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Gain Exposure! How to Create Brilliant Online Promotional Strategy for Your Coaching Practice

A good sports coach inspires and educates players with the end goal of a team win. The same applies when working as a professional coach.

The tricky part is proving to potential clients you have what it takes to help them achieve their goals. You don’t have the national press coverage of professional sports highlighting your every career move. 

Follow this guide to create a brilliant online promotional strategy for your coaching practice to build credibility and attract paid customers. 

Face Biggest Challenges First

It’s very important to understand your motivation for outreach. All businesses need money, but knowing exactly how a post on social media will cure this problem is important. 

Save yourself time by creating a list of your biggest challenges before taking any action. This list helps you identify your goals and ignore the many distractions available online promising you instant customers.

If you are currently marketing online, divide your list between what works for you and what has not produced any success. 

Research Your Audience

Once you understand your challenges and needs, analyze the needs of your customer. Marketers can’t read the minds of customers, so they use data to prove any assumptions made.

Start with social media analytics tools to get demographic data on your ideal client.  Each social media platform has a different type of user and can help you avoid wasting time with demographics that don’t match your audience. 

With enough data, you can create a buyer persona. A buyer persona outlines details about a person like where they work, education level, family status, salary, gender, and fears. 

By creating a buyer persona, you know your ideal client and can make ads or posts that resonate with them directly.

Promotional Strategy vs. Ideas

A brilliant online marketing plan is a strategy, not a list of ideas. Ideas are great for coming up with targeted design schemes but ineffective when it comes to creating a plan of action. 

Armed with research your ideal client and business needs, your next step is to use your research to decide the most effective tools. Consider the amount of time it takes to execute each tool and whether you have the budget set aside to cover the expense.

Starting a campaign and abruptly ending it is one way to become discouraged. Choose online marketing tools that allow you to maximize time, money, your business goals, and your customer’s buyer persona. 

When you factor in each of these categories, it helps you weed through dozens of irrelevant marketing options online. 

Web Design

Design a professional website that speaks to the needs of your clients. A well-designed website means capturing the attention of visitors and keeping them on each page longer. 

The average visitor’s attention span is 8 seconds which is 1 second less than a goldfish. Pages that are clean and easy to read allow customers to navigate your website, learning more faster.

If you don’t know how to design pages yourself, hire help. Web designers study user experience to learn layouts that attract more clicks to areas you want. If you can’t afford a web designer, there are alternatives. 

Templates exist that allow you to use proven design styles that attract customers. The site helps you capture user data learning stats like which pages visitors click on most.  

Remember buyer personas when choosing page content.  If your ideal client is a parent, it may be beneficial to add a family photo with your bio on the About Us page to connect with potential customers. 

Get Press

Hiring a public relations professional can mean getting access to media contacts who can include you in a story. While you may not get an article specifically about your business, contributing a quote to an existing story builds your credibility.

News coverage means getting exposure to a much broader audience than you might have access to on your own. Add any press you receive to your website to show off your position as a trusted expert. 

Start a Blog

Starting a blog is a great way to attract repeat visitors to your website and optimize your site for search engines. Blogs are an overwhelming idea for some. The responsibility of constantly adding new ideas weekly or monthly seems like hard work.

Automate a series of blog posts through a publishing service to simplify the process. Instead of coming up with new ideas over and over, write several posts when you feel inspired. Schedule the posts over a period of time to keep your blog active.

Remember to keep your posts engaging. Be personable. Tell a story. This blog is a good example of how to capture your audience with memorable posts. 

Learn from Competitors

Competitors who are successful can show you a paved road to getting the results you want. Do an audit of a competitor’s website to determine why customers spend time there. 

Look at the way coaching services are described. There may be keywords or customer needs you are overlooking with your marketing materials. 

The same applies to marketing strategies. Consider advertising where competitor ads are present to gain market share.  

Research tools like Buzzusmo help you learn the types of content that receive the most shares. This is helpful because it can tell you what content is valuable by topic. Review the top content posted to see where you can improve in your messaging.

When to Bring in Help

Online marketing can seem like an endless set of tasks. Without direction, it’s easy to simply move forward with what’s easy instead of what’s an effective promotional strategy.

New online marketers need to keep things simple but not at the expense of business goals. Consider hiring a professional if you are not tech savvy or find yourself adding more strategies than you can manage on your own.

Your goal as a coach is to help clients succeed. Know when to find your own coach who can help you in areas where your expertise falls short. 

Doing so allows you to focus on your craft instead of learning a whole new job. For more information on content marketing, visit our website. 

Tutoring Ads 101: How to Effectively Grow Your Tutoring Business Online

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 brought more attention to tutoring, but tutoring has been an important learning tool for years.

If you’ve noticed the need for tutoring and want to fill it, you know you need to drum up customers. While referrals are a great source of leads, that doesn’t help if you don’t have anyone to refer you yet.

One of the ways you can gain more attention online is through tutoring ads. Continue reading this article to learn how to advertise your tutoring business online.

Setting Yourself Up for Success With Tutoring Ads

Whether people are trying to find an online math tutor, someone to help their kids through science or history – you need to show up for your specialty. If you only want to tutor in one subject, you can still make a good amount of money.

Speak to Your Audience Directly

Avoid the marketing mistake of talking to everyone in your ads. If you speak to everyone that wants a tutor, you’re not going to get attention.

Think of the exact person that you want to help. Is this person an 8th grader that is having trouble with math? Maybe the person you want to help is someone trying to improve their SAT score.

While you should think about the student you’ll be tutoring, you should also keep in mind that the parent is most often the one paying. Speak directly to the parent when you’re writing your ads.

Offer an Outcome

Before you run your ads, check to see if they offer an outcome. Many tutoring ads simply say something like, “tutoring for xyz city” or “Math tutor in xyz city.” While the ad is descriptive, it doesn’t give the person an idea of what result they will get when they work with you.

If you’re tutoring in math, then your ad could say something like, “Help your child improve their math test by one grade.” Make sure you’re confident in whatever claim you put in your ads because people will hold you to it.

Choose the Best Place to Post

When you’ve honed your ad and are ready to post, you can put it on sites like Craigslist and the local classifieds.

Check to see if the local schools have a specific site you can post your services as well. The more places you have your ads, the more likely it is that you will be able to snag a good tutoring job.

Promote Your Business Through Content Marketing

If you decide you want to add content marketing to your strategy on top of tutoring ads, you can drum up even more business. If you are a solo tutor, you may even have to bring in some help.

The internet allows for a wide variety of opportunities. We have put together an article library to help you get the most out of those opportunities. Check out our articles on content marketing strategy today.

The Sneakerhead’s Secret: The Best Place to Buy Sneakers Online

If you like being in style, then you probably like a nice pair of sneakers. But, finding the best places to buy sneakers can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t know where to shop. 

The key to finding the best place to buy sneakers is to shop online. That’s why we’re outlining this comprehensive list of online shoe stores. Keep reading to learn more. 

These Are the Best Places to Buy Sneakers Online

There are literally hundreds of shoe stores around the world that advertise their products online. Don’t be fooled by cheap products and expensive shipping rates. These are the best places to buy sneakers online:

Sneakerboy.com

Sneakerboy is based in Australia and they’re known for carrying the world’s most wanted sneakers. You can find everything from Nike and Reebok to Alexander McQueen and Raf Simons. 

Sneakersnstuff

If you’re looking for Nike Dames sneakers, you can surely find them at Sneakersnstuff. This store originated as a sporting goods store and gradually became a top seller for shoes and related products. Find Adidas, New Balance, Puma, FILA, and more, all here. 

Baitme.com

Baitme actually has brick and mortar stores along the Pacific West Coast offering a diverse and eccentric range of shoes and shoe products. If you don’t live on the West coast, you can always check them out online.

Kith.com

Kith.com has quickly become a powerhouse seller for sneakers online. Last year, they launched the Kith app to make your online shopping experience that much easier. This year, they plan to improve the overall digital shopping experience across all platforms.

Footpatrol

Footpatrol is best known for carrying products that can be used for the gym. Look for Adidas, New Balance, Asics, Reebok, and Nike shoes at this online retailer from Australia to the UK. 

Shoepalace.com

Another West Coast brand, Shoepalace.com offers a strong presence of West Coast styles. If you’re looking for something unique to add to your shoe collection, this is definitely the place to start. You’ll find performance-based brands, too, like Anta and Brooks and Mizuno.

Sneakerpolitics.com

If you want to think outside the box a little bit when it comes to where you usually buy your sneakers, consider Sneakerpolitics.com. They have brick and mortar stores based out of Louisiana with a strong web presence. The regular store and online store sell today’s top brands like Adidas, Nike, and Jordan, as well as some niche labels.

Solebox

Based out of Germany, Solebox sells various brands with international shipping available. Not only do they carry the major name brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma, but they also have a few specialty names like Diadora and Saucony.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know all the best places to buy sneakers online, you can stock up your closet with all your favorite kicks. The options are literally endless and at your fingertips. You’ll be the most in style and pure envy among your friends.

We hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to bringing you detailed articles about things you need to know most. For further reading, check out this post about the internet and relationships. 

Positivity Prevails! How to Properly Deal with Negative Online Reviews

Your business has taken all the strides to adapt to the modern age. It’s been equipped with social media profiles, an email marketing campaign – all the digital marketing bells and whistles.

But it turns out, there’s one thing you didn’t prepare for when committing to the age of the internet.

What is it? Negative online reviews.

These dreaded comments on social media profiles and Yelp pages can come as a nasty shock and a bit of an emotional blow. But how can you deal with them properly so the bad reviews left by the occasional dissatisfied customer can be more than a bad start to the day?

For 6 of our top tips on staying positive in the face of negative online reviews, keep reading!

1. Remember, You Can’t Please Everyone

When it comes to dealing with negative reviews from customers, it’s absolutely necessary that you recognize that there’s never been a business or organization that hasn’t gotten a bad review. You may take those negative words personally but you’re far from the first to do so.

With over 7.6 billion humans on the face of the earth, there’s bound to be one who’s having a bad day. There’s bound to be another who had unrealistic expectations, and another who caught your employees on an off day.

It’s unrealistic to expect to please everyone every day. One bad review doesn’t mean the end of your business – it just means someone felt they had something to say. Read it and accept the feedback, then move forward!

2. Know That Bad Reviews Aren’t Always Indicative of Your Quality

Remember that moody customer we mentioned? The one who had an awful day where everything kept going wrong, then your website was slow to load or their order took a bit long to fill and it just pushed them over the edge?

Their bad day isn’t always indicative of the quality of your business overall. So, don’t think it is!

Chances are, for each negative review you’ve gotten, there are two or three or ten good ones to match it. You probably have hordes of customers who come through your doors or inbox who feel totally satisfied with their experience.

They just may not take to Yelp to talk about it.

Just because you’ve received a bad review or two doesn’t mean your business is doing anything fundamentally wrong. Negative feedback is rarely, if ever, indicative of the quality of your business overall!

3. Understand That Bad Reviews Can Build Credibility

Have you ever found yourself scrolling through a list of reviews for a business and found yourself skeptical of those reviews?

They’re all 5 stars! Can they even be real? Has this business paid for fake reviews?!

The occasional bad review can actually help your business’s credibility and the believability of the good reviews. It shows that your business has nothing to hide.

If there’s one bad review for every 10 glowing ones, it’ll be easy for your customers to shrug off the negative comments left by that one bitter client.

A study conducted by Harvard University actually proves that 95% of customers are more likely to believe in and trust a business that’s got a mix of good and negative reviews. Your clients know that no one is perfect; they value a business’s willingness to admit this fact about themselves.

4. Remember That Every Bad Review Is a Chance to Grow

Okay, we’ll admit: Some bad reviews are just plain…bad.

Some customers like to complain for the sake of complaining. But, in the case of many negative reviews, there’s something to be taken away and implemented toward improving your company and its services.

Try to set emotion aside when reading bad reviews. If you need help in this department, check out this helpful site.

Look at them objectively and ask yourself whether there’s anything that your company can do to prevent future negative experiences. Ask yourself how your team might implement this negative feedback to improve its processes as a whole.

An important aspect of running any sort of business is the ability to grow and adapt to an ever-changing market. If you’re not growing and adapting, your company will fall out of favor in the blink of an eye! Look at your negative reviews as a constructive tool-as advice for helping you grow.

5. Respond to Your Bad Reviews Publicly

There’s only one thing that gives a negative review genuine power against your business. It’s your team’s failure to respond to that negative review with efforts to right the situation.

Responding publicly to the situation, however, helps your company in a number of ways. It gives the opportunity for you to regain respect from the client who issued the negative review. It also demonstrates your commitment to doing things right to the rest of your customers.

If you think customers won’t pay attention to your response to negative situations, think again. Studies show that businesses, like hotels, that publicly reply to negative reviews actually see a significant uptick in revenue once they establish a regular response pattern to negative feedback.

6. Encourage All Sorts of Reviews

One of the most proactive ways anyone can possibly work to manage negative reviews is to go out of their way to ask clients for reviews.

This accomplishes several things. First, it shows clients that you value their opinions.

Second, it helps you to boost the concentration of positive reviews on your page. And finally, it gives a better sample size of reviews from a broader range of customers.

Consider offering small incentives to customers who go out of their way to review your services. A small coupon or giveaway for participating clients can go a long way.

Plus, encouraging reviews from your customers gives you a greater pool of feedback to work with. This allows you to show your customers all the ways in which you’ve implemented their feedback! They’ll see firsthand what a customer-oriented company you are.

Want More Tips on Dealing with Online Reviews?

Handling online reviews-good and bad-can be a bit overwhelming! Just keep in mind the fact that any feedback from your clients can be useful feedback, and remember not to get discouraged.

For more info on how to deal with online reviews, and other digital marketing content, check out our digital marketing page!

5 Tips For Marketing Your Online Game

Around 49 percent of men and women play games online or on a console. That’s almost half of the population actively playing.

So, how do you get players to buy your games? In this post, you’ll find out how to market a game and get people interested in your product.

How to Market a Game

When you develop a product, you want people to use it. That’s why having a good marketing strategy is critical to spreading the word about your game.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

It doesn’t matter how you feel about social media; there’s no denying it’s a powerful tool.

If you haven’t set up an account for your company, do so. Having an active Facebook and Twitter account is critical. A Youtube channel with original content will engage more viewers and consumers.

Interact with customers and answer messages. Post new content often so people don’t forget about you.

Having a unique online presence doesn’t hurt, either. Don’t be afraid to be witty; social media has become a place where boring is easy to forget.

Brand Design

A solid brand is the key to standing out from the crowd. You have to know exactly what your brand is about and what it stands for.

Along with knowing your brand, you’ll need a recognizable logo and design. Keep all your designs and color schemes cohesive. It will make your game accounts more professional.

Create Your Website

A solid social media presence is only part of the formula. Once you’ve established that, it’s time to work on your website to make it as good.

One thing to remember is to link your website to your social media accounts. Having information on your account without a way to link to the source is frustrating.

Make information on your brand and game easy to find. Contact information needs to be available, as well. Screenshots and summaries of the game are critical, so people don’t have to go searching.

Discover more examples in the link.

Press Release

A press release is another way to promote your game.

Reach out to reviewers on blogs or youtube. Give them a beta version in exchange for their publicity and reviews. The more people talking about the game, the better exposure for you.

Don’t Get Discouraged

It can be easy to be self-conscious when you create something and put it out there for the whole world to see. But don’t get discouraged.

Persistence is what makes a difference. Don’t give up if you don’t get enough publicity at first. Keep talking, keep posting, and keep interacting with consumers. Word of mouth brings in more viewers and players.

More Marketing Tips

Your product is special to you, and you want others to enjoy it. Indie game marketing takes time and perseverance. Now that you know how to market a game get out there and win over the public.

For more information about marketing, read “The Difference Between Remarketing and Retargeting Advertising.”

How to Protect Your Identity Online

The internet opens up new opportunities for everyone. Young and old alike benefit from the wide range of information available.

Unfortunately, sometimes those people that “benefit” from the information available are people trying to steal your identity. There are endless things a hacker can do with the private information that can they can find online.

The scary thing about the online world is small interactions can give up too much personal information. This can allow people to take over your life.

Read on to learn a few tips on how to protect your identity online.

Social Media

Social media is fantastic for keeping in touch with old friends and family members. It is also a great place to meet new contacts and network for business.

Ever-popular games and quizzes that need access to your account are a big warning. Often these sites tell you they only have access to a small amount of information. They trust you’ll allow this in exchange for game lives or quiz results.

Another thing to consider is who you accept as a friend or connection on social media. When learning how to protect your identity online, the last thing you want is a stranger seeing posts from 6 years ago.

These posts may include your kids’ names, birthdays, or anniversaries. Oftentimes, this is the type of information used for passwords.

When doing business with retailers or anyone that requires sensitive data, consider asking if they have an Identity and Access Management (IAM) like Simeio. This type of programming limits the number of employees who have access to your private information.

Speaking of Passwords

How many online accounts do you have? Can you answer off the top of your head? Probably not, because the average person has 25 accounts that require a username and password!

Worse yet, most people have 6 or 7 passwords between the 25 accounts which means they’re being reused. This makes it extremely easy to obtain personal information

It also means that if someone gets one of your passwords, they could have access to your social media (bad,) sites you shop on (worse,) and bank information (worst.)

A fairly easy fix to this is to use a password manager. They can seem complicated, but you just need one password to access all your accounts. Your accounts are protected by a super password that is close to impossible to hack.

Public Wi-Fi

The problem is in the name: public. To someone untrained, it’s not a big deal. You can’t see other people’s information so they can’t see yours, right?

This isn’t the case as hackers or people who are trained can actually see and capture the bits of information seen on a public connection.

As much of a pain as it can be, either opt out of using public wi-fi, or carry a device that allows for a personal connection.

How to Protect Your Identity Online

This comes down to common sense. Do as much as you can to protect yourself with up-to-date virus protection and updates to your browser.

Create strong passwords, delete old posts that give too much information, and if you HAVE to use public wi-fi, do so only for browsing. Don’t log into any site that requires a password on a public connection.

The last item worth mentioning is to keep up with the news and what cybersecurity breaches happen, to what companies. It also may help to pay attention to any news regarding issues with your own technology and the patches for it.

Writing Income Down This Month? Try These 5 Tips to Make More Money Online

Writing is a labor of love.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pay the bills. Even the earnings of professional authors sometimes fall below minimum wage.

If you’re struggling to make enough money through writing alone, there are other ways to top your income and make more money online. In this post, we’ll give you 5 of the best ones.

How to Make More Money Online

Use these resources to fill any gaps in your online income.

1. Sell Items Online

eBay has always been an excellent platform for selling products online.

You can use it to sell unwanted items you have laying around the house, or even start your own eBay business.

If you have any designer clothes that you no longer wear, use Joli Closet to sell them at a high price.

Creative types can make items to sell on Etsy, too. The website generates around 440 million dollars every year. Create an account and get a slice of that revenue for yourself.

2. Use Fiverr and Upwork

If you’re not getting enough work from your current clients, Fiverr and Upwork are excellent places to find new ones.

On these sites, you can pick up jobs quickly, packing your paycheck just in time for payday.

You only have to create a profile and pitch your services at a reasonable price. Competition is high, so make your profile as unique as possible.

3. Teach English

Teaching English as a second language isn’t just for backpackers and graduate students. You can do it online from home, too.

You don’t have to be a qualified teacher. Most online teaching companies only require you to complete a TEFL course, which you can do in just three weeks.

There’s minimal preparation involved; the teaching company provides all the materials for you. All you need to do is connect to your students via Skype (or a similar platform), and guide them through the lesson.

4. Complete Surveys

Plenty of marketing companies offer money to complete surveys.

It’s quick and easy, and all you have to do is answer questions. You have to make sure you do it honestly, though. These companies value quality feedback. If you only click through surveys without thinking, you could be banned.

5. Use Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk is a ‘market for human intelligence,’ created by Amazon.

Both businesses and individuals can pay you to perform simple tasks. The idea is that humans can carry out these tasks more quickly and efficiently than computers can.

These tasks can involve research, data entry, finding images for blogs, translation, and more. Take a look at what Mechanical Turk has to offer and find something for you.

Increase Your Productivity

When you’re a writer, productivity is everything.

It’s the key to your income. Any time you spend procrastinating or waiting around will eventually become a drain on your wallet.

By increasing your productivity, you can not only make more money online but also free up more time to do the things you enjoy. To find out how to do that, read our post on productivity hacks for writers.

Why Your Online Dispensary Needs a Marketing Strategy

Do you have the right marketing strategy for your online dispensary?

It’s tempting to think that you don’t need marketing for some products. After all, marijuana is a desirable product that many people need for medical reasons. Why would you need marketing to get them to buy it, especially when they can easily buy it online?

However, the reality is that every business needs a marketing strategy, even an online dispensary. If you don’t nail down your marketing techniques, your competition will quickly take over.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly why your marketing strategy is so important to the success of your online dispensary. Keep reading to learn more!

1. Save Time

One of the main reasons to have a strategy is to save time down the road. If you plan ahead now, you won’t waste time fumbling through your marketing later on.

Marketing strategies are complicated. If you don’t think ahead, you won’t be able to make the organized moves that will allow you to succeed.

With a strategy, you’ll ensure that your efforts can really work, so you won’t have to backtrack later on. It’s a “work smarter, not harder” approach. Don’t waste time on a marketing campaign that doesn’t have a strategy. Instead, plan ahead to save your precious time.

2. Stay Focused

There are so many different ways to do marketing for an online dispensary. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t be able to keep your focus throughout the process. You might even feel overwhelmed or lost if you don’t start by narrowing down your options.

When you make a marketing plan, you can choose the strategies that will work best for your business, and leave the rest behind. This helps you focus your efforts on the areas where you’ll see the most success.

You need to break down your strategy into the individual parts so you can see how they’ll all work together in the end. This focus allows you to fine-tune your work and concentrate on the right steps at the right time.

3. Beat the Competition

If you don’t have a strategy to use, you’ll quickly lose your customers to the competition that does. Marketing is how your online dispensary attracts the customers it needs to thrive.

Make sure you have a plan, so you don’t let the competitors get ahead.

4. Help Customers Find You

You already know that customers are looking for the product you’re selling. However, if you don’t have a marketing plan, they’ll find your competition instead of your company.

For example, if a customer types “Ventura mmj delivery” into Google, they’re looking for medical marijuana delivery in the Ventura area. The companies that come up first in the search results will be those companies that have a marketing plan.

Your business might have exactly what they need, but if you haven’t focused your marketing efforts, they might not even find your company’s name in the search results.

5. Target Search Engines

This leads to the next important point: a marketing plan is essential for SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is what allows customers to find your company in situations like the one above. When a customer does a Google search, Google selects which websites to show based on how well that site does SEO.

With SEO, you’ll use things like keywords, blog posts, images, and links to make your site show up above your competitors’. However, if you don’t have a marketing strategy that involves SEO in place, your site won’t show up in your client’s searches.

SEO isn’t just something you can throw together at the last minute – you need a strategy to really make it work.

6. Produce Great Content

Content, such as videos and blog posts, is an important part of SEO and marketing overall. Without a strategy, you won’t be able to produce excellent content that gets the attention of your customers.

People are exposed to tons of online content every day. To make yours stand out, you need to plan ahead. This means keeping up with trends, making a content calendar, and covering the topics that your customers are most interested in.

A strategy gives you the time to research and develop this great content for your customers.

7. Use Social Media Effectively

It’s tempting to think that social media will be an easy part of marketing. After all, many people use social media recreationally. However, when it comes to using it for business purposes, you’ll need a strategy.

Social media posts need to be strategized to best reach your customers. You’ll need to know exactly what kinds of things they want to see. For example, does your clientele respond best to text posts, or videos?

A good social media strategy also involves lots of research. You’ll need to find out when your customers spend the most time online, so you can post at those times for the most engagement. You’ll need to review your approach from time to time and use analytics to see how well it’s working.

With a solid marketing strategy, you can seamlessly integrate social media into your overall business approach.

8. Predict Challenges

All businesses have challenges. If you have a marketing strategy in place, you can anticipate some of the marketing challenges you’re likely to face, which will make them much easier to overcome.

In fact, if you know your challenges ahead of time, you might even be able to turn them into strong points for your company.

9. Prioritize Tasks

Some marketing tasks are more important for your business than others. Use a strategy to help you prioritize the tasks that will get you the most results first.

This makes your efforts more effective, by breaking down the time you spend on marketing in the most strategic way. You don’t want to spend more time on tasks that will get minimal results while neglecting the tasks that would get major results.

Does Your Online Dispensary Have a Strategy?

If you don’t have a marketing strategy yet, it’s time to change that. Don’t wait – every day you work without a marketing strategy is a day your competitors can get ahead.

For more on marketing, check out our guide to content marketing here.

10 Online Gambling Games You Need to Try

One of the biggest universal truths out there: gambling is addictive. We all know it.

Sometimes you find yourself jonesing for a run at the slots, but without enough free time in your week to make it happen. Have you ever thought about playing online gambling games?

There are a ton to choose from. You can gamble with real money or fake tokens, depending on the game.

Ready to find your online gambling niche? Read on for ten of the best online gambling games out there.

Real Money Slots

Maybe you’re feeling spendy, but just not up to jumping in the car and heading to the casino. Back in the day, you’d be out of luck. In 2018, though, there are tons of real-money online casinos that you can play in.

You won’t even miss the real thing. The free drinks, maybe.

Planet 7 Casino

Planet 7 Casino is a fun one because they host a huge variety of smaller games for you to pick and choose from. Their games are simple, easy to pick up, and feature creative characters.

It’s free to sign up, and they even offer a bonus when you join. Their deposits are easy, and withdrawals are instant if you do hit the jackpot!

Ruby Slots

Ruby Slots will give you $50 in chips just for signing up, with no deposit required. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

It’s natural to feel slightly dubious about how much these sites are actually paying out. Before you sign up, they can seem like a lot of flash with minimal substance.

There’s more than meets the eye, however. Ruby Slots boasts a total payout of $25,000,000 in 2016. That’s comparable to most in-person casinos today.

With figures like that for an online gambling site, who needs to leave the house to hit the casino these days?

Miami Club

Miami Club is hands down the best online gambling site if you’re searching for the classics. Not only do they have over 130 different slots, but you can play online table games! You can play Blackjack, Poker, Craps, Deuces Wild, and Aces and Faces with people from all over the world.

Remember the days when mom would tell you not to talk to strangers? Yeah, those days are history. Now, online gambling sites are a great way to make new friends from all cultures and walks of life.

They also have a real-money Wheel of Chance that you can try your hand at!

Sloto Cash

Sloto Cash casino has been around since 2007, so you know it’s trusted. In addition to their regular games, they also offer tournaments and mobile play.

Their jackpot is at eight million right now. What are you waiting for?

Casumo Casino

Casumo is perfect for the ambitious gambler. Their site is structured so that you climb the ladder of success, unlocking new spins and rewards along the way. The site tracks your progress and you compete with people all over the world!

Casumo also has great reviews, and offers 200 free spins upon signing up! Perks on perks on perks!

W88 Thai

W88 Thai is one of the most active online gambling sites in Asia. It features all the games you could ever want, plus sports betting! They also feature an app so you can place bets while sitting at the bar watching the game.

If you prefer to watch football games at home, they even stream live football so you can watch your bet in action from the comfort of your own home. Watch now!

Just For Fun

Sometimes, you’re just a little strapped for cash. That’s life!

Don’t let it ruin your fun. There are plenty of online gambling games that don’t play for real money. Use e-tokens to satisfy your urge without breaking the bank.

GSN

GSN offers tons of free, interactive casino games that feel like the real deal. They have fun twists on slot machines, like American Buffalo, Diamond Royale, and Wild Savannah. It’s nice to change up the style of your slots every now and again!

Ever wanted to be on Wheel of Fortune? Face it, every gambler has dreamed of it at least once in their life! GSN’s got you covered– they have a Wheel of Fortune slots simulator!

Casino.org

Casino.org is a great resource for the gambler who doesn’t want to commit to playing with real money, but is toying with the idea. The site offers both free and real-money online games.

They offer the classics like European and English roulette, and newer, modern-day cult favorites like Sinbad’s Revenge!

Free Slots

Maybe you don’t need a ton of variety in your gambling life. It’s not such a bad thing to find what you like and stick to it.

If this sounds like you, and you favor only a slot machine, you’re going to love Free Slots. Slots are the only thing they offer, and their site is super straightforward and easy to play on.

Slotozilla

Slotozilla is another fun one if you’re thinking about switching over to the world of real-money online gambling. They have fun, newfangled, interactive free games. Most of them come with the option to buy in with real money.

What’s also cool about Slotozilla is that they don’t require you to sign up to play. Sometimes, you just want to sit down and hit the slots with minimal fuss.

This is an especially nice feature if you’re not into real-money play. Why bother with login information if you’re not putting your card number in?

It’s simple, straightforward, and offers tons of variety.

Your Online Gambling Favorites

Now that you’ve read up on all the gambling games and casinos that are on the net today, you should be all set to choose your favorites. Right?

If only it were that easy! The internet has exploded to the point where it’s saturated with tons of awesome online casinos for you to choose from.

Sure, it can be overwhelming, but it can also be exciting! Check out some more online casinos to be sure you’re searching every corner before you determine your fave!

10 Website Promotion Tips For Your Online Dispensary

If you’re selling cannabis online, you need the right website promotion tips to be competitive.

Even if you sell out of a brick-and-mortar store, website promotion is the key to getting new customers to come through the door. And if you sell only online, you’ll need a way to get those customers to buy from you and not your competitors.

These 10 website promotion tips will get you sell on your way to running a thriving online dispensary. Read on to learn what you need to know.

1. Do Your Research

Before you can implement a winning website promotion strategy, you’ll need to spend some time on research.

You already know what your market is – cannabis. However, within that market, you need to know what your niche is. Who exactly are you selling to, and what exactly are you selling them?

The more you can set your business apart and target a specific audience, the more successful your online promotion will be. For example, you might be selling cannabis for medical purposes or recreational purposes. You might be selling to an educated, older audience, or a younger audience who is less interested in research.

The more research you do, the more you can target your promotion efforts for success.

2. Have a Great Logo

The more your logo will stand out, the more recognizable your company becomes online.

Even if you already have a logo, sometimes a redesign is best to stay competitive. Many dispensary logos can start to look the same – how many different versions of the weed leaf have you seen in logos?

Check out this website – their logo uses a weed leaf in a creative, abstract way that stands out.

Find ways to make your logo stand out from the crowd. You might try an unexpected color, or a clever double-entendre symbol. Think about your target audience, and decide on the best way to catch their eye.

3. Post Videos

Videos are a great way to promote your online dispensary. This is one of the best ways to reach modern audiences and tell the stories that they care about.

You can post videos directly on your website, and you should also share them on your social media pages to draw people to your site. From short videos that tell your story to longer, live updates, high-quality video is a great way to capture the attention you want.

4. Get Social

In addition to posting videos on social media, you should maintain an active, well-rounded social media campaign.

Many people find out about new businesses on social media. Being active on the social sites your customers use is a great way to get them onto your site. You can also use social media to interact with your customers, giving a sense of your brand’s “personality.”

5. Simplify Your Site

It’s important for websites to be attractive and easy to navigate. After all, if a customer has been enjoying your products and wants to come back for more, you don’t want using your site to become an obstacle for them.

Is your website cluttered and confusing, or is it clean and easy to navigate? How quickly will they be able to find what they’re looking for?

No matter who your target audience is, a clean website that’s pleasant to look at will go a long way. Use limited colors and plenty of blank space to draw the eye to the places you want.

6. Optimize for Mobile

It’s not enough to have a site that looks good on laptops and desktops. Your site also needs to be optimized for mobile phones, tablets, and anything else that customers might use to search.

Mobile-optimized sites will change to fit the screen no matter what device someone uses. They’ll be easy to navigate by changing to fit any form, so users on a phone or another device won’t run into obstacles when they visit your site.

7. Offer Promotions

A great way to get visitors to your site is to offer a promotion.

Use marketing materials to alert them to special deals, such as a discount for first-time customers. You might even offer free swag with a purchase – many marijuana customers love a well-design t-shirt or lighter.

After a few successful promotions, you may actually want to branch out and build an online store to sell merch. This can bring in a new stream of revenue and provides a new way to attract site visitors.

8. Ask for Customer Feedback

One of the best ways to find out if your website promotion is working is to hear from the customers yourself.

Add an easy-to-use contact form to your site. Ask them to review their experience after making a purchase. Interact with customers on social media to get a feel for what they think of the site.

Interacting with your customers and making changes based on what they say also shows them that you care about providing them with the best experience, which is likely to turn them into loyal customers.

9. Use SEO

Search engine optimization is crucial for all businesses, including online dispensaries. If you don’t optimize for search, potential customers won’t even be able to find your site in the first place.

SEO uses formatting, keywords, and other strategies to help customers find your site based on what they type into a search engine. With SEO, your site will be more likely to show up at the top of the search.

10. Use Animated Ads

Online ads are a great way to share the word about your online business. Animated, moving ads are an even better choice.

People spend so much time online that they get desensitized to online images. A moving image, however, is much more likely to get attention.

How Will You Use Website Promotion for Your Business?

With these 10 strategies, you’ll be well on your way to successful website promotion for your online dispensary.

How do you plan to use website promotion to grow your cannabis business? Leave a comment and let us know which strategies you’re going to try!