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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Can Simple Tweaks Drastically Improve Your Sales?

Making huge gains in traffic on your website and social media accounts is excellent, but what matters the most is generating conversions. There is no use in spending a large amount of money on extensive marketing campaigns if no one is buying your product or services or signing up for your website.

Many tweaks can drastically improve your sales. 5 of the most important ones are discussed below:

1. Make The Benefits Conspicuous.

All of the benefits offered by your products and services should be prominent on your website. The landing page and homepage are important in making these advantages known to potential customers immediately. Some examples of benefits your customers will love and should see might include free delivery, customer support, discounted offers, and giveaways on certain purchases. All the unique selling points of your business should be emphasized to convince the customers about the importance of what you have to offer, front and center on your website.

2. Use Credibility Markers

Using credibility markers can definitely be the tweak that you have been looking for. It can skyrocket your sales to unprecedented levels because the trust and experiences of previous customers are essential for the new potential customers.

Examples of credibility markers contain reviews and testimonials at a dedicated page on your site. Social media pages like Facebook understand this strategy and utilize it on their business pages. Facebook for example, has a specific review section for business pages they offer their users. Make sure you ask your happy customers to leave a fantastic review for you. You can also derive a huge advantage in improving your sales if you manage to get an influential personality in your business area to endorse your brand.

3. Call to Actions

The aim of your business and its site should be unambiguous to the audience to maximize the success of its aims. If for instance, you are building a lead generation page a professional contact or submission form should prominent, easy to understand, and easy to use for visitors that may turn into customers.

If you have products available for sale they should also be easy to see and buy as well. Along with this devices you'll need to craft a strong call to action to seal the deal.

4. An Efficient Conversion Process

The conversion process should be as easy as possible for potential customers.”Click here, buy this, fill out this easy form” you need to streamline the process for your customers, and to maximize your sales.

Many business owners overlook this strategy, but it is very simple to implement. The method of purchasing products and check-out should be modernized and streamlined to increase the sales of your business. Don't ask your users for unnecessary information and try to make the buying process as fast as possible before they remove the order and change their minds.

5. Improve Your Website

The style, design, and structure of the website of your business should be captivating for your visitors. It should keep them engaged. An optimial website can be achieved by adding attractive content and making use of other tweaks like:

• Adding Images And Videos

A large portion of online visitors are more likely to watch a video than they are to read lengthy content. Hence, it is a good idea to add videos on your website and inform potential customers about your products, services, and qualities of the company via videos. Engaging and high-quality videos will keep the users hooked on the page of your business, and the chances of selling will increase.

• Faster Loading Times

Consider the fact that people have a very small attention span nowadays and are constantly clicking away and swiping on their phones. Your website needs fast loading times to make sure it is easily accessed by users, and that they don't move on to other sites. It has a huge impact on conversion rates. Allocate a decent budget to site optimization to enjoy more sales.

Every business owner must keep in mind that the ultimate goal of tweaking the sales processes is to attract more customers and optimize the conversion rate. The whole process requires energy, time, and financial resources. You will have to keep testing new things to find out the best approaches and eliminate the ones that do not work for your company. With time fruitful impacts will begin to show in terms of sales and total revenue from your business.

All of this can be made easier by using a simple, optimal program that audits your business from the inside. BizFire's Free Business Analyzer and Growth ToolTOOL is a great way to save yourself the time and headache of working out these tweaks in your business on your own.

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

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

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

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

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

How To Make Money Using Social Media

It takes a while to understand that social media sites are developed for more than just entertainment and de-escalation of boredom. You can make money through social media without selling anything. These platforms are, believe it or not, perfectly designed to be used as money-making machines. It may take you a little time and a lot of effort to get recognized by other social media users. You'll need to build an image and audience on social media. You'll need to build an audience and engage in an effective social media content strategy. Over time, as your audience grows and you accumulate more and followers a number of new income opportunities may open up to you, and you'll never have to create a store or start your own business if you don't want to. Once you have a substantial audience, here are some ways you can make money with your popular social media account:

1: Brand Promotion:

Some of the most effective marketing is done through ads and promotions online, but not all of it is pay per click advertising. Many companies will turn to famous and popular celebrities to promote or endorse their products. If you become a social media influencer companies may reach out to you for brand promotion deals. Companies know this is a great way, especially to reach a targeted audience.

Example: Look at Tecno Mobile who launched a Tik Tok campaign to reach out to teen users, which comprise about 90% of the website's audience.

2: Shout-outs:

Shout-outs, especially among young people and millennials, are becoming one of the most common social media promotion tactics. You find someone who is a highly influential social media personality with an audience that fits your target market and you get them to give a shout-out to their audience about your page or business. Not only can you gain new customers this way, but also followers and viewers for your other pages online. If you become influential enough on social media, other influencers and companies may reach out to you for a paid shout-out.

3: Selling Arts And Crafts On Social Media:

Millions, maybe even billions of social media users all over the world have a love for the arts. Who doesn't love seeing the creativity of another person in action through arts, crafts, and other special talents. Showing your creativity and talents in action and putting them on display is a great way to build a solid social media following if you do it right. In addition to getting the influence though, it also opens up the door to money-making opportunities. Many artists are already selling on Instagram, and Facebook is starting to break into E-Commerce as well. If you have talents and hobbies you're good at and passionate about, you may be able to turn it into a social media business.

Keeping Followers Engaged With Content

Building a following and keeping a following on social media follow somewhat similar strategies, in they evolve the constant creation of content. You need content that is original, unique, and will keep relevant users engaged, and it has to be constant. Keeping up with all the content you need to keep your following strong can be demanding, but it's very much worth it, and made easier by user-friendly software like News Poster to help get you started with relevant content rolling on your page.

How to Access A Whole New Set of Leads By Partnering With Other Businesses

Looking for new customers? Or a way to make a whole bunch more sales? You’re going to love this strategy then! Think about other business that you could partner with, that you don’t directly compete with, where you could offer value that will make you both a lot of money. Think about the customers a business already has, and whether those same customers would be interested in your own product or service. Now, think of how you can make your offer a win-win for you and the other business. This is a great way to access a whole new database of potential clients for yourself, and give the business you’re partnering with an opportunity to upsell their current clients by offering them your service (for a cut of your fee).

For example, if you sell homemade candles, reach out to boutiques to see if they'd be willing to sell your candles (even without them buying them first - just sharing in the sales). Or if you sell a social media management or SEO service, reach out to web design firms that might not offer your services to their clients, but offer them a good chunk of the sales PLUS offer to do all the work, support, etc. for their customers AND let them market it as their own (a win-win for both).  Or if you're a programmer or have a tool of your own, reach out to market leaders in your industry who might be able to sell a lot of your product and let them white label it (sell it as their own) for a good cut of the profits while you just maintain it and do support for it. One good deal here can be more than a full-time living or a good little business all by itself.

We’ve started six and seven figure businesses by making such deals, and it all starts with just reaching out when you know both sides can benefit.

So have a look for other businesses that you don’t directly compete with that you could partner with. Then look at how them selling your product can be a win-win, whether it’s a share in sales, fulfilling a need their clients have but they don’t offer (and allowing them to market the service as their own) or white labeling your product for their clients.

To find businesses to partner with, check out our business lead tool here: Macroleads

Want to Charge More for Your Services? And Still Have People Lining Up to Buy From You? Here’s How!

So how can you charge more for your services? How can you increase your price tag and still have customers lining up to buy from you? One easy way is to change your offer from a simple product/service to a done-for-you offer. What does this mean? Check out this example below.

Say, instead of charging $5 to write an article, you instead charge $497 to $997+ to write five articles, create a blog, post the articles up, optimize it for their keywords, and have a custom graphic or two. If you were to outsource a $5 article for $3, the first example only gives you a $2 profit, or if you were to write it yourself, you'd be trading $5 for 30 minutes, at best, of your time ($10 an hour on the higher end if you’re super fast).  However, if you were to offer the second, more premium example, you could outsource the articles for $15, allocate $10 for some custom graphics on Fiverr.com, and put in $25 to $50 to outsource the custom blog with SEO (blogger.com blogs, for instance, can be made in a matter of minutes).  That's a raw cost of $50 to $100 for a $400 to $950 profit. Or, if you were to do the work mostly yourself, you'd be talking about maybe 3 to 5 hours of work, easily putting you in the range of earning $100 to $200+ per hour compared to $10 per hour just selling a $5 article.

So, see what you can add to your offer, or bundle it with, to make it a more premium offer. Or, look at how you can make your offer more “done-for-you.” and price your offer respectively. The kicker is that more people like to buy a premium offer than a basic offer, as it's more appealing and more "done-for-you" than just an item that they'd have to do all the rest of the work on themselves.  And less people offer premium services/offers, so you're competing against less.

This doesn’t just apply to services either, as the same can be done for almost any kind of product out there. For instance, instead of just selling a book on how to lose weight, you could also sell a product or program that gives them daily exercises either through e-mail, a mobile app, software, etc.. So instead of someone just reading how to lose weight, you can make it more easy and “done for you” by literally giving them a way where they simply have to follow the daily tip. Or instead of selling a 50¢ apple at a gas station, one could sell a pre-sliced apple with caramel dipping sauce ready to go for $4+ (even though the raw cost is only a tinge more than the standard apple).

One great example we’ve done is instead of selling a course on how to rank on search engines and get traffic, which would be a challenge to sell even in the $25 to $50 range, we created software that helps do a lot of those tasks for people. And instead of having a challenge of selling a course for $25 to $50, we can charge $997 / year to $2,997 / year much more easily. We’re able to do that because it’s more “done for you” and involves far less time for the end user.

A similar example outside of software was with a real estate investing instructor that we know of who at one point sold several courses on how to invest in real estate. Most of these courses originally were on the lower end of the price point, but she was able to turn those “books” into “webinar trainings” and online courses and charge closer to $997 on up, but she didn’t stop there. She was able to partner with one of us to create software that helped do what she was teaching and sold it for around $4,000 a pop. But she still didn’t stop there. She then took all her teachings and tools and basically made an offer that would be as hands free as possible for the user. That was accomplished by setting up an offer where you’d be able to purchase a $25,000 package where you’d get on a bus with others, tour dozens and dozens of homes in a day that they already did the math on and knew were awesome deals, and then be able to make offers on the spot with bankers, agents, mortgage brokers, etc. all right there with you in one place. Granted, this wasn’t for the average mom and pop investor, but for some big investors, including overseas ones looking to take advantage of the U.S. market at the time, this was an opportunity to jump into it as hands free as possible. And they were willing to pay for it.

An interesting twist on making any offer more premium or done for you is that it doesn’t have to always start with your own product or service! You can find existing service providers or products out there, see how you can make them better / more “done for you,” and then try to either form a partnership with them or just use the outsourced provider to fulfill the work for a service. A few simple tweaks to their package / offer and sales pitch can turn a $5 offer into a $500 or even a $5,000 one without even having the need to make your own offer from scratch!

Now start looking at how you can apply this to your business. How can you make your offer a premium or “done-for-you” offer by adding more things to your service or bundling your products together to give more value? This then allows you to increase your prices substantially, your premium pricing reflecting your premium product.

Now you have ideas for a premium product, need help getting leads to sell this to? For help with how to get leads to promote your product or service to, check out this cool tool: Domain Lead Pro.

How To Build A List of Customers You Can Market To Over And Over Again: The Benefits of A Membership Program

A membership program is where your customers sign up, either for free or for a fee, to be part of a community or elite club. As an incentive to sign up they often receive special discounts, invites to product launches, early access and other rewards. The benefit to you is that by offering incentives and rewarding customers’ loyalty, you encourage them to keep coming back to you and buying from your business. You also have the benefit of beginning to build a list of clients that you can regularly market to and offer deals to.

For example, if you have an online store and sell health food products, you could create a VIP membership program for customers, where one of the main benefits is free shipping. You could also offer special deals, such as a free gift (perhaps a sample of a new product you want to promote) with each purchase over $30. The free shipping encourages people to join your VIP Membership Program, now allowing you to continue to regularly market to them, and the free gift with purchase offer incentivizes them to purchase from you.

For another example, if you sell a weight loss course online, you could have a free or paid upsell Facebook group page where they can more easily reach you, interact with others, ask questions pertaining to their own weight loss journey, etc.. This has two main benefits: 1) It can increase the chance that they’ll see future messages / marketing from you (like via Facebook) and 2) It can be a super easy upsell that you can add without any extra real work on your part to initially make it! For instance, you can sell access and include the ability to ask you any question and get a response from an expert, which in the eyes of a lot of prospects can be a huge value. However, to you, it might be something super easy that you might do anyway (answering your customers) but now you can get paid for it!

So consider creating a membership program, where your customers become part of a community, and receive special benefits, (for example, free shipping, early access to sales, special deals, free gifts with purchase). This allows you to start to build a list of leads and customers to market to and also encourages customers to continue to purchase from you.

For other strategies on how to build a customer database and other great marketing tips, check out this book here 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!

How To Use Social Media Effectively

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

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

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

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

Consider some of the following guidelines:

1: Headlines Matter:

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

2: Compelling Visuals:

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

3: Adapt According To Your Platform

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

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

3: Trending and Timely:

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

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

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

4: Cast A Net Of Posts:

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

4: Interact With Users:

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

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

5: Keep The Content Coming

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

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

Five Marketing Tips To Drastically Improve Your Sales

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

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

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

1. Identify The Market And The Problems.

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

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

2. Develop A Unique Selling Proposition

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

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

3. Effective Social Media Marketing

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

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

Other advantages of social media include:

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

4. Select An Appropriate Price

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

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

5. Customer Retention

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

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

Why Content Is Still King

One common and popular phrase that has stood the test of time is "content is king" why? Because it has remained true despite hundreds of other factors like SEO practices, social media, and many other modern trends influencing online businesses and marketing. SEO experts have begun to adopt the philosophy that content is the most crucial factor of the ranking of any website.

Despite the fact that the importance of content is emphasized in many high places, too many aspiring online entrepreneurs have not fully understood and embraced this idea. Many will miss out on the benefits that great and original content can bring to a page. There are many to consider.

First of all, though, it is essential to be familiar with what content actually is. There is no short answer to this question. Content is everywhere and it's used in everything. In blogs, posts and articles you can find it along with web content like an “about us” page or a page describing products and services, all of which are part of the page's content. Moreover, the posts on social media accounts are also considered content.

Many companies and businesses think that uploading content regularly and in large amounts alone will improve the visibility of their sites, ranking, and ultimately, sales. It may be true to some extent that posting content regularly is essential, but it is also important that the content produced is unique and engaging to visitors.

Good content performs the following functions:

• Helps in branding of the business.
• Improves the search engine result page (SERP) ranking of the website.
• Increases customer engagement and attracts more traffic to the site.
• Generates leads and sales.

Types of Content

As discussed earlier, content is much more than just words on a website. It encompasses all those materials that are shareable and easily readable by the users, which will lead to the expansion of the customer base and better brand building.

Some types of content might include:

Written Content

Articles, press releases, academic reports, papers, and blog posts are all written material. Many modern types of content have emerged in the last few years, but written content is still considered an essential type of content because it is imperative in publishing different material. Moreover, it acts as a lead magnet and possible sales for a business.

Social Media Content

Social media content has the ability to reach a massive number of people anywhere in the world quickly and easily. All Facebook posts, tweets, LinkedIn posts, and Instagram media is considered to be social media content because it is shareable.

Multimedia Content

The reach of multimedia content has increased manifold. It is imperative to share visual content and even videos to keep your audience engaged. Thanks to rapidly growing video contributors on YouTube and Vimeo, the influence of video is growing. Different types of videos like interviews, teaching videos, product reviews, vlogs, reviews, and gaming videos are being uploaded daily and in heavy volume. These trends are increasing the importance of introducing different types of multimedia content, especially engaging videos.

It's important to discuss these types of content because even though the definition of content has evolved due to advances in technology and modern trends, content is still king. Why? Because it is used in and by all different types of business and all across various platforms. As the internet world of business becomes more competitive, it's becoming more important to use content as a way of spreading your message on any platform.

Customer Engagement

It is imperative that companies and entrepreneurs keep their customers updated and engaged in their business. The content should be unique and engaging for your users. Engaging content draws people and allows your brand to build a stronger bond with the customers. Moreover, good content will be able to attract traffic to your website, even if you have not implemented any other advanced strategy. Overall, it will increase your ranking on search engines, and customer engagement will improve.

Content marketing is a vital part of business success. Companies that have excellent content are naturally more attractive to more inbound links and traffic, and hence the chances visitors buying your products or services will also be on the rise.

The Statistical Importance Of Content

Different researchers and their analysis of the data have shown that content marketing is extremely important in customer engagement, expanding the customer base of a business, and running a successful blog. For example,

• Around 70% of the markets claim that excellent content leads to more engagement with the users.
• Social media content has become highly effective in B2C businesses
• According to a survey, 85% of people prefer brands that have entertaining content like personalized stories, solutions, and experiences.
• Many people find new businesses and companies via Twitter and Facebook.
• Video creators on YouTube have become a huge chunk of social media influencers as their content is seen by millions of people all around the globe.
• Overall, great content is necessary for a successful business, and it is much easier and cost-efficient to produce excellent content. Hence, content marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing, and it generates more leads than conventional marketing techniques.

Producing various types of content and implementing content marketing strategies can seem very complicated and intimidating. Fortunately, there are many programs out there that can help. Robot Author simplifies the process of creating engaging content to attracting more users to your sites.

Why Does Everyone Lose Money on Facebook Advertising

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

1. They Don't Test Their Audiences

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

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

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

How to Test Your Audience

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

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

Keep the audiences that perform best.

2. They Don't Utilize Lookalikes and Customs

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

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

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

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

3. The Pixel Isn't Working Properly

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

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

What if All of This Was Easy?

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

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

Why Some Businesses Fail?

Business is a complex concept that many fail to gasp. A business only emerges to be successful if it is implemented after thorough planning with passion, discipline, and after a great deal of research. Sustaining a business can become extremely difficult after a certain period of time due to budget constraints and poor planning. According to a survey, in the USA alone, 70% of new businesses take a hit within a decade of their conception.

A truly successful business is not one that booms and experiences a short and vibrant period of success. A truly successful company is one that enjoys sustainable success that lasts long term and withstands the test of time. Many business owners make the mistake of ignoring critical issues during the first few years, which in turn damages the business operations down the road in later years, and sometimes it's too late for the problem to be fixed.

A number of reasons can lead to your business becoming a failure. Some of the common reasons are:

1. Weak Leadership

Strong and effective leadership is important in ensuring the success of your business. An ineffective leader ends up micromanaging the employees and will try to control all aspects of the company. Unfortunately a poor leader will fail to understand that for one man, that is simply not possible. As a result, the business environment starts to crumble. A good leader is the one that imparts knowledge to the workers and tries to give specific duties to responsible people. A good leader knows how to delegate so that every aspect of that business gets taken care of quickly and efficiently.

In new businesses there are many different requirements and responsibility for different departments, and this can be difficult to manager at first. Unseasoned leaders are overwhelmed by juggling so many responsibilities and challenges and cave under the stress they can bring. Leaders need to be strong, bold, and unafraid of making quick, but calculated decisions. Good leaders also pay attention to details and are constantly looking for means of improvement. Without good, solid leadership, it doesn't matter how much money a business has or good a product it offers, it will fail.
If you don't plan for the long-haul, your business will fail before it even begins.

2. Lack Of Long-Term Investment

A far-reaching, powerful, long-term vision is essential for a good business. Many businesses make the mistake of getting overexcited during the first few years as soon as they start earning money. As a result they often fail to develop long term strategies for growth, and don't make investments in the future, clinging instead to immediate profits. Such an attitude in business will inevitably lead to poor quality products, stagnant growth and innovation, and customers who will eventually lose business. The customer base will diminish and the business will fail.

3. Lack Of Market Research

Thorough planning and research are needed at the time of launching a business. A primary reason that leads to business failure is that it gets launched without proper research and does not target a specific market. Market research is vital and should be conducted before you even think about starting a business. Even if a business enjoys success for a short period of time, ultimately, it is bound to crash without any kind of research. Without conducting research beforehand, a business might as well be stumbling around blind. How can you expect to succeed in business if you don't know anything about your hopeful customers?

A successful business is defined by the ability to predict the consumer’s requirements and behaviors. With this knowledge they can then deliver products and services that perfectly fit the needs and desires of the needs of the customers they want. You don't necessarily have to have a unique or incredible product. What you do need is to able to offer premium quality to customers who are looking for something from you in particular.

Collecting and analyzing information about market trends and procedures is important in keeping your business ahead of your competitors by offering new products, services, and deals to keep up.

4. Lack Of Customer Retention

Many businesses ignore customer retention strategies because they keep focusing on finding new customers. However, it is counterproductive strategy because old and loyal customers are important not only in increasing the sales of a business, but also popularizing it through good reviews and word-of-mouth. Not only that but old customers are easier, and cheaper to keep, compared to the process of finding new ones.

5. No Expansion Or Personal Growth

Growth does not only mean establishing a business in different locations or expanding operations. It means you also need to keep your business inspiring and innovative. Fresh talent should be welcomed in your business because they bring a lot of modern and fresh ideas to improve your business. Moreover, leaders of a business should also keep attending different seminars and training sessions to make sure they are keeping up with the times and adopting the latest entrepreneurship strategies.

If you want a deep examinations of things that may be holding your business down, you also should considering looking into programs like BizFire's Free Business Analyzer and Growth ToolTOOL, which may provide many valuable insights in a fraction of the time.

How to Increase Your Profits by Offering A Range of Different Upsells

Looking for a way to capitalize on the value each customer is worth to you? An easy way to do this is by offering different upsells. Upselling is offering a complimentary or upgraded version of a product/service that a customer is currently purchasing. One of the most well known upsells can be heard when you head into your local fast food joint: “Would you like fries with that?” Even not so great upsells can add a quick 33% or more to your revenue stream.  Some really good upsells or funnels can even double your initial sales or more! An upsell is a great way to increase the total value of a sale.

For example, if you run a dance school, and each class is $15, you could provide a number of upsells. You could offer 3 different upsells, of varying amounts:
Upsell 1 - 4 week course for $50
Upsell 2 - Gold Membership where for $120 a month you can attend as many classes as you like.
Upsell 3 - Pro dance package for $200 a month, which allows you to attend unlimited classes and receive 2 private classes a month.

A good upsell path, often referred to as a funnel, can make or break a business. One model that we’ve used over the years is to offer a crazy deal on the front-end (a low priced, deeply discounted offer or a free plus shipping and handling offer) while having several upsells ranging from continuity offers to high end offers. The money is made in the upsells – not on the front-end – in this case. We’ve started multiple seven figure businesses this way over the years, and the model is easily repeatable in almost any niche, but it wouldn’t be possible without a great upsell path.

But it’s important to note that you don’t have to build a business around an upsell path like we did (although that certainly can work). Just adding one or two upsells to your existing offer can greatly increase your earnings with minimal effort.

For instance, we helped another business owner once with a new offer that he was about to launch. We encouraged him to add at least one upsell to it, but since he was behind on his launch schedule, he was very hesitant and didn’t feel he had enough time to do so. So we said to just create a simple offer based on something he already sells, shoot a quick video on his iPhone, and throw it up on a page to see what happened.

The quality of his video sucked, he looked like he was on zero sleep (or high…), yet when he launched his new offer, the upsell made quite a few sales! In fact, the upsell actually MADE MORE MONEY than the front-end offer itself. It was responsible for about two-thirds of the total money made. That means that if he didn’t follow our advice, his launch would’ve been a third the size that it was (costing him tens of thousands of dollars just in those few days).

Upsells don’t have to be perfect, but you need to have them!

So consider offering a range of differently priced upsells to your customers to increase the total of each sale. Your upsell could be a complimentary or additional option on the offer your customer is already purchasing. Remember, include at least one upsell!

For more great upsell ideas and strategies to grow your business through improving your sales funnel, check out his awesome tool: BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer

Five Super Important Things to Rank Your Site

What is a Ranking in SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is meant for the betterment of web pages to help search engines rank them accordingly. In SEO, ranking indicates the position of a website’s page on what's called the search engine results pages (SERPs).
According to Google, the ranking of a website is vital because it helps in showing the relevant search results. It is also essential for the organization of largescale data present on the web and making the information reachable and valuable to people all around the world.

The ranking also makes it easier for Google to catalog the pages based on the optimization and quality of the pages.
The five most important factors in ranking of a website are:

1. Secure Website

The right URL is secure and easily accessible. A secure and accessible URL is probably the most important ranking factor of any website. Google’s bots should be able to access and crawl URLs for the information they need.
In other words, websites that have URLs that Google can visit and review easily, are more likely to rank higher on the SERPs.

To improve the ranking of your website by making it secure, you need to consider the following:
• A well-developed website through a standard website builder.
• Robots.txt file that is used by Google to determine where it can and cannot view the website information.
• A thorough sitemap which gives the details of all of your pages.

2. Page Speed

Page speed is one of the primary SEO ranking factors for many years. Websites that have rapid-loading webpages give an excellent experience to the users. Faster websites are highly preferred by search engines in any ranking system.
Since 2018, Google has taken into account the page speed on mobile devices as well as PCs. Therefore, website developers should consider smart devices and their loading speeds as well.

3. Mobile Responsiveness

Smartphones and other smart devices have become ubiquitous in the last decade. The majority of users on the web use mobile devices to browse websites. Hence, the mobile-friendliness of a website is a major ranking factor today. It has impacted the SERPs a lot because now, only mobile responsive websites are ranked on the first few pages of Google and other search engines.

Google implements a mobile-first index, which means that the results of the searched keywords are drawn from the mobile-optimized pages. Your website must be mobile responsive if you have a desire to see it ranked high on Google.

Some important factors included in website friendliness are:
• A responsive site that can fit and resize according to the device.
• Fonts are large enough to be readable on small screens.
• Different menus and pages can be accessed and navigated easily.
• Ads are placed appropriately and do not hide the content.

4. Content-Length

Some SEO experts do not consider the content length to be an important factor in the ranking of pages. However, it can be observed from the general ranking on Google that websites that have unique, engaging, relevant, and an appropriate word count are ranked higher than the others.

There is no hard and fast rule on the content length. A long piece of writing is appreciated in SEO ranking because it takes time and energy to create a unique and engaging long content.

However, there must be a balance in length. An excessively long and uninteresting piece of writing content will not attract many people to your website, which will adversely impact rankings.

Recent trends in Google rankings have shown that content length should never be ignored, and long-form content is performing better at the top of the SERPs. As a general rule, 1,000 words or more is optimal for most general content.

5. Domain Age and Authority

Data about the top-ranked websites on Google suggests that the old websites are ranked higher than the new websites. The main reason for this is that the old site is usually optimized over a period of a few years. In some cases, the domain name also accounts for the ranking of a website.

Some researches show that domains that match to each other and that are relevant, useful, and highly-optimized enjoy a significant ranking boost. However, your URL must reflect the nature of your business.

Authority is also another factor in SEO ranking. It consists of SEO signals like inbound links, social media impressions, and page authority. All of this requires a great deal of research, time, and experience, but the process can be made simple by automating it all through advanced programs. Highly ranked websites and SERPs are possible and you no longer have to be a digital marketing expert to make it all work. Web Fire is a great way to make this process fast and simple.

How Creating A Sense of Urgency Can Help Improve Sales: Reducing/Offering Free Shipping Within A Certain Time Frame

Don’t you hate it when you’re searching for an item, find it at an amazing price, then see that shipping is going to cost you an arm and a leg? One way to increase your sales, especially over a short period of time, is to reduce the cost of your shipping, or offer a sale period time where shipping is free. By putting a time limit on when you make free shipping available, you add a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to buy now, as opposed to at a later date. It’s also a good way to encourage customers who may have been on the fence to make a purchase now.

For example, say you have a business that sells gardening supplies online. Reach out to your customers and let them know that for any supplies ordered by midnight on Sunday, you’ll offer free delivery. If you have regular customers that place large orders with you, you may even want to reach out and call them. On your website, make sure it’s clear that you have this offer available for a limited time - it may be a pop up on your website or the first thing your customer sees.

So consider, for a limited time, offering reduced or free shipping on your products. The limited time frame creates a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to purchase now, as opposed to at a later date, and encourages customers who may have been on the fence to make the purchase.

For more tips on boosting sales within your business, check out this book 50 Marketing Tips & Tricks Learned After $100 Million in Sales Over 20 Years!.

How To Reach Out To Local Business Leads

For many people, their businesses are their primary source of income and the way they provide for their families. In order for a business to continue generating a steady source of income, and to grow, a business needs to seek new clients. Anyone who's been in business for a day can tell you how competitive it is. Your customers have plenty of businesses to choose from so you have to go out and find them. It's hard to be found by new customers, but luckily in the age of the internet we have thousands of platforms and means to advertise and market ourselves.

There are many ways to start with lead generation and it can be done through platforms like Google and social media. Many businesses also like to use a landing page along with other methods to generate leads. Using landing pages effectively can be a great way to gather leads, but first you have to get your leads to visit them.

Whether your business is online or offline both avenues are great for getting the word out about what your business is doing. Many believe multimedia marketing is only for the big dogs in the business, but local companies have many avenues before them as well.

1: Paper Publication Advertising

If you're trying to draw in certain groups or demographics, local magazines or newspapers may be the way to go. This is a great way to reach people locally and to reach a specific audience since magazines and paper publications that operate by subscription will cater to a certain audience. By using local publications you also have a higher probability of reaching people in the neighborhood. Even in 2020 there are still ways to be effective in newspaper advertising as well.

2: Online Paid Ads

Pay per click and similar methods of online advertising are still alive and well and with customizable tools and targeting options, ads on platforms like Google, Instagram and Facebook are becoming better than ever. These platforms allow you to set custom budgets and running times as well as specialized goals and targeting options. Social media is ideal for reaching customers because you can reach out to potentially millions or even billions all over the world, but you can narrow them to those who are most likely to take an interest in your business. Local businesses can utilize this incredible option as well, since the ads programs allow you to also target your customers geographically and may even be able to track local behaviors like store visits. Many businesses are using social media to advertise their business as well as to generate leads on platforms like Facebook. Online ads are the ideal way to reach out to potential clients and customers as well as prospective leads globally, nationally, and yes, locally, at the click of a button.

3: Google

Google is the most widely used search engine in the world. While the platform allows you to potentially reach millions or perhaps even billions of customers all over the world, it's also ideal for gathering local leads and clients as well. Did you know? More than half of smart phone users locally find services on Google by simply typing a business or service name then the words “near me” into search engines to find what they need locally. Optimizing your business webpage, landing page, and social media page as well as local results is an ideal way to find the people you need locally. All local entrepreneurs should consider optimizing their listings on Google My Business.
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4: Business Cards

Local businesses are still often relying on tried and true methods, and where the modernization of the digital age hasn't rendered these methods obsolete it has in many ways improved them. Online websites like Vistaprint make it easier than ever to print paper promotional materials like business cards and flyers to help you get the word out in person when the times comes. Design is made easy by online wizards or cheap freelancer services, and if you prefer not to wait for shipment you can even pick them up at your local Stores that offer this service.

Business cards are still a tried and true method for networking and reaching out to local clients and should be carried on you at all times. Often business owners have complained of networking and business opportunities arising in daily conversation, only to realize they had nothing to give the potential client who may have been to rushed to take down a number. Business cards are still a great way to make people aware of your business, social media pages, web pages, and may even be a great way to draw local traffics to your leads pages.

5: Direct Mail

Many in the business world still have mixed views about direct mail marketing, but it is certainly still effective even as a means of lead generation. It takes some work and research but you can market and reach out to leads effectively through direct mail marketing and it is an assured way to reach out to local leads since you know all your recipients are in the neighborhood. Direct mail marketing may not be as effective as it used to be, but many businesses are still using as effective way to expand their client base.

6: Automated Programs

One thing that's making life easier for business owners of every size and stripe, is the development of software that automates and streamlines the process. Programs like Macroleads allows you to organize your leads and reach out far more effectively to potential clients, all while saving precious time.

How to Build a List by Solving People’s Problems

So you’re looking to build a list? This strategy is a great way to build a list of people that are interested in your niche. First, find relevant Facebook groups in your niche, join them, and take the time to see what people are complaining about. What are the common complaints that keep coming up again and again? What product or service could you come up with to provide a solution to these complaints? Once you’ve come up with a solution, sell it or give it away for free to build a list or following.

For example, if you run a wedding planning business, join Facebook groups in that niche and see what the common complaints among brides-to-be are. Perhaps they find that it’s very overwhelming, trying to remember everything to organize and knowing when to do what. You could create a timeline checklist, of what to organize when in the countdown to the big day, and offer it free to build a list of potential clients.

So join Facebook groups within your niche and see what the most common complaints are, then find a solution to these complaints and either sell it or use it to build a list or following by giving it away free.

For help with finding leads and building your list, you can check out a demo of WebFire's tools here and grab a special deal!  Web Fire

How to Make More Money Without Having to Look for More Customers

It’s often a lot easier to sell to your current customers than to get a new customer. They already like and trust you and know your product/service works. Tap into that opportunity by looking at what else you can sell to your customers that compliments what they bought previously.

For example, if you have a resume writing service, you could go out to recent customers and also offer an additional service where you submit their resume to X amount of job ads and write a customized cover letter for each ad, and also submit their resume to several recruitment agencies.

One of our followers once had a tech business where he sold server management services, and he was asking me how to increase sales. After pointing out how it’s often much easier to sell to existing customers than get new ones, I asked him what kind of stuff or things his current customers seem to want or ask him for. As I suspected, they were often asking for things like websites, ranking help, etc. among other things. But to my surprise, he wasn’t offering any of these services (or even taking a cut from others he referred them out to). Months later I heard from him that he finally put my advice into action and said that he instantly saw a big boost in sales, and then months after that I heard that he increased his sales to something around 66% more with just adding a couple other offers that he’d approach existing customers on. He admitted that he wasn’t really even trying hard, and that if he gave it some more thought, he likely could’ve more than doubled his existing sales. That’s the power of selling to your existing customers with relevant offers that they likely already need!

Since your customers are going to be buying related products and services anyway, you might as well have them buy it from you! And even if you can’t offer the product or service directly yourself, you can easily reach out to those who can supply them and work out a commission deal for referrals. Reselling to your current customers is often a lot easier and less costly that trying to obtain a new customer. So try reaching out to your current and past clients with a complimentary offer to what they’ve bought in the past.

For other marketing tips on how to maximize revenue from your current customers, and refine your current sales funnel and offerings, check out this tool: BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer.

The Marketing Tip To Boost Your Sales: Sending “We Haven’t Seen You In A While” Cards With An Incentive To Buy

Most businesses tend to practically ignore their prospects and even their best clients. This is a horrible thing to do, as you’d be leaving a ton of money on the table in doing so.

One thing that you can do to help remind your prospects and customers about you is to send either an e-mail or a card with something like a thank you note along with an incentive to take some further action (like a discount or a freebie leading into a sales offer of yours).

For instance, if you have leads that haven’t bought from you but who’ve expressed an interest of some kind, you can either automatically (via an autoresponder) or manually follow-up with them by writing an e-mail saying how you haven’t seen them in a while, want to thank them for previously reaching out, and then letting them know about either a freebie you’re currently offering, which can lead into a paid offer, or a discount or other incentive/deal that you currently have. This can help revive old, “dead” leads into being active buyers.

Likewise, if you have existing clients that bought one of your offerings but haven’t been active since, you can send them a thank you for being a customer along with a similar freebie or special discount/offer exclusively for your members/customers into some other offer you have. This can be a great and easy way to make more sales without a ton of effort.

So follow up with old leads and past customers with a “we haven’t seen you in a while” message, thank you note, etc., along with a freebie, incentive, or discount to help drive more sales from them your way while also making them feel appreciated at the same time.

For more easy ways stay in contact with your customers and drive sales to your business, check out this tool BizFire's Free Funnel Maker & Analyzer.

How Offering A Free Plus Shipping Offer Can Build Your List And Lead To Big Upsells

One of the best things you can do to get people to take action, especially online, is to offer a free plus shipping & handling offer. These offers have an obvious HUGE value because nothing beats free, and by having them pay a small S&H fee, they still see the value in the free product, despite how often times your products’ costs might be completely covered in this S&H fee.

For instance, if you go to a site like Aliexpress.com, which specializes in drop-shipping products of all sorts, you can find lots of jewelry, pet toys, gadgets, etc. for under $2 that already include free shipping. Some of these have perceived values of easily $10 to $30 or more.

That means that your customers get an awesome deal by thinking they got the bargain of a lifetime, while you also get a steal of a deal by getting a new customer at better than no cost to you (if the product and shipping costs $2, for instance, you’re up $3 in profit just by charging a $5 S&H fee).

Obviously, it’s hard to strike it rich at a few bucks at a time, which is why you want to treat these offers as only an entry point into your sales funnel/offers. You want to offer them additional upsells, other products/services on your backend, and take full advantage of their e-mail address to reach out with additional offers in the future, as everything from that point on could be pure profit for you (at least in terms of no advertising costs).

We’ve started entire businesses around this model. You can really up your profits here, like we did, by not only getting lots of front-end buyers in with an amazing free plus S&H deal, but by then offering several related upsells, including a recurring one with a big bonus worth more than the first payment, which can skyrocket your conversions into your biggest money makers in your funnel. This all sets you up to get great conversions both on your cheap front-end to get a lot of buyers, but also get great conversions on your upsells that make your real money. Never underestimate the power of getting something for free or a big bonus with a smaller purchase.

So consider an impulse buy product with a free plus S&H offer where you don’t lose money after collecting the small S&H charge.  Then upsell additional offers to make the most of your money.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Understanding the Importance of Schema

1: What is Schema?

Schema is best described as a type of language and coding system. It helps organize the data and shows more relevant results in search engines for the end user. This system began in 2011 and has widely been supported and used by several search engines like Yandex, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google as an attempt to bring more pin-pointed results to their users.

Schema is often referred to as a markup system that is used to optimized websites. Essentially, it paves the way for search engines to interpret information and show the most relevant results.

Now, if you think that Schema doesn't apply perfectly to your website, you couldn't be more wrong. Schema can offer a variety of features that you perfectly image and optimize to your advantage.

The most surprising thing about schema is that it collects and displays every meager detail about the data you have questions about. For example, if you search for a specific hotel in your area on the Google search engine, you'll see every detail, including opening and closing times, availability, amenities, along with other relevent information that the hotel has for its customers on the Google search page.

2: What Is a Schema in Psychology?

The term Schema was coined by a psychologist named Jean Piaget in 1923, which means a plan or a scheme. He defined Schema as a structured knowledge of a person about affairs, entities, places, and people. Schema is more or less a map or blueprint that allows us to learn and gain knowledge more effectively. It helps people gain new knowledge on new subjects with greater ease.

As you build on the knowledge of people, places, entities, and events, things begin to make sense as we build a foundation with something similar to schema. In other words schema is a way to make things easier to learn by continually building on foundational knowledge. Consider your cellphone for instance. You know how to use the smartphone you have now because it follows a similar frame work to older models you had in the best. Once you have the frame work in place it becomes easier to build on that knowledge over time as cellphones became more complicated the new technology was easier to learn.

Schema is learning and the psychology could be best described as the building of knowledge through time and experience. Each experience we have prepares us for the next one, and incorporates more information into your schema.

When setting up your schema for your website you are assisting the end user in obtaining informative results about your website.

3: what’s the importance of Schema?

1: A website's schema clarifies to the search engine what you business is all about. Schema markups used by the websites are more visible and engaging than those without markups. And also makes the page eye-catching and informative with relevant snippets and images.

2: Schema markup assists you in the management of your business brand, when you change your brand name or add contact information like name, phone number, address, etc. it will let the search engines know and update accordingly.

3: If you are using a Schema markup to optimize a website, the search engine will recognize your business and will help the users by providing them the most relevant result for their search.

4: Schema markup optimizes the website and contributes to the rank of a website among top competitors. It also provides additional support to the users, which allows them to decide whether a website has what they want or not.

4: How does Schema affect Search Engine Optimization?

The use of the schema technique for SEO has countless benefits. It is important to use it on a perfectly tailored data structure within the efficiently formulated website that contains unique content. It takes the way your content is indexed and relays it to the end user in a way that is most helpful to them. When carried out the right way, you'll see an increase in traffic and user engagement. Schema markup constitutes a good chance to get your website ranked higher than those of your competitors.

5: WebFire:

So how do you create your own schema? It can be complicated when trying to set it up from scratch, however, you can make setting up a Schema easy! Shawn Casey and Brian Koz are two of the top internet marketers online today. After spending over $100k, they developed the most powerful SEO tool on the web known as Web Fire which is comprised of 22 SEO tools developed to optimize and rank your website. One of these tools walks you through the entire set up of a schema for your website. Take all the guess work out and get started today creating your schema today. Web Fire

How To Find Domain Owners From Around The Globe

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

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

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

Why Find Out Who Owns A Domain Name?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding The Domain Owners

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

Whois.net

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

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

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

DomainTools

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

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

What To Do After Finding The Domain Owner?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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