Tag Archives: marketing

5 Tips for Launching Your First Email Marketing Campaign

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Tips for Launching Your First Email Marketing Campaign appeared first on HostGator Blog . Email marketing is far from dead . In terms of return on investment, it still holds up as a viable campaign element. The trick is to know how to use this resource to its best advantage.  Even in a world with so many options for electronic communication, email remains an affordable and effective way to connect with consumers. But the most important bit is to make sure your emails go to the right people – qualified leads and prospects.  If this is your first campaign, don’t feel overwhelmed. With a little help, you can create a plan that’s effective and brings the positive attention that you want. Here are some tips to get started.  What’s a Qualified List Anyway? The last thing you want to do is buy a list, blast out emails, and hope for the best. If you want reasonable results, that list must be qualified. What does that mean? A ”qualified” email list has email addresses of those who have expressed interest in the types of goods or services that your company sells. Those addresses may be individual consumers, buyers for other companies, department heads, or anyone else with the authority to make purchases. The tie that binds them together is they have indicated the desire to receive emails related to products they want.  How do you come up with a qualified list? One approach is to have consumers opt in to receive your emails. That often provides a list’s foundation.  Don’t overlook generating qualified recipients by using your social media accounts. A simple post that includes a link back to the opt-in page on your website allows interested parties to sign up. Combined, the list will be composed of recipients who are more likely to open and read the email than hit the delete key.  Now that you know who you’re emailing, it’s time to launch your first email campaign.  Here are the 5 tips for launching your first email campaign… 1. Create emails with a specific purpose or offer. Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hub/53/file-23119214-png/blog/images/email_list_growth_tactics-resized-600.png If you’re serious about mounting an effective campaign, the email text must focus on engaging the recipients in a specific way. Offer them something in exchange for reading the email. Make a compelling case for accepting the offer.  Some of the offerings you could make include:  Notice and ability to register for an upcoming event Signing up for an email newsletter Discounts on specific goods and services Announcements of new products Can you include more than one offering? Yes, but it isn’t always the best move. One of the offers might be lost in the shuffle. You would do well to stick with one purpose for that email and follow up with a second one that contains a different offer a few days later.  Remember that your content must not contain any element that hints of a scam . Be up front and clear from start to finish. You’ll get more readers that way.  2. Write an eye-catching subject line. Remember the old axiom that was at the core of Toastmasters International training? It works with email campaigns too. The “Three S” approach – stand up, speak up, and shut up – translates well into this type of campaign.  Use the subject line to make a point or ask a question. Follow with information the recipient can use in the first paragraph. Follow with content that backs up that information. Close with a way to learn more by clicking over to your website.  That’s it. Forget about flowery phrases or trying to impress readers with a wall of text. Keep it simple and to the point . More people will read the whole thing and be inspired to ask for more.  3. Choose images and videos directly related to the email topic. It’s fine to include images or embed video in your marketing emails. Just make sure they accomplish more than taking up space.  The images must directly relate to the email topic. Unless you’re selling a new pet product, kittens are not good choices. Use an image that shows the product or at least someone using it. That creates context.  The same is true with video. Make it short, sweet, and relevant. No one has time to watch a video as long as a TV show. Use the video to make a quick point and direct the reader to the product. Do it in less than three minutes. 4. Don’t hit “send” 500 times. In the beginning, your email list may contain ten people. Maybe less. At that level, it’s no big deal to put them all on BCC using your regular email address and service and send it out. Once you have hundreds, or even thousands of names on the list, the technical aspect of simply emailing them all get complicated. Your standard Gmail account will likely be exhibiting symptoms of stress thanks to Google’s new AI spam filters . Most web hosts help newbie email marketers take the next step in technical sophistication by offering email services like autoresponders, multiple email boxes for your domain, web mail, and other handy features for a marketer. A reputable service should fully abide by GDPR data privacy requirements . Most hands-on HostGator reviews explain how to set up email in a GDPR-compliant manner, as does the HG knowledge base . As your list grows, it will eventually become too unwieldy to manage even with a web host’s resources. At that point, it’s time to look into a full-fledged email marketing service like Constant Contact .       5. Use the email format that works best for your audience. Source: https://ucarecdn.com/900cb335-6b86-4a87-a06e-54975362273f~7/nth/5/ HTML is pretty. It works a lot of the time. It may work for you. Then again, it may not.  Think about your target audience. Are they more likely to open the email on a phone or a laptop? Will the HTML slow down the load time and motivate the reader to close and delete the email? Will it add anything of value to the email itself?  Only you can answer those questions, and a lot depends on the quality of the underlying code . As you decide, be aware that poorly-executed HTML increases the odds that readers will delete the email before finishing it. That also means they won’t forward it to their associates.  The bottom line… Expect to be horrified by the perceived complexity when you first dig into the idea of email marketing. It can be overwhelming but only if you’re a rank newbie and try to implement every tool and strategy at once.  Start simple. Create a landing page , drive traffic to it, collect email addresses, and send the list emails periodically. Lots of online marketers have been very successful doing nothing more than this. Later you can figure out autoresponder sequences, list segmentation, and conversion techniques. For now, take the first step. Choose one of those email marketing services we mentioned up there and take action.  Many have a free level or trial period. Ultimately, the only thing standing between you and your first email marketing campaign is inaction. Change that by taking action now. Good luck!    Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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10 Ways to Boost Online Store Sales with Wishlists

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Hosting

The post 10 Ways to Boost Online Store Sales with Wishlists appeared first on HostGator Blog . Adding wishlist functions to your online store can help turn more window-shoppers into paying customers, if you make your wishlist visible and easy to use—and maybe don’t call it a wishlist. Here’s how to choose your wishlist tools, put them in the right places on your site, and make the most of the marketing opportunities wishlists deliver. 10 Steps to Wishlists That Work Why do wishlists work for online stores? Saving items for later reduces cart abandonment, and it makes it easy for your shoppers to pick up where they left off later, even on another device. Shareable wishlists can also reach new customers who are shopping for gifts or want to copy a social media influencer’s style. Follow these steps to boost sales for your online store with wishlists. 1. Choose your wishlist plugin The best wishlist plugins make it easy for your customers to use them. Look for guest wishlist options, social shareability, privacy options for individual wishlists, and easy to use admin tools that show you which products are the most wished-for. Two of the best-rated options for stores that run on WordPress with WooCommerce are WooCommerce’s own Wishlists plugin and YITH WooCommerce Wishlist . Both cost $79 for a one-year, single-site subscription. YITH also offers a pared-down free version. 2. Decide what to call your wishlists Wishlist—as in, “add to wishlist” may seem like the obvious term to use in your store. But UX-research group Nielsen Norman Group has found that some shoppers feel “greedy” about adding things to a list to share with others. NNG recommends alternatives like Favorites or My List. 3. Choose where to put wishlist tools on your site There should be an add to wishlist (or favorites or my list) button on every product page. Google’s Retail UX Playbook lists wishlist-related calls to action on product pages to reduce friction for shoppers who are browsing or who want to complete their purchase later, on another device. You can also add a wishlist button—usually a heart—to product photos on your category pages. West Elm does this, and lets shoppers start marking favorites without signing in or creating an account first. Shoppers can review their My Favorites Gallery and sign in if they want to save those items for later. It’s also a good idea to make wishlists visible and easy to access from the shopping cart and during checkout, to encourage shoppers to add items from their lists. 4. Customize your store’s wishlist tools You should be able to customize your wishlist buttons, colors, messages, and more to blend in with your site design. You may also have the option to require that shoppers register in order to make a wishlist, although NNG recommends against that because it adds friction to the shopping experience. You may also be able to customize the sharing options you want your store’s wishlists to support. Make it as easy as possible for shoppers to share their lists, especially on social media. One study found that online stores without “clear social sharing options” consistently miss out on potential sales .   5. Preview and test your store’s wishlist features Navigate through your store the way shoppers do and add things to test wishlists to make sure that everything looks and works the way you want it to. Preview the new setup on different devices and pay special attention to how your customizations look on mobile phones. And follow our recommendations for other UX testing best practices . 6. Activate your new wishlist capabilities Make your wishlist functions live, let your shoppers know they can make wishlists, and then listen for their feedback. You may need to tweak things as customers start building and sharing their lists. Wishlist implementation done, right? You’re just getting started. You’ll get much more value from your store’s wishlists if you go beyond relying on customers to keep and share their lists. The next steps are all about making the most of the marketing opportunities wishlists give you. 7. Use wishlist data in your marketing campaigns Use your wishlist admin dashboard to make your marketing more effective. You’ll see how often list owners post. You can see which products are on the most wishlists and promote them. You can personalize email offers to customers based on specific items on their lists. And you can create holiday promotions that offer deals on users’ wishlist items and incentives for sharing lists. You can also send personalized offers of similar items at different price points, along with cross-sell offers. For example, if a customer has a pair of jeans on her list, you can offer cheaper and more expensive jeans from the same brand. You can also offer tops, belts, and shoes that would look good with her wishlist jeans. 8. Test your wishlist-based marketing efforts We’ve talked before on the blog about A/B testing for email marketing , and your wishlist marketing messages should get A/B tested, too. Sometimes the color or placement of a button or a small change to the wording of a subject line can make a significant difference in engagement and conversions. So, test early and often. 9. Monitor your wishlist metrics Over time, you’ll send trends emerge from you wishlist data. How many of your shoppers have wishlists? Is the number of lists rising or flat? Are your customers consistently sharing their lists, or do you need to promote sharing more heavily? Pay special attention to how users are sharing their lists. Is email or social their preferred channel? If it’s social, which platforms do they use the most, and which platforms generate the most traffic to your store from shared lists? This data will help you decide where to focus your marketing efforts. It can also flag areas where you may need to improve UX. For example, if you’re getting a lot of click-throughs from lists shared on Instagram but very few conversions, you need to examine that pathway to see if there are obstacles you can remove to increase sales. 10. Keep optimizing your wishlist program Consumer preferences, technology, and social network popularity are always evolving. That means you need to keep tabs on what’s trending in online retail, in addition to watching your marketing metrics and A/B test results. Keep listening to your customers, too. Any opinions or requests they share about your wishlists when they contact customer service or post on social media are data you can use to build a better wishlist program. Ready to start granting e-commerce wishes? Build your online store with HostGator. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Make Money with Reseller Hosting

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Make Money with Reseller Hosting appeared first on HostGator Blog . There are dozens of different online businesses you can start from the comfort of your own home. One online business that isn’t covered a lot is reseller hosting . With the right niche and dedication, you can turn reseller hosting services into a very profitable business. If you’ve been thinking about starting your own reseller hosting business, then this post is for you. Below we look at what reseller hosting is, what it takes to run a reseller business, as well as a step by step plan to get your reseller hosting business off the ground. What Is Reseller Hosting? First, we’ll start with what reseller hosting actually is . With reseller hosting services, you’re not running or managing any of the hosting server’s yourself. Instead, you’re renting out these servers, branding them with your own company, and then selling that server space to customers. Since everything is white label, it’s as if you’re running your own web hosting services company. Your customers will never know that it isn’t you. You’ll be able to create your own hosting plans, take payments, offer additional features like email and website backups, and more. Requirements for Running a Reseller Hosting Business Web hosting is a very competitive market. It’s dominated by larger hosts that generally compete on price. However, running your own hosting company can be profitable if it’s done the right way. At the core, you’ll be renting customers a certain amount of storage space for a certain amount of time. Your profit will come in the difference between the cost of renting servers and the price you’re charging your customers. If you’ve been thinking about starting your own hosting business, then there are a few things you’ll need to take into account. Namely, your motivations for starting a hosting business, your technical skills, and business and marketing know-how. Keep in mind that starting a hosting business is going to take a lot of work, so your motivations are going to need to be clear from the start. Since you’re essentially running a service business, it’s going to require a lot of work on your end, so you’ll need a clear goal that you’re working towards to sustain you during difficult times. Next, are your existing technical skills. If you’re starting a reseller hosting business completely solo, then you’re going to need some basic technical skills. You don’t need to be a programmer yourself, but it helps to have a deep understanding of how servers work , and basic web design and development skills. The reseller host you decide to work with might actually handle things like customer support, maintenance, and more. But, you’ll still need to have some marketing and business skills to handle things like online marketing, payment processing, and more. Understanding The Reseller Hosting Landscape As a reseller host, you won’t be competing with the top dogs of the hosting space. These companies are simply too large and they can offer price points and other competitive advantages that you won’t be able to offer. However, these are the companies that you’ll probably be getting your reseller hosting from. Instead, your goal should be to create a more niche hosting company. Think the small to medium-sized business space. Hosting companies in this space can still have hundreds of servers and thousands of customers, but you might actually be able to compete with them. The one thing that’ll help improve your chances of success is finding a niche or a small target market. This will help you stand out in a crowded field and give yourself a fighting chance of success to earn money. Your niche focus, or unique offering, along with extensive marketing will help build brand recognition and position yourself as the go-to host for a specific niche. The Niche Market Approach Being a leader in a niche market is going to be how you’ll find customers as a reseller. There are a variety of benefits to choosing a niche. Here are some of the most common: You make it easier to market and speak to the deep needs of your niche. You can keep costs low by not having to meet the needs of everyone. You’ll have a lower level of competition since you’re not directly competing with massive hosting companies. You can provide better customer service as you’ll understand the unique needs of your market. Even though success will be easier by focusing on a specific niche, there are still a few downsides that you’ll want to be aware of as well. For example, by only focusing on a specific niche you’re limiting how much your reseller hosting company can grow. However, this can be remedied by slowing expanding out to related niches once you’re effectively dominating the niche you’ve started in. Pros of Reseller Hosting As a business. reseller hosting has a lot of advantages. Here are some of the biggest benefits that reseller hosting offers you: It doesn’t take much effort. Signing up for a reseller account is easy, and comes equipped with bundled tools like automated billing and support. It doesn’t take a ton of technical knowledge. For a technology oriented business, the bar is actually pretty low. Support can be included. Some parent hosts will offer support, which can help to free up your time to focus on other areas of your business. Can be a simple add-on service. If you have an existing digital business or design agency, you can easily add hosting as an additional service, helping you add a recurring revenue stream to your business.   Cons of Reseller Hosting Still, reseller hosting isn’t perfect. Here are a few drawbacks to starting a reseller hosting business: Services are limited by parent host. Ultimately, all of your offerings and services will be limited by your parent host, so make sure you choose a hosting company with solid servers and a variety of add-on services. It’s difficult to compete on price. Since you’re going to be reselling hosting, you won’t be able to offer the incredibly cheap prices that most hosts are able to offer. So, you’ll need to figure out other differentiating factors. Perhaps you can include hosting setup for free or offer outstanding customer service. You don’t have full server control. Since you don’t own the servers you’re renting, you’ll never have full server control. So, make sure you choose a host that places value on their server hardware components. Features Included With Reseller Hosting The host you decide to partner with will influence the reseller hosting features you have access to and can pass on to your customers. Here are some of the most common features that the best reseller hosting providers will offer: White-label hosting. This lets you brand your own hosting company, while still using the hosting services of a parent company, like HostGator. Plan customization. This allows you to manage your own plans and even customize and bring together certain features for a unique hosting offering. Bundled features. This allows you to offer other features like email hosting, domain management , cPanel access, website builders, and more. High-quality servers. By choosing a high-quality host you can offer a variety of different hosting types, and a range of bandwidth and storage. How to Make Money With Reseller Hosting Now that you have a better understanding of how reseller hosting works as a business. It’s time to dive into how you can make money with reseller hosting. Here’s a basic process that you can follow to get started with your own reseller hosting business: 1. Do Your Research By now you should have a few ideas in mind for the hosting niche you’re going to focus on. For example, maybe you’re going to become the go-to host in your local area? Or, you’re going to focus on a specific niche like plumbers or lawyers? Or, maybe you’re just going to offer web hosting as an add-on service for your digital agency? Whatever your focus, make sure you have some sort of direction before you jump into the rest of the steps below. Then, you’re going to want to dive deeper into your niche to get an idea of the competitive landscape. Try to find at least five different competitors who will either be offering a similar service or are targeting the same niche as you. As you look through their website’s look for the following information: Their core offerings. For example, the type of hosting they offer, or additional services and features. Their price point. How much are they charging for hosting? What about other services? Can you compete on price, or do you need to take the premium angle? Their marketing methods . You can gauge this by seeing if they maintain a blog, social media accounts, or run paid advertising. Run their sites through a tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs to see if they’re picking up any organic traffic, or are bidding for any keywords. Doing this for a handful of competitors will give you a solid understanding of your niche and what you need to do to compete. 2. Determine Your Core Offerings Your research above will help you determine what style of hosting, and add-on features, you’ll need to offer your customers. With reseller hosting you’ll generally have a few different types of hosting you’ll be able to offer, as well as bundled features offered by your parent hosting company. For example, maybe you’ll want to offer shared hosting , VPS hosting , and dedicated server plans? Or, maybe you only want to offer WordPress hosting to a specific niche? Depending on the parent hosting company you’re using, you might be able to offer additional services like domain name management, email features, and more. In some cases, you might be able to stand out in your niche by being a one-stop-shop for all of your customer’s needs. 3. Get Your Business in Order To actually start your reseller hosting business there are a few things you’re going to need in place. Here are three things you’ll need to have in place before you launch your reseller hosting business: A Reseller That Matches Your Desired Offerings In your research above you determined the types of services and products you want to offer your customers. Now, it’s time to find a parent hosting company that matches up with these services. For example, are you just going to offer shared hosting, or will you include VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting as well? Do you want to offer different packages of each hosting type? Do you want a reseller that provides support for hosting? Do you want to be able to offer domain name management as well? Once you’ve figured out your needs it’s time to find a reseller that aligns with these. A Reseller Hosting Package Once you’ve found the host you want to work with it’s time to sign up for reseller hosting. The process will differ depending on the host you’re working with. But, here’s how it works if you’re signing up for a reseller account here at HostGator. Navigate to the hosting reseller page. Sign up for a reseller account. Purchase hosting and service credits. Sign up customers to your server. A Company Website Now it’s time to create your website. As a hosting reseller, your website is incredibly important. It needs to speak directly to your target market, be easy to use, contain useful and helpful information related to your products and services, and have readily accessible support. Depending on your parent host you might be able to integrate payment processing and additional features into your site, like live chat, support materials, and more. 3. Offer Stellar Customer Support As a smaller host, the support you’re able to provide will make or break your company. Providing stellar customer support is a great way to make your company stand out. In fact, a large group of satisfied customers can end up being your best advertising. Customer support starts the very moment someone lands on your website. If they have any questions about your services they should be able to reach an agent via live chat right away. Your website should be very easy to use and seamlessly guide your visitors through the process of signing up for web hosting services. Once your customers have signed up for web hosting they should receive a welcome email and be able to easily set up their hosting account. If they have any questions they should be able to reach a representative through email, live chat, or phone, whenever the need arises. Some hosting parent companies will include support as part of their reseller packages. This means that they’ll handle any and all support requests. You can either let them handle all of the support requests, supplement their support with your own team, or let them handle technical support, while you handle all other requests. The approach you take doesn’t matter as much as providing outstanding support to your customers. 4. Set Up Marketing By focusing on a specific niche it’ll be much easier for you to focus your marketing efforts. Instead of marketing to anyone and everyone (which rarely works), you’ll be focused on reaching a small segment of a larger market. First, determine how you’re going to reach these customers. For example, will you create a blog to rank for organic search terms? Do you have a budget for search engine and social media advertising? Will you run an affiliate campaign with non-competitive sites in your niche send leads your way? Figure out the approach you’re going to take and create measurable campaigns. If your budget is lower, just starting out consider taking more organic approaches until you have the funds to invest in paid marketing and advertising campaigns. 5. Profit and Scale By now you should be ready to launch your reseller hosting program.You’ve found your niche, done market research, nailed your service offerings, found a rock-solid hosting reseller, built your website, and started marketing your services. Once you’ve acquired your first few customers you should start to break even. This all depends on the price you’re paying for reseller hosting, how much you’re selling your web hosting packages for and your initial startup costs. After you’ve recouped your initial expenses you can start to reinvest these back into your business to attract even more customers and start to turn a profit. One of the beautiful things about offering reseller hosting is that your target audience will have a high customer lifetime value. As long as you provide a stellar service they’ll stick with you for a very long time. This allows you to pay more up front for customer acquisition, as every new customer is worth a lot to your business. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what reseller hosting is, and how you can start your very own reseller hosting business. By choosing a niche and placing a focus on delighting your customers you’ll make it that much easier to actually earn money with a reseller hosting program. Get started with HostGator reseller and web hosting services today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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5 Ways to Drive Leads to Your Website

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Ways to Drive Leads to Your Website appeared first on HostGator Blog . Lead generation is an important part of business operations. As a freelancer or small business owner, you want interested buyers to visit your site and learn about your services. It all begins with attracting qualified traffic to your website. It’s not a complicated task, but you will need to invest your time and some resources. Here are five ways to get leads to your site. 1. Boost Organic Search Results Search engines have become the gateway to learning everything you need to know. For consumers, it’s a tool to do quick research on a brand, find a coupon code, or just casually shop for clothes on lunch breaks. Juno reports that 81% of people perform some type of online research before making a large purchase. Therefore, it’s imperative for your business to rank in search results. If not, you risk the competition swiping your leads. Search engine optimization (SEO) centers around knowing the intent of your ideal visitor. What words do they use? What questions do they ask? Google’s Keyword Planner is a valuable resource for conducting your keyword research. You can discover new phrases that match your services and narrow your keyword list to the ones that really matter. Once you’ve nailed down your keywords, you’re ready to write content. Use on-page SEO best practices , like adding the keyword in the header, to earn more leads. Then, tailor your content to keep visitors engaged. 2. Develop Partner Campaigns Partnerships are key to growing your small business. When you connect with partners, you get access to their resources and audience. In return, you can leverage those assets to influence people to check out your site. Co-marketing campaigns help partners bring their expertise to the partnership and gain a mutual benefit. Jyoti Mali , head of digital marketing at TIS India, agrees: “You can set up partnerships with reputed companies to start your co-marketing campaign. This will help the users to know more about your products and services because they will get a wider platform for exploring your offers.” Your campaign doesn’t have to be super complex. You might partner with a business to create a social media video or run an exclusive promotion. If you got the time, you could host an intimate VIP event in your local area, too. Whatever you decide, stick to your goal of driving leads to your business. Make sure all promotional signage includes your website. It’s also a clever idea to capture people’s email addresses to send them future updates. 3. Advertise on Social Media Small businesses operate on tight budgets. You don’t have the luxury to throw money at every marketing idea. Totally understandable. However, most small businesses suffer when they don’t want to spend any money. They constrain their budgets to where there isn’t any room to execute on sound strategies. If you’re willing to step into a growth mindset, your business should consider testing social media advertising. It’ll drive more leads to your site, in addition to spreading brand awareness. Start with the social media platform that your typical buyer uses. Then, determine your weekly or monthly budget. It can be a few hundred dollars. Next, follow the on-screen directions on the platform. For example, Twitter helps you build your ad from start-to-finish with helpful tips along the way. Make sure your ad uses an eye-appealing image and concise copy. Look at how Walmart crafted their Facebook ad below. The graphic is colorful with the logo prominently displayed, and the copy talks directly to the consumer with a coupon. Don’t be afraid to spend your marketing budget. Social media advertising can be effective for your company. 4. Participate in Online Communities The online world serves as a home for people with different interests, ideas, and beliefs. You can literally find a community for anything, from Star Wars’ fan clubs to dog lovers’ support groups. You can tap into these online communities to drive more leads to your site. Megan Biondi , former social media marketing specialist at Blue Fountain Media, highlights the benefits: “Participating in these conversations increases your exposure as well as the odds of engaging with other group members. If you’re focusing on a select few groups to participate in, it’s the most time efficient to participate in groups that get a lot of views, discussions, and traffic.” Before you go spamming everyone with your marketing messages, it’s critical that you join these communities with a genuine interest to bring value to its members. So, don’t talk about your services every time you engage the group. Plus, you’ll want to join communities that fit your business’s purpose. For instance, it’s not cool to push your floral arrangement businesses in a group focused on college basketball. 5. Send Creative Emails Email marketing is one of the hidden gems of small business. Companies usually get bogged down with executing so many other tactics that they forget about their email subscribers. The first step is to continue building your email list . You can add pop-ups to your homepage prompting visitors to give their email addresses in exchange for a discount. Or you can encourage your social media followers to sign up for your weekly newsletter. Next, focus on sending emails with worthwhile content. The message should entice leads to click to learn more. For instance, if you’re a boxing gym owner, you may send a list of the top five tips on how to be a better boxer. You would include two of those tips in the email and have the subscriber go to your website to get the additional three strategies. Blue Apron is creative in their approach to getting leads to their website. In the email below, they offer their subscribers a $40 off coupon and simple instructions on how to get started with their service. Your subscribers are eager to hear from your business. So, dust off your email list to generate more leads. Get More Customers to Your Site Now is the time to craft your lead generation strategy. Bring more leads to your website through organic search, social media advertising, and email marketing. Customers are waiting to buy from your business. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Create Services Pages that Showcase Your Work and Win You Clients

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Create Services Pages that Showcase Your Work and Win You Clients appeared first on HostGator Blog . Every kind of service business has the same basic challenge: You need to let your target customers know what you offer, why you’re the right person for the job, and how to contact you. That’s why it’s so important to have a well-written, well-designed services page on your website. 5 Tips for Building a Service Page that Wins Clients Here are our top five tips for building a services page that works. 1. Know the ideal audience for your services. Who is your services page for? A good services page speaks directly to the needs of your best customers—or, if your business is brand-new, the customers you hope to have. Think about your customer personas, if you’ve developed them. If you haven’t yet developed customer personas for your marketing , do that before you create your services page. 2. Decide whether you want one services page or a page for each service. If you already know you’re going with a single-page website, then your services section will be part of that single page. Otherwise, you need to choose to have one or multiple service pages. When you should have one Services page Putting all your information on one page makes it easier for visitors to scroll through your offerings on a phone. Some SEO experts and theme developers also say putting all the information on one page moves visitors through the conversion funnel faster, so they’re more likely to subscribe or contact you. One services page may be best: Your business is new and you don’t have a big portfolio yet. You offer a small range of easy-to-understand services. Most of your customers find your site through mobile search. When you should have multiple Services pages You can also have a services overview page that links to individual pages for each service. This gives you more places to use focus keywords to boost your SEO. The trick here is to limit the number of subcategories, so your site remains easy to navigate. Multiple services pages may be your best bet if: You have portfolio examples and testimonials to show for each type of service. You offer a large range of services or services that require explanation. You’re in a competitive niche or location and want to raise your SEO game. 3. Create content for your services page Every service page needs your unique selling proposition, service descriptions, social proof, and calls to action. Your USP You don’t have to write a novel, but this is the place to brag on yourself. Do you have years of experience? Thousands of positive customer reviews? Case studies showing how your services helped clients reduce costs or increase revenue? Link to or embed that information here. Service descriptions Go into some depth on each service, because longer copy with relevant long-tail keywords can help your page rank better in search results. Does your premium dog grooming package include a canine massage? Do your birthday party packages include gluten-free cupcake options? People searching for this level of detail are often ready to buy. Help them find you! Social proof If you have them, include or link to portfolio samples, reviews, testimonials, or case studies somewhere on your services page—either in your USP at the top or in each service description. A call to action Put your call to action (“call us now” or “request a quote”) at the top and bottom of your page. Signup content To stay in contact with undecided visitors, offer free content in exchange for their email address. It can be general, like “A guide to choosing a home renovation contractor.” You can also create several pieces of content tied to individual services, like “How to decide between wood and vinyl siding” and “Which replacement windows are right for your home?” You can segment customers who sign up by the types of content they request and nurture those leads via email. 4. Make your services page easy to navigate. Now that you have the information you want to include on your services page, make that information easy for potential customers to use. Scan-friendly copy Organize your text so it’s easy to scan. Subheadings, short paragraphs, and bulleted lists are easier to read on small screens than long paragraphs. Consistent style Keep your headings consistent. On a single services page, use the same heading level (H1 or H2) for each service you offer, with descriptions underneath. This helps readers grasp your services at a glance, and it’s better for SEO, too. If you make separate pages for each service, keep descriptions, heading usage, and page formats consistent across those pages. Consider turning on breadcrumbs, so users can easily see where they are. Appealing design You can design your services page with the Gutenberg drag-and-drop editor when you choose one of HostGator’s managed WordPress hosting plans. These plans come with more than 100 free template options to help you design a great-looking site fast. You can also install other WordPress themes to get the look you want. Some of the free themes we like for small businesses and solopreneurs are Experon, Life Coach, Ryan Grid, Astra, and Schema Lite. Want to have a pro design your services page? You can save time and get great results with HostGator’s Website Design Services . In addition to a professionally designed site, you also get expert SEO guidance, individual training, and monthly marketing help. 5. Monitor your services page metrics. After you debut your services page, watch your metrics in Google Search Console. When you click the Performance tab, you’ll see a list of the search queries visitors have used to find your site, the click-through rate from search results, and the pages they visited. Over time, you’ll see whether your services page keywords match the keywords your visitors use to find your page. You’ll also see whether they’re sticking around, signing up for your free content, and more. You can adjust your keywords, calls to action, and other page elements if you need to, based on your Search Console data. Ready to get started? Check out the services pages for HostGator’s managed WordPress hosting plans and Website Design Services today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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