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Choosing a Niche for Your E-Commerce Store

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Starting an e-commerce store can seem like a straightforward way to make money online. However, there are potential pitfalls along the way – including choosing the wrong products to sell.

To help you budding sellers find your feet; this article looks at why finding the right product category is important and sets out the steps to choosing an e-commerce niche for your business.

Why is Finding an E-Commerce Niche Important?

Driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, the global e-commerce market is worth an estimated $7.75 trillion, and this figure is expected to rise to $20 trillion by 2028. For new online entrepreneurs, this might look like a fool-proof opportunity to make profits; no physical premises are required, so setting up an e-commerce store requires relatively low overheads, while drop-shipping means the owner of an online store doesn’t even have to find space for stock.

However, despite the opportunities, a reported nine out of ten e-commerce businesses fail during their first few months of operation. Among the reasons for failure include an inability to compete with established players (namely Amazon) and store owners finding there is no market for their products. As such, choosing the right product category or niche is one-way e-commerce entrepreneurs can help protect their businesses from failure.

Steps to Choosing a Niche

1. Research the Market and Current Trends

The obvious place to start finding your niche is by conducting research into market trends. When doing this, think about your intended geographic reach; popular products in your local area or home country might not have a viable market internationally, or vice versa.

Also, consider whether certain products might be seasonal or cyclical. For example, how many face-mask businesses that made lots of money during the peak of the pandemic are still in business in 2022 when many countries no longer have mask mandates?

2. Think about Your Passions

While it’s unwise to rush into a business based on your heart alone, setting up an e-commerce store and running it day-to-day is difficult. This is especially true in the early days when set-up costs come into play, but sales and revenue are non-existent. Still, a genuine love for your products and niche can help you keep going, as well as make you more engaged in promoting your business.

Launching an e-commerce business in a product category in which you have expertise can also make life easier. You can share your knowledge and become an authority niche retailer that customers trust, setting you apart from Amazon and other mass e-commerce giants that focus on high-volume discount sales.

3. Consider the Logistics

Think about the realities of getting your products to your customers, not just at the beginning when you have limited sales but in a future scenario when you could have hundreds of orders a day. While drop-shipping can provide a solution to selling physical products, it’s not without risks.

As a small business, reputation is vital. If you want customers to choose you over one of the larger online retailers and recommend you to other buyers, you will need to ensure you can deliver what you promise every time. Also, don’t forget that shipping physical products can pose additional logistical issues, such as age-limited items and export regulations.

4. Visualize Your Marketing Activities

Two common reasons cited for many e-commerce stores’ failures are a lack of online visibility and poor marketing. In the e-commerce world, a store that isn’t visible essentially doesn’t exist. You aren’t just selling products; you’re building a brand – and you need to get it out there so people can see it.

From blogging and podcasts to get your business’s name out there with brand merchandise from companies such as Anthem Branding, many different promotional activities can give you online and offline visibility. Ultimately, the niche you choose will partly determine the types of marketing that will be the most effective and influence the strategies you can employ consistently.

5. Assess the Potential for Expansion

Choosing a niche requires walking a fine line between picking one that’s too broad and one that’s too limiting. Generally, it’s easier to start small and become well-known in a narrow product sub-category before expanding.

Start by finding existing gaps in the wider product category. If, for example, you want to open a store in the pet niche, you might want to start with luxury dog toys before broadening your range to include related items.

If you do plan to offer other products, make sure this is reflected in your online presence. For example, if you go all-in merely with luxury dog toys and then expand into cat toys or dog food, you’ll be faced with trying to get online traction for a whole new product sub-category.

Final Thoughts

Despite what seems like a saturation of e-commerce, there are still opportunities for the committed online entrepreneur. While many internet businesses fail, this article has hopefully shown that dedicating ample time and research to choosing the right product niche can help set you up for success.

LinkedIn Tips: How to Increase Your Visibility and Grow Your Network

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Are you looking for ways to increase your visibility on LinkedIn and grow your network? If so, you’re in luck! In this blog post, we will share some tips that will help you accomplish just that. LinkedIn is a powerful platform for business owners and professionals, and it can be a great tool for networking and growing your business. We will discuss how to create an effective profile, build relationships with other members, and make the most of LinkedIn’s features. Let’s get started!

Stay up-to-date

Your profile is one of the first things people see when they visit your LinkedIn page. So, it’s important to make sure that it is up-to-date and includes relevant information about your professional background and experience. One way to increase your visibility is to announceyour job on LinkedIn. You can do this by updating your profile and adding a post about your new position. Be sure to include details about what you’ll be doing in your new role and how it will benefit your career. This is a great way to let people know what you’re up to and get them excited about following your journey.

Optimize your profile

Your LinkedIn profile is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to potential connections. So, take some time to optimize it! Start by adding a professional headshot and writing a compelling summary that highlights your skills and experience. Then, be sure to include links to your website or blog, as well as any articles or resources that you have published. These will help people learn more about you and what you do. You can also use keywords throughout your profile to make sure that you show up in search results.

Build relationships

LinkedIn is all about building relationships. So, don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with other members! When you do, be sure to personalize your request so that it doesn’t come across as generic. Also, take the time to read through someone’s profile before you connect with them. This will help you get a better sense of who they are and whether or not you have any mutual connections. Once you’ve connected with someone, be sure to engage with their content and participate in conversations. This will help you build a stronger relationship and increase visibility on LinkedIn.

Make the most of LinkedIn’s features

LinkedIn offers a lot of great features that can help you grow your business. So, be sure to take advantage of them! For example, LinkedIn Groups are a great way to connect with like-minded professionals and learn about opportunities. You can also use LinkedIn Jobs to find job postings that match your skills and experience. And, if you’re looking to connect with influencers, LinkedIn Pulse is a great place to start. These are just a few of the ways that you can make the most of LinkedIn’s features.

Join Groups

join group

LinkedIn groups are a great way to connect with other professionals in your industry or field. Groups provide a space for members to discuss relevant topics, share resources, and network with each other. You can join groups that are specific to your industry or interests, or you can create your own group. To find groups, simply go to the LinkedIn homepage and click on the “Groups” tab. Once you’ve joined some groups, be sure to participate in the discussions and contribute value whenever possible. This will help you build relationships with other members and grow your network.

Share Content

Another great way to increase your visibility on LinkedIn is to share relevant content. This could be blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, or anything else that would be of interest to your target audience. When you share content, be sure to add a brief description and include a call to action so that people can learn more about what you do. You can also use LinkedIn’s publishing platform to write original articles and share your expert insights with the LinkedIn community.

These are just a few tips that will help you increase your visibility on LinkedIn and grow your network. If you’re not already using LinkedIn, we encourage you to give it a try. It’s a great platform for business owners and professionals, and it can really help you take your career to the next level. Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. For more tips on how to use LinkedIn

10 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses

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Video marketing is no longer a novel concept, and many small businesses seem to have a hold on this type of marketing. With the gradual decrease in the price of video equipment and software, it has become much easier for any small business to foray into video marketing. If you are new to video marketing, you need not worry about it being an expensive and complex affair.

Some initial planning and a dose of original creativity are all it takes to create videos that appeal to viewers. Undoubtedly, video marketing is here to stay. With businesses of all shapes and sizes jumping onto the video marketing bandwagon, the quality of your videos plays a huge role in attracting and retaining viewers. In this blog, we list out some of the benefits of video marketing for small businesses:

10 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses

1. Higher Ranking on SERP

YouTube is the second most visited website after Google and can be termed the second most popular search engine. There are close to 2 billion users on this free video platform. Little wonder then that YouTube is a sought-after video platform by marketers. To put things in perspective, YouTube has the potential for unmatched reach to a broad global audience that directly translates to potential buyers searching for your product or “solution.”

It is an established fact that most search engine users never go past the first page on SERP. To increase your chances of landing on the first page of Google results, it is a good idea to add video content on YouTube. This increases your probability of being discovered by new users as search engines are known to prioritize video content on the SERP.

2. Increased Brand Awareness

One of the best ways to increase brand awareness through video marketing is to upload videos on YouTube. With close to 2 billion users and a watch time of 250 million hours every day, the power of video marketing on the free video platform is unmatched.

Once your content gains traction on the platform, it can do wonders for your brand awareness and sales thereafter. Such videos can be easily made with an online video maker that comes with an interactive and beginner-friendly interface.

3. Best Medium to Acquire Information

Today, people are completely involved in their fast-paced lifestyle and do not have the luxury of time. This has resulted in diminishing attention spans, where people are averse to written content and are more inclined to watch videos.

Regardless of the complexity of the subject, a combination of audio and video provides an immersive experience that provides much better knowledge retention than any other medium. This makes it the best medium to disseminate information and provides better insight and a refined view of the product. The best way to make such impactful videos is through an online video maker with good UI and UX.

4. Improves Digital Presence

Currently, it is tough for a small business to survive without an online presence. With the help of video marketing, a small business stands a much better chance of being seen and heard by the audience. Video not only improves brand recall but can also prompt viewers to take action after they view the entire video, often even before the video ends. There are options to prompt viewers to share the video link of the content, vastly increasing the digital presence of the brand and the associated product.

5. Increases the Click-through Rate

It could seem tempting to attach the video content to your email campaign. However, the increased size of the email would get it filtered into the spam folder. Instead, create a thumbnail of the video and redirect the customers to the source of the video, which could be your website or landing page. This is one of the best ways to increase click-through rates.

6. Improves Social Engagement

In recent times, it has become increasingly pertinent for the brand to have a social presence. The bigger the presence, the better the brand awareness. To increase social media presence, it is prudent to create videos for different video platforms to enable the customer to connect directly with the brand and product. Furthermore, if they like the product, there is always the prospect of the brand’s word spreading far and wide. In case you are wondering how to make such videos, they can be easily made with an online video maker available from several new companies.

7. Promotes Trust

The great advantage of video marketing is that it can directly appeal to the audience’s emotions. This is vital for a small business to create that all-important connection with the audience. Such connections can reinforce trust in the brand and create loyally and repeat customers. There are numerous ways to cement this trust, including testimonials, behind-the-scenes perspectives, etc.

8. Improves Understanding of the Product

There are many concepts or products that cannot be explained well with a text or any other medium. With such products, it is always a safe bet to create videos, specifically product demo videos. This gives the audience a chance to better understand the product before they make the purchase decision.

Another way of doing this is through explainer videos where you explain how your product solves the problem and fits into the overall picture. Increased understanding will naturally translate to improved sales.

9. Increases Sales

There are validated figures that point to the fact that companies that carry out video marketing outshine the companies that don’t. Video content has the potential to convert a cold audience through landing pages, email campaigns, or social media presence. Although the initial capital investment tends to be high in some cases, the company can easily recoup the amount once they have the video marketing in motion.

10. Video can Provide Critical Metrics

Having created your video marketing campaigns, it’s natural that you would be eager to measure its performance and impact. All video platforms come with analytics that allows you to delve into the performance of the video in close detail. Such data points will allow you to fine-tune and refine your future strategy and give insights into the target audience.

Final Thoughts

Video marketing is a strategy that is not going away anytime soon. So, if you are a small business, do not wait to start with video marketing. Else, there is a good chance of your competition doing it better and grabbing the lion’s share of the market. That being said, it is also pertinent for marketers to think originally and come up with concepts that leave a mark and strike a chord with the audience without which it is hard to succeed with video marketing.

Instagram Marketing: Note These Principles Down Before Starting

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Business and marketing go hand in hand. These days, the best platforms to market products or services are social media platforms. Particularly, Instagram has risen to be a great app for all things business, advertising, and brand awareness. And if you know how to maximize the platform, you will get plenty of conversion benefits.

Instagram marketing is all about promoting your brand on Instagram to increase awareness and improve sales. It is the strategy by which businesses can reach their target audience.

Understanding how Instagram works will put you in a better position to run and market your small business successfully on the platform. Before you start your business on Instagram, you should acquaint yourself with some principles.

These principles will steer you in the right direction.

Instagram Marketing Principles To Note Before Starting Your Business

1. Research

It’s a jungle out there on the streets of Instagram and only the informed survive. Thankfully, all the information you need about your potential clients is readily available. You just have to do some research to find them out and channel them for your brand growth on Instagram.

Start by studying your industry, and then learn about your target audience. Figure out what people want from your brand. Running surveys is a good tactic to do this.

Ideally, you want your products and services to proffers solutions to the problems your customers face. But the only way to find out about your customers’ problems is by researching. Study the demographics that suit your brand. Also, the age range of your target audience, their gender, and their location matter, especially when you’re about to run targeted ads.

Another important tactic is to find out about your competitors and see the things they do differently. Make notes about the mistakes and positive actions taken by top brands. And make sure to use them while designing your own Instagram marketing campaigns.

2. Listen

After proper research and survey, you need to listen to your target audience. It’s useless to research only to ignore all your findings, especially those you can use to help your audience. Remember that you are there for your followers, not just for yourself or your personal gain.

From the notes, you make while researching, see how you can implement steps to cater to your audience. For example, if people complain about poor customer service, then you should make sure your brand provides a quick and helpful response to customers.

2. Participate or Interact

Instagram accommodates communication and interaction between users. Before the social media era, there was a limitation to brand-customer interaction. You either had to send an email or make a long inconvenient call to a customer care service. However, things have changed and it’s way easier to reach brands via their DMs and get quick replies.

To successfully run a business on Instagram, you must interact with your audience. Comments and DMs shouldn’t go without a fast reply from you. Like, share, and comment on your follower’s posts especially if they relate to your brand. Your captions should encourage your audience to participate or give their opinions in the comment section.

Customers want brands that they can reach out to or connect with. So to become that brand, you must increase participation and interaction with your audience.

3. Build

This principle is not mandating a brick-and-mortar location. Nope! It simply means that you should build a community for your brand. Your business needs a loyal customer base, also called a community, that will support your business.

A brand community will help you gain more awareness. Imagine you have an amazing following that shares your posts or tags friends to follow you, your growth will be explosive! This is why some users buy Instagram followers and likes. It increases their community and also their engagements and gets them the favor of the algorithm.

4. Reward

Rewarding your consistent customers or loyal followers can give you headway. People have the motivation to interact or make purchases when there is something more to gain. Giveaways and discounts are excellent marketing strategies. They bring practical results as you will see in follower counts, engagement rates, and sales.

Occasionally, make giveaway posts to encourage your audience’s participation. Ask your followers to tag their friends and follow you. Give discounts on products and services. You will find that more people will make purchases because an item has a 20% discount.

5. Measurements and Analytics

Businesses, regardless of their mode of operation, always need to analyze their performance. Measuring your progress will guide you in designing future strategies. From analytics, you get to see what works best and what doesn’t.

You should evaluate how well your content on Instagram reaches the right audience. All these will help you see how you can turn visitors into customers. The task of analysis will be easy if you work with an analytics platform or software. Already, Instagram has the insight feature that is an asset in this area.

6. Empower

As your business grows on Instagram, it may become tedious to run it all by yourself. As such, you should consider hiring people with social media management skills. Empower your business with the necessary skill sets.

Since Instagram is a visual platform, you can invest in a camera, a professional photographer, and a graphic designer. As you grow, make your Instagram posts better.

Not every business can afford to employ a social media manager or designer. If your business is a small one with a little budget, don’t worry. There are other things you can do to improve your Instagram page. Here are some helpful tips:

  • Look out for Instagram updates so that you can use the latest business features.
  • Bring into play editing apps and software like VSCO, Snapseed, Lightroom, etc.
  • Graphic design apps like Canva can be beneficial.

6. Collaborate and Partner

To thrive on Instagram, you must consider partnerships with other brands and creators. This is where influencers can help. Instagram influencers can help you make sales and increase the reach of your brand.

By venturing into a partnership, you are opening doors for more followers and engagement. Even as a small business, you can partner with nano-influencers. Do Instagram stories takeover, collab posts, paid partnerships, etc.

7. Share and Promote

Your brand needs recognition and awareness to generate leads and make conversions. Sharing and promoting your brand in any way possible can bring the awareness you desire. Let people know that you have a business. Below are two tips to help you with business promotion:

  • Run Instagram ads or campaigns: ads are well targeted to ensure that the right demographics see your sponsored posts. Examples of Instagram ads are image ads, carousel ads, video ads, stories ads, and shoppable or collection ads. Choose an ad type based on your ad objective. If you wish to boost sales, try out shoppable or collection ads.
  • Promote your Instagram page on other social media sites, blogs, and websites:  On your Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest profiles, you can put in your Instagram profile URL. Users on these platforms can connect with you on Instagram using your link. If you have a blog or website, you can also embed an Instagram post in your blog content.

In Conclusion

Your marketing strategy can make or mar your business on Instagram. For this reason, you need to employ the best methods and approach.

Listen, engage, partner, analyze and share. Also, be open to new updates and trends from Instagram and see how to use them. As you start your Instagram business, make sure you tick all principles we have highlighted.

Qualities of a Good Brand Name

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A brand name is the face of your brand that represents the first image of your brand. The logo also plays a major role. But, if someone hears about your brand from another person, they cannot see the logo initially. It makes the brand name the most crucial part of marketing your brand. 

A good brand name is a critical element of any business. It allows your customers to remember your brand and make a place in their minds. Brand names must be attractive and functional. Let’s tell you all the qualities of a good brand name.

What is a Brand Name?

A brand name refers to a distinct name given to a product, service, or concept. The brand name gives your product or service a unique identity and enables people to remember you. Mostly, people associate a brand’s name with the product’s function. That is why choosing an appropriate brand name is vital. 

Brand names are of different types and decided based on your intention behind the name. Some names are descriptive, while others are acronyms. A few brands prefer abstract and emotive names, while some choose names based on origin. Each brand name is specific and stands for the product or service offered. Besides being attractive, a brand name should tell your customers everything about your brand in just a few letters.

Qualities of a Good Brand Name

Choosing a brand name can be challenging, especially when many are already taken. Yet, it is also relatively easy. Why?

Brand names are unique to the brand’s product, service, origin, and theme.

You can draft an entirely unknown name and still convey to people what your brand is about. Here are all the qualities you must consider while choosing a brand name for your product, service, or concept.

Brand Written on black board

Unique

With many other businesses in the marketplace offering the same services as you, it is important to have a unique identity that distinguishes you from others. Brand names should be specific to your service, product, and the company’s theme. You might not want to go overboard with it. However, a little bit of personalization can make it easy to associate with you and remember. It is one of the important parts of brand positioning.

Easy to Pronounce

While you may want to have a unique name, the best brand names are easy to pronounce. An easy-to-pronounce and identifiable name are convenient for people of all ages. As a brand, you want people to remember your name without reminding them repeatedly. And isn’t that we all want? 

Should Portray the Product

One of the essential characteristics of a good brand name is how well it tells people what your brand is all about. Let’s say you choose a fancy brand name that is easy to pronounce, depicts your origin, and is attractive. But, it’s not a great brand name if it does not clearly indicate what your product is about. For example, you name a cleaning company, crystal. The first thought that would come to people’s minds is that it is a crystal or gem company. 

Attractive

Sometimes brand names can be unique and easy to pronounce but not attractive. In today’s time, it is all about learning to sell your product wisely because of rising competition. The first step to selling your products or services is selling your brand name. And a boring brand name is less likely to be remembered and preferred by young buyers. Think of a compelling name that also expresses the qualities of your product.

Adaptable and Extendable

You do not want to choose a brand name that suits one product only and restricts you. A brand name must be versatile, adaptable, and extendable. It would merge well with other products you wish to introduce in the future. Suppose you introduce a new beverage line of cold drinks and name it COOL. After a few years, you expand your business and plan to add hot beverages to the line. 

But, hot drinks from a company named Cool? Ironic, wouldn’t it be!

Positive Meaning

You may be surprised to know that sometimes brand names can backfire and leave a bad image of your organization. When choosing a name, make sure that it has a positive meaning and may not hurt anyone’s sentiments. The brand name should be politically correct.

Appropriate

Besides having a positive meaning, it should be appropriate for the product line and region and carry an appropriate meaning in all languages. At times, you may opt for a brand name that seems fine in your home country. But, it may not be appropriate when sold in other parts of the world. Make sure to do thorough research and avoid inappropriate names.

Legally Protected

Do you spend a lot of time deciding the perfect name for your brand, and another business pops up with the same name? It is terrible!

We understand that deciding on a brand name is not easy, and it requires lots of brainstorming, consuming quite a lot of time. 

After deciding on a name, it is a must to get it registered. If you do not get your brand name registered, you cannot stop anyone else from using it. And you will lose the unique identity of your brand.

The Bottom Line

The brand name is your primary identity and leaves a long-lasting impression on the customers. Branding is important in today’s competitive market. Make sure to choose it for decades. A good brand name must be easy to read, attractive, unique, adaptable, and extendable. It should also depict the qualities of your product, so more prefer your products over others. Make sure to trademark your brand name after you have chosen one to make sure no one steals it.

FAQs

How to choose the right brand name?

Choosing the right name for your brand can be an effort-taking process. Yet, it is crucial to find the best name. Brainstorming ideas is the first step in choosing a brand name. Pick a few concepts, use clear words, add unique elements and pick the one that resonates with your brand the most.

What are meaningless brand names?

Meaningless brand names do not typically have a proper meaning in any language. You may also say that they are improper words. But, sometimes, they are used as brand names to depict uniqueness. Lululemon is an example that does not have a meaning and is intentionally difficult to pronounce.

What are some great brand names?

Gap, Pepsi, and IKEA are among the most popular brand names. Gap gets its name from the style gap between young people and the older generation. Pepsi originated from “dyspepsia,” which means indigestion. Whereas, IKEA is a combination of the initials of the founder’s name, his farm’s name, and his village’s.

7 Tips for Starting a Coffee Brand

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As the coffee industry develops further, it’s said that it’s expected to expand in the coming years as more people become regular lovers of the beverage. Because of that, it might be the perfect time for you to consider starting a coffee brand now. Like any business endeavor, establishing a successful coffee brand in a highly competitive industry entails meticulous planning and knowledge of the business.  

If you’re thinking about starting a coffee company soon, the following are just pieces of advice to ensure a successful launch and long-term success. Keep on reading to learn more.

Take an In-Depth Look into the Coffee Industry 

Once you decide to start a coffee brand, be ready for a significant investment in time and money if you want a good start. Your first task is to set aside time to learn more about the industry and what it takes to succeed. In most cases, you’ll need to reach out to coffee shop owners and learn from their experience to pinpoint what works and what you should avoid.

Although it’ll take a long period, you might take delight in the fun aspect of the learning task since you’ll be visiting several coffee shops. Doing so will give you valuable insights that you can use to think of something unique for your coffee brand.  

You should also take into consideration your client base. Make sure you determine their specific needs, or the most hectic times of the day, to name a few. Remember that knowing your target customers well will be a deciding factor during the planning process, especially when creating a menu, price range, and so on.  

Take Time to Ponder on your Vision 

Once you’re ready to start your coffee brand, there might be a lot on your mind, envisioning an up and running cafe.  

Put everything down in writing if you want to make your vision a reality. Note down what you want to achieve and the type of atmosphere you want to create.  

Research and gather design concepts for the location, inside and outside, along with the menu so they’ll serve as your inspiration on how you want your cafe to look. You should also consider the type of food you’ll serve and how your customers will feel when they walk into your cafe.

When you clearly define your coffee brand, it’ll help you focus and stay consistent when deciding on the name, decor, food, coffee, coffee packaging bags, and how you’ll interact with customers.  

Even if you plan out things meticulously, you can’t please everyone. If you want your coffee brand to succeed, one of the most important things you can do is figure out who you’re designing it for.

Establish a Comprehensive Business Plan 

Man and Woman in a Coffee stall

Creating a business plan is crucial to success. When you make an effort to put together a business plan, it serves as an overview of the entire process.  

A business plan assists you in fully comprehending all of the critical points about the local market as well as the figures you must consider to ensure your company’s success.

The business plan will walk you through every step of setting up and running your cafe and serve as a roadmap for structuring, managing, and growing your coffee brand.

When creating a business plan, it should cover the following: 

  • An overview or breakdown of your company’s mission and key aspects that’ll set it apart from the competition;
  • Analysis of the local market, including regular customers and competitors;
  • Your workforce and how you’ll delineate the tasks;
  • A marketing strategy that outlines how your business will set itself apart from the competition and how you will communicate your strategy;
  • The necessary funding to get your business started and the source;
  • Financial projections which cover the cash flow and potential profit and loss; and
  • Details of the location and lease strategy.

Even though you’ll be juggling a lot of data when writing your business plan, the effort will be worthwhile, especially regarding the data analytics and marketing aspects.

Choose a Suitable Location

The location is one of the most important aspects to consider when starting a business. The location is extremely important if you want to build a coffee brand.

It’s best to spend some time in the areas where your cafe will be located. Make a mental note of the number of people walking and the available parking space. The visibility of the location you’re considering is also an important factor. 

Remember that you’ll spend most of your time in your chosen location, so learn about what the locals enjoy.

Look for the Right Suppliers  

Working with reliable suppliers will also be a critical factor in ensuring the success of your coffee brand. It’s best to list all the supplies you’ll need, regardless of the specifications you have in mind for the coffee brand you’re launching.

Although the list may appear daunting, knowing all of the essentials will prepare you. Once your list is ready, you can look for reputable suppliers that fit your specific business needs and philosophy. 

Select the Right Workforce Members for your Team

Today’s highly successful coffee shop owners see their employees as a key factor in their business’s success.

Make the right decision by hiring the right people. Although experience is one of the considerations during the hiring process, attitude matters the most. Make it a priority to hire people who are the best fit for your company.

Promote your Coffee Business

Before launching your coffee brand, you have days or weeks to build your network. You might want to tap into the power of several popular social media platforms to spread the word about your coffee brand. It’ll serve as a channel to build up your reputation.  

Aside from social media platforms, don’t forget to list your business on local search engine listings to appear in local searches.

When creating marketing campaigns, make sure to keep them personal, engaging, and interactive to gain the attention of your target audience. Incorporate images and videos to encourage engagement and sharing. When you use the right approach, you’ll be amazed at the far reach of your business in no time. 

Final Thoughts  

Establishing your coffee brand will take time and effort. Coffee will always be necessary for many people worldwide, and proper preparations are crucial if you want to capitalize on your passion for the beverage by developing a unique brand. With the help of these valuable pointers, use them as your guide in ensuring you’ll have a good start with your coffee brand and ensure success.

4 Tips To Convert Instagram Engagements Into Sales

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Imagine these scenarios: company essentials = 5,000 comments per month, bills payment = 2,000 likes per month; employee salaries = 15,000 shares per month. How easy life would be if these are possible, but the bitter reality is that we can’t convert Instagram engagements to pay for our bills or any other bill.

However, it doesn’t mean your engagements are useless. Improving your Instagram marketing strategy and making it effective can convert these comments, shares, and likes into sales. Yet before diving further into details, it’s crucial to understand the power of selling on Instagram.

In case you don’t know, more than 50% of Instagram users follow different brands. Around 500 million active users visit at least one brand per day. The same goes for other social media platforms, but Instagram has better potential than them.

Instagram is more than just a tool you can use to catch up with your family and friends. Most of its one billion users use it to communicate with their favorite brands, research new items, and purchase influencer-approved products.

Now that you understand how effective Instagram generates sales, it’s time to look at some of the most effective tactics that convert engagements into sales.

Use Instagram Automation Tools

Responding as quickly as possible to customer queries may seem impossible sometimes, especially when you’re out of business hours. Fortunately, some tools can automate repetitive processes, such as real-time responses to customers’ comments and messages.

You can provide relevant answers to your customers with these tools, even if you’re not around. Likewise, don’t forget to include destination links in your automated response that will redirect your customers to your site once they click it.

In addition, automation tools will help you become more efficient to stay on top of the growing and intense competition in the market. However, not all tools available in the market are the same. Therefore, it’s critical to choose only the best Instagram automation tool to help meet your needs.

Optimize Your Bio

Customers will visit your page if they want to know more about your brand. With this, the first thing they’ll see is your bio. Instagram bio is similar to your calling card; it’s brief and includes everything prospects should know firsthand.

A successful bio converts engagements into customers and generates potential prospects. However, it’s not easy to construct an effective bio that drives conversions and sales. In that case, you might want to look at the tips and tricks below for creating the best Instagram bio:

Use It To Target Ideal Users

Write a bio that discusses what your ideal audience would want to hear. It will help them understand your business more. Should they find your bio meets their interests, they’ll unhesitatingly click that ‘follow’ button.

Add Call-To-Action Statements For Your Link

When writing a call-to-action statement in your bio, let your audience know what’s inside the link in your bio. Here’s an example: “Check out our tips, guides, and tools below.” Moreover, don’t be afraid to use some icons and emojis to highlight your link and add a touch of personality to it.

Add Your Contact Details

Don’t forget to include your contact details in your bio to allow prospects to reach out to you in the manner you prefer. You may add your email address, website link, local phone numbers, etc. Here’s an example you can use: “PLEASE EMAIL ONLY, NO DMs: [email protected].”

Set Up Your Instagram Shopping

If you have an E-commerce platform, you can use Instagram shopping to boost your engagements and increase your conversions. It will allow you to upload your entire product selection directly on Instagram. This feature lets viewers browse your products and make purchases without leaving the social media platform.

If you’re not satisfied, how about this: around 140 million users visit Instagram shopping every month. Therefore, you’ll miss out on the opportunities to increase your sales if you’re not using it. Indeed, it can help you boost your page traffic up to 2,000%.

Here are the simple steps to set up your Instagram shopping:

  • Link your Instagram business account to your Facebook page.
  • Then integrate your E-commerce website account and create a product catalog using Commerce Manager.
  • Connect your product catalog to your Instagram business account and wait for the approval.
  • Once approved, you may start tagging your products from the catalog every time you post new content, reels, or stories related to your products.

When people see your posts, they’ll see a shopping bag icon below. Once they tap it, tags will show up, and they can tap them again to see other details, such as prices and product names.

Create Reels

If you’re serious about converting your engagement into sales, you need to avoid repeating the same strategies. Instead, look for new tools and features that may generate better yields. One of the best examples of this would be Instagram’s Reels.

Reels work the same way as Instagram Stories. Both will let you add stickers, emojis, music, overlays, and other elements. However, Reels aren’t gone after 24 hours, unlike Stories. They remain on your profile permanently so that new followers may see them anytime.

On top of that, Reels have a 2,200-character limit for captions, giving you a lot of opportunities to produce educational content that encourages every viewer to engage.

Some tips and ideas to use Reels effectively are as follows:

  • Show the reality of your business through behind-the-scenes footage, even if some may look bad. You may also show expectations vs. reality to garner more attention.
  • Tell the story of your business and introduce yourself and your brand to everyone, especially to your new followers.
  • Post educational content, such as tips, guides, etc. Make it as comprehensive as possible to keep your audience engaged.
  • Release a sneak peek or teaser trailer of products you’ll be launching soon.

These ideas can help up your engagement and possibly convert them to sales. Try and test each of these ideas and see what will benefit you the most.

Final Words

Instagram is a powerful social media platform that can take your business to the next level. One of the purposes of using it for business is to improve brand awareness through engagements.

However, gaining engagement alone is not enough to boost your sales. Instead, mix the appropriate techniques and strategies presented here to convert these engagements into sales and transform your Instagram into a profit-making platform for your company.

In-House vs Marketing Agencies: Which is better for your Business?

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Choosing between an in-house team and marketing agencies is a critical decision to make for any business owner. Since branding and marketing play crucial roles in growing your business, you need to choose wisely. This is especially true if you’re just getting started in the industry.

The right decision may depend on your company’s ultimate goals. For example, if you want to improve your return on investment (ROI), you need the right marketing team to solve this problem. Should you establish an in-house marketing team or hire an agency? Read on:

What to know about having an In-House Team

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An in-house team comprises individuals who work exclusively for your business. While your business can hire one person to carry out all marketing duties, it’s more effective if you build a team. This way, you’ll have someone responsible for content writing, social media marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

If you prefer to opt for an in-house team instead of a marketing agency, here are the pros and cons you should know:

You’ll have Control over Everything

You’ll have full control over your marketing team and how they implement and build your marketing plan by having in-house marketing. If you have clear ideas of how you want to use digital marketing to grow your business, creating an in-house team to deliver can be the best solution.

If you’re unsure where to start with your marketing, hiring a marketing agency can make a difference. With its expertise and experience, its marketing experts can make a killer marketing plan suited for your business.

Your In-House Team knows your Company’s Vision and Experts in your Brand

Your in-house team will breathe, eat, and live your company’s vision. They’ll be your brand experts, which means there’s no learning curve in speaking on behalf of your company on press or social media sites.

Your in-house team members are also aware of your business vision and what they should do to execute it. In short, your communication will stay consistent, and no major adjustments in tone will be made, which is a plus when growing your business.

It takes Time to Build an In-House Team

It’s not easy to build your own in-house team. Aside from finding the best potential candidates for your marketing team, you have to prepare the necessary tools of the trade so your employees can do their duties well. It means you need to spend a lot of time onboarding employees and shop around for design or data analytics tools for your marketing needs.

What to know about Marketing Agencies

Compared to an in-house team, working with marketing agencies is like outsourcing your marketing needs. In short, instead of performing the work in-house, you work with an agency that typically comprises many professionals who specialize in various aspects of marketing to deal with such duties. Click here for marketing strategies with Lisnic and learn about the top marketing agencies.

Marketing agencies work to be an extension of any company, learning brand identity, business goals, purpose statements, and core values. If you don’t know whether or not a marketing agency is for your business, here are its pros and cons:

Get access to Experienced Professionals

While an in-house team is hired with a particular experience level, most business owners hope that their team members develop and grow with the company and attain new skills to make them well-rounded professionals. On the other hand, marketing agency professionals are already seasoned experts. Several agencies have professionals who specialize in a certain area of marketing.

The high level of quality and experience of marketing agencies are a major benefit for many businesses. No one will have to develop or grow into a role because such professionals have the expertise and knowledge to make things work. In a specific sense, you don’t have to worry about your marketing, allowing you and your employees to focus on other business tasks.

Perfect for Campaign-Specific Marketing

Working with a marketing agency can be advantageous for offloading various marketing tasks. It’s also beneficial when launching any kind of marketing campaign. A marketing agency knows what’s needed to launch and implement successful campaigns by having skilled experts on hand.

You’ll have Less Control of your Content

Once you decide to work with a marketing agency, you might not have the right to access your creative content. Since marketing agencies will handle your projects from start to finish, it may cut down on your input and connection to the end product. So, if you want to have full control of your marketing strategies, you might want to build a marketing team for your company.

Marketing Agencies take Time to be Familiar with your Brand

Many marketing agencies aren’t aware of your brand, target audience, and industry. Therefore, it might take longer for them to be familiar with your business goals and brand. This may result in more meetings to get more information regarding your brand. Before you decide to hire a marketing agency, you have to ensure that they’re prepared to fully understand your brand.

Which is right for your Business?

There’s no accurate answer to this question as it depends on how much you’re willing to spare for your marketing. As a business owner, you need to think of what you want to achieve with your marketing and how far you’re willing to go.

If you’re a small business owner, it’s wise to establish an in-house team before hiring a marketing agency. It’ll help you be open to more marketing ideas, benefiting your business growth. However, if you’re running a big company, it may come in handy to hire a marketing agency to help your in-house marketing team and get advanced marketing solutions.

Conclusion

Both in-house and marketing agencies have pros and cons. Depending on your marketing spend and needs, make sure to choose the one that will help your business grow and reach your goals in no time. If possible, before you decide, analyze your budget and business needs, and monitor the performance of your in-house team or a marketing agency. This way, you’ll know which is worth it for your investment allocation.

9 Ideas for more Compelling and Effective Presentations

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Are you a startup that has to pitch to a potential investor? Or maybe you have a business meeting with a client. Presenting your ideas through a slideshow makes them much more effective.

Your ideas look more convincing and are retained longer. You can make your presentations more compelling by using a few pointers outlined below:

Structure your Presentation

Most often, people directly start creating slides after getting the topic. And then haphazard slides are made. Your presentation is about you telling a story—the story of your product, business, or subject. So start with framing an outline of how you want to tell that story. You can base your presentation on that structure.

Have a strong Start

Try and capture your audience’s attention in the first few seconds. That will keep them hooked to your presentation. You can start with a rhetorical question or maybe a funny story! Also, your audience will be instantly engaged. You can even tailor it to your audience by using a pop culture reference if you know them well enough.

Divide your Presentation

Once you know the presentation’s outline, divide it into three parts – The introduction or opening, the body or middle part, and the closing.

  • Opening

As told earlier, start with a gripping question or an interesting anecdote to intrigue your audience. They will pay more attention to your presentation and remain engaged.

  • Body

This is the meaty part of your presentation. Provide thorough statistics and figures to support your idea. Explain the problems and their corresponding solution concisely and crisply. Also, give examples of similar problems and case studies of those.

  • Closing

Here, you put in your closing remarks or even summarize your idea. You can even ask the audience if they have any questions. Thank them for attending and listening to your presentation.

Larger Fonts

This tip is essential for a presentation irrespective of audience or room size. A larger font makes it easier for people to read the content. It also helps them remember your presentation. A good size would be 24 pt. Anything smaller would be hard to read.

Use attractive Visual Cues

Take advantage of the phenomenon of the “Picture superiority effect” i.e. people retain messages better if they are accompanied by images. Use one powerful and big photo that emphasizes your point instead of many small pictures. Audiences retain such information almost 55-65% greater.

Less is More

A common mistake made by most presenters is adding too much information to their slides. Especially a lot of bullet points. The audience gets bored and loses interest in seeing so much information. Your slides only help you give your presentation better, but not be your entire presentation. So knock off all that unnecessary information.

Redo several Times

Your first draft will need polishing, and as they say, practice makes perfect! So, add, delete, edit rework your slides till you have relevant content on them. Look for more tips to make the data on your slide more presentable and concise. You can improve the kind of photos used, adding ones that are more compelling and relatable to the subject.

Use a good, clean Template

A bright and flashy presentation template takes the audience’s attention away from the content. So choose a template with sober colors with a few bright highlights to add some panache. Keep your content well-organized and use an attractive, legible font. You can find free PowerPoint templates online for the same.

Utilize data Wisely

Ultimately, data is the hero in your presentation. Make sure you use it wisely. Use the latest facts and statistics. Instead of boring slides and graphs, you can opt for infographics. These help the audience understand your idea better. Even pie charts do a good job of putting figures forth in a presentation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the main idea of a presentation is to make it easier for your audience to understand your idea or product better. Any solution you present to a problem is easier to understand with a great presentation. Less data, more interesting infographics, or images explaining the concept is a great way to connect with your audience. They can relate to the proposal or business better.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Online Marketing

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Online marketing, commonly known as Digital marketing or e-marketing, has become the most rewarding marketing method as more and more people are making online purchases. According to Statista, 1.66 billion people shop online each year.

Considering the fast-paced life, a large number of people avoid going to stores to make purchases and instead like to buy online. To attract your online customers, you have to make the best use of online marketing. It not only increases online sales, but many people also walk to your stores to find more variety of the products.

Digital marketing has numerous benefits and helps boost lead generation, yet it also has some disadvantages. Let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online marketing in today’s world.

selling online

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to promoting your business through online platforms to connect to potential customers. It includes various online channels like social media, web advertising, SEO, email marketing, etc. Digital marketing typically means text, audio, pictures, or videos generated digitally and surfaced on digital platforms to reach customers.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a swiftly growing form of marketing with innovative strategies being introduced now and then. It initially started with email but has now reached social media and websites to market businesses. But, do you wonder why companies choose digital marketing?

Global Reach

The most important benefit of digital marketing is reaching a global audience. Another report by Statista shows that 3.6 billion people use social media globally.

Let’s assume you install two billboards in the most populated city areas with one million residents. There are chances that around half a million people will see your board, and you will succeed in attracting a considerable number of customers. On the other hand, reaching people through digital media allows you to reach millions of people at once.

Using the right online marketing methods can help you familiarize millions with your brand.

Brand Development

Reaching more people and presenting a compelling image of your product makes you a credible brand. Online reviews by customers and blogs help other people recognize your brand, and you can develop a brand swiftly compared to traditional means of marketing.

Less Cost

All forms of marketing come with a cost (except word of mouth), yet the costs vary from one method to another. Installing billboards around the city costs a lot more than running an ad on Facebook and billboards are not considered safe in many parts of the world. You can connect to a large customer base by running Facebook advertisements for people with similar interests at less cost.

Easy to Setup

While you usually have to go to an advertiser’s office to get brochures printed or have vehicles run around the city with your brand’s representation, you can market your brand online without having to step out of the house. Set up accounts easily on social media or Google to start advertising your brand right away.

Measurable Progress

Online web analytics tools allow you to track your progress in terms of impressions, clicks and leads generated. Despite this, you cannot get exact numbers to estimate the progress of physical marketing methods.

Disadvantages of Online Marketing

Besides the numerous advantages of digital marketing, there are still some disadvantages.

High Competition

It is important to remember that online marketing is not only available for you, but people globally have access to digital marketing. They can use the same strategies and attract the same audience as yours. This leads to high competition in the market.

Time Consuming

Though digital marketing saves you the trouble of going out and meeting with advertisers, other aspects take more time than traditional marketing. Setting up advertisements and looking for strategies that stand out is not an easy task and requires effort. It requires extensive research to ensure that your online marketing works better than your competitors, which is time-consuming.

Reviews

Reviews can make or break a business. While positive reviews make you popular among the consumers, negative reviews have an opposite impact with a higher intensity. A potential customer might not trust a positive review completely, but a negative review on your social media page or website can make you lose a big client.

Skills Needed

If you are thinking of basic marketing for your brand to reach the audience and are not focused on making a big name, you can do it all by yourself. However, if you want to make your brand an eminent name in the market, you will need to acquire digital marketing skills or hire a digital marketing professional to boost sales fast.

Keeping up to Date

Technology is ever-changing, and you may wake up to a new trend every day. Online marketing relies highly on current trends as it allows you to make the best out of a hot topic and use it to your benefit. You might not be able to get significant results out of your marketing budget if you are not up to date with trends.

People shop online each year
Source: Statista

Why do people choose digital marketing?

You might wonder why people opt for digital marketing despite all these disadvantages and the need to be tech-savvy. Digital marketing has emerged as a quick solution to marketing needs when orthodox methods take more time. While it is time-consuming and you have to fight high competition, digital marketing enables you to reach more potential customers and is comparatively light on your pocket.

The Bottom Line

Like everything else, there are some advantages and disadvantages of online marketing. It enables you to take your product to a wider market but also restricts you if you do not have much knowledge of technology. Some people consider the advantages to dominate the disadvantages, while some feel otherwise. Depending on the nature of your business and the marketing techniques convenient for you, you can explore different digital marketing options and choose the one that suits you the best. Or, just stick to traditional marketing methods if you find them more beneficial.