All posts by Miley

Stickers
Insights

Keeping Images Ready for Quick Sticker Printing

Stickers are a useful and effective marketing tool, but that’s only if you have them ready. There’s nothing worse than needing to bring 500 stickers to an event in two days, only to realize you never made the files or sent them to the printer. Getting same-day stickers from printers in the L.A. area is possible, especially if you follow these tips to get your images ready ahead of time.

Use SVG files

The problem with printing stickers quickly isn’t the actual printing process itself. Issues that cause delays usually stem from problems with the files themselves, and what is being printed. JPG and PNG files may work fine for your website or static prints, but using those same images in a sticker will usually require the image to be shrunk down to fit the style and size of your sticker sheet.

SVG image files ensure that your picture scales properly when it’s resized, so you don’t gain any unsightly pixels along the way. If you keep all your logos, art, or other images in SVG files, resizing and arranging them on a sheet or for a roll becomes a quick and easy job, getting your stickers ready for printing in no time.

Reimagine Your Images in CMYK

The default for most image-creating software is RGB (red, green, blue) for colors. RGB shows up best on computer screens, as that is how they filter all the other colors. But printers use four-color filters, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). If you’re in a rush and don’t think to change the settings, your stickers can print out looking very discolored as the machine tries to print on a different set of colors.

If you make sure your images are already set to CMYK to start, then you won’t have to worry about trying to remember to change them beforehand. It’s always best to keep two versions of each logo or art piece you have: one that’s in RGB and scaled to fit websites and other computer needs, and one that’s in CMYK and scalable to work for any printing need you may have. Just make sure you label them properly!

Know What You Want

Stickers
Stickers are representing the cats with three eyes as a way of statement of art freedom

The worst part about getting stickers ready for printing is deciding what kind of stickers you want. Do you want a roll of stickers that’s just your logo? Would you prefer a sticker sheet that’s a sample of all your art? Or maybe a sticker book that can be used for long car trips? If you’re looking to print something quickly, you’re best off getting a single roll of stickers or using a sticker sheet that is compact and uniform. Otherwise, you may spend too much time designing your stickers and not enough time printing them.

You can get your stickers printed the same day you need them. But to make sure they come out on time and look the way you want, keep your image files organized. By using SVG files set to CMYK, you’ll get the best stickers printed out each time, whenever you need them.

Electric bulb
Insights

Everything You Need to Know About Home Electricity Safety

Scheduling an appointment with a professional repair person can be a real headache – nobody wants to wait a week for the technician to come and fix a problem in their home. Nowadays, with all the “do it yourself” guides being available on the internet, more and more people opt to fix the troubles on their own. However, DIY repairs are not always the brightest idea, especially when it comes to electrical issues. Poorly maintained home electricity leads to serious safety risks or, even worse, fires. In order to be safe and sound when it comes to these issues, you might want to check out this list of tips on how to maintain your home’s electrical safety. 

Check if your appliances are in proper working condition

You probably have a bunch of, let’s say, kitchen appliances that you don’t use regularly. Most households stack the unused devices somewhere in the back and handle them only once or twice a year. It is important to store the appliances in a dark, dry place so that they don’t deteriorate. Also, make sure you inspect the plug and look for damage, before plugging it in. This way, you will avoid electrocution caused by malfunctioning gadgets.

Find the best electrician 

An electrician
An electrician is looking for damage in the system of the safety fuse so he could fix it

Even if you decide to do most of the work in your home by yourself, you should always have an electrician to call when it gets messy. If you live in NSW, finding an expert like a level 2 electrician in Sydney will surely make your life a lot easier, especially if you don’t have the required experience and knowledge about electricity. Moreover, it’s always good to have your home’s electrical work regularly checked by a professional.

Turn off the main power

The major reason for accidents is that people leave the main power on while working on electrical maintenance. Always make sure the main power is off in order to avoid electrocution or fires if you are working on bigger electrical issues in your home.

Be prepared

Make sure you are always prepared for any kinds of accidents, especially fires. It’s good to have a fire extinguisher within reach, in case anything unexpected happens and you need to react quickly. Moreover, make sure to have your electrician on speed dial, if an emergency occurs.  

Double-check your extension cords

Did you know that you shouldn’t plug one extension cord into another? This can lead to serious accidents such as overheating and explosions. Extension cords are to be used individually, and as little as possible. If you find yourself using too many, call a professional to set up more power outlets in your home. Furthermore, extension cords have an “expiration date”, meaning that you should regularly replace the old ones, just in case. If you have a garden and you need an outdoor extension cord, make sure it’s always placed in a dry area, away from kids and animals. 

Prevent overloading

Bear in mind that a single outlet should be used for only one or two appliances. Maxing out the power from one outlet can lead to overloading and potential outbursts. Try to rearrange the appliances in your home in order to evenly distribute the power consumption. If you find this difficult, consider installing a new power outlet where you need it the most.  

Electrical maintenance can be highly dangerous if not done correctly. Try to avoid doing things on your own – electricians were trained and educated for years before they became experts. Hire someone who is qualified and experienced, to ensure that all of your home’s power equipment is safe and functioning properly. Remember, if you have any doubts about a power outlet or a gadget, get an expert to inspect it and make sure your home is safe.

Woman
Products

How to Use Online Shopping When Equipping Your Home with Essential Gadgets

No matter how big your living space is and how long you’ve lived in it – all homes deserve attention, love, and care. This is particularly true if you’re trying to make your home more enjoyable, welcoming, and comfortable than it’s ever been, and one of the ways to make that happen is by relying on the offer you can find online. Shopping things this way may not sound like your cup of tea at first, but once you start doing this every single day, you’re going to start realizing all the benefits of this idea. So, how can you use online shopping when equipping your home with essential gadgets, and what are some of the things you should and shouldn’t do during this process?

Set the budget

This is the first thing you need to focus on when buying stuff for your home, regardless of its size, location, and number of rooms. Most people think that they won’t spend too much money on their essential gadgets, but this is almost never the case in the end. 

Buying one thing will lead you to the next, and then you’ll start purchasing items without thinking about money and you’ll have no money left for your utility bills – and that’s the worst thing you can do! So, start by figuring out how much money you have and how much you’re willing to spend. Doing that will help you stay on track and get everything you need without breaking the bank and causing financial issues in the long run.

Make a plan

Credit card
A man is holding a credit card in front of his laptop.

Buying stuff online usually means being able to see them without touching them, and that’s something you have to be ready for if you opt for online shopping. This is why you have to know exactly what you’re looking for and how to find it. 

If you’re buying appliances, for instance, you have to know their sizes and how much free space you have – you don’t want to buy a fridge online, have it delivered to your home, and then realize that it doesn’t fit. This is also true when equipping your bathroom, your kids’ room, and other parts of your home, so make a detailed plan before you start browsing the Internet and stick to it as much as you can.

Keep digging

For most people, buying things online means sticking to a handful of the most popular websites and buying whatever they’re having on sale right now. While that may be the simplest and quiet way to go, it’s not always the best, especially if you’re getting ready to equip every inch of your home with essential gadgets. This is why browsing the Internet a bit more than usual might be a great way to go, so be ready to think outside the box a bit. 

You may find amazing offers if you’re persistent and willing to invest some time and energy into this process, and this will help you save money too. Checking out the amazing Shoppster, for example, might give you tons of options to choose from, as well as great prices, and what’s even better is that you won’t have to lower your expectations and compromise on the quality of the gadgets you’re buying.

Look for reviews

Since you’re unable to see, touch, and feel the stuff you’re buying in person before they come to you, you need to find another way to ensure you’re making the right choice. Doing that isn’t easy in the online world, but if you look for reviews, you may be able to differentiate high-quality items from those that aren’t. 

Still, not all reviews and reviewers are the same, and only those who are reputable and knowledgeable deserve your attention. If you stick to paid promotions and reviews that are neither accurate nor true, you won’t be able to equip your home, and particularly your kitchen, with great gadgets and you’ll just end up losing your money. However, once you start buying stuff online and being satisfied with your purchase, you’ll also find reliable reviewers whose opinion you’re going to value – and once you do that, you’ll be happy to buy everything they recommend!

Think twice about the colors

Laptop
A laptop is displayed on the table next to the smartphone.

One of the problems of buying stuff online and not seeing it beforehand is that you can never know what something is really going to look like once it’s delivered to your home. This isn’t true just for the size of the stuff you’re going to buy, but for the color as well, which is more than vital when equipping your entire living space and wanting to achieve a certain look.

Sometimes, the colors on your computer screen are different from the stuff you see on your mobile phone and even more different from the color a certain thing has in real life. So, there are two things you have to do – don’t have big expectations when it comes to colors, and try not to be too disappointed if you’re not completely happy with the stuff you’ve bought. Instead, think twice about the colors, stick to simple solutions, and look into the Return & Refund Policy just in case.

Collect at store

This is an amazing way to make the most of both worlds – buying stuff online and collecting them at stores means you’ll be able to use all your online coupons, discounts, sales, and promotions and you won’t have to pay for your delivery! Most online stores function this way and allow you to use the “collect at store” option when paying for your stuff, which is one of the best-case scenarios, especially when purchasing tons of items at the same time.

And if you’re equipping your entire living space, this is precisely what you’re doing, which is why collecting your stuff at the store is so great. Instead of paying the delivery guy and cluttering your entire home, you can easily pick your items up at the store and bring them back home yourself. Of course, if you’re buying fridges or other large items, opting for home delivery is a better idea, but collecting everything else at the store is quite fine.

Buying stuff online when equipping your home is the best way to make sure it’s personalized and perfect for you and your family. This will encourage you to fall in love with your place more than before, so start browsing the Internet and buying things straight away!

e-Commerce
Martech

6 eCommerce Personalization Examples That you Can Implement Today to Grow Sales

There is a lot of competition in eCommerce and customers are becoming more and more demanding. Personalization to the rescue! It helps to retain existing customers and increase sales. SmarterHQ report says that 90% of customers are ready to share personal information to simplify purchasing.

So what is eCommerce personalization? In a nutshell, it is a process of providing a customized experience to each user of an eCommerce website by utilizing user data. Such a targeted approach improves conversion. 

Here are 6 examples of personalization in eCommerce that will change your business drastically.

1. Personalized product feed (Wish)

Changing the homepage according to the user’s individual preferences is a smart move. Showing personalized feed is even smarter. You can offer products depending on customers’ social group, geographical location, previous online behavior.

For example, Wish, a fast-fashion eCommerce platform, owes most of its success to the hyper-personalized feed. The wish came up with a recommendation engine for a personalized shopping feed. AI analyzes customers’ personal information and creates a feed of the most relevant products. This makes shopping addictive and increases sales significantly.

Business strategy of Wish

Wish strategy

2. Price recommendations (Arcbazar)

It can be difficult to determine the right price for products and services. This becomes even more difficult when there are multiple sellers, especially with peer-to-peer transactions. Price recommendation algorithms can help find a golden ratio between competitive prices and good margins. As a result, you will get more sales and maintain an optimal profit margin.

For example, Arcbazar, a giant platform for architects and designers, has used machine learning to recommend the most relevant rewards for projects. There was an issue with customers leaving the order process unfinished as they were not sure what price to set. An AI-driven solution came to help. Now the Arcbazar system analyzes a customer’s intent, collects previous data from similar projects, and offers the most optimal price. This allowed increasing the number of successfully completed projects on the platform. 

Price recommendations (Arcbazar)

3. Chatbots

Chatbots can boost customer satisfaction by providing personal assistance and problem solving 24\7. They can answer typical questions or connect a customer to a consultant, collect payments, take orders, and schedule deliveries. So when building a chatbot make sure it can analyze users’ profile details to create personalized answers, which will increase conversion. 

For example, the KAYAK chatbot is powered by AI and learns from previous answers to create personalized conversations with the users. Thanks to Natural Language Processing the chatbot interprets not only words but also the intent of phrases and is able to respond appropriately.

Chatbots

4. Personalized pop-ups 

Retargeting your customers within your website is much cheaper than off-site. One way to do this is by making popup offers that match some specific user activity on the website. These pop-ups can be automated considering such parameters as browsing behavior, cart value, and the number of sessions. 

Urbanara, an online homewares store, decided to offer a pop-up with a discount to new customers. When a first-time visitor adds items to the cart there is a pop-up offering discount or promotion in exchange for an email address.

Personalized pop-ups

5. Emails

Following the previous point, if you already have customers’ email addresses send them personalized emails. This helps to reengage customers to return to their abandoned carts and keep on shopping.

For example, Morvélo sends customers emails in case they’ve abandoned their carts. In this reminder, the store shows items that visitors intended to buy so they can finish the purchase.

Emails

6. Personalized search

Today users expect to find exactly what they want, not just something that slightly resembles it. So overall customer satisfaction depends on how helpful the onsite search is. 

Usually, an onsite search is one of the first things your potential customers will use upon entering your store. They will look up the keywords trying to find what they came for. However, if your search is inefficient and you have a lot of products it can quickly turn into a painful experience. 

For example, Neiman Marcus took advantage of smartphone usage and focused on the mobile experience. They created Snap.Find.Shop. a feature that allows customers to use pictures of items to find similar products. This made a search on the website much more fulfilling for visitors.

Personalized search

Wrapping up

The benefits of personalization in eCommerce are undeniable. It helps provide an individual experience to each customer which leads to growth in sales. In this article, we discussed eCommerce personalization tools like product and price recommendations, customized pop-ups, event-triggered emails, self-learning chatbots, and personalized search. Try them and let your business grow.

Night
Products

Must-Have Adventure Gadgets for Exploring the Great Outdoors

Getting out of the house and exploring the great outdoors is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental well-being. Whether that means breaking out the map and looking for exciting hiking trails or visiting different local campgrounds, heading outside is a great way to spend quality time either solo, working remotely, or with friends and family while reconnecting with Mother Nature – something we could all use more of these days.

While you’re making plans about the areas you’re going to explore, it pays to know the exact tools and add-ons that you need to pack in order to ensure a fun and fulfilling, but also safe outdoor experience. With that in mind, here are five must-have adventure gadgets for exploring the great outdoors.

A backpack and a bivy sack

Every outdoor adventurer needs a trusty backpack to support them in their journey and keep everything they need to be stored safely. A rule of the thumb is to stick with lighter ones – such as smaller backpacks and daypacks – since you’ll be moving a lot and you don’t want to carry too much weight everywhere you go.

Other than the backpack, you’ll also need a camping shelter if you plan on spending the night out in the open. While your first thought may be to reach for a tent, depending on the conditions and the weather, you could also opt for a bivy sack. Lightweight and easy-to-pack, it’s a cover for your sleeping bag that will keep you protected against the elements – sans the hassle of setting up a tent.

A first aid kit

First aid kit
The first aid kit contains all the necessary medical devices

No one likes to think about what could go wrong during their outdoor adventure. Even if you’re a seasoned hiker or camper, that doesn’t mean you should head anywhere without a first aid kit. Accidents happen, and for you to feel safe while exploring the wild, it’s necessary that you bring a kit consisting of (but not limited to):

·         disinfectant ointment or cream

·         pain reliever

·         gauze pads

·         bandages

·         sterile wipes

·         tweezers

·         scissors

Even a minor cut or bruise needs to be taken care of immediately, so make sure you have these items with you at all times. Some other useful items to bring include sun protection, insect repellent, and a water purifier.

A sharp object (or two)

Being prepared is key when venturing into the wilderness. Chances are, you’re going to have to tackle some challenges along the way, and you need a trusty companion to get you through. That’s why it’s always a good idea to pack a sharp object or two and keep them at hand at all times.

Whether we’re talking about slicing food, cutting branches, or keeping yourself safe in case of emergency, trusty tools such as a reliable switch blade knife go a long way in making sure you’ve got everything you need for overcoming obstacles when out in the wild. Not only will this handy piece of equipment make your outdoor experience a lot smoother, but it’ll also help you stay safe, especially if you’re a solo adventurer.

A camping stove

Just because you’re spending time out in the wild doesn’t mean you can’t (or shouldn’t) enjoy some hearty, delicious meals you usually prepare at home! Cooking out in nature can be just as enjoyable, if not even more, especially since you’ll likely be using just one single cooking tool – the camping stove.

Not only does this help simplify the entire outdoor cooking process but there’s also less mess to clean up after you’re done. All you need is a fire log for your outdoor cooking tool and some camping recipe inspo, and can start preparing everything from hearty soups and stews to corned beef hash and one-pot wonders.

Navigation tools

Finding out that you’re not moving in the right direction can be frightening, which is why navigation tools are a must when planning to spend some time out in the wild. Whether you’re preparing for hiking or going camping, never leave without a compass, a map, and a GPS device.

Tools like these offer support by making sure you’re on the right track, and there are many options to choose from. And while electronic devices are easier to use, classic navigation tools such as compass are very reliable, which is why they should be a must on every hiker and camper’s packing list.

Wrapping up

Nature is full of wonders, and exploring everything it has to offer is as beneficial for our body as it is for our mind and soul. However, staying safe should always be your top priority wherever you’ve headed, so keep these tips in mind. They will give you peace of mind knowing you’ve brought everything you need for your adventure in the great outdoors.

Laptop
MartechSEO

9 Ways to Recover From a Sudden Fall in Traffic

A sharp and unexpected decline in traffic can be a dangerous occurrence that must be dealt with quickly and effectively. Panic can lead to poor business decisions, which is why you should have a set procedure in place if your traffic suddenly decreases.

To do a traffic drop study, use this 9-point checklist. A contingency plan like this one will eventually isolate the root of the problem, allowing you to apply the proper solution.

Verify Your Tracking Information

Assume you’ve opened your analytics account and seen a significant decrease in visitors. A sharp and rapid reduction in traffic is a sporadic event if you’re not performing black hat SEO. The first step is to double-check that you’re dealing with the correct data.

In the admin part of your analytics account, check the status of your tracking codes.

Open the “tracking code” tab in the top-right area of your admin page under “tracking info.” Under “Status,” there is a notification that indicates whether or not your code has been submitting data for the past 48 hours.

 It’s possible that a site update or migration removed or changed the code, which would explain why your analytics account is lacking data. You may inspect the code on your website by right-clicking on any page in your browser. Choose “inspect.” To identify where your code is installed, use command + f (control + f on a PC) to open a search window and enter in “analytics.”

Verify that your code has been properly installed on your website. You may have addressed your problem if there are any errors in its installation. If your code is intact, you must double-check your information in the search console.

Use Search Console to double-check your information

The search console is your go-to resource for learning more about what’s going on with your site. A big decline in traffic could indicate that you’ve lost visibility and coverage, which could result in a revenue loss.

  • Analyze your site’s impressions, clicks, and position on Google
  • Review your index coverage 
  • Send you alerts about issues Google discovers on your site 
  • Assist you in understanding how Google perceives your site
  • Remove the potential of pages being de-indexed and penalties being imposed.
  • Penalties from Google

Go to “security and manual actions” and look for “manual actions” under “security and manual actions” to discover if you’ve gotten a manual punishment. You should get a message like “No Issues Detected” because manual actions are quite severe.

If you are subjected to manual action, you will be provided guidance on how to resolve the issue and resubmit your site for review so that your pages can be restored.

Indexing Issues

A competitive analysis

To see if there has been a decline in the number of pages indexed on your site, go to the coverage tab and look at the number of pages indexed. No pages have been lost, and the site’s URLs have not been affected, as shown in the graph below.

Someone may have mistakenly used a noindex command or inserted a disallow rule to the robots.txt file, resulting in a reduction in the number of indexed pages.

On a WordPress site, the option to “discourage search engines from indexing” can be found in the general settings tab. Your site’s pages will be de-indexed if you choose this option.

The same option is available in the advanced tab beneath your text if you’re using Yoast as an SEO plugin. Fix any noindex and prohibit directives, then resubmit your sitemap in the search console if your pages were mistakenly de-indexed. Despite the fact that there is a simple remedy to this problem, the scenario is extremely risky because you will lose all search engine visibility.

Re-indexing your pages might take anything from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the size of your site and how many pages were de-indexed. If your pages have been indexed and your data gathering in analytics has been confirmed, move on to the next step.

Perform a Competitive Analysis

Google is the arena where companies compete against one another. It’s possible that your company isn’t the only one using SEO to obtain a competitive advantage (check out the best SEO Sydney agency to improve your profit). It’s possible that another website has simply outranked you due to superior content marketing and/or link-building tactics.

A competitive examination of the site that has pushed you down the SERP and stolen your traffic is the solution to this. You can begin by looking at how your competitors have responded to search intent, which is the most crucial component of ranking.

Look up the keywords that their page ranks for to determine if there are any gaps in the content. Some parts of your page are possibly out of date or no longer deliver the information that readers require. Update your page to reflect any missing content and to more thoroughly cover your keyword topic.

Examine your competitors’ backlink profiles to see if any links can assist you in gaining authority over them. Regaining the first position may simply require a few high-quality connections if the material is substantially comparable to yours.

Verify the information in your keyword tracking software

Falling rankings result in a decrease in traffic. To keep track of your SERP ranks, create a Rankwatch keyword tracking report. The statistics in analytics and search console will corroborate the keywords that have declined significantly.

A keyword’s ranking might drop for a variety of reasons. If the issue isn’t immediately apparent, eliminate the alternatives one by one. To prioritize a plan of action, make a list of likely factors that could have caused the reduction in ranks. The most common causes of changes in search visibility are listed below.

Ascertain that your content is pertinent to the user’s aim

The most crucial ranking factor is whether your content is relevant to the searcher’s intent. Users searching for your target keywords should find value in your content since it speaks directly to their search intent.

Now that BERT is fully functional, we have a better understanding of what a user is looking for in a search query. Despite the fact that the BERT update only affected 10% of search queries, its impact will be felt as Google continues to learn more about how people search.

If your website is lacking in specifics, adding focused material in response to user intent will increase the page’s performance by meeting search intent appropriately. Improve your keyword ranks with better content to reclaim lost traffic.

Evaluate Dropped Backlinks

A decline in ranking and, as a result, a drop in visits could happen from the loss of significant backlinks pointing to your page.

Check your backlinks to check if any critical links were lost during the time when traffic was down.

The most typical reasons for link removal are as follows:

  • The page was moved, merged, or removed
  • They failed to add your link back into the text.

Contact the proprietors of the sites that removed the links to see if they may be reinstated. You can make a better argument for link replacement by correcting any issues that led to their removal in the first place if you can figure out why they were deleted in the first place.

A few low-quality links will have no effect on your ranking or cause a significant decline in traffic. If no big links to your site have been lost, proceed to the following step and conduct a competitive analysis.

Keep an eye out for new SERP features

The introduction of Google SERP features is a trend that has been going on for quite some time. This is a problem that has resulted in more than half of all Google searches landing in a zero-click result.

Confirm whether a new SERP feature has emerged by searching Google for your term. A featured snippet, PAA box, local pack, or an increase in the number of ads may be absorbing a percentage of the query’s available clicks.

Examine Harmful Information and Recommendations

The phrase “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” isn’t always true, especially when you want to improve your business. A public accident or a series of unfavorable reviews might swiftly erase your visitors if the content is serious enough to harm your reputation.

Social listening solutions have become an important part of reputation management since they allow you to track any relevant mentions about your brand and competitors. Your version of the tale may influence public opinion and preserve your reputation in the aftermath of a devastating PR catastrophe. Early retaliation to negative news or reviews can help safeguard traffic and avoid potential client loss.

Take Away the Chances Of A Google Update

It’s always possible that Google has released an update that has caused the ranks to shift. Large fluctuations in ranks owing to big changes in how Google analyzes the content and backlinks are not rare, according to the history of Google upgrades.

There are a few websites, such as seroundtable.com and searchengineland.com that keep up with the latest Google developments and can provide you with the most up-to-date information.

Your company’s website is a significant asset. Dropping traffic counts are terrible for both your website’s growth and the bottom line of your business. Organic traffic takes time to build, but you may accelerate the process by using content marketing to produce leads. However, a minor increase in traffic as a result of these attacks will not be detrimental.

Laptop
DevelopmentMartech

Skyrocket Your Sales With These 5 Conversion Rate Optimization Hacks

Boosting your conversion rates is no walk-in in the park.

You’ll need to apply the right strategies, leverage the best-fitting tools, and learn a thing or two from others in the industry to convert more of your prospects into paying customers. 

While there are many tactics to optimize your website for conversions and increase sales, this guide narrows down some of the tried and tested ways into five tips. 

Read on to learn these five conversion rate optimization hacks to help amplify your existing marketing and sales efforts and grow your revenue. 

1. Use popups

When used properly, popups can help you convince your casual website visitors to sign up to your email list and, ultimately, buy your products. 

The key is to implement a strategy to ensure your popups help showcase your offer’s value to your potential customers instead of annoying them and driving them away. 

Learn from these tips to use popups effectively. 

  • Consider providing several offers such as premium content, PDFs, free stuff, and other products and assess which ones drive the most conversions. 
  • Time your popups properly and avoid setting them to trigger as soon as visitors land on your page. Give shoppers a chance to explore first and get an idea about your brand before displaying your popups.  
  • Ensure visitors can easily close your popups. The goal is to entice prospects into acting on your offer and not “trap” them into agreeing to subscribe or other actions. This can frustrate your visitors, causing them to abandon your website.
  • Configure a cookie, so your popup only appears once for each user. Again, the goal is to offer value and encourage conversions with your popups, not drive your potential customers away. 
  • Emphasize your offer’s benefit so visitors can immediately see it. Doing so shows shoppers your product’s or service’s value instantly, enticing them to sign up or buy. 

This popup from Frank & Oak is a classic example of a popup highlighting the offer with “Get instant 15% off.” 

A young man with the hat

Some of the popular, easiest e-commerce platforms to use offer built-in popup features (or integrate plugins) you can easily customize and run.

2. Strengthen your headlines

Landing pages have great potential to drive conversions and sales. If you’re not optimizing them properly, visitors might not read further than the headline and immediately leave. 

You can miss tons of conversion opportunities, hurting your company’s profitability. 

An excellent approach to ensure your headlines help you convert visitors is to wrap your entire sales pitch into a single bold sentence.

Use impactful headline types that can help you generate leads better and drive conversions, such as:

  • Direct headlines
  • Command headlines
  • Instructional or How-to headlines

Additionally, use headline analyzer tools such as Sharethrough. The tool scores your headlines based on engagement and impression. 

Headline quality score

The tool also shows the strong aspects of your headline and provides recommendations to improve it. 

Create headlines that catch your visitors’ interest, solve a problem, answer a question, or offer information. 

3. Leverage trust elements

The hard truth is, you need to establish trust with first-time website visitors before they buy from you.

After all, new visitors don’t know your brand and your product’s quality yet. Some might have heard of your brand but need a bit more reassurance that your business is legitimate and trustworthy. 

The solution? Leverage trust elements across your website with these tips. 

  • Keep your website up-to-date. A modern website design helps indicate that your website is active. This helps reassure customers that you’re a legitimate business and nurture trust.
  • Display contact information prominently. Show your potential customers how they can reach you. It’s one way of reinforcing that you’re a real business. 

You can also configure Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots for customer service to assist visitors in contacting you or answering common questions.

Providing support is an excellent way to nurture trust and generate conversions. 

  • Show security seals. Display trust badges such as Norton and other security seals. This helps assure customers that their personal data, such as credit card information, are secure when they transact on your site.  
Guaranteed safe checkout
  • Leverage media mentions. Show mentions of your brand by other companies and well-known institutions to enhance your brand’s credibility. These act as testimonials and social proof, helping you build trust with your prospects.  

While it takes time and hard work to establish trust with your potential customers, using trust elements strategically can help reinforce your efforts and ultimately boost your conversions. 

4. Utilize categories to showcase your products

Creating product descriptions that convert can help you reach your conversion goals and increase your sales.

You can take this to the next level by optimizing your product categories for conversions. 

The key is to ensure you don’t bombard visitors with individual products on your homepage. This can overwhelm your potential customers, leading to a negative user experience.  

Instead, design product categories to deliver seamless shopping experiences with these quick tips. 

  • Display your top-level product categories as visual navigation elements. This helps visitors browse your site with ease and find the products they want quickly.  
  • Show the number of available items under each category. This can instantly tell visitors you have the item they’re looking for. Ensure this doesn’t create clutter and overwhelm your users. 

Optimizing your product categories helps show your products’ breadth and depth without visitors going through hoops to find the items they want. 

Note: If you find integrating product categories into your online store too technical, get a web design agency to help you out. 

They can create and organize your menus without ruining your site’s navigation. They can also assist in your overall strategy to optimize your product page and categories for memorable shopping experiences.

5. Create persuasive CTAs

A clear call-to-action helps tell your visitors what to do next while enticing them to act on your conversion goals. 

This makes it crucial to create CTAs that your visitors are more likely to click than ignore.

Here are some tips to help you create irresistible CTAs. 

  • Consider using only one CTA on each page. A single CTA reduces confusion and distractions, helping visitors focus on performing the action you want them to do. 
  • Adopt web usability best practices. This helps you provide user experiences that most visitors are familiar with, simplifying navigating your site and responding to your CTAs. 
  • Run split tests of your CTA elements. Test variations of your CTA button’s color, size, and shape. For instance, you can test which CTA button color variation drives the most conversions and tweak accordingly for better results. 
  • Make your offers clear through proper context. People are more likely to convert when they know exactly what to expect from your offer. It also helps to apply scarcity to make your CTAs more persuasive, encouraging conversions. 

For example, if you’re running a webinar on summit vs. conference, you can include “Register now before slots run out” on your landing page. 

Ready to drive your conversions through the roof?

Increasing your conversion rate requires strategy and creativity.

Put in the hard work now, and you should see some significant improvements, helping you grow your sales and business.

Kickstart your conversion rate optimization efforts with the tips in this guide and assess which ones get you the best results. 

Social media
Martech

Which Media Platforms are Best for a Marketing Campaign?

Did you know that marketing campaigns have a way of sticking with us long after an impression or purchase? This is so because marketing campaigns make companies memorable. Businesses with a sale capacity of at most $25 million or spend almost 13.9% of the income earned on marketing campaigns. A marketing campaign promotes a focused effort that guides consumers towards the desired action and gives brands identity, personality, and emotion. But what are the best media platforms for conducting a business market campaign? 

1. Facebook 

Facebook ranks among the most widely used social media platforms in the world. The platform’s position as a social network with vast data resources is why it’s so appealing to marketers and hence preferred by more than ninety percent of businesses. 

As such, any brand or company conducting any form of business must utilize this crucial business page. Using this largest social media platform allows you to access essential marketing and advertising opportunities that can be utilized for all kinds of businesses. In addition, it is an excellent platform for inbound marketing as it contains content that helps increase your brand’s visibility. 

If you are conducting any form of a marketing campaign, Facebook offers a great channel to engage with your audience daily. If you are still wondering why you should choose Facebook for your marketing campaign, then the answer is simple; it is a beneficial place to invest your advertising budget. 

2. YouTube 

Other than Facebook, YouTube also ranks as the world’s most used platform with more than forty million user-base. Also, in terms of a viable option for videos, it ranks similarly to Facebook. Still, it outdoes Facebook because it hosts longer videos that attract users specifically browsing for this form of content. 

YouTube is ranked as the ideal platform for companies targeting other businesses or customers through videos. The platform utilizes TrueView Video Ads, TrueView In-Stream Ads, TrueView Discovery Ads, or Bumper Ads. 

If you haven’t unlocked the power of YouTube marketing, you need to try a YouTube course designed for all business types. 

3. Instagram 

According to a Hootsuite survey, a billion individuals use Instagram every month for various purposes, including marketing. More than 70% of firms in the United States use this media channel for marketing. Instagram ranks for general marketing, including content creation and paid ads, so whether you’re a big or small business seeking an excellent platform to execute your marketing campaign, you should consider it. 

Instagram works well for both still photos and video, with the former taking precedence. When the focus is on the visual component, this is good because the text is less necessary. Instagram includes a variety of ad kinds, making it one of the most popular social media platforms for paid advertising. Carousel advertisements, stories ads, images ads, and video ads are among them. They also included shopping tags and the option for company accounts to link their photographs straight to their website, allowing consumers to discover more about products easily and swiftly. Instagram is a popular choice among paid advertising marketers in the eCommerce industry. 

While Facebook and YouTube have broad user populations, Instagram is more oriented toward a younger and female audience, making it a perfect target if your campaign’s consumer persona matches this – but a terrible choice for older male clients. 

4. Linkedin 

Social media
Linkedin is one of the most famous business social media apps

LinkedIn is the most suitable choice if you are looking for a marketing platform geared towards professionals. 

The platform offers many filter options and is ranked as the best platform for B2B lead generations, which allows marketers to connect with more qualified users. 

While the platform has a special focus on professionals, it also provides for commercials. LinkedIn is a no-brainer if your business needs to cater to commercial clients, brands, and business-focused customers. The platform offers marketers a wealth of demographic data hence is ranked due to its unique style of generating potential business leads. 

The platform utilizes dynamic ads, text ads, sponsored InMail, and sponsored content types of advertising. 

5. Twitter 

Twitter is a hugely popular and extremely fast-paced social media network. With this platform, every word matters since tweets are limited to 280 characters. While stepping on its popularity, it allows marketers to instantly capture their audience’s attention and deliver a link to the information and items they want. 

Twitter allows you to have a content presence that drives inbound traffic and also paid advertising presence that drives outbound traffic. This is accomplished through various advertising methods, including promoted tweets, promoted trends, and promoted accounts. 

Final Thoughts 

Businesses can use media platforms to run marketing campaigns to reach out to their customers in various ways. It’s worth mentioning that your clients are already connecting with competitors via social media. As a result, if you’re not using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest to talk directly to your audience, you’re missing out on a lot. Great social media marketing efforts achieve exceptional results for businesses, cultivate loyal brand champions, and even drive leads and sales. 

Smartphone
SaaS

Is WhatsApp Chatbot Right For Your Business Growth

WhatsApp has approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users in 180 countries, making it a messaging industry pioneer. Furthermore, the app has 96 million downloads in February 2020, demonstrating its widespread appeal. Although WhatsApp began as a platform for consumers to interact with family and friends, a portion of the network is now used by businesses to communicate with customers.

As a result, the WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Business application were created. WhatsApp for Business was created to assist medium and large enterprises in engaging with consumers all over the world and sending quick and automatic responses. We will learn about the WhatsApp business, the WhatsApp chatbot, and its different benefits and applications in this article. Let’s get started!

WhatsApp

Reasons How WhatsApp Chatbot Is Right For Your Business:

  1. Omnipresence:

Customers who have had a positive experience with customer service are more inclined to buy from the company again. Customers want businesses to be where they are when they need them. A chatbot takes care of the “when” with its 24/7 automation. WhatsApp also allows you to optimize for the “where” because of its massive market penetration. Your brand and organization are never more than a click away with WhatsApp. Your products are simple to find, and your services are simple to use.

  1. Human intervention:

The issue with brands’ unmanned channels/tools is that human intervention is never fast enough. An email thread can take hours to enlist the help of the appropriate department or agency. Humans, on the other hand, can effortlessly and instantly pick up chats from a WhatsApp Business Chatbot. This allows agents to provide outstanding customer service without having to deal with thousands of repetitive interactions.

  1. Excellent Metrics:

WhatsApp is one of the most effective marketing platforms available. WhatsApp achieves outcomes that leave its competitors in the dust because of its convenience and simplicity. Furthermore, the best WhatsApp chatbot has a delivery rate of 100%, a read rate of 95%, and a conversion rate of nearly 3x that of other channels. This guarantees that your brand’s digital assets engage all of the people who are supposed to see them.

  1. Simple To Automate:

A chatbot enables businesses to automate a major portion of their consumer interactions. WhatsApp Business chatbots can handle everything from generating and qualifying leads to automating FAQs and decreasing support tickets. But that’s just the start; Verloop enables businesses to automate even more. Automatically transfer data from your chatbot to your preferred CRM/OMS system. Use webhooks to pull data from your systems and offer it to your customers in a seamless manner.

How WhatsApp Chatbot Is Right For Your Business?

WhatsApp business chatbots provide businesses with a fantastic opportunity to reach out to a larger audience and provide them with the best customer care that keeps them coming back to you. The following are some of the advantages of using a WhatsApp chatbot for your business owners:

  1. Small, family-run businesses, as well as major corporations, can use the platform
  1. Chatbots on WhatsApp provide a more enriched client experience, which aids in customer retention and engagement
  1. Enhances customer interactions while increasing brand exposure and loyalty
  1. Makes your company accessible through a variety of methods
  1. Clients can receive broadcasts and outbound notifications
  1. Businesses can use an interactive and visual medium to connect with customers
  1. WhatsApp is available worldwide (except in China), allowing you to create a customer-centric chatbot that caters to a global audience

Functionality Of WhatsApp Chatbot:

The following are the top 3 functionalities of the WhatsApp chatbot to look upon:

  1. Secure:

WhatsApp is one of the most secure services on the planet because of its end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption on WhatsApp means that only you and the person with whom you’re conversing can read what’s sent, with no one in between, including WhatsApp. As a result, WhatsApp is an excellent platform for sending messages containing sensitive information. WhatsApp can be used to send OTPs, transactional updates, and follow-ups.

  1. Media Rich:

Apart from its mobility and ease of use, WhatsApp’s media richness makes it an excellent platform for businesses to communicate with their customers. Unlike email or phone support, brands can send photographs, videos, gifs, audio recordings, and documents using WhatsApp.

  1. Ease Of Use:

WhatsApp is known for having one of the most user-friendly and straightforward interfaces available. As a result, all clients will be able to use the platform to its full potential – without needing to be technologically savvy. This facilitates user onboarding and increases user retention. When businesses utilize WhatsApp Business Chatbots for customer service or lead generation, their customers get the same great experience they’ve come to expect.

Wrapping It Up:

Today’s businesses recognize the necessity of reaching out to clients where they are already. One of the most significant benefits of WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business chatbots is that they can assist in the development of a steady and long-term relationship with your clients without requiring them to seek you out on multiple platforms. 

Businesses can profit from the benefits of a devoted audience and better engagement afforded by WhatsApp by developing a user-friendly chatbot. Customer support operations may be streamlined with the correct chatbot platform, and your consumers will receive better service than your competition.

________________________________________________________________________

Author’s Bio:

Alishba Memon is a content writer at Botsify. She is a staunch believer in the theory of making anything happen. She specializes in SEO writing and content writing. She aims to spring up in a pragmatic way.

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Author: Alishba Memon

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alishba-memon-2b38a7190/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/ialishbamemon

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Email: alishba@botsify.com

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DevelopmentSaaS

Progressive Web Apps: Future Of Web Development

Introduction

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have changed the way that many people access the internet.

According to Statista, there are 7.1 billion smartphone users in the world now, which indicates that 80.76% of the world’s population owns one.  These numbers show that a huge amount of internet users are now connected via mobile devices.

A very important challenge faced by businesses is how to reach out to both mobile and desktop customers without having to create and manage both a mobile app (iOS and Android) and a responsive website.

With so many people using mobile devices to browse the web, developers have started designing more simplistic websites for users who don’t have time to download bulky applications. 

These websites are called Progressive Web Apps (PWA), and they behave like native mobile apps but can be accessed from almost anywhere with an internet connection. Because of this, PWA is the latest trend in web development.

In this Progressive Web Apps post, we’ll cover what PWAs are and the difference between Progressive Web Apps and native apps. We’ll also go over some of the benefits of developing a PWA and how organizations use PWAs.

What are progressive web apps?

Computer
As seen on monitors, the new website is developed

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web applications that use modern web capabilities, such as service workers and push notifications, to deliver an app-like user experience, such as working offline or push messages, making them more user-friendly than traditional web apps.

Components of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) include a website, which is the basis for your application; service workers, which allow PWAs to work offline or on low-quality networks; and a web manifest file, which describes the web app to the browser so it can be displayed full screen on launch.

Website

The first step is to create a website that will serve as the basis for your application. It should adhere to responsive web design principles and be as small as possible: the first interaction should be quick and painless. There is no need to install a development environment because PWAs are created using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, just like any other website.

A website that uses different technologies (e.g. web app manifest, push notifications) to make it act like an app. The web app works like a normal website, but once saved to the device home screen, it can send push notifications and work offline.

Service Worker

A service worker is a script that runs in the background of your application. It is only active when you’re online, which allows you to send push notifications and keep data synchronized even when the web app is closed.

Website Manifest File

A manifest file is a simple JSON file, which tells Chrome how your web application should look once installed on the user’s device. It provides information about the application’s name, its icon, where to start or activate it, and more.

Top benefits of progressive web apps

There are many advantages of using PWAs over traditional native applications, and they include:

Smaller and lighter

The average application is about 25MB, while PWAs are usually less than 100kb. This is because the only file required to run a PWA is the manifest.json, which can be as little as 4kb in size.

Budget-friendly

They are a cost-effective way to engage with your existing user base and gain new users as they can be saved to the device home screen. It is also possible to send push notifications to both Android and iOS devices without building two separate applications.

Easy to maintain

Because PWAs are web-based, there is no need to update them separately. Instead, they can be updated as and when required, directly from the server. This means no additional storage space on the device is used as well as the user requires less effort as they don’t have to download a new application after an update.

Low bounce rate / increased customer engagement

PWAs provide a way for users to engage with your website even when they’re offline. For example, users who add your web app to their home screen won’t have to wait for it to load each time they open the browser, which leads to lower bounce rates resulting in higher customer engagement.

Offline mode

PWAs also work offline and can be used even when the device is not connected to a network. This is because the data required to use the application is stored locally. This means that your site will still be accessible even when a connection isn’t available, ensuring continuity of service and making it an attractive option for users with poor or no internet connectivity.

No app store submission

There is no need to go through the app store submission process and wait for approval. The Google Chrome store automatically detects changes made to the manifest file, allowing you to distribute updates directly from your server without resubmitting your app or making changes on a developer’s end.

Use of hardware features

PWAs can be used to access a device’s hardware, such as the camera or microphone, without going through the app store submission process. This is useful if you want your users to take photos and upload them directly to your website – something that would otherwise normally require an app store submission.

Mobile like behavior

PWAs behave like mobile apps and load instantly on devices. They can also send push notifications to users, which means you can stay in touch with your customers without them having to manually check for updates.

Progressive web apps vs native apps: Difference?

Gadets
Progressive web apps are the future of web development and are easy to access

A native app is a non-web program designed for a specific platform, written in a programming language specifically for that platform. This means it can only be run on the operating system for which it was developed, while PWAs work across different platforms, including iOS and Android devices.

A progressive web app uses modern web standards to provide an app-like experience using Application Cache (AppCache) and service workers. These features must be used in combination to take advantage of the “app-like” nature progressive web apps provide.

One of the main differences between a PWA and a native application is that PWAs run on different platforms, while native apps are for one platform only. This means fewer development costs as well as app store fees. Additionally, there’s no need to build or maintain two code bases since they can be built and maintained on one platform.

PWAs run on browser-like websites, while native applications are installed onto a device like traditional software. This distinction makes PWAs more secure, reliable, and faster than native applications.

  • Cost of development and maintenance

Native apps require developers with expertise in the particular platform for which they are intended, as well as a great deal of time, effort, and monetary investment. This means native app development is usually more costly than PWAs.

Due to their browser-based nature, PWAs can be tested on real devices through an emulator or a simple addition of a meta tag on the website’s head section. No installation is required, so it can be tested directly from a web browser. This saves time and lowers development costs since no developer expertise is required for specific platforms.

  • Convenience

PWAs can be easily distributed and updated on the web, while native apps must go through an app store where they need to meet strict requirements set by platform owners. This means that the frequency of updates is greatly increased for PWAs.

  • SEO & discoverability

PWAs are discoverable through search engines, making them a quick way for users to find your app. Since they behave like traditional websites, PWAs also have the advantage of being indexed by search engines as opposed to only those that meet specific store requirements or those that are submitted as per store guidelines.

  • Security

PWAs are more secure than native applications since there is no need to protect the operating system or device from application threats.

  • Installation

A PWA does not require installation like a native application, making it easier and more convenient for the end-user. However, some browsers will prompt users to add the website as an app if they visit often enough. With this method, there is still no need for an application store submission or update process since PWAs can be updated from the browser itself.

  • Performance

PWAs are faster than native applications since they run on a web engine rather than directly on the device. In contrast, they may be slightly slower when compared to a fully optimized native app. However, this difference in speed is offset by their advantage of being updateable from within the browser itself with no outside interference required.

How Do Organizations Use PWAs?

Leading businesses are driving increased support for PWAs by adopting that they are used to their maximum potential. Below are some instances of progressive web apps to demonstrate the growing importance of progressive web apps:

Google is using PWAs in their NewsStand, which offers users the ability to browse various topics, download content for offline browsing, listen to podcasts, and more with little data usage. On top of that, Android users will now see an “Install” button when they search for apps on the Play Store – this feature will be rolled out later this year.

Apple app store functions as a PWA that allows users to search for apps from their browser, then install them from the mobile device itself. This is similar to how Google Search works on Android devices with the Play Store.

Forbes is using PWAs in a way to improve page views and time spent on their site. Instead of visitors having to wait for the web page to load with ads, Forbes has created a PWA that allows users to download content for later use when they have no connection. Additionally, when not online, users can still read articles from the cache version of the website allowing for a more fluid user experience.

Flipkart also uses PWAs in their online shopping experience by keeping track of user preferences and allowing for context-based search results. Customers can also integrate the Flipkart app with the website, so they don’t have to leave the device to check out.

Twitter has been using PWAs for a while now, allowing users to open the app from a mobile browser without going through any extra steps. This has been great for users since opening links from non-native apps fall back to mobile websites.

Conclusion: Are PWAs the future of web development?

PWAs are becoming more and more popular among smaller companies that want to increase their user base but don’t have the funds for a fully-fledged app. They’re also great for larger corporations who are already used to web software which can save them time, money, and effort when it comes to updating content or rolling out new features.

The bottom line is this: PWAs may not be able to replace native apps altogether in every industry – but they offer many benefits that make them worth considering if you’re looking into creating your own mobile application. If you need help deciding whether progressive web applications are right for your business needs, contact our web development company today! Our team of expert developers and analysts will show you how we’ve helped other businesses succeed with PWA solutions.