September 2017 - Agapi /NEXsteps

12 Ways to Promote Your Business in 140 Characters or Less

How many characters does it take to promote your business on Twitter?

Actually, in 2017 Twitter doubled the number of characters to 280, so now you can have twice as much fun.

Over 2 billion people in the world are connected through social media, with 20% of the world’s internet users having an active Twitter account.

Twitter is a great platform to boost your business, and we are equipped with the knowledge and resources to help you reach your customers this way.

Here are 12 ways to get started in promoting your business today!

1. Implement Cards
You want every tweet to be unique and attractive, Twitter cards are a great way to do this!

2. Build Your Followers
If your followers are engaged and well targeted, increasing their number can benefit your business.

3. Identify Influencers and Engage with Them
When you engage with influencers — you’re creating the opportunity to gain more followers, more engagement, and more traffic to your website.

4. Use Lists to Manage Your Contacts
As you follow and connect with higher numbers of people, you need to organize them by categories.

5. Use Twitter Ads to Grow Your Email List
Use Twitter ads for lead generation by directing them to sign-up to your email list.

6. Use the Right Hashtags
Be careful with the hashtags you choose. It may seem that cramming as many as possible is the way to go, but studies show that posts with 1 – 2 hashtags have higher engagement than those with 3 or more.

7. Research Your Competitors’ Audiences
Find out who your competitors are interacting with.

8. Monitor Twitter for Keyword Mentions
Use tools that let users set up search columns so any mention of a particular word or phrase is immediately highlighted.

9. Setup UTM Tracking
UTM tracking adds additional info to links you share in order to track where people clicked on them and what happened after they clicked.

10. Use Your Pinned Tweet
Twitter allows you to pin one tweet at the top of your timeline. When anybody looks at their profile, they see that tweet first.

11. Use Great Headlines
Create clever headlines that stand out.

12. Use Twitter Analytics to Analyze and Optimize
Twitter Analytics let you see how many views and how much engagement your tweets get.

Want to learn more? Let us help you optimize your Twitter!

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Your Business Website is Your Foundation for All of Your Digital Marketing

September 27, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, branding, marketing strategy, online marketing, web design, website, website marketing

Any smart online digital marketer will tell you that your website is the most important aspect of any successful online business.

And any successful website covers every angle when it comes to the customer’s journey on finding exactly what they need, whether that be a product or service that the business is offering. Do it wrong, and that customer will go to another website where that business is doing it right.

So what are the things that every successful digital marketing hub has? Well for starters, this is the place where the business begins to build its’ brand and reputation. And everything that involves the brand should be here such the core message or mission statement of the company, the source of the business information including the location, the management, the employees, and the expertise of the business team that is building this brand.

Of course, your business might be different, and you may have a small team offering products or services. Or it may be just you offering a product

In this case, you would build a case on why your product is better, or where your service is better than ‘company-x.’ Building your brand all starts here on your web property.

But this is just the beginning of having a solid foundation for your ‘digital marketing hub’. A good way to look at this is from a customer or visitor standpoint. Does your website have everything that the customer needs including answering questions about the product or service that you offer?

Do you have complete product or service guides online, and are those guides being regularly updated? And do you have product guides and tutorials setup for buying customers?

Many online businesses have different products or offer different services, and those could include customer education, or supplying how-to guides.

Having lead generation is another important aspect along with being able to find that business on social networks. This is important because many businesses use these social networks like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to keep their customer base updated on new products or services that the company offers. And there is so much more.

If after reading all this, you must feel overwhelmed, don’t worry. We can guide you through the process of making sure your website is fully utilized for your business, and it’s optimized to increase conversions.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

How Video Marketing and YouTube Can Help Your Business Boom

September 25, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, business videos, client engagement, how to grow your business, marketing, marketing strategy, video marketing, youtube marketing

Marketing with video can exponentially expand your reach.

It’s no secret that social media can help business owners like you connect with customers. Most businesses have Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep loyal fans engaged and attract new customers, too.

But what about YouTube? With over 122 million daily viewers in 2022, YouTube can help you grow your business and expand your customer base.

Businesses of all sizes are turning to video marketing as a crucial strategy for customer engagement. And since 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV, it’s no surprise that YouTube reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network!

And YouTube users are watching on the go: More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices, and the average mobile viewing session lasts 40 minutes! Are you getting visibility like that? With a YouTube channel for your business, you can!

Unsure how to use YouTube to your advantage? Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. How-to Videos or Tutorials
2. Customer Testimonials
3. Product-in-Action Videos (Demo Videos)
4. Product Spotlights or Special Offers
5. Product Comparisons
6. Behind-the-Scenes Videos
7. Contests

New to video marketing? Want to make sure you’re getting the most from YouTube? We can help!

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

8 Questions You Need to Be Asking to Win More Customers

September 24, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, client engagement, marketing strategy, science of marketing, small business marketing

Wouldn’t you like to know how what your customers are thinking?

How are they going to act?

Well, you can! You just need to track how your current customers are interacting with your business.

You or someone on your team needs to be continually answering the following questions in order to get to know your potential customers.

How many customers are you getting every month? Even in the craziness of running your business, you need to make sure you have a way to keep track of all of your customers that you are serving. You also need to make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page and using the same system for tracking.
How many of them are coming from your website? You need to be asking how your customers found out about you and keeping track of customers that are coming from your site.
Are they coming from your SEO efforts? Social Media? PPC? You or someone on your team need to be monitoring how users are finding your website to learn what is working for you and what can be tweaked.
By what percent of your visitors are converting? Track how many people who are coming to your site are actually becoming customers.
How high is your bounce rate? Monitor the percentage of people visiting who are just viewing one page of your site and then navigating away.
Which pages are most visited? Take note of the pages that users are going to the most often and see if they are the pages that will lead them into making conversions.
Which pages do they spend most of their time on? You should study the pages that users are spending a lot of time looking at and see how you can make other pages interesting to your potential customers.
What’s the winning conversion path? Find out what path the customers are taking to make conversions and make sure that your site is designed around making that path as easy as possible.

Make sure someone on your team is answering these questions often so you can optimize your website design to get a greater number of conversions.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

The Why and How of LinkedIn for B2B Leads

September 18, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, building your business, communications, linkedin, social marketing, social media, social media posting, social sharing

LinkedIn was made for business.

It seems that in social media lists, LinkedIn is always thrown in at the end as another, lesser, option to the bigger sites.

However, if you are looking to make B2B connections and grow your leads there is no more effective social media platform than LinkedIn!

Unlike the other social media channels out there, LinkedIn was specifically designed for business leaders to share ideas and make connections.

Studies have shown:

1) 92% of B2B Marketers leverage LinkedIn over all other social platforms.
2) 79% of B2B Marketers view LinkedIn as an effective source for generating B2B leads.
3) 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
4) 43% of marketers say that they have sourced a customer from LinkedIn.

So hopefully those statistics have pointed out to you why using LinkedIn is an effective choice for your business. Now, let’s focus on how you can best utilize the site.

Just showing up to the party isn’t enough, you are going to have to enter the conversation. In order to do that your company needs to begin posting engaging content for your target decision makers to read and share. Here are three points for you to think about regarding LinkedIn content:

1) 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content

Businesses are sharing tons information with one another and making connections. It is time for you to join in and boost your visibility by posting useful content for your future customers.

2) 10 pieces of content are consumed before a purchasing decision is made.

People are constantly taking in information and researching before buying, especially on LinkedIn. Now through the content you post, your business has a direct way to speak into their decision-making process.

3. LinkedIn SlideShare reaches 70M unique visitors a month.

The site is now among the top 100 most-visited websites in the world. The audience is already right there for you to reach out to!

We are ready and willing to help you create and post content that is going to make valuable connections and grow your business!

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

The Voice of Your Customers is a Valuable Marketing Tool

September 17, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, branding, building your business, communicating with clients, communications, growing your business, online reputation management, reputation marketing

Reputation marketing is all about responding to the voice of your customers.

Digital marketing generally means getting the word out online about your brand and getting customers to see why they should buy from your business.

But in today’s hyperconnected world, your customers can also shape the reputation of your business online in (nearly) real time. This is very important as 77% of consumers read online reviews before making a decision.

While talking about how good your products and services are is of course useful and necessary, what your customers say about your company can also be used as a marketing tool. This is called Reputation Marketing. What makes this strategy different from other types is that it puts the “voice of the customer” as the central focus.

What your customers say about your business is not something you can control, buy, or make them do, but you can use the positive reviews they do leave to shape the narrative of your business’ reputation.

It’s amazing how many business owners are keen on running all sorts of online marketing campaigns, yet they don’t take the time to have their customers write a comprehensive review about their products.

Can you imagine how many of your “would-be customers” end up buying from your competitors, all because they couldn’t find any reviews about your product or service?

It’s essential for potential customers to know that others have used your business and had a good experience doing so, giving your business a reputation of trustworthiness.

Reputation marketing today is a must.

How do you get these positive reviews for your business and strengthen your reputation? There are many ways and we’d be glad to help.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

5-Minute Website Workshop

September 15, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, building your business, marketing strategy, online marketing, small business marketing, web design, website, website marketing

Time for a website review.

Your website is a vital piece of your business, and we want you to have the most traffic possible going through it every day.

That’s why we put together these “Must-Haves” that you need to be checking on a regular basis in order to ensure you are gaining the most customers possible.

While working through this list we suggest pulling your website up next to this window so that you can properly analyze your site.

First, we will take a look at whether or not the website is correctly designed.

Your website…

Must be user-friendly
Must set a clear path for customers to make a purchase
Must have trust signals
Name of the Business Owner
Address, Phone
Must have security
Use HTTPS or Secure Sockets Layer
Must have customer support contact information

Now let’s take a look at the answers that the customer is looking for when they get to your website. No matter what point the customer is in the buying process, they are going to have questions and concerns.

You need to have the answers to these questions readily available to them or they will quickly move on to another site that does.

Why should they buy from you?
What benefits your product/service will give to them?
What Features does it offer?
What are the technical details and specifications?
Where are the guides and tutorials?
Do you have any testimonials from real customers?

These are all things that you need to have on your website to ensure the steady flow of customers coming through your site. Even addressing one or two issues that you noticed while reviewing this list can have a major impact on the number of customers you see moving through your website.

If you need help redesigning your site, or creating a new one, contact us.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

5 Tactics to be More Engaging on Social Media and Gain More Customers

September 10, 2017September 6, 2023 Nancy Boisvert Newsletter agapi marketing, how to grow your business, marketing strategy, social media, social media marketing

Social media engagement is important!

Social media is not a place that people go so that they can view advertisements, browse through all of the business pages, or read long technical updates about a company.

Social media is a place to be social! This means that people want to be engaging in conversations and making their voice heard.

At Agapi Marketing & Consulting Ltd., we want to share some of our tactics to make sure that your followers stay engaged with your business and ultimately become your customers.

1. Initiate Conversation with your Social Media Followers

If you are at a social event and you want someone to talk to you, how do you do it? You have to talk to them first! Show them that you care about what they have to say by making the first move.

2.Ask For Feedback

Let your followers know that you value their opinion and that you want your products and services to be at their best.

3. Do Surveys and Polls

People love sharing their thoughts and opinions on the internet. The surveys can be things directly related to your business, or just fun questions to get the conversations rolling.

4. Organize Giveaways, Contests, and Promotions

This will get people excited about visiting your page! You can even gain more followers and recognition by having the contest entry include sharing the post or tagging a friend. Even for those who do not win, the excitement for the contest will now be associated with your business.

5. Live Q & A Sessions

Live sessions show your followers that you actually want to hear from them. It also gives you the opportunity to tell your audience the things that they actually want to know about your business instead of just guessing what questions they may be having.

The right digital marketing consultant will be able to incorporate all of these into your marketing plan so that you can see your followers begin to engage with your business.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

← Previous

How many characters does it take to promote your business on Twitter?

Actually, in 2017 Twitter doubled the number of characters to 280, so now you can have twice as much fun.

Any smart online digital marketer will tell you that your website is the most important aspect of any successful online business.

Marketing with video can exponentially expand your reach.

Wouldn’t you like to know how what your customers are thinking?

How are they going to act?

Traditional advertising or SEO?

Tired of spending money on print ads, billboards, flyers, and more?

LinkedIn was made for business.

It seems that in social media lists, LinkedIn is always thrown in at the end as another, lesser, option to the bigger sites.

Reputation marketing is all about responding to the voice of your customers.

Time for a website review.

Your website is a vital piece of your business, and we want you to have the most traffic possible going through it every day.

Google algorithms hold the key.

Are you looking to improve traffic flow to your website?

Social media engagement is important!