Month: August 2021

email-marketing

E-Commerce Email Marketing 101: 11 Must-Have Emails (2021)

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For E-Commerce Email Marketing 101: 11 Must-Have Emails (2021)

 

Marketing campaigns are essential for attracting customers for every business, and it’s not always easy to get it right. You need to make sure you’re properly appealing to your customers if you want them to be interested in what you’re selling, and a marketing campaign that falls flat can be a huge waste of your money and time. It’s a little different when it comes to email marketing, but you should still make sure you understand what it takes to make for an effective marketing Email. 

Your welcome Email

If you’ve just had a customer subscribe to your eCommerce Email service, then you want to make sure that you’re able to impress them from the beginning. Whether they’ve applied to have the latest news or the latest promotions, you want to ensure that it’s something they don’t regret. Subscribing to these Emails can sometimes come across as spam, so you want to make sure the content within your welcome Email provides something to the customer and will make them want to read the content of your next ones! 

Sending curated content

When you’re trying to sell products to people, they want to know what it is that makes it worth their while. When it comes to pushing out a list of products, your customer will likely be interested in what’s best from that list. Sending out a curated list of products to a customer is interesting for multiple reasons. Not only does it display the price and functionality of those products, but it’s set out appealingly to let them know which product is the best one for them and how much they’re gaining by buying what it is that you’re selling!

Whether it’s a service or a product, doing a little research into those kinds of specifications can make a convincing Email. Content marketing is essential for grabbing customer attention, and curated content is one of the best forms of that! 

Engaging Emails

If you’re going to have your customers open the emails, you send them. It would be best if you let them know that it’s worth their while. Having something with the Email that’s directly offering them something. You don’t have to give anything away for free, but you could offer them something in exchange for shopping with your right now. It could be a discount. It could be a promotion – so long as it grabs their attention and doesn’t cost you too much; it’s an effective way to have someone open your Email to learn more. 

A referral Email

Much like the engaging Email format, a referral Email can be another way for you to get your customer’s interest in what you’re sending. Except for this time, they’re not gaining something specifically from shopping with you but instead from referring a friend to your business. It could be a free giveaway when a friend uses their personal code included in the Email. You win. Your customer wins. It’s beneficial for everyone! It’s an essential piece of eCommerce email marketing. 

Discount Emails

When someone signs up to be a subscriber of your Emails, it’s likely because they’re looking to benefit from it. They want to know what you’re selling and when it’s on sale. Sending out Emails to your customers to let them know when you have discounts can be a great way to grab their attention. Not only will they be interested in this Email, but they’ll be looking for discounts within your upcoming ones too! It’s a great way to hold your customers’ interest. 

Cart reminder Emails

If you’ve spent much time shopping online, then you’ve likely at some point forgotten about something that you were going to buy. When a customer is interested enough to put something in their cart, they likely would like to purchase it. You can have an automatic Email set up to remind your customer if they’ve forgotten about their cart and still have items there that are unpurchased. It’s a great way to remind them, and they will surely appreciate it. 

Order Confirmation Emails

This is essential for any eCommerce site. It lets your customer know that you’ve received their order and that it is, in fact, on the way to them. Your customer needs this as it helps them form trust with you as a business. They want to know that you’ve gotten their money and that they can expect the product that they paid for. 

Upsell Emails

An upsell Email is when you offer your customer something extra for a bit more to increase the price that they’re spending with you. While it might sound like you’re just trying to sell them extras that they don’t need, this can be a helpful tip for them to enrich their experience with what they just bought! It’s usually something that improves their purchase while also increases the price of their total order. 

Redemption Emails

In this day and age, it’s far too easy to lose your customers to your competitors, and it could be for several reasons. Maybe your customers have found another site with better prices and discounts, or they didn’t have the money to invest in you anymore. An Email to remind them that you’re a service worth their time can be a great way to help with this! Usually, a special discount is applied with the Email to win their attention back to you, redeeming your business in their eyes! 

A survey Email

Getting customer feedback is a valuable process, and you should always be looking for ways to get it. You can send surveys to your customers in exchange for a product, discount, or another form of promotion to help incentivize them into completing the survey. This information can be a great way to improve your business model and appeal to more customers. Furthermore, your eCommerce Email marketing will benefit from your customers’ input, as they can help you make more appealing Emails. 

A thank you Email

While your customers might appreciate the deals and products that you have on offer, you should make sure you take the time to appreciate your customers. If you want to encourage a loyal customer base, sending an email thanking them for their patronage can be a great way to bring them back. 

trumps-injunction-request

Newsmax: Trump’s Injunction Request Has ‘Strong Basis for Prevailing’

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Originally published on Newsmax.com, Written by Marisa Herman

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have crafted an “impressive” legal argument that has a strong chance of convincing a judge to compel YouTube to reinstate his channel, according to at least one attorney familiar with the lawsuit.

In one of his three class-action suits, Trump asked a Florida judge overseeing his case against YouTube to issue a preliminary injunction that would require the company to reinstate his account on the platform, which would allow him to sell merchandise as part of any political fundraising efforts, the New York Post reported.

Trump’s lawyers say they will file similar requests in the suits against social media giants Facebook and Twitter. Trump’s legal team argues that keeping the former president off of the platforms would cause irreparable harm to Trump as a potential political candidate in the future and the Republican Party overall.

“This injunction is so important because quite possibly the midterms are on the line here,” said marketing and Big Tech expert Adam Rizzieri.

Attorney Paul Kamenar, who serves as counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, said he was “very impressed” with the legal arguments put forward by Trump’s attorneys.

“The legal issues presented are excellent,” he said. “I expect [the injunction] to be granted either by this court or by the appellate court.”

Kamenar expects the forthcoming injunction requests to also have a “strong basis for prevailing.” If the judges deny the motions, however, he believes the appellate court would “look favorably on the appeal.”

In the three separate, yet nearly identical, lawsuits filed last month, Trump claims he has been unlawfully censored by the Big Tech companies. The suits also ask federal judges to overturn the immunity protections afforded to these companies by deeming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional.

Under Section 230, Internet companies are largely exempt from liability for the material posted by users. The section permits social media platforms to moderate posts that violate their standards or are obscene – if they act in “good faith.” But many conservatives argue the Big Tech titans have gone out of their way to silence their viewpoints on various politically charged topics.

Trump was booted off social media platforms for posts and comments he made following the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach. He has been permanently banned from Twitter and is ineligible to return to Facebook for at least two more years. YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki said in March that the video platform would lift its suspension on Trump’s channel when it decides the risk of real-world violence has decreased.

In announcing his decision to file a motion for preliminary injunction, Trump said he is “fighting back” against “Big Tech’s unlawful and Communist-style censorship.”

“The American people, and truth itself, are under attack by Big Tech’s unlawful and Communist-style censorship,” he said in a statement. “We filed a historic class action lawsuit because every American deserves to have their First Amendment Rights protected, not destroyed by leftist radicals in Silicon Valley.”

Since announcing his plan to take on Big Tech, he said more than 85,000 Americans, whose “voices are being silenced and freedoms restricted,” have joined the suit.

“We must fight back,” Trump said. “They are destroying our Country. There is nothing more important than our right to free speech.”

Trump filed the suits with the America First Policy Institute, which was founded by former members of his administration.

The motion for injunctive relief argues that Trump’s First Amendment rights were violated and that YouTube violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Kamenar believes that Trump will win on both arguments because Trump’s attorneys crafted a powerful case showing how YouTube is “arbitrarily discriminating against President Trump” with “no rational basis” when compared to how it treats other YouTube users who have been allowed to remain on the platform despite showing violent videos.

According to Trump’s suit, YouTube removed a video about the Capitol breach from his account on Jan. 6. He was indefinitely suspended from the platform on Jan. 27.

Kamenar said the motion points out how YouTube violates Florida’s consumer law by unfairly determining who it lets on its platform and who it kicks off.

“They are arbitrarily applying their reasons in a way that discriminates against Trump and thousands of others conservative voices,” he said.

AFPI Constitutional Litigation Partnership executive director Katie Sullivan told the New York Post that the social media giants have “inconsistently applied their terms and services and their community standards” and “they censor specific voices and thought so that other users only hear one side of a story.”

She pointed out that banning Trump from Twitter, but allowing the Taliban to broadcast from the platform as they took over control of Afghanistan is a “perfect example” of the uneven application of rules.

“I mean that’s just low-hanging fruit right there,” she said.

Trump railed against Twitter last week for permitting the Taliban’s presence on the platform while his ban continues to stand.

“It’s disgraceful when you think that you have killers and muggers and dictators and horrible — some horrible dictators and countries, and they’re all on, but the president of the United States, who had hundreds of millions of people, by the way, he gets taken off,” Trump said in a statement.

Rizzieri said Twitter’s decision to allow the Taliban on the platform while keeping Trump off sends the message that Trump is worse than a regime that has killed Americans, beaten women for showing their faces in public, and conducted public beheadings.

When you compare the two accounts and realize a former U.S. president, who was supported by at least half of the country, is banned, while a militant regime is still active, Rizzieri said it is “so ridiculous” and the “definition of hypocrisy” – but that hypocrisy runs rampant in Big Tech.

The lawsuit against YouTube, which also names the CEO of parent company Alphabet as a defendant, additionally claims that the company was forced to ban Trump by Congressional lawmakers, especially Democrats.

Rizzieri said it won’t be hard for Trump’s legal team to prove there is a “strong link” between Twitter’s leadership team and the White House communication team when it files that motion for an injunction.

He pointed out that White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said on the record how the White House has an open line of communication with Big Tech companies.

“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team,” Psaki told reporters during a July press briefing.

She added that the White House was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”

Rizzieri said if Trump’s lawyers can show “with consistency” just how closely tied the White House is with the Big Tech officials who are “making daily censorship decisions,” the case will be a “shoo-in” for Trump and his nine co-plaintiffs.

© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Catch Us In the Media

Agency Partner’s award-winning team often contributes expert opinions and perspectives on things that matter. Follow our contributions to the latest news and media topics or head over to the newly reinstated/uncancelled Agency Partner YouTube page to see us on TV and hear us on the radio or podcasts.

If your business is looking to utilize a digital marketing strategy or perhaps you need help with your web design and mobile needs, we’re happy to help! For no risk and no obligation, give us a shot!

Make the team at Agency Partner your next call.

youtube

Does Section 230 Enable Social Media Censorship?

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Digital Marketing Insights from Texas’ Hottest Digital Agency

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is endlessly controversial but tremendously important. Originally passed in 1996, the goal is to protect various online websites and forums from malicious activities.

More specifically, it sets a precedent that an “interactive computer service” cannot be deemed the publisher or speaker of third-party content on its platform (47 U.S.C. § 230). In short, it means that if a user publishes something illegal, let’s say on Facebook, then authorities cannot hold the company responsible. There are exceptions, however, such as when it comes to explicit materials, copyright violations, and federal law violations.

In recent years, due to political events, media falsehoods, and propagated lies, in many sectors, the law has come under fire. Some have also proposed that it offers big tech companies — like Facebook and Google and other social media platforms — unfair legal protections and absolves them of certain responsibilities. In 2020, President Donald Trump infamously targeted Section 230 and various social media giants, alleging that the law’s overreach needed to be reeled in. The current President, Joe Biden, wants to revoke Section 230 completely.

To understand why it is so controversial, along with what the law may be doing to offer unfair legal protections, we need to dig a little further.

What Does Section 230 Have to Do With Big Tech?

Social media platforms have evolved to be anti-competitive, and in some ways collusive, in undermining business partners, like Amazon’s third-party sellers or competing businesses. An excellent example is an ongoing battle between tech companies and Parler. Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s obvious that big tech has a lot of power over what happens on the internet and how conversations play out.

To make matters worse, whistleblowers have helped to expose political bias within the major big tech companies, which can infringe upon free speech and first amendment rights.

So, what does all of this have to do with Section 230? Well, that’s complicated. Because of how broad Section 230’s language is, it is often misinterpreted and may even offer too many protections in some cases, while not enough in others.

The law expressly allows tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (Google), and others to remove content they deem harmful to the public. However, some allege that the companies are removing opposing viewpoints or competitive content, all under the guise of Section 230.

Does Section 230 Enable Social Media Censorship?

Taking the idea of collusion and censorship a bit further, some believe that these tech companies are leveraging laws, like Section 230, to suppress the competition and censor various viewpoints and conversations on their platforms that may be inconvenient to them.

For example, one whistleblower claims that after Facebook acquired Instagram, it slowed down the social network’s “natural growth to benefit Facebook proper.” While that would be considered more of an internal monopolistic problem, it’s certainly still concerning.

It comes back to a question of trust. Just because these companies can censor certain types of content, language, or discussion, doesn’t necessarily mean they should. If and when they do, how do we know they’re actually suppressing something harmful? Where is the transparency to see whether or not they are holding back the competition, no matter how small?

Most critically, how do we protect these companies without providing them with too much power over our digital freedoms?

Can Regulatory Power Promote Competition?

Many companies preach and discuss the concept of human-centered design, which involves empathy for the end user during development. So, these companies understand the need for empathy, and the importance of their audience and users, including those that may be involved with competing properties. It makes one wonder why this is even a problem?

Customer happiness and user satisfaction are two of the most important metrics that any business can collect and utilize in today’s market. Wouldn’t that alone breed competition and offer room for smaller firms and organizations to grow?

The problem is that many of the tech giants are dangerously close to monopolies if they’re not considered one already. Regulations like Section 230, make it possible and legal for them to suppress the competition in rather ingenious ways.

What’s more, each company handles different aspects of the internet. Google utilizes search and ad-supported content. Facebook leverages organic social media content and exclusive platform ads. Amazon offers a host of services, including web services, on-platform advertisements, media advertisements, and e-commerce support.

Amending rules and regulations to address each of their services and practices would be remarkably difficult.

Antitrust laws do exist, but many of them were created long before the internet became what it is today, and they do not touch upon modern aspects, practices, or problems. The same is true for Section 230.

What Does Big Tech Say?

Unsurprisingly, affected companies like Facebook propose a more nuanced approach to regulation that treats them as a cross between telecommunications providers and news or media outlets. Zuckerberg, for example, argues that regulation of harmful content is necessary, but the right “framework” should be chosen.

“Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries; there’s like newspapers and existing media, and then there’s the telco-type model, which is ‘the data just flows through you,’ but you’re not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line.”

Zuckerberg goes on to say that Facebook should be “somewhere in between.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

It’s complicated. Very, very complicated. But there is room to improve, and there are answers, no matter how difficult these problems are to address. Anyone who has seen the uncanny ability for these platforms to triangulate on people’s pet issues and personalities should recognize the power they have over society.

Section 230, and regulations like it, have been amended before and will be amended again, especially since President Biden has voiced his intentions to adjust them. His current idea, to get rid of 230, probably isn’t the best solution either, as it would eliminate protections for a swath of online companies and platforms that host user-generated content.

The hope is that the language in the law can be modified to reduce anti-competitive violations without throwing it away entirely.

 

Looking to get your business more active in social media marketing? Not sure where to start? To learn how Agency Partner can help your business, contact us today!

mlb-team-racial-slur-flap

Newsmax: Twitter Misinformation & ‘Woke’ MLB Team ‘Sold Out Fan’ in Racial Slur Flap

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Originally published on Newsmax.com, Written by Marisa Herman

A Colorado Rockies fan who just wanted a family photo with the baseball team’s mascot, Dinger, instead was vilified by the home team and excoriated by countless outlets and social media trolls as a racist.

During a Sunday game at Coors Field, an unidentified person alerted the Rockies that they thought they heard a fan repeatedly yell a racial slur while Lewis Brinson, a Black outfielder for the visiting Miami Marlins, was batting in the ninth inning.

As it turns out, the fan wasn’t yelling a racial epithet and was just trying to get the attention of the Rockies’ mascot – a purple triceratops named “Dinger,” who is named after a decades-old, common slang term for a home run.

But by the time that determination was made and the fan was fully cleared, the damage was done.

The Rockies issued a statement while still pursuing their own investigation and called the incident disgusting. Tony Clark, a former player who now serves as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, condemned “the abhorrent racial animus displayed today.” Multiple national media outlets ran with the story under the same framing – as indisputable fact – without independently verifying the allegation.

Headlines and tweets posted by several heavily trafficked outlets and prominent reporters repeatedly lacked any qualifiers – such as “allegedly” or “purportedly” – to indicate to readers that the accusations had not been confirmed.

When the team investigation did wrap up, it ultimately found that the unidentified fan was “indeed yelling for Rockies mascot Dinger, in hopes of getting his attention for a photo, and there was never any racial slur that occurred.”

But that’s likely little consolation for the fan who was “sold out” by the Rockies’ rush to judgement, according to Juda Engelmayer, a crisis manager and president of HeraldPR.

“They jumped into it,” he said. “But they jumped into it irresponsibly. The team has the responsibility of making sure it is right before they do anything.”

Engelmayer said the team was probably quick to condemn the alleged incident with the intent to protect its brand and players. He said the team should have waited, however, and said it was not prepared to comment until the investigation concluded.

“I think the team ultimately did the right thing, but they handled things wrong at first,” he said. “It’s a tricky time we are living in and no one knows how to handle things so they don’t get ‘canceled.’ We are a little too overly sensitive looking for the charlatan, looking for the problem, looking for the sensationalism.”

Ivan Parron, a sports attorney and sports law professor at Florida International University, said that, even though the Rockies ended up facing a stiff backlash for jumping to conclusions, he isn’t surprised by the initial action taken by the team or the MLBPA.

“Unfortunately, in the times that we live in, from a sporting organization standpoint, when it comes to crisis management, they are going to err on the side that will have less backlash if they are wrong,” he said. “It’s sad for this individual that he got caught in the middle of this.”

The sporting world has become the “center of where all of our social issues are laundered through,” Parron said, and that means anything sensational related to sports is “automatically news,” which led to the story going viral almost immediately.

Parron said the fan may have a legal case if he can prove his reputation was sullied, though, proving damages can be difficult. If he does so, Engelmayer said the Rockies ultimately bear responsibility for accusing the fan.

“In my field, you say it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and 30 seconds to destroy it,” he said. “This guy’s face has been all over.”

The fan wasn’t identified in any official statement, however, images of him sitting at the game and calling for the mascot were widely disseminated on social media. While the fan will likely be able to explain the situation to family and friends, Engelmayer said there’s no guarantee the general audience will care – or even hear – about the mix-up.

“It’s not fair and it’s not right,” he said.

Digital marketing expert Adam Rizzieri said he “can’t imagine” how that fan is feeling after being accused of such loathsome behavior.

“I know people who have been canceled for less, literally innocent people.” he said. “It’s what gets people fired and suspended from their jobs. It’s a toxic reality. You never know what can happen to you when you are exposed online.”

Before the Rockies concluded the investigation, several players, commentators, and reporters brutally ripped the fan for what later turned out to be a misheard word.

Some quickly walked back their comments after the probe was completed.

“I personally apologize for jumping to conclusions,” tweeted Adam Jones, a former All-Star player who’s spoken about his own experience being berated by racial taunts from fans while in the outfield. “I felt, and many heard, something vile and nasty. It’s not the case. So I apologize to him and his family. Know when you’re wrong and apologize.”

But even after the Rockies issued a muted statement clearing the fan of any wrongdoing, social media posts repeating the false racial slur accusation continued to circulate on Twitter and other platforms. Despite social media platforms’ vow to crack down on posts containing “misinformation,” Rizzieri said the truth is it’s “impossible for Twitter to check every post for ‘misinformation.’”

He said Twitter has acknowledged that it “won’t address all misinformation” and that it gauges what posts it will flag based on the “severity” of the content.

While labeling a man a racist seems severe enough to garner some sort of action from Twitter, Rizzieri said the “system isn’t designed to protect one person, and that’s a problem.”

“Twitter is really full of fake news,” he said. “And bad news can spread really, really fast.”

He said people are more likely to fall for and share fake news because it tends to be more “sensational and emotional.”

“The real news is just not that interesting,” he said. “A fan yells at a mascot, who cares?”

Rizzieri added: “People fall for things that aren’t really what they seem. And it’s really a tragedy.”

© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Catch Us In the Media

Agency Partner’s award-winning team often contributes expert opinions and perspectives on things that matter. Follow our contributions to the latest news and media topics or head over to the Agency Partner YouTube page to see us on TV and hear us on the radio or podcasts.

If your business is looking to utilize a digital marketing strategy or perhaps you need help with your web design and mobile needs, we’re happy to help! For no risk and no obligation, give us a shot! Make the team at Agency Partner your next call.

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Agency Partner Interactive LLC Ranked As Top 20 SEO Company in Texas

Posted on | by Agency Partner

DALLAS — August 19, 2021 — Agency Partner Interactive has been recognized as a Top 20 SEO Agency in Texas here in 2021 by DesignRush.

DesignRush is a B2B marketplace that connects brands with professional full-service agencies, web design companies, digital marketing firms, and top technology companies.

Their platform lists over 9,300 agencies from over 50 different countries and is consulted by thousands of decision-makers looking to start a project.

“It’s an honor for our agency to be recognized for our work to help businesses show up on Page 1 by utilizing our SEO expertise. This is especially notable since we are in such a competitive market,” said Adam Rizzieri, Chief Marketing Officer at Agency Partner.

Agency Partner Interactive has continued to grow its presence in Texas and North America. During this time, the Agency Partner team has focused on hiring subject matter experts and account managers to improve the quality of service on both the web design and digital marketing sides of the company. Despite the occasional growing pain, the agency has maintained a stellar 5.0 out of five stars on Google My Business’ review network.

Agency Partner Interactive helps growth-focused businesses achieve ROI-driven strategies by providing bespoke technology and marketing expertise.

online-store-tips

5 Essential Ways To Attract Customers to Your Online Store

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For 5 Essential Ways To Attract Customers to Your Online Store

Whether selling digital items or a brick-and-mortar store, every business requires a website to reach increasingly digital customers. When customers search for your business online, the first thing they find is your ecommerce website. But they cannot come to your website if you do not attract them there. 

And even if they find your website, they won’t convert to leads or buying customers if the store isn’t of the right quality. This guide by ecommerce marketing experts discusses actionable ways to attract your customers to your online store. 

  1. Make Your Store Beautiful

If you have an online shopping agency, you should work on making your website attractive. That boils down to ecommerce web development and implementing fundamentals like making it beautiful, professional, and aesthetic appeal. There is no need to offer great products on an ugly website. 

With thousands of online stores to choose from, customers can go virtually anywhere and get similar products on a beautiful website. That’s why your website design should stand out from the rest. After all, customers consider a beautiful store to be more trustworthy and reliable. 

Things to consider may include attractive colors, images, and layout. When a potential customer reaches your website, they should stay for long enough to make a purchasing decision. Therefore, the photos you use should meet the visitor’s expectations, especially images of products. 

Remember, first impressions are critical. If you are selling female clothes, ask your ecommerce web design solutions provider to use sharp colors like pink, red, and so on. For technology-based items like laptops, light blue or black would do just fine. 

  1. Increase Activity on Social Media

Would you please not buy the lies that good products sell on their own? You have to put your products in front of potential customers for them to purchase them. The best place to do that is on social media. 

It would help if you sign-up on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on with your company’s name. Here, you will meet millions of potential customers both from near you and internationally. You can reach them via specific advertisements or by posting relevant information through your company’s accounts. 

Given the many companies vying for potential customers on social media, you cannot afford to stay out of it. Each one of these businesses is fighting for a share of more than 3.6 billion social media users, according to Statista. 

Success on social media is only possible with great content. So you have to infuse elements of entertainment, uniqueness, and information. All you need is time and effort to turn social media into an effective marketing channel at no extra cost. Here are social media tips to get you started: 

  • Regular Posting: An effective social media presence requires posting content at least once a day. That way, potential customers will always have you in mind. 
  • Engage Your Users: Social media is an interactive space where you can engage with customers by asking questions, replying to their comments, liking their posts, and live to chat. It’s all about trying to catch their attention. 
  • Use Graphics: With images and other graphics, you are likely to get 50% more engagement. Therefore, select attractive images to pull in potential customers, even those who were passing by. 
  • Choose Appropriate Channels: On which social media sites are you likely to find potential customers? The top five social media sites for an ecommerce store include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube. You can start by having a presence on these sites before considering the rest. 
  1. Effective Customer Care

If you have an online shopping agency, you should use outstanding customer care always. In business, a satisfied customer is the best promotion you can have. You can make the customer experience of your store remarkable by attending to all customer complaints on time. 

If you are wondering why customer care is essential, this report on Hubspot.com provides data-backed evidence. Besides, when you fail to address customer concerns and questions on time, you may end up not selling anything. 

Therefore, you should seek to attract customers by replying to their inquiries and comments within the shortest time possible. If you cannot do it yourself, then hire personnel to operate your social media accounts 24/7. 

Customer service can drive your sales better than advertisements and the product itself. So, you should be ready to reply to all the customer inquiries and positively react to negative comments for customer satisfaction. While at it, remember to be competent, friendly, and helpful. 

  1. Use Promos

Who doesn’t love discounts and promos? It might not be about the $10 you save but about the psychology of getting a deal. Using the word “free” can give your customers an irrational excitement, creating positive emotions. 

For example, an agency partner could promise to provide your customers with free shipping when they buy products. That is likely to increase purchases since customers do not have to worry about the shipping costs. Customers will buy more because you promise something of value, leading to more sales. 

You could also distribute discount coupons to new or repeat clients to encourage them to purchase products during special occasions like a holiday. That could be a percentage of the price or “a buy three get one free” offer. 

  1. Email Marketing

After collecting visitor contacts through your lead form, it is essential to build an email list. If you consider that email users could reach 4.3 billion by 2021, this is a strategy you cannot afford to neglect. Assuming that 75% of customers who receive emails from ecommerce sites always remember them when shopping online, you know what to do. 

When email marketing is about: 

  • Your new products 
  • After-sales promos 
  • Recommended products immediately after purchase 
  • Reminders to inactive customers 
  • Tips and style concerning your products 

It would help if you purposed to put your customers consistently in the loop about new happenings in your business. It is all about making them an integral part of your company. 

Conclusion

Attracting customers to your online store doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Simple strategies such as making your website attractive, using social media, customer care, promos, and email marketing can take you a long way. If you have questions, contact ecommerce marketing experts to help you get started. 

business-on-twitter

How to Use Twitter for Business

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For How to Use Twitter for Business 

Twitter is an undoubtedly effective tool for expanding your business’s internet presence. Eighty percent of all Twitter users have referenced a brand in a Tweet, and the average Twitter user follows five businesses. If you’re an Inbound Marketer, you should know that Twitter isn’t just for growing consumers through word-of-mouth marketing; it’s also for targeting the customers where they already are. However, to be successful as a business on Twitter these days, you must be able to stand out. However, for the millions of companies on Twitter, this can mean a variety of things.

So, instead of being an annoyance when posting online, what actions can you take to improve your audience’s online experience? How can you advertise your product or service so that people would want to buy it? On a platform built for connection, how can you make your brand more human? This useful guide was created to assist you in developing a successful plan and leveraging Twitter’s potential for your business. Continue reading to find out how to utilize Twitter for business this year.

How to Market Effectively on Twitter

You must first develop a Twitter marketing plan. Your strategy is the cornerstone of your success, and it is well worth the effort you put into studying and developing it. Like any other social media plan, a Twitter marketing strategy revolves around the material you develop, post, and distribute to engage your followers.

Your content should attract new followers, inspire new leads, increase conversions, and raise brand awareness. Your company’s high-level business objectives are likely already in place, and Twitter is a channel that can assist you in achieving them. If you want to produce long-term leads and sales, you’ll need brand recognition on your side to get the ball rolling.

Research your rivals

You can use Twitter to look up rivals and see what kind of marketing material and strategies they’re implementing. Observing what your rivals are doing will facilitate the development of your own strategy. Is there anything you should be doing instead of what they’re doing? What does their platform-based customer support look like? You can start your own well-developed plan by asking questions about your rivals.

Regularly audit

When it comes to strategy, the importance of auditing cannot be overstated. It would help if you always were organized for Twitter to be a useful marketing tool. Making sure your followers are genuine by siphoning out bots will help expand your reach, and taking note of the built-in analytics will do nothing but help you improve your content.

Define your target audience

Every element of marketing, including social media, should take your business personality into account. It would help if you had a description of your identities in mind while designing your strategy and even when generating individual pieces of content. Who are you attempting to contact? What are their passions? Will this pique their interest? The more refined your content is, the truer your audience will be.

Find out if there’s a better way of doing it.

This, like auditing, is a process that must be repeated regularly. Maintaining best practices as Twitter evolves and is updated is critical to maintaining strong impressions and engagements, not to mention staying ahead of your rivals.

How to Use Twitter for Business

Now that we’ve covered how to create a Twitter marketing plan let’s look at some key steps you’ll need to do to leverage Twitter’s potential for your business.

Make sure your profile stands out.

First and foremost, you must customize your profile to ensure your success. The last thing you want is for someone to disregard your Twitter account – and, by extension, your business – because your profile image is a Twitter egg.

Make sure your banner and profile photo are both visually appealing. While many businesses use their logo as their profile image, the Banner allows you to be more creative with your colors and graphics. If you’re new to Twitter or have a new business, you’ll want to make your Twitter account as relevant to your business as possible.

You should also fine-tune your description, website link, and location. All of these elements should be included on your Twitter profile so that your followers can learn more about your business, and they should be updated and checked regularly.

Content is king

Adding value to your Twitter post is equivalent to adding value to other types of marketing material. Because the key to generating great inbound content is to make your readers feel like you’re speaking directly to them, you should constantly keep your buyer personas in mind. It’s not worth posting content that doesn’t spark discussion!

Don’t underestimate hashtags.

Hashtags are a simple and popular technique to promote your information, but you should limit the number of times you utilize them. If you use too many hashtags, your business can appear spammy or as if you’re seeking attention. Simply put, don’t overuse hashtags. Per the tweet, limit yourself to one or two relevant hashtags.

If you want to get more people to see your content, you should also conduct hashtag research. Determine which hashtags your target demographic is currently using to discuss your business, and then use them yourself.

Always engage with your audience.

It would help if you interacted with your Twitter audience regularly, whether it be by tagging them in tweets, responding to their comments, or even holding exciting giveaways.

Use tools to help you

When it comes to utilizing Twitter for business, signing in every time you want to publish a tweet can become tedious and time-consuming. Several apps allow you to plan your postings, so you don’t have to click “Tweet” 50 times a week. HubSpot’s Social Media feature allows you to post to social networks while creating campaigns and scheduling content. You may also look at using Sprout Social or Buffer.

Conclusion 

Perhaps you’ve been using Twitter for a while and are feeling irritated or uninspired. After all, building a devoted and engaging Twitter following takes time, and it’s discouraging to watch content go out and receive little or no reaction. However, abandoning the platform removes a significant source of brand recognition for your company and makes it more difficult for clients to locate you.

digital-marketing

10 Clear Reasons Why You Need Digital Marketing

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For 10 Clear Reasons Why You Need Digital Marketing 

It doesn’t matter the industry you’re in; the common goal in all organizations is growth. Not all companies have the marketing budget to do print advertising, radio adverts, or TV advertising. But that doesn’t mean that you have to throw in the towel; digital marketing has become the pioneer in brand building. Here are 10 reasons to prove why:

1. Budget Fit

Of all the sorts of advertisements available, digital marketing is the most affordable option. Even if you outsource to a Top digital marketing agency or an Agency Partner, it will come out cheaper than what other options costs would have accumulated to.

2. Access In the Palm Of Your Hand

62.07% of the world’s population owns a smart and feature phone. That is 4.88 billion consumers who visit social media sites daily, check their emails, and use other apps. Utilizing digital marketing tactics like Email Marketing, Facebook ads, google ads, and text marketing, you build brand awareness subconsciously. At the same time, the magnitude of possible customers browses through their social media and other apps.

3. Adjustable

Because you are not stuck in a medium to a long-term contract on a traditional advertising campaign, changing an ad that performs poorly is instant. There is no need to wait out the agreed-upon expiration period because there is none with digital marketing. You need first to establish the best creative way to market your company digitally.

These can include email marketing, social media posts, and banner ads. Suppose you find a particular digital marketing strategy works better than the rest. In that case, you can pump more resources in that avenue while canning the rest.

4. Brand Awareness

Since lockdown, online shopping trends skyrocket due to the sheer convenience and safety. Using google ads and Facebook ads, you appeal to these customers and build your brand awareness in the process. You can also utilize Affiliate Marketing to help boost sales further.  

 5. Mixed Media

Digital marketing thrives on using mixed media to deliver and promote your product or services. Not just using the standard text and picture, it incorporates more visual material like videos and audio. Youtube, Facebook, and other social media apps’ popularity are all due to their capability to connect its consumers through mixed media.

Using mixed media makes it easier for your customers and potential customers to understand what you want to say and your product. Advertisement using mixed media has a higher success rate than more traditional methods. Using social media marketing with mixed media will make your customer experience memorable and help build your brand awareness in the process.

6. Relations

One of the big misconceptions is that you will lose important input from your customers should you use digital marketing. On the contrary, it’s easier for your customers to interact with you and engage with them continuously, thus building and strengthening your relationship and credibility. Various methods can gather the data and messages, like the comments section, blogs, newsletters, and reviews.

Using these tools can quickly alleviate misconceptions and answer frequently asked questions about your product. Showing your customers your willingness to interact with them will establish trust. And using their suggestions or dislikes in the comments, you can alter your product. Marketing the new, improved product will be more accessible and better accepted by your customers because they feel that you respect what they have to say.

7. Monitor To Evolve

Digital marketing allows you to become a Big Brother, but in the best possible way. The use of cookies will enable you to see which blogs, content, review, and other methods your customers read or watched before purchasing your product or service.

Studying this data, you can make a more conscious decision on which marketing method is the most appealing to your customers and which isn’t. Logically, you will then boost these social media marketing methods and instead remove the ones that don’t work to free up more resources to concentrate on better projects.

8. Be The Expert

Because digital marketing makes it easier for you to communicate with your customers about your product, you can start leaving your mark as the expert on your industry and product or services. Answering questions quickly, writing content and blogs to highlight the pros and cons of your product, and even doing podcasts will grow your trustworthiness with your customers. Your customers will then instead come back to you for further knowledge and before buying your product.  

9. Social Media Influencers

Partnering with a social media influencer has become a fast-growing trend in the digital marketing area. These are individuals who are highly active social media users. They have already established their credibility with their thousands or even millions of followers as one of the experts in their particular industry. Social media influencers include actors, actresses, athletes, musicians, highly successful business people.

But not all of these influencers come from the silver screen or Forbes 100; many influencers are ordinary everyday people who are ambitious and work hard to obtain their credibility. Influencer Marketing is well worth investing in, but you need to ensure that the influencer aligns with your industry and has the same target market.

10. Rank Higher Than Your Competitor

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the digital marketing strategies. It all revolves around where your company’s website ranks when keywords are being searched. Why is this important? Pretty simple, human nature dictates that we usually gravitate to the first 5 options when presented with multiple choices. So if your company’s website doesn’t rank even on the first page of the search engine, then the chances are that there will not be much traffic directed to it.

Therefore, you need to optimize your Off-page SEO, which is external signals and links, as well as your On-Page SEO, which is all about your website and where it ranks. The better your Off- and On-page SEO ranking is, the more traffic it will divert to your website. The more traffic it gets, the more sales you can make. But most importantly, the more credible you will be.

Digital marketing is all about influence and credibility to boost your company’s sales. It’s the new area in advertising which is faster, better and can reach more customers than you can fathom. Suppose you don’t already have a digital marketing team busy increasing your brand awareness and rankings. In that case, you are already losing money and customers to your competitors. So get in the race fast!

facebook-ads-strategy

7 Keys to An Effective Facebook Ad Strategy

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For 7 Keys to An Effective Facebook Ad Strategy

The complexity of Facebook advertising can seem overwhelming, especially if you are an agency partner fairly new to the methodology. You know that your digital marketing ads should be optimized somehow, but with so many options and dropdowns presented to you, the path to successful ads is somewhat unclear.

This article demystifies the process for you and gives you some helpful advice!

Facebook advertisement has grown quite sophisticated over the years and can provide your brand or business with excellent opportunities for high engagement and conversions.

Understanding the key elements of an effective Facebook digital strategy gives you a solid road map to follow, keeps you focused on your objectives, and maximizes your marketing budget. Read on for the seven keys to an effective Facebook Ad strategy!   

Know your target audience

You’ve heard this a million times, but that’s only because it’s so vital to effective Facebook ads! Understanding your target audience is the starting point for effective Facebook ads since it optimizes other aspects of the strategy and sets your campaign up for success. 

Begin with a broad overview of your target demographic, including age, education, income, and family life. When you have this information, you can start to detail their online behavior and interests. This is your buyer persona that will massively increase engagement and lead generation.   

Your Ad objective

On the Facebook platform, you have a choice of ad objectives. These are more than simply a way to focus your campaign and arrange your thinking. Facebook objectives influence the way your marketing budget is spent. 

Examples of Facebook objectives include brand awareness, traffic, post engagement, video engagement. The reason why Facebook objectives are so important is that they determine how your budget is spent. If you choose a “traffic” objective, for instance, you pay based on clicks. Conversely, if your objective is “video,” you pay based on the number of 10-second views. Of course, having an objective also helps to focus your campaign, but it’s much more than that.   

Focus on audience pain points

This is where your audience persona starts to pay off! Obviously, you won’t appeal to everyone; that’s not the point. Instead, you want to zero in on a particular target customer and show them how your product can fix their pain point. 

The better you understand your target audience, the more precise you can be regarding pain points. But it isn’t only about demonstrating how your product works and why they should invest in it. Working with pain points and your target audience also helps you decide on display criteria such as graphics or video. The format of the ad must also appeal.  

Use Ad Funnels

Facebook Ads offer so much in terms of audience segmentation and targeting. One essential element is Ad Funnels. Ad Funnels allow you to appeal to various target audiences at different stages of the customer journey. If no one has heard of your brand before, you can engage them with brand awareness. Similarly, you can meet long-term customers at the interest or consideration stage. 

To use Ad funnels effectively, you will need to set up a series of campaigns. All this might seem like extra work, but you significantly improve your chances of engagement and conversions when you target customers at the right stage.

Be smart with bidding.

Bidding is a crucial part of your Facebook ad strategy! It is often viewed as an afterthought, but in reality, it strikes a balance between your campaign budget and your engagement levels. Carefully optimize your ad bidding, and Facebook will automate your ads to get the highest placements.

You can choose between a cost cap or a bid cap. A cost cap is normally set at $0.34 per click, and you can choose a daily budget. This helps keep your campaign costs under control. Additionally, you can choose “target bids” that use an average bid amount. So if Facebook thinks it can get you a higher placement, it will spend a little more.    

Optimize mobile Ads

Not surprisingly, the majority of audience engagement on Facebook is through mobile! This means that your ads must be optimized for mobile if you want them to be effective. Mobile ads are short and snappy. In contrast to desktop ads, they only give you three lines of copy before the “continue reading” option. 

The first thing you want to do is front-load your ad copy to give readers a clear idea of your product and what it does. You only have three lines to do this. The other thing you need to keep in mind is the image size. Pay close attention to the dimensions so your ad is not awkwardly cropped. Preview everything before you commit to the ad.

Split testing

Split testing is a handy feature of Facebook ad strategy that should be used throughout your ad campaign. Split testing allows you to test various audiences against your ad objective to see how they perform. Carry out this process throughout your campaign to optimize for the best results. 

Facebook split testing is exceptional if you want to test a single element of your campaign – such as images or copy – against different audience segmentations. Since this is what you are primarily interested in doing anyway, Facebook allows you to closely align your ads with the demographics and expectations of your target audience.  

Final thoughts

Facebook ads have followed Google ads in its approach to Ad marketing, one reason it is so effective. Like Google, Facebook marketing allows you to segment your audience and target specific demographics and particular stages of the customer journey. This significantly increases engagement and conversions. To ensure your Facebook ads are effective, it pays to understand the key elements of their Ad strategy and optimize yours according to the available functionality.  

Facebook currently has 2.8 billion monthly active users making it still the world’s largest social media platform.  By using Facebook marketing experts and utilizing the power of their digital advertising methods, you can engage with target customers more effectively and grow your audience simultaneously with a Fb ads strategy. 

facebook-metaverse

Newsmax: Facebook’s Push Into the Metaverse Is “Next Evolution of the Internet”

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Originally published on Newsmax.com, Written by Marisa Herman
Imagine attending a packed Trump rally halfway across the country – without leaving your couch. Or meeting the boss for a team strategy session at a café near the foot of the Eiffel Tower without ever crossing an ocean. Unreachable vistas could be a thing of the past as Facebook aims toward the future with the metaverse.

Tech experts warn, however, that the convergence of real life and fantasy in a metaverse has a dark side that could upend society when it comes to the politics, economics, and policing of the virtual world.

During a recent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg pivoted from discussing the company’s current financials to focusing on Facebook’s future. And his plans seemingly turn the plot of numerous science-fiction movies into reality by creating a virtual world for Facebook’s 2.8 billion users.

Zuckerberg said the social media behemoth plans to become a “metaverse company” and described the new landscape as a “virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces. You can kind of think of this as an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at.”

So, instead of just watching a video of hiking Mount Everest, you could do it — in a sense — either as yourself or a digital avatar version of yourself, feeling all the elements, without leaving home or chancing your own safety. It’s a feat that gamers have been tantalizingly close to experiencing for some time: leaving the real world behind and immersing themselves in a virtual reality.

“This is the next evolution of the Internet,” said marketing and big tech expert Adam Rizzieri. “And it is already happening. This move toward recognizing the metaverse reflects an inevitability of our time. It’s a reflection of where we are with artificial intelligence and how machines are increasingly intertwined with every second of our physical existence.”

Tech experts aren’t surprised that Zuckerberg teased the possibility there’s a metaverse on the horizon. Facebook spent $2 billion to purchase Oculus in 2014, which was the company behind virtual reality gaming headsets, and has invested more money and manpower in developing the next wave of tech that fuses virtual reality, augmented reality, and the real world.

Tech experts say there are several factors that could have fueled the timing of Zuckerberg’s metaverse push:

1) To get investors hyped about what the future could bring for Facebook — beyond its social media platform — to boost its stock;

2) To provide a distraction from the big tech crackdown Congress has deployed on platforms such as Facebook;

3) To give a glimpse into what the future holds when it comes to the next wave of innovation in order to maintain Facebook’s dominant status in the tech sphere.

Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida, said it was a “pretty big PR move” for Zuckerberg to discuss something that is “far out in the future.” But he said it was also a “great way to shift focus during the current news cycle to something else,” especially as Facebook is taking a beating on Capitol Hill.

Rizzieri said Facebook is afraid of “being behind.” While it may surprise some, he said Facebook found itself scrambling to catch up with the shift from desktop computers to mobile devices and early versions of the Facebook app were buggy. He believes Zuckerberg’s metaverse push could be rooted in a fear of repeating the same mistake twice.

Regardless of the motivating factors behind the metaverse push, techies say the Matrix-like environment is already taking over parts of our daily lives.

“We have been promised virtual reality for years,” Selepak said. “A lot of the beginnings of the technology are here and have been around for some time. It’s what’s next.”

Selepak points out that people are already using elements of augmented reality when they use apps like Snapchat and Instagram or even put up a virtual background in a Zoom meeting. He said the coronavirus pandemic likely sped along the development of a metaverse that appeals to more than gamers.

“Virtual reality is just the next step of that virtual meeting,” he said.

Tyrone Evans Clark, a 3-D game artist and programmer, said gamers have been “super invested in metaverse games,” especially amid the pandemic where people could connect without having to meet in person.

He expects the metaverse to mirror the real world in many ways, especially when it comes to politics and economics. He said people will form alliances in the metaverse in the same way they do in real life, based on commonalities, like age and interests.

“Everything will be virtual, including groups that people are already part of in the real world,” he said. “The virtual alliances on a political level will help people understand each other more all around the world, while making explicit agreements and potentially buying and sharing virtual goods amongst themselves.”

While forms of augmented and virtual reality are already integrated in our daily lives, Selepak points out that just what a defined metaverse will be remains largely unknown. He notes that a major hurdle to overcome for Facebook, and other companies interested in the metaverse, is hardware. Clunky headsets will be a barrier for entry for many who want to test out the alternative world.

But despite not knowing exactly what a metaverse will look, feel, and sound like, Selepak knows it will likely be a money maker. If the metaverse takes a page out of the gaming world, he said it will feature tons of advertisements and the ability to purchase goods and services in the virtual world that will line the pockets of the company in the real one.

Not only will Facebook profit financially, Rizzieri said the company would likely become extremely more powerful, especially if it owned all the data associated with users in the metaverse.

“Do we own our own data or does the metaverse own our data?” Rizzieri asked.

While the metaverse could provide a lot of advantages for both the user and private sector, he wonders just how much power big tech would relinquish over its metaverse creation.

“I really wonder what this is going to look like in real life,” Rizzieri said. “While this definitely drops the ‘fiction’ from ‘science fiction,’ it comes with some extremely globalist, new world order type of scary implications.”

Selepak fears that parts of the metaverse will be dark and even disturbing. He noted the popular virtual world game called “Second Life” made headlines after people used their avatars for acts such as virtual prostitution.

To avoid illicit activity on the platform, like sex trafficking or drug deals that could be planned in the metaverse for real-life meetups, Selepak said the metaverse will have to be moderated and regulated. Currently, Facebook finds itself in a delicate position regarding moderating and regulating content on its social media platform, and experts say the metaverse would be no different.

“Once you have people interacting virtually and 2.8 billion people doing it, you will create a virtual surveillance state,” Selepak said. “Facebook will be monitoring everything everyone is doing in this virtual world.”

While the world will have to wait and see what exactly the metaverse ends up being, Rizzieri said it will ultimately be something we don’t log onto or plug into.

“One day, we will open our eyes and realize, I am totally combining my physical and digital worlds,” he said. “We aren’t going to have a whole lot of decision making behind whether we adopt the metaverse. It’s just going to hit us, and we are just going to find ourselves in the metaverse.”

© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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