Archives for September 2015
Twitter Ads Now Appearing Across the World
The world of social media ad buying has gotten a bit more crowded recently, with Twitter announcing more extensive opportunities for marketers to purchase ads on the site.
Twitter recently announced it has made its advertising dashboard, a completely self-service platform, available in more than 200 countries and territories across the world, a number far beyond its initial test area of 33 countries.
Now, advertisers in just about every market reached by Twitter have the opportunity to purchase Twitter ads.
Additionally, the greater amount of countries now served means advertisers now have the ability to promote tweets by country to basically any location in the world in 15 different languages. Targeting by ZIP code, province and state will
A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and micro-blogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character (or number sign) # in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end. Searching for that hashtag will then present each message that has been tagged with it.
soon be an advertising feature available to marketers across the globe for any country large enough to warrant this feature.
Along with the increased advertising ability has come an increase in advertisers on the social network. Twitter announced that as of the beginning of September, the network has approximately 100,000 advertisers, a significant increase from its total of 60,000 in November 2014. A significant portion of those 100,000 advertisers are owners of small- and medium-sized businesses. These types of entrepreneurs are the main target for the self-serve ad system developed by Twitter.
One executive from Twitter said that since Twitter Ads for small and medium businesses launched a little over two years ago, the company has put a great deal of effort into retooling and improving its measurement, targeting and creative tools to help produce better results in terms of leads, conversions, clicks and engagement. The company believes it is now easier than ever before to drive marketing results on Twitter while only having to pay for the results you get.
Twitter is essentially playing catch-up to Facebook in this area. As of February, Facebook was reporting more than two million active advertisers. Twitter had recently been seeing some slow growth numbers, but now the company believes this upgrade to its advertising platforms will help to give a jolt to the number of users registering for and actively using the network.
To learn more about the benefits of buying advertisements on social media, talk to our Viral Solutions team.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
Tips for Managing Your Email Inbox
Between your own team, your clients, the businesses you partner with and professional newsletters to which you’ve subscribed, you likely get a sizable number of emails throughout the day. Depending on your role and the size of your organization, you may be receiving hundreds of messages.
With such a volume, it’s impossible to respond to every last one in a timely fashion—but how can you be sure you’re replying to all of the most important emails quickly? And how can you strike a balance between getting through your email and still having the time you need to handle all of the other aspects of your work?
Effective small business owners have some tricks you can adapt to your own needs to better manage your inbox. Here are five of them:
Viral Solutions’ mission is to provide its clients with the assistance needed to experience bursts of growth in their operations, and a big part of that is through the use of technology. When business owners feel overwhelmed, burnt out or unmotivated, Viral Solutions steps in to give them the tools they need to achieve new levels of success. At Viral Solutions, we help small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again!
• Don’t send email if you don’t have to: Sending email creates the expectation of a reply, and likely a back-and-forth exchange. Think about how much less email you would have if you simply sent less of it. And if communication can happen more effectively offline, such as when there’s a dispute to settle, that route may be best.
• Develop a routine: Responding to emails as they appear in your inbox may seem efficient—until you realize how often it interrupts what you were already doing. Carve out some specific time each day to address your inbox, with the goal of leaving nothing for tomorrow.
• Take advantage of “mark as unread”: If you’ve received a barrage of emails during the day, one way to prioritize your replies is by going through your inbox quickly to get a lay of the land, marking as “unread” any email that may require more time and attention. Also, use flagging or tagging tools – like those available in Outlook. These are color codes to help with reminders and segmentation.
• Acknowledge the emails you receive: Many emails don’t require much more than an acknowledgment that you’ve received and read them. As you’re going through your inbox, you can quickly send replies to these messages to avoid leaving anyone hanging. If you have an autorepsonder – use it so they do not feel like you are ignoring them.
• Pay careful attention to your language: Using clear and precise language in your email communication is a great way to eliminate the likelihood of more emails asking for clarification and leading to further inbox clutter. Consider picking up the phone to avoid any misunderstandings and excessive replies.
Email is a powerful tool and an essential component of effective communication and operation for every small business, but you should be in charge of your inbox—rather than the other way around.
For more information on how you can efficiently manage the flow of email, both for yourself and your small business, contact the team at Viral Solutions.
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner and an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Retargeting Allows Your Brand to Re-engage Past Visitors
Retargeting, also commonly referred to as remarketing, allows advertisers to show ads to people who have already engaged with them in some way online.
Through retargeting, ads highlighting your business are placed throughout other websites a viewer browses after leaving your page. This method of positioning ads online has proven to be extremely effective, and it represents a powerful tool for online advertisers and marketers.
In its most basic form, retargeting serves ads to people more frequently after they have left a publisher's website. The users will be shown retargeting ads as frequently as possible unless a frequency cap has been placed by the advertiser. In practice, most publishers sign up for displaying ads from ad networks instead of directly negotiating with the advertiser to display their ads. Some advertisers specialize in retargeting, while other companies have added retargeting to their list of methods of purchasing advertising. Retargeting helps companies advertise to website visitors who leave without a conversion – this accounts for about 98% of all web traffic. Retargeting marks or tags online users who visit a certain brand website with a pixel or a cookie,[3] and then serves banner ads only to the people who have shown at least some amount of engagement with the original brand. Retargeting ad campaigns usually run on lower cost media, such as display ads, which not only increases effectiveness by specifically targeting an interested audience, but also improves the overall ROI of the advertiser.
As an example, retargeting could be used to bring back a viewer who left items in an online shopping cart and did not complete a purchase. After leaving the items in the cart and closing out of your website, it is likely that this potential customer will forget about the merchandise that once interested him or her. Instead of letting go of that potential sale, retargeting places ads for your company on other websites that customer browses to remind him or her of the incomplete action and redirect her back to your website. Retargeting ads can even depict the specific items that the potential customer had in the shopping cart.
Using AdWords to retarget
For businesses interested in retargeting, Google offers an accessible and highly effective option as part of its AdWords platform. Not only does Google have an expansive ad network across more than 2 million websites, but it also accounts for approximately 75 percent of all search engine use in the United States.
AdWords allows you to retarget viewers through display and search ads as they browse the Internet on a tablet, desktop or smart phone. You have complete control over what content is featured in your ads and how often each ad is displayed as it follows viewers around the web.
Most importantly, through retargeting, you can reach potential customers where they are most likely to engage with your website and complete a desired conversion action. When a person returns to Google to continue looking for a product or service, retargeting ads are there to remind them that your business has exactly the items for which they’ve been searching.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords and a Mobit Certified Partner.
The Importance of Responsive Web Design
As more people access websites on even more types of devices, websites must be ready to provide a seamless user experience across screens. Responsive web design can make your site ready to work no matter how your customers are finding you.
What is responsive web design?
A responsive design site adapts to the size of the screen it’s on. Rather than building for a specific size screen, the site can fit on multiple devices. You can test this 
by adjusting the size of your browser window and watch how items on the site move. Adjustments include minimizing text and graphics and rearranging the web page. The result looks more like a mobile site but is still the original.
How is this different from a mobile site?
A mobile site is a condensed version of your site. It requires its own domain (m.website.com), and is delivered by your site’s server. A separate domain can affect your analytics, as it is technically another site. As users increasingly turn to mobile, it may be more costly to maintain to meet new demands.
Why should I invest in it?
There is no special URL required for users, and the user’s device does all of the work instead of the hosting server. Responsive design requires adding more code on the back end, and the time can be costly, but it does not have to be maintained as more devices are released.
Other benefits include:
• Better user experience. Site navigation is easier for users when they have a similar experience across devices, and don’t have to enter a separate URL and navigate a different site. Responsive design allows users to find the content they want without having to resize the page, scroll through a lot of text or download large graphics.
• Improved search results. Last year Google announced it would prioritize mobile-friendly websites in its search results. If your website currently isn’t mobile friendly, you’ll want to change that quickly or risk banishment to the second results page. Adapting your current site to include responsive design would be a more efficient fix than building a new mobile site.
• Cost effective and future proof. Sites are increasingly moving towards responsive design, which means users are expecting it. When considering designing or redesigning your website, investing in responsive design will be worth the extra development because it likely won’t need to be update much, unlike a mobile site.
Get in touch with us today at Viral Solutions to learn more about the difference responsive design can make in your digital marketing!
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner and an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Mobile Ecommerce Has Become a Really Big Deal
Mobile commerce, or mCommerce, is not new, but it has seen significant growth in 2015. Retailers need to adjust their digital strategy to accommodate the increasing number of customers ready to purchase products on their smartphones.
With more options for mobile payment – including a variety of devices and payment platforms – it’s simple for customers to purchase products anytime, anywhere. Software and finance companies are developing solutions for safer purchasing, while retailers are pouring more resources into mobile development, making mobile shopping safe and simple.
Key Trends to Note
mCommerce is projected to account for 33 percent of eCommerce transactions in the U.S. by the end of 2015. Mobile transactions had already grown ten percent in the first three months of 2015.
Smartphone transactions tend to dominate both in the U.S. and globally, though statistics vary by country. Consumers are relying less on apps for completing transactions, often preferring the mobile browser experience. Smartphone
Forget simple text response options like YES or NO! With MOBIT mobile text marketing, you can now have in-depth conversations with your audience with mobile web pages, unlimited content and mobile web forms that capture as much information about your audience as you need.
mCommerce is also growing more rapidly than tablets.
The average order value is still higher for desktop purchases, and customers on tablets tend to spend slightly more than those on smartphones. Desktop purchases typically occur during work hours, while smartphones are used in the morning and tablets at night.
What these trends mean for retail marketing
Your business can easily adapt your current marketing strategy to reach more mobile customers.
1) Email marketing is making a comeback
Email marketing was on the decline as users learned to filter or ignore spam messages. Now that the mobile user experience has improved for email and retail, the purchasing process is streamlined.
2) Digital coupons drive traffic
Digital coupons are growing increasingly popular, both as coupon codes for eCommerce and mobile coupons to use in stores. Mobile coupons are cheaper to create and are more likely to be redeemed, with an estimated 121.3 million adults expected to use them in the U.S.
3) Social media as a discovery tool
Ecommerce through social media doubled in 2014, and while Facebook accounted for less than five percent of eCommerce traffic on desktops, it drove traffic seven percent for mobile users.
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner and an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant.
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.