How to Market Your Business

Businesses of any kind can be quite challenging. There is a lot of saturation and variation in different industrial sectors. It all requires careful research and cautiously formulated strategies. To ensure the success of your business, it is necessary to make your brand stand out from competitors through effective promotion strategies.

Here are the crucial steps in marketing your new business:

Conduct market research

Market research is a crucial component in establishing a marketing strategy for a new business. It includes collecting data about the market in which you are going to establish your business. The data is thoroughly analyzed to determine the needs and requirements of potential customers, prime locations for the business, and the estimation of the budget and pricing of the products and services.

Moreover, market research can also include sales predictions, monitoring latest market trends, and studying the business models of your competition to make sure you adopt the good strategies and discard the bad practices.

Market research can also include conducting surveys, focus groups, competitive analysis, and other valuable research tools.

Profile your target markets

It is inefficient to target a general audience to promote your products or services. Trying to shoot in the dark this way will consume tons of energy, time, and money. Instead, you should focus on a particular segment of society that you know would be interested in your business.

For example, expensive and luxurious items target the upper class, and so the promotion should be executed in a grandiose way.

Segmentation of the audience can be narrowed by numerous factors:
• Location
• Age, gender, income, profession, and qualification
• General lifestyle of the customers like social class and values.

Promote your unique selling proposition (USP)

The markets have become heavily saturated in different parts of the world with businesses of various kinds. However, every company usually has a vision and an aim behind it, which distinguishes it from its competition. A business must identify its unique selling proposition (USP) and promote it heavily among its expected customers to make sure they buy the products from you and not from your competitors. USP is the reflection of your business uniqueness, knowledge, and special skills.

USP of a business can be developed by keeping in mind the following things:
• What is the aim of your business?
• What is the unique thing about your products or services?
• Why should the customers come to you and not to similar businesses like yours?
• How are your products or services going to benefit the customers?

Develop your business brand

Every business, whether large-scale or small-scale, must have a brand that consists of an attractive logo, stylish design and colors, and a unique tagline that reflects your business and aim. A smartly designed brand will connect your customers immediately.

Select Marketing Platforms

There are many avenues in which you can promote your business. There is a myriad of options available for business marketing like business websites, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, blogging, flyers, posters, online giveaways, paid media advertisements, and, of course, word of mouth. Most of these options should be utilized by all new businesses for successful marketing in different sectors of society to expand the customer base.

Set Objectives

Every marketing plan must have a goal in mind. These goals should be specific, measurable, appropriate, and achievable within a time frame. A well-thought budget should be allocated to the marketing team of your business so they can utilize the resources available to them appropriately.

While setting the marketing budget, you should keep in mind that marketing is the backbone of your business and so the budget must encompass the following things:

• Development of the business website and its maintenance.
• Implementation of SEO strategies
• Branding which includes logo and flyer designs
• Advertisement printing
• Salary for the marketing team.

Establish a loyal customer base

Returning customers are one of the essential parts of any business. If your customers are satisfied with your products and services, they will keep returning to your business and generate good word of mouth. It is important to get feedback from your customers and keep improving and maintaining the quality of your business to encourage loyalty among the customers.

Monitor and review

Once you have started a good marketing campaign for your business, it is important to monitor the review of the marketing activities after a certain period of time to find out if your strategies are working or not.

Usually, businesses should review the marketing plan every three months. Once your company has established its roots in the industry, you can create a new plan or review the old one whenever a new product or service is launched. The review process includes assessing the sales, general perception about your business, and determining which marketing tool is working the best for your business.

Online Marketing Made Easy

If you follow these steps, you can market your business successfully. However, people with no experience in marketing and business might find some of these strategies to be overwhelming. Even if that's not the case you can get new leads using Domain Lead Pro.

How Giving Away Something of Value Can Help You Monetize Your Back End

Everybody loves a freebie! What do you currently sell, that is of value, that you could offer for free? And how can you monetize the back end of that? This works especially well if you can offer something that other businesses would normally charge for.

For example, if you have a corporate cleaning business, you could offer your first clean free, and follow up with your customer to see if they were happy with your service and would like you to continue. This is a great way to get new clients to try your service, as you’re taking all the risk out of it for them and, if you do a great job, chances are they’ll want to keep you on. The principle of reciprocity comes into play here too - you’ve given something of value to them and chances are they’ll feel the urge to do the same back.

A twist on this model is our “free plus shipping & handling” funnels, where we offer something for free on the front-end as long as the customer covers a small s&h fee (usually under $5). As long as they think the value is $20+, they’ll consider this a steal and be inclined to jump on it, even if they normally wouldn’t buy it right then and there. However, a necessity with this model is to make sure that you have a great set of upsells and a good backend to really monetize it. We typically have a continuity offer (like a membership or something along those lines), a low to medium priced offer, and ideally a high-end offer in the upsell path. The real money is made in the upsell path, as it’s hard to make a lot off a free plus s&h offer. As an added bonus with this model, you also get a lot of quality buyer leads (worth far more than non-buyer leads), without often having to pay a lot in advertising costs to acquire them. This allows you to market more offers to them in the future and make even more money off these buyer leads.

Think about something you can give away, that has value, and then look at how you can monetize the back end. Whether it is a sample of your service or a physical product, this works especially well if it something that other people usually charge for.

For more insights on how to create a sales funnel that maximizes your profit potential, check out this tool here: BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer

How Focusing on the Benefits of Your Offer Can Help Convert Sales

So how can focusing on the benefits of your offer increase your sales? It’s a marketing technique that encourages customers to focus on the end result that your product will give them, which is a powerful motivator to encourage customers to buy.

Your offer will have features (specifications) and benefits (the end result). In your marketing focus on the benefits of your service/product, instead of the features. It’s the benefits that sell your product, not the features. For example, does a person buying an anti-aging cream want to know that it contains the ingredient Q10 or that it visibly reduces wrinkles and makes them look younger? Think about how you can use the benefits your product provides in your marketing - you can still list the features, but link them to the benefit that the feature will give your customer.

For example, if you have a business selling a course teaching guitar lessons, you might have three main features that you could translate into benefits for your students:
Feature 1: Over 50 pages of guitar lessons
Benefit 1: Learn to play the guitar in under 3 hours!
Feature 2: Get training on how songs are made.
Benefit 2: You’ll be able to create your very own songs!
Feature 3: Practice on over a dozen songs with step by step instructions.
Benefit 3: You’ll be able to play over a dozen top songs in no time!
Each time, the emphasis is on what the student is actually getting out of the feature by explaining the end result that they’ll receive from that feature.

It’s amazing the difference changing your sales pitch from focusing on features to focusing on benefits instead can do. We’ve seen pitches go from poor conversions to great conversions just by changing that up.

One big trick that we’ve learned over the years is that you can even start your own side businesses mostly hands free by utilizing this concept! To do this fairly easy trick, all you have to do is look for other offers that seem to have lots of happy customers (testimonials, reviews, case studies, etc.) but don’t do a good job on the sales page of talking about the benefits. Many service providers on places like Fiverr.com and other “services for sale” type sites often do a poor job at this, but you can either create your own service (can also work with products) where you use them to fulfill the work for you but with a better sales page, or you can just reach out to them and ask if you can use their testimonials, case studies, etc. as long as you use them to provide the service that you’ll be selling to your prospects. Many are happy to agree to such a thing, and this allows you to literally be selling something within a day without having to do much of any ongoing work yourself. All you do is make a better pitch and sell it yourself!

So, in your marketing, look at how you can emphasize the benefits that customers receive from your service, as opposed to focusing on the features. You can still list the features, as they are important, especially with certain products, but link them to what the customers will get out of that feature. Why should the customer care about that feature - what end result does it deliver to them?

To find out how other simple tweaks can drastically improve your sales, check out this survey tool that helps analyze your business for areas of improvement BizFire's Free Business Analyzer and Growth Tool.

How To Create A Better Funnel For Your Business?

Every entrepreneur is well familiar with the importance of marketing in today’s era of extreme competition. Marketing through various channels has become essential to make sure a business is able to thrive in the market. Without a proper marketing strategy, a company will not be able to gain new customers and expand their reach.

Are you looking for tips and techniques to create better sales funnel for your business? If so, you are in the right place.

What Is A Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a marketing concept that provides a schematic of the process through which a customer goes through while making a purchase. The term ‘funnel’ is used as an analogy because most of the people who know about a business are its potential customers and represent the top, most significant part of the funnel. This might also be described as your “warm market” and may include those who are on the fence about your brand, or barely even giving it a thought. These people are on top. The people who can be described as committed customers are likely much fewer than those who are simply familiar with your brand. They represent the bottom part of the funnel.

The following are the five essential steps in constructing an excellent sales funnel for your business:

1. An Attractive Landing Page

The landing page of your company’s website is the first and best chance of impressing your potential customers. It should reflect the best qualities of your business and convince the customers to utilize your products and services. An excellent landing page is the one that will encourage the readers to sign-up for updates or notifications from your website. In this way, you can establish a regular and continuous interaction with your potential customers, allowing you to work them into different parts your funnel.

2. Give Front-End Offers

An enticing front-end offer should be made clear and visible on the front page of your website. The offers should be adapted to the market’s requirements, consumers mindset, and modern marketing trends. This strategy is often called the "pre-selling" as at this stage of the funnel; you are convincing your potential customers to buy your products or services.

3. Add Back-End Offers (Upselling)

An option of expanding the shopping cart should be provided to the customers at the back end. It means that the customers who have just bought or are about to buy a product or service from your business should be given the option of upgrading their order. For instance, you can create a unique offer that will provide even more benefits to the customers at an affordable cost. The strategy of upselling is often used in the funnels to enhance sales.

4. Downselling

The option of downselling is the opposite of the upselling strategy. The technique is essential in the selling funnel as it facilitates the customers' experience with your business. Many companies make the mistake of thinking downselling to be a failure of the business or as a negative step.

However, it is important to make sure people with strict budget constraints can utilize your services efficiently. The budget of your customers can keep changing due to many reasons, so your business should be considerate towards your customers by providing cheaper and reasonable offers, including the option of downselling.

5. Steady Marketing

The last important strategy of designing an efficient sales funnel is to keep your marketing steady. It is essential to follow up with your latest customers, take feedback from them, and make sure they are happy with your products and services.

To establish a good relationship with your customers, you can offer a rewards program for your customers. Different packages and offers can be introduced under this program which will keep the customers coming to meet a specific threshold of the program and get rewards from your business. Moreover, you will be able to keep the customers informed about new deals of the business and increase sales.

The five steps listed above are some of the many strategies that can be adopted by the firms to develop a better sales funnel. Other than these steps, every business should evaluate the type of their business and the targeted audience to select appropriate strategies to create a funnel for the business.

If you need help in marketing your business and creating a better sales funnel for your business, you can check out the BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer program to get help in this whole process. It makes your funnel strategies so much easier.

Five Marketing Tips To Drastically Improve Your Sales

With the passage of time, consumers have become highly conscious of the marketing strategies being used by businesses all over. Most consumers are able to differentiate between an authentic business and one that is exaggerated and hyped through artificial marketing. As a result, people tend to spend their hard-earned earnings on very particular products and brands.

In such a highly competitive business environment, businesses face the difficulty of increasing their sales, or even worse, just to maintain a steady sales income. As a result, the capital of such companies starts dwindling within a few years, and it can lead to the catastrophic failure of their business model.

If you want to keep your head above those choppy waters, you need to keep in mind the following five marketing tips.
These tips should be adopted by all businesses to drastically improve their sales:

1. Identify The Market And The Problems.

Not enough can be said of the great importance in choosing an appropriate market for the kind of business you run. After you've established your business, it's important to find out the problems your desired customers are facing in that particular market. Then you need to analyze those market problems in detail. Then you need to figure out exactly how your business solves that problem and sell that solution. Your business should emphasize developing modern, durable, and unique solutions to customers’ issues.

It should go without saying that the products and the services offered by your business must possess the highest of quality. However, offering premium quality is not enough. It absolutely must stand out from the crowd to really make the customer fall in love with your business.

2. Develop A Unique Selling Proposition

Your business must have some unique selling proposition (USP) to make it stand out from your competition. If you keep offering the same services and products as your competitors in the market, your business will have fewer chances of surviving in the fierce business conditions. You should research your competitive businesses and offer more advantages to your customers to keep them hooked to your company’s services.

Moreover, with the launch of different businesses on a daily basis, it has become difficult to establish a loyal customer base. A steady and continuous form of communication with your customers is important to keep your business and new products fresh in their minds. You should take feedback from your customers and adapt your workings and services according to their requirements.

3. Effective Social Media Marketing

As often stated in all marketing strategies, social media has become a an integral part of marketing for any kind of business. It is now considered to be the best tool of advertisement for companies because you can target specific markets, areas, and people via an active social media marketing campaign. Moreover, you can get better advertising for a fraction of the cost compared to other marketing techniques and advertising platforms.

Through social media platforms, you can form good relations with your potential and existing customers and keep them updated about your business and any new products. Social media can also be used to answer any queries of your customers quickly and get good reviews from your customers. Authentic and live comments from other customers will encourage the audience of your social media pages to avail your products or services, leading to drastic improvement in sales.

Other advantages of social media include:

• It provides various channels for your business to sell your products. Many social media pages now provide you with the option of selling directly from your Facebook page to facilitate your social media consumers and increase sales.
• It is extremely cost-efficient to run a social media page and keep customers engaged and updated.
• Customer retention is improved via social media by keeping customers engaged and informed

4. Select An Appropriate Price

Selecting the right price for a product or a service can more difficult than expected for many. However, it is necessary to remember that the price you set should be affordable by your targeted customers. Market and audience research (https://marketingland.com/research-audience-90118) and targeting play a huge role in this case.

You can research your competitors (https://www.intechnic.com/blog/top-ten-tools-to-research-your-competition-on-the-web/) and analyze the reasons behind the prices set by them. Try to set the price with minimum profits during the first few months of the business until it has found its footing in the Market. After you have established a loyal customer base, you can revise the charges appropriately according to market conditions.

5. Customer Retention

Targeting new customers should not be the only focus of the companies as retaining an old customer is also important to establish a loyal customer base and increase the sales quickly. There are many ways to target customer retention, for instance by connecting with your customers on social media or through blogging and email up to dates to keep them informed on updates and special offers. Many companies also retain customers by creating rewards programs that provide your most loyal customers with exclusive deals, and rewards them with special offers and discounts for shopping at your store.

If you want to read more about marketing tips, check out the 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years! for a detailed explanation of the marketing strategies.

How To Find Domain Owners From Around The Globe

How many of us wish we could find out the domain owner of a website, but we end up finding the host instead of the original owner? Sometimes we find nothing at all. A popular domain can be a precious treasure, but before you begin your hunt, you'll need a clear purpose in mind. Work out the what and the why that surround your need for this domain, and then ask these two important questions:

1. Why do I need to find the domain owner?
2. What will I gain afterwards?

Before diving into the details of finding the domain owner of a website, lets found out the importance of the owners themselves.

Why Find Out Who Owns A Domain Name?

There are numerous advantages to finding the domain owner. Some of them may include the following things to consider:

1. Hundreds of domains are sold on a daily basis. If you're interested in buying an existing domain, finding the contact details of that domain owner is the first obvious step. Doing so will help you to get in touch to discuss the details and probability of a sale. You will be able to inquire about the domain sale in details directly from the source, the owner.

2. If you need a specific domain name for your site, but it is already used by someone else, you can contact the domain owner directly and make an offer for your domain purchase.

3. Domain age can also be calculated online. So before buying a domain, you can check the renewal period, and make a smart bid to the owner as you negotiate for a successful purchase.

4. Checking the owner of other domains can aid you with your own websites as well. When you look up the details of a domain like its age, links, and owner information, you can get a ton of information about these websites and compare them with your own. This presents the opportunity for great competitive analysis.

5. You want to sell your services or product to the domain owner.

If you need to, you can also ensure that your personal details are showing correctly on domain owner checkers online.

Finding The Domain Owners

Now coming to the primary purpose, there are numerous resources which can be helpful in finding domain name owners. Some of them are:

Whois.net

Whois.net is an excellent tool for finding domain owners. All you have to do is type the domain name in the search bar, and the owner details will be displayed to you. It is an excellent tool because even if you do not know the domain name, you can search the keywords. Once the domain is searched successfully, an extensive list of information is shown about the domain itself. This information includes the registrar of the domain, their email and contact details, domain status, date of creation, last date when the domain was updated, and the period of domain registration expiration.

All of this information is important. It will give you an idea of whether you should buy the domain on the basis of the creation and expiration date. For example, you might want to buy a domain that was created 20 years ago. If it's going to expire the next year, there are minimal chances at best that the owner will sell it to you. Not only that, but you will need a considerable amount of money to buy such an old domain.

Whois.net provides sufficient information about the domain and its owner, but some other resources can give out more comprehensive information about domains you're interested in.

DomainTools

DomainTools is another great resource. The website has many of its own unique and special features along with those provided by WhoIs. Every detail about the domain given by Whois.net is shown by the DomainTools as well. You can also see other information about the site structure itself like response code, the type of the server it uses, the number of pictures on the website, links and their types, and even its SEO score are all displayed.

This information is essential when you're setting up a similar site to your competitor's. You can check the details of your competitive websites online easily and plan your marketing strategies according to the information readily available to you. You can also analyze your own website quickly and easily and make any required changes for improvement.

What To Do After Finding The Domain Owner?

The answer to this question is subjective to your own requirements. What was your purpose of seeking out the domain owner in the first place?

If you want to buy the domain, you can contact the domain owner via formal email and ask him or her to sell their domain by making an appropriate bid. Another option you can use it hire a domain name broker to manage the negotiations and transfer process. Sedo and HostGator Domain Tool, are two of the many popular domain brokers.

If you want to sell your product or service to that domain owner (a lead) you can contact the owner directly with a detailed offer.

If you need more detailed information fast on domains and websites you might also want to consider Domain Lead Pro. This is one of many programs that can automate, simplify, and significantly hasten the process.

Using Trust To Build Your Business: What You Need To Know To Use Referrals To Your Advantage

Have you ever tried a product or service based on the word of a friend, colleague or family member? Many of us have, because we trust that person and are more likely to take their recommendation over someone we don’t know. This is the power of referrals. Ask your current customers if they have friends, family, or people they know that they think would love your service, then contact those people on behalf of them, offering your services/products. This is a great way to get access to potential new customers, while also having a warm introduction – you’re not cold-calling (or emailing!) them, as you’re essentially being introduced by their trusted friend/family member (your current client).

For example, say you have an ecommerce business where you sell natural beauty products. You could email out to your customers, asking them if they know anyone that would love your products as much as they do.  If so, ask them to pass on the email address of those people and explain you’ll not only offer their friend a free sample of your most popular product, but that they too will receive a bonus 15% off their next purchase online as a thank-you. When you email the new lead with your free sample offer, mention that their friend thought they’d like your products, which is why you’re emailing and would love to offer them this free sample as a gift.

So put the power of referrals to work for you and piggy-back on the trust that your customers have already built with their friends and family. Ask your customers if they know people they think would love your product/service, and if they’d be willing to pass their contact info on to you. Contact those people on their behalf and make them a special offer!

Are you after other great ways to reach new leads? Check out a demo of this software, which can help you find new leads already interested in your niche, and grab a special deal!  Web Fire

What Should Be In A Good Blog Post And Why

It would not be wrong to say that people’s interest in blogging has hit the highest point in recent years. Some people believe that blogs are dying, but more accurate they're evolving. Make no mistake, blogs are here to stay, but they're more competitive than ever. With social media, freelancing, and SEO becoming widely used around the world, the trend of blogging has dramatically increased in recent times. Millions of blogs are being written on a daily basis, but there are some basic tips and techniques which should be implemented in every excellent and engaging blog post you write.

Captivating Title and Headline

Many writers tend to ignore the fact that a good blog post is always about just one idea. There is no need to add numerous ideas and topics in a single blog post because the primary purpose of a post is to discuss and elaborate on one idea. A good title is the one that captures the readers’ attention at the very first glance and briefly describes the content of the post. It should be based on the pattern of an engaging magazine headline or a newsflash that attracts the user and forces them to click the link.

You should take time in crafting a fantastic headline for your post because it will be the first item that any readers see, and if it is not catchy enough for the user, you may lose a potential reader.

An Engaging Opening Paragraph

The importance of the first impression of a user cannot be understated. A large amount of data is available on the web that will support this. With all the content out there, it has become much more challenging to hold readers' attention. No one's going to read for an extended period of time, unless the content is unique and engaging.

An opening paragraph of a blog post is crucial to keep your reader interested in your writing. Blog posts should always start with something interesting like an amazing quote, a thought-provoking question, or a bold statement.

Targeted Audience

A good blog post is the one which targets a specific audience, depending on the topic and relevance of the post. In order to write a good post, you should know who your audience is and what they are searching for. Targeting an audience is vital to make sure your content reaches the right kind of readers who are interested in the category on which the post is written. A post that's targeted is more effective in attracting more traffic to your blog as well as keeping the readers glued.

Many blogs become successful by smartly guessing the demands and interest of their audience; however, it should be done in a professional way. Consider using different tools available on the internet to determine the requests your readers might make. Some of these tools might include Twitter Advanced Search, Keyword Tools. SEMrush, and many others.

Unique and Interesting Content

Excellent blog posts not only manage to capture the reader's attention through engaging headlines and opening sentences but also maintain interest throughout the post. The content of any blog post should be exciting and unique. Make sure the reader isn't bored and reads the the entirety of your content. Any point or opinion discussed in the post should be supported by some evidence or logic to present your thoughts clearly to the readers. High authority, trustworthy links are great when possible. Clear, comprehensive, and unambiguous writing always attracts the readers and keeps them involved.

Using Subheadings And Smaller Paragraphs

A well-presentable blog post is essential to make it easily readable for the users. Majority of the people skim through a blog post before deciding to read it, so it is important to format the blog posts properly. It can be done by dividing a post into several headings and subheadings with small paragraphs to clearly indicate the topic of each section.

Using bullet points and numbering can be done to make it easy on the reader’s eyes and keep them engaged throughout the article. Design, style, and format of the blog should be selected appropriately according to the type of blog.

Some the tips in using bullet points are:

• Treat the bullets as small headings to write concise and clear points.
• The bullets should be symmetrically formatted.
• Avoid excessive bullet points

Images

Visual content is the tried and tested method of immediately capturing the user’s attention. Captivating pictures can boost the traffic of your blog quickly and easily. You should take or design your own unique images for the blog. If you can't find or design original images yourself, there are numerous online free resources available to get the photos for your content. Consider programs like Canva, websites like Pexels, Morguefile, and Pixabay for open-sourced, copyright free photos.

SEO Optimization

SEO is an essential part of any kind of online content, including blogs. Organic searches are a huge part of the traffic blogs will see. Your content must follow the SEO best practices and the media used in your website is SEO optimized for higher ranking on the search engine result pages.

Some of the tips of optimizing a blog post are:

• Write an appropriate meta title
• The meta description should be added to clearly describe the post
• Focus keywords should be used
• Images and video should be optimized.
• Using internal links for optimization.

If you need any help in setting up a blog and writing good and captivating blog posts, you should considered Robot Author for further help with streamlining the process of creating great online content for your blog.

How to Convert More Sales By Using The Power of A Guarantee

Offering a guarantee is a great way to make it easier for customers to buy. It takes the risk out of the purchase for them, as it gives them an out if they don’t like the product. Psychologically, it also gives them confidence in your product - as why would you be offering a guarantee if you weren’t confident in your product? Now, to be clear, make sure you do offer a great product before you whack an awesome guarantee on it!

For example, if you have a mattress company, you could offer a guarantee and word it like this: “Try our mattresses risk free for 30 days - In the unlikely event that you’re not 100% satisfied with your mattress we will give you 100% of your money back.” A guarantee like this takes the risk out of buying for your customers and gives them confidence in your product. Most people won’t take advantage of the guarantee and the amount of returns you’ll have versus the increase in sales will be well worth it.

And having said that, it’s often best to be fairly laid back on your guarantees. If you have crazy fine print or rules to claim the refund, you’ll just encourage chargebacks, piss off your customers (potential future buyers), etc.. It pays to be nice and laid back to an extent.

So consider offering a guarantee that takes the risk out of the purchase for the customer (make sure you have a good quality product that you’re willing to back). Make your guarantee bold and visible, and the amount of extra sales should far outweigh those that make use of the guarantee.

For other tips on increasing your sales, check out his book: 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!

How Listening to Your Clients Wants and Needs Can Help You Land More Sales

Business owners often do more talking than listening. When it comes to making sales, often it’s best to do more listening than talking. Instead of overthinking and brainstorming what your prospects might want, why not just ask them? You’d probably be surprised at how easy it can be to sell them what they’re already telling you they most want/need.

For example, if you’re selling a variety of online marketing or web services, instead of trying to force them to buy a particular SEO package to help rank their site, why not ask them what they think their biggest issues are right now with their business? You might find that they really don’t care much about their ranking but might instead be focused on their social media, e-mail list management, or some other service that you could easily do for them.

Once someone tells you what their issues are, ask them what they think that would do for their business if those issues were solved, and then ask them how much more they think they could make with all of those things being fixed and running smoothly. This lets THEM tell YOU the value those services mean to them rather than you trying to convince them of the value that you can bring to the table. The more you talk about yourself or your services instead of just listening to what their needs are, the less likely you are to typically land those sales.

And, as an added bonus, this method works well both for prospects who’ve never bought from you, as well as for existing customers that you could sell other things to.  For instance, you might find that all of your clients of one service are practically begging to buy a different service if only you offered it! And this might be incredibly easy for you to either offer or outsource.

One of our clients once was able to nearly double his net income just by finally asking what his current clients also wanted … and then simply offering them that after years of not selling them anything else! It’s amazing how much money is often left on the table by most businesses out there (even we’re guilty of that from time to time). You also might be surprised at what your customers say that they want, as it might be completely different than what you think they’d want.

So ask your prospects and clients what their needs are and what would help them the most and then provide them with a product/service that fulfills that need. Do more listening than talking to land the most sales.

For more help mapping out your upsells and sales funnels, so you can look at how you can increase your business, check out this software that helps you build out your sales funnel. BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer.

How to Use What Your Competitor is Doing Well to Improve Your Business

It’s time to check out the competition!! In school it may have been called cheating, but in the business world it’s just good old-fashioned market research!
Find out where your competitors are advertising, spy on their sales funnels, and see how you can replicate any of their good ideas that appear to be working well. There are many online tools to find out what ads and keywords your competitors are using. There’s also a couple of basic ways to see what your competitors are up to - follow them on social media and subscribe to their blogs and newsletters. If they have smaller priced items, you may choose to purchase one of their items to see what their purchase process is like, whether they offer upsells, what those are and what their follow up process is to a sale. See what they are doing really well and look for how you can replicate it or adapt it to your business.

For example, if you sign up to a competitor’s newsletter, you can see how they nurture a lead and turn it onto a sale. Is there anything you see in this process that is working well that you can adopt for your business?
Or you may purchase a small item from them and find they are offering a great upsell - is that something you could do?

A simple trick you can do to spy on other offers is to check ads on other sites or on social media like Facebook and just see how many views, comments, likes, etc. they’re getting. If there’s a ton of comments, for instance, it’s likely something you want to look at and see what you could replicate or do better. You don’t have to always start from scratch or re-invent the wheel.

In fact, several of our businesses we originally got the idea from after seeing other ads with lots of views and comments on them, and then checking out exactly what they sold, what their upsells were, where else they advertised, etc.. And then we’d research to try to find out if there were other similar offers and what they looked like.

Often times we would find ways of offering a better front-end product (they wouldn’t even have to be the same type – just something in the same niche or appealing to the same crowds), more or better upsells, better ad copy, different ad sources, etc..

Sure, we’ve also started new offerings not based on anything else other than a random idea we had, but those always seemed to be more risky and more likely to fail from the start. Starting off with a model that seems to at least be working in one way or another is always a good idea! That’s not to say that you have to copy everything exactly as is, but by spying on what others are successfully doing and seeing what you can learn or mimic from them, you set yourself up to succeed far more easily.

So find out where and how your competitors are advertising and what their sales funnels are. Then look at what they are doing well and see how you can replicate this for your business.

For more insights on how to nurture leads and improve your sales funnel, check out this tool here: BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer

The Trick to Keep Your Customers Continuously Purchasing From You: The Benefits of A Loyalty Program

It’s often way more effort and expense to find new customers than to sell again to your current customers. So how can you persuade your current customers to continuously purchase from you? One way is to put in place a loyalty program that keeps them coming back for more.

A loyalty program is a great way to encourage customers to keep purchasing from you, make them feel special and reward and thank them for their continued business. Most loyalty programs involve rewarding customers when they buy regularly from you or have purchased a certain amount from you, whether it’s in free products or discounted future purchases.

For example, think of your local coffee place. Many local coffee shops have a simple punch-card loyalty program, where you purchase 5 coffees and receive your 6th coffee free. The reward, of the free 6th coffee, encourages people to keep coming back to the same coffee place to indulge in their caffeine kick.

Think about how you can encourage and reward your customers for their loyalty. Implement a loyalty program that rewards customers, through free products/services or discounts for future purchases, when they regularly purchase from you.

Want more tips on retaining customers and other money making marketing strategies? Check out this book here 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!

How To Use Social Media Effectively

According to a survey conducted in the United States a stunning 90% of businesses were active in some way on social media in 2017. Facebook alone, has close to 1 billion users, equal to the total population of India, all over the globe.

The world has progressed to the point where everyone wants everything right at their fingertips. They want what they want constantly and they want what they want NOW. That is the number one rule of social media. If it's used effectively the rewards are great. You want a social media page that

• Is active
• Has a large, engaged, and growing following
• Speaks to a large, relevant audience that translates into business conversions.

Using social media in a way that accomplishes these things can be tricky, but it also can be done.

Consider some of the following guidelines:

1: Headlines Matter:

You may have heard this famous proverb “don’t judge a book by its cover” but let's be honest with ourselves. We are visual creatures who often act on the first thing we see, and authors seem to agree with marketing experts that the cover very much matters. Creating effective social media headlines takes some practice. Headlines should be catchy, attention-grabbing, and the appropriate length depending on your platform.

2: Compelling Visuals:

What we see is more important online than what we hear or read. Visuals play a vital role in all social media campaigns. The use of compelling pictures and video material brings more value and attention to your posts, especially when compared to plain text. Visual posts are becoming more important on every form of social media, but many platforms like Pinterst, Snapchat, and instagram rely on visuals entirely, and their popularity continues to soar.

3: Adapt According To Your Platform

Whether you're working with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social media site, each platform is going to come with a set of features. Most sites allow you yo post links, videos, and images along with your engaging text posts. Each platform is different, however. Instagram for instance offers various filters and focuses primarily on posts related to graphics, photos, and other visual posts. The nature of Instagram makes it ideal for sharing art. Twitter on the other hand, while it allows some of these features, is better for shorter blurbs and other text-based posts. Character limits require to you get your information out there short and quick, and as a far more active program you have to post CONSTANTLY to keep up with your following and your competition.

Whatever platform you're using, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the individual social media site and adapt accordingly.

3: Trending and Timely:

Twitter perhaps began this concept, but Facebook and other platforms are adopting the concept of trends and hashtags as well. It's important to follow what's going with these trends, as well as what people are talking about on social media in general. Your posts must be timely, and fall in sync with current trends to remain engaging and capture the attention of your audience. Give them content that's relevant.

You'll have to experiment with your content strategy as far as when to post. Some audiences and topics trend at different times of day depending on the behaviors of their audience. What are their work schedules and daily routines? Try to pinpoint the times that they're most on and post accordingly. This may require some trial and error at first, but as you tweak your posting schedule you'll want to adjust and post mostly during the times that get the most engagement (likes, clicks, comments, shares etc)

Of course most of us aren't available to post on social media 24/7, fortunately you may not have to. Many features like Facebook's auto-scheduling program can make your life much easier as they allow you to schedule your posts in advance.

4: Cast A Net Of Posts:

Using a net can catch more fish for you than using a fishing rod. Its wider and has more reach. The same concept can in some ways be applied to social media. The algorithms of your visibility very much depend on the activity of your page. The more you post the more likely you are to be seen. One or two posts a day is good, but at some point it may not be enough. You want relevant content your audience will appreciate, so don't just spam post, but have your content planned in mass and in advanced. Five or more posts a day may be ideal to start, but you can experiment with the number of posts you plan as you measure engagement.

4: Interact With Users:

Interaction with your users is an important, but neglected step in social media management and influence. First, many pages like Facebook measure your pages response times and rates and will sometimes post them publicly. You want to be as responsive and interactive as possible in your profiles inbox system, and even on your posts.

Users are more likely to engage if they feel connected with your brand on a personal level. Answer questions, respond to criticism, and above all, be friendly and polite. Let your users know there's real people behind your page.

5: Keep The Content Coming

One of the biggest struggles for many businesses and users in social media is consistency. Creating content is more tedious than you would think, but it has to be done all the time. New content every day, fresh and original, is one of the biggest keys to success in social media.

Not everyone has time for content posting and creation, especially in a way that keeps up with the demands. With content constantly rolling out, you need to keep your pages busy. Luckily many automated programs like News Poster make the job a lot easier for those who are willing to invest.

How Adding Physical Products As A Bonus, Especially For Your Digital Offers or Services, Can Increase Conversions

Selling digital products like e-books or videos (or even services) can be great, as they often carry much higher margins than physical products. However, people often place a much higher value on physical products that they can touch and hold.

This doesn’t mean that you have to offer all your products as physical ones - far from it! Instead, you should consider offering a simple physical product like a branded coffee mug, hat, t-shirt, or some other product that makes sense with your offer, as a bonus for those who take action fast.

This does two things. First, it makes people take action faster because they know there’s probably a limited quantity of the physical product (vs. a digital one that they realistically know you can have as many as you want). And second, they place a high value on physical products that they can touch.

In fact, as crazy as it sounds, you can increase conversions on a $2,000 web service simply by offering a branded coffee mug or t-shirt as a bonus. Likewise, you can even increase conversions MUCH more on lower priced offerings where you give something away that they perceive to be worth as much or more than what they’re buying. For example, you could sell a newsletter for $19/month and give a free t-shirt away with any new subscriber, and that could in some cases more than double your conversions because they think the value of the shirt is worth more than the $19 they paid (and they’ll often stay for a much longer time, making you a lot more money). We actually included a physical product once as a bonus to a membership offering, which had a perceived value to be more than the first month’s price, and it actually increased our conversions many, many times over to an almost unbelievable amount.

Another example would be if you sold a phone case for $29 and included a free charging cable with that. Since many of those sell for $29 or so themselves, the perceived value of the offer is huge, even though it might only add a dollar or two to your costs (and still give you huge margins).

You can do the same idea for services that you offer. For instance, you could offer a free cell phone clip-on lens with any purchase of a custom web video (justifying it in a way where they could shoot professional looking videos themselves from their phone).

For an offline physical product or service example, you could offer a free towel and sweatband just for trying out a one month gym membership as a trial.

You’d be shocked at how your conversions can jump even for higher priced offerings, and probably more shocked at how much they can help your lower priced offerings.

It’s funny how even a $10 physical freebie can boost sales for a $1,000 product. Likewise, it’s truly amazing to see conversions skyrocket on a lower priced recurring offer by offering something of value that’s perceived to be more than the initial payment (doesn’t mean it has to cost you more, just that the perceived value if they bought it elsewhere would be more).

This marketing trick right here has been responsible for some of our biggest money makers out there, as well as for others that we know. One might say that you could potentially build an entire business off of this tip right here.

So consider adding physical products as bonuses to your offers, as they can tremendously increase conversions for both low and high-priced products and services.

For other great marketing ideas to help you increase your conversions and grow your business, check out his book: 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.

Why You Need Content For Your Site And Social Media?

There is no doubt about the fact that unique and attractive content is an essential part of your website and social media profiles. Excellent content, along with a well-thought out social media marketing strategy, will help your website stand out in the crowd and attract more users to your brand.

Initially, it may seem a straightforward and smooth process to write content for your website as you have to add a few pages and blog posts to your website. In actuality, the writing process is time-consuming and even exhausting to some people. Your content must be adequately planned and written for your site and social media page. You need to content to draw the right viewers in.

The quality of content primarily determines the success of a website. Other factors like design, theme, multimedia, and any others that influence the website play a secondary role. The content on your site should be done with aftermarket research and follow a reliable keyword research plan.

Content Is Used In All Things

It should go without saying that content is the most critical part of the web because it is used everywhere and for everything. Compelling content is important to increase ranking and traffic of your site. Some of the advantages of different types of content are:

• Good content increases click-throughs
• Unique and engaging web content increases the ranking of the site and improves conversions
• Attractive content like stylish images with authentic written information is necessary for good social media marketing
• Content of blog posts that is captivating maintains readers interest.
• Verified and accurate content establishes trust and bonds with customers, brands, and other companies.

Content Builds Trust

Content is one of the many ways to exhibit your business’ integrity and credibility. As a result, the audience will begin to trust your products or services, and sales will increase. By producing great content thhat reassures the customers that you're the real deal, you can set your brand apart and attract more consumers.
Building trust through good content is an excellent content marketing strategy which can be implemented in the following ways:

• Ask a renowned person related to your industry to write for your website.
• Try to get a guest post on a respected newspaper, magazine, or blog.
• Ask customers to give feedback on your website and social media accounts.
• Hire an influencer to promote your product with your content. Nowadays, many social media influencers, especially on Instagram, are doing this kind of promotional activities.

Content Creates Loyal Customers

Regular updates are necessary on your website, so providing free information to the audience of your website and social media accounts builds loyalty among the customers. If you provide valued content to your audience, they will be happy with your brand as their time spent in your business will not be wasted. As a result, whenever you publish content, your followers will keep checking in with your site and social media.

Content is important for SEO

Google’s algorithms of SEO have evolved a lot in the past few years. They have become more determined in removing any bad quality content from the top SERPs and keeping the best quality content on the top. Search engines, like Google, are continuously updating their algorithms and crawling the web to improve the quality of the search results for the user.

Google rewards fresh and up-to-date content. Hence, it is important to keep uploading new content on your website and updating the existing content as well to maintain a firm grip on the SERPs. Moreover, search engines penalize the pages which are full of keywords and using a single term too many times. It is important to produce SEO-optimized content for better ranking of your website.

Content on Social Media Improves Customer Service

Social media has bridged the gap between businesses and consumers. You can give instant replies to any of queries or feedback of the customers on social media. With time and proper social media marketing strategy, the business social media pages expand their reach and can connect with more potential customers. However, it is only possible if the content on your social media profiles is exceptional and attractive for your targeted audience.

If you are interested in producing great content for your website and social media accounts, it doesn't have to be hard. The process can easily be outsourced and automated. Programs like Robot Author are available to help.

How Offering A Premium Support Service Can Increase Your Profits And Margins

You’ve probably bought electronics before and been offered the purchase an additional warranty. Or maybe you’ve purchased furniture before and been offered a white glove service to deliver and setup your new couch.

These are all examples of premium support services that can have very large profit margins, so even if only a smaller percentage of customers take you up on them, they can add a lot to your bottom line.

Some of these premium support services can be at little to no cost to you. For instance, one business we’ve seen had a warranty offer where you could get free replacement charger cables forever on your phone, if they ever fail, for a small one time extra fee as long as you just cover the small shipping and handling fee. However, these cables have such huge margins anyway that the small S&H fee literally covered the cost of the cables and the shipping. The “warranty” that was sold was essentially 100% pure profit, despite how it would appear to be an awesome deal for the buyers (paying $5 for S&H instead of $29 for a new cable sounds like, and is, a pretty good deal).

You can even sell access to one on one help, a Facebook group page for extra (and faster) help, etc. Some of these offers you can literally put together in a few minutes, yet some people will naturally buy them just because they think they might have a use for it one day.

Another example would be offering faster support, faster shipping, faster service, etc. All of these can have huge margins for little to no extra work!

So brainstorm at least a couple of extra premium support services that you can offer your buyers (like extra warranties, faster support, faster service, etc.) that come with huge margins despite not really increasing your costs much, if at all.

To find out more tweaks that could drastically change and increase your business, check out our business analyzing tool here BizFire's Free Business Analyzer and Growth Tool.

Why Title Tags are Important for Ranking Your Website

Anyone who owns a website and publishes original content on it wants to see the site ranked higher on Google and other search engines. While many may believe that writing a top-quality piece of content, publishing it, and promoting it is enough to make the website successful, it is certainly not. In this era of fierce competition when thousands of websites are competing for the same kind of audience.

In such a competitive environment, SEO practices play an essential role in website ranking. According to Moz – a renowned SEO software – title tags are the second most crucial factor for ranking your website after the content. Title tags can be the make or break factor in the success of your website. Optimized title tags are essential in boosting the ranking of your website as well as increases its traffic. Many programs like Web Fire can also help websites in writing unique titles and content to enure the website is ranked higher. Sometimes, the ranking might be higher, but the clicks can still be low due to bad or unattractive title tags.
This article discusses all of the important information about title tags and why they are vital in the ranking of a website.

What is a Title Tag?

Title tags are not much different from the titles in books and magazines, except that the title helps in the ranking of articles on the search engine results page (SERP). An attractive title that follows SEO standard will always rank higher. Title tags are displayed on SERPs as the clickable text for the keyword searched by a user. They provide an accurate and brief description of the content.

Usually, Google displays 40-60 characters of a title tag. Therefore, it often recommended keeping the title tags under 50 characters so that it is fully displayed by the search engines, and readers are more likely to click.

Importance of Title Tags in Ranking of a Website

Title tags are one of the most critical factors in helping search engines getting familiar with the content of your website. Moreover, the title is the very first impression that people will have on your website.

Title tags are relevant in ranking your website due to the following reasons:

High Ranking on SERPs

The title tag of your article will determine its rank on the search engine result page. The more attractive and better it is, the higher it will be ranked, which means a large number of people are likely to click on it.

A Unique Title Tag

A unique title tag will help search engines like Google to understand the uniqueness and credibility of the content. As a result, your content will stand out from the thousands of web pages present on the web, and the website will be ranked higher.

Promotion on Social Network

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram use the title tag of an article to determine what to show when that page is shared. Hence, a captivating title tag is vital for the promotion of your website.

How to write good Title Tags?

Now we are familiar with the importance of good title tags. We also will want to learn about standard SEO practices to write engaging title tags.

Keep an Optimum Length of Title Tag

A long title is cut off, and ellipsis is automatically added by the search engine. You should keep the title under 60 characters long. Moreover, avoid capitalizing the title as some users may find it difficult to read, and it will dramatically limit the number of characters to be displayed.

Do not add excessive SEO keywords

The primary keyword should not be used excessively as it is a bad SEO practice. For example, a title like “Buy clothes, best clothes available, discounted clothes” is not a good title as it overemphasizes the keyword "clothes." These types of the title are often flagged by the search engines for inappropriate uses, so you should avoid them.

Write a unique title for each page of the website

Unique titles are essential in distinguishing the content of pages and attracting new users. Sometimes, it is not possible to write a completely unique title since millions of pages are already on the web on various topics. However, modern tools and code-based templates are present, which can help you in writing an engaging title tag.

Write important keywords at the start

Keywords that are at the start of a title tag have more impact on the search ranking. Moreover, people are also more likely to read the first few words of a search result, so it is highly recommended that you write the keywords at the start of a title tag to attract more traffic and rank your website higher.

If you have a website and want to make sure you have the best title tags and SEO optimiztion you should consider programs like Web Fire. You'll be able to root check out any issues with your website and substantially improve its SEO rankings.

How to Go From Having Customers Balking at Your Price to Being Ready to Buy – the Power of the Word “Only”

How items are described and the words we use to frame situations can have a big impact on how we then think about a scenario. Just as saying, “I cut my finger, but there’s only a little blood” versus, “I cut my finger and there’s blood everywhere,” paint two very different pictures, the words you use to describe your pricing can make a big difference to your sales. Something as small as just putting the word “only” before your pricing can increase your sales.

For example, if your price point is $97, instead write "Only $97." Psychologically, by putting “only” in front of the price, you are making little of the price, implying that it isn’t that big, and is a good deal.

While it may seem small, little tweaks can have a big impact on conversions. How we “frame-up” and train our customers to think about our pricing can influence their buying decision. By using the word “only” before your price (eg, “Only $97” vs. “$97”) it psychologically implies the value you are getting is greater than the small amount you are paying.

For more tips and tricks on increasing sales, marketing strategies and ways to make more money in your business, check out this book 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.

How to create a better Facebook Ad?

An attractive and engaging Facebook ad is the result of a combination of effective strategies. No advertisement can be declared to be perfect as some ads work better than others due to various reasons. The competition in the Facebook ad market is becoming intense. More and more people are realizing the power of this social media giant and hope to utilize the platform to advertise their products and services.

Laser-focused targeting and creativity in Facebook ad creation are some of the essential techniques in creating a great Facebook ad. However, here are some of the other important strategies from which can be adopted to create a better Facebook ad:

Target a specific Audience

The first step in the creation of an ad is to keep in mind the audience for which you are writing the ad. The audience varies from business to business and the primary purpose of your ad.

A tempting thing to do is create a general ad and target millions of people through a single ad. However, this method is like shooting a gun in the air, and probably won't be pretty for your ROI. A better way to attract people is to create a specific Facebook ad in your niche and focus on a smaller number of people that fit your target customer criteria. An ad that's targeted is more likely to engage people because it will be tailored specifically to that audience.

While creating an ad, you must make sure to answer two fundamental questions: "who will be seeing this ad?" and "What is the message of this ad?"

There is no definite number of people that should be targeted through a Facebook ad. The number itself is highly dependent on your type of ad, kind of organization, the type of the audience, and the scale of your customer base. After selecting the target audience, write an ad that speaks directly to the audience. Make sure that the message of the ad resonates with the readers.

Create Multiple Ads and Test Them

Even after spending hours in creating a Facebook ad, it can fall flat. Hence, you should always create different versions of every ad and test them with your target audience to get an idea of which one works the best.

It is essential to follow the formal structure of the Facebook ad, which has three levels – campaign, ad sets, and ads. The process is started by selecting the aim of your ad and naming the campaign. In the ad set level, the target audience is selected, along with the budget and a few other options. Finally, the ad is designed in ads level.

Facebook allows ads published to upload up to six pictures for each ad. Once the ad is posted, these images are automatically rotated by Facebook. It means that Facebook will show all variations of your ad, and the ad, which is resonating the most with the readers, will ultimately be shown more. Thus, creating different versions of an ad and testing them is important to expand your customer base.

Advertise Discounts and Offers

Many people don't even try some new products because they have a fear of wasting their money, which is proved by the psychological concept call loss aversion – people are more fearful of losing things than gaining. To overcome this barrier, you should offer free products, offers like "Buy One Get One Free," discounted products, and free delivery. If you can afford it, you should conduct weekly or monthly free giveaways as well because, in recent times, they have become a vital strategy in cultivating a loyal customer base. These tactics will ensure that the customers are attracted to your ad and more likely to contact you if the offer is enticing for them.

Make sure your ad stands out

There are hundreds of thousands of ads running on Facebook on a daily basis. It has become very difficult to capture the attention of the users. Therefore, it is important to design your ad uniquely and outstandingly to make sure the user clicks on it and not just scroll it down like any other ordinary ad.

The overall design, style, and images used in the ad are very important in captivating the users’ attention. If you use a bright and right image according to the content of your ad, it is more likely to be clicked on by the user.

Use Call-to-Actions (CTA) feature

Along with being an attractive ad, your advertisement should make it easy for people to contact you and your company. Facebook offers a clickable CTA button through which the audience of your ad can call you or message you directly. This feature should be added appropriately in a good ad to facilitate the users in getting in touch with you.

All of these strategies will be useful to you in designing a perfect Facebook ad. Many advertising agencies and professional programs also offer their services in ad designing to make sure your ad stands out on Facebook and attract the target audience. Once you get your ads up and running, choose a Facebook Ad management system like Automated Ads to manage and optimize your ads.

Why Does Everyone Lose Money on Facebook Advertising

If you haven't tried Facebook ads already and you know a lot of people who have, you probably don't want to. They're uncharted waters, and many before you have failed. At least once or twice, sometimes even from business professionals, you've probably heard plain and simple that Facebook ads don't work. Everyone who tries just loses their money with minimal results. First, let's dispel that myth. Not everyone fails on Facebook marketing. It is a highly effective platform, but only if you succeed in utilizing it's tools properly.

1. They Don't Test Their Audiences

Audience testing is going to be the very first step you use to build on your Facebook ad campaign success. The target audience you choose through Facebook will vary based on your industry and business type, and who you're trying to reach with your product. Facebook provides many factors to consider when selecting an audience for your first ad:

-Demographics-Based on demographic factors like age, gender, job title, level of education, and more.
-Interests-Audiences hobbies, interests, and likes
-Behaviors-Behavior patterns typically followed like purchases, website visits, and using a certain device

When you first begin figuring out your audience type it will be anything but easy. It may involve some guesswork and gouging your competitors. Audience testing is the crucial element for long-term success in targeting.

How to Test Your Audience

To test your audience, you'll need to create several separate ad sets. In each one choose your targeting factors. For the best gauge of success, create at least 8 to 10 different sets, and monitor each one's performance using your ads manager.

Over time as you monitor the performance of each ad, look and see which ones are performing best, based on your goals. Are your target audiences visiting your page, engaging in your posts, or finally making purchases?

Keep the audiences that perform best.

2. They Don't Utilize Lookalikes and Customs

As some of your ads begin to perform, entering the ads manager will reveal that you can actually create custom and lookalike audiences. To do this, simply visit the audiences tab in your Facebook ads manager. From there, you can select from custom or lookalike audiences.

Custom audiences are more or less "warm audiences" who have already performed some action on your page in a set period of time. You can choose to market your ad to people based on many factors, including those who have engaged in your posts, visited your website, or watched a certain length of your videos. This is a great way to put your ad in front of people who are already familiar with your brand.

A lookalike audience varies from a custom audience in that it is essentially a "smart" audience more or less cloned from a custom audience. Your custom audience requires 100 members or more, before you can create a lookalike audience. Creating a lookalike essentially spawns an audience of people who share similar interests, behaviors, and demographics with your custom audience.

In this sense, once you've established a heartbeat for your ads campaigns and desired audience, it becomes that much easier to find people just like them. That means people just as likely to become loyal customers.

3. The Pixel Isn't Working Properly

Facebook Pixel is a tool you can use to track audiences who visit your webpage and then transmit that info to Facebook, allowing them to update your advertising algorithms. Go to your Pixels tab in Events Manager, click Create a Pixel, name your pixel, enter your website url to find easy set up optins and make your choice. Then simply copy and paste the code provided by Facebook into your website. Once you're done, Facebook ads will track, optimize, and constantly work to improve your ad performance.

Pixels will work to track actions taken on your website outside of the Facebook page, like visits and clicks, sign-ups, and purchases. If you haven't already synced up your website, it's an absolute must. If you are already using Facebook pixels, there's always a possibility the code may not be working correctly. If you've noticed your ads haven't improved over time, or are simply not performing at all, it may be time to troubleshoot your Pixel.

What if All of This Was Easy?

Facebook ads CAN work and DO work, but you have to utilize all of the tools that Facebook has to offer, and you have to manage them effectively. Doing this is no easy task, but you don't have to be a marketing expert to achieve some level of success, but it certainly helps. Fortunately, there is plenty of help for the rest of us who are less than master's in the art of the Facebook ad. Programs like Automated Ads streamline the management of mulitple ad sets and vastly improves your chance of success without losing your shirt.

There's a lot that goes into launching a successful Facebook ads campaign, but fortunately for some of us, you don't have to do it alone.

How to Use a Sense of Urgency to Increase Your Sales: Offering a Limited Time Deal

A sense of urgency can be a great motivator, both in encouraging a sale and in life. To use urgency in business, look at offering limited time deals, especially ones that don't last more than a few days tops.  And if you have an e-mail list, mail them a lot more on the final day with reminders to the deadline.  You'll often get most of your sales on the final day! Countdown timers can be another great way to emphasize this.  The idea is similar to furniture stores that seem to always have sales that end on the weekend... even though we all know they'll probably have another sale in a week or two, we're more likely to buy now if we think there's a sale on it now vs. later.  People like to procrastinate, so limited time deals can get them off their butt to take action.

For example, if you run a gym, you may run a sale on gym membership, where if they sign up over the next 3 days they receive a discount on the total price, or X amount of personal training sessions as a bonus. The time limit creates a sense of urgency, encouraging people to buy that may have sat on the fence or procrastinated otherwise.

One huge marketing tip that we’ve perfected over the years, which has made us a lot of money, is a limited time deal method that we call the 3 Day Money Maker or the 1, 2, 3 Limited Time Offer. It can especially work well if you have an e-mail list and can e-mail them about the special offer.

Here’s how it works. You setup a special offer (ideally either a big discount like 50% or a big bonus to include with it) that only lasts for three days. We typically either start this on a Thursday or Friday and have it end over the weekend on midnight (either Saturday or Sunday night). On the first day, you only e-mail your list once to announce the special deal, provide them with a link to the sales page to buy it, etc.. You then tell them that the deal ends on midnight on X Day (three days from then). You typically will get some initial sales then, but not necessarily a ton. Then on the second day, you send them one e-mail in the morning and one e-mail later in the afternoon or evening. You likely will get few if any sales then, but that’s okay. The third day is where the real magic happens. On the third day, which is the final day of the sale, you e-mail them once in the morning, once in the mid to late afternoon, and once in the late evening. Your subject lines should increase the sense of urgency with lines like “Final Chance – 50% Off Deal Ends Today” and “Only Hours Left to Save 50%” or “Final Warning – Deal Ends in a Couple Hours” (they don’t have to be exactly that, but you get the general idea of making it seem urgent).

The final day, especially the final hour or two, will get A LOT of sales typically, especially in the final minutes of the special offer. In fact, we’ve found that if you leave the offer up until the morning, you can get several sales in the wee hours of the morning that think they gamed you by getting the deal just after it technically was meant to close. Using this method properly exactly as we laid out can make some businesses more money over a few days than they might make in several weeks or more!

Think about how you can create a time sensitive deal where people only have a limited time to take you up on it. The sense of urgency encourages people to buy. If you have an email list, constantly remind people of the deadline, as often the most sales will happen in the last day near the end.

For other cool strategies and tricks to increase your business, check out this book full of marketing and sales tips 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.