Chatbots as a business growth strategy

Looking for a competitive advantage that will help continue to grow your business? Look no further than chatbots.

When used effectively, chatbots provide a number of advantages that can help boost your business. Chatbots are invaluable when it comes to customer service. They allow you to publish content directly to your audience. For customers, communicating (with a well designed) bot is practical; it is fast and it removes the process of calling up and sitting on hold. Chatbots are ideal for sharing links to new content and new products as well.

Using chatbots provides businesses with data. Analytics such as purchase tracking, page clicks and navigational trends are all available through chatbots. Once this data is analysed, improvements and adjustments can be introduced to make the audience experience more enjoyable and more meaningful; optimising the opportunity for success in your business.

Instant messaging is taking over. Recent trends show that messenger apps are becoming more and more popular, with retention rates higher than that of other mobile apps. To improve customer experience and conversion rates, your company should not avoid this opportunity.

Integrating chatbots into your business is extremely resourceful. It helps improve sales, draw in new customers, strengthen existing customer relationships, deal with complaints, orders and so forth without needing human intervention. In-house communication between employees such as sharing resources they need to access, new training information, solving IT problems etc. can all be improved through the use of chatbots as well.

Social media etiquette

There is no denying that social media is fast becoming the most powerful way for businesses to communicate with their existing and potential customers.

Although it has become a new approach to communication, businesses should always remember to treat their customers as if they were dealing with them face-to-face.

Here are some important rules to remember when using social media for business:
Fill out details
Fill out the profile information completely, providing the name of the business, a way to make contact and some information on what services and products the business offers. This will assure the customer that the businesses profile is legitimate.

It is important to have an appropriate profile picture such as the company logo so that clients are able to easily identify with the brand. It is not a good idea to have the same profile for both business and personal use. Creating separate accounts will keep clients separated from friends and ensure that the business maintains a professional image.

Use manners
It may seem simple, however treating clients with respect online can go a long way. Things as simple as saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ can give a positive image of the business. It doesn’t matter that the interactions are occurring behind a screen, clients should be treated exactly how they would in person.

Offer something of value
Use the social media platforms to engage with customers and offer them something of value. Clients will become quickly bored with images and posts only about the business. Don’t just restrict content to only focus on the business, interact with clients about current events or topics that are relevant to the business, or find interesting quotes and images to share. Facebook and Instagram are also key platforms for offering competitions or giveaways. Clients will be eager to be active on the profile if they are getting something out of it as well.

Don’t over-share
Although businesses are keen to be active on social media to ensure that they are reaching their target market, this can be just as bad as not posting at all. No-one likes the friend who barrages their page with multiple posts a day and the same goes for businesses. Keeping posts to one or two a day will keep the business active on their clients feed; however will not annoy them enough so that they click ‘unfollow.’

It is a good idea for businesses to implement a content plan and map out when, and what, they will post to each social media platform. Also, think about the best time to post for the target audience. For example, if the business targets professionals it would be ideal to post in the morning and afternoon when they are commuting to work as they are likely on their own personal social media pages.

Reread what is written
Consider composing tweets or posts in a word document before posting them. This allows time to edit the text for grammar and spelling mistakes. Also, remember that the Internet never forgets and one post in the heat of the moment can go viral, damaging the reputation of a business and losing a lot of clients.

Working with online influencers

Influencer marketing may seem like a “buzz” term; however, the movement is providing more businesses with online opportunities to expand their customer base.

Online influencers are generally prominent individuals within an industry with large social media followings, i.e bloggers and celebrities. Small businesses can work with online influencers to promote their products and services.

One of the primary reasons businesses may choose to start a working relationship with an influencer is customer acquisition. As online influencers have a large active and engaged following, their exposure to potential target markets is expansive. Influencers tend to have a loyal social following and their followers are generally interested and trust their content.

For businesses who do choose to go down the road of influencer marketing, it is important to establish some base rules with the influencer. For instance, many social users expect influencers such as bloggers to disclose when a social post is an advertisement/paid post for a business. Creating a transparent environment is key to savouring relationships with loyal followers.

It is usually good practice to draft content for the influencer to ensure your business is portrayed in the correct manner. However, this does not mean the influencer has no creativity in the message rather it helps to make sure they understand your goals and stay on track.

Repurposing blog content

Creating new content for your blog or site can be challenging; not only does it involve a lot of time but it can require a great deal of creativity.

Fortunately, businesses do not need to write fresh content all the time – old content can be repurposed to make the most out of each of your ideas.

Repurposing content can help expand your reach to new audiences that might have missed it the first time and helps to reinforce key messages. Here are three ways to repurpose your content:

Create a presentation or video
Blog posts can be transformed into a presentation or video and promoted through various social media channels. A presentation or video can reach those audiences who prefer visual content instead of text. Using video content is especially good for refreshing those ‘how-to’ blog posts, checklists and step-by-step guides.

Turn it into an infographic
Visual images have been shown to generate more traffic and engagement than text alone. Consider turning your blog posts into infographics to help make information eye-catching and potentially shareable.

Reuse on social media
It may seem obvious, but reposting on social media can help to drive your key messages. Change a blog post’s heading or include new quotes or statistics to give the post a new edge. This strategy helps to give old, low performing posts another chance to capture your target audience’s attention.

Three ways to keep audiences on your website

Most businesses spend time blogging to reach the ultimate goal of attracting more people to their website or blog. However, it is one thing to get people to visit your business’s website; it is quite another to keep them there.

In the perfect world, potential and current customers would spend lots of time on a business’s website. But in the real world, internet users only spend seconds – minutes if the business is lucky – on a website.

But there are ways to get users to stay on your website for longer periods of time. Here are three tips to keep in mind next time you log in to blog on your website:

Five ways to increase engagement on Twitter

Twitter is a valuable marketing tool for small businesses wanting to expand and maintain their reach to online audiences.

However, the true value of the social platform lies in its engagement; unless users are actually engaging with your business’s tweets and content, you are wasting precious time and energy reaching out to people who aren’t listening or interacting with your brand.

Here are five ways small businesses can maximise audience engagement on the popular social media channel:

Finding your online target audience

Successful online marketing begins with knowing how to find your target audience. Determining your online target audience, the type of information they value and knowing where they spend most of their time can help businesses focus their marketing initiatives more effectively.

Defining a target audience can also help businesses create not only good content but the right content. Here are some tactics that can help find an online target audience:

Create reader personas
Creating reader personas can help identify the motivations and curiosities of readers, and therefore establish what they want to read online. A good reader persona covers the basic details of who, what, when, where and why. However, specific details are still necessary. Where possible, include characteristics like gender; personality; family life; job title and function; income and needs.

Conduct user surveys
User surveys are a great tool to help maintain an understanding of what customers are thinking and what they want. Businesses can translate survey feedback into a deeper understanding of their target audience. To make a user survey as useful as possible, include specific that are short and easy to answer.

Monitor your social accounts
Knowing which social networks your readers, customers and followers share content the most can reveal what they like and want to hear about. Finding this kind of information can be as simple as monitoring a business’s social accounts and making notes of who is interacting with the content.

Talk to your social followers
Businesses can learn a lot by being an active member on social media. Make the effort to respond to comments and messages you receive, as every interaction with an audience member is an opportunity to learn more about them. Find relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups to participate in and occasionally create posts asking what your audience is interested in.

Building the perfect LinkedIn profile

Having an optimised LinkedIn profile is key to gaining maximum online visibility and revenue through the professional social network. LinkedIn has over 97 million monthly active users around the world, so businesses need to start paying some attention to creating a decent profile if they want to stand out. Those with a complete profile are 40 times more likely to be found by others online. So how can small businesses create a ‘complete’ profile? Here are some basic tips to help make your profile as visible as possible:

Headline: Your LinkedIn headline is one of the most important aspects of your profile. Business owners should be succinct, creative and include key terms that make it easy for users to define your role in your industry.

Name: Include your first, last and middle name. LinkedIn is not the place for nicknames or funny references to job titles, like ‘business extraordinaire’.

URL: Customise your LinkedIn profile’s URL to make it easier for people to find you. You can find the URL in the light-grey box underneath your name.

Profile photo: First impressions matter, especially when people see your profile picture. When choosing the appropriate headshot, make sure you consider your industry, as well as potential customers and peers who will view the photo. It might be a good idea to hire a professional photographer to take the photo.

Your background: The background section of your LinkedIn profile only has room for 2000 characters. Therefore, owners should be careful to write a succinct description of themselves, including their present and future ambitions for their business. Add other points of contact if you have them, like your mobile number, Twitter page or email address.

Experience: Complement your career information and experience by including in-article quotes, images or other content that you have created that is related to your professional life. The better you can intrigue viewers, the longer they will view your profile, which can better your chances of making a new business connection online.

Projects: Add in any projects you have led or executed to demonstrate your skill set and reinforce the assertions made in your description. Adding links to your current projects can support your credibility.

Improving your landing page conversion rates

Landing pages are different from general websites. They are single pages designed for single objectives, and are used to prompt a certain action or result. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ solution when creating a landing page that will produce a high rate of conversions for a business.

Creating a competitive landing page depends on a variety of factors, such as the business’s target audience, the page’s purpose and the product a business is promoting. But regardless of these factors, there are landing page elements that need to be included no matter the business’s product, service or conversion rate goal. Below are several tips that businesses can easily use to help improve their landing page conversions.

Be consistent
Businesses should aim for consistency in the information they provide and the design of user experience on the landing page. Any data a business provides for the public, such as testimonials from ‘happy customers’ should be consistent across a business’s websites and landing pages. Users should feel comfortable exploring the landing page content in a manner that leads them to where the business wants them to go.

Stay focused
Businesses need to be clear about the goals of the landing page. Too much information can be distracting and may cause confusion for online users. Businesses should limit their landing page offers and promotions to only a couple of lines.

Use the right language
Language can have a huge impact on a business’s landing page conversion rates. Language that is too pushy or gimmicky can ruin the entire experience. Businesses should use phrases that are straight to the point and encourage customers to move in a certain way.

Include directional cues
Some businesses can lose potential customers due to them getting lost in the information provided. Avoid this by directing customers to where you want them to go using directional cues. Using arrows or reminders can direct customers to the information you want them to see.

SEO friendly images

Image optimisation can increase exposure and decrease load times for your website, resulting in better SEO rankings.

Websites with images not only improve the user experience but bring in organic traffic via search engine image results. When adding images to your website, they need to be optimised accordingly. Here are some things to consider:

File name
Be sure to use descriptive keywords in the image file names as search engines will search for keywords within your image file names. The file name should be the main subject of the image.

Alt tags
When a browser cannot read the file name, the alternative text will be displayed to ensure that no information or functionality is lost. Be sure to add alt tags which contain your SEO keyword and describes the image. Using alt tags helps to achieve better website rankings as associating keywords with images helps to show up in the image and web search.

Reduce file size
Images with slow load times rank poorly in search rankings, as Google uses page load time as a factor in their algorithm. Make sure the image is in the smallest file size possible for the best overall user experience. A good rule of thumb is to keep your image file size below 70kb.