. All of your emails need to have a purpose and include a clear CTA that drives your goal home. Otherwise, what do you expect the recipient to do with the message? Even if you’re sending a newsletter or some type of breaking news update, there should still be something in the message that entices conversions. That’s not the only CTA mistake I see people make. On the flip side, instead of forgetting to include a CTA altogether, some site owners will go overboard and have four or five in the same message.
Alone, all of these CTAs are just fine. But when you add all of them to one message, the reader will get overwhelmed. Too many conflicting CTAs will just confuse your subscribers and end up hurting your conversion rates. The content of the message should be priming and setting up the call-to-action. For example, if you’re releasing a new product, the CTA should be about buying. If you’re hosting an event, the CTA should be about signing up. For those of you who want to promote both of these, it needs to happen in two independent email campaigns. 3. Sending too many emailsJust because someone subscribed to your email list, it doesn’t give you the right to bombard them with messages all day. The average person who works in an office receives 121 emails per day. That’s more than 44,000 emails each year! So it’s no surprise that the number one reason why people unsubscribe from email lists is because they get too many messages. Think about this for a moment. Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer. How often do you check your emails and feel annoyed about all of the messages you have? This drives me crazy. You don’t want people to have that association with your website and brand. They should be happy when they get a message from you, not feel annoyed. Remember, they signed up to get messages from your website, so they obviously have some interest in your content. Realistically, people aren’t going to shop every day or visit your website every day. This is something that you need to accept. So I would limit your email promotions to once per week at the most. You can even allow subscribers to set up their preferences when they sign up. Ask them the communication frequency that they want, as well as the type of messages that they prefer. Then segment your subscribers accordingly based on their answers. 4. Not segmenting subscribersIf you have one long master email list where every subscriber receives the same content at the same time, you’re doing it wrong. This is a huge mistake. I just briefly explained during my last point how some people may want messages more or less frequently than others. Some subscribers may only want promotions and coupons, while others want your newsletter. Everyone has different needs and preferences. For example, let’s say you run an ecommerce shop. A 20-year-old male subscriber isn’t interested in the same products as a female subscriber in her 50s. So sending them the same message is not a winning strategy. Take a look at how these marketing metrics increase as the result of segmenting emails. You’ll get more opens, revenue, and leads, while simultaneously increasing customer retention, acquisition, and transaction rates. Furthermore, studies show that 60% of people will delete an email that they find irrelevant. 27% of people unsubscribe from irrelevant emails and 23% mark them as spam. That’s right. Even if you’re not sending emails too frequently, your subscribers can still unsubscribe. But segmenting subscribers decreases the likelihood that your content will be perceived as irrelevant.
These are all common starting points for segmenting your email lists. Learning how to deliver relevant content by segmenting your email subscribers needs to be a priority. 5. Delaying campaignsI regularly consult with lots of different website owners and businesses. When we talk about email marketing, lots of them have the wrong impression about when email campaigns should be sent. Let me give you an example. I’ll use nice and round numbers to make it easy. Say you have 1,000 email subscribers currently on your list. You sent out a message to all of them last week. You’re ready to run a new campaign this week, but you only gained ten new subscribers since your last campaign. That’s not an excuse to put off the campaign. But all too often I see business owners delay campaigns until they get more subscribers. As long as you’re not sending the messages too frequently, you can still deploy a new campaign to the same people, regardless of how many subscribers you gained or lost in between messages. Your current subscribers are already familiar with your brand. The probability of selling to a current customer is 60 to 70%. But the chances of selling to a new customer is just 5 to 20%. Based on these numbers, there’s no reason for you to hold off. Plus, any new subscriber should be getting a welcome email, which we discussed earlier in this guide. So you’ll be able to target them with an offer right away. For everything else, pick a schedule and stick to it. Stop coming up with excuses for delaying new campaigns. 6. Neglecting mobile usersI’m assuming that most of you will be using a computer to craft your email marketing messages. On these devices, everything looks great. Time to send it out to your subscribers, right? Not so fast. You need to check and see how your message looks from mobile devices. Most email marketing software out there will have mobile-optimized features. But the best way to do this is by sending a test email to yourself. I have a category on my email marketing list for office and executive. Basically, it’s just a few of my email addresses. I always send content to this group first, so I can check everything before it goes out to the masses. Look at which devices people use the most to check their emails. Smartphones are by far the most popular devices for people of all ages. So even if your message is technically mobile-friendly based on the test run through your email software, there are other things you should keep in mind. Avoid long blocks of text. Something that’s two or three lines on a desktop computer could up being ten lines on a 4-inch smartphone screen. Your email should have visuals, but don’t rely too heavily on images. Here’s what I mean by this. Some email apps won’t automatically display images. So if your entire message is based on the context of your picture, you might be out of luck. To fix this mistake, you’ve got to know how to boost sales by accommodating the needs of mobile users. 7. Sending unprofessional messagesEarlier I explained why you shouldn’t delay campaigns. But with that said, emails shouldn’t be sent in a matter of minutes either. Take the same approach that you would if you publishing a blog or adding anew landing page to your website. Plan it out. Create an outline. Write the copy. Put it through some editing software. Proofread, and then proofread it again. Slang, spelling errors, and improper formatting will not reflect well on your business. Imagine getting an email from a high-end brand trying to sell you a $2,500 watch. But the message is filled with type-os and grammar mistakes. Are you going to buy that watch? Probably not. It looks like a poor reflection of that company as a whole. People think that if you don’t take the time to do something as simple as writing an email, what other shortcuts are you taking? The reply to address for the email should be your business. Not your old screen name @hotmail.com. You should also A/B test all of your emails for formatting purposes. All of this will ensure that your messages look as professional as possible. 8. Not prioritizing sign-upsYour email marketing campaigns will only be as good as your subscriber list. It doesn’t matter if you have great content in your mobile-optimized message with the perfect CTA and professional design. If you only have 30 people to send it to, you can’t expect great results. I realize that email lists don’t get built overnight, but this needs to be something that you’re always working at. No number is ever high enough. If you just have “sign up for our emails” buried somewhere in the corner of your website, it won’t generate subscribers. Remember, people are getting bombarded with nearly 1,000 emails per week. They won’t be signing up to receive more unless they have a good reason. Check out his popup from the Blenders Eyewear homepage. It’s a creative approach to collect emails. First of all, you can’t miss it because it takes up nearly the whole screen while a user is browsing. Since they operate an ecommerce site, it’s safe to assume that the visitors are interested in their products. By offering a discount in exchange for an email sign up, they’re essentially killing two birds with one stone.
Refer back to what we discussed earlier in terms of a welcome message. When a visitor signs up in a situation like this, it’s absolutely necessary that they are welcomed with the discount immediately. Even if you don’t have an ecommerce shop, you still need to prioritize sign-ups and add value to potential subscribers. Offer them free downloads, video tutorials, or other types of exclusive content for email opt-ins. ConclusionEmail marketing is still alive and thriving. Everyone needs to make this a priority. But some people are doing email marketing wrong. After reviewing this guide, you might have just realized that you fall into that category. Don’t worry. These common mistakes are fairly easy to correct. Identifying them is the hardest step. But now that you know what needs to be done, you can make those adjustments and apply the changes to your email marketing strategy moving forward. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/common-email-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid/ |
Sean BrianWhile radishes deter certain insects naturally, they require similar growing conditions as carrots. Although the crops both have roots, radishes grow and germinate quicker, allowing carrots to continue growing in the soil space available when the radishes are harvested, Archives
April 2023
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