Tag Archives: tips and tricks

Find Your Niche

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Hosting

The post Find Your Niche appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Niche is a great word. It’s a shallow recess within a wall, used as a display tool for a really nifty object, it’s a cranny (another great word), and it’s a nook. It can be the ecological role of an organism in a community (especially the role of said object in relation to food consumption), and it’s a habitat that supplies the factors that are necessary for the existence of an organism or a species. The original definitions of the word had absolutely nothing to do with the business world, but, like the Internet, just because something originates as one thing it doesn’t mean that it cannot turn into something completely different through alternative usages. Niche, in more recent history, has come to also be used to describe either a job or activity that is suitable for someone or to describe the situation by which a business’s products or services are able to succeed by being sold to a particular group or type of people. As fascinating as the evolution of a word can be, we’re not here for an etymology lesson. (Though if you have some free time while surfing, I do recommend looking into the origins of your favorite words – it can be quite illuminating!) Speaking of surfing, this lovely little side lesson in definitions does have a purpose.   In The Interest Of Finding Your Market The thing is, no matter how cool you may think your product is, the fact of the matter is that you may have trouble finding someone else who thinks that it’s a cool concept as well. You know that your idea is a good one, but you’re not seeing your business go anywhere. Does this mean that you have failed? No! What this means is that you just haven’t found your niche yet. It’s possible that you just need more advertising than you’re currently using, that you haven’t found the right way to convey what it is your product does in a manner that appeals to the public at large, or that you’re looking in the wrong target market.   No Matter How Absurd The Idea May Be (dot dot dot) If nothing else, the Internet has shown us that products that one might think are absolutely ridiculous can sell, and can become huge successes, while others that are quite useful may not do so well because of a poor choice in marketing; still others are fantastic ideas, but haven’t really taken off due to a lack of exposure. Let’s take a look at a few examples (please note that we’re not affiliated with any of these companies or products, they’re just being used for example purposes!) A Ridiculous Idea That’s Doing Well: Poopsenders.com – The url says it all. This site was created solely for the purpose of sending people poo through the mail. For this month the specials are “cow dung, elephant crap, gorilla poop” and a special three types of poop for one combo pack. Not only is this just plain silly, but you have to think about the logistics of the operation. Someone sat down and thought about how great it would be to send poo to people, determined the types they wanted to send, and created a whole… ahem… production process, getting them straight from the animals, so to speak, to the door of the person its being shipped to. In spite of the ethical and moral issues associated with this type of business, the mind boggling process of actually creating such a business, and the sheer ridiculousness of the idea, the company is doing fantastically well. Turns out, humans love shipping poo to people; the site’s been around since 2008 and shows no signs of slowing down.   Or How Reasonable The Idea May Be A Useful Product That Failed Due to Poor Marketing: Bic Cristal for Her – Yes, Bic goofed big time. As one Forbes writer states, Bic made “lady-pens.”  The reviews on Amazon tell it all. The product has become a huge joke. The sad thing is, it didn’t need to be. The pens are just like every other Bic pen in existence – their only difference? The fact that they’re in pretty colors. The ink isn’t – it’s still basic black, it’s just the outer clear tube that Bic changed. For those of us who still use pens (yes, I know we seem to be a dying breed), there’s nothing wrong with a pretty pen. I happen to grab them by the ton, different roller ball thicknesses, different kinds of ink, different casings. I like the variety when taking the time to write by hand. If Bic had just called them “Bic Cristal” the company would have been fine, had a new product, and people like me would have happily added to their pen collection, but alas, that “For Her” served to imply a whole host of sexist connotations (really, check out the reviews – they’re hilarious), and caused Bic to appear as though they had real mud in their eye. A Great Product With Limited Exposure: Loot Crate – They send a grab box of goodies to your house each month. These boxes are filled with all things Geeky. March’s box was Titanfall themed (for you Xbox lovers out there), and we have no clue yet as to what April may bring. It’s a product filled with goodies for those who like mail and goodies, it’s a surprise, and it’s geeky happiness in a box, working to target a variety of different markets. They’re not big yet, but if they advertise more they will be! Anyone with any business model can become successful online; that’s one of the beauties of the Internet. Chances are that if you like the concept as a good idea for a product or service, someone else will too and you shouldn’t give up just because you’re not an overnight success. Instead, take a careful look at how you are marketing your product (Don’t be like Bic!), whom the product is being marketed for, whether or not there is enough exposure for your product or service, and whether or not you can punch it up a notch by simply changing the wording. Three years ago I never would have bought clothes online for a tortoise; in six weeks the household tortoise will have a stegosaurus costume. It just goes to show you that the Internet is a wonderful and mysterious place where anyone may find their niche!   Image Source: Make Income on the Side. (2013). What is your niche?. [image online] Available at: http://makeincomeontheside.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Niche-Blogging.jpg [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014]. web hosting Continue reading →

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Perilous Pivots: When A Dream Meets Reality

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Hosting

The post Perilous Pivots: When A Dream Meets Reality appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Editors Note – Cy is a friend of HostGator, currently pursuing entrepreneurial dreams in Silicon Valley. We have asked him to share his adventures.  If you missed it see Part 1 The Spark: A Startup Is Born. Startups are inherently messy.  The media makes it appear as if home run successes happen on the first try.  In reality all progress is the result of founders careening for months between false fits and starts until they land on the idea that works.    Contastic’s story is no different.   The False Start With a promising idea in hand I was accepted into the Lightspeed Venture Fellows program and provided a generous grant to build Contastic.   During the summer, I met my co-founder Kevin and together we engaged with the top investors/entrepreneur community around Silicon Valley.  This got us excited about the hot space that is mobile CRM – taking the basic processes of managing a sales team from the desktop to the phone. Over the next two months we built our mobile CRM.  Investors loved it.  However customers weren’t adopting the beta versions as readily as we’d hoped.  We attributed the apathy to an incomplete product.  It was instead a sign of a flawed focus – most people didn’t want to write notes on their mobile phone. So, when we finally launched, it was bittersweet.  By that time we knew that the product wouldn’t pick up.  So, we changed the name to PeopleNotes to preserve our company name and launched it.   The app never got more than a few hundred downloads – an App Store Flop:   Rediscovering Relentless Focus on the Customer So where did we go wrong?  We built for the people around us – technologist and investors – not our customers.   We mistakenly let the most convenient information, from those around us, take the place of the most relevant information, from those customers we would need to seek out. Committing to focus on our customer to the exclusion of everything else was the turning point for Contastic. It’s no mistake that this is what Mark Zuckerburg keeps on his desk: Credit: Masahble http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/mark-zuckerberg-ipo-pic/   The Pivot By pouring over the usage analytics from PeopleNotes we discovered that, while people did not like taking notes, they loved our automated emails to keep them in touch.  So, we doubled down on that – pivoting from a mobile notes product to a web-based staying in touch product.  And over the next month we built what became Contastic. There was no big launch or press announcement.  Just a quick post to Facebook.  Over the next two months we iterated with a small group of users and obsessively measured our funnel. Analytics told us what was wrong.  Then we’d talk to customers to figure out WHY.   Picking Up Steam After twelve weeks of iteration we’ve developed a clear idea – as defined by our customers – of what Contastic is and who it’s built for. Contastic is an email personalization engine for salespeople.     By combining Linkedin and Gmail data Contastic automatically generates sales emails complete with content personalized to a prospect’s interests.  By reducing the time it takes to send relevant emails from minutes to seconds Contastic enables salespeople to work more prospects, generate more leads and close more sales. We also discovered new industries for Contastic beyond sales .  Some of our top users are generating referrals for realtors , discovering jobs for freelancers , and building client relationships as consultants . Our user base is now doubling monthly as well as picking up paid users.  It’s time for us to finally step back into the ring and raise our round. Stay tuned for the third and final installment– Raising the Bar – Fundraising and the Future About Cy I’m an engineer who loves to sell.   My career started out in big data engineering for Microsoft evolved into a sales role that landed me as the founder of Contastic ( getContastic.com ).  I bring the hard data-driven approach of an engineer to the softer science of sales.  It’s always a pleasure for me to meet new people and help them evolve their sales practices. I blog at blog.cykho.com and tweet @cykho. web hosting Continue reading →

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Put Facebook to Work For Your Business

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Hosting

The post Put Facebook to Work For Your Business appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . For small businesses, advertising and marketing is an expense that most don’t want to have to budget for. It’s costly and ineffective unless you know what you’re doing. Not all of us went to college for a Marketing Degree. Luckily, there are ways to bring the cost down and do it all from the comfort of home or office. For any small business online, you need to understand what SEO is and how to do it . Although SEO is a must and it is worth it, these results take time to deliver. In the world of making money, we want results and we want them now. How do we get fast results? Before we can answer that, we need to ask, where is our target audience? With over 1 Billion active users, I believe the answer to that question is Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, you need to create it immediately after reading this post. One of our previous posts discussed 5 Facebook Updates You Need to Know About and you should read it after you’ve created your Facebook page.   Advertising This article isn’t going to explain how to create a Facebook Page and how to create ads. If you need to a refresher or need to get caught up to speed, check out the  Facebook Ad Getting Started Page . If you did Facebook advertising in the past and you haven’t done any recently, then there are probably a few changes that you should be aware of. These are covered in the next sections.   Campaigns / Ad Sets / Ads Previously, Facebook had Campaigns and Ads. You set your budget in the campaign, then created ads within it. It worked, but it wasn’t amazingly effective. With the new set up, you can create Ad Sets. Virtually, these are what the previous campaigns were. You can set your start / end dates, budget, and pause all ads within the set. Used correctly, this can really help with your testing (discussed below). Usually after starting a campaign, we look at what sets are performing and which aren’t, then pause/stop the ads that we don’t want to spend further money on.   Call to Action Buttons If you’ve been following our blog for some time, you’ve probably seen our post about Content Marketing and Creating a Call to Action . If you don’t know what a CTA is, that post is definitely worth the read. Recently, Facebook introduced the Call To Action buttons that are  available for Newsfeed and Mobile ad types. These buttons help by saving the few characters you use to write “Learn More Here” and helps create the specific Call to Action that you’re wanting from your viewers. Types of call-to-action buttons include: Shop Now – Sending users to your store to make purchases Learn More – Sending users to an informative page, blog post, or landing page Sign Up – Creates leads for newsletters and subscription services Book Now – Reservations for cruises, hotels, concerts, and more Download – Grab a copy of your latest ebook or application   Audience This section isn’t really “new” but if used properly, you can target your customers more accurately instead of wasting money on impressions for people that aren’t in the market for your product. As you’ll see from the picture, you can real customize everything to target specific people. If you want to choose people from a specific set of cities, states, or countries, it’s easier than ever. Do you want to sell to just men or just women, or maybe a specific age range? Perhaps you want to choose people by interests such as a movie or book related to your product. All of these can be set within the ad creator. To find what works for you, you should test test and test some more.   Custom Audiences If you have an email list of your customers or subscribers, then you can make use of the custom audiences. One word for this, awesome. With Custom Audiences you can target people who have expressed an interest in your brand or are already part of your brand. This allows you to promote new products to existing customers, as well as products to people who have subscribed to your newsletter but haven’t purchased anything. What it does is take your list of email addresses and matches them to active Facebook accounts. Chances are, a large majority of your list will have used that same email on their Facebook account. From there, you’re able to market to them. Don’t have a list? Create a blog and allow readers to subscribe to updates.   Testing This is probably the most important section of our article. At the beginning, you will be doing a lot of testing. And to be honest, testing will never stop. What you might find working in one instance doesn’t work in another. Or if you try targeting other countries, you’ll find that different colors mean different things and perhaps a red border works for users in America, but it sends a sign of warning to those in India. So what’s the best way to test? Ad sets. They are built for testing. Here are some bullets types of testing Newsfeed, Right Side, or Mobile – Create an ad set for each of these, then run the same ads within each to see which brings you more traffic and conversions. If you’re not optimized for mobile, make sure you don’t choose the mobile option. Country – Can your product be sold globally? Try out different markets to see who is your best audience to target. As you’ll find, some countries are cheaper per click than others. This is because of less advertising competition in these countries. This is also a trick that some companies may use to build their Facebook Page’s audience for cheap at the beginning. Cities – If you’re confined to a local area, you can still test the different surrounding cities to see what works best for you in terms of conversions. Pictures – With ads, you want to have something that has a picture since it will pop out more. But which picture should you use? Different symbols and colors stand out to people. On right side ads, you can put bright borders to attract the eye to the right side. You can run the same ad with 4 different pictures to see which does better. Then after a couple of hours, pause the low performers and then your money will be spent on the pictures that convert or drive leads. Ad Copy – Find out what trigger words get your buyers in the door. Create a few different versions of your advertising text to see what works better for you. Call to Action – Are there multiple CTAs listed above that you can use? Try them all out!   Tracking Now that you have all of your ads set up and you have traffic coming in the door, you need to be able to see if they’re coming from your ads or elsewhere. That’s why you need some sort of tracking in place. There are so many ways to go with this, but we’ll list a few below: Coupon Code – Offer a specific coupon code for your ads to see what converted sales Conversion Pixel – Facebook allows you to install a pixel on your sales page that shows after a sale is made. This sends an alert to Facebook to say that a sale was made. Google URL Builder – This creates custom campaigns for Google Analytics and it works Affiliate Links – If you have an affiliate program, you can create an affiliate account for Facebook and create campaigns with your links to track customers   Good luck with your Facebook advertising and be sure to come back soon for information about Twitter advertising! web hosting Continue reading →

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15 Keys to Providing Customer Service Through Social Media

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Hosting

The post 15 Keys to Providing Customer Service Through Social Media appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Social media is great for connecting your business to your customers, and allowing them to have direct close access to you can be a boon for your brand image. However, unfettered access also means that more customers feel free to complain either directly or indirectly about companies through social media. In this media climate, it’s important to leverage your PR skills to positive effect, and here’s how.   Respond quickly Your customer turned to social media to complain because they are looking for an immediate response, and while you may be busy with product development meetings or vendor calls, these seemingly-small, Facebook-born comments should receive similar attention. Make sure that you get back to them as soon as you see the complaint.   Have a dedicate twitter account for issues Social media is all about context, which is why big corporations create accounts specifically for reporting and responding to issues, decluttering their primary social feed and filtering the important messages from the fluff. Nike and Comcast are two examples of companies that have dedicated accounts on twitter for customers experiencing issues for precisely these reasons. If your company is big enough, create a dedicated account where customers can reach you when something has gone amiss.   Be responsive around the clock Know your business well and when your customers will be using your services. If you are a restaurant, for example, you can expect to hear from customers late in to the evening if they have had a bad dinner experience. Monitor your account around the clock as best you can or, better yet, dedicate staff to the task so that you can respond quickly.   Address the issue and offer a solution In your response, be sure to restate the problem so it is clear you understand it, and give your customer a solution if one is available. Communication requires empathy and efficiency, and this approach will achieve both.   Offer new information they might not have access to Airlines can frequently update the customer as to the status of cancelled or delayed flights quickly before that information is disseminated at the gate. Give the customer all the information you have as they might not have access to it. This will also show that you are paying close attention to their particular circumstances.   If no solution is available offer empathy Sometimes no immediate solution is available, but it is important to respond as fast you can. A simple “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. That sounds like an awful time/situation/experience. We are working on it and will get back to you soon” can calm an angry customer while you work on a solution.   Direct them to resources where answers or solutions may be found When you can’t provide the solution over social media, let them know where they can go to receive resolution, be it an email address they need to contact or a store manager they need to talk to directly. Keep in mind that social media channels aren’t the most appropriate avenue for obtaining things like account numbers or private information, so be sure to direct them to someone offline that can help them.   Be aware of your twitter account and follow your tags and hashtags Someone on your staff needs to have alerts set for any tags or hashtags customers might utilize to try and reach you. Pay attention to them, particularly if you intend to use them for support purposes.   Answer all of the questions asked (not just the easy one) When writing your response go back and look at the original complaint. It may be easy to address just one issue but they may have had several questions or concerns. Address each and every one, clearly and effectively.   Rectify what you can Make the situation right as fast as you can. You can’t fix every aspect of their problem but whatever issue you can fix, do so quickly. Remedying even a portion of the customer’s problem will be seen as progress and improve your image as a result.   Follow through with the issue Chances are you won’t solve the problem on the first go around so go back and check in with your customer. Did they get a new flight? Was the broken item replaced? Etc etc. Follow up with the customer and demonstrate compassion, empathy, and dedication to their needs in the process. Do not wait to be asked for additional assistance!   Show customer appreciation Proactively reach out to customers who are mentioning your company in a positive way. If someone takes a picture at your business and tags you, repost/retweet it! If you get a positive review on Facebook contact the customer and say thank you. These small actions will show that you are listening, potentially turning one time reviewers into brand evangelists.   Provide a real world solution The coffee was cold? Offer to replace their cup free of charge. Car wasn’t repaired properly? Have them bring it back in. If it was a tangible problem offer a tangible solution, and remember that generosity is remembered, blogged about, rewarded, and retweeted.   Don’t remove complaints It can be tempting to remove a complaint after you have addressed the concern, but leaving them alone should be standard practice for your business. Make sure that your responses and solutions are in the comments section or your direct reply to the tweet. New customers will see the complaint but also see that you were responsive and accommodating to customer needs.   Be professional Above all reply and act in a professional manner. Your customer might be rude or upset but it is your job to maintain your calm and mitigate the situation as fast as you can. Remember: a crabby customer is an issue, but a positive response is an asset, and your customers will notice that. In an age of ubiquitous social media, communication comes from many inboxes. Tend to your Twitter and Facebook accounts and exercise professionalism, and your wall will become a testament to your dedication to your customers. web hosting Continue reading →

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Ways to Ensure That Your Mailing List is a Legitimate One

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Hosting

The post Ways to Ensure That Your Mailing List is a Legitimate One appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing .   Email marketing is big. It’s no secret. Email marketing is one of the best ways to not only ensure that your brand and your products or services stay fresh within the minds of your clients, it allows you to catch their attention, appealing to the impulse buy side of your clientele.   Leverage Existing Relationships (Legitimate Ones) If an individual sees your product or service in their email and thinks that what you are offering is a great deal they may simply click through the email to purchase it, as they already have a relationship with your company, without feeling the need to do any form of price comparison or the like. It’s easy for people to get caught up in the moment, wanting to get their products and services out to as many people as humanly possible, regardless of whether or not the person has technically asked for that email from you. There’s just one problem with this. That type of behavior is illegal; an internet no-no. “But I just found this list of people’s email addresses! It’s obvious that they wouldn’t have left it lying about if they didn’t want others to use it” you might proclaim. Or you might have decided to purchase a mailing list, share email addresses with your buddy who has an email list as well, or simply have pulled email addresses off of Craig’s list or some other site where such information is freely posted. You might justify it to yourself in a thousand and one different ways, but the fact of the matter is that the justification doesn’t count, not when it goes against the CAN-SPAM act, your hosting provider’s terms of service and acceptable use policies, and their upstream providers terms of service and acceptable use policies.   The Low Down: In order for your mailing list to be a legitimate one, in order for your messages to not be considered spam, and to ensure that you are able to stay with your hosting provider, there are several things that you cannot do. You cannot: Use a purchased mailing list Use a mailing list that was given to you Use a mailing list that you found somewhere (sorry, that email address you found in the back of the taxi can’t be just tacked on to the end of your list, gotta throw that one out!) Randomly generate email addresses and send out messages to all of them, hoping one goes through to a legitimate email address. “Well, that seems like a lot that I can’t do,” you might think to yourself, and the truth is, you’re right. You cannot do anything that gets around the idea of not getting someone’s permission to email them. So what can you do, not only to make sure that your mailing list is legitimate, but that it’s CAN-SPAM compliant?   The Double Opt In: Make sure that you get everyone’s permission to email them, not once, but twice. This process is referred to as double opt in, and it means that not only does someone have to give you their email address, but you then have to ask them if they really meant to give it to you, and they have to say yes before you can start including them on your mailing list. The process usually goes something like this: A person puts in an email address on your site, indicating that they want to receive email from you. The reason this isn’t enough is that you have no way of knowing whether the person entering the email address is the one that owns the email address. You receive their form with their email address listed. You’re excited! You want to add them to your list, but you just can’t yet. First you have to send them an email, typically with a link that will write to a database stating the date and time that they accepted (this is the second time they are accepting). They will click on the link, writing the information to the database (you want to retain this information in case you later get reported as spam, thus proving your legit status and ensuring that you don’t get in trouble). You will add them to your mailing list and can email them every time you send out the mailing list.   The Rest Of The Story: Keep in mind that there are other laws, rules and regulations that you may need to adhere to, such as  the fact that all individuals requesting access to adult content, if that’s what you’re offering, must be over eighteen, but it’s your responsibility to determine whether what you are sending needs those additional features. You can read about the guidelines at the FTC’s site here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm Remember, if you receive a complaint from your hosting provider about your mailing list, they’re not only working to make sure that you are in compliance with the rules, but that they are as well. They don’t want to get in trouble either for violating Federal law, so don’t take it personally, just remember that you’ve got to keep your mailing list legit; once it’s there, it’s smooth sailing for both of you.   Image Source: Dartmouth. (2014). Mailing List . [image online] Available at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~tucker/images/mailing-list.jpg [Accessed: 25 Mar 2014]. web hosting Continue reading →

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