January 2018 – 20four7VA

How to Make Pinterest Work for Your Small Business

Most businesses today use social media as a crucial part of their online business marketing strategy. And why not? With millions of active users every day, social media is the perfect platform to promote products or services.

However, because of the sheer number of businesses on major social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it can be difficult for small businesses to catch the attention of users without spending tons of cash in advertising. The most straightforward solution to this is to turn to other social media platforms like Pinterest.

If you want to know how to make Pinterest work for your small business, here are some helpful tips:

Add the “Pint It” Button to Your Website and Blog

Make it easier for Pinterest users to spread awareness about your business and products by making the images on your website or blog “pinnable.” The “Pint It” button lets people pin the photos on the boards of their personal accounts. Doing this will allow you to tap into their followers, which will ultimately expand the reach of your website or blog.

Don’t Be Shy about Creating Boards

The first thing you want to do on Pinterest is to create boards where you can pin all of your products. This is a crucial strategy in helping drive more people to your website. But aside from products, you can also create other boards that can represent your brand. If you have a blog where you have published infographics or guides, you can take the images and pin all of them on a single board.

Pin Videos

Photos and images are not the only ones you can pin on Pinterest. The “Pint It” button will allow you to pin videos from websites like Youtube or Vimeo. If you have existing videos such as product reviews, tutorials, installation guides, or whatnot, make sure that they can also be found on your Pinterest account. Create a board dedicated for these videos. They can be played directly on Pinterest, which is very advantageous in spreading your content.

Interact with Users

Part of social media management is interacting with users. Pinterest, even if it’s more casual than other social media platforms, is no different in that regard. Make sure that your social media VA is always ready to interact with users by liking their pins or replying to them whenever they comment on your pins. Social media marketing is about establishing relationships with the community after all.

Create a Group Board

One of the coolest things that you can do on Pinterest is to create a group board where you can invite people to pin. It’s an easy and fun way to interact with users. As the creator of the board, you have the power, of course, to remove pinners and inappropriate pins. You are also the only one who can change the description and title of the board.

Do you have any tips and tricks for using Pinterest for your small business? Share them with the community!

Next: 8 Smart Marketing Strategies For Small Business Owners

20Four7VA recognizes the challenge of effectively managing an online business – and we are very eager to help. Our company specializes in eCommerce VIRTUAL STAFFING SOLUTIONS, providing customizable and scalable solutions to small, medium, and large enterprise business owners so they can focus on growing their business.

Ready to have access to incredible people with incredible skills in the most cost-effective way? Give us a call at our toll free number 1 (443) 856-4882 today!

10 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners

One big misconception about affiliate marketing is that it is easy to do. Although there are a lot of business owners who found success with it, it doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed to experience the same thing.

The world of affiliate marketing has changed over the past year because of stricter legislation on affiliates and Google’s crackdown on thin affiliate content. This contributed to making an already competitive marketing channel even fiercer. Competition is tight. If you want your business to get ahead, here are some basic affiliate marketing tips that you can use:

10 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners

Focus on creating top-notch content.

When it comes to online business marketing, search engines like Google play a huge role. Probably the most effective way to get a nod from these search engines is to produce top-notch content. With relevant and valuable content, your traffic is sure to increase. Attaching affiliate links to such content can lead to higher revenue.

Get to know your audience.

Learn more about your target audience. Identify what type of products or services they need from you and then quickly provide these to them. You can also form a bond with your audience by directly connecting with them and/or supplying them with the information they need through your content.

Find your niche.

As a beginner in affiliate marketing, you have to start somewhere small. Instead of wasting your time and effort targeting a wide range of products and services, make sure you find a niche to focus your strategy on. Doing this can help you immediately establish a foothold in the market.

Use other channels to promote.

You can get a big boost in your affiliate marketing efforts if you are able to use other channels to promote. Whether it’s email marketing or social media, make sure you take advantage of their reach to drive more traffic to affiliate sites.

Be always updated with new trends.

Changes come and go in every facet of online marketing. To be successful in affiliate marketing, you have to be always updated with the latest trends. By doing this, you can swiftly adapt to changes that can either make or break your affiliate marketing strategy.

Find tools that can help you.

Time is a precious commodity especially if you are small business owners. Invest in software or tools that can help you be more efficient in affiliate marketing. This strategy will pay off in the long run.

Increase the traffic to your website.

Improving the traffic to your website brings a ton of benefits not only for your affiliate marketing efforts but also for your SEO, email marketing, etc. Make sure you do what you can to increase your website ranking on Google.

You need more than one merchant.

If you have multiple products, be sure to use more than one merchant to maximize your reach.

Know your legal obligations.

Just like what was mentioned before, there is new legislation over the past year that directly affects affiliate marketing. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the laws and your obligations as an affiliate marketer so you can prevent any violations in the future.

Stick with it.

The competition is tough when it comes to affiliate marketing. As a beginner, you might not see good results in the first few months. Success won’t happen overnight, after all. The most important thing, however, is to stick with it.

Do you have any affiliate marketing tips for beginners that you can share? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Next: 8 Smart Marketing Strategies For Small Business Owners

Ready to have access to incredible people with incredible skills in the most cost-effective way? Give us a call at our toll free number 1 (443) 856-4882 today!

8 Smart Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners

There are a lot of factors that can cause the failure of your small business. One of them is having poor marketing strategies. If you don’t know how to market your products or services whether it’s online or not, rest assured that your business won’t be able to see success. If that’s exactly the kind of scenario you want to avoid, be sure to use these smart marketing strategies for your business.

Learn how to use SEO.

If your business has its own website, you should do whatever it takes for it to appear in search engine results. Fortunately, you don’t have to do much. You just need to learn SEO techniques. With the help of SEO, you can increase the traffic to your website, which could ultimately lead to better sales. A higher website ranking in Google can also drive more potential customers to your business.

Use email marketing.

Here’s a good idea. If you have a database of emails of your customers, you can send them regular emails whether it’s to introduce a new product, offer exclusive promos and discounts, or even ask them for feedback through surveys. MailChimp is one of the more popular software that you can use for email marketing.

Use the power of social media.

Nowadays, social media plays a major role in online business marketing strategy. It is utilized by businesses not only to promote their products and services, but to drive more traffic to their websites as well. Social media can also help you get direct feedback from your audience and customers, which is valuable in improving your business.

Build your network.

One of the most crucial factors in the success of every business is building a solid network. Once you’ve cast your web and established relationships everywhere, you can guarantee that people will look for you if they are in need of products or services that are similar to what your business offers. Attending networking events from time to time would be very beneficial in building yourself a good network.

8 Smart Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners

Produce quality and relevant content for your audience.

There’s a lot of noise online. For your business to get noticed, what you need is high-quality and relevant content. Make sure you hire a good content writer VA who can produce good content for your website, your blog, and even your social media profiles.

Do contests and giveaways.

There’s nothing better to get the attention of your target audience than doing contests and giveaways. You don’t even have to shell out tons of cash for these, too. You can start by giving away branded merchandise like shirts, caps, pens, etc.

Partner with other local businesses.

You see this all the time. Two or more businesses working together to promote each other’s business. Doing this will help create more opportunities for your business because you are expanding its reach. You are also building a good relationship with other people, which may prove beneficial in the long run.

Use traditional marketing media.

You don’t have to focus all of your efforts towards online promotions. Traditional marketing might work just as well. You can place an ad in your local newspaper or even do direct mail marketing. The point here is to be creative and try out other things that other businesses won’t even bother to look at.

Have you tried other marketing strategies that worked for your small business? Tell us all about it in the comments section!

Next: Email Marketing Tips For E-commerce Startups

Ready to have access to incredible people with incredible skills in the most cost-effective way? Give us a call at our toll free number 1 (443) 856-4882 today!

5 Useful Communication Apps Every Business Owner Should Have on Their Phone

As a small business owner, you always have to be on top of things. You have to make sure that every aspect of your business is running smoothly, and this includes communicating with your suppliers, clients and even your virtual staff. But what if you need to be on the road? Will you still be able to keep track of everything and communicate with other people even without your laptop?

Don’t fret. The good thing with today’s technology is that you can install useful communication apps in your smartphone to stay connected at all times. Here are some of them:

5 Useful Communication Apps Every Business Owner Should Have on Their Phone

Slack

Slack, with over four million active users every day, is the fastest growing workplace software ever. It is a cloud-based collaboration application that allows you to easily share images and files to your virtual employee, clients, or suppliers. It also has an instant messaging system where you can organize conversations into private or public channels. Slack can be downloaded for free, but if you want more features and controls, you can upgrade to their standard plan. The plan is $8 a month and gives you unlimited app integration, group calls, and guest access.

Skype

One of the most popular communication apps today is Skype. It is a great tool for communicating through your phone as it allows you to send text messages, call up to 25 people at the same time, and of course, transfer files or images of any size online. You can use Skype for free, but you can also upgrade to Skype Business for $5 a month.

Viber

If you want an easy-to-use app with a pretty straightforward set of features, then be sure to download Viber. It’s an app that allows you to send messages and make free calls to other Viber users in any country using any device or network. To enable the app, it will just need to read your phone settings and contacts.

Google Hangouts

Got a Google account? Congratulations! You can use Google Hangouts in your phone to message, call, and video call your team. You can also start group chats for up to 100 people. And to make your communication more fun, you can add photos, emojis, and stickers to your messages.

Voxer

If you think delivering a voice message will be more beneficial for your business, then make sure you download Voxer. It is a push-to-talk app that allows you to deliver voice messages live. The messages can be instantly received or listened to later. It can use any WiFi connection and can be used for photo and text messaging. Voxer is known to provide military-grade protection and encryption to ensure your data is saved.

Communication is key to a successful small business. You don’t want to be left in the dark especially if you are on the road, right? Make sure you download these useful apps in your phone to ensure that you can still coordinate with your team or clients wherever you are!

Do you have other communication apps in mind that you find handy? Share them with us!

Next: How To Write A Business Plan

Ready to have access to incredible people with incredible skills in the most cost-effective way? Give us a call at our toll free number 1 (443) 856-4882 today!

10 Really Helpful Tips for Work-From-Home Moms

Having the option to make money from home is a thing that many working moms (and dads) can appreciate. By cutting down the time spent away from your kids, you’re in a better position to boost quality bonding time with your family and achieve better work-life balance.

But being a work-at-home mom has its own unique challenges too.

If you’re working as a home-based virtual assistant, you’re constantly faced with balancing your work life and your home life. In some cases, keeping the two separate is enough to drive any work-at-home parent nuts.

To help you better control your work and home life, check out these 10 really helpful tips for work-at-home moms.

Wake up early.

There are lots of popular sayings about how the early bird gets the worm and that early risers are healthier, wealthier, and wiser, and they definitely ring true for work-at-home moms. Waking up before the rest of your household is active allows you to accomplish more things, so make it a point to become a morning person.

Make a to-do list and try to stick to it as much as you can.

Sure, there are plenty of unforeseen circumstances when you’re working from home, but it’s still important to make a schedule. Having a to-do list helps you keep track of what you’ve done and what’s still left to do and it helps you declutter your mind.

Create a routine for your kids.

It doesn’t have to be a rigid routine, but try to get your kids to eat, play, and sleep at regular intervals. Doing this will allow you to fix your own schedule more easily as well.

Have a designated workspace.

Setting up a proper workstation where your family members aren’t allowed to disturb you (except for emergencies) is a brilliant move. It allows you to set a solid boundary between work and home and helps you keep your focus while working.

work from home mom tips

Hire help.

Some work from home moms think that hiring help is showing a sign of weakness, but there’s absolutely no shame in it. If you can afford it, get some help. It’ll free up your hands for tasks that are more worthy of your time such as spending time with your family or taking on more work.

Know your limits.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. As tempting as it is to take on more work to increase your income, you also have to know when to stop.

Sleep when you can.

Sleeping is so valuable when you’re a parent that you have to squeeze it in whenever you can. When your kids are taking their naps, when your partner can take over the house chores, or when you have finished your work early, get some sleep.

Stay flexible.

Be prepared. You’ll encounter many unforeseen circumstances, so make sure that your schedule allows for some twists and turns.

Plan your meals.

Planning your meals allows you to spend less time doing groceries and pondering what to cook for the day. It’ll also help you ensure that your family are eating healthy food and not something that’s easy to prepare but deplete of nutrients.

Get out of the house.

Every once in awhile, you have to make some time for yourself. Get out of the house to go shopping, meet up with some friends, or have a spa day. You’ll feel so much better, more relaxed, and more energized to continue your work.

Being a work-from-home parent has amazing perks. And if you follow the tips above, you’re definitely going to enjoy the benefits of making money from home so much more.

Next: How To Set Up A Functional Workspace At Home

Ready to have access to incredible people with incredible skills in the most cost-effective way? Contact us today!