Author: Christina

Can you Get Sales Through Social Media?

Christina

Social media is a powerful tool for marketing. It has lots of capabilities and is something that every business really should be engaging with. However, you have to have a realistic view of its capabilities and understand what it can and cannot do.

Firstly, social media is not a sales tool. It isn’t ever going to achieve big sales for you, because people don’t use it to buy – they use it to socialise. They want to see the social, fun side of your brand, rather than being bombarded by sales messages. A sales message will drive people away, whereas fun and relevant content will get people to engage with you.

Social media can help you sell but it is more indirect. It helps to make your brand memorable by making it human, giving it a side that people can’t see in the shops. This helps increase brand loyalty and keeps you relevant to customers.

What is Search Marketing?

Christina

Search marketing is a very clever tool, used by savvy business people to generate leads. It uses the power of search engines to help websites rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning that brands can be found when people search for their products or services.

The whole point of search marketing is to make a website searchable. In order to do this, it needs to be seen as highly relevant to search engines. There are lots of different processes involved – these include:

  • On site optimisation
  • Off site optimisation and link building
  • PR
  • Content
  • Social media

All of these things give ranking signals to search engines, showing them how relevant a website is to someone’s specific search. By making sure your website is perfect for your target audience, you are already a long way towards getting it noticed by search engines, because they will try to show people the websites they want to see.

Types of Commercial Umbrella and their Benefits for Business

Christina

An umbrella is about more than just creating some shade. Whilst it’s true they do this, it’s also true that they come with so many more benefits, and you shouldn’t ever rule these benefits out when making a commercial decision for your business. You can choose from different types of umbrella depending on your needs, so the facts are going to be important here. Think about some of the following when choosing commercial umbrellas:

  • Don’t forget the word commercial. This should always be a decision that is made because of money, customer experience and marketing your business. Part of marketing is making sure people have a great experience, so they will keep returning again and again. It’s a good way of getting the customers you want, without having to spend lots of money on new marketing and advertising campaigns.
  • Think about the bigger picture. How can you make your commercial umbrellas work as hard for you as possible? They probably aren’t going to be a cheap purchase, so it makes sense to ensure they are going to do as much for you as they can. Think about using them as a branding exercise. Have your logo professionally printed on the umbrellas, so that people passing by will see your name and your logo. This needs to look completely professional – only use a legitimate marketing and printing company to get the work done, so you can be confident in the quality of the printing. It will also reinforce the message to people who already use your business, reminding them where they are and keeping you at the forefront of their minds.
  • Think about other benefits for your business, outside of the commercial. Umbrellas can help provide a better ambience, and they can also help to keep the building cool if they are placed close to windows. This also makes for a better ambience inside, meaning you may even be able to save money on bills because you won’t need to cool down your property.

These are some types of commercial umbrella that could work for your business:

  • Centre pole. These can be freestanding, or they can be fitted to a table.
  • Cantilever. This is a side arm umbrella that is freestanding and that is highly adjustable, because the umbrella can pivot and rotate on the arm.
  • Octagonal or hexagonal. Umbrellas don’t just need to be square or rectangular. There are many different options depending on what you want to achieve.
  • Aluminium or wooden. Choose the material that is going to be the most beneficial, but also that is going to give you the look you want.

If you aren’t sure exactly of what you want or need, talk it through with a company that can supply your umbrellas. They can give you advice and help you decide on the umbrellas that will be most beneficial for you. They should know their product range inside out, meaning they can give you useful advice and support throughout the consultation, design, manufacture and installation period.

Marketing your Business in the Most Effective Way

Christina

Marketing is only worthwhile if you see results from it. This is the same with any business activity, but with marketing, which is designed to draw in more customers, it is a completely wasted effort if you do not see the results. That being said, you can also raise brand awareness from marketing, making people know that your business exists. The trouble with this is that it is incredibly difficult to monitor the results.

You could consider spending money on brand awareness, and over time, you should begin to see more customers coming in. One way to tell where they are coming from is to track traffic. Assign different phone numbers to different campaigns and analyse the traffic on your website to see where it is coming from. The best thing to do is to drive organic traffic to your website, as you won’t then be having to pay out money for pay per click or paid social media advertising.

Sharing Responsibility for Leads with your Web Marketing Agency

Christina

Your web marketing agency can do a lot of things. However, what they cannot do is convert your leads. Once you get a lead, the conversion process is entirely your responsibility. You need to remember this when discussing strategies and take full ownership of your lead conversion process.

You can certainly ask your marketing agency for help in this process. They will be able to offer you advice on how to retain customers if your traffic is good. For example, they may recommend that you improve the quality of your website, so that people are more likely to get in touch when they see it. They can also recommend amendments like adding in more calls to action, to help improve your customer journey.

Make sure you have a comprehensive process for lead conversion. Look for ways to optimise the process so that your potential customers know they are in good hands.