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Tips for Advertising Your Online Platform – Part 3

Hello one and all, welcome to part three of our ongoing series on advertising your online platform. We’ve already covered content marketing and influencer marketing in previous articles, and this time, our friendly experts at Linkeo Ltd. will be covering the basics of a few techniques.

How to Promote a New Online Store with Email Marketing

Analysts have noted that email marketing generates a higher ROI than any other acquisition channel, since the algorithms that power social media, Facebook and Google have resulted in an ever-rising cost of doing business and reaching customers for online retailers. Email allows retailers to intimately connect with and address their most loyal customers while enabling budding startups to develop armies of influencers. Something all experts advise is to focus on your database. Emails are the only thing without an algorithm at play.

Even if you don’t focus on social media marketing alongside email marketing, you can start building your email list on day one. Building a database of emails is as simple as including an email subscriptions form somewhere on your website. Capturing the contact information of your earliest visitors lets you engage with those visitors over time and leverage that engagement to drive conversions. It’s a great way to maximize value on a sustainable basis.

How to Promote a New Online Store on Social Media

Right from the beginning, it’s important to go live with your social media marketing efforts. This includes building a following and also making sure you have a presence on all major global platforms. The genius behind social media marketing is that it is designed to spread ideas and news like wildfire. As a result, it should be one of the first channels for new companies to get exposure and bring traffic to their stores.

And while it’s possible to grow your social following organically, you may also want to consider running paid ads.

Tips for Succeeding with Paid Ads on Social Media Channels

Below is a curated selection of tips for succeeding with paid ads on social media.

  • The key to social media advertising is the accuracy of your demographic targeting. You can use interests, hobbies, followed pages, ages, job titles, etc. to get incredibly granular with who you show your ads to.
  • Create an engaging video that educates or entertains your audience. This will allow you to get a gauge for your potential strongest supporters.
  • Retarget the portion of the audience who watched the video past the halfway mark with a promo ad.
  • Retarget the users who didn’t make a purchase with a special offer. Make them enter their email addresses to claim the offer.
  • Send out an email blast towards the end of the campaign with a follow-up message that sends out a separate promo built around social proof and an emotion-tugging CTA.

Even if you don’t hit your sales target after the campaign, you will have developed long-term content resources and generated an email list of interested users to target again in the future.”

However, you may need different approaches for organic and paid social campaigns. For instance, most customers will treat your social media feed like a brochure, going through your wide range of options before inquiring or going to your site. The content for this purpose is very much traditionally styled shoots and flat lays.

However, for paid acquisition campaigns, the content needs to be much more emotive. Re-marketing content, including video and stills, must be more focused on conversion messages regarding your unique selling propositions.

So Which Promotion Tactic Should You Choose?

After exploring the many options presented in our last three articles, you should now hopefully have tons of ideas for new ways to promote your online store. But where should you start?

Building your email list is a great place to start because you can do it on a tight budget, and you can use the email addresses you gather in every other campaign you run in the future.

Plus, email marketing is effective no matter what you’re selling. And that’s key because the best way to promote a new store really depends on your audience and your product—more specifically the cost.

On a budget, we recommend influencers, blogging, and email. Once you’ve hit comfortable numbers and you have the funds to really invest, the best long-term strategy will be dialing into advertising profitability.

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Tips for Advertising Your Online Platform – Part 2

Welcome back to our series on advertising your online platform. Our first look was at Content Marketing, where we explored the benefits of creating blog posts and other content to raise awareness for your e-shop. This article looks at a second marketing technique that might help you connect with the younger crowds.

How to Promote a New Online Store with Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful ways to promote a new online store, according to the experts at Linkeo Ltd. The best part of influencer marketing is that it’s easy and inexpensive to get started. All you need to do is identify relevant influencers and send them your product to test and review.

Sending your products to influencers leads to two big benefits. First, it helps you gain exposure through the influencer’s audience. Second, it acts as quality assurance for consumers who like to study reviews before making a purchase – as most people do.

This second point is key. In order to start producing online revenue, the most important thing is to build trust with your audience. Having a relevant influencer promote your product not only increases your traffic, but it also helps you start to build a relationship of trust with your audience.

However, when it comes to influencer marketing, bigger isn’t always better. Don’t work with influencers with millions of followers right from the get-go. Start small, with what certain market analysts like to call macro-influencers—those who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers—in your niche. Make sure their followers are engaged and correspond to your target audience.

Then, build a relationship with the influencer and start building and promoting content together. After that, analyze your campaigns and optimize. Remember, sending your product to a few Instagram influencers isn’t going to be enough. There are three things all successful entrepreneurs do that make their influencer collaborations successful:

  • They have a great product that was unique and new in the market. Influencers were excited to try it out.
  • They emphasize the need for ‘real’ responses from these influencers. All they asked for was feedback and a share on their Instagram page if the product resonates, which it hopefully will. This shows a trend away from ‘polished’ influencer posts and towards a more authentic sharing of our experience with a product.”
  • They combine their influencer campaigns with a customer-focused, user-generated content campaign, leveraging the same hashtags and style for the imagery. This ramps up the believability of the influencer posts.

So, what’s the actionable takeaway? In a nutshell, don’t just aimlessly send out products to influencers and expect to go viral. Focus on those who have influence over your narrow customer group, emphasize the ‘one thing’ that you do better than anyone else, and make the whole experience believable by backing the quality of your product.

How To Choose Influencers to Partner With?

While this in itself will be a subject for a later article in our overarching series on digital marketing and building an effective online presence, there are a few tips we can share about how to choose the right social media influencer for your purposes. The biggest one being: Do your research. Remember that these influencers are individuals, not faceless corporations with PR gurus on speed-dial. Review their existing content to see if they have ever produced content that might affect your own image. Also, check how they interact with their community – do you have a similar approach to your own customers?

Influencer marketing can be an effective method of building a buzz around your products, and also provides you with a relatively constant customer base. We hope the information in this, and future posts will help you harness the power of these techniques to grow your business. Be sure to check back for part 3, where we will look at more methods of online advertising.

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What Can Marketers Learn From the K-Pop Industry – Part 3

It is indeed a fact that K-pop is ruling the world. However, did you know that there are certain techniques that are used by the K-pop industry to rev up their sales? And if you also want to know the key to the success of the K-pop entertainment industry, make sure to read till the last line of this article!

#1. Grow Content Creators

Who Is the U.S. K-Pop Fan? | Billboard

Who remembers the fan who screamed: “I am going to sue you Suga, for making me helplessly fall in love with you?” I do and I agree entirely with her. It’s illegal for K-pop idols to be so attractive.

Anyway, this is one of the legendary K-pop fan moments that will be remembered in history.

In our last article, we talked about how fandom culture in South Korea supports and increases K-pop celebrities’ popularity. But another thing that we will discuss here is fan-made content. Did you know that K-pop fans create numerous websites all over the Internet where they post articles, videos and pictures of their idols in different contexts?

For instance, some fans post and share the stories of how their favourite idols started their journey to success and include photos of their childhood and video clips of their past and present performances.

For example, a certain lucky fan coincidentally found some photos of the Golden Maknae of BTS from a pastor of a church and uploaded these pictures onto SNS. I still remember how these pictures immediately went viral and received thousands and thousands of retweets on Twitter. Millions of fans over the world went crazy over the photos of baby Jungkook and we can all agree that he has always been an adorable and handsome boy ever since he was a little child. Moreover, his adorable bunny face and toothy smile melted everyone’s hearts.

Nowadays, many fan websites, YouTube channels, and Instagram and Twitter accounts are dedicated to K-pop idols. For instance, several BTS fanfiction stories are created on YouTube or written on Wattpad. Below you will find a list of some of the fansites for the most famous K-pop boy band, BTS:

BTS:

  • idollove: @idollove89 (website)
  • Bow Wow: @B_OW_wow (website)
  • 취미는사랑: @love_as_hobby (blog)
  • Go for it: @GOFORIT_39124 (blog)
  • Mingga: @mingga92

Moreover, what’s more fascinating in the Korean pop world is that much of their marketing does not happen through official means and instead it’s the fans who tend to promote the K-pop idols on social media actively. A great example is the fan cams of Korean celebrities on social media platforms. And according to “AE Top Musics”, a YouTube channel that compiled some of the highest viewed K-pop fan cams of all time, the first three most viewed fan cams belong to the three most drool-worthy members of BTS, that is, Jungkook, Jimin and V.

So, to all the marketers out there, you can use this tip to encourage your customers to share your own content. For example, invite them to your events and motivate them to post their own coverage of your events. You can also provide opportunities for them to view or try your products before they are launched.

#2. Concentrate on Content Marketing First

File:Line FriendsStore BT21 03.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

In the Korean entertainment industry, the K-entertainment companies try to make use of everything possible to ensure that their idols are always seen and heard. For instance, once a group is formed and launched, they try to make everything possible to make their stars become popular. And of course, it is easier for the entertainment companies to make money from their stars’ popularity. For example, they earn from concert ticket sales, albums sales to clothes, shoes, photo cards, calendars, stickers, dolls, key chains, accessories and more other idol-related merchandise.

For instance, did you know that there is a game called “To the Edge of Seventeen” that is a BTS inspired visual game? And what about BT21? Have you ever heard about it? Well, let me tell you that they are more than animated characters as they were created back in September 2017 by the members of BTS. When the boys spent a whole day sketching character ideas, a group of designers turned these rough sketches into more defined characters. There are eight in total: Tata, Mang, Chimmy, RJ, Koya, Cooky, Shooky, and Van.

Hence, we recommend that once your brand is stable and you have earned a loyal following, make sure to create branded items or work with non-competing products to produce co-branded stuff.

Will you apply these marketing strategies? Please share your comments!

 

 

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What Can Marketers Learn From the K -Pop Industry? (Part 2)

Without a doubt, I can say that K-pop has won the attention and interest of worldwide audiences. And as a result, the Hallyu Wave improved and boosted the economy of South Korea. Now, if you want to learn the secrets behind the Korean pop industry’s success, I invite you to read the following article.

#1. Build a Unique Cultural Ecosystem

South Koreans Are Divided Over BTS' Looming Mandatory Military Service

What’s the first thing you think of when I say “Lachimolala” and “Tony Montana?” One boy who couldn’t read lips during a Whisper Challenge game and guessed “Lachimolala” from the word “Carbonara.” And do you also get the picture of Jin in your mind when I say these words: Worldwide handsome?

Well, whatever the reasons behind, these words will always be remembered in the K-pop world.

Now, did you know that K-pop has its own language?

For example, do you know what a stan, ship, bias, bias wrecker mean? And what about other terms such as maknae, eonni (unnie), oppa, hyung, noona, dongsaeng, hoobae, sunbae, dongan, selca, OTP? If these terms mean something to you, then many congratulations as you are now officially a part of the K-pop cultural ecosystem.

As you have guessed, the Korean pop culture has developed a unique language. And when talking about that, we cannot forget “taetae language”, which refers to the unique, if not weird, linguistic skills of Kim Tae Hyung. We still don’t know whether the BTS member was always intentionally sarcastic or he just misused his words. Either way, he never fails to amaze us with his language. Especially his “I purple you!”

But aside from this, K-pop groups have also brought a revolution in terms of our dressing styles to our hairstyles. For example, the introduction of makeup lines for men is largely due to the K-pop industry as several members of boy bands use lip tints, brow fillers and so on. As a result, it is not a coincidence that South Korea consists of nearly 20 % of global men’s cosmetics market.

In addition, the craziest and coolest haircuts of G-dragon, a famous Korean singer-rapper, have greatly influenced men’s hairstyles all over the world. Besides, needless to mention how netizens are head over heels for BlackPink’s absolutely beautiful and modernized Korean hanbok outfits in “How You Like That.”

Moreover, the K-pop industry encourages cultural diversity. I have to mention how BTS fuse many traditional cultures in their groundbreaking song “Idol.” For example, the Hanboks in the temple scene with Jimin is a representation of the Korean culture, the flower mandala is a spiritual symbol of Hinduism and Buddhism while the safari outfits they wore at the beginning of the MV represent the South African culture.

Furthermore, K-pop has also inspired people to explore the Korean cuisine and I have to say that TWICE’s Sana’s “Cheese Kimbap” was one of the most likely reasons for the increase of this Korean food.

Therefore, for your organization’s success, we recommend you to build your own cultural ecosystem by using practices and a specific style that fits your organization or adopt something that will become a signature of your product or brand community.

#2. Stroke the Passion of Your Customers

How K-pop fans became celebrated online vigilantes | MIT Technology Review

Ahh… K-pop fans!

Whether you are one or not, fandom is an essential part of the entire K-pop industry. Instead, I would say that what keeps the industry alive is the passionate and loyal fans. They not only influence the popularity of the Korean stars, but are also extremely protective of them.

K-pop fans can also save money to buy expensive gifts for their idols, send food carts, raise funds and send donations during their idols’ events. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that Sehun, a popular EXO member, received some land in Scotland for his 24th birthday as a gift from his Chinese fans.

K-pop fans also have monikers. Let me give you a list of them:

  • ARMY: Fans of the group BTS
  • EXO-Ls: Fans of the group EXO
  • Onces: Fans of the group Twice
  • Blinks: Fans of the group BlackPink
  • Reveluv: Fans of the group Red Velvet
  • Sones: Fans of the group Girl Generation (SNSD)
  • Buddy: Fans of the group GFriend

You don’t need to create monikers but it is vital for you to build a closer relationship with your customers. For example, get to know more about the members of your communities on social media sites. Listen to their requests about the types of products they want and respond accordingly.

Will you adopt the following marketing strategies? Please share your comments!

 

 

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What Can Marketers Learn From the K -Pop Industry?

Have you ever heard of k-pop? How about the Korean boy band, BTS? Well, I am sure you must have, as almost everyone on planet earth with an Internet connection would have at least viewed either the iconic Gangnam Style by Psy or BTS’s newly released “Dynamite”. However, there is so much more to learn from the k-pop industry. So, if you are in the marketing industry, you need to follow these tips that have been leading the Korean pop culture to world domination.

 #1. Learn Content and Social Media Marketing

File:180717 열린음악회 트와이스 02.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Let’s begin with a k-pop quiz. Can you guess the name of the social media platform that was created by Big Hit Entertainment, a South Korean entertainment company, to connect fans with BTS? If you said Weverse, then give yourself 100 points!

Will you be surprised if I tell you that according to Twitter, in 2019, K-pop was the most prominent topic of conversation with more than 6.1 billion related tweets? Not me.

The worldwide popularity of some K-pop groups such as BTS, Girl’s Generation, Big Bang, BlackPink, Twice, Exo and Red Velvet have confirmed their growing strength on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many more. And, if you are still active on Twitter, let me tell you that it is pretty impossible not to see the way K-pop dominates its trends at almost any given time.

Aside from their own pages, accounts, and channels on several social media sites, K-pop artists are also supported by their label companies’ websites. For example, when Red Velvet’s Wendy fell from the stage during the 2019 SBS Gayo Daejeon rehearsals and was taken for treatment to the hospital, SM Entertainment kept ReVeluv(which is the official fandom club of Red velvet) updated about Wendy’s health.

So, overall the reasons why for example Twice members are considered as the social media Queens are:

  • Fast growth of views on their music videos and photos (and really their photos are irresistible).
  • Trending #hashtags generated on Twitter
  • High engagement rates on their video posts

Like these K-pop celebrities, businesses can use these marketing strategies to reach their potential targets. What they can do is use the social media platforms that their target consumers mostly use and see to it that social media managers participate in discussions and post comments. I guarantee you that it can promote the company’s goodwill and reputation.

#2. Share Behind-the-Scenes Content, Trailers and Teasers

Here's Why BTS Wasn't at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards - TCAs 2019

For all the Army out there, I have a question and please guys be honest with me. How many times have you replayed and watched the Run BTS episode when Jungkook fell off his beanbag, decided the floor was fine for him and fell asleep on it like a sweet angel?

And, of course, when it comes to saying the wildest things on live, you know you can leave it to V. But, we all know that it was just a pronunciation mistake when the most drool-worthy member of BTS said “sexy porn star” instead of “saxophone star.” But, I really wonder – was it really a mistake or the South Korean singer decided to go a bit wild with his words?

Anyway you have guessed by now that k-pop stars share almost everything about themselves to the public. Some of them may share videos while being at home, during concert preparations backstage or during dance and singing practice sessions. Let’s not forget that some even connect with their fans while traveling such as BTS:Bon Voyage.

Moreover, k-pop celebrities don’t just appear on stage to sing during concerts. Instead, they share content showing how they rehearsed and prepared for these concerts. And if you are a true k-pop lover, you would know that trailers and teasers of upcoming albums (also known as “comeback” in the k-pop language) are also shared.

The reason behind sharing these contents is to give more clues and hints about the new activities or albums of Korean pop stars so as to make their fans giddy with anticipation. And, that’s exactly what happens. Who remembers how fans went crazy over a stud earning worn by BTS’s Taehyung in the teaser of “DNA”? Or, how we lost all reason when Jungkook’s tattoos were exposed in the trailer of the song “On”?

So, what you can learn about the Korean entertainment industry is that you can use your social media channels to reveal a lot of things about your company and its products. For instance, you might just let your customers know what a typical day in your office is like.

What is your perspective on these marketing strategies? Please share your comments!

 

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Tips to Maximize Visits to Your Website

If you’re looking to go into business these days, it’s almost a given that you will need to set up a website. These days, all you need to reach a certain level of success is virtual visitors. So, how do you go about drawing them in?

The problem that most people face isn’t setting up a website or blog; it’s actually driving traffic to that digital destination floating about in cyberspace. If you’re not a seasoned digital wizard, you’ve likely struggled with getting the proverbial word out through a variety of forms of online marketing.

To rise above that noise, you need to understand some basic principles. This isn’t just about implementing the latest secret for driving traffic or hacking your way to the top of Google’s search results pages. This is about implementing tried-and-true methods that the biggest online marketers use to create and drive traffic over time.

There are several ways that you can use to drive traffic to your website and actually churn a profit as long as you understand some of the fundamentals behind just how traffic works. We’re talking about things like SEO, social media marketing, email marketing and so on and so forth.

While traffic itself is great to have, it will be useless if you’re not converting these leads and dropping them into your sales funnel, which can help you to sell your products and services. As you come to understand some of the rules behind what drives consumers to purchase from you, you’ll better absorb some of the methods for driving traffic to your site or blog.

Organic Methods to Driving Traffic To Your Website

Want the lowdown on how you can drive traffic to your website? The following traffic-driving strategies will only cost you your time.

Implement Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Today, if you don’t understand SEO, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Discover the nuances about SEO so that you’re engaging in the right type of traffic delivery strategies. You don’t want to bend or break the rules. Plus, by really having an understanding of SEO, you could quite literally supercharge your results.

Create Compelling Content

Content is king. As long as you create compelling content on your site or blog, you’ll keep the visitors coming back for more and more. Also, the better your content is, the more engaged your visitors will be. They will share your content for you, helping to promote your site.

Answer Questions on Forums like Quora

Quora is a great medium for driving traffic to your site. Answer questions on this platform and link the right keywords to anchor content on your site or blog. However, don’t use this platform to spam. Ensure that your answers are detailed and that you know what you’re talking about

Create YouTube Video Tutorials

YouTube is a great resource for driving free organic traffic to your website. Maybe it’s because Google loves YouTube, and considering that it’s the second most popular search engine in the world, gaining exposure on YouTube could be huge. Create useful tutorials and videos that add an immense amount of value and be sure to link to your content through the description.

Get Social On Instagram

Everyone knows that Instagram is a wildly-popular platform for sharing photos and connecting with others from around the world. Yet, few people know how to leverage Instagram to drive traffic to their website. However, many people have built multi-million dollar businesses solely by using Instagram as their main method for driving traffic.

Leverage LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform

LinkedIn’s publishing platform is a great method for marketing the content that’s already on your website. Publish a unique, high-quality post on LinkedIn that delivers an enormous amount of value and ensure that you link that content to anchor content on your blog or website to gain that all-important authority bridge to your primary post.

Utilize Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your site or your blog, and to promote any offers, but it also means that you need a list to market to. Create a lead magnet and build a sales funnel immediately if you haven’t already done so, in order to build up a list that you can eventually market any of your offers to. Just be careful not to spam your mailing list.

Partner For Paid Giveaways

Partnering with companies that have a large footprint is one way to drive interest and visitors to your site. You’ll need to give something away of value here. If you have something you can give away, then locate potential local or regional companies that you can partner with on an initiative.

Engage In Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a great way to get your message out to millions of people without having your own large audience. You can leverage influencers on Twitter, Instagram and any number of other social networks. Find people who are entrenched in your niche or industry and reach out to them. This won’t be cheap, but it could potentially bring you droves of customers and sales in the near term.

These are just some of the most organic methods for driving traffic towards your website. Of course, there are many more. Consider working with the Deliver By Linkeo platform to learn more advanced techniques that will drive your sales numbers higher than they currently are.

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The Basics Of Digital Marketing – Part 2

Welcome back to our ongoing series on the basics of digital marketing. If you’re a newcomer to the industry, this series might help you find your bearings on your journey to the online business sphere.

The most important thing to remember when approaching a digital marketing plan is that there is no exact template to success. Your needs will vary on your individual goals. However, there are certain points that will keep you on the path to success. Let’s have a look at them now.

Create a Realistic Framework

Before you do anything, you’ll want to map out your plan. The important thing is to establish several realistic outcomes while leaving some room for uncertainty. And you want to do this based on a set of chosen key performance indicators that are related to your strategy and goals.

If you don’t choose a subset of metrics to base your strategy on, it’s likely that you’ll veer off track and not make it to your end goal. Keep the process as simplified as possible when communicating and delegating, and establish a clear time-frame so that everyone on the team stays focused.

Identify Appropriate KPIs at the Outset

You’ll have to find the right metrics to focus on in order to understand how you got your end results. Choosing the right KPIs – the ones that most closely represent your key target areas – will help you to stay on target and understand which of your marketing actions are actually working and which need improvement.

The trick with setting these up appropriately is to remember that it’s all about data, but it’s also about human experience. This is the key to setting up a decent sales and marketing strategy on the whole – you are viewing your traffic as numbers, but also humans. You’re going to want to home in on numbers that truly tell a story about what your customers are doing, and using this data to shift things around in the future.

The bottom line is that human behaviour is really what’s affecting your return on investment, so remember to always approach it from a user’s point of view.

Know How to Build an Effective Funnel

Those of you who have experience in the traditional business background should already be familiar with the concept of a sales funnel, which is a step-by-step outline of each phase of the buyers’ journey. The widest part or top of the funnel is where outreach, engagement and brand awareness happen. This is key to capturing new traffic as well as re-engaging repeat traffic. The top of your funnel is where the marketing happens and you’ll want to ensure that this is highly engaging – it’s not so much about the sale as much as it is about relationship-building.

Understand What Makes for Effective Content

Content is so much more than great blogs, landing pages and Facebook ads! There’s a lot you can do to get creative with your content. What makes for truly effective outreach and engagement is your ability to tell a story, and to that end, your strategy should centre around an effective advertising campaign that is high quality and of value.

What do we mean by this? Build your core ads and service offerings first, and then write content with call to actions that lead users towards a purchase. But make sure that it’s relatable, relevant and useful to your audience.

You’ll also want to have a clear understanding of how your content is working with regards to SEO and analytic patterns. Everything that you put out into the world ends up being “data,” so tracking it in the right way is crucial. This also means understanding the user experience.

Visualize a Clear Direction

The whole point is to make a flexible plan to have a clear understanding of how the process will follow through from the ground up, starting with SEO-friendly and highly shareable content. At the end, you’ll want to compare your expected results with the actual results, so that when you create a new strategy you’ll understand better, what works and what doesn’t.

The Final Takeaway

In order to build an effective content marketing strategy, you need to have a solid understanding of project management, which includes a solid vision of the plan as well as each step, and the bits and pieces involved in having each step be successful.

Successful digital marketing strategies are never cut and dry, but with a little practice, you can make them work to your advantage. When you can authentically engage a broad audience, you’ll no doubt impress. However, if you feel you need help getting there, consider contacting Linkeo Ltd and enquire about the Deliver by Linkeo service.

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Outdoor Signage: Types of Commercial Signs 

When evaluating the different outdoor commercial signs to choose for your business, you must consider your corporate image, environment, and budget. Each option has several pros and cons. Not all types of labels are suitable in every case. Incorrect signage can cause overstimulation and even confusion, so it should not be conceived from a fleeting idea or as a part of your business less critical than its interior, staff, or products or services it sells. Here’s a list of the most common types of commercial signs with their advantages and disadvantages.

#1. Letterbox Faceplates

It’s a plate made of aluminium with a design on vinyl. It can be decorated with a white, black or other coloured aluminium profile, usually located either inside an architectural hole, such as moulding or an arch or in the same facade plane.

Pros

  • It is the simplest and most economical type of label.

  • Ideal for when you do not have an electrical installation at the front of your store or do not want to make the necessary investment in electricity to illuminate your space.

  • It allows all kinds of designs and colours.

  • It can be simply illuminated from above with fluorescent or LED lamps.

Cons

  • They give a less sophisticated image than other types of signs.

  • They attract less attention than different kinds of labels.

  • They are usually not as durable as other types of signages.

#2. Banners

Image result for Banners signage

Banners are signs mounted perpendicular to the building’s wall, standing out from the rest of the labels that are mounted flat on the facade. They help pedestrians find the entrance to a business from the sidewalk. Like the rest of the signages, they are manufactured in very diverse materials, from the simplest, such as canvas, very typical of vintage restaurants, to the most sophisticated, such as those with an aluminium box with a canvas methacrylate front with interior lighting. They are usually always double-sided, to ensure visibility in any direction of travel. They can also have varied forms (square, round, cross-shaped for pharmacies, with a specific design for parking lots, bank tellers, tobacco, etc.).

Pros

  • They improve a business’s visibility, especially when combined with another type of flat sign on the façade, guaranteeing visibility from all possible directions.

  • They are cheaper than other types of labels with similar functions.

Cons

  • Their installation tends to have greater regulatory restrictions than other types of signs, having a more significant impact on visibility.

  • Installed alone, without any other type of complementary label, it has limited visibility.

#3. Vinyl on Windows

Image result for vinyl on windows signage

The vinyl in shop windows is an excellent way to give visibility to a business, usually combined with another label type. In some cases, it can be used as the only external brand image. It is an excellent way to temporarily advertise products and services (such as sales, new products, etc.) or permanently protect interiors from the gaze of curiosity (with the option of seeing from the inside) and from UV rays.

Pros

  • They allow great creativity in terms of designs and colours.

  • They enhance the visibility of a business if they are complemented with other types of signs.

  • Its installation is simpler and cheaper than that of other signs. However, professionals’ skills and experience will avoid wrinkles or different kinds of imperfections, especially on surfaces that are not entirely smooth.

  • They are relatively inexpensive, although investment in professional installation is often required for optimal results.

Cons

  • If ordinary, more durable vinyl is used, it can be difficult to remove.

  • If electrostatic pieces of vinyl are used (no adhesive, they run on static electricity), they may not be very durable and require reinstallation.

  • Its durability is not the same as other types of signs, although adhesive vinyl types resist environmental phenomena better than electrostatic ones.

Not Just Any Type of Label Is Suitable

As we said at the beginning, not all types of signs are necessarily suitable for your business. Therefore, if you take your company image seriously, you must know that there are signage options offered online that may not be the most beneficial. That’s the case of websites that sell online signs at a fixed price without considering essential elements like municipal regulations, exterior architectural features, environmental impact, the necessary installation, and so on. These agencies don’t really care if you direct more or less foot traffic to your business or convey a positive image to your customers. For this reason, it is best to contact professionals like Sign Raizor! Established more than 15 years ago, they’ll help you create a lasting impression for your business thanks to their wide assortment of signage services.

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The Various Features of a Killer Food Delivery Platform

While restaurants and cafes used to have to deliver the food themselves, the process has undergone quite a few changes in recent years, with the advent of online food delivery platforms, with UberEats, Deliveroo and GrubHub as newer examples.

If you’re looking to create your own delivery platform, there are several things we can learn from these businesses. Let’s dive into some of the key features that can ensure your own platform will enjoy a fair level of success at the very least.

Must-Have Features to Build an Attractive Food Delivery Platform

If your aim is to drive your business to greater heights and provide an exceptional user-experience at the same time, your online food delivery platform must be equipped with advanced UI features. The list below contains a selection of some of the cutting-edge features you should definitely consider adding to your own platform.

An Aesthetically Designed Homepage and Intuitive User Interface

Aesthetics and intuitive design are the cornerstones to driving deeper user engagement. Your homepage should be pleasing to the eye, and easy to navigate with a clear navigation interface. Some of the key features to consider include:

  • The top banner housing all the main components like log-in/register.
  • A strategically designed banner image showing exquisite culinary food dishes. This is essential in enticing users to order food online.
  • A compelling tagline that makes your service seem more welcoming.
  • As most of these services are location-based, you must incorporate a search bar along with the location tracker on the homepage itself.

A ‘How It Works’ Section

One of the major goals of any new platform catering to a niche market is to make its novice users aware of how the platform works. Therefore, your food ordering and delivery portal ought to have a dedicated section, which guides users to perform various operations on the marketplace. It’s vital to place major emphasis on the design of this page.

Reviews & Ratings

Your food delivery marketplace must enable the customers to give reviews and ratings on your service and food. This will help you evaluate your offerings and make the necessary adjustments.  Also, businesses are beginning to realize the importance of customer reviews to enhance their brand identity as reviews highly influence the decision-making process of new customers on where to order their food from.

Login/Signup

When it comes to the login/signup process on an online food delivery platform, it needs to be as simple, intuitive and should take the least amount of time possible to complete. This is because your aim should be to streamline the food ordering process. Rather than using a dedicated login page, your website can use a popup. Users can either use one-click login via Facebook/Google/Twitter or go for the traditional way of logging in with a username and password.

To expand your reach to a wider audience and deliver a personalized experience to the customers, your online food delivery platform should incorporate multilingual functionality. Enabling customers to search and operate in their language helps you enhance customer engagement.

Account Activation

In order to eliminate spam accounts and build a strong user base, you can also have a pre-activation verification system in place, where you require users to confirm their email to activate their accounts. Alternatively, you can also add an OTP service in place to verify via mobile number.

Customer Dashboard

A comprehensive user dashboard helps customers easily manage their account details and keep track of their activities on your app. The customer dashboard should be designed in a way that the customers can easily access the information and manage their account on the platform. The dashboard can include such features as:

Wallet – allowing customers to add funds to an online wallet will save them needing to enter their credit card details each time they place an order, and also improve online security.

Delivery Address – Users generally tend to order food from their homes as well as offices on a regular basis, making an option where users can add default addresses comes in handy. This makes it easier for users to order food quickly, eliminating the hassle of filling the same addresses again and again.

A “Your Orders” Section – For a better user experience, your online food ordering and delivery platform must have a dedicated section for customers to view their current and past orders.

Another excellent feature that appears to be making waves in the current global climate is:

Geofencing for Seamless User Experience

Features like Geofencing could play a crucial role in providing superior customer experiences and increase your restaurant’s sales. With geofencing, you can set virtual boundaries marking locations where you deliver and notify the customers when they enter that predefined location. This location-based service can ensure safer deliveries during the ongoing pandemic.

Final Thoughts

In recent years, the food ordering market has grown rapidly. Rather than going to an eatery, people prefer to order food online. This has resulted in huge demand for online food delivery and the outcome is the rise of platforms like Grubhub, Deliveroo, and Uber Eats.

If you want accelerated growth for your online food delivering business, your solution should be equipped with exclusive functionalities and impressive features. This would surely help you in capturing the bulk of the market share and driving exponential business growth. If you need an expert team to help you get started, why not get in contact with Linkeo Ltd and enquire about their Deliver by Linkeo project.

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How Delivery Can Impact Your E-Commerce

Did you know that many e-commerces fail because of their delivery options? It might be the cost is too high, the lack of delivery options, or quite simply that customers don’t trust the delivery promise. Therefore, you can drastically improve your online sales by simply focusing some attention on your delivery strategy and acting upon areas that your customers feel need work.

Let’s look at what we mean by delivery strategy.

Your delivery strategy covers everything to do with the delivery of your products and will be dictated by what your customers expect of you. Everything from how you present the delivery information on your e-commerce website and in your marketing, right down to the product that arrives on the doorstep will be shaped by these demands, as well as your ability to meet these requirements in terms of volumes, finances, or manpower.

How Can Your Delivery Strategy Increase Sales?

As previously mentioned, delivery is one of the main reasons why people don’t buy online, so how can you entice people to trust you? Quite simply, you need to offer the kind of delivery options your customers want. Survey your regulars to see whether speed, convenience or cost is the most important for your customers. This is especially important if you’re running a specialist business like a cheese shop or vintner. Once you’ve identified what your clients want, find the couriers that can best serve your needs.

The delivery space is one of the fastest-growing aspects of e-commerce at the present time, and the options for smaller businesses are constantly improving. This makes it well worth scouting the marketplace periodically to make sure you have the best delivery service for your business.

Once you have the right services in place, make sure you are presenting them clearly on your website. You need to get it right in all these places:

  • On every page: a header with the headline offering, and then a link to the delivery options. Avoid hiding the prices.
  • Clear information on every product page. Is it in stock? When will it dispatch? Relevant postage prices.
  • Clearly explain it on the checkout and basket pages too.

Offers on delivery are one of the most powerful promotional tools you have at your disposal. Any promotion is your opportunity to get the customer to do what you want them to do as cheaply as possible – in other words, with minimal impact on your margins. If you are already offering free P&P on everything then use “Free upgrade to [better delivery service]” as the big promotion. A permanent free P&P offer of some sort can also be very powerful. For example, if your average order value is $50, then give anyone who spends more than $50 free P&P.

How A Good Delivery Strategy Can Encourage Repeat Purchases

E-commerces are all looking to turn buyers into repeat customers, and your delivery strategy can play a vital role in making this happen. You need to approach the first order someone places with you as a test. The customer wants to see if they can trust you, so you need to make sure you do an excellent job on the order.

This means delivering on your promises – the right goods must be delivered on time, in one piece and as promised. And that’s just the bare minimum. You also need to have a robust plan to fall back on if things go wrong. Rather than looking at it as a problem to be solved, look at every issue as an opportunity to build more trust in your brand.

If you really want to get that second order, you need to be proactive. Put a clear call to action into that package to ask for the next order and wow the customer as well. For instance, you could add

  • a copy of your catalogue (if you have one);
  • a leaflet featuring your bestselling products;
  • an offer such as free P&P on your next order, or a code for a discount on the next order.

Even if you can’t add anything to the package, you might want to consider putting a promotional message on the dispatch paperwork.

If you’re looking to wow your customers, here are a few suggestions:

  • Brand your packaging – This could be as simple as a sticker or a stamp (some find this helps recruit new customers when their parcels arrive in offices).
  • Include a surprise gift: This doesn’t need not be big or complicated. A coaster, pen, sticker or bookmark can have a big impact.
  • Wrap the products nicely in tissue paper or anything else you can do to make opening that parcel feel special.
  • Add a “packed by” card from the person who actually packed it – creating a human connection always helps.

We hope this article has helped you realize the power of delivery for an e-commerce. If you would like to learn more, or have your own online platform created by a professional team, contact Linkeo Ltd today and enquire about the Deliver By Linkeo line of products.

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