Marketing

By Angeley Mullins

Ready for your eCommerce business to start off 2017 with a bang? The online world is constantly changing, so now that you’ve staked a claim on the internet, you’ll need to do whatever you can to keep the momentum going. To ensure your business stays on track, here are some foreseeable trends you can use to your benefit in 2017.

Omni-channel sales

In addition to laptops and desktops, many consumers own mobile devices. A shopping experience at the home office could easily transition to a purchase later from a mobile device. Across the board, companies are taking their products to the streets so consumers can enjoy anything — from anywhere.

Take Amazon or Netflix, for example. The ability to watch videos on multiple devices is a huge plus for customers. Big fan of House of Cards? Take that show with you on your daily commute!

Ease of access always wins out in today’s day and age. The same can be said for online businesses. Your customers’ eCommerce experience needs to be fluid across multiple devices in order to accommodate the transient nature of their shopping tendencies. If you’re looking to get online, or you’re already active but need ways to expand, make sure your website is optimized for desktops and mobile devices alike.

Pro tip: Create a seamless customer experience by using an omni-channel sales approach.

Content is still king

You’ve probably heard it before, but good content is king. Content helps you define your business and attract new customers. When people search for your company or industry online, they want the facts — and they want them delivered in a way that makes sense.  (more…)

By Maxym Martineau

The holidays are right around the corner, and people everywhere are hitting stores in search of the perfect present. Competing with big box retailers is tough regardless of the season, but with more shoppers on the prowl for the perfect gift, you’ll need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Here are three things you can do to boost engagement with your customers and remind them to add your wares to their shopping lists.

1. Create a fun holiday newsletter

Never underestimate the power of well-crafted newsletter. Seventy-three percent of millennials prefer email communications — that’s a huge market you can target with holiday-specific information.

You don’t have to toss your product spotlights and blog recaps to the side, but now’s your chance to add some holiday-themed festivity to the mix. Use language that represents the holidays without excluding any of your readership:  (more…)

Shoppers rely on small businesses to make their holidays special. From the perfect gift, to the best catering, consumers turn to the internet to connect with these local spots. To help businesses prepare, we’re teaming up with the U.S. Small Business Administration and partners across America to host a livestream event October 26th at 1:00pm ET to give small businesses the boost they need to reach more customers this #SmallBizSeason. Is your small business ready?

During the workshop, small businesses will learn how to create a free business listing on Google, optimize their website for mobile, advertise online, and more. There will be a Q&A at the end so be sure to submit your holiday questions using the hashtag #SmallBizSeason on Twitter.  (more…)

By Karen Peacock
SVP and Small Business Segment Leader at Intuit

Connecting with customers is a crucial part of success for any small business—but simply making a connection isn’t enough. You have to make sure you make the right connection, and then use it to drive innovation that keeps your customers coming back.

Small business owners often experience their biggest ah-ha moments during one-on-one interactions with their customers. Spending time with customers and prospects, learning what matters to them, and then testing your hypotheses can create a continuous feedback circle that both delights customers and powers your business forward.

5 Ways to Connect with Customers

You can make those customer connections and gain insights in a variety of ways. Here are a few of my favorites—from making one-on-one interactions really work to ways that you can use tech tools and data to help you keep your business thriving and innovating.

Hands-On Customer Testing

Don’t just ask customers what they like about your product or service; put something in front of them and watch what they do.  (more…)

By Steve Robinson
Director of National Organizations
Constant Contact

There’s a certain thrill that comes with seeing your email contact list grow and it’s even more exciting when clients read and share your content. Along with that excitement there can be a temptation to aggressively grow your list by capturing names from your website or client orders. While everybody wants a healthy list of contacts, it’s important to remember the golden rule of successful email marketing – you must first get permission from your clients before adding them to your list.

Though sometimes it can be challenging to reach out to clients on an individual basis to ask for their permission, especially since so many interactions are done online these days. To make the most of your online presence and boost subscribers, here are 10 fresh and free ways to inspire clients, partners, and website visitors to join your email list.

Engage Website Visitors

When clients visit your website or find your business through an online listing, it’s an opportunity to engage them and entice them to want to learn more about your business. Three ways to inspire them to join your mailing list are:

1. Offer exclusive content. Feature content on your website that clients crave such as top secret recipes, little known short cuts, or cost savings tips. By including a synopsis of what’s behind the curtain, you demonstrate your expertise and the value of the content. From there, make it easy for clients to access all of that exclusive content in exchange for joining your mailing list.

2. Convert website visitors into subscribers using MailMunch. This tool allows you to create opt-in subscriber forms that you add to your website or blog without having to write a single line of code. And yes, they also work on mobile devices.  (more…)