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In today’s world, it’s almost impossible to picture life without certain conveniences of automation. Much of which is thanks to the seamless integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in our daily lives. From the face ID and image recognition we use to open our mobile devices, to digital voice assistants replenishing our groceries, we've become somewhat dependent on AI. We map out our driving routes with constant traffic and weather updates, and we even rely on the technology to curate the types of shows we want to watch. These technologies and their capabilities are now simply an integral part of our lives, and while these automations are convenient, they miss a key ingredient of business success: the personal touches that turn casual consumers into lifetime customers. While it's become easier for creators to use AI to cultivate their presence and realize their dreams online, that doesn't mean it's also gotten easier to provide those business-changing touches at scale. That’s why Wix’s newest version of the Editor is enhanced with new intuitive design presets and advanced capabilities to better create personalized websites faster. Now, solopreneurs, side-hustlers, freelancers, and professional web creators can all optimize their website creation without compromising the bespoke touches they need to engage and convert their audiences. Ready to know how to make a website with the newest version of the Editor? Try it now. As the Head of Wix Editor, Oded Nachshon, puts it, “These new capabilities align with the needs of today’s self-creator as well as professional users. The platform removes barriers that generally complicate website building and enables users to keep their site updated and on brand with the latest technology, setting the stage for the future of creation.” Let’s dive into some of the ways the Editor empowers creators and web designers to grow their business: Improved platform and infrastructure With the newest capabilities of the Editor, users define their own path: whether it's starting from a blank slate, choosing from a wide range of industry-specific templates, or letting artificial design intelligence make the decisions. Now, all Wix users can enjoy full-design freedom to completely customize and create their professional website , from using drag-and-drop to add, resize and adjust hundreds of elements, to Velo ’s custom code to achieve high-end personalization. This includes: Semantic sections Now, every page on your site is divided into sections, or full-width customizable building blocks that separate pages into meaningful semantic chunks. Web creators can add a blank section and customize to fit their needs, or they can add intent-based pre-designed sections which allow for a cohesive and engaging experience. These sections help creators frame more accurate messaging for each area of their site in a more concise manner. These sections can also expedite the site building process for first-time users. No need to worry about line breaks or spacing, users simply need to click the icon and choose a ready-made section wired to match their site theme and input their content. Easier navigation In addition, these sections allow web creators to easily play with layouts and decide where the sections fit within the site. With the click of one button, creators can move sections around the page to visualize the overall layout. This can also be done for the mobile Editor, so that sections can be changed accordingly. Quick Edit tool for easy updates With the new Quick Edit tool, users can skim through all the elements in the section and change them on the sidebar without touching the canvas. This allows users to update content without worrying that it will accidentally move or change an element and impact the design. WYSIWYG software like the Wix Editor reveals real-time design changes and edits to the user interface. Zoom out mode It’s important to see the big picture. As the workflow evolves using the new sections, in layout navigation, the upgraded Editor automatically goes to zoom out mode, so web creators have a better overall vision of their site. This is particularly relevant for creators building websites on laptop screens. Limitless creation possibilities The world has come a long way from the first ever text-based web page in 1991. Today, people of all technological skill-sets can build their own websites, which would have been outsourced to high-tech professionals some years ago. Regardless, most businesses still spend precious time tinkering with making their website layouts rather than invest time in their craft. The upgraded Editor uses state-of-the-art AI technology to give creators the creative freedom of high website design without the extra time and effort with its structured building block experience. No matter what content you put in your section, Wix (see what is Wix ) can always provide suggestions for sections to change the layout. Additionally, professionals who design websites for external clients—like Jackie Treitz, founder of The Paper Bakery and designer behind Netflix's Motel Makeover —can also benefit from the Editor’s newest features. Treitz can quickly create a site to visualize her client projects, offering a much better starting point for both parties. The Editor also streamlines the site creation process so that Treitz’s clients can easily update their own content without harming the design and site aesthetic. Switch layout This new Wix website feature suggests alternative layouts to optimize the page’s content for user and visual experience. Regardless if creators are just starting out in their building phase, or are coming back a year later for a refresh, this feature allows them to update their layout with ease and confidence, no matter their experience or design background. For example, a clothing store wants to update their promotional section from a holiday sale to a summer sale, but the new image size they use doesn’t work with the current layout. The switch layout feature provides a ready-made alternative. By selecting a preset layout option, the store can conveniently add the new content and update the site within seconds. Design presets Web creators can effortlessly change their site’s look and feel, with easily integrated and customizable design kits curated by Wix. Everything from fonts and color palettes to custom designs is just one click away. With a range of site theme options like “retro vibrant” and “nostalgic,”“energetic” or “tech-savvy,” creators can play around with different themes before committing to one, decide to customize certain colors or fonts within the theme—or even decide to create their own distinct palette. To illustrate, an organic wine store has recently rebranded its business as a mobile delivery service. The new mobile business created a refreshed brand identity to match their updated business offering and they want their site to follow suit. The wine business may choose a design preset and shuffle between the range of options to envision their site. They can decide to customize within the preset to include their lilac purple feature color and other relevant design details important to their brand. This change will update across-the-board, affecting the color scheme of the entire site for a cohesive and professional look. Are you ready to create your Wix website ? Check out the Wix Editor and get started . You can also choose to use an AI website builder . Note: The new Editor experience will gradually become available to all users.

We’ve all heard of the term “growth marketing” by now. It has been circulating the web since the early 2010s, when the tech industry sunk its teeth into this seemingly new, hip marketing model. It was, at one point, ‘all the rage.’  And yet, many of us are probably still wondering what the heck “growth marketing” is. Also, how do we do it? “The term has been thrown in a laundry machine a couple of times over the last couple of years,” says Kevin Indig , an advisor to some of the fastest-growing startups like Snap and Nextdoor (and a board member of Wix’s SEO Advisory Board, we might add). Today, growth marketing is best described as a mindset. While its roots lie within the Facebooks and other tech giants of the world, many of its founding principles can benefit business leaders across all industries. We talked with Kevin for his advice on how to think like a true growth marketer. Here’s what he had to say.  Ready to get your business online? Create a website with Wix. What exactly is growth marketing?  Growth marketing is a very systematic, testing-heavy approach to growing a product or marketing channel , summarizes Kevin. “A lot of that methodology came from Facebook,” he says. “Companies like Facebook had enough data to run tests. For example, [they could test an idea like] ‘if we onboard new users and suggest them a couple of friends on Facebook, they're more likely to stick on the platform.’” In the context of marketing, a growth experiment can range from testing an element of a webpage to launching a whole series of landing pages to improve organic discovery.  “In my opinion, growth marketing is often used in the wrong context,” notes Kevin. In recent years, growth marketing has been used interchangeably with performance marketing. “What it actually should be is to say, ‘OK, we can scale our approach to ads or SEO—but we're going to do it in a very systematic testing-heavy way.’” Kevin elaborates on how the term "growth marketing" has evolved over the years. How to assess the health of your current marketing approach  Of course, like all marketing strategies , a growth marketing strategy can’t survive without a clear target audience , product differentiation  and other factors.   Prior to drafting out a marketing plan  for any client, Kevin makes sure to ask three key questions: Is your company achieving the goals that you set out to achieve? “First, of course, I’m curious [to know if your existing marketing strategy] works.” Are you seeing the results you predicted and wanted to see? Do you have a clear strategy already? “Marketers love to confuse strategies with tactics. But a true strategy means doing things in a different way than your competitors. I'm really looking for a clear strategy for the company.” Is your product differentiated and well-received (i.e., product-market fit and market penetration )?  “I'm looking for pointers that tell me that this product is something people like—maybe love—[and seeing] what people are saying about the product and whether the company leans into that.” Only after you’ve assessed the health of your current strategy can you start plotting out a course for improvement.  Growth marketing for small businesses vs. enterprises The elephant in the room: it helps to have a lot of data and a large website when running classic growth experiments. “I don't think small companies can do growth marketing in the same way as big companies—they just don't have enough data,” says Kevin. “[But] the benefit that small companies have is that they can move much, much faster and they can build a direct relationship with their customers that is maybe equally as powerful,” he adds.  “If you are a small local business, you might know a lot of customers by name and that is…something that people value. The advantage is you can be fast [plus] you know your customers on a much more personal level.” “Instead of building these big-scale systems and experiments, you can run experiments at very small scale—and maybe in person. Like what happens if you pitched on product B instead of product A. Or what happens if you test a new discount, a new offer, a new package or a new membership program?” Kevin talks about how growth marketing differs between large versus small businesses. A small business marketing   plan can thereby be just as impactful despite looking different from the playbooks of larger businesses.  Tips for hacking together your own growth strategy If you’ve identified room for growth, Kevin offers four key pieces of advice.  Adopt a meta-thinking approach  No matter the size of your business, it’s always a good idea to take a structured approach to decision-making. Kevin dubs this “meta-thinking”—the practice of being “very precise in how you approach your business.” “Way too often we run on autopilot,” observes Kevin. “[People] often do a lot of things implicitly and they learn what is called ‘tacit knowledge.’ They don't write down, ‘Today I tried this and that was the result.’”  “So, my advice for small businesses is to be very, very clear in your approach to winning new customers…and developing a hypothesis for [what you think will work], then testing it systematically.”  He continues, “We're very quick to repeat what we hear and take on the opinions of others…I think it's critical to be honest with yourself about how you know something, [even if the answer is that it’s just a hunch or an idea you got from a book]. Just be honest with yourself about how you know [something] because then it's easier to question, and you don't identify yourself with that opinion and you can be more systematic.”  Use AI to scale while retaining a personal touch AI has opened up a path to scaling and reacting to experiments faster and better than ever before. It has, at the same time, allowed small businesses to scale without losing the personal touch that they’re known for.  “These days, you can customize videos at scale with AI,” says Kevin. “You can, for example…record a video and then change the name of the customer across hundreds of videos [with AI]. So, you can personalize that touch a little bit.” The same idea can be applied to multiple channels and marketing assets, be it graphics for an email or dynamic copy on a webpage.   Talk to your customers  One lost art in marketing: talking to your customers. “I very rarely work with companies where the marketing team talks to customers on a regular basis,” says Kevin. “It almost never happens and everybody knows it’s important. This is one of the few mysteries in marketing.” The best research strategy? Go straight to the source. Avoid jumping to your own conclusions based on generic data points or by simply looking inward and letting personal biases drive your perception of buyers. Ask your top customers—or the customers you have yet to engage—what they’re seeking and where they go to find answers.  Invest in channels where you can share one-to-many  If you’re a small business owner, you’re especially pinched for time and resources. Some of the most creative strategies stem from having this type of pressure—which may subsequently force you to be more selective of the channels you work with.  This is a good thing, according to Kevin.  “I already mentioned video. I think email is another one of these channels,” he muses. “I've come across [a fashion store] in Germany where the owner basically records a video…where she just walks through new inventory and new pieces that she has gotten, and she sends that out to her followers on social and via email. [It’s a] really cool way to address a lot of people and keep them up to date in a very personalized style—and you do it at scale.”  Understanding and tracking success So, when all is said and done, how can you track success? This question has eluded many marketers since the dawn of time. One simple place to start, according to Kevin, is to look at three core variables:  Sales patterns . “You have to understand where most of your business comes from and if that's in line with where you want most of your business to come from…One mistake that I see a lot of business owners making is that they look too much at vanity metrics…Organic traffic doesn't matter if if it doesn't transfer into sales. So, I think a good start is to monitor sales, maybe on a daily or weekly basis over time, and then break that down into all the different ways that you get sales.” Top channels .“Sometimes [your top marketing channel is] going to be word of mouth and maybe some social. Other times, maybe it's 50% SEO and 50% direct traffic. Split sales up by channel or source. And then figure out how to move the needle on some of these things.” What drives progress on these channels? “[You might find that] more campaigns [could] drive word of mouth. It could be [that] a referral incentive system [could] drive more referral sales. There are different ways to grow your presence and sales on channels. You want to identify what drives that—what are the inputs?” Track your success with the help of Wix Analytics .

Many factors play a role in determining the success or failure of your online presence, yet few are as significant as the one encapsulated in these three letters: CTA, which stands for call to action. We all encounter CTAs on the web all the time without even realizing it, but when you create a website it is imperative that you learn how to write a call to action that supports your site’s goal. In this post, we will clarify how CTAs work to ensure the high performance of any website, and especially of business websites. We will then explore the key steps in creating powerful CTAs that bring real results, improve your website’s conversion rates and set you on the right path towards financial and professional growth. What is a call to action? A call to action is a short phrase that prompts your online audience to take immediate action. In the context of a website, they are most often clickable texts, images or buttons that encourage site visitors to follow your site’s invitation towards a certain step. Common call to action examples include downloading files, purchasing products, subscribing to a service, signing up as members, contacting the team, starting a trial and more. Essentially, CTAs tell your site visitors what it is that you want them to do. If the entire content of your site is doing the prep work for it, the role of the call to action is to entice visitors to take that final step and click to complete that action, to “seal the deal.” CTAs have a direct impact on your entire website’s success, and strong, persuasive CTAs can get you higher sales, more followers and wider exposure. Why is a call to action important? Calls to action are a critical component of any marketing strategy , because they provide your user with a clear guide for where to go. Good CTAs can help you to increase conversions, improve your website's traffic and boost your sales. Here are some of the benefits of CTAs: Increase conversions: CTAs tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do, which in turn helps them convert. When a CTA is clear and concise, it’s more likely to be clicked on. Improve website traffic: Improve your website's traffic by directing visitors to the pages that you want them to see. For example, you could use a CTA to direct visitors to your product pages or your blog. Boost sales: When you encourage visitors to take action through your call to action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, you can then help boost your sales. Build relationships: CTAs can help you build relationships with your customers by providing them with a way to contact you or learn more about your products or services. Limit decision fatigue: Users can sometimes feel overwhelmed by too many options. CTAs cut down on confusion by giving a direct command to follow. How to write a CTA that converts Here are the key steps to write an effective call to action that bring real results: Define your goals  Know what your audience wants They can't miss it Keep it short and clear Use action-oriented language The time is NOW Lead with incentives Don’t neglect the rest of your site Track and analyze success Test and improve 01. Define your goals  The first step to perfecting your call to actions takes you to the very core of your online presence. You need to have a clear understanding of your goals. Let’s put it this way: Why are you setting up a website to begin with? What are you hoping to achieve? The answer to this question would determine how you use CTAs. Your goal and the action that you are calling for correspond to each other. If, for example, your site’s goal is to advance your life coaching service, the action you’d be prompting would be scheduling an appointment, and the CTA might read something like: “Book Your First Session Here” or “Schedule a Free Consultation.” In some cases, you might be interested in directing site visitors to do more than one thing. For instance, you want them to both purchase one of your products and like your Facebook page. In this case, you will have more than one CTA on the site and you will need to prioritize them. You may choose to have one CTA more prominent on one page and the other on another page. You may also divide your site’s layout in a way that supports both CTAs without creating competition between them. 02. Know what your audience wants Knowing what you want to achieve is one thing, but you won’t get far if you neglect to consider the wishes and needs of your audience. What are they doing on your site? What are they hoping to accomplish? What tone of voice and what kind of vocabulary appeals to them? To maximize your chances of success, you should start this stage by doing some research on your target audience and creating a profile of your average site visitor (or multiple archetypes of visitors). Once you get a sense of what motivates your audience, you will be able to craft more effective CTAs. And don’t be afraid to look at what your competitors are doing, there’s a lot to learn from other people’s successes and failures. 03. They can't miss it A CTA has to be clearly visible. All the effort that you put into creating your CTAs will be useless if your site visitors are unable to spot it on your site. Here’s how you guarantee that they will: Your color palette should make the call to action stand out. Choose a color combination that accentuates the CTA and draws attention. Obviously, you don’t want to blind your site visitors with clashing colors (and these color palette generator tools will help you avoid that), but you do need enough contrast for it to stand out on the page. In addition, consider which colors to use in order to evoke specific emotions from people. Size matters. The proportions of CTA buttons or texts should reflect their unique role on your site. You want to go with a size that distinctively marks the CTA as a crucial segment of the site, one that shouldn’t be overlooked. But practicing moderation is a good move here too: devoting half of your page size to a button will not get you much other than frustrated visitors. Location is key. Where you choose to place the CTA will have a huge impact on its performance. The guiding principles are that CTAs should be located in prominent spots, the space surrounding them should be free of clutter, and they shouldn’t compete with other buttons in the area over clicks. Don’t assume that CTAs always work best if placed right at the top of the page. Remember that you are asking visitors to take action, so the request should appear at the moment when they’re ready for it. The CTA usually follows content that prepares the ground for it. 04. Keep it short and clear This is not the place for witty observations or lively descriptions of the benefits you promise. CTAs are brief and to the point. They describe the action in a straightforward manner – Download Your Copy, Register for a Free Trial, Buy This, Sign Up and Get $50 Off, Reserve Your Seats, etc. This type of copywriting may sound a bit bland, or even off-putting in its directness. Don’t forget, though, that the CTAs are just that final step in a process. Your site’s design, images and content provide the atmosphere, information and motivation to follow through the journey, while the CTA is there to give it a final push. 05. Use action-oriented language Compelling site visitors to take action requires proactive language. It’s no coincidence that CTAs begin with a powerful imperative verb that assertively determines what happens next. This type of explicit invitation increases people’s motivation to follow your CTA and complete the action. It puts the focus on them and their decision and strengthens their confidence in the choice to click onwards. 06. The time is NOW Similarly to the use of power-verbs, adding a sense of urgency strengthens the CTA’s impact. An effectively-written call to action motivates site visitors to take the next step immediately, rather than giving them time to think about it and probably forget all about your site. Adding words like “Now,” “Here” or “Today” to your CTAs can help prompt quick reactions. Other phrases that elicit this type of determination are: “Get Instant Access,” “Grab Limited Discount Code” or “Take Advantage of Our Best Deal Ever.” 07. Lead with incentives When you’re asking your site visitors to do something for you, you better be willing to do something for them in return. With an abundance of options and information available online, web users have the power to consider costs and benefits and make informed decisions. If you want CTAs to appeal to that mindset, you need to make sure the value that you are offering is clear, and that it actually appeals to your group. For example, CTAs like “Start My Free Trial,” “ Create a Blog ” or “Download Straight to Your Device” all offer a certain incentive that allows visitors to visualize what they are getting out of this deal. 08. Don’t neglect the rest of your site This article focuses specifically on the art of creating CTAs, but just as important is the art of creating a good CTA environment. Remember, the CTA is a culmination of your pitch to your site visitors. Even the perfect CTA will fail if the site that surrounds it does not lead visitors towards completing the action. To begin with, your entire site design should support the CTA. This means that the layout of the page should direct the visitors’ view towards the CTA in a natural browsing flow. Subsequently, you should also free up some white space around the CTA, to make sure that nothing distracts from it. Your site content is also crucial for the elimination of FUDs – fears, uncertainties and doubts. Because CTAs are short and can’t address all the concerns or questions that site visitors might have, you need to make sure that your site has all the answers. 09. Track and analyze success No serious website owner would be satisfied with following all the steps mentioned above without tracking their impact, too. Analyzing the success rate of your CTA is crucial in evaluating your site’s overall performance and is a vital step towards improving your strategy for growth. An important metric that can help in guiding your evaluation is the conversion rate, which is the percentage of website visitors who convert. For example, if you have 100 visitors to your website and 5 of them make a purchase, your conversion rate would be 5%. The way you define conversion depends on what your goal is, but it could include actions such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter or downloading a PDF . The higher the conversion rate, the more effective your CTAs are at driving conversions. 10. Test and improve After tracking and measuring your CTAs’ performance, you have the knowledge required to experiment, compare and improve various call to action schemes. For example, your analysis may show you that some colors bring in more clicks than others, or that the phrasing “Buy Now” is more effective than “Purchase Now.” Keep track of your different tests to better understand what triggers action with your target audience and continue to improve your CTAs accordingly. Where to include a CTA When it comes to mastering CTAs , you also need to know where to include them. There are many places where you can integrate a CTA, but some of the most effective spots are: On your website: CTAs can be placed on your website in a variety of places, such as: The homepage: The homepage is a great place for your CTA because it's the first page that visitors will see. Product pages: CTAs can be placed on product pages to encourage visitors to buy your products. A blog: Try including CTAs on your blog posts to encourage visitors to read more content, subscribe to your blog or buy your product. Contact page: A CTA on your contact page encourages visitors to contact you. In your email marketing: CTAs can be included in your email marketing campaigns to encourage subscribers to take action, such as clicking on a link, opening an attachment or making a purchase. On your social media: CTAs can be included in your social media posts to encourage followers to engage with your content, such as liking, commenting or sharing your posts. In your advertising: CTAs can be included in your advertising campaigns to encourage viewers to visit your website, sign up for a free trial or make a purchase.

Starting a business  means wearing multiple hats and facing constant challenges that require innovative solutions. Custom Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) are revolutionizing the business world, changing how small businesses operate. These powerful tools act like an assistant in each department, helping to streamline processes, enhance customer service and empower decision-making. With a multitude of options available, how can small business owners choose the best custom GPTs tailored to their needs and budget? In this article, we’ll dive into the top custom GPTs available, exploring their features and benefits. Discover how advanced tools can drive your business towards greater efficiency and growth. What are GPTs? GPT models are advanced AI systems capable of understanding and generating human-like text. Built on sophisticated algorithms and trained on vast amounts of data, these models can analyze and understand large datasets to generate meaningful responses to prompts and questions. This makes them useful for applications like chatbots, content creation and even complex problem-solving. Custom GPTs are tailored versions of these models, designed to meet specific needs and requirements. For small businesses, this means having an AI that understands your unique business context and can assist in various functions, from customer support to marketing strategies . With a Custom GPT, small businesses can leverage AI technology to drive growth while reducing the time and effort typically required for these tasks. 9 best custom GPTs for small businesses Wix AI website builder Adobe Express DALL-E Data Analyst Consensus Scholar AI Creative Writing Coach InVideo AI VEED 01. Wix AI website builder The Wix AI website builder  makes it easy for small business owners to establish their online presence. Start creating a website  with tailored design recommendations that align with your brand's identity, ensuring a unique and personalized touch.  Save time and focus on what truly matters—growing your business and reaching a wider audience. Learn how to create a website in minutes using Wix’s AI website builder GPT . 02. Adobe Express Adobe Express  simplifies design with AI-driven tools that offer smart suggestions, refining the creative process and ensuring quality results. This approach lets small businesses focus on strategy instead of repetitive tasks, saving time. Enjoy an efficient workflow and elevated design standards to create visually striking content with ease. If you want to leverage AI for digital marketing, Adobe Express provides an intuitive platform that enhances both creativity and productivity. 03. DALL-E DALL-E  is a GPT model created by OpenAI  that can generate images from text descriptions. This innovative tool can assist small businesses in creating visual content, such as product designs or presentation graphics, without the need for a designer or expensive editing software. With its limitless imagination and ability to create unique images, DALL-E can help make a lasting impression on your audience. 04. Data Analyst The Data Analyst GPT  model assists small businesses by analyzing trends and patterns in their business data. It can provide insights and recommendations to identify market opportunities, optimize pricing strategies or streamline supply chains. Users can ask questions in everyday language, and it delivers valuable insights through clear visuals like graphs and charts. It's perfect to help you make informed decisions without needing a team of data analysts. 05. Consensus Consensus  is an AI-driven academic search engine, helpful for small businesses aiming to create authoritative content on complex or scientific topics. It offers AI-driven academic search capabilities, allowing access to insights from over 200 million research papers. By simplifying intricate information into clear summaries, assisting with accurate citations and providing science-backed insights, Consensus helps you draft well-informed documents efficiently. 06. Scholar AI Scholar AI  streamlines the process of accessing patent information, providing small businesses with a safeguard against infringement issues and legal challenges. This tool searches databases, offers concise summaries of research papers, and analyzes documents like PDFs . By directly linking users to relevant sources, it simplifies finding, analyzing, and connecting academic and technical information, making it an essential asset for anyone engaged in research or technical innovation. As a small business owner eager to enhance research and development, use Scholar AI to maintain your competitive edge. 07. Creative Writing Coach The Creative Writing Coach  GPT provides personalized feedback to create compelling marketing content, refine communication and elevate storytelling. It can help improve clarity and develop branding to ensure messages connect with audiences. Craft narratives that capture attention and build stronger customer relationships. 08. InVideo AI InVideo AI  empowers small businesses to elevate their social media marketing on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. With features like script generation and automated text-to-speech, it simplifies creating engaging short-form videos. Produce professional-quality content quickly, enhance brand visibility and capture your audience's attention effectively. 09. Veed Veed Video  GPT is a tool that utilizes GPT technology to automatically generate video content from text. Often, there isn't funding to invest in an in-house team or outsource to a specialist. Veed can assist you in creating promotional videos, product demos and more, without the need for expensive equipment or editing skills. How to implement a custom GPT Begin your custom GPT journey with a strategic plan for success. This straightforward process makes implementation simple, helping you maximize your custom GPT's potential for your small business. Follow these steps to get started. 01. Identify your needs Begin by assessing which parts of your business could benefit most from a GPT. Consider how AI can boost productivity and efficiency, improve customer interactions, or tackle current issues. 02. Choose the right model Explore various custom GPTs that can help with your business goals. Understand what each GPT offers and how it addresses your specific needs. Can't find the right GPT? Learn how to build a custom GPT to match your business need. 03. Train the model  Tailor the GPT model with your business data. Provide relevant information so it can grasp the unique language and requirements of your industry for greater accuracy. 04. Integrate with existing systems Make sure the GPT model seamlessly fits with your current tools and platforms. Some technical adjustments may be needed to make sure everything runs well together. 05. Monitor and optimize After implementation, track the model's performance. Regularly assess its efficiency and make necessary tweaks. Updating settings and data ensures optimal results and adaptability to business changes. Best custom GPTs FAQ Do I need coding knowledge to implement a custom GPT? While some coding knowledge can be helpful, it is not necessary as there are user-friendly tools and services available to assist with implementing a custom GPT. Can a custom GPT replace human employees? No, a custom GPT is designed to work alongside humans and enhance their capabilities. It can handle repetitive tasks and provide insights, but ultimately, human creativity and decision-making are still necessary in business operations. How do I ensure data security when using a GPT model? Ensure your data stays secure when using a GPT model by choosing a trusted provider. Implement strong data encryption and regularly update security measures to protect sensitive info. Educate your team on handling confidential information and best practices for data protection. Consulting with an IT specialist can offer extra guidance.

Many consider content the most important part of a strong marketing strategy. Informative, engaging content can reach new customers and maintain current ones. Even Bill Gates knew back in 1996 that “Content is king.” From deciding to create a website to strategizing your social media content , you’ll often share links to videos, articles and social media posts. A link shortening tool can be a handy way to optimize these links for your content marketing strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss why compressed URLs can help your marketing. Plus, we’ll go over some of the best link shorteners on the market. What is a link shortener? A link shortener—also known as a URL shortener, link compressor, or URL condenser—is a digital tool that takes a long URL and makes it shorter. This URL tool serves self-creators or small businesses in many ways. In fact, the US government found this tool important enough to provide two types of government-funded link shortenings , although they decommissioned the project in 2019. If you want to share a link for any type of marketing , whether social media marketing or your weekly newsletter, most people don’t find website links littered with excess numbers and letters attractive. A lengthy URL can even deter people from clicking. Link shorteners condense the long URLs in your marketing strategy so people will be more inclined to click on them, in turn increasing click-through rates. Learn more: URI vs URL 4 reasons to use a link shortener 01. Elevates your brand image Excess characters in URLs can look suspicious and unappealing. Use a link shortener to keep your marketing assets clean and concise, which reflects positively on your brand image. 02. Easier to share If your users find a link easier to copy and paste, especially from a mobile device, they’ll be more likely to share your links. 03. Cleaner appearance People have an easier time reading and comprehending shorter text, making them more likely to click on shorter URLs. 04. Provides tracking capabilities To sustainably grow your brand, you must track your marketing efforts and key performance indicators (KPIs). Most link shorteners come with analytics tools and other advanced features. 10 best URL shortener services Hopp.co Sniply ClickMeter Cuttly Bitly TinyURL T2M Tiny.CC BL.INK Rebrandly 01. Hopp.co Hopp.co is the ideal URL shortener for online content creators who want to increase their revenue and customer base. All creators, from Instagram influencers to culinary bloggers, can access Hopp.co’s impressive list of tools. This includes: tracking and analytic data, unlimited number of uses and the ability to create short links with a customized domain just for this purpose. Hopp.co’s ability to add a “pre-roll” customized promotional page is what makes this link shortener a real winner. Creators can send users to an interstitial page before their final destination where they can add a CTA or link that promotes a service, video, event, social account, blog post or product; collects subscribers or contact information; and even promotes a membership. They also offer call-to-action landing pages and a “speed-dial” feature, which allows users to enter a code and access a link—a handy feature for those looking for a link sharing workaround for Instagram posts. 02. Sniply Sniply allows users to compress long links and overlay them with custom call-to-actions (CTAs) to create visually appealing mini banners. 03. ClickMeter ClickMeter ’s URL shortening tool offers marketers a dashboard to analyze data from large, global audiences, plus optimize and compare links in one place. The tool targets visitors where they will have the best conversion rates, monitors fraud and broken links, tracks clicks and conversions, and more. 04. Cuttly Cuttly ’s platform can manage and track analytics from users' branded URLs. The tool integrates with several platforms—such as Zapier, Integromat and Laravel—and comes with other marketing tools like password-protected short links, UTM parameters and QR codes. 05. Bitly Bitly’s free tool shortens links using the bit.ly domain. Users with a premium plan can customize their shortened URLs with their own domain names. Bitly comes with an analytics dashboard to help users comprehend which campaigns and content their audiences prefer. 06. TinyURL TinyURL’s basic link shortening tool does not require users to create an account, but it also doesn’t offer advanced analytics. Paid users get basic tracking tools such as click rates, URL editing and timestamps. 07. T2M T2M is intended for large businesses and corporations, but it can also suit smaller businesses. T2M offers URL management, branding and APIs, campaign management and complete analytics to help marketers make business decisions. 08. Tiny.CC Tiny.CC offers a simple interface that allows users to manage many URLs at one time. Users can edit links in real time, redirect smartlinks and track traffic metrics. 09. BL.INK BL.INK ’s GDPR-compliant tool caters to small businesses. Key features include the ability to build UTM campaigns and create links that are easily shareable with any channel, including mobile, PDF files , QR codes, email and more. 10. Rebrandly Rebrandly emphasizes the importance of brand trust and recognition. With an array of advanced features and collaborative tools that enable different departments to work together more easily, the platform focuses heavily on organizational teams. It offers multiple logins and workspaces for this purpose. Consider creating a qr code for your brand, you can use a qr code generator to do this.

In a world where so much happens online, businesses are constantly faced with the decision of where to invest their marketing and branding efforts. Should you focus on learning how to build a website or is it better to engage customers through social media platforms ? This debate is more relevant than ever as companies try to establish a strong online presence in an often crowded marketplace. Making the right choice between a website and social media can significantly impact your business. Each platform has its unique advantages and serves different purposes in the grand scheme of your marketing strategy. By understanding these differences, you'll be better equipped to make informed decisions that align with your business goals. Let's explore what it means to have a website versus engaging on social media and how these tools can work together. What is a website? A website is your business's home on the internet. It's a dedicated space that you own, where you can provide information about your products or services, share your brand's story and connect with customers. It's a place where you have complete control over the content and design, allowing you to present your business professionally to the world. What is social media? Social media, on the other hand, is focused on engagement, where everyone comes to chat, share and connect. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are social spaces where businesses can create profiles to interact with their audience via social media marketing . Here, you can post updates, respond to customer inquiries in real time and engage with other content. Social media is all about building relationships and fostering community around your brand. Website vs social media: the great debate Ownership and control When you create a website, you're the owner. You own your domain name (as long as you keep on with the annual renewal process), decide on the layout and determine the content that goes live. This level of ownership means you're not subject to the whims of another company's business model or policy changes. Your website remains as long as you maintain it - with most website builders this means as long as you renew your plan every year. In contrast, social media is like renting space in someone else's building. You can set up shop and decorate your area but ultimately, the platform owns your presence there. They can change the rules, their algorithms or even shut down your page if it doesn't comply with their policies. This lack of control can be a significant risk for businesses that rely solely on social media for their online activity. Customization and branding Websites offer a blank canvas for branding and customization. You can design every aspect to align with your brand identity—from colors and fonts to the user experience. This customization helps in creating a consistent brand image that resonates with your audience. Social media platforms do allow some level of branding through profile pictures, headers and posts. However, you're limited to the layout and design constraints of each platform. While these spaces are great for showing your brand's personality, they don't offer the same level of branding depth that a website does. Why create a website for your business? Professionalism A website serves as the cornerstone of your business's online identity, communicating credibility and professionalism. When potential customers search for your business, a well-designed website provides a sense of trustworthiness. It's a signal that you're serious about your business and that you offer a legitimate product or service. Conversion optimization Websites are also incredibly effective for guiding visitors through the buying process. With a sales funnel built into your site, you can lead potential customers from awareness to consideration and finally to making a purchase. By learning how to create a landing page and optimizing call-to-action buttons and contact forms, you can increase the likelihood of converting visitors into customers. SEO benefits One of the most significant advantages of having a website is the ability to appear in search engine results. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital for increasing visibility and driving organic traffic to your site. By using keywords, producing quality content and optimizing your site's structure, you can rank higher in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you online. Learn more: Small business website statistics Why use social media for your business? Audience engagement Social media platforms excel at fostering direct and immediate communication with your audience. They provide a space where you can quickly respond to comments, messages and reviews, creating a two-way dialogue with your customers in real-time. This level of engagement helps build a community around your brand and can lead to stronger customer loyalty. Learn more: What is Brat? Brand awareness The shareable nature of social media content means that your posts have the potential to reach far beyond your immediate followers. When users share your content, it increases your brand's visibility exponentially. This virality can be a game-changer for brand awareness, helping you reach new audiences at little to no cost. Learn more: How to design social media graphics . Can social media replace a website? While social media platforms offer many benefits, they come with limitations for businesses that can't be overlooked. Relying solely on social media means you're at the mercy of platform algorithms and policy changes, which can affect how and if your content is seen by your audience. Social media doesn't necessarily offer the same level of professionalism and credibility that a website does. Customers often expect legitimate businesses to have a website where they can find comprehensive information and contact details. Without a website, you may miss out on opportunities to establish trust and authority in your industry. While social media is an excellent tool for engagement and brand promotion, it cannot fully replace the depth of functionality and control provided by a dedicated website. Website vs social media - combining the best of both The key to a strong online business presence is not about choosing between a website and social media but understanding how to use them together effectively. Your website should be in the center of your branding and marketing efforts—a place where you control the narrative. Social media, meanwhile can be used to reach out to new and existing customers, encouraging interaction and community. By integrating both, you can drive traffic from your social media to your website where conversions happen. Social media can be used to tease content, promote offers, and engage with your audience, while your website provides more in-depth information, captures leads and processes sales. For example, a retailer might use Instagram to showcase their products with beautiful imagery and then direct customers to their website for purchase. Or a B2B company might share thought leadership articles on LinkedIn to establish expertise before funneling readers to their site for webinar sign-ups or consultations. An integrated approach can lead to greater brand consistency, improved customer journeys, and ultimately better business outcomes. Website vs social media and how to choose for your business Deciding whether to focus on a website, social media or both depends on your business goals, resources and audience. Here are some considerations to help you make the right decision: Decide on you goals : Determine what you want to achieve with your online presence. If sales conversion is your primary goal, a website should be your priority. For brand awareness and community building, social media might be the right focus. Understand your audience : Know where your customers spend their time online. If they're active on social media platforms, that's where you should be too. However, remember that a website can cater to those who are searching for your services via search engines. Consider your resources : Maintaining both a website and social media presence requires time and money. Evaluate what resources you can dedicate to each platform to keep them updated and engaging.

After you create a website for your brand, you need to get out there and let people know you’re open for business. The best way to do so is to set your sights on social media. In particular, you need to learn how to increase social media engagement to bring attention to your brand, make meaningful connections, fully utilize social networking and accelerate your business growth. It’s the “engagement” part of that strategy that’s going to be key to your success. Today we’ll look at what it is, what it’ll do for your brand and 10 ways to get more of it. What is social media engagement? Social media engagement refers to the responses your social media posts receive. While comments, likes, and shares are the most common type of social engagement, some platforms use different engagement features or terminology for them. For example, on the one hand, a Twitter user would "retweet" a post, but a Pinterest user, on the other hand, who wants to share this IKEA post would use the “Save” button: Just keep in mind that the ultimate goal of social media marketing is to get meaningful engagement. That means that while having a high number of interactions or follower numbers may look good, it’s the quality of the interactions that’s more important. The importance of getting engagement on your social media Social media might be free to use, but the time you invest in creating content for each platform, growing your list of followers , and engaging with them is very valuable. With this in mind, the last thing you want is to create a social media account and end up talking to an empty room. Or, worse, to talk to a super-crowded room, but get ignored by everyone. When you nail your social media strategy and give people a good reason to engage with you, you’ll reap plenty of benefits: Build greater brand awareness. You don’t need to be Kim Kardashian level famous in order to get good engagement. You just need a great strategy (including knowing the best time to post on TikTok ) aimed at the right audience - like this TiktTok for business guide breaks down. Increase your clout. You have a great website and a promising offer. But the conversational style of marketing on social media allows you to really let your brand’s voice and thoughts shine. It also makes it easier for you to monetize your platform, whether its making money on TikTok or Instagram. Exponentially increase your reach. When someone engages with your social media posts, it can help the algorithm identify your post as more relevant and interesting and there is more likely to push your content into more people’s feeds. We explain this further in our guide to LinkedIn marketing , for example. Develop meaningful relationships. Unlike your blog, email marketing , or traditional marketing, where you talk at your audience, social media is a conversation. And when you give people a reason to engage, really meaningful interactions can develop from that. Provide better customer service. Even if you’re not handling technical support on social media, simply being there to answer questions for interested prospects or existing customers gives you another opportunity to demonstrate how much they matter (and to show others curious about your brand how attentive you really are). Get more accurate data. You know who your audience is, but the metrics you get from social engagement and social signals can tell you a lot more about their story and inform how to better connect with them. How to increase social media engagement If you’ve already begun using social media for your brand, then you’re familiar with basic social media marketing tips and strategies. However, what we’re going to focus on below are 10 ways to improve your social engagement metrics and get a better ROI on your marketing strategy as a whole. 1. Make a record of your current engagement rates 2. Set measurable goals for future engagement 3. Get to know your audience when they’re on social media 4. Write blog content that’s going to get their attention 5. Experiment with different social media post formats 6. Create social media posts that are eye-catching and engaging 7. Create social media posts that are authentic 8. Don’t just wait for people to come to you 9. Respond to your engagements in a timely fashion 10. Review your analytics regularly and reconfigure your strategy as needed 01. Make a record of your current engagement rates There are two places where you can get social media analytics from. First, you can log into each of your social media platforms and use the analytics provided there. For instance, here’s what Twitter’s Analytics dashboard looks like: Each social media platform provides statistics based on the types of engagements available, and you’ll get engagement statistics for each individual post. You’ll also see average performance stats related to: Engagement rate Link clicks Retweets without comments Likes Replies The second way to get analytics is if you use a social media management and scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite . There, all of your social engagement data will be in one place. Regardless of which tool you use, it’s recommended to export the data as a spreadsheet and save it on your computer. If the tool does not do this for you, here is the formula of how you can calculate your own engagement rate: Social Media Engagement Rate = # of Engagements (sum up all likes, shares, comments, etc.) ÷ # of Followers ✕ 100 Do this for each of your platforms, and afterwards compare your engagement rates to a few of your competitors who have a similar size following. 02. Set measurable goals for future engagement Now that you know roughly what to shoot for, it’s time to set some goals. The first thing to set goals for is your social media marketing efforts. Which audience are you looking to reach? What actions to wish for them to take upon seeing your content? How will you measure success? To help you decide which engagement metrics are most important to you it’s important that you know that not all engagements are created equal. For example, the Instagram algorithm values saves, shares and comments more than likes. Figure out which engagements to track based on your business goal (if you want to create brand awareness, focus on increasing page visits; if your goal is to build a community, focus on growing the number of followers or comments under each post etc.). Next, figure out which social media platforms to focus your efforts on that can best help you reach your above goals. Remember, sometimes it is easier to build a successful engagement strategy if you limit how many platforms you focus on. From Pinterest for business , to Instagram and Facebook, there are a variety of platforms to choose from depending on your niche and industry. 03. Get to know your audience when they’re on social media In order to build offerings and create strong social media content for your target customers, you need to figure out who they are in terms of demographics, needs, and motivations. Which platforms do they use most? What kinds of accounts do they follow? Are there certain topics that tend to catch their interest more? What types of posts and content are they more likely to engage with? Do they communicate using GIFs, emojis, or acronyms? Start by looking through accounts for brands similar to yours. You should be able to spot some trends in terms of content with the highest engagement. Then, do some research on their followers—especially the most engaged ones—and find out what their feeds look like. Because not only do you want to share posts that are relevant to them, you want to speak their language as well. This step can be really time-consuming if you try to do it all on your own. So, social listening and engagement tools like Sprout Social or BuzzSumo can help. 04. Write blog content that’s going to get their attention While you don’t want your social media feed to be all “Me! Me! Me!”, you can create a free blog with high-quality and thought-provoking content to share with your followers from time to time. So, make sure your blogging strategy coincides with your social media engagement goals. For instance: If your goal is to boost the number of clicks and saves as part of your Pinterest marketing efforts , create more Pin-friendly content like infographics. If your goal is to get more engaged followers on Instagram, record a daily vlog. If your goal is to increase the number of comments you get on each Facebook post, start writing blog posts that answer common questions your customer service team gets. Every platform has its own strengths. Figure out which platforms you want to increase social engagement on and then create content in shareable formats for each. It might also be a good idea to review the set up of your social platforms - go over your YouTube channel name , or other platform handles, to make sure it resonates with users. Learn more: How to design social media graphics . 05. Experiment with different social media post formats In order to increase engagement, use a social media calendar to test out different kinds of social media posts. Here are some post formats and themes to consider: Behind-the-scenes tours Customer spotlights “Live” video events Infographics Quotes Video Q&A This-or-that questions Contests and giveaways Surveys Animated GIFs and Memes You never know which ones will get the most attention and engagement until you give them a try. Plus, with the variety of social media platforms available, there’s a lot to play around with. If you're looking for inspiration, take a look at this curated list of social media ideas and tips on how to use them effectively. You can also consider sharing content from your blog or website straight to social media, with a social share button. This helps make it easier to post more often and consistently. 06. Create social media posts that are eye-catching and engaging As we write this post, Internet Live Stats tells us that there have been over 375 million tweets sent, 3.5 billion YouTube videos viewed, and 42 million Instagram photos uploaded today . Needless to say, there is a lot of noise on social media. Having a great social media channel will help you get more followers, but that doesn’t guarantee that they (or other social media users) will see your posts in their feed. There’s just too much new content being published every second of every day. In order to get people to slow their scroll, your posts need to be eye-catching. While it does vary based on platform as well as the industry you operate in, images are more or less the most effective way to capture someone’s attention on social media. According to Social Insider’s report, images clearly dominate for attention over carousels and videos on Instagram—and this is the platform with the highest levels of engagement. It’s not just images alone that make a post eye-catching or engaging though. Applying filters so your images all have a similar look is one way to make your content stand out from the crowd. Furthermore, creating a logo and adding it as a watermark to all custom content is another way to make your posts more recognizable and eye-catching. You should also be constantly on the lookout for new features. TikTok, for instance, recently launched a new video Q&A feature . Every platform creates new features in response to the way people use the platform, so take advantage of them as they’re a good way to drum up more attention. Even if the bigger visual components of your posts initially grab social media users’ attention, it’s the accompanying message that’s oftentimes what convinces them to engage. In addition to writing awesome messages, give them some visual style, too. For example, on platforms like Twitter and Instagram where hashtags and handles are popular, use them to not only improve the discoverability of your posts, but to make your messages stand out like this @travelchannel tweet: Here's our full guide on how to use Twitter. Tagging someone else’s handle is an especially good way to get exponentially more eyes on your content, which can increase engagement, too. With platforms like LinkedIn and Pinterest, where you have more room to write, take advantage of the space as The Walt Disney Company does here: Just remember that the rules of formatting long content apply here, too. Add paragraph breaks to make long text less intimidating to read. Including emojis along the way helps, too. Another tip is to focus on creating content people would like to save for later or share with their friends. Try including a question in the caption that has the potential of starting a discussion and conversation in the comments section. Don't forget your social media bios too, they are crucial to boosting social media engagement rates and a key part of the puzzle. Hopp helps create the most stunning and fast-loading bio pages with ease. It is highly customizable, its unique search feature ensures that your followers can access your links quickly and easily like never before. 07. Create social media posts that are authentic While there’s certainly a lot of room for what you can post on social media, not everything is going to fit with your brand identity. So, make sure you’re creating posts and choosing formats that are authentic to you. For example, entrepreneur Marie Forleo is on all the big social media platforms and has hundreds of thousands of followers there. She could easily throw different kinds of posts at them. What Forleo does, however, is stay in her lane. Most of Marie's posts—regardless of which channel she shares them on—are inspirational and motivational images and video content where she talks directly to her followers. What you won’t see her share are infographics, animated GIFs, or shameless selfies. And that’s a really important part of getting high levels of engagement on social media. Sure, you want to market your brand and increase your leads and sales in the process. But you have to be genuine when you do it or else people will quickly catch on that it’s all just for show. 08. Don’t just wait for people to come to you Dedicate some time every week to look for new relevant users to engage with. One way to easily do that is to follow Gary Vee’s $1.80 engagement method . This proven to work method encourages you to find users through the top hashtags in your niche and to comment something meaningful on their posts. Other methods include engaging with: Customers who’ve shared photos or recommendations of your products. Companies whose missions you really dig and want to keep tabs on. Brands you want to partner with. Blogs and news sites that share content that you and your audience will find valuable. Cute and funny accounts that add some extra positivity to your feed. Whether you’re sharing your love for another brand’s offering or you’re simply getting involved in other users’ conversations, you need to get out there and be social. It’s a great way to show that your brand actually cares about making genuine connections and being part of the social media community and not just using it to boost conversions. 09. Respond to your engagements in a timely fashion Once you start giving people a reason to engage with you on social media, get ready to respond. While you might not want to thank the dozens or hundreds of people who like each of your posts, take time out to respond to those who share and comment. Check out Burger King’s tweets and retweets for a masterclass in responding to followers: Burger King responds to all kinds of posts. Customer service issues. Memes. Ridiculous demands. And, not only that, it does it with its trademark personality and quickly, too. If you don’t have that kind of bandwidth to monitor social media 24/7, that’s okay. Just make sure you respond within 24 hours. 10. Review your analytics regularly and reconfigure your strategy as needed When you set up your social media branding , you set up monitoring and analytics for this very reason. Without these insights, there’s no way to measure your marketing strategy’s efficacy. On a regular basis or at least monthly, it’s a good idea to perform a social media audit . In terms of engagement, ask yourself questions like: Which posts get the highest numbers of engagement? Which posts get the best type of engagement? Which ones go completely ignored? Are there any platforms where your engagement rates remain really low? Don’t forget to look at Google Analytics either. There’s a section under Acquisition that will tell you which platforms drive traffic to your site as well as the best quality of leads. If you can nail down which posts and platforms are giving you the biggest ROI, you can reconfigure your strategy and give your audience more of what they want where they want it.

If you’re a small business, the world of social media marketing may sound like a challenging and intimidating venture, but it’s both well worth the time and practically required in 2019. But where do you start if you’re completely new to this form of marketing? Sure, you can start off by creating a website , and then sharing links but you’re going to need to do more to keep your audience interested. Don’t worry, we’re going to run you through some of the basics to get you where you need to go. What is social media marketing? Social media marketing is the act of using social media platforms to promote your brand or product, build your audience, generate leads, and increase sales and website traffic. Together with content marketing , social media marketing is an essential part of a marketing methodology called inbound marketing. At the heart of this idea is that the creation of valuable, interesting content for your audience draws customers toward your brand. While it’s easy to assume that social media marketing consists of only creating content for the platforms to reach your audience, it’s much more than that. Successful social media marketing campaigns involve actively and consistently engaging with the target audience. Don’t worry, we’ll show you exactly how it’s done. Ready to dive in? Here are the 10 great tips for social media marketing for small businesses marketing efforts. Identify your goals Get inspired by your industry Check out your competition Create “business” social media accounts Find and get to know your audience Create compelling content Create a social calendar to stay organized Post on a regular basis Engage and respond to your followers Monitor your performance 1. Identify your goals Before you can jump into social media marketing, it’s important to do your research to determine what you’re actually looking to achieve with it. If you’re just trying to make your presence on social media known, great. If you’re looking specifically to increase website traffic, fine. Defining your goals and the strategy to achieve them will make things easier for you going forward. Once you’ve established you primary goals for your social media marketing strategy, you’ll always have a guideline to hole your efforts against. There will certainly be steps that you’ll have to take regardless of your goal, having a plan in place will help you stay aligned with your ultimate goals and will help you see what should be the correct next steps in achieving it. 2. Get inspired by your industry To get an idea of the footprint of your industry on social networks, it’s important to cast a wide net when doing market research. For instance, do a popular hashtags search on Instagram and Twitter with industry-specific keywords and to see what you can come up with. This allows you to take a look at the variety of posts that are published and identify the big players and potential influencers, both of which can be very helpful assets. For Facebook, try joining a group discussing in your industry and view the discussions and posts that take place. This will give you an idea of what kind of content is being shared most often by your audience. If you can identify a trend or an industry topic that’s important to your audience, your social posts can cater towards it to get attention. Are you seeing a subject about your industry that isn’t being discussed often enough? Consider it a goldmine and an opportunity to establish yourself as the expert and start that conversation yourself. Grab attention by adding industry-specific hashtags so your audience and influencers will take notice, and hopefully, join in on the conversation. Sometimes getting inspired by your industry is finding relevant discussions about what’s not being talked about. 3. Check out your competition If you’re new to social media for your business, one of your most valuable resources is going to be your competition, who may be more established in the space than yourself. Use them as a way to brainstorm strategies you’d like to take on for your own brand, see what types of posts they use on different networks and also take note on the number of posts published per day. This type of research is not an excuse to rip off your competition and clone their entire social media marketing strategy — it’s to get an idea of how others within your industry are making social networking platforms work for them. 4. Create “business” social media accounts If you haven’t done so, you should create or convert your existing social media accounts into business accounts. Whether you open a Facebook business account or start a YouTube channel for your business, you’ll be able to get more features for, you guessed it, businesses! Some nice additions to having business social media accounts is that many offer built-in analytics for your social posts (more on that later), as well as the ability to use paid promotion for your posts. This is a great option to help build brand awareness. Specific business/brand social media accounts are available for most popular platforms, including: Facebook for business Instagram for business - how to promote your business on LinkedIn Twitter for business LinkedIn for business - how to create a LinkedIn company page TikTok for business 5. Find and get to know your audience Through your own research, you’ll more than likely have found your audience and how they interact with social networks. You may have found that your specific target audience seems to be more active on Instagram, but are also present on Twitter and Facebook. Whatever your findings show, be sure that your social media strategy backs it up. If your audience is most active on Instagram, you stand to benefit most from putting more effort into it versus a social network they’re not as active on. All that said, it’s important to have some sort of presence on all major social networks. According to data from Wix and Vistprint's Small Business Marketing Report , 21% of Gen Z shoppers always activelyseek out new small businesses in their community. And another helpful small business marketing statistic shows that 66% of Gen Z likes finding new local businesses through social media marketing. With this in mind, a part of getting to know your audience is getting to know who they aren’t as well. For instance, if you’re targeting Generation Z, a social media post that features a fax machine (even as a joke) likely won’t resonate with them, as they’ve likely never ever had to work with one or even seen one. Need more data to find your audience? You’re in luck. There are several studies that can help you get a better idea of where your audience spends their time from their demographics. 6. Create compelling content Now it’s time to put your industry knowledge together with the research you’ve conducted to create your content. Whether it’s an engaging meme that only your audience can enjoy or simply a link to your latest blog article sharing new developments in your business sector, your posts need to be both interesting and relevant to them. You also don’t have to do all the work! If there’s industry-related news, don’t hesitate to share it through your social channels, even if you’re not the direct source. This will tell your audience that you’re a reliable source of information for this topic. Creating fantastic social media content is a sure-fire way to get the attention of your audience, but it’s not easy! Take your time crafting your posts and don’t forget that you can share your posts across social networks! Need some inspiration? Check out oddball holidays or other “special days” as inspiration for your social posts. Something like “take your dog to work day” is easy enough to craft a post around and can be enjoyable for your audience. There’s a lot you need to know when it comes to creating content. From the exact social media image sizes for each social media network to the free online social media tools available to you, there’s a lot to learn. And because this process can be a bit overwhelming, Wix has a dedicated section for social posts within your site’s dashboard to make it easier for you. Learn more: How to design social media graphics . Need more inspiration for your social posts? You could have some fun with one of the many Meme Generators out there, like Imgur . These are easy to use and can be fun to make, even if they’re not the best out there. Some of the best memes are terrible! Another way to ensure that you’re keeping your content fresh and relevant is keeping up with social media best practices. Luckily for you, we have the ultimate social media marketing guide along with these social media marketing tips to show you what’s what. 7. Create a social calendar to stay organized One doesn’t become a social media marketing genius overnight, or even in a few months. It’s going to take time for you to see what works and what doesn’t, and since you’ll be posting a lot of content, you want to be organized about it. This is where a social media calendar will come in handy. A social media calendar will allow you to see what posts are published on what network at what time. It’s best to try to schedule your content out at least a month at a time, but this isn’t going to be reasonable in every instance. Just keep in mind, it’s better to have more content than you need than not enough. For some, a simple Excel sheet will do the trick to keep track of your social media posts going out. If you’re looking for a little more, there are some great tools available to help you with scheduling and more: Hootsuite : Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool that covers schedule your posts and so much more. It’s also a great platform for social media monitoring and provides insightful analytics to see how your posts are performing. That’s hardly where Hootsuite stops in the feature department, and you can even get started with a 30-day free trial. Buffer : Another popular social media management tool that allows you to schedule, monitor, and get helpful analytics from your social posts. You can try out one of its 7-day free trials to see if it’s right for you. 8. Post regularly Just because you’re getting the hang of things doesn’t mean you should publish 11 Facebook posts a day. In fact, overposting will cause people to unfollow you, as you’ll come off as spammy. Instead, go for quality over quantity with your posts. Here’s how much you should be posting on social networks: 9. Engage and respond to your followers You think that once you’ve created, scheduled, and published your content that you’re done? Think again! You also want to make sure that you’re engaging with your audience in any way you can. Engaging with your audience is helpful for a number of ways. It can help establish trust between you and your audience It invites additional engagement from others It shows that you’re active and respond on social media It can be a fantastic source of data, feature requests, and additional feedback — all for free! Social media is also a fantastic place to provide customer support. Whether they’re reaching out to you directly or not or not, they’re talking about you, and it might not always be for the best. You can use social listening to reach your customers, rectify issues, surprise them with a social media-only coupon, and more! 10. Monitor your performance Social media marketing isn’t something you become an expert at overnight. It can be a trial and error process, but by monitoring the success of your posts across social media, you’ll begin to see what type of content works best for your brand and what doesn’t. Luckily, it’s not hard to see look at the performance of your posts with the built-in analytics that many social networks provide for business accounts. By viewing the analytics of your social media posts, you’ll begin to see what type of content resonates with your audience. Using the stats from your previous posts, you can begin to reshape your social media strategy with more content that has, by the numbers, proved to be more successful for you. It’s adaptability like this that will help you continually evolve with your social media marketing efforts. Also consider tapping into the fields of online reputation management and social listening , to understand how your brand is perceived online as a result of your campaigns.

Get started by: Creating a website →  | Getting a domain → Marketing is a crucial element for any business, including laundromats. As a laundromat owner or operator, you understand the importance of different types of marketing  in standing out amidst tough competition to attract and retain customers. Whether you're starting a business  or aiming to enhance your current marketing strategies , having a solid marketing plan is essential. In this article, we'll delve into understanding your target market , crafting a strong marketing strategy that includes both digital marketing  and traditional tactics, building an online presence and leveraging community involvement. With a comprehensive laundromat marketing plan, you'll be well on your way to making your laundromat a local favorite. 8 marketing techniques for laundromats Google Business and Google Ads Utilize social media Use discounts and promotions Build a website for your laundromat Leveraging online maps Participate in local events Collaborate with other businesses Engage with the local community 01. Google Business and Google Ads Google Business Profile: Set up a Google Business Profile and ensure your laundromat is listed on Google My Business to highlight your laundromat's key details, such as photos, customer reviews, operating hours and location. Google Ads : Use Google Ads to target potential customers in your area. With location-based advertising , you can appear in search results when people are looking for laundromats nearby. 02. Utilize social media Social media profiles : Create social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where your customers are most active. Leverage these channels for effective customer engagement   by sharing laundry care tips, exclusive promotions and updates about your laundromat. Paid advertising : Consider paid social media marketing  to reach a broader audience. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer targeted ad options based on demographics, interests and behaviors. 03. Use discounts and promotions Offering discounts and promotions can be a powerful way to encourage new and repeat business. Here's how you can implement these strategies effectively: Loyalty programs : Introduce a loyalty program that rewards customers for their repeated business. This could be a digital punch card or points system that offers a free wash after a certain number of visits. Time-based discounts : Consider offering discounts during off-peak hours to increase website traffic  during slow times. Referral bonuses : Encourage word-of-mouth marketing by providing incentives for customers who refer friends or family to your laundromat. 04. Build a website for your laundromat You'll want to kick off your laundromat marketing by  learning how to build a website  that highlights your projects, services and expertise. You can start with a  website builder  like Wix to create a business website  that's visually striking, easy to navigate and user-friendly. Your laundromat website should be: User-friendly : Ensure your website is easy to navigate with clear menus and calls-to-action. Mobile-friendly : With most users accessing the internet via mobile devices, your site must look good and function well on smartphones and tablets. Informative : Provide all the necessary information about your services, location, operating hours and pricing. Branded : Use consistent branding elements like colors, fonts, logo and a laundromat slogan to create a strong brand identity. To make your website truly effective, consider these tips: SEO optimization : Use relevant keywords like "laundromat marketing strategy" and "how to attract customers to laundromat" throughout your content to improve search engine rankings. Engaging content : Include engaging content such as blogs on laundry tips or the history of your laundromat to keep visitors on your site longer. Online scheduling : If possible, offer an online booking system so customers can reserve machines or schedule laundry services in advance. Learn more:  Wix SEO 05. Leveraging online maps Make sure your laundromat is listed on online map services such as Google Maps. This helps locals find you easily when they search for laundry services in their area. Keep your listing updated with accurate information and encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. 06. Participate in local events Sponsorship : Look for local events, sports teams or charities that you can sponsor. This not only supports the community but also puts your brand in front of potential customers. Hosting events : Consider hosting your own events at your laundromat, such as laundry education workshops or family fun days. 07. Collaborate with other businesses Partnerships : Partner with nearby businesses to offer joint promotions or discounts. For example, team up with a local coffee shop to provide a discount to customers who show a receipt from your laundromat. Referral networks : Create a referral network with other local service providers where you can recommend each other's businesses. 08. Engage with the local community By actively engaging with your local community, you demonstrate that your laundromat is more than just a business—it's a valuable member of the neighborhood. This approach not only helps in building customer loyalty but also sets you apart as a socially responsible establishment that people want to support. Social responsibility : Show that your laundromat business  cares about the community by participating in or organizing charity drives and environmental clean-ups. Local forums and groups : Join local online forums and groups to stay informed about community needs and interests and to share information about your services. Discover more marketing strategies: Small business marketing Understanding your laundromat's target market To effectively market your laundromat, you first need to know who you're marketing to. Defining your target audience  is a foundational step in any successful marketing strategy. It involves understanding who needs your services and what specific characteristics they possess. This knowledge will shape every decision you make, from the services you offer to the way you communicate with your customers. Market research is an indispensable tool in this process. It helps you gather data about the local population, their habits and preferences. Here's how you can start pinpointing your ideal customer base: Demographic analysis : Look at the age, gender, income level and employment status of the people in your area. Are there many college students or families? Do residents mostly work blue-collar jobs or commute to office jobs? These factors can influence when and how they use laundromat services. Psychographic profiling : Go beyond basic demographics to understand the lifestyles and values of potential customers. Are they environmentally conscious? Do they value convenience over cost? This information can help tailor your marketing messages and service offerings. Crafting a strong laundromat marketing strategy A robust marketing strategy is the backbone of any successful business and for laundromats, it's no different. To craft a strategy that resonates with your target audience and sets you apart from the competition, you need to consider several essential components. Creating an effective marketing plan  for your laundromat involves a mix of both digital and traditional marketing tactics. Here are the steps to guide you through this process: Set clear objectives : Determine what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts. This could be increasing foot traffic, enhancing brand awareness  or boosting customer loyalty. Budget allocation : Decide how much you're willing to spend on your marketing campaigns. A well-defined budget ensures that you use your resources efficiently according to your laundromat business plan . Channel selection : Choose the right marketing channels  to reach your audience. This might include social media platforms  or traditional methods such as flyers and local newspaper ads. Content creation : Develop engaging content that speaks to your customers' needs and interests. Whether it's informative blog posts or eye-catching posters, make sure it reflects the quality of your service. Promotion strategy : Plan out how you will promote special offers or events. This could involve email marketing campaigns , social media contests or partnerships with local businesses. Performance tracking : Implement tools to measure the success of your marketing activities. Use data analytics to understand customer behavior and refine your strategy accordingly. Laundromat marketing FAQs What kind of content works best for promoting a laundromat? Content that provides value to your customers tends to perform the best. This can include laundry tips, stain removal guides or information about any eco-friendly practices you use. Highlighting special promotions and behind-the-scenes looks at your operations can also engage your audience. Can email marketing be effective for a local laundromat business? Email marketing allows you to directly communicate with your customers and keep them informed about special offers, events or any changes in operation hours. It's a personal way to stay connected and encourage repeat business. What metrics should I track to measure the success of my marketing efforts Key metrics include website traffic, social media engagement (likes, shares, comments), email open rates and promotional redemption rates. Tracking these metrics over time will give you insights into what strategies are most effective and where adjustments may be needed. Is it worth investing in professional photography for my marketing materials? High-quality visuals make a significant difference in how potential customers perceive your business. Investing in professional photography for your marketing materials can enhance their appeal and effectiveness, making it a worthwhile investment. What are some effective laundromat advertising examples? Consider utilizing direct marketing  by sending out flyers or postcards that feature coupons or details about your services to local residences. Additionally, take advantage of community boards by posting notices and special offers on bulletin boards found in supermarkets, libraries and community centers. Don't forget the power of online advertising ; run targeted ads on platforms such as Google and Facebook, which allow you to reach your local demographic more effectively. Who is the target audience for laundromats? Laundromats serve a variety of customers with different needs, including:  Apartment dwellers : People without in-unit laundry often rely on laundromats for convenience.  Students : College and university students especially those in dorms or off-campus housing frequently visit laundromats.  Travelers and temporary residents : Visitors staying in hotels, rentals or temporary housing often need access to laundry services.  Large households : Families or individuals with big laundry loads like bedding or bulk items benefit from larger machines.  Busy professionals : Those short on time often prefer wash-and-fold services for ease.  Eco-conscious shoppers : Customers looking for energy-efficient machines or sustainable laundry options.  By understanding and catering to these groups, laundromat owners can build a loyal diverse customer base.

Learning how to create a website  that works beautifully on desktop and mobile or planning to build your own app? Giving users a smooth mobile browsing experience opens up new opportunities for your brand. Mobile navigation is how users move through and interact with a site or app  on any mobile device. It’s key for delivering a seamless UX design  and can greatly impact the success of your site or app. Whether you’re designing from scratch or using a mobile website builder , the navigation style you choose plays a big role in your site's usability. In this article, we’ll explain what mobile navigation is and share popular navigation patterns with tips to make them user-friendly. Want to turn your website into an app? Check out Wix’s Branded App to build your own. What is mobile navigation? When browsing on mobile, website navigation is at the heart of the user experience. Mobile navigation is what informs and guides visitors through the app or mobile site and includes features such as breadcrumbs and anchor links. Compared to desktop navigation, mobile navigation tends to have more challenges because of the space constraints. Since the increase in mobile usage, UX and UI designers have turned mobile navigation into something of an art form by performing UX research and testing different mobile patterns over the years. Both mobile website navigation and mobile app navigation are part of this conversation, investigating how users behave with mobile devices to better understand the most efficient ways to deliver content on a smaller scale. Good mobile navigation is not only about finding the quickest way for users to get from point A to point B. It facilitates a logical user journey, prevents user frustration and allows them to discover more about your brand and product via your mobile site or app. 5 basic mobile navigation patterns Understanding the most commonly used mobile navigation patterns and website menus is a great first step to making an app or mobile website that will satisfy users. Below, we’ve included insights from Or Gertman, the mobile apps editor for Wix’s Branded App, who sheds light on how these six mobile navigation patterns below benefit users when they interact with your app or website’s user interface. Best for mobile websites and mega-apps: Hamburger menu By now, the three horizontal lines that make up the classic hamburger menu are ubiquitous in the world of mobile website design. The small icon hides the menu until the user clicks on it. “It’s a very popular navigation pattern for mobile user interfaces,” said Gertman. “But the hamburger menu is more common on mobile web design than mobile apps.” Because the hamburger icon hides the menu from the homepage , the designer can offer more menu items or make the titles longer without crowding the page. “Most of the time, you would use a hamburger menu because it has more information,” said Gertman. “For example, if you choose bottom navigation you’ll be limited to five items since it’s really small and needs to be more focused.” Best for simplifying the user journey: Tab bar “The tab bar is the most common navigation pattern seen in mobile apps today, and it can really fit all types,” said Gertman. Located at the bottom of the screen, it’s a more design-oriented navigation pattern that’s easily discoverable. Typically, a tab bar includes icons that provide direct access navigation items. Its interactive nature and position in the thumb zone make it an especially comfortable navigation pattern. In contrast to hamburger menus, the tab bar presents more limitations in terms of the number of items you can display. “Since the guidelines for operation systems allow you to include a maximum of five items at once time, as the owner, you’ll need to choose the most important things to display on the primary navigation,” said Gertman. “Anything else can be used in secondary navigation.” But having a smaller menu is not necessarily a bad thing from the UX perspective. “With a smaller menu and fewer options, it’s much easier for the user to navigate around an app with a tab bar because it provides more focus,” said Gertman. Best for text-heavy apps and mobile sites: Grid-based navigation Grid-based navigation is a full-screen mobile pattern that includes most menu items directly on the homescreen of a mobile app. Gertman explains, “Similar to the hamburger menu, you can fit as many items as you want using grid-based navigation, so it’s versatile and there are a lot of options when it comes to design.” Resembling the mobile navigation patterns of iPhones and Androids, it’s a user interface many of us are familiar with. But as Gertman points out, it’s becoming more out of fashion. “Over time, we realize that the user experience is better when there’s more focus,” he explained. “The types of users that want this layout are browsing educational or community apps and sites with lots of reading content.” Best for secondary navigation features: Drawer navigation Like the name implies, drawer navigation is a mobile navigation pattern where the majority of navigational content is included behind a tab or sidebar menu . Using a similar concept as the hamburger menu, a navigation drawer can hide many menu items. Although the menu items are hidden, the navigation system won’t function well without clear organization. “If you have a lot of content you want to include in a drawer, you need to make sure it’s organized and separated into categories so the user can find what they’re looking for in the plethora of options.” Best for optimized space utilization: dropdown menus Dropdown menus offer another versatile approach to mobile navigation. With a simple tap, users can expand a list of options, making it easy to discover more without cluttering the interface. Dropdowns are particularly useful for forms or when you need to offer a range of choices without overwhelming the user. Just remember to make your dropdown options large enough to be easily tapped on a mobile screen, ensuring a user-friendly experience. Best web design practices to enhance mobile navigation Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when designing mobile navigation: Make sure your content is legible With the limitations of a small mobile screen, it’s important to ensure users will have an easy time reading your content. Pay attention to font sizes and styles that may overwhelm the eyes when packed onto a small screen and reduce the amount of written content wherever possible. Include essential items in your navigation menu If you’re using a mobile navigation pattern that limits the number of menu items you can include, think strategically about including only the most essential pages for users. Although grid-based and hamburger menu mobile navigation allows for more options, you should still be cognizant about overloading them. Use gesture-based navigation to engage viewers Gesture-based navigation refers to the use of gestures to control and navigate the user interface of a mobile site or app. You can use it to enhance your navigation pattern, allowing users to perform actions on their device such as swiping left or right, moving between screens or pinching and expanding their fingers to zoom in and out. Oftentimes, gesture interaction provides a more natural and intuitive way of interacting with electronic devices. Use floating action buttons A floating action button (FAB) is a circular button displayed on top of a user interface, which triggers the primary action when pressed. Designers typically place it in the corner of a screen and make it prominent to attract the user's attention. FABs provide quick and easy access to essential features such as a navigation drawer. Apply one-hand navigation principles One-hand navigation enables users to perform common tasks on a mobile device using only one hand. Here are a few key principles of one-hand navigation: Keep the most frequently used elements within the thumb zone Use gestures like swiping instead of buttons Provide visual cues to guide the user's hand Enable users to customize the layout to their preferences Best UI tools for facilitating mobile navigation Mobile navigation tools offer a wide range of features to make it easy to design and prototype mobile app user interfaces. Here are a few of the best mobile navigation tools for beginners: Material Design Material Design is a design system that Google developed. It provides a set of guidelines for the design and development of user interfaces. One of the key goals of Material Design is to provide a consistent user experience across different platforms and devices. It can be extremely helpful in the context of mobile navigation UI. Justinmind Justinmind is a prototyping tool that you can use to create interactive wireframes and prototypes for websites and mobile applications. It’s helpful for designing mobile navigation because it allows you to create and test different flows and layouts for their mobile apps. Adobe XD Adobe XD is a powerful, user-friendly tool for designing the navigation of mobile apps. You can use it to create wireframes and mockups of app ideas quickly and test them out with real-time prototyping. This allows you to see how your designs will look and feel on a mobile device and make any necessary adjustments before the app is built. Ready to get started? Make your own website and bring your ideas to life. Mobile navigation design FAQ What are the best practices for mobile navigation menu? Keep menus simple and limit the number of items to avoid clutter. Use clear labels, recognizable icons and a sticky or bottom navigation bar for easy access. Make sure tap targets are big enough for touchscreens and test responsiveness on all devices. What are the common navigation buttons? Home, back and menu buttons are key for smooth navigation. Other popular buttons include search, cart, user profile and social media links. Many mobile sites also use a hamburger menu to save space while keeping options easy to access. What is the navigation bar in mobile? The navigation bar is a set of buttons or links usually found at the top or bottom of a mobile site or app that helps users move between key sections. It often features icons like home, search and account settings, making navigation quick and easy. What is the difference between navigation and browsing? Navigation helps users move through a website in a structured way using menus and links, while browsing is more about exploring and following curiosity. Good navigation takes users straight to what they need, while browsing opens up opportunities for discovery. How to make a mobile website easy to navigate? Use a clean layout with a clear hierarchy and intuitive menus. Optimize for touch by spacing out buttons and keeping important links within easy reach. Try a mobile website builder to create a responsive design that works seamlessly on any screen size.

If we asked you to name a sport that has survived multiple generations and cultures, you’d probably think of baseball or soccer. Trading cards probably never came to mind. But, as it turns out, trading card games (“TCGs”) have bred a new type of athlete over the years. From the rise of Pokémon cards to the materialization of One Piece cards, TCGs have rapidly grown in popularity.  TCG tournaments now attract players from all around the globe. And in a small, unassuming card shop nestled in the heart of Mönchengladbach, Germany, players congregate weekly to compete in Magic: The Gathering matches.  The owner of that shop? Arkady Kovalev. A long-time collector and player himself, Arkady is the local hero of trading cards and comic books. Heroes INN now exists to bring card enthusiasts together, providing a space for players young and old to share their love for comics, manga and trading cards.  Looking to start your own online journey? Get started with Wix's eCommerce website builder . For the love of trading cards Before venturing into entrepreneurship , Arkady never had big dreams of starting a business . The idea came up rather organically.  “I have played a lot of trading cards as a child and visited some stores like the Heroes INN,” he recalls. “But then all the stores closed here.” “There were no opportunities anymore for people to engage in playing cards, and there were no real stores selling comic books and mangas anymore…I wanted to give people the same experience I had as a child playing card games.” “And yeah, that's why I created the store,” he says matter-of-factly.  Heroes INN opened its doors in 2014. At the time, Arkady was a freelancing software developer and a once-aspiring writer. His new business was a slow burn. For 10 years, it was a “slow but steady process,” with the first year being devoted entirely to research (“I thought, ‘Hey, maybe there's a reason why there's no store anymore in our city’”).  But things came together: First came the realization that Mönchengladbach, a city of more than 260,000 residents, was home to comic fans yet lacked a store that truly understood their preferences. Then came the credit line (“I needed to buy so much stuff”). Then came his online store—and eventually, the people.  Today, Heroes INN serves around 200 regulars, plus hundreds more on-foot visitors at its tournaments. Magic: The Gathering matches happen twice a week alongside other games, though the inn is open for players to meet whenever they’d like.   Image source: Heroes INN “[We deliberately called the store an inn] because it's like a tavern or someplace where people stay,” says Arkady. “Heroes is also referring to comic books because you have some heroes in comic books…and I wanted people to be their own heroes in some way…[I thought] maybe if you become a very, very skilled player, you could be a hero for others.” Looking to learn how to build a website ? Start creating your site today with Wix's website builder . Conquering a global quarantine period  But no hero’s journey is without hiccups. One of Arkady’s greatest conquests involved COVID-19.  “We were at the store but we weren’t allowed to let people in,” recalls Arkady. “[So,] we sold them stuff at the door. People could come to the store and say, ‘Hey, I need the new issue from One Piece,’ and we gave them it at the door.” “We were, more or less, the only social interactions for many people…[they weren’t] allowed to see other people but they could get their books and chat a little bit.” At this time, the Heroes INN site served as a portal for seeing what was in stock. Customers could reserve certain items for pickup before venturing outdoors. It became, as Arkady describes, a “dedicated database of products,” allowing both his staff and customers to keep an eye on the latest inventory.  “[By having a dedicated online shop for presales, people could] preorder stuff from their home, from their couch [while] watching TV or watching Netflix or something else,” Arkady adds.  The enduring magic of presales  Even now, presales play a pivotal role in the business. In one sense, the strategy doesn’t work as you’d imagine in the comic world: retailers like Arkady must preorder new comics and manga months in advance. By the time customers inquire about them (usually a few weeks before their release), it’s too late for retailers to change their orders. “But we can at least see, ‘Hey, this product sells well and maybe we should make it a bit more expensive or cheaper depending on presales,’” says Arkady. “Or we can try to order more of the same product.”  This is particularly useful for hits like One Piece. One Piece, a Japanese manga series that has taken the world by storm, exists in book form, card form and collectible statue form within the store. Of these, the trading cards are in hot demand.  “People are buying like there's no tomorrow for One Piece…we are already selling products for One Piece that are coming out in September,” Arkady told us in an interview in April.  The legacy of Heroes INN The magic of Heroes INN is that it has always been more than a shop. Arkady himself is an emblem of community, embodying the kindness, passion and hospitality that make visitors feel at home.  He enthusiastically shares about the couple who drove from the Netherlands to play Magic at his store. He talks about the couple from the Eurozone who met at the inn and had their first child 22 weeks ago.  “It was never my dream but I built something I can be proud of,” he says. “You have so many people who were lonely before—who spent their time sitting in front of the PC or TV or monitors at home just playing video games or watching shows. They didn't have social interactions, but then they came here and found friends.” When asked about his own experience becoming an entrepreneur , he shares that building Heroes INN was like “seeing a child grow.” And as the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child,” Arkady found himself in a fortunate spot. “ We  have also made friends along the way.” “It’s beautiful because [Heroes INN] is like a shop that you open but now it's become a center of some people's lives.”   Lessons from Arkady Much can be said about becoming an entrepreneur in this day and age. Arkady shares some wisdom he has gathered over the years that can be applied to any type of business .  Seek help when you need it: “[When] I had to create a website…Wix was very helpful because I'm not a programmer, I'm not a web developer. I don't know how to do stuff like that…[Wix had] a lot of features that I wanted to use. Especially, for example, the calendar function where I can put my events and people can book events…[my Wix site] was easy to create. Just a few clicks and we had an online shop.” The Heroes Inn Wix website (translated to English) Don’t just rely on gut instinct: “Do your research. [Many people] just have an idea and are trying to achieve it somehow…[and] a lot of advice will say, ‘Hey, just do it. You can do it.’ But [in reality,] you have to do the calculations and research first and find out how to do it.” Don’t get discouraged early on: “Things won't work from the beginning. It's just the nature of starting a business…I worked [on Heroes INN for] nearly 10 years. And even before I opened it, I did about a year of research…but it was a fun journey and I hope that it will keep on going.” Follow your dreams: “I think other people should also follow their dreams. If they have something they want to accomplish, just try it…the worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't work and then you return to your everyday life again.”  Read about our other Upgrade with Wix winners: How this founder created ‘the first hanger worthy of Vogue’ How this serial entrepreneur made a big career pivot in her 50s

YouTube marketing is useful for almost any aspect of your small business’s marketing strategy. In addition to deciding how to create a website , being active on YouTube is a great way to build your online presence and generate awareness of your brand. Opening a channel for your business will help you bolster your marketing efforts, engage with your users while building up your own YouTube community and reach new audiences. If you’re like most businesses, your social media strategy probably prioritizes Facebook and Instagram. There’s a good chance you’re also active on Twitter and LinkedIn. However, many companies tend to overlook YouTube - and that’s a big mistake. That said, an effective YouTube marketing strategy requires planning and research. A lot of your marketing budget and precious time can get wasted if you don’t know what you’re doing on this platform, so knowing how to optimize your YouTube channels and videos is the key to success. To help you make the most of the platform, we’ve broken down some of the top tips you need to know when marketing your business on YouTube. Why should you be marketing on YouTube? YouTube is the second most visited website in the world after Google. If that alone doesn’t have you convinced, then maybe these stats will: YouTube has over 2 billion logged-in users every month 90% of people say they’ve used YouTube to discover new brands or products A majority of viewers say they log on to YouTube because it teaches them something new 68% of YouTube users have used it to make a decision about a purchase Video marketing and mobile marketing have exploded in popularity over the last few years. If you’re not taking advantage of this type of content, you risk falling behind your competition. YouTube is not only a good way to market your brand or your products, but it comes with a number of other advantages as well. You can use your YouTube channel to showcase new products, add product reviews, highlight case studies and more. Not only that, but considering how far-reaching YouTube is in terms of its users around the world, optimizing your YouTube channel can also help you reach a more diverse audience. YouTube should be an integral part of your social media marketing strategy, just like Facebook and Instagram. Keep in mind that content can be repurposed across multiple platforms. For example, you can upload the same videos to Facebook and YouTube, or upload snippets of your YouTube video ideas as Instagram stories and direct your followers to your YouTube channel for the full clip. Discover the latest trends in video marketing with these video marketings statistics . YouTube marketing versus social media marketing If you’re confused, we get it. We already mentioned that YouTube is a part of a successful social media marketing strategy, and while that’s still true, the nature of how you should go about implementing your campaigns and releasing content is quite different. That’s not to say that YouTube should be separate from your social media campaigns - it just means that the rules that apply to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook don’t necessarily apply here. By nature, YouTube marketing is similar to content marketing. Most social media platforms are just that: social. However, YouTube doesn’t have as much of a social aspect to it on the platform itself. People don’t upload instant posts or photos, they don’t tag their friends, and they don’t digest content in the same way. Consider how you use a platform like Instagram. You probably open the app and scroll mindlessly, maybe like a few posts and upload Stories. But when you’re on YouTube, you most likely go there with a goal already in mind - whether that’s finding a specific video, answering a particular question, or keeping yourself entertained. Users on YouTube aren’t as passive; they typically have a clear intent when using the platform, and they search for what they want to see. YouTube videos operate more like search results on Google in terms of the content that gets found, and the actual videos are more like blog posts where users go to get information on a topic, comment on the content and send it to their friends. When you create content for YouTube, it’s critical that you keep these factors in mind. While the ultimate goal of YouTube and any social platform is to create content that engages, engagement on YouTube looks different. 9 tips for creating a successful YouTube marketing strategy There’s a lot that goes into making a video great, but we won’t get into the details of that here. Instead, we’ll cover all the basics of operating a successful YouTube channel and what you need to know about making a winning YouTube marketing strategy. Research your competition Optimize your channel Create a featured video Perfect your video editing Don’t forget YouTube SEO Make videos that convert Host YouTube contest Advertise your business on YouTube Track your success 01. Research your competition Before you go straight into making and uploading videos, it’s helpful to have a grasp of what your competitors are doing. If you haven’t done so yet, identify any direct or indirect competitors who are also active on YouTube. You can do this by searching for keywords you’d like to rank for on the platform and seeing whose videos come up first. Do this a few times for multiple search terms and see which channels come up most often. After that, do some snooping on their channels to see what types of videos they make, how many subscribers they have, how frequently they upload new content, the keywords they use and any other details you find relevant. While doing this research, pay special attention to the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. What do they do really well? What type of video content is missing from their channels? Answering these questions will help you gain a better idea of how to fill in the gaps with your own channel so that your videos perform well. 02. Optimize your channel When you start a YouTube channel , you should make an effort to optimize it from the get-go. YouTube is a search engine, just like Google, so understanding the algorithm and optimizing your channel to match it will allow you to rank higher. Here are a few elements you don’t want to ignore when putting your channel together: Channel description: Use your YouTube channel name and description to give viewers a concise but well-rounded overview of what they can expect to find on your channel. Be sure to include some keywords, and any links you want your audience to navigate to. Visuals: Make the landing page of your channel visually appealing by uploading an icon that reflects your brand, such as your logo, as well as banners that match your brand’s aesthetic or promote things like new product launches or events. Social links: Add links to your website, as well as your other social media pages, in your channel description. This will help draw awareness to your other pages so you can build your popularity on multiple platforms and drive traffic to your site. Playlists: Organize your videos by category by sorting them into playlists. The videos in each playlist should be thematically related, as it will help your viewers decide what to watch next. For example, you might have a playlist dedicated entirely to product reviews. 03. Create a featured video A featured video is the one that’s highlighted on your channel’s page. It’s the first video someone sees when they land on your YouTube channel, so you want to be intentional about which video to promote here. For that reason, pick a video that introduces your audience to your brand. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need a generic video explaining your company, but rather, any video that you think accurately represents who you are and what you stand for. This can be a video of a positive customer testimonial, an ad for a new product, or any other video that speaks to your essence as a brand. YouTube also lets you customize your featured video based on who is viewing your page. While it’s ideal to have a video that introduces your page to new viewers, you’ll want to be able to put your freshest content in that spot once they’ve already subscribed. On the section where you edit your profile, you have the option to select which video or playlist you want to highlight for new visitors, and which ones you want to display to your subscribers. This ensures that each type of viewer will see tailored content. 04. Perfect your video editing Of course, the content of your video matters. But if you want to optimize each video to its maximum potential, you also need to edit it to satisfy YouTube’s algorithm. That means having certain parameters in mind when uploading your video in order to increase your chances of getting found in an endless sea of YouTube clips. Here are a few things you’ll want to add to your videos: Catchy titles: Without any previews for your video, viewers judge each video by its title. You should, as much as possible, include keywords in the title so that it’s as relevant as possible to what your target audience is searching for. Strong thumbnail: Aside from the title, users will also judge your video by the thumbnail. Always create a custom thumbnail for your video, and be creative with it. If you’re uploading a how-to video, show the end result in your thumbnail to entice users to watch your video through to the end. Optimized descriptions: The description section of your videos is another place you’ll want to include keywords. You should also entice viewers and provide them with valuable information by summarizing your video and adding links to any relevant products or pages you discuss. In-video features: Add additional YouTube features such as in-video buttons and tools, cards that act as CTAs, clickable frames that link to your other videos, and subscribe buttons. Add as many as possible to your video (without seeming too intrusive) in order to encourage viewers to take action. Add captions: Adding captions helps you reach a wider audience. Since YouTube is global, non-English speakers will be able to watch and translate the captions once you add them. Not only that, but it’s also helpful for the hearing-impaired and for those who prefer to watch videos with the sound off. Reminder to subscribe: In the video itself, you always want to engage with your viewers at the beginning and end of your video by reminding them to subscribe to your channel and to comment on, like and share your video. 05. Don’t forget YouTube SEO SEO, short for search engine optimization, is the practice of implementing strategies for ranking on search engines. Since YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, you shouldn’t ignore adding SEO elements to your videos and channel. Make sure you’re paying close attention to the following elements to help your videos rank higher: Tags: Tag your videos and your channel appropriately so YouTube understands the nature of your channel and can recommend it to users with similar interests. Keywords: Do your research on competing videos and look at what terms rank highly on topics related to your business. Begin your research by typing a few words into the YouTube search bar and seeing what kind of content comes up. Once you have a list of keywords, make sure you’re using them in tags, titles and descriptions. Transcript: Include a transcript when you upload a video to YouTube in order to help Google’s bots scrape the content and understand what your video is about. Total subscribers: Your YouTube subscribers are as good for engagement as they are for SEO. The more you have, the more YouTube thinks your channel is of good quality and the more it will recommend your videos to other users. Additionally, when users subscribe to your channel after viewing a video, it shows that your content was relevant to their search. This signals to YouTube’s algorithm to display your content in response to future search queries. There are other elements that can go into your YouTube SEO strategy, but if you’re a new business with a small team, it can be tricky to get it done all on your own. Try out some different YouTube SEO tools to help you out along the way. Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that’s great for researching keywords. Check out TubeBuddy for a more complete YouTube SEO tool that helps you with all aspects of publishing and optimizing your videos. 06. Make videos that convert It may seem like hard work to optimize your content for YouTube’s algorithm, while simultaneously trying to make videos that convert viewers. However, the good news is that these two goals go hand-in-hand. Often, what’s good for mastering the algorithm is also good for conversion, and vice versa. For example, some of the strategies we’ve already looked at also help with conversions, such as: Adding a CTA button to your videos with action items like asking viewers to subscribe Putting reminders in your video script to like, share, comment and subscribe to your channel Creating playlists of related videos that drive users further down the product funnel That said, these aren’t the only strategies you’ll need to implement. Relevant, creative and well-thought-out content is still the number one way to convert your viewers into lifelong customers. Creating videos that resonate deeply with your target audience is the key to success. If you’re not sure how to do this, start by brainstorming what problems your target audience may be facing. Think about how your product or brand offers them a solution, and then create videos that reflect that. If your videos show users that your brand meets their needs, they’ll be more likely to convert through your business. 07. Host YouTube contests YouTube contests and giveaways are a great way to increase engagement and gain new subscribers, particularly when you’re just starting out on the platform. Run a contest that requires people to like your videos, subscribe to your channel, and leave a comment in order to gain an entry. Encourage users to get creative by uploading their own content as a way to participate. This is a fantastic way to get more user-generated content while also generating leads. Make sure you’re following YouTube’s policies so that your account doesn’t get penalized, and don’t run contests too often. You want to make sure the cost of each contest pays off and that you’re not blowing your budget on prizes and contest promotion when those valuable dollars can also go towards creating stronger video content. 08. Advertise your business on YouTube Sure, your videos act as an advertisement for your business, but YouTube gives you the possibility to also run more traditional ads, so why not do both? Running YouTube ads helps attract even more people to your channel and is also a way to promote specific products and events. The number of SMBs advertising on YouTube over the last two years has doubled , making marketing on YouTube a business essential. There are a few different types of ads you can run: Skippable video ads: Ads that play before or during a video and can be skipped by the viewer after five seconds Non-skippable video ads: Ads that need to be watched before a video can be viewed Bumper ads: 6-second non-skippable video ads that appear before a video Overlay ads: Banners, image or text ads that appear on the bottom of a video To begin running a campaign, you’ll need a Google Ads account. From there, you can create a new video campaign, set parameters like goals, tracking and budget, and then add the URL of your video for the ad you want to run. 09. Track your success Find out if your YouTube marketing strategy has been paying off by regularly checking in with YouTube analytics. In the YouTube Analytics tab, you’ll be able to track different metrics to see if you’re meeting your goals. You’ll regularly need to test and assess in order to optimize your campaigns and see what resonates with your audience and what needs to be tweaked. Some of the YouTube KPIs you should pay close attention to include: Fluctuations in the number of subscribers Audience demographics Sources of traffic and views Watch time Retention rate Devices your videos are being watched on Any discrepancies in these metrics might mean you need to go back to the drawing board to either review the type of videos you’re creating, the audience you’re targeting or even the keywords you’re using. These metrics will allow you to update your YouTube marketing strategy so that you can succeed in the future. YouTube marketing tools From embedding your YouTube videos on your website, to verifying your site with Google Search Console in order to associate your YouTube video with your Wix site, there are a number of tools to help you manage your YouTube marketing. Some of the most popular current YouTube marketing tools include: vidIQ - this online platform offers YouTube tutorials on how to use YouTube effectively for your business Social Blade - allows you to track social media metrics across YouTube as well as other platforms, so you can make decisions about specific videos and promotions running on the channel. Ahrefs - with this popular tool you can conduct keyword research for YouTube and understand potential traffic and intent. Youtube marketing FAQ Is YouTube good for marketing? In terms of the large numbers of users it has, and how much time they spend on the platform, yes. YouTube is one of the largest video-sharing platforms in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users, which makes it a powerful platform to reach a large audience. YouTube also has a highly engaged audience, with viewers watching over a billion hours of video each day. However, to make the most of this potential, you'll need a well-planned marketing strategy and stellar content. How to make money from YouTube marketing? There are several main ways to do this, depending on your product, service and company size, as well as. the goals of your Youtube marketing. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, so monetization from your marketing is not so important. If monetization is a direct KPI, so the following can pay on Youtube - ad revenue sharing, sponsored content, affiliate marketing. and direct product sales.