Business

How to Write Travel Articles That Sell Your Business

The act of traveling has been capturing the hearts and minds of people for generations and will continue to enchant us for hundreds of years to come.

Because of our innate fascination with travel, it’s no wonder that travel articles are as popular as they are.

Travel articles are an excellent way to attract a little extra attention and help give your small business a boost. That said, creating travel articles your customers will want to read is easier said than done.

If you’re interested in writing travel articles to help sell your business but aren’t sure where to begin, we can help.

Here’s everything you need to know about writing travel articles that will captivate and entice your readers.

Be Picky With Your Topics

While getting caught in the rain on a train platform had a significant impact on you — the same might not go for your customers.

When picking topics to write about, you want to make sure they are timely, valid, and you can tie them back to your company’s mission.

An article about an exhilarating trek through Spain may work well for this website, but it may not for other sites.

Make it Unique

No two people experience things the same way. So, you can be sure that no matter where you go, you’ll come back with a set of stories only you can tell.

A talented travel writer knows to lean on what made the trip different, rather than focus on what they think their readers are expecting to hear.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

Apart from being excellent for improving your article’s SEO, pictures provide a fantastic way to immerse your readers in your story.

By giving your readers a taste of what the place you visited looks like, they can better connect with your story.

You shouldn’t overpower your writing with an extensive gallery of every single picture you took. But, by adding a few select photos, you can create an article that sells your business.

Keep It Simple

When writing about travel, it can be very easy to wind-up waxing poetic.

Part of what makes travel so enchanting is the potential for aimless wandering. But, when writing a travel article to help sell your business, you can’t afford to waste your word count on romanticism.

Write Your Ending First

While travel is about the journey, not the destination, you cannot say the same about a piece of writing. A travel article is, in essence, a story. And every good story must have a solid ending.

Before you get writing, you should figure out where you want your story to end up. The best way to do this is by creating a reverse outline. Start with your climax and ending, then figure out what you need to include in the run-up to the finale.

How to Write Travel Articles

People will always have a fascination with travel. Which, is why you can always count being able to use travel articles to sell your business.

Now that you know what goes into a good travel article, it’s time to get writing.

If you’re in need of a few extra writing tips and tricks, we can help. Check out our extensive collection of writing guides to help take your writing to the next level today.

E-Commerce Technology Trends That Let You Run Your Business From Anywhere

Unless you live in a remote town, you’ve seen your local community embrace e-commerce. A busy hub town is empowering – it’s filled with small businesses peddling their goods. You may have seen these physical shops go empty as well.

E-commerce is the modern version of a busy shopping hub these days. It has become ubiquitous, so much so that it commanded a monstrous $1.3 trillion value industry in 2014. Expectations for the e-commerce industry predicts a $4.5 trillion explosion by 2021.

How did e-commerce grow this fast? It’s in the technology tools which have been available to people. E-commerce technology creates opportunities for businesses to improve.

Want a piece of the pie? Then ask this: what are the e-commerce tech trends which can help you run your business? Here’s the low-down.

Product Visualization Technology

Here’s the problem e-commerce business owners encountered over the last decade. It’s making the most out of the shopping experience. Unlike brick-and-mortar outlets, buying online composes of a few processes.

Find a product you like, click the cart, and check out. This offers no ability for interaction at all. No matter how HD your picture is, people will not believe it’s an accurate representation.

Product visualization technology is becoming necessary. It’s a step up from today’s buying experience. Some of these online retail giants have come the way of virtual reality (VR).

The integration of VR and augmented reality is empowering. It can result in a near life-like shopping experience. All your customer needs is their smartphone.

Another visualization tech tools for business owners is the use of 3D images. Facebook rolled out their 3D image technology letting users take 3D photos and see the subject in a 360 view.

The potential for 3D images is endless. This can provide e-commerce business owners the ability to show off their products.

3D can show accurate product visualization. It can show your product’s craftsmanship. It can increase customers’ confidence in your products, more than any 2D image out there.

How does product visualization help you run your business away from home? You run it and go away. It can reduce the need to keep convincing the buyer into the authenticity of your products.

Chatbots

Chatbots are fast-becoming a solution of choice within e-commerce tech trends. Their relevance is greater now more than ever due to the level of technology available. These tools for business owners improve product delivery systems while cutting down costs.

Their current use, however, is logistics. Chatbots can solve many logistical issues in small businesses.

You can use chatbots as customer service funnels. They provide advantages that your average human CSR will take time to do.

Bots can provide a personalized sales experience per customer. They can browse customers’ personal order history and make suggestions. Bots can provide branching resolutions to common product issues.

In the future, bots as technology tools can do more things. They can even answer calls. Chatbots are there to work when you’re away.

Improved Payment Processing

Here’s another of the e-commerce trends business owners can expect. It’s easier payment processing.

In the front end, e-commerce seems to be easy. In the backend, however, payment services need many steps to process.

Tax documentation. Inefficient payment schemes. These make the viability of online commerce a headache.

Emerging technologies push for a streamlining of the financial processes in e-commerce. This not only reduces workforce cost – but it also removes the headache of complicated financial hoops you need to take care of.

One such technology is factura electrónica or electronic billing. Simplified electronic invoicing can help businesses focus. Instead of handling payment processing, they can focus on their products.

There’s also a growth of alternative payment methods you can add during website building. Digital gift cards and e-wallets come to mind.

Once it takes off and stabilizes, Bitcoin can be the future of electronic payments as well. Bitcoin has much promise as a cryptocurrency but it’s unstable and unpredictable. This makes it one of e-commerce tech trends that are great in concept but has many real-life issues.

Regardless, payment processing technology makes it easier for your business to run. It will run without the need for you to take care of every financial decision.

Personalization Technology

Personalization and personalization technology. It is fast becoming one of the e-commerce trends experienced now. This technology makes shopping experiences more individual-based.

Some of these technology tools include social media analytics tools for niche marketing. There are also machine learning programs.

Netflix is a good example. It has added machine learning in their algorithms. This is to provide customized recommendations to their users.

How does it work? It takes into account viewing habits and past customer history. This can then predict customer preferences and give products catering to it.

Amazon has been using personalization algorithm as well. What they did is they studied their customers’ buying behavior. Taking this data, they leverage their customers’ order histories and recommend products.

The recommended products are a literal upsell. They come in the form of the “Bought With” and “Customers Who Viewed This” tabs.

Personalization technology runs in itself. If you’re away from home, you don’t need to spend time providing product recommendations. All you need is an algorithm to take care of it.

Artificial Intelligence

There’s zero doubt now how valuable artificial intelligence (AI) is. Among e-commerce business owners, artificial intelligence suggestion parsing is invaluable. For customer service, they are essential innovations in technology.

For starters, Amazon Echo acts as an assistant handling all purchases on a consumer’s behalf. It can provide suggestions, give fashion advice, and influence buying cycles.

AI has the potential to help with adaptable, data-driven targeting. These make them superb tools for business owners

The buyer persona processing can improve. It can add more variables to it.

Once optimized, the buyer persona can then dictate the right pitch. It can create a more appealing marketing strategy.

Artificial intelligence relates in efforts towards personalized buying experience. This provides a lead-up to you, as a business owner, for one-on-one lead conversion and scale this en masse.

Streamlining Supply Chain

E-commerce tech trends extend not only to the handling of consumer-related activities. Technology is also essential to streamlining logistical challenges.

Critical parts of logistics like inventory management, warehousing, and product delivery are emerging. Most of these technologies come in the form of better current technology.

Low-cost RFID technology for inventories. Drones for deliveries. High-speed product transfers for warehousing.

Investments in warehouse automation, for example, offer lower-cost solutions in scaling production. This can then underscore competitive advantage and, in the end, maximize the bottom line.

An excellent example of this, again, is Amazon. By using drones to perform same day deliveries, they can improve KPIs. These include customer satisfaction and product happiness.

This level of optimization ensures efficient and faster delivery. Faster delivery means speedier turn around times, which translates to more profit. Their pioneering work in forwarding e-commerce solutions made them the top business on a global scale.

Blockchain

In a world where e-commerce trends go toward empowering consumers, the blockchain touts much potential. It gears towards improving the ethical landscape of companies. The blockchain is democratic and transparent.

Data processed within blockchain receive timestamps. These can then verify the claims of business owners. This level of transparency is supply chain auditing.

Supply chain auditing makes sure that distributed ledgers only contain verifiable information. This data will then provide evidence of ethical business practices.

How do you take advantage of this as a business owner?

By having your supply chain audited by blockchain, you can create a “seal of trust”. This seal of trust is a branding strategy ensuring quality standards are up to spec without expensive authentication from standard-setting bodies. Add this to your PPC promotion strategies and you should be golden.

Multi-Channel E-Commerce

Here’s a word that is familiar for any e-commerce business: touchpoints. Touchpoints are an annoying but important part of the e-commerce business owners are growing. The primary problem about touchpoints is unification.

The need to combine many touchpoints into a single, unified technology is pervasive. If done right, it is among the valuable tools for business owners. Enter multi-channel e-commerce.

Multi-channel e-commerce is the ability to be ubiquitous on almost all touchpoint platforms across the internet. Because shoppers tend to shop in multiple touchpoints, a multi-channel infrastructure gives you more places to sell your goods.

You don’t have to get stuck in an online marketplace, an online store, in social media or brick and mortar business. Multi-channel e-commerce tech trends can put you into all these touchpoints.

This means more chances for you to sell. This means whenever someone wonders where a product is from, you can offer yours. Provide the one you have up for sale.

Multi-channel tools for business owners are not even simple ideas. They are, in actuality, available now as e-commerce visibility strategies. Comprehensive reports on multi-channel e-commerce are there to help you win out, too.

The Future of Running Your Business Anywhere With e-Commerce Technology

Running your business from anywhere requires sophisticated technology. To be able to run your e-commerce business, you need technology which reduces the steps necessary to do so.

Automation’s design is to take away specific steps to make the entire process faster. By utilizing e-commerce technology, you make the whole cycle shorter.

Shorter logistics. Shorter product turnarounds. Quicker delivery.

All this equates to more profit and less work.

If you need to add a content strategy to your superior e-commerce technology, then you need Article City. Article City provides digital marketing and content strategy solutions that work.

We use data-driven analysis to confirm topics in your industry that work. We’ll bring in results. More targeted traffic, more content-driven conversions.

Contact us today and get only the best content marketing. Highest content standards every time.

5 Reasons How a Great Smile Boosts Confidence in Business and in Life

People judge you within one-tenth of a second.

That’s according to Psychological Science, anyway. Indeed, in their research on first impressions, psychologists found that our reactions to people are almost instantaneous. And they’re tough to alter once they’ve been formed.

Smiling is one way to ensure this split-second judgment falls in your favor.

But a good first impression is only one confidence-boosting benefit of a great smile. In reality, there are many other reasons that smiling can help in business and life.

Keep reading to learn 5 key reasons smiling is so important.

5 Reasons a Great Smile Boosts Confidence

Here are 5 main reasons why smiling can boost your confidence.

1. It Makes You Feel Great

Smiling feels good.

When you smile, your brain releases neurochemicals called endorphins. And endorphins feel great. They’re responsible for feelings of happiness as well as stress reduction.

Oh, and they help in pain management too.

2. It Can Alter Your Mood

Ever had one of those days where you just feel glum?

Well, forcing yourself to smile anyway might turn things around.

Remember those endorphins we just mentioned? Well, thanks to something called the facial feedback hypothesis, as the muscles in your face contract into a smile, your brain notices.

And because those same muscles usually signal that you’re in a happy mood, your brain convinces itself you must be happy. Say hello to a brighter day!

Think of it like reverse-engineered happiness. It’s real-world, psychologically sound, ‘fake it ’til you make it’ methodology.

3. It Makes You More Likeable

Smiling is a sure-fire way to endear you to others.

In fact, it’s associated with positive traits such as openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. All of which are key components of likeability.

Which is crucial when it comes to business and workplace environments. For example, likeability has been linked to success in all manner of domains including marketing efforts and even presidential campaigns.

4. It Improves Your Relationships

People who smile a lot have better relationships.

Thanks to factors such as likeability, smiling has a big say in our interpersonal relationships. Think about it, what happens when you smile at someone? Nine times out of ten, they smile back.

Smiling is a building block of close connections between colleagues and future friends.

It’s a joy to spend time with people who know how to smile. And where business is almost always built on relationships, it’s clear that smiling is key to success.

5. It Makes You Healthier

Smiling is literally good for your health.

Seriously, it’s been shown that smiling can help your immune system, assist in pain relief and even make you live longer!

One way this is possible is because of all the positive things happening in your brain (remember the endorphins?!). For this reason, things like laughter (who doesn’t smile when they laugh?!) and positive thinking are an effective way of reducing stress and illness.

Time To Wrap Up

There you have it: 5 reasons that a great smile will boost confidence in business and life.

Reasons such as these explain why practices like cosmetic dentistry are becoming increasingly popular. It all starts with the happiness it brings.

The endorphins your brain releases feel fantastic. So much so that you can often improve your mood by just faking a smile. And that boost in positivity goes a long way in making you more likable, building strong relationships and even helping with physical health.

A great smile can introduce you to greater confidence in all domains of life.

Now, we’d love to hear from you. What sounds like the biggest benefit of smiling to you? Let us know in the comments.

Military Money: How to Start a Business While Still on Active Duty

Military service is a noble profession. Every year about 150,000 people enlist in the military and their families effectively become a “military family”

However, just like regular families, there are times when military families may find it difficult to make ends meet.

If you have been looking for ways to supplement your military income. The good news is there are many ways you can do that. The only concern is that you should find a business venture that suits your particular lifestyle and needs.

Here are some ideas for supplementing your military money.

1. Become a Freelancer

One of the best ways you can make money is by becoming a freelancer. If you are creative then you are in demand. If you can edit videos, do graphic design or even write blog posts then more than ever businesses and services are looking for your help.

You can advertise your services on Craigslist, or bid for projects on freelancing sites. However, you can also send cold emails to businesses to find out if they are interested in your services.

If you craft your cold emails correctly and personalize them towards the companies needs, you will find that some people will respond to you.

If you take the cold email approach, make sure you set up a website with a portfolio and at the very least a Facebook page. Businesses want to find out more about you before they commit.

You can also network with other military families and veterans who have started businesses via this website.

2. Try Virtual Assisting

If you can compose emails, do web research, data entry and manage schedules then someone out there needs your help.

There are two approaches you can take to get your business started, you can sign up for a company that hires virtual assistants or you can launch out on your own.

Create a website about your services and advertise on social media to increase your traffic.

3. Become a Youtuber To Supplement Your Military Money

Becoming a YouTuber is big business these days. There are several ways to approach YouTubing, you can become a daily vlogger who vlogs about your life, you can create information videos or you can use your creative skills to make video tutorials.

The best thing is that it is easy to get started on YouTube. Most cell phones have great cameras these days that record video and capture audio quite well, so there is no need to buy equipment in the beginning.

Post regularly and start advertising your YouTube channel on other social media platforms.

Once you get a certain amount of views, you can monetize your videos with ads. When you have a certain amount of subscribers businesses will start contacting you or you can contact them about sponsoring your videos for a price. In fact, sponsorship is the way most successful YouTubers make the most money.

Final Thoughts

Supplementing your military money with a business venture is not very difficult these days with the advent of online second jobs. It is easy to make money in your free time as long as you are willing to do so.

Choosing the right business is the most important thing. Once you have done so, you will be well on your way to successfully supplementing your income.

If you would like more information about how to market your business as well as other lifestyle tips please visit our blog.

3 Insanely Clever Ways to Use Promo Products to Market Your Business

We know that you’re always looking for the best — and the most cost-effective — ways to market your brand.

While marketing gimmicks and viral videos might get you attention for a brief amount of time, promo products ensure that your leads will think about your company for long after an event or transaction has ended.

But how can you get creative when it comes to the top promotional products?

Keep on reading this post to find out.

1. Choose the Right Products

The first step in mastering promotional products?

You need to make sure that you’re not only selecting quality promo products, but also ones that are directly relevant to your brand.

For example, while promo pens would work well for an office supply store, they might not be as effective for a wine company. For the latter, a branded wine opener is a much better choice.

Also, although we know the temptation is real, resist the urge to buy trendy products in bulk. The must-have fad of the moment is going to fade. Then, you’ll be left with a bunch of products you can’t really use.

If you want to go trendy, only buy small amounts.

2. Have a Fashion Show with Promo Products

We also love the idea of hosting a small fashion show that features your models wearing your top promotional products.

This works especially well if you’re an e-commerce store that sells clothing and accessories. This way, your promo products aren’t just items you use to generate buzz around your brand.

They actually become coveted pieces of clothing and accessories that your target market wants to wear.

For example, look into promotional hats, branded scarves, and even promo shirts and tees with your logo splashed across them. Then, work them into outfits with other pieces of clothing that you sell.

3. Involve Social Media

You also want your products to generate a buzz about your brand online.

Plus, you can use your promotional products to help you create a community of your leads and customers. (Not to mention, this will allow you to check out their buying and social media habits.)

We urge you to print a hashtag on your promotional products. When you hand them out to people, encourage them to post their pictures on social media holding the promotional products.

Then, like, comment, and share the pictures you find online to your company social media accounts.

Need More Ways to Market Your Business?

While this post has introduced you to some of the top promo products and how to use them, this is far from the only way that you can market your business.

You still need to develop a digital marketing strategy and master SEO, claim your third-party web listings, and perhaps even create a winning logo design for your brand.

We know: it certainly sounds like a lot!

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you understand the next step to take after investing in the right promo products. When you’re ready to learn inbound marketing techniques and more, bookmark our blog.

10 Marketing Tools and Supplies You Need to Boost Business

As we are fast approaching sci-fi world standards with things like virtual-reality, smart homes, and digital currencies, there are still some constants. For one, offline marketing tools are still necessary. The standard is now a 50/50 share of digital and offline advertising and marketing investment.

That means that your business needs to incorporate a strong offline and online strategy to succeed. Neglect either one and you could get left behind. Startup or established, your business stands to gain a lot from a variety of marketing tools.

You don’t need a lot of money to acquire a strong marketing suite of tools. A lot of what’s out there can be done with free apps or minimal investment. Most of the offline marketing investment will come from pure hustle.

Are you ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level?

Online Marketing Tools

For the first half of our marketing strategy, we’re going to focus on digital marketing. While there are comprehensive online marketing services, you can automate a lot of it. These are just a few examples.

Buffer for Social Media

Social media marketing is a huge time-sink. Even with a dedicated social media manager, you may not be reaching your full potential. That’s because it’s a delicate balance between too much activity and not enough.

You want to be on multiple social media platforms, but you also want to take advantage of each one’s potential. Duplicating content sharing on each platform isn’t inherently bad, but you definitely want to mix it up. This is where Buffer can help.

All your accounts can be connected into one dashboard. There, you can schedule a balanced ‘drip feed’ of content for each account. This lets you be able to queue up a month’s worth of content in one evening and then just focus on engagement.

Buffer is also great for studying which types of posts work and how frequently you should be posting it.

Growth Hacking

If you’ve never heard of the term “growth hacking” before, don’t worry, it’s perfectly legal. This is just a cool phrase to describe the online version of networking up. Normally, making connections online with experts, industry leaders, and B2B deals happens very slowly.

With tools like Sniply, you can start forming strong bonds with other influencers and industry experts. This platform lets you share content to and from influencers, building rapport, feedback, and trust. Sniply is a two-way street, allowing you to tap into bigger audiences while aligning yourself with interests for long-term benefits.

Website SEO

The tried and true formula of gaining more traffic to all of your accounts is strong SEO. Your website should be checking all of the boxes off for organic SEO:

• Balanced keyword density
• Strong meta-description
• Web page speed optimization
• Daily content updates
• Responsive webpage design

Your website’s SEO is important for keeping and retaining the attention of your visitors. It should contain a cohesive theme of branding, promotional materials, unique content, and business information. First-impressions are very important for any long-term marketing strategy.

All potential customers and curious minds should find it easy to navigate your website. Draw them in with your story, make it memorable and relatable. This is an opportunity to create value that goes beyond expensive PPC campaigns.

PR Management

“Big data” is a marketing tool that is actually very accessible to the average business. All you need to do is plug in keywords related to your business (name, products, niche, etc.) and you’ll see in real time how successful your marketing is.

With Google Alerts, you can get email updates for every mention of your brand on the internet. This might be useful for sharing bragging rights on your social media or responding to complaints online.

Social Mention is another powerful tool that does alerts, plus things like Sentiment Analysis. This lets you know off the bat whether there’s positive or negative publicity brewing. It won’t completely replace a PR manager, but it will make the growing pains much easier.

Autoresponders

The most important link in the automated online marketing chain: automated messaging. Email marketing tools are necessary if you want to build a massive following that isn’t tied to just one platform. Email isn’t going to lose relevancy anytime soon.

In order to get a large, active email list, you need an autoresponder. MailChimp is a good one, of course, but we’re going to go with GetResponse. It does everything MailChimp does, including email marketing tools, advanced analytics, surveys, and segmentation.

Add this onto webinar and landing page management, plus web event tracking. It’s just a much bigger ecosystem with a ton of growth potential. GetResponse is like having a team of virtual assistants at your beck and call.

Offline Marketing Tools

The bread and butter of marketing strategies that work. These traditional forms of getting your name into the mouths of others require dedication. The biggest obstacle to making these methods work is ambition.

Cold Calling

Why would someone want to speak with a stranger about products or services they never asked about? Well, people have conversations about things they never considered buying all the time. Cold calling gets a bad rep, mainly due to transparent marketing strategies.

Cold calls can be highly personalized and tailored to never feel predatory. Besides, you know your brand is honest and authentic, it’s just about conveying it to potential customers. Cold calling is also a great opportunity to make strong industry connections.

Use exploratory questioning, respect the recipient’s time, demonstrate value, and don’t ask for the sale. You want the person on the other line to feel in control and voluntarily commit.

Flyers, Posters, and Ads

Traditional advertising is all about getting your brand in front of the most eyeballs as possible. The volume of printing isn’t necessarily what’s most important. Start with a good printing service like New Era Print Solutions, then figure out where you’ll get the most receptive audience.

You can hire a few kids to distribute flyers in public spaces, put up posters in high-trafficked areas, or on windshields (strategically!). Share your ads with various print publications, don’t waste a good ad. We recommend community papers and college papers for the budget-minded.

You can run ads for much longer on the same budget as a single ad in a major newspaper.

Guerilla Marketing

This is probably one of the more precarious forms of marketing. It’s a bit of a gamble, but the payoff can be life-changing. You’ll need to brainstorm a really solid and cohesive strategy here. A publicity stunt needs to be more than just naked advertising, for example.

Do something thematic, engaging, and please incorporate it into some sort of social media activity. A simple hashtag is fine, just make sure you push to get it trending.

Some safe forms of guerilla marketing include theater and dance, pranks, stunts, political satire, and creative graffiti.

Business Cards

Don’t underestimate the power of a good business card. There is some solid science behind the effectiveness of a business card. Making a good first impression starts with being accessible.

By not opting for your standard black and white card with flimsy card stock, you’re telling that person that you value your longevity. You don’t want your business card being filed away with the other dozen or so cards at a convention, for example.

A sturdy, textural, and eye-catching card will stand out. Men who carry wallets will also likely “make room” for your card in their wallet. Survival of the fittest (or the thickest in the case), as they say! New Era Print Solutions has some great designs with high-quality printing that will feel like a piece of art.

Seminars, Events, and Activism

This last category of marketing tools comes in the form of classic networking. Face-to-face connections with real people is how you succeed in life. No matter how great your business plan may be, if you aren’t meeting the right people, it could fade into obscurity.

Seminars are great for obvious reasons: you get to hear pitches or give your own and see real feedback. Expos, conventions, and other related events are just giant punchbowl situations where you can connect with potential partners and clients.

The last category of face-to-face networking is more of a recent trend. By getting involved politically, you can position yourself as more than a business. You don’t even need to be in the midst of the most controversial topics and risk alienating your base.

Just put your name on a few universally-good initiatives and be a brand that is more than business.

Diversify and Grow

We hope this article inspired you to try out a few new marketing tools and strategies. Nothing is worse than that ‘stuck’ feeling of being unable to invest financially in more marketing, yet seeing that flat line of growth. You can work smarter, not harder, by incorporating an array of marketing tactics.

You’ll find more business tips like these on Article City, as well as content opportunities for your brand. Remember to keep adapting and moving, so that your brand never feels stale or outdated.

Top 10 Tips to Improve Customer Service in Your Business

It’s not as hard as you might think to make your business stand out in the crowded world of commerce. And you don’t have to slash your prices to ridiculously low levels to do it.

A study done a few years ago revealed that only 7 percent of consumers report having customer service experiences with companies that have exceeded their expectations. 7 percent!

That means there aren’t many businesses out there going above and beyond for their customers. So if you can improve customer service, you can easily gain an advantage over other businesses.

Do you want to improve customer service within your business? Check out 10 tips for improving your company’s customer service skills below.

1. Answer the Phone When Your Customers Call

Unfortunately, there are tons of businesses these days who are greeting their customers with an automated recording when they call.

This frustrates those who just want to speak with a real person, especially if a business makes it difficult to track down someone through their phone system.

When you pick up the phone during business hours and greet your customers, it’ll go a long way towards making them feel like they’re important. It’ll also allow them to address problems or ask questions more easily.

Discover more about how answering the phone can help a business to see the benefits of doing it.

2. Learn to Listen to the Needs of Your Customers Better

When someone calls your business and starts to tell you about a problem they’re having, you should steer clear of immediately trying to fix whatever issue they’re experiencing.

Rather than jumping right in and saying what you think might be wrong, you should allow the customer to talk and express themselves before you respond. You should take that time to really hear what they’re saying to you.

This will show the customer that you care enough to hear what they have to say.

3. Avoid Responding to Complaints About Your Business Negatively

Many business owners get very defensive with customers who have complaints. They end up arguing with customers rather than helping them fix the problem they’re having.

Avoid negativity at all costs when conversing with a customer. Instead, take a positive and proactive approach to dealing with complaints.

A customer might be angry at first when they call you. But once they see you’re genuinely interested in trying to assist them, they’ll be more likely to forgive you for whatever went wrong with your product or service in the first place.

It’ll increase the chances of them coming back to you again in the future.

4. Make the Complaints From Your Customers a Priority

If a customer does have a complaint about a product or service you provided for them, don’t put off dealing with it.

You should spring into action right away and make them feel like their business is important to you. By making them a priority and pushing them to the top of the list, you’ll show them that you care about whatever complaint they had.

The longer you put off dealing with a customer’s complaint, the less chance you have of earning their trust back.

5. Keep Any Promises You Make to Your Customers

If you tell a customer you’re going to do something, make sure you do it.

Breaking a promise is probably the easiest way to lose a customer. You can improve customer service simply by sticking to your word and not breaking it for any reason.

6. Be Nice to People Even When It Won’t Benefit You Immediately

Far too often, a person will pop into a business to ask for directions or use the bathroom and get turned away.

On the surface, you might not think anything of this. They weren’t coming to you to buy a product or service anyway, so who cares how you treated them?

Don’t look at it like that. Instead, looking at a random pop-in like this as an opportunity to be nice to someone and potentially earn their business in the future.

You might be surprised to see that same person pop back into your business in a week or two to repay you for your act of kindness.

7. Tell Your Customers How Much You Appreciate Their Business

Every single time you speak with a customer, whether on the phone or in your business, you should tell them how much you appreciate them calling on your company.

You can’t say “thank you” enough to your customers. So make it a point to say “thank you” and “we appreciate your business” any chance you get.

8. Give Customers Free Promotional Products

People enjoy getting things for free. It makes them feel like they’re important.

If you don’t have promotional products already, you should order some now and start handing them out to your most loyal customers.

From pens and sticky notes to T-shirts and hats, there are so many promo products available. They’ll allow you to say thanks to customers and help you brand your business at the same time.

9. Always Ask Your Customers If There’s Any Other Way You Can Help Them

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” is a question you should ask to your customers early and often.

This will let your customers know that you’re there for them if they need anything else.

Even if they don’t need anything at the moment, they’ll feel more comfortable coming back to you later for assistance if they need it.

10. Provide Customer Service Training for Your Employees

In addition to making every effort to improve customer service on your own, you should also bring your employees into the mix.

They might not feel quite as compelled to be nice to customers as a business owner does. But with the right customer service training courses, you can show them how you expect them to treat customers.

Your employees are usually your first line of defense when it comes to dealing with customers. Make sure they do their part to improve customer service.

Improve Customer Service and See Real Results Today

When you improve customer service in your business, you will see more and more customers return to you in the future. It’ll lead to more sales and give your business a better reputation in your community.

Improving customer service is also just one of the many ways you can go about building up your business.

Check out our blog for more tips that will help you put your business in a better position.

How to Increase Blog Traffic for Your Business

23Would you like to know how to increase blog traffic?

Blog traffic can mean big business. About 47% of buyers tend to read 3-5 articles before making a buying decision. To get them to buy, you have to get them to visit your site first.

Keep reading to learn how you can get more traffic to your blog.

Use Analytics & Webmaster Tools

If you want to know how to increase blog traffic, you have to know your baseline or starting point.

The only way to do that is with data.

If you don’t already have Google Analytics or Google’s Search Console set up, that is the first thing you should too.

You should also get connected to Bing’s Webmaster Tools.

These tools will give you insights as to how much traffic you’re getting and where it’s coming from. You’ll also see how long people spend reading your blog posts.

Know Your Audience

Another way to get more traffic to your blog is to research topics your audience is interested in. You can do that by researching questions posted on Reddit and Quora to get ideas.

For example, if your blogging about personal development, you might find that a common theme is that people are looking for ways to be more productive.

You can then write out content ideas based on productivity. You can also take that a step further and get content and keyword ideas from this keyword research tool.

You can also look at Buzzsumo to see the headlines of the most viral articles to see what people are sharing.

This will help you get content ideas that your readers are interested in and make them SEO friendly and shareable.

Write Guest Posts

Did you come across sites in your research that welcome guest posts?

Maybe you saw a site that shared the same target audience as yours, or there was a thought leader’s site in your industry that welcomed posts.

This is an excellent opportunity to expose your work to more people and get valuable backlinks to your site.  If you get an opportunity to write for the right website, you can even get paid to blog.

Just be sure that the sites are more popular than yours. Otherwise, you won’t get the traffic or backlink benefits.

Expand Your Audience

One way to increase blog traffic is to expand your audience. You can do that by making your blog friendly to international audiences.

Let’s say you have a blog post on how to increase blog traffic in English. You’ve been learning enough Italian to be able to translate that to “scrivere un blog di successo.”

You’ve just opened the door to a brand new audience and an opportunity to get more blog traffic.

Don’t worry if you feel overwhelmed by the thought of having t translate your entire site.

The great thing about WordPress is that there’s a plugin for everything, translation included.

Create a Great User Experience

As a blogger, you have to create an excellent user experience. That means having a site that’s easy to load, easy to use and readable across many devices.

This point is often overlooked by bloggers, but what they don’t realize is their site could be costing them traffic.

People want and expect fast websites. Up to 40% of people will leave your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. To make matters worse, if you’re blogging for an e-commerce site, 79% of shoppers will never return if they think your website is slow.

The first thing you should do is check your site’s speed. There are a couple of tools to use to do that, from Google’s Page Speed Insights and Pingdom.

Both tools will tell you if your site is slow and what you can do to fix it. Sometimes, it can be as simple as compressing images. Other times, you might have to adjust the code.

Use Images in Your Posts

Would you like to know how to increase blog traffic with visuals?

The use of images is part of the user experience, too. When you use images, you increase the chances of the article being shared.

The images used have to be relevant to the content and add to the article, not take away from it. Infographics are a great tool to use if your content has a lot of data.

People like to read statistics, but they tend to process them visually. That’s why infographics are so powerful. Readers can quickly look at the graphic, process it, decide it’s interesting, and share it.

That, in turn, will generate more traffic to your blog.

Use Content Aggregators & Syndication

One simple way to increase traffic to your blog is to list it with content aggregators.

These are tools that other people looking for great content to share use to curate articles to post. Sites like Alltop, Feedly, and RightRelevance are popular content aggregators.

Social Media & Email Marketing

Social Media Examiner found that 81% of marketers who used social media for just 6 hours a week found that website traffic increased.

That’s just about an hour a day to increase traffic to your blog.

The one thing to note here is that you don’t have to be on every social network. You just need to be on the networks that your target audience uses.

If you have an email list, you also want to stay connected with them throughout the buyer’s journey. Most of the people who visit your website won’t be ready to buy.

You can stay top of mind by blogging and emailing your list. This gives them a reason to visit your website again and again.

With email marketing, you’re increasing traffic, and you’re nurturing prospects, which increases the likelihood they will buy.

How to Increase Blog Traffic

Getting more readers to a blog is a consistent challenge for many bloggers.

However, it doesn’t have to be harder and just as time-consuming as writing the content itself. As long as you focus on the reader you’ll get more traffic in no time at all.

Make sure your website is fast and easy to use, and write top-notch content that’s your readers will be interested in and keen to share.

That’s how you increase traffic to your blog.

Want to know other top content tips? Read these articles about content strategy.

CBD Marketing Restrictions that Affect Your Business

CBD marketing has emerged in several states making claims that the compound can treat specific illnesses and is backed by scientific research. But are these claims true, or even legal?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a component of marijuana that is non-psychoactive. Products containing CBD have made it onto the shelves in many states, but they have a very thin line to walk.

Companies that market products that contain cannabidiol need to have a thorough understanding of both the federal and state regulations that apply to them. Here is a guide to knowing how CBD restrictions affect your business and how you can legally market your products.

FDA Regulations

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires that companies have scientific information that demonstrates that their product is safe for consumers. The FDA has been clear about the fact that CDB marketing can’t claim that the product is a dietary supplement.

But the reason the FDA has this rule is not that the products aren’t effective. Cannabidiol is under investigation by the FDA to be regulated as a “new drug”. When products have that classification, companies who make the product cannot market them as dietary supplements.

“The FD&C Act defines a dietary ingredient as a vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances.”

Unlike new drugs, dietary supplements are not meant to treat, diagnose, or prevent any condition or disease.

Clinical trials for new drugs generally last several years. It could be awhile before we see the classification of cannabidiol as a “new drug”. As a result, the substance is prohibited in food products at the current time.

FDA Labeling Requirements

The FDA has very stringent requirements for how products should be labeled. For example, it prohibits the listing of a “safe and effective” drug unless the FDA has already recognized it as such. Up until that point, the drugs can simply be referred to as “new drugs”.

The FDA also has requirements on including directions in your packaging. In order for a product to contain instructions for treating a condition, you must be able to self-diagnosis it. If a medical practitioner would be needed to detect the condition, then they have to let the doctor instruct the use of the drug.

If you are a CBD oil company, then you may be tempted to try to circumvent these rules by going to scientific publications with your own research and evidence proving the validity of your product’s use for treating a specific condition. But unfortunately, that is against the law, you’re just going to have to wait it out. (See: Section 101.93(g)(2)(iv)(C).

One of the contradictory requirements by the FDA is that any products on the market should come with directions for use that a layperson would be able to follow so that they could use the product the way it was intended.

This rule is contradictory when it comes to CBD marketing because the manufacturers are not allowed to claim that their products are treating anything specific.

Additional Labeling Requirements for CBD Marketing

In states where it is now legal to purchase CBD products that have been derived from cannabis, the packaging for all products containing CBD as an active ingredient must be labeled as such.

They also must state how much CBD the product contains. These regulations are valid for Washington, California, Illinois, Connecticut, and New York.

Since the FDA has not yet classified CBD as a “new drug”, you should probably avoid labeling your packaging with any specific medical claims about the product. Several companies have already been issued warnings for their labeling violations.

Many CBD oil companies are also breaking the law by publishing CBD marketing materials that claim it is a dietary supplement in states where the product is more legal. This classification was not awarded by the FDA.

That means that although your state may allow you to make certain claims about the effectiveness of your product, the federal government still has a say. They set forth their own regulations that take precedence over the laws of the state.

Other Considerations When CBD Marketing

Since there are so many different regulations on CBD products at both a state and federal level, you should take extreme care when CBD marketing. One good idea is to mention on your product’s packaging that the FDA has not yet approved it. This will cover you in the event someone tries to say you made a false claim.

Another great idea for CBD marketing is that the products should not be labeled in conjunction with any medical conditions. This is both to meet the FDA regulations as well as protect yourself against any labeling laws your state might have.

The FDA maintains that it is the responsibility of companies marketing CBD oil to comply with the regulations that have been published. While you may get a phone call from the FDA giving you a warning that you are toeing the line, that call most likely will never come.

Instead, you will receive a letter in the mail notifying you of your reckless labeling practices and have to face the facts and resolve any violation issues.

Online CBD Retailers

If you are an online seller of CBD oil products, you will need to take some special precautions to market your products online. You must be aware that under federal law, cannabis remains illegal.

Even for states that have legalized cannabis products, it is illegal to ship them interstate or to leave the state with the product.

The exclusion to this rule is CBD oil products that are derived from hemp. Under federal law, as long as the hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, it can be used for industrial purposes.

For that reason, it is important that you let your buyers know if your product is derived from hemp, not marijuana. In any case, as an online seller, you should be careful not to make any claims about the effectiveness of your products.

Digital Marketing Regulations

If you are looking for a new place to market your CBD, you shouldn’t waste your time with digital marketing platforms like Google, Bing or Facebook. All of these companies have put policies in place that guard against the promotion of marijuana and the paraphernalia related to it.

This poses a challenge to many producers, who don’t know how to get their product noticed. But don’t worry, there are some good options out there.

E-Newsletters

No matter what regulations are in place, you can put whatever you want in your newsletter. Many companies like to maintain two separate newsletters, one for medical updates, and another for investor updates.

Branding

From your press releases to your product shoots, proper branding is essential for boosting sales. By having a unified brand, you will be recognizable to consumers. HempLucid has done a great job with their branding for CBD products, click here for more info.

Social Platforms

While you can’t buy an ad on Facebook, there is nothing saying you can’t make a fan page and push your products. If you produce shareable content, then this can be a very successful CBD marketing route.

Investment Boards

Some online communities allow CBD marketing. They include Reddit, Stockhouse, and Stocktwits, among others. This can be a great way to find potential investors for your business.

Third-Party Advertisers

Outside of traditional digital platforms like Facebook and Google, there are third-party advertising platforms that actually allow marijuana-related advertising content. For example, Outbrain allows for advertisements related to investing in medical marijuana and CBD oil companies.

Unfortunately, however, they don’t allow the advertising of illegal drugs so they do not run advertisements for products derived from marijuana.

Traditional Advertising

There are a lot of relevant magazines that are all for CBD marketing. Magazines like High Times can be a great place to post ads about your products.

Direct mail campaigns are also a good option if you have a prior-customer list or some other way of singling out potential buyers. You don’t want to waste your money sending advertisements to people who have no interest in your products.

Press Releases

Press releases are a great way to inform your current and potential investors of what is going on inside your company whether you are running a high-quality dispensary or a small mom and pop shop.

Sponsorships

Getting exposure in your community can also be a great way to attract new buyers. By going to a farmers market, parade, or local sporting event with a booth, you will have a chance to connect with the locals and tell them about your products.

More Helpful Articles

There is a lot to know about CBD marketing and the laws are changing all the time. It is important that you stay up to date with any changes in your state and on a federal level.

If you are looking for more helpful articles to get your business running, then check out these tips.

How To Create A Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign For Your Antique Business

Are you looking for a way to get more customers through the door of your antique business?

Running an antique business can be difficult, especially if you’re just starting out.

Statistics show that the antique industry isn’t enjoying the boom it’s had in the past, so it can be tough to attract a steady flow of customers.

Luckily, a social media marketing campaign can go a long way in promoting your business.

Read on to learn more about how to create a successful social media campaign.

1. Know Your Market

Posting ads for your antique business on Facebook are definitely worth the effort. But posting ads without a target market or niche isn’t so helpful.

Begin by identifying your market for a specific campaign. Are you targeting college students hungry for vintage furniture? Retirees nostalgic about their past?

Choose a specific market and then identify a need or struggle these individuals may have. For example, those college students may be looking for an affordable way to furnish their new apartment and look classy.

In your campaign, you’ll play up this need or struggle and show how you can satisfy it.

2. Do Your Research

No matter how large your marketing and development team is–it may just be you–it’s important to research the field before plunging in.

Research competition in your area. What are other antique stores doing for marketing, and how can you be better? How is Westland Antiques doing?

What ads do you see for antiques on social media? Are there any in your area currently?

Assess the competition but also consider demographics in your area.

3. Establish Goals

Before you start posting wildly on Facebook, set up some clear goals. What outcome do you want to have with your social media marketing campaign?

Be as specific as possible. If you want to attract more customers, put a number on it. If you want to boost sales, also put a number on it. Maybe you just want to acquire emails to build a list of leads.

Establish clear and actionable goals directly related to your needs as a business.

4. Pair It With Email

Social media campaigns aren’t just about making Instagram posts. Start by sending an email to current subscribers to give them a heads-up about your social media campaign.

Then, make sure that your campaign gets you new email addresses. You’ll want to send follow-up emails after you obtain these to stay with these leads and turn them into recurring customers.

5. Write Relevant Content

The key to successful social media campaigns lies in the content. It’s important to generate fresh, intriguing, and useful copy for your customers.

Yes, customers will perk up when they see discounts or special offers. But don’t forget about the power of video, for example, or images of your current antique inventory.

A top-notch content strategy will keep your customers coming back for more and get more email addresses on your list.

Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social media is a powerful tool, and it’s important to leverage it as you’re establishing your customer base in the antique industry.

Make sure you do your research and identify your market before launching your social media marketing campaign. Have clear goals that go along with your strategy and always follow up marketing efforts with email.

Want to learn more about what inbound marketing can do for your antique business? Sign up for free advice today at Article City!