4 Tips For Seamless Mobile App Onboarding Posted on August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 by Katie Culp You’ve designed and developed the perfect app. On launch day, there are enough downloads that the debut is considered a success. But within days, you notice there are very few sign ups. In fact, engagement is limited despite the amount of initial interest. Where did you go wrong? Chances are, your app is hitting a snag in the onboarding process. Onboarding is the process of introducing a user to your app. This is usually where the user creates a username, indicates their preferences, and takes a virtual tour. If this process is effortless, you’ve got a ready-to-go user in no time. If it’s a pain in the butt, you run the risk of pushing that user into the arms of a competitor. Think we’re exaggerating? Get this. The average app “loses 77 percent of its daily active users (DAUs)” within the first three days after a user installs it. Here are a few tips to make the onboarding process as seamless as possible. Offer a Contextual Learning Experience Rather Than a Digital Instruction Manual Think about the last time you downloaded an app. You likely did so because you wanted to start using it as quickly as possible. The last thing you want to do is flip through a long, boring tutorial about how to use it. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll retain all that info. Provide the basics and include prompts that pop up while the user moves through the app for the first time. Instead of overwhelming the reader with information, provide guidance while the user plays around to let them know where they can access saved photos or start a new conversation. Design an experience that is interactive as well as instructional. Provide New Users With Direction To Get Started When you first download a dating app, there’s no profile picture, your bio is empty, and there are no recent matches. While that’s to be expected, it can be rather underwhelming for a new user. To encourage people to instantly start interacting with your app, provide directions in those blank spaces. For instance, in the empty bio section include a prompt that says, “Tell potential matches a little more about yourself. Honesty and a positive attitude yield the best results.” Prompts like this encourage new users to get started. Some apps even provide an example for users that aren’t sure what to include. The same idea applies to profile pictures. Make it easy for new users to upload a photo by allowing them to simply tap on the empty profile picture to add an image instead of forcing them to go into their settings. Motivate New Users with Encouragement and Reminders If your app has a long onboarding process out of necessity, design reminders and notifications for users to complete their profile. For example, a progress graph that tells a user their profile is 85 percent complete provides an incentive for them to return to the app, since they are only 15 percent away. Take that encouragement a step further by pushing stats about the benefits of a 100 percent complete profile. Sites like LinkedIn regularly remind members of their “profile strength” and promote the fact that a detailed profile yields more job opportunities. These reminders are also a helpful way to let users know what they’re missing out on by slacking off with the onboarding. Going back to our example of a dating app, a push notification that teases potential matches in the area can positively influence the recipient to re-open the app. Consider Removing The Need To Provide Any Information This isn’t an option for every app. If you’re a financial services company, naturally your users will need to provide personal information for the app to be functional. But if personal information isn’t necessary, consider allowing users to explore the app without providing too much up front. If your company is completely brand new, this is a smart way to build trust. Even people who are otherwise careless with their personal information are hesitant to hand over their email address or phone number. An onboarding best practice is to put as little as possible between the user and the actual experience, whether it’s an instruction manual or a form. Getting someone to download your app doesn’t put you in the clear. Rather, this is where most people lose interest in an app. Instead, it’s important to set up an onboarding process that both motivates and excites your user to learn how to use the app and to get started.
4 Indications That PPC is Necessary for Your Small Business Posted on August 1, 2017June 20, 2018 by Jessica Lunk First, a disclaimer: pay-per-click advertising is not a good fit for every small business. Don’t feel pressured to buy in if your ad budget is being well-spent elsewhere. Instead, note that PPC only makes sense for businesses with certain audiences, budgets and the practical experience necessary to thrive in the field. It’s definitely possible—but it takes work. A lot of that work will be specific to your business. Depending on your industry, small business size and reliance on digital ads for new leads, you may not have the time, money or resources to dig into this vast world of PPC—a world in which it is very, very easy to lose money quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing. In case you’re a bit unclear as to what PPC advertising is, it’s essentially a way of paying for ads only when they’re clicked on by users. You set a maximum daily budget—say $10—and then agree to pay up to a certain cost (which you also set) anytime someone clicks on your ad. When searching on Google, for example, you’ll find these ads appear at the top, with the boxed “Ad” label before the URL. But different search terms cost different amounts. Ranking on Google’s first page anytime someone searches “PPC advertising” will cost more than landing on the first page of a search term like “best PPC advertising company in Milwaukee”—the former might cost $5 per click, while the latter might cost $0.50. (These numbers are not accurate, but you get the idea.) PPC advertising is best when you find great search terms that you can rank highly for, but it only works when you can commit to spending a certain amount each day. If your small business can afford PPC, it can elevate your lead generation and brand awareness to a whole new level because it guarantees people who are genuinely interested in what you’re offering. So consider this a quick checklist to see whether PPC advertising is not only right but necessary for your small business. DO YOU HAVE THE MARGIN TO SPEND MONEY ON LEADS? The first (and biggest) question to ask yourself is whether you can afford to spend the required money on this. Even if you find affordable search terms, or are okay with ranking on page five of Google for less money, to see even nominal results you’ll have to commit to a daily spend of upwards of five dollars a day. Not every business is geared toward this. If you’re selling high-margin items—say you import T-shirts from Japan for $5 apiece and sell them for $25—then your business is better setup for this type of lead generation. But if you’re only making a few dollars per item, it’s probably not a good idea to chase after leads that won’t make up the cost of advertising in the first place. DO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO INVEST, OR THE MONEY TO HIRE AN EXPERT? It’s extremely easy to lose hundreds of dollars without realizing it when it comes to Google Adwords. You can accidentally leave a campaign running for weeks and forget, only to find you’ve been spending hundreds of dollars on nothing; you can buy into expensive search terms without researching more affordable ones; you can pay for clicks you might have gotten organically anyway if your SEO is strong enough. You have two options to make this worthwhile. One is to invest serious time learning the ins and outs and become a PPC marketing guru. The other is to hire someone who already is. Either way, you’re going to have to gauge for yourself whether you can afford to spend the time and money to perfect it yourself, or spend even more money on outside help. WILL PPC BE COST-EFFECTIVE FOR YOU? Even if you’re selling high-margin items and understand PPC reasonably well, you’ll never know how big the payoff will be until you try it. You might assume you’ll succeed and then realize you’re not generating enough real leads, even with well-researched search terms. Start your campaign off with a small budget—$5 a day is a good starting point—and review your success after a week or two. The great thing about PPC is how much control you have over tweaking and adjusting spends and terms on a dime; likewise, the advantage small businesses have over large ones is how nimbly they can make decisions. Before you dive into big numbers, make sure you’ve found the most efficient cost per click on a small scale. CAN YOU INTEGRATE PPC INTO YOUR OTHER DIGITAL ENDEAVORS? If you’re investing time or money into keyword or blog topic research for SEO or digging into the analytics of your social media followers, then PPC is a great complement. Your keyword research doubles for both areas: you can find which search terms are a good fit for your company but too hard to rank on, and try to buy in instead. You’ll also discover new, related search terms that you can subsequently use to inspire new blog posts. As for social PPC advertising, it’s a good excuse to understand your social followers and reach out to a similar demographic. If you know your Facebook fans comprise mostly millennial females in California, you can target your Facebook PPC spend specifically to that demographic and build a stronger base. If you answered “yes” to all the above questions, congratulations: it’s time to start your PPC journey. The next step is to actually figure out how to do that.
Should Your Small Business Be Using Emojis? Posted on July 31, 2017July 11, 2018 by Allie Wolff Emojis have invaded our emails and texts. Offline, they even adorn our pillows, coffee mugs and pajamas. It was only a matter a time before they became an acceptable form of communication in the business world. So should your small business be using emojis? The quick answer: yes, no and maybe. Or in emoji speak: Why such a complicated answer? Because in short, all businesses are different. It depends on your industry, your brand, your reputation and your target audience. There are a lot of factors that come into play. Evaluate your business There is no denying that emojis are a creative way to bond with your customers. They are fun – they are cute – and they can heighten the engagement you receive from those reading your messages. While some believe they are unprofessional or flippant, others are taking advantage of their colorfulness and creativity. If you have a workplace that is quite informal, then emojis can be effective. But if it is a suit and tie affair from top to bottom, probably not. Emojis connect with your reader’s brain on an emotional level, similar to that of facial expressions. When paired with well-constructed text, it’s hardly any wonder that emojis can increase your Return on Investment (ROI) for your marketing campaigns. Consider your target audience If you’re targeting millennials, then the answer is yes, without a doubt. If you are trying to reach pensioners or retirees who may be less likely to understand the meaning of emojis, then it is probably best to avoid them. If your audience is somewhere in the middle, use them with a little caution and a lot of imagination. They will work in some cases, but not all. As with anything in marketing and sales, there is always a time and a place. Consider your audience and stay focused on your brand. 92% of the online population use emojis at some point in time. 60% of women use them frequently in comparison to 41% of men. The 25-29 age group apparently uses them most frequently, followed closely by the under 25 age group. If you’re connecting to women in their late 20s, they can be a very effective way to strengthen your online connection. Emojis on Social Media If you do decide to embrace emojis on social media, Twitter and Instagram are great starting points. Emojis allow you to convey emotions that words may not make entirely clear, and they’re ideal for Twitter’s 140 character limit. Why type words when an emoji can sum it up with one adorable little expression? Emojis in Hashtags Take your hashtags to the next level by creating personalized emoji hashtags to suit your social media campaign. Hashtags are ideal for building brand awareness and allowing your business to showcase its individuality and style. Emojis in Marketing Campaigns Many companies have opted for emoji-based campaigns and came out smiling when all was said and done. McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Domino’s Pizza have all put emoji campaigns to good use in the past. But it isn’t just appropriate for fast food chains. WWF and PETA both won over fans with their clever use of emojis, as did the campaign for the movie Deadpool, where they created an individual set of emojis based on the main character. Emojis in Push Notifications Companies with mobile applications will find that emojis can be helpful in push notifications to summarize their texts. Whether you are announcing a sale or a special offer, businesses can carefully select emojis that elaborate visually on their message. Emojis in Email Marketing Many, many companies use emojis in their email marketing efforts. Would you believe that an emoji in the subject line can lead to a higher open rate and click-through rate? Emojis are a quick way to help your email stand out in a crowded inbox. Use them in moderation to avoid your messages being flagged as spam. Here are some tips when using emojis from a business perspective. Keep them positive – no one wants to see sad little emojis ruining their day. Perform split tests to see how responsive your audience is – emoji vs. non-emoji. Use your judgment and opt for them only when you think they are appropriate. Limit the number of emojis you use – 3 is clearly better than 30. Stick to the more popular and recognizable emojis to avoid mixed messages. Avoid being too cryptic – the simpler the message, the better. Consider the smiley face emoji. It is extremely powerful when sent from one person to another. There is no denying the message or the meaning: ‘All is good,’ ‘Everything is rosy,’ ‘I am happy,’ ‘It was a joke,’ ‘That was funny.’ So much from one little emoji! With over 2,666 emojis in the Unicode Standard (as of June 2017), whether you like them or not, they are quickly becoming the universal language of the future. It is up to you whether you decide to follow the trend.
Resource: Build Your Own Marketing Stack Posted on July 28, 2017 by Allie Wolff We’ve made it our mission at Hatchbuck to help small businesses succeed. We’re constantly improving and refining our offerings to make sure that our partners and customers have access to the tools they need to grow their businesses. There are so many phenomenal tools in the marketplace – many of which we’ve included in this list: 64 Small Business Tools To Avoid Marketing Madness. But we acknowledge that as a small business, you probably don’t have that massive marketing budget that we all dream about and several of the tools may be too expensive. So instead of taking a risk on enterprise solutions like HubSpot and Salesforce that lock you into an annual contract and likely have more features than any small business needs, you need to find tools that are small business and budget-friendly. Lucky for you, we’ve created a solution to your problem. Our Marketing Stack builder allows you to choose the tools you need that fit into the budget you have. Ready to shake up your stack with some new tools? Build your marketing stack and compare pricing at-a-glance. Build Your Own Marketing Stack
Business.com: 3 Ways to Build Your Small Business’s Brand Locally Posted on July 27, 2017June 20, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick Today’s consumers take pride in patronizing local, one-of-a-kind restaurants, markets, shops and startups. In fact, according to a study conducted by AT&T, 90 percent of customers shop at small businesses on at least a monthly basis, and about half shop local weekly. Supporting companies that are unique to their area is a core value of younger generations in particular. Nearly half of those surveyed in the AT&T study do this to support local employment and to keep money in their communities rather than give it to a chain. For these companies, boosting their profiles as a source of local pride means free advertising. To generate more enthusiasm and bring in new business, business owners can burnish their credentials as a community staple to please customers. However, to enjoy the immense benefits of being viewed as a valued resource and partner by the community, companies must first build strong brand awareness and identity. Read Jonathan’s full article on Business.com.
A Guide To Finding The Right Freelance Talent For Your Small Business Posted on July 26, 2017July 26, 2017 by Jessica Lunk Many small business owners know they need to outsource more projects to freelancers so they can focus on the work they do best. But often, they don’t know where to begin their search. If you’re among them, the good news is it isn’t hard to find the freelance talent you need. The best place to start is with word-of-mouth referrals from other professionals you know and respect but if they cannot suggest anyone, freelance platforms can be a good alternative. Here is a guide to some of the most established freelance platforms so you can quickly find the talented help you need—followed by some information on how to vet the freelancers you find there. Upwork This giant global freelance marketplace, which includes accountants, designers, writers, web developers and more, is a good place to begin your search for freelancers. With ample venture capital funding, this Silicon-Valley based site makes it easy to hire freelancers, stay in compliance with labor laws and handle payments smoothly. Freelancer A close competitor to Upwork, this large site based in Sydney, Australia is very active in the U.S. It offers access to a full range of freelancers, ranging from professionals to trades people. Freelancer has been involved in some interesting creative partnerships, such as one that has enlisted tech-savvy freelancers to design tools and technology used in space travel for NASA in a series of contests. 99Designs If you need to design a logo, brochure or website, this crowdsourced site is a popular option. You can submit a request for bids by launching a contest on the site and freelancers on the platform will respond with ideas you can use—and to which you will retain the rights. The site offers plans for a variety of price ranges. Peopleperhour This global freelance community, which has a presence in 89 countries, offers a unique feature called “hourlies,” in which you can hire someone for a flat fee to perform a task they can do in an hour. Remote.com This new site specializes in connecting freelancers with remote and freelance jobs. Its technology alerts freelancers when a job that is a good fit for them is listed on the site. Among the fields where you can find freelance help on this site are ecommerce development, game development, writing, design and more. Of course, just because someone is listed on a freelance site, it doesn’t mean he or she is proficient or reliable. Reviews are one way to evaluate potential hires, but other reviewers won’t necessarily have the same standards of quality as you do. It is always a good idea to ask freelancers for references to similar types of clients and to actually call or email these references. Ask them questions such as: Did the freelancer deliver what was promised? Did the freelancer offer helpful suggestions on how to make the project better? How well did the freelancer communicate with you? Was the project delivered on time? If not, why? Did the freelancer respond well to constructive feedback? If the freelancer had any discretion in how to charge you, did the project come in on budget? Not all of these factors will matter equally for every freelance project. For instance, if you are hiring an accountant who will be filing your tax returns, punctuality is very important. But if you are slowly building out extra pages on your company website, sticking closely to deadlines won’t matter as much. The key is to find someone who is capable of accomplishing what you need on a particular project. Once you find someone who sounds like a good fit, try them out on a small project. Good freelancers will appreciate the opportunity to test the waters, because they will be trying you out, too, to make sure the relationship is a good fit. It’s an insurance policy for you, too. You don’t want to find out halfway through a high-stakes, $20,000 project that someone is unreliable. To make sure you get the most out of your freelance project, make sure you know what materials and information the freelancer needs to start the project and reach key milestones. If someone on your team needs to approve certain parts of the project in order for the freelancer to move ahead, make sure that person is easily accessible. Hold up your end of the bargain, too. Make sure to deliver deposits, progress payments and final payments on time. Most freelancers run one-person businesses and can’t realistically afford to finance your projects for you. If you’re slow in paying them, they will likely need to squeeze in other work and bump your project to the back burner—no matter how much they like you personally. Treat them the way you would any important member of your team, and you’ll find that the return on your investment is tremendous.
The Characteristics of a Spectacular Social Media Manager Posted on July 25, 2017July 15, 2022 by Jeanna Barrett If you’re ready to hire a social media manager, you’ve probably reached the realization that most business owners have reached: social media is absolutely necessary, but it’s too time-consuming to manage on your own. Luckily there are tons of social media enthusiasts out there who turned their love of connecting online into a full-time job. Now you just need to find the right one to hire for your small business. Here are a few guidelines on what to look for when hiring a rock star social media manager: Already Active Personal Social Media Accounts Usually, the first prerequisite for any social media management job is to submit all social media profiles with a job application. Anyone interested in a job in social media should already be active on social media in their personal lives — it takes a lot to understand the audiences for each social media site and the etiquette of what’s appropriate (such as not stealing and sharing other people’s photos on Instagram)! If your social media applicant has a strong profile on all the major social media sites and is actively posting and taking part in the community regularly, chances are they’re truly passionate about social media and will do a great job managing social for your business. Passion for the Industry And that brings me to the next requirement: passion. It’s is a must in this industry. Social media management is a full-time job that often requires managers to respond in their evenings and free time. If someone hates being on Facebook on their phone, well, that’s just not going to cut it in this industry. It also takes a lot of natural interest in the industry to keep up on what’s going on. Every site updates their terms or product on a regular basis. Strategy or tactics shift. New websites are launched often. A good social media manager will be passionate about staying up-to-date on the constantly shifting environment by reading articles regularly (often daily!) as part of their ongoing job training. Writing, Editing & Grammar Chops Guess what: every social media post has to be carefully crafted with zero grammatical errors if you want to put the best foot forward for your brand. If you hire someone with a journalism or writing background, or who is a self-proclaimed “grammar nerd,” they’re going to be much more successful than someone who can’t differentiate between “your” and “you’re.” Natural Creativity Rewarding social media campaigns are usually very creative. Ideas on what to post to engage users on social media sites require a creative mind. Heck, it even requires creativity to get ahead in this world and stand out from the pack to get what you want. If you have a social media manager who creates a Pinterest resume or submits their application using another social media site, hire that person. They’re thinking outside the box and will produce creative social media content for your brand. Easy Human Connection & A Bubbly Disposition The best social media managers usually have a friendly, warm disposition with a great ability to connect with other people. In addition, they’re often enthusiastic or bubbly. These types of personalities do well in social media because it requires positivity and being able to respond favorably to negative comments, sometimes dealing with online backlash. In addition, social media is meant to build relationships and communicate online with your customers — someone who knows how to connect in person and is well-liked is also going to come across this way in online conversations. A Customer-First Attitude A social media manager is at its very foundation a customer service representative. Often customers will turn to Twitter or Facebook messages with their customer service questions or complaints. If your social media manager has a background in customer service, they’re going to innately know the proper way to respond to conversations so they don’t escalate and problems are taken offline quickly. A Deep Understanding of the ROI of Social Media Social media is not just all fluff. Your social media manager needs to understand where social media fits into the marketing funnel, and what the return will be on time invested in social media. They should be able to talk to you about the high-level goals for your business’ social media accounts (such as engagement or clicks to your website), and the type of metrics they’ll track every month in a report. If you find someone with the seven aforementioned characteristics, hire them immediately. Chances are they’ll be a total rock star social media manager for your business, and sadly those are few and far between.
4 Tips For Improving Your Blog With Expert Keyword Research Posted on July 24, 2017December 15, 2022 by Allie Wolff Want to know how we decided on writing a blog about keyword research? Yep. We did keyword research. It goes without saying that research is essential to modern marketing. But despite the all-importance of this SEO technique, there’s no universal way to figure out the best course of action. Different websites will require vastly different keyword research strategies, depending on their goals, budgets and website authority. The perfect storm is when you find a niche you’re successful in, write great content within that niche, and are rewarded by dominating the search results for that topic. It’s generally accepted that long-tail keywords (e.g. “tips for small business blog topic research”) are better to use than broad keywords (e.g. “blog topic research”), and by digging into those niche areas you’ll find a more committed following for your digital platforms. It can be exhausting, and you’ll think of every blog topic as a gamble. Sometimes you’ll succeed where you didn’t think you would; other times, you’ll fail when you thought you had nailed it. But there’s good news, too. Blog topic research isn’t a standalone endeavor. Whenever you research viable topics for your blog, you’re also looking for SEO keywords that will inspire more posts and even Google Adwords terms that you can benefit from on the pay-per-click advertising side of things. Nothing stands alone in the digital world. So here’s a quick four-step strategy for researching your next blog post. 1. Start with broad keywords, and expand out to long-tail keywords. Start with what are called “seed keywords”—broad words that relate to your topic, but are too broad to actually try and rank for. There are too many keyword research options to name here: you can use a free online tool, a paid software, a free online version of that paid software, or just Google’s auto-fill search box. For the latter, just type in part of your search term and Google will reply with the most popular real-time results. It’s a handy (and free!) way to generate ideas. Pro tip: you can also insert two underscores in Google to create a blank space, which will also help you come up with blog topic ideas. Once you have your seed terms sketched out, you can find your long-tail keywords that will inspire your next blog post—after all, they’re based on things people actually want to know. 2: See where success comes from—and imitate it. Dig into your analytics and see what terms you already rank for. You can use Google Analytics to see how Google searchers are coming to your site, even if you can’t always use it to see exactly what terms are bringing them there. Google Analytics will show SEO search terms as (not provided), but you can at least see what pages they’re landing on by setting the Secondary Dimension to “Landing Page.” That should give you a sense of what terms are working for you and help you try and recreate that success. You can also use online tools to see exactly what search terms your competitors are using to rank highly. Google’s Keyword Explorer, which you should get familiar with if you’re integrating your blog topic research into PPC keywords, allows you to search for ideas for any URL, including your competitors—you can use this to see where others are capitalizing in areas you’re missing. 3: Study Keyword Metrics. You can learn a lot from keyword analytics. You’ll need a tool for it (many are paid), but they will help show you which keywords result in actual click-throughs to the websites that are popping up. For example, an increasing number of Google search results are answered immediately by cards that Google presents at the top. If you’re trying to rank for some of these keywords, your content could even appear on page one of Google and suffer a low CTR. Other result pages are dominated by paid ads; you can see which these are on Google’s Keyword Planner. It’s another benefit to finding the right long-tail keywords—by capitalizing on more specific search terms, you’ll eschew the monolithic stronghold Google has on its most popular terms. 4: Analyze your keywords by grouping them together. Seeing which pages rank highly and how often you get SEO results is one thing. But looking at bigger trends requires a broader scale of analysis. Group your keywords together to get a macro sense of how they’re working for you. You can achieve this any number of ways: group them together by conversion goal, correlating theme or user intent. Any of these options will help you see them in a different light. The idea is to understand how your keywords and blog posts are performing, as well as what content direction your company should take overall. You’ll get a better sense of how people are finding you, how much they care about you and where you’re missing opportunities if you take a step back and look at the data holistically.
Entrepreneur: What to Do When Your Ideal Customer Isn’t Who You Expected Posted on July 21, 2017July 11, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick Most companies trust their “gut” when locking in their target market. After all, the larger the prospect pool, the bigger the sales growth, right? Not so fast. It’s not as simple as selling your products and services to anyone who will throw you a few Benjamins. To truly grow your business and keep customers coming back, you need to intimately know who your “radical buyer” is. Most businesses choose their target customer based on self-perception of their brand, and then the marketing team goes after them. Your own perception of your brand, however, doesn’t always reflect what’s actually happening in the marketplace, leaving your business vulnerable to missed opportunities and growth. Read Jonathan’s full article on Entrepreneur.