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Events in Google History: 20 Significant Moments at 20 Years as a Company
-Here are 20 major events in Google history as the Search Engine giant clocked 20 recently.
1998
Larry Page and Sergey Brin start to show investors their novel search engine, initially called BackRub, which ranks search results based on links back to individual pages, rather than keywords.
Google got interest from 4 angel investors namely: Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems co founder), Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com founder), Ram Shriram (former Amazon executive) and David Cheriton (Stanford professor).
1999Page and Brin try, unsuccessfully, to sell Google to the now-defunct Excite. Later in the year, Google raises $25 million from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and others.
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2000
Google launches its first April Fool’s Day prank, called MentalPlex. MetalPlex asked people to project a mental image of what they want to search for while staring at an animated GIF.
2001
Google makes its first acquisition in its corporate history, buying Deja, which forms the basis of Google Groups.
2002
Google officially enters pop culture vernacular, as with a character of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” making a reference to ‘Googling’ someone. Yahoo offers to buy Google for $3 billion, but Google declines.
2003
Google moves into 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, leasing buildings from the Silicon Graphics. 1600 Amphitheater Parkway would become the nexus for the Googleplex, which now spans hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space in Mountain View.
2004
Google goes public in August 2004 at $85 per share, raising a little over $1.9 billion.
2005
Google Maps and Google Earth were launched, undercutting the paid GPS navigation market.
2006
Google buys YouTube for $1.6 billion. Despite the hefty price tag, YouTube remains one of Google’s most profitable acquisitions to date, generating billions of dollars per year in video advertising revenue.
2007
Google buys advertising service DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
2008
Google begins distributing early versions of the Android operating system to phone manufacturers. T-Mobile’s G1 is the first smartphone to run Android.
2009
Google crosses a major milestone, with people making more than 1 billion search queries on the site per day. The site becomes the dominant search engine in the U.S., with 65% market share.
2010
Google launches its first branded smartphone, the Nexus One.
2011
Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. Three years later, Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
2012
Google reports annual revenue of more than $50 billion.
2013
Google launches Chromecast, a dongle that allows people to stream content from their phones or computers to a TV.
2014
Google buys DeepMind, a U.K.-based artificial intelligence company, for $625 million. It also picks up home automation startup Nest for $3.2 billion.
2015
Google restructures itself as Alphabet, a holding company that owns several companies, including Google.
2016
Google launches its line of smart home speakers, powered by Google Assistant.
2017
European regulators hit Google with a $2.7 billion fine, for promoting its own shopping results over results from competing shopping services.
2018
Internal protests prompt Google to cancel its involvement in Project Maven, a government effort to use artificial intelligence to automatically process military drone footage.
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Google Page Speed Insights: How to Make Website Rank Higher in Mobile Search
-Google Page Speed has been a search ranking factor for months now. Hope you know!!!
If you are still putting up with slow website, it is time to go MAD (Make A Difference) because the fear of slow website is the beginning of wisdom in online marketing…
53% of mobile site visits leave a web page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load; according to Think with Google.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
What is Page Speed?
Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your web page loads in user’s web browser.
Google’s recent data on how PageSpeed affects performance and profitability shows that while more than half of overall web traffic comes from mobile devices, mobile conversion rates are lower than desktop.
To summarize this, web page loading speed equals revenue. …..NEED FOR SPEED….
Why is Google Page Speed Critical?
Google started using mobile page speed as a ranking factor in their mobile search results; since July 2018. Apart from being an official Google Search Ranking factor, the speed at which a website loads affects:
- Customer experience
- User engagement
- Conversion rate
Should You Lose Sleep Over Terrible Page Speed?
Yes, you should. And this is why: 70% of mobile landing pages typically take more than 5 seconds for the visual content above the fold to display on the screen, and it takes more than 7 seconds to fully load all visual content above and below the fold.
Meaning?
Slow website drives prospects away, especially if you are targeting young Internet users (including Millennials), upwardly mobile netizens, busy moms, online shoppers who have too many alternatives already. All these people among others do not have the luxury of time to wait a decade for a web page to load…How to Find Out Google Page Speed?
Use Google Page Speed Insights
How Can I Make My Website Faster?
Take these steps to at least remove bloated content that typically makes web pages take forever to load:
- Get a better Web Host
- Enable web page caching
- Get a faster Website Theme
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Remove Unnecessary Plugins and Add-ons
- Load Analytics and Ad Networks Code Asynchronously
- Enable Expiry tag for old images & other web contents
- Reduce (not completely remove) Social Sharing Buttons on Your Website
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
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Get Free Website Audit to Know Why Your Website Desnt Show in Google
-SEO audit, also known as website audit, is the beginning of effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy.
How about free SEO Audit for your website?
SEO Audit helps you unravel technical SEO and on-page issues you need to fix on your website as well as opportunities for content marketing and link building.
On the average, organic traffic (from web searches) makes up around 30% of overall website’s traffic. It also can deliver upwards to 20% – 25% conversion rate; according to SEOclartiy.
WTF is SEO Audit?
SEO audit involves analyzing your website content and pages for insights, problems and improvements to be made in order to improve performance in organic search and get more organic traffic from web searches from both desktop and mobile devices.
You can call SEO Audit a process of altering and strengthening a website’s online visibility; especially but not limited to organic web search.
Bad news, if your website has not undergone thorough SEO audit for at least once. Why?
You could be investing so much money, time and resources trying to patch a problem you could outrightly solve in a day and then move on to better online visibility, both via organic search and other related channels.
Request for FREE SEO AUDIT for you website. You will your SEO AUDIT report in 24 hours.
Why Is Website Audit Important?
SEO Audit reveals typical issues with important components of a website such as content -related issues, site architecture, indexing, backlink analysis and social-media engagement.
What Website Audit Report Reveals?
SEO audit report presents insights into:
- Technical SEO issues
- On-page SEO fixes
- Content Optimization issues
- Keyword opportunity and difficulty
- Potential web traffic volume and sources
- Analysis of top competitors in organic search
- Backlinks opportunities
Benefits of SEO Audit?
It’s rare to find a single report in Digital Marketing that provides huge benefits like these but SEO audit done by seasoned expert could provide you with the following:
- Keyword Optimization & Ranking Opportunities
- Right Content Optimization Approach
- Actionable Link Building Strategy
- Insights into Competitors’ Strength in Organic Search
- Competitor’s Backlink Profile & How to Leverage It
Request for FREE SEO AUDIT for you website. You will your SEO AUDIT report in 24 hours.
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Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
-Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
Instagram Dives into e-Commerce with a Rumoured Shopping App, Google Chrome Address Bar Now Shows Search Results, Facebook User Engagement Declines by 42%.
Here is my recap of what happened in the world of online marketing during the week.
Online Marketing Updates by ContentKrush gives you latest news in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing in the past week.
Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
Google Dataset Search is a new service to find data from sciences, government and selected news organizations.
Using dataset schema, publishers, agencies, organizations and companies can mark up data to get their data file included in the new Google Dataset Search engine.
What’s the catch?
Dataset Search allows searchers to find datasets on many topics across environmental and social sciences, as well as data from other disciplines including government data and data provided by news organizations.
Google Dataset Search Engine Launched
Google Dataset Search feature will be used by scientists, data journalists, data geeks and anyone who is curious about the data behind a specific topic.
Finding data for research has never been easier!
What should you do?
Mark up your published data web pages (like survey, market research, reports, stats or any form of well organized insights) so that Google can display it to searchers within this new vertical search feature that is still in Beta stage.
Log on to https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/dataset to find guidelines for featuring your data in Google Dataset Search Engine.
Read up —> Search Engine Land
Instagram Dives into e-Commerce with a Rumoured Stand-alone Shopping App.
If this comes through, Instagram users would be able to search for products and make purchases directly in the app -according to The Verge reports.
Instagram is yet to comment on this report by The Verge though.
instagram shopping app
What’s the catch?
It’s been more than a year since Instagram opened up shoppable organic posts to apparel, jewelry and beauty brands.
Also In June, Instagram offered a shopping bag icon to a select number of retailers, allowing them to add an e-commerce element within their Stories.
And as such, Instagram already has a sufficient number of retailers and advertisers already pushing products on the platform. So it may happen sooner than expected.
What should you do?
If you sell online or do marketing for e-Commerce business, be prepared!
Follow relevant influencers and blogs where you can get all the gist before anyone else, so you can jump on Instagram shopping app when it finally rolls out.
Read up —–> Marketing Land
Google Chrome Now Shows Search Results in the ‘Omnibox’ Bar by Default.
Google Chrome 69 ‘omnibox’ bar now allows you to type in URLs or search queries, as it shows you search result answers to what you type.
This new feature is similar to how Google search works, but now shows directly in the Google Chrome latest version that was released on Tuesday September 4, 2018.
Chrome Omnibox search
What’s the catch?
Google Chrome 69 Omnibox will show answers directly in the web browser address bar without you having to open a separate tab.
It can show rich search results on public figures, sporting events, instant answers like the local weather forecast and translation of a foreign word.
What should you do?
Enjoy the new Google Chrome 69 Omnibox search bar as you can do more within a browser now. You won’t need to open a million web browser tabs because your work spreads across multiple web pages!
Read up —–> Search Engine Land
42% of Facebook Users Stepped back from Daily Activity and Engagement. -Pew Survey June 2018.
According to new survey data from the Pew Research Center (June 2018), 42% Facebook users have stepped back from daily activity and engagement.
This stands in marked contrast to a March 2018 Pew survey that found 74% of Facebook users visited daily while 51% visited multiple times a day.
Decline in Facebook Engagement
What’s the catch?
To corroborate this sharp decline in usage and engagement revealed by Pew Survey, Facebook’s Q2 results shows that its daily active user metrics were flat in North America and declined in Europe.The totality of the Pew survey evidence and other polls by Reuters (March 2018) argues that many Facebook users have become ambivalent and less engaged, especially since the notorious Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
What should you do?
Do not rely solely on your huge Company page followers to help spread your brand message, as this is becoming less effective in terms of reach and user engagement.
It is time to make your brand, business, organization or client more human on Facebook. Think of user engagement campaign that can make your target audience take ownership.This way you keep your conversations, advocacy and loyalty in top gear.
Read up —-> Marketing Land
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Content Marketing ROI: 5 Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies with Amazing Results!
-Content Marketing ROI is a popular headache among CMOs, marketers in general.
After reading this piece by Stefan Debois from marketo, you will have a better idea of how to pitch Content Marketing in such a way that results will be evident.
Obviously, there are many articles with Content Marketing best practices, proven strategies, and statistics. But there’s one thing that can beat all of these: Clear, actionable, real-life examples.
Content marketing case studies with excellent results can be hard to come by, but here you have successful case studies with awesome results they achieved:
iSpionage Got 58% Increase in Blog Referral Traffic in a Month with Onsite Re-targeting
The growth hacking tool iSpionage runs a pay-per-click marketing blog. By investing in content marketing, they had hoped to capitalize on additional visits. But despite publishing new articles regularly, they weren’t seeing a lot of referral traffic towards the main website. In this case study, they explain how they managed to increase that traffic by 58.09% in just one month by using an exit intent popup.
Lawrence of Morocco Got over 11K Additional Website Visits in 2 Weeks with #GOT Infographics
When the Game of Thrones series was in full swing, it generated huge buzz online. Lawrence of Morocco, offering tailor-made holidays, took advantage of this as much of the series was filmed in Morocco. By creating related content linking back to their product offering, they generated tons of extra traffic to their website.
CollegeRaptor Got 100K Web Visitors/month with Data-driven Content
In this content marketing case study, YesOptimist helped a startup, CollegeRaptor, to get from absolutely no organic traffic to 100K visitors per month in just one year. They created a highly relevant piece of content using nothing but publicly available data which was picked up by several big blog sites, giving them the initial boost in high-quality backlinks.
Originally published: 5 Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies (with Results!)\
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Google My Business Listing: Three Ways You Can Sell More for Free
-GOOGLE My Business has been around for a while, but many business owners don’t seem to know they can see use its interesting features to sell more for free.
What if I show you how to take booking directly from Google Search results using your Google My Business listing?
For local businesses especially, you should attach as much importance to your Google My Business listing as you do your Facebook page.
Why Get on Google My Business?
WHEN we are in the process of making an important purchase decision, sometimes we go online looking for something nearby—a hair salon, a pharmacy, a car dealership. Recent data on popular search queries show this one of the most common searches.
Google My Business Listing: local-search-location-qualifier
In fact, more than one-third of all mobile searches are related to location.
What Is Google My Business?
GOOGLE My Business is a free and user-friendly tool for small businesses, organizations and blue chip corporations to manage their online presence across Google properties which include Search and Maps.
LOCAL businesses, can add, verify business physical location among other contact information on Google My Business. This can both help prospects find you and tell them the story of your business.
You can get free SEO audit on your website to see how your website is performing in organic search and what you can do to get better results, if you grab the opportunity fast enough before other smart businesses take all the available spots. REQUEST for FREE SEO AUDIT NOW
How to Sell More with Google My Business Listing?
- Google My Business Post
- Messaging with Google My Business
- CTA directly from Google My Business Listing
Selling with Google My Business Post
GOOGLE My Business Post is an easy way to help attract new customers and build relationships with the customers you already have.
WITH 82% of people turning to search engines to find local information, your GMB listing is the ideal place to showcase what is unique about your business.
YOU can use GMB Post feature to highlight special offering, promotions or an upcoming sales/marketing event that prospects or customers may find interesting when they search online for your business.
What Can do with Google My Business Post?
- Share new, exclusive special offers or promotions
- Promote events at your local office or elsewhere
- Take reservations directly from listing
- Take newsletter signup directly from listing
- Drive traffic to particular landing page
- Highlight your most sought-after products, new arrivals or incentives
YOU have an active Google My Business Listing? Post now.
Google My Business Messaging
GOOGLE My Business allows you to add ‘Message‘ button with which you can chat directly with customers who find your business listing on Google Search.
ISN’T it awesome that prospects do not necessarily have to visit your website before they can make enquiries?
MAKING provisions for how you can respond fast to customers or prospects who message you via GMB Listing can help you answer their questions, tell your brand story, and attract more people to your business. This also shows prospects how you handle requests promptly.
GOOGLE My Business Messaging is here to help you cut short buyer’s journey. Would you gladly take advantage of it?
How to receive message with google my business listing
How to Take Enquiries via Google My Business Messaging?
To turn on messaging with customers:
- Sign in to your GMB account
- Look for the “Messaging” card in the Home menu
- Provide a phone number that can receive SMS messages
PLEASE NOTE: When using SMS messaging for GMB Messaging, standard message and data rates may apply.
What Not to Ask with Google My Business Messaging?
- Credit card details
- Password or other login details
- Identification number (eg SSN, Driver’s License/International Passport number)
Google My Business Booking
IF you run a local store, clinic, massage parlour, beauty salon, barber shop or render any form of consultancy services, you can make it easier for prospects to book your services right in Google Search results page.
THIS is an opportunity to take your local business ahead of competitors. Include ‘Book Online‘ button your on Google My Business listing and you will be alright!
ONLINE readers can become paying customers in under a minute, if they can book an appointment with you directly through your Google My Business listing.
Steps to Take Direct Booking with Google My Business?
- Create GMB Account
- Confirm physical address with GMB verification team
- Check if your business is on Google reservation partners
- Manually request for ‘Book Online’ button on dashboard (optional)
- Enroll with scheduling provider (from Google partners)
how to take booking with google my business
GOOGLE has not only made getting leads via web searches easier but also enabled Google My Business with powerful ‘sales magnet’ features that can attract customers to local business just by showing in organic search results.
IF you do not have an active Google My Business account, open one right away. Follow steps in this article to share posts, receive messages and take bookings directly via your Google My Business listing FOR FREE.
MEANWHILE, you can get free SEO audit on your website to see how your website is performing in organic search and what you can do to get better results, if you grab the opportunity fast enough before other smart businesses take all the available spots. REQUEST for FREE SEO AUDIT NOW…
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SEO for YouTube Videos: Tips to Grow Your Channel
-SEO for YouTube videos is one easily accessible arsenal that most marketers are not tapping into at the moment.
A lot of marketing funds is going into making and promoting videos worldwide, but a lot of people are yet to know how to use these few tricks to make their YouTube videos continue to gain views, get more engagement and grow their YouTube channel with no budget.
Yeah, SEO for YouTube won’t cost you money!
Since nothing is free on the Internet, you can send me that part of your marketing budget that learning these SEO for YouTube videos tricks will help you save though. I really do not MIND. Lol!
SEO for Youtube videos -Youtube statistics
Now, let’s get into it real quick.
Why Do SEO for YouTube Videos?
- Rank for keyword in organic search
- Rank video in YouTube search
- Rank video for “up next” and “suggested” videos by Youtube algorithm
Rank for Keyword in Organic Search
SEO for YouTube could help you rank for certain keywords in organic search. Sometimes, search algorithm consider videos as better answers to search queries. And as such, it ranks videos search results ahead of text (article) for such search queries.
For keywords that you can create how-to videos or practical tutorials for, please prioritize making video ahead of writing long form articles. This will help you get ahead of existing articles and provide opportunity for higher audience engagement.
SEO for YouTube videos -ranking for keyword in organic search
Rank Video in YouTube Search
SEO for YouTube videos can help you rank a video ahead of other old videos. It seems, people ignore this part of YouTube being a search engine.
I have used the tweaks you are about to learn to rank a newly uploaded video ahead of existing videos on 100% the same topic over and over.
If you get these SEO for Youtube videos tweaks right, you can make your new video to rank ahead of a competitor video that already has hundreds of thousands of views.
That is top secret. Right?
Trust me, this can get you a peck (if not a kiss) from your cute boss. If your boss aint thou, no need!
SEO for YouTube videos -ranking video in youtube search
This is what happened.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, visited Lagos Nigeria that year. He visited Andela precisely. Andela where Mark visited put up the video first and it was getting all the buzz.
Then, we uploaded ours, which was not much different from the first video. BUT, alas, SEO for YouTube magic put our video ahead and we were able to share out of Andela’s buzz, probably 24 hours after they had been enjoying the fame that came with Mark’s visit
You like to pull that sort of stunt too? Read the post to the last full stop and do what you learn.
Rank Video for “Up next” and “Suggested” Videos
This one does not need much stories, SEO for YouTube videos can help your video to be suggested to people viewing similar videos as ‘Up next’ or related videos that normally line up on the right side of the currently playing video.
What mostly influences, based on my experience with optimizing YouTube videos for organic growth, is video tags. If you can get your video tags right, you will get on these spots quite often.
Up next are the SEO for YouTube video tweaks you have been waiting for.
Embrace them with the whole of your heart please!
SEO for YouTube Videos Optimization Checklist
These are steps you should take to optimize your Youtube videos:
- Video Keyword Research
- Video Title Optimization
- Video Description Optimization
- Video Tags Optimization
- Video Caption & Subtitle
- Catchy Thumbnail
- End Screen Videos
Video Keyword Research
Video keywords for YouTube can be researched using Google Trends, Google Search results among other paid tools. Wanna know how to use any of these tools for video keyword research? Use the comment box to make your request.
Why Use Video Keyword?
Both YouTube and Google Search algorithms already identified certain terms as Video Keywords because they have been used to index existing videos.
Using Video keyword identifies new videos you just uploaded with the existing videos in search engine index and helps them rank higher than videos uploaded without using video keywords.
Where to Use Video Keywords?
After researching and selecting video keyword for your YouTube Video, these are the places you should use it:
- Video Title
- Video Description
- Video Tags
Video Title Optimization
Do video keyword research to identify keywords that both Google and Youtube already identified with videos. Use video keywords to start your video title by adding more words to make the title more narrative.
YouTube video title used too quite long before. But, it has been recently pegged at 100 characters.
So, you have 100 characters to use video keyword to write curious, exciting, hilarious, ecstatic or whatever type of title that clearly states what the video is about and why it should be viewed.
Avoid using click bait though. It could hurt growth of your YouTube channel in the long run.
SEO for YouTube videos -Video Title Optimization
The two videos with less than 4k views put together rank ahead of an older video with more views by a more popular channel. Why?
YouTube video title optimization.
INTERESTING READ: Digital Marketing Tools for Small Business in Nigeria
Video Description Optimization Tips
- Make your video description at least 250 words.
- Optimize your video keyword for the same video keywords you used the in Video Title.
- Include links to your website, social media other channels where you can be found video description.
Include your Channel subscription link in your video description. Don’t forget. Don’t!
Video Tags Optimization
Video Tags are very critical to other videos that Youtube will show your video beside. Include more keywords (both video keywords and other relevant search terms) in the video tags.
Video Tags Optimization Tips
- 8-10 video tags are great; make them short and topical.
- Lengthy video tags are NO NO.
- Use similar terms, concepts or popular terms synonymous with the theme/topic idea of your video for tags.
SEO for YouTube videos -Video tags optimization
Video Caption/Subtitle Optimization
There are various options for video subtitle, but make sure you subtitle your video so they could rank high in Youtube.
You could copy and paste video description for subtitle, since most effective tools/techniques for subtitle are paid.
These are 4 ways to go about YouTube video caption or subtitle.
Using Catchy Video Thumbnail
Create custom catchy thumbnail that will briefly explain (hint) the video content with attention-grabbing images and text. The usual temptation is to use one of the 3 suggested clips from your video after uploading it as your thumbnail.
But, if you truly want your video to attract viewers, use custom thumbnails for every new video you upload on YouTube.
YouTube End Screen Videos
Use the End Screen option to add link to other videos or playlists to a new Youtube video.
You can use any of the End Screen video templates (or customize yours) in order to link more videos on your channel to the one currently playing.
SEO for YouTube videos -YouTube End Screen Videos
Trust you have learned new SEO for YouTube videos tweaks that could make your channel rock without popping millions of dollars.
Hang around for some cool YouTube channel growth, if you found this piece valuable.
You have other YouTube optimization hacks too? Use the comment section please.
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How to Start a Blog: Why Small Business Needs Blogging
-How to start a blog was thoroughly dealt with in one of my recent posts. But, most of the questions I came across thereafter was why should a businesses invest in blogging.
Ordinarily, business blog is a marketing asset, just like company social media pages. Making a business owner to accept to start a blog has not that being that ordinary though.
This is why I decided to follow up the how to start a blog for small business in Nigeria post with this; answer all possible questions regarding what a business will gain from blogging consistently.
What makes blog different from website?
A blog is a journal on the internet or your online diary which you frequently update to keep your audience up to date about you or your business. While a website is a collection of web pages or documents which are accessible via the internet.Only e-commerce websites and a few transactional websites get frequent updates with fresh content while many other businesses leave their webiste to become mere online brochure.
Yet, these dormant websites need leads and new businesses from online users. What an irony?
If your website is optimized for search, your meta tags, image alt text, inbound and internal links are intact, you have a wonderful traffic-generating website. #wehdonesir!
Let’s flip the script and reason like a prospect for a moment…
You have a burning issue to solve. You Google and find a website that sells what solves the problem or offers services that can resolve the issue. Clicking through to the website, you find out more about the organization on their website.
how to start a blog
You take their contact details and plan to reach them later. To be honest, you have an idea of who can solve the problem already but there is so much uncertainty as to how that problem is actually going to be solved.
What small business blog offers prospects?
Over time, a blog is supposed to address issues, answer questions common to the industry, support or criticize school of thoughts on matters arising.In order to give prospects reasons to contact you immediately, you must have, through your blog posts, identified problem(s), provided perspectives to his situation, proffered solution to his problem and positioned your business to effectively tackle the problem.
Your company website introduces your business to the world as a problem solver. It is a consistent blog that helps the world start solving their problems even before they get in touch with you.
Why you need to know how to start a blog?
Whatever form of value you offer, using blog to explain your processes, share your success stories, take a stranger through how you have solved similar problems is not impossible.One thing is certain, every business that has a product to sell has a story to tell.
Blogging is one effective means of telling your story as a business. When you run promos both online and offline directing prospects to your website, it is a vibrant blog that can make first-time visitors come again after the first encounter.
What can small business blog about?
- explain your product design processes
- answer ‘FAQ’ questions about your product
- provide interactive guide to how best your product works
So many milestones can be achieved small business blog. But, please, don’t use it to blow your honorable trumpet. A blog that is too salesy get boring quickly.
How will blog benefit small business?
- Conversion
- Customer satisfaction and retention
- Brand awareness
- Direct sales
Subscription to newsletter
It may interest you to know that your entire buyer’s journey can be summarized into a blog post.
How to capture buyer’s journey with small business blog?
Use links within the blog post to direct readers to landing page, product pages or other pages
where they can take profitable action.A blog post could contain text, images, links and a video. While the plain text addresses a particular topic that the blog post is about, you can embed internal links that lead a reader through the conversion process in clickable texts.
Besides text and links, well-crafted images (with Alt text and descriptive caption) can help buttress your topic.
Use Images within the blog post to break down seemingly complex process your customers might have complained about in their feedback
Such instructive blog post can come in handy when your online customer service rep needs a bullet-point to support his/her response to customers’ complaint. Your rep could forward the link or refer the customer to read further.
Use Video to engage prospects.
There is practically nothing any business does that video cannot be used to demonstrate. A video can be used to explain an offer, your CEO could address customers using video on your blog post.
Customers’ experiences can be made into series of short videos. Think of everything you can do to attract and retain customers, a short –less than 15mins max- video will blow your mind in terms of engagement.
How to a start a blog -business blogging
What are the roles of blogging in marketing?
This bothers on the content strategy for your blog. Of course, you do not want to wake up
tomorrow morning a blogger for your business without clear, concrete, sustainable plan for research,
development, distribution and promotion of your blog.As you choose topics, titles prior to blog content development, have at the back of your mind which of your buyer personas that particular blog post is meant for.
READ ALSO: Keyword Research Tools for Small Business in Nigeria
Also take into consideration, what stage of the purchase funnel the buyer personas are before
developing the content of your blog post.You don’t want to target everybody and you don’t want to address more than a particular topic
per blog post.A blog post could be aimed at attracting strangers to your business, convert new visitors to leads, closing leads to customers or delighting existing customers so they
become promoters of your business.To attract strangers, your blog post should identify and explain a particular problem. To convert a visitor to a lead, you could blog about an offer while you place a call-to-action for that offer or similar offer in a conspicuous place of the web page.
To close leads into customers, your blog post should position your product or service as the solution to the problem already identified and explained.
Some copy-writing plus appraisal of your offers is allowed here, but be careful not to over-do it.
For customer delight, you could blog about how your brand makes life better for customers. You could address after-sale complaints made via such blog posts. Customers’ suggestions could be the center of blog posts like these as well.By sincerely putting yourself in your existing customers’ shoes, you definitely will know what to blog about that will promote customer loyalty.
how to start a blog -what small business can blog about
Whose duty should blogging be in my organization?
Much as everyone in your organization may not be good writers, everyone is eligible to make contribution
to a successful business blog.After you have outlined topics relevant to your purpose, every prospective contributor to your blog content should be guided your blog content mission statement.
It is advisable to have someone or a team dedicated to developing content, distributing and promoting your business blog.
This brings some sense of responsibility. Though, content development should not be limited to this person or team. The reason is that the idea some people within your organization will give towards your blog content could be amazing.
Everyone who interacts with customers, whether in sales, marketing or customer service, should be encouraged to contribute towards your blog. It could be what a customer confide in them or what trend they notice in consumers’ behavior that would trigger your hit blog of all time.
Everyone can’t blog for your business, but everyone has the potential to make meaningful impact on your blog as a stakeholder.
Hope you found one or two reasons why you need to learn how to start a blog today.
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Email Marketing: How I Built Email List of Over 7,000 Subscribers
-Email Marketing has been a lifesaver for me in recent months, though I don’t like writing about it. I feel Email Marketing as a topic is quite exhausted and don’t see anything fresh to talk about in it.
But, each time I mentioned how I built my subscriber list of over 7k LinkedIn contacts, my students then looked curious.
After a couple of such sessions, I found the need to do this self-explanatory blog post to share with you how you can build your own email list of over 10k subscribers,if you have the resources required.
Email Marketing strategy can be a cliche. I mean how effective will it be if I share my best email tactics with you, hoping you will copy and paste it?
Email Marketing How I Built Subscriber List- strategies-for-business-growth
Without wasting too many words, let me go straight into how you can build a subscriber list fast, in a cost-effective way.
Apart from how I built the 7k email list, there are several other ways people build their subscriber list.
One common method of list building is newsletter on blogs or website. People publish and promote great content. Then, they ask readers to subscribe in order to get content delivered to their inbox.
Some people entice audience to subscribe with mouth-watering offer. It could be video, ebook, webinar, discount on product or service.
These two methods of building email list are cool. But, how resources and time you have to commit to it really influences your result.
Regarding the method I promised to share with you, it does not take long. It will not cost you a dime, if you already have an active LinkedIn profile. You will export your LinkedIn contacts information, among which their email list will be.
So, let’s take it one step after the other,
Step 1: Click on My Network on Your LinkedIn profile
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step01
Step 2: Go to Connections on your LinkedIn profile, click on See All.
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step02
Step 3: Click on Manage Synced and Imported Contacts, close to top right corner
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step03
Step 4: Go to Advanced Options, click on Export Contacts, close to bottom right corner
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step04
Step 5: Go to Choose the Format You Prefer, click on Fast file plus other data
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step05
Step 6: Check your registered email with LinkedIn for Link to Download Contact
Email Marketing Strategy for Building Email List Fast step06
Step 7: Clean up the email list and save as .csv or recent Excel version on your Computer
Step 8: Create a List in Mailchimp, or your prefered Email platform
Step 9: Name List accordingly, export Email List from your Computer
Step 10: When you send email, remember to tell where you got their email from
If you follow these steps properly, you should have created an email list of your active LinkedIn connections by the end.
REMEMBER: email marketing is permission-based. The permission you got before sending your LinkedIn contacts email using this method was that they accepted to be your contact or connection.
This means you could reach out to them, at least for business or work-related purpose.
Nonetheless, be careful with emails you send to contacts like this. It is important to be engaging, prioritize adding value or provide truly exclusive offers.
Email Marketing tips for effective campaign
Email Marketing How I Built Subscriber List -emal marketing Tips
- Make Sender Name as familiar as possible
- Use actionable email title
- Always use short but catchy preview text
- Don’t be too salesy, add value
- Don’t use many CTAs, one or two are preferable.
- Use different text formats -bold, italic, clickable text
- Address receiver by name
Take this to the bank. You just build yourself a good email list of familiar community of professionals and colleagues. Hope you find this helpful.
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How to Make One-page Business Plan for Your Idea
-Wondering how to create business plan for your awesome small business ideas?
Follow these 15 steps to create actionable one-page business plan that simplifies takeoff of your business from mere idea to actual company in few weeks.
After reading this, you should be able to make your own business plan template. So, let’s get to know what business plan is and is not, why newbie small business owners are so crazy about business plan template, how you can make you own unique business and some examples of good business plan.
What did I promise you? How to make a business plan template. It will be a one-page business plan and it will rock!
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.
[bctt tweet=”A business #plan is a formal statement of #business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them.” username=”obadeyemi”]
That’s what Wiki called it.
Business Plan Template -How to Make a One-page Business Plan
What Is Business Plan Template?
Business Plan Template is an off-the-shelf guide meant to help different business owners understand how to start a business, generate money and make the business sustainable over a period of time.
Being a ready-made document, small business owners are expected to customize a business plan template into a proper business plan for their business.
What is Business Plan Outline?
At the heart of your business plan should be your Unique Value Proposition (USP). When you are clear on what will make your business unique, how to make a business plan will be a bit easier.
Besides, I found these military principles of strategy mind-blowing and I want to share with you. I love the discipline and mission-driven approach the military use to handle things.
Having said this, kindly permit me to compare a business plan with military strategy and these are seven military principles of strategy that your business plan should contain:
- Objective
- Offensive
- Concentration
- Economy
- Flexibility
- Surprise
- Momentum
Whichever approach you use to make your business plan, or any business plan template you decide to use for your business, check it to be sure that it aligns with these military principles of strategy.
Business Plan Template -How to Make a One-page Business Plan
How to Make a Business Plan Template for Small Business?
Step 1: Define Mission Statement for your small business. SImply put, what impact do you want to make on your customer’s life or business?
Step 2: Outline your values as a business. What will your small business stand for, as an entity?
[bctt tweet=” Outline your values as a #business. What will your #smallbusiness stand for, as an entity?” username=”obadeyemi”]
Step 3: State clearly Unique Value Proposition for your small business. This is what will stand you out in the market. Among all available options, why should customers do business with you?
Step 4: As briefly as possible, describe your primary target audience – ideal customer for your small business. This is when it becomes clear to you what your market size looks like. Do you have a buyer persona?
Step 5: Come up with a marketing strategy. Marketing strategy for your small business should comprise your area of specialization, product differentiation, segmentation and concentration. How will you sell more of what you sell?
Step 6: Layout your marketing mix. Map out how things will play out among these success factors of a small business -product, price, place, people, promotion, packaging, and positioning. How will you combine all these factors for a successful small business?
Step 7: Study your market, study your competition. Competition should not dictate how you run your small business, but you cannot close your eyes at them as if they do not exist. Who are your direct or indirect competitors and how is your offer superior or inferior to theirs?
Step 8: Do a detailed budget of how much will get your small business started and running for at least 5 months. Do you need to pay some due, deposit some funds or buy certain technology to get started, how much?
Step 9: Estimate your projected income till you break even. How much do you need to earn or how many units of service/product must you sell to keep your small business afloat before you start making profit?
Step 10: Consider sources of funds for early stage of your small business and be blunt with yourself with this. In most cases, people get funds from family, friends, bootstrap or crowdsource funds until the small business can successfully scale, how would you handle this?
[bctt tweet=”Consider sources of funds for early stage of your #smallbusiness and be blunt with yourself with this. ” username=”obadeyemi”]
Step 11: Plan your distribution channel and workflow. Unless you want to buy your all your products by yourself, you should be clear on how to get them to the market at this point in time. Would you link up directly with retailers or make wholesalers to get the products off you and handle distribution, while you focus more on making great products?
Step 12: Pen down the skills required to get out your dreams. This is where you plan your startup workforce. Be careful of random hires or cheap labour. Can you sell your dream small business to conspirators who will join you to realize them or you need some help?
Step 13: Make a clear financial plan that comprises monthly projected income, running costs (expenses and salaries inclusive) and profit line. Assuming you are investor, after reading financial plan for your small, will you invest in it?
Business Plan Template -How to Make a One-page Business Plan
Step 14: Set out action points for implement your business plan. What will you do now, today, tomorrow, next week, next month to get your small business running?
Step 15: Check and then check again by going through every little details of your business plan to be sure you have fully dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s.
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