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Modern society has shown us the value of living in the present. Meditation and mindfulness practices have become so common that they’re touted by celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld and Goldie Hawn. And we are all for it. But when it comes to business, it’s a whole other ball game. Living in the moment certainly has its advantages, but business is about planning for the future. From creating your business website to building your product, you need to strategically project costs, revenue, and your vision for the future. That’s where vision statements come in. Not to be confused with a mission statement, or an executive summary, an effective vision statement clearly outlines the aspirations of your business and what you hope to achieve long-term. You’ll need to consider questions such as, What is your company’s overall vision for the future? and How are you going to help consumers long-term? After you’ve answered these questions, you can follow our five steps for writing the perfect vision statement. How to write a vision statement Most companies, especially large corporations, have a vision statement consisting of one or two sentences as well as a multipage document describing its future plans. As the business owner, it’s really up to you to decide if you want to extend your vision statement beyond a few sentences or not. But no matter how long or short you make it, what’s important is that you have one. Without a vision statement, your business has the potential to veer off course. You and your employees can lose sight of what you are working for and what you are trying to achieve. While there are no hard and fast rules for writing vision statements, these five steps can help you with the process: Define the purpose of your business Determine long-term goals Don't be too specific with your statement Come up with a list of values Make your statement actionable 01. Define the purpose of your business By purpose, we don’t simply mean the product you make. Think about the bigger picture: what does your business bring to the world that no other business does? Consider how you intend your product or service to change people’s lives for the better. How will the future be different with your business thriving in it? For example, an insurance company doesn’t just provide insurance. It also provides customers with financial security and peace of mind knowing that they are taken care of if things go wrong. Using that idea, an insurance company could create a vision statement such as, “Our vision is to not only provide insurance, but to be a friend to our customers by providing a sense of long-term security in their lives.” 02. Determine long-term goals Consider what goals you hope to achieve 5-10 years down the line that can set you apart from the competition and list them as part of your business proposal. Why should someone buy from you instead of the person down the street? Consider our example of the insurance company. There are hundreds, if not thousands of insurance companies in the US, each one needing to set itself apart from the competition. Perhaps an insurance company wants to offer significantly lower rates or provide better customer service than their competitors. Or perhaps, it has a unique business model, like Lemonade, that donates leftover funds to charities of their customers’ choice. These are the kinds of aspects that you could highlight in your vision statement. With that in mind, let’s take the statement above and expand on it: “Our vision is to not only provide insurance, but to be a friend to our customers. We will provide a sense of long-term security in their lives by providing 24/7 customer support.” 03. Don’t be too specific with your statement A vision statement should address broad and ambitious future goals. There’s no need to elaborate on these in detail. Your statement should outline an overview of what you plan to achieve and provide inspiration. This is typically not the place to write specific objectives, such as, “We want to hit $5,000,000 in sales by 2025.” You can, however, include these details in your expanded vision statement document, if you choose to create one. 04. Come up with a list of values Next, come up with a list of values that your business adheres to and incorporate the most important one(s) into your statement. By referencing your company’s core values, your vision statement will better encompass what your company stands for. This will also help make your vision statement a part of your company culture. Continuing with the example of the insurance company, let’s say it wants to highlight the fact that it is: Reliable Dependable Understanding Sympathetic Comforting In this case, the vision statement could read: “Our vision is to not only provide insurance, but to be a friend to our customers. We will provide a sense of long-term comfort and security in their lives by providing 24/7 customer support.” 05. Make your statement actionable The point of a vision statement is to identify a long-term goal for your business to work towards. Make sure to include actionable terminology to show that your business is moving forward and continuously striving. Examples might include: Become Transform Supply Cater Improve In our insurance company example, we use the word “provide” to show action. This helps all stakeholders understand that your vision statement isn't just a vague assertion, but that your company is actively moving toward achieving these goals. When crafting your own vision statement, consider which action words best align with your goals. That way, you’ll be on the path to solidifying the perfect vision statement for your brand. What is the purpose of a vision statement? A vision statement is a living declaration that is part of a company’s overall strategic plan. It is typically written in the early stages of starting a business and helps steer the company in the intended direction. All types of businesses can benefit from vision statements, from small mom-and-pop shops to large corporations. It should be a reference tool to help ensure that your business is moving in the right direction and that every business decision is aligned with your long-term goals. A well-written vision statement should motivate, excite and inspire. It should outline the future of your organization for all stakeholders, from investors to employees, and should be a core part of your corporate culture. It should also provide your employees (and potential future employees) a reason to wake up every day and continue working hard for the company. In fact, according to a study of over 50,000 employees, those who found the vision of their organization meaningful had engagement levels of 18% above average. This means that employees aligned with the vision of their companies aren’t just working for a paycheck; they’re working because they believe in the company and find meaning in their work. This can help improve employee retention and even your overall bottom line. Is a vision statement the same as a mission statement? This is an excellent question, and the answer is no. While the two work together to mold the future of a business and shape company culture, there are distinct differences. Unlike a vision statement, a mission statement focuses on the present. A mission statement focuses on the immediate goals of a business and what it’s doing to achieve them. It should consider questions like, What do we do? and How do we do it? while vision statements consider questions such as, What are we striving to achieve overall? and What is our long-term goal? To give you a better idea of the differences between the two, here are five excellent mission statement examples and their vision statement counterparts from top US brands: You can see that each company’s vision statement contains goals for the future. The idea is to always have a greater purpose to strive for, providing the company with direction and motivation. What makes a good vision statement? While you may think that writing a vision statement is simple, it actually takes quite a bit of finesse to create one. Your vision statement should be: 01. Simple Your vision statement should be one to three sentences long. While you can choose to elaborate on it in a more detailed vision statement document, your vision statement itself should be punchy and to the point. It’s also best not to include buzzwords that only add fluff, such as “amazing,” or “premiere.” Also, avoid industry jargon so your statement is clear and understandable to those both in and outside the company. 02. Personal Your vision statement should relate directly to what your company sells or does. A vague statement such as, “We aim to increase our number of shareholders by increasing revenue,” is a substantial goal, but doesn’t belong in your vision statement. It should project how your business is going to improve the lives of your customers. 03. Achievable While we would never knock ambition, you don’t want your vision statement to be unattainable. A statement like, “Our vision is that every person in the world will use our product,” isn’t realistic (but what an amazing triumph that would be). Dream big, the best companies do. But don’t create exaggerated goals that your business can’t possibly achieve. 04. Inspiring Your vision statement should align with your company standards and values and be integrated into your company culture. You’ll want it to motivate your employees and be something they look to for inspiration. To do this, you’ll need to make sure that your employees are aware of the company vision in the first place. Make sure to review the vision statement during orientation or even hold employee workshops. You can have employees brainstorm ways they can incorporate the company vision throughout their work days.

Have you ever stopped to think about how your favorite brand created it’s now infamous name? Did the founders choose to name the business after themselves, like Glen Bell did with his chain Taco Bell, or was the name simply selected at random? We’ve done some digging and in doing so, discovered the pretty incredible stories behind the brand names we all know and love. So whether you're looking to build your own brand, look into brand extension and website branding, or are just curious - we've got some great famous brands, and a bit about their journey into being for you. Famous brands with a funny story behind them BIC Corporation – At first glance we thought: okay, another company who simply took the easy road and named their product after themselves. Bic could be a nice last name. However the naming of BIC Corporation has a bit more humor behind it. Co-founder Marcel Bich decided to drop the "H" in his surname to avoid a potentially, ahem, unfortunate English mispronunciation. Famous brands - search engines edition Google – Do you remember living in a time before spell check existed? Neither do we. But if you can believe it, a simple spelling mistake actually led to the name of the world’s most popular search engine. In a brainstorming session between co-founder Larry Page and then graduate student Sean Anderson, the name ‘Googolplex’ was suggested to reflect the search engine’s ability to index an immense amount of data. At Page’s request to shorten the name to ‘Googol,’ Anderson ran a search to confirm the availability of the name, but searched for the word ‘Google,’ instead. Page liked the name (and the incorrect spelling!) so they registered the domain Google.com. Looks like being runner up in the spelling bee really does pay off. Yahoo! – Yahoo is sort of like the step-brother everyone ignores in comparison to its more popular and better looking brother, Google, but there’s no doubt that Yahoo’s name (and their famous Yahoo yodel) is hard to forget. Creators Jerry Yang and David Filo found their inspiration for this popular search engine from creatures called ‘Yahoos’ out of Jonathan Swift’s, “Gulliver’s Travels.” A Yahoo is defined as rude, unsophisticated and uncouth which Yang and Filo felt accurately described themselves. The name Yahoo had already been trademarked, so an exclamation point had to be added in order to establish their brand. Well, Yahoo is definitely catchier than their original idea: David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. Imagine typing that into your web browser everyday! Famous brands we couldn't imagine living without Starbucks – Long before ItsJustACup was trending, a writer, a history teacher and an English teacher walked into a coffee shop. What sounds like the beginning of a joke you’d hear from your dad is actually the story behind the Starbucks coffeehouse chain. The three founders believed that words beginning with the letters “st” were most powerful and on their quest to find a name, stumbled upon a mining town named Starbo in the Cascade Mountain Range. To writer and founder Gordon Bowker, the name instantly reminded him of Starbuck, a character from the classic novel Moby Dick. While a tribute to Moby Dick and the association with the romance of the high seas is the most widely believed story behind the name Starbucks, it was really just an added bonus for literary lovers. Apple – Imagine going through your day-to-day without your iPhone, iPod or whatever other iNvention you can’t live without. It’s hard to picture it, we know. Before creating the powerhouse consumer electronics company, co-founder Steve Jobs spent time working at an apple orchard in Oregon. At the time he was on one of his fruitarian diets and felt that the name was approachable and fun. At a time when other computer companies had complex names and logos, Jobs wanted to distance himself with a more spirited and less intimidating feel than that of his competitors. Today, Apple is still the picture of simplicity and approachability. Jobs’ time working in the fields certainly was worth it. Wix – Okay, so maybe we’re a little bit biased, but this list wouldn’t be complete without the story behind Wix! We’re all about changing the way people create their web presence which is exactly how the name Wix was born. During our founders’ beachside brainstorming session, they decided on two requirements: start with a W after our dear friend, the World Wide Web and to be super easy, reflecting one of our core values. Only after we went global did we consider that Wix may in fact be a real word in other languages. Not to worry our German friends – we can take a joke. Looking for more great branding examples? Check out our guide to Gen Z branding for the most up to date inspiration.

Neuromarketing is one of the most fascinating types of marketing. The term itself may make someone label it as cheap manipulation ploys for marketers and advertisers. While it may be impossible for a marketer to map the human brain, there are indeed several tactics that can be performed to entice potential customers that are very effective. Once you know how to utilize them, you’ll be able to apply these strategies to your small business or even when you create a website. Below, we are going to show you a few methods to hook customers in, and other ways to draw and keep their attention: Avoid “decision paralysis” by limiting options Customers want choices. No wait, customers say they want choices. Roger Dooley, author of Brainfluence, details a study out of Columbia University which concluded that offering too many choices to customers can overwhelm them and lead to a loss of a potential sale. Let’s say there’s a store that sells t-shirts; everything from polo, sport and casual. Across the road, there’s an up and coming designer selling a variety of clothing; pants, dresses and you guessed it, t-shirts. With so many choices available at the t-shirt megastore, a customer could spend hours going through all of the inventory! But at the store across the road where the selection of t-shirts is less daunting, a buyer is likely to have more success. By offering a smaller selection to your customers, they will be able to weigh the pros and cons easier in their minds. Make scarcity work for you We deem that what is rare is valuable and this very notion can affect the choices made by consumers. Say you walk into an ice cream shop, craving an adventurous flavor. Each flavor is full and ripe for scooping, except for the vanilla, which is almost gone. Somehow, it now seems to be the most appetizing of them all, totally throwing your desire for a more unique taste on your palate out the window. Scarcity also conjures up a common fear of missing a chance that you may not get to seize again. Far too often do you see “Only 2 left in stock!” or “For a limited time only!” when shopping online; this has been a very successful neuromarketing tactic in the eCommerce market. Creating some kind of urgency can give a push for a customer to buy. Humanize your brand We are naturally drawn to faces, and even more so to eyes. This is why it’s wise to use photos of actual people in your ads or website. Not only can such photos liven up a scene, but the expressions on their faces can evoke the same feeling your product or service can bring to your customers. So it’s best to make use of them! Add a baby face Speaking of faces, if you really want to turn it up a notch, add a photo of a baby! Even if a product isn’t targeted at infants, that hasn’t stopped marketers from adding a plump, young face to ads. Why? They work! Using eye-tracking technology, studies have shown that people viewing an ad with a baby tend to focus on its face more than they would an average adult and this adorable bundle is known to their attention much longer. The same eye-tracking study also found that if the baby within the ad itself is looking straightforward, viewers would primarily focus on its face and nothing else. However, if the baby was looking elsewhere, say, off to the left, the viewer too would look there. For this use case, placing information or call to actions that you want viewers to read should be placed in the direction of the baby’s gaze. Use simple fonts to promote action In the report If It’s Hard to Read, It’s Hard to Do, Hyunjin Song & Norbert Schwarz state that people more likely to engage if the effort level is minimal. This also translates to the simplicity or complexity of fonts that are used when specific actions are requested. Taking this into account, if you are seeking a specific action from your viewer, be sure that you display it in a simple, clean font. A font that’s easy to read can make the requested action appear as if it’s easy to complete. This may be why you don’t see many CTAs in a script-style font. Have a look at our article about the best ways to use fonts – you might find it useful. Use fancy fonts to add a complex and sophisticated feel If you offer a complex or expensive product, a harder-to-read font may be needed to justify it. Using a fancier font and bigger wording in your product descriptions can increase the belief that it is, in fact, a unique product that won’t be found elsewhere. Using a harder to read font and an air of complexity to your wording will also allow the viewer to take their time when reading what you have to say. This can allow them to absorb and remember your message, moreso than a simply-worded one. It’s important to strike a balance, as over-complicating your copy could result in an adverse response. Show and tell (that you’re trustworthy) Establishing and retaining the trust of your customers is vital for any small business, and sometimes the most obvious marketing strategy is the right approach. Tell them you’re trustworthy! You can do so in a number of ways; from offering free returns to giving a free gift with purchase, there is no better way to prove you’re trustworthy than to show it. Utilize progressive engagement Basically, progressive engagement is like building a relationship. You need to move gradually and adapt your requests according to the stage that you’re in. Similarly, your approach with your potential customers should be done tactfully, starting off small. For example, you stumble upon a Facebook post on your newsfeed that catches your eye. You read the full post and decide to give it a like. From there, maybe you’ll head over to publisher’s page and begin to follow along. In time, you may share the page’s content and engage it with more. Slowly, a relationship is built with the Facebook page. The same can and should be done for your business – you can first give a free gift, then a coupon, then a small discount and so on, until the customer falls in love with your business. Think about all the Freemium platforms, this concept is at the core of their business model ;)

Just like when you create a website, starting a YouTube channel means you've got to get a promotional plan in place early on. How else will you get the views you hoped for? Even with a handful of Youtube videos under your belt, you may not have dove into one of the most important aspects of the process as you should have: YouTube SEO. Getting high rankings on YouTube is a result of two things. First, you’ll need to appeal to the platform, but you’ll also need to appeal to your audience so you actually get higher view counts and subscribers. Start with a great YouTube channel name and you'll be almost ready to get started. Up to the task? Awesome, as we’ve got some great SEO tips to help you with your YouTube marketing and a few engagement strategies to reel in your viewers. How to go about Youtube SEO Keyword research Youtube optimization Appeal to viewers Viewer retention Don't forget your CTA 01. Keyword research After starting your YouTube channel, you’ve got to upload that first video to make it official. First you’ll be asked to fill out the title, description, and tags for it. Sounds easy enough, but this is one of the most important parts of the process and it’s not something you want to do haphazardly. However, you have some homework to do first. Before you even begin filling out your title or description, you’ll want to know what your focus keywords or keyphrases will be. Your first stop will be to see the competition surrounding the keywords you’re looking to use. Whether it’s in the form of Google’s own Adwords Keyword Planner or the many other free options it’s up to you, but this will allow you to see popularity and the competition you’ll be faced with. Short tail vs long tail keywords Had your heart set on “DIY crafts” for your keyword, only to find out that it’s incredibly popular already? Shorter keyphrases are referred to as short tail, and you’ll find this is where the greatest competition lies. If you think your fledgling YouTube channel can’t compete with short tail keywords, don’t worry, you have options… Long tail keywords allow you to get a little more specific, while still using the initial keyphrase you wanted to. So instead of “DIY crafts,” you could make it “DIY Crafts for beginners” or “DIY crafts for Valentine’s Day.” While it may be searched less-often, it also offers less competition, better targeting and if you’re looking into advertising, it’ll cost much less than short tail keywords. Are your keywords video-friendly? Think you’ve nailed it on your keywords for your video? While this may be true for YouTube itself, it may not be the case for search engines. The best way to find out is to actually search for your desired keywords in Google. Basically, you’re looking to see if videos appear on the first page when searching your keyword. If they do, you’ll have a better chance at ranking well in both YouTube and Google. Terms like “how to,” “review,” “hands-on” and “unboxing” all have great potential to show videos on the first page of Google, so you’re pretty safe if you’re using one of them. Still, it’s best to try it yourself with multiple keyword options before you settle on one. 02. Youtube optimization Now that you’ve researched your keywords, it’s time to apply all you’ve learned by putting your best foot forward. Title The content of your video will determine how your title is structured, but it’s important to have your keywords in the first portion of the title. If your video is about how to make doughnut ice cream cones, “How to” or “Do it yourself” would naturally fall in the beginning of the title, but that may not always be the case, depending on your keywords. It’s best to keep your title short and concise. Anything other than the essential words for the title can be put in the description section below. As along as the title showcases your keywords prominently and the point gets across, you’re good to go. Speaking of titles, a good practice when uploading to YouTube is to use your keywords in the filename of your video. Something like “YouTube_DIY_Crafts_Valentines_Day.mp4” should suffice. Description Much like Google bots don’t actually see your photos when indexing websites, YouTube doesn’t know exactly what your video is about when you first upload it. For websites, photos need to contain alt-text in order for search engines to understand what they’re about. For YouTube, the description plays this role, acting as the translator. It’s important to note that long tail keywords do well in your description, especially if long tail is the primary route you’re going in. Remember, the detailed approach may be less popular, but it’s more efficient (at least in the beginning). Why? Because writing a long description is beneficial for your video, as it gives more information to both YouTube and the viewer, and this can positively affect your ranking. In addition, the description section is also a great place to add links to your social networks and your website. Feel free to over-share here. Tags While there’s a debate on whether tags are still important or not, it’s another location to describe your video that YouTube offers, so use it! A mix of specific and general tags is suggested, allowing your video to span multiple avenues. You can use both your short and long tail keywords here as well. An older tactic for tags was that you should always put 20 tags per video, but this practice isn’t as popular as it used to be. While it likely won’t hurt your ranking if you opt to do this, it could also do nothing for you. The best practice is to add as many tags to properly describe your video as needed. If you feel that your clip needs 20 tags, no one’s stopping you. 03. Appeal to viewers Now that you have your bases covered for your video to entice YouTube, it’s time to put your effort on the viewers out there that will actually bring you the success you’re looking for. The more viewers you get, the more fans you'll have - and the more you'll be able to make money on YouTube. Here are a few tips you can do that may not dramatically change your ranking for YouTube SEO but will catch the eye of viewers. A stand-out thumbnail If you have your key phrase for your video already, go to YouTube and search for it to see your competition. Now look at the thumbnails of each similar video. Do you see a common style or theme between them that you could pin point? Good, now do the opposite. YouTube viewers will naturally gravitate to videos that catch their eye, so having a video thumbnail that stands out from the sea of other offerings is important. If you see a common color theme between your competition, make your thumbnail contrast so it’s prominent. That said, no need to use every single color possible. Hit them with your best shot (grab interest quickly) While this is something you’ll need to accomplish while you’re actually filming your video, it’s essential for keeping the attention of the viewer. Far too many YouTube videos suffer from the ‘long-intro syndrome’, which can make people lose interest and go elsewhere. To avoid this, you want to try to grab the attention of the viewer within the first 15 seconds. Keep your intro short and punchy. Tell the viewer exactly what they are about to see and get it to it. You can tell your “super interesting and only semi-related story” later. People usually come to YouTube to either learn something or be entertained, and if you’re not doing either of these in the first few seconds of your video, you’re doing it wrong. 04. Give them a reason to wait (viewer retention) Even if you’re able to grab the attention of a viewer quickly, it unfortunately doesn’t mean they’ll stay for the full video. Viewer retention weighs heavily on your video’s YouTube ranking, so you want people to watch as much of the video as possible. A tactic you’ve likely seen, quite a few times, on YouTube is the presenter giving a quick intro and then mentioning something interesting that they’ll show or tell you at the end of the video. There’s a good chance that if you mention that you’ll reveal something interesting at the end of the video that viewers will want to stick around for it. This tactic carries with it potential intrigue and allure, and could become indispensable in your YouTube toolkit. Engage engage engage! If YouTube sees a large volume of interaction on your video, its ranking will go up. Of course, you’ll need people actually watching your video to achieve this, but you can help get the ball rolling. This is where engagement is key. One thing you can do is ask your viewers to ‘like’, subscribe and comment on your video. It may sound simple, but this can really make a difference. To start a conversation, ask questions for viewers to answer in the comments. It’s your video, so don’t be afraid to ask away. Once you start getting comments on your video, be sure that you reply. Keep the conversation going by asking and answering questions. 05. Call to action Need to point something out to the viewer when they’re watching your video? Annotations, cards and end screens can make it easy for you! Cards are less intrusive than annotations, which provides a better experience for the viewer. They’re also more limited on customization options. Like annotations, you can set the type of card and the time it appears on the screen, but you can’t place it anywhere you want. Card types include video or playlist, channel, donation, poll, and link. Rounding out the helpful back-end features for your video is end screens. As the name suggests, end screens appear at the end of your video. You can add a call to action for viewers to subscribe to your channel and promote your website. Make sure this aligns with your marketing strategy. End screens are another great place to promote your other clips. Add a ‘suggested videos’ to your End screen to keep them watching content, even if it’s not yours. You just might be thanked by YouTube by getting a bump in your ranking. YouTube SEO may seem a bit tricky at first, but with the above tips at your disposal, you’re equipped to climb the ranks and to making it an integral part of your social media marketing.

Whether you’re looking to start a business or already went as far as creating your website and other promotional assets, marketing is a priority for you. That is, if you want to gain new and keep existing customers. You may need to create a fresh marketing plan or adapt yours to meet the needs of today’s shoppers, since these are constantly changing. In order to do this, your first step will be to conduct market research. In this article, we’ll explain what this term means, the difference between primary and secondary research, and how to do market research of your own in five simple steps. What is market research? Market research is the process of gathering information about your target market to determine the key to your business’s success amongst this crowd. It involves understanding the behavior of consumers, such as knowing where and how they are shopping, what factors influence their choices, and why they do or don’t buy your products and services. This data will allow you to best serve your specific audience. Through market research you’ll also be able to learn about your industry, such as spotting top trends, examining the market size, and getting to know your competition. By the end of this research process, you’ll be able to draw conclusions about your market and get super clear on your business’s value. Primary vs. secondary market research There are two main types of research that all of the different methods fall into. Understanding a bit about them will allow you to decide which one, if not parts of both, best suits your market research needs. Primary research In simple terms, primary research is the direct study of customers. It’s the firsthand information on your market. Methods of research include things like focus groups, interviews, and surveys. This strategy is mostly useful for establishing your buyer personas and defining your target market, which we’ll dive into more below. When conducting this kind of market research, you can do either exploratory open-ended conversations, or come prepared with specific questions you want to discuss. You can decide which approach best suits you based on your needs. Secondary research Secondary research is mainly comprised of information that outside sources have gathered, but it’s not limited to just this. It includes all the data and records available, such as trend reports, market stats, and industry-related content. To access this outside information, you can turn to public sources and commercial research agencies, including places like the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor & Statistics, trade and professional magazines, and even libraries. Internal sources are also reliable and useful. Look into sales reports to spot trends from the past. Also turn to digital marketing statistics, such as your website and social media account’s stats. How to do market research Following these five steps on how to do market research will allow your business to grow to new heights by being able to reach your customers more strategically: Define your buyer personas and target market Engage with your audience Determine the best methods to meet their needs Research your primary competitors Draw conclusions from your findings 01. Define your buyer personas and target market The very first thing you should ask yourself is ‘who are my customers?’ If you can’t answer this question, you can’t even begin to interpret their behaviors. This is where buyer personas come into play. Defining your own starts with creating a fictional representation of your ideal customers. Answer questions such as, ‘how old are they? ‘ ‘where are they located?’ ‘What kinds of jobs and hobbies do they have?’ You get the point, the more specific, the better the results will be. Likewise, it’s okay to have multiple buyer personas too - just make sure to specifically define each of them. Through your buyer personas, you’ll be able to discover your target audience. Your target audience is the real market you’re reaching. There is a specific audience size and available data you can find through both primary and secondary research on these people. As we’ll discuss more below, you can directly reach out to these people to engage with them and understand their buying preferences. 02. Engage with your audience Now that you’ve defined your target market, it’s time to pull a sample and pick their brain. Through primary research methods like focus groups, online surveys, user interviews and personal interviews, you’ll be able to get common opinions about your products and services. If you’re still in the process of starting your business, reach out to people that fit the common buyer personas you want to have as future customers. In order to find your sample, there are many different paths you can take. Ideally you’ll want to choose customers who purchased from you recently, as they’ll have a good memory of their experience. Also, people that almost purchased from you but didn’t in the end, such as abandoned cart shoppers. Other methods include turning to your social media accounts and asking coworkers and their friends. In all, you want to get a large variety of people. The more, the merrier. While conducting your research, have your goals in mind. Getting to that goal involves having planned questions or conversation topics. For example, you can ask your participants ‘how much are you willing to pay for our products/services?’ ‘do you prefer to purchase online or in person?’ and ‘how will you respond to the new product or service we are launching?’ At the end of your survey, make sure to reward your participants for giving you their valuable time. Offer compensation in the form of money, gifts, food, or something else. 03. Determine the best methods to meet their needs This step is pretty straightforward. Now that you have an understanding of your audience and have asked their opinions on your offerings, turn inward to yourself or your marketing geniuses at your company to determine the best methods to meet their needs. The practice of shaping your marketing efforts to fit your audience's needs is powerful for drawing customers toward your brand, and it lies at the core of an important practice called inbound marketing. An important thing to consider is your product branding, as the look and personality surrounding your brand will certainly determine your success. Likewise, promotional efforts including social media marketing and email campaigns have big impacts on your selling rate. Although there are tons of advertisement spaces online and offline, you’ll learn based off of your audience, as well as trial and error, which ones work best for your business. 04. Research your primary competitors This begins by classifying your business into one or multiple identifiable industries. Having your industry(s) in mind will allow you to determine who your competitors are. This is because you can download marketing reports for specific industries that list out this key information. Besides market reports, you can also turn to search engines like Google and social media channels like LinkedIn to search for industries and related companies. Note that the more specific you are about your niche market in the industry (step number one above), the more fluid it will be for you to spot your competition. Once you have your competitors in mind, the next step is to perform a SWOT analysis on them. A SWOT analysis is where you’ll write out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each of these businesses. Make sure to address the prices of their offerings, the display of their products and services, and other specific information about their marketing efforts. After reviewing your customers in depth, you will be able to address how your business can compete with other companies in the field, what advantages you have in the industry, and what trends you should hop onboard with. 05. Draw conclusions from your findings So you have tons of data at this point regarding your target market, their buying and decision-making processes, how you plan to reach them, and who your top competitors in your relevant industry are. The last thing you need to do is pull all of these findings together into a formal report. Most of the time, this marketing report is part of a company’s business plan. That’s the case if you’re just starting out though. If you’ve been established for awhile or are using this information for one particular experiment, you can create an individual marketing research report. For both cases, you should lay out your background information, the purpose behind creating the report, and a summary of your findings for the four previous parts. Finally, end your report with strategic action items to meet your goals.

When it comes to branding, every detail matters. From something seemingly small like how you create a logo to something much more expansive like your overall aesthetic, each component shapes perception and expresses your brand message. So, what happens when a brand dips its toes into a new product that’s a leap from its initial offering? If done right, it can propel a brand forward and help to expand the business. Known as brand extension, it's the process of growing your brand to include new services or products—or stretch into a new industry. In this article, we’ll explain what brand extension means with a clear definition, describe the different types that exist and go over a few real-world examples of good (and not-so-good) brand extensions. What is brand extension? Brand extension, also called brand stretching, is a marketing strategy companies use to apply their recognizable brand name to a new product or service. Even if consumers aren’t familiar with the new offering, they’ll know and trust the brand name enough to try it. Ideally, this method works best when brands release products or services that are parallel to the ones they already offer. Still, there have been instances of brands successfully branching out into completely different territories. One of the goals of brand extension is to reach new customers by launching a new product with the goal of increasing growth and profits for a company. Brand extensions allow companies to leverage the success of their existing branding efforts to promote a new offering rather than build a brand from scratch. Types of brand extensions The type of brand extension you use should be based on what you’re hoping to achieve, your current branding and your customers’ needs. These are five different brand extension possibilities that you can consider: Line extension A line extension is one of the most straightforward brand extension examples and involves a brand launching a product that would already be familiar to its audience. The product in this type of extension would fall in the same category as the company’s current offerings, making them easy to market to their existing clients. For example, a haircare brand that has shampoos might create a line extension for new products that are for colored hair, thinning hair, or curly hair. Complementary product extension Similar to a line extension, a complementary product extension, also called a companion product extension, is when a brand releases a new product that complements its initial product. For example, Colgate, a toothpaste company, released toothbrushes as a new product. It’s not out of the question that someone buying Colgate toothpaste in a store would also pick up a new toothbrush from an oral hygiene brand they’re familiar with. Customer-based extension In this type of extension, a brand might focus on a single demographic of their clientele and expand their products based on their needs. Existing brand loyalty makes this ideal for a company that wants to offer its customers a wider range of products. Apple’s dedicated and loyal customer base helps the brand continuously release products that it knows will appeal to those same clients. Company expertise extension When the public deems a brand or company an expert in their industry, they might want to branch out into new offerings that still fall under their area of authority. Think of the Beats By Dre headphones. The brand became known for its stylish and quality over-ear headphones, so when the company released other products, like earbuds and speakers, customers trusted the brand’s expertise in the audio field enough to be confident in purchasing the new items. Brand lifestyle extension For a brand that relies on the lifestyle and culture it promotes, a brand extension can take an unexpected turn in terms of the category of products it offers, so long as it still fits with the brand’s portrayed values or distinct way of living. Jeep’s customers know the company as an outdoorsy and adventurous brand. While tents, knives, bicycles, and other camping gear releases may be a far cry from cars, they are aligned with the company’s projected lifestyle. Advantages of brand extensions There are many reasons why brand extensions can be beneficial, so the reasons for pursuing an extension are different depending on a company’s goal. New audience: Brand extensions can get your brand in front of new audiences, which will usually result in growing your overall customer base and increasing sales. Financial gain: Aside from creating new opportunities to earn more money, brands also tend to save money on marketing expenses and brand management with extensions. Since customers already recognize the brand, companies won’t need to spend extra money to cultivate brand awareness and can instead focus on promoting the new product itself. Brand trust: From the consumer’s perspective, they’re more likely to try a new product from a brand that they know and trust. Expanding a brand’s current offerings to include new items that make sense with its existing products can improve your company’s image in the eyes of its customers. The combination of brand trust and loyalty between the consumer and the parent company in addition to the convenience you provide by offering new products can really work to revive a brand’s image. Improved brand image: By leveraging a trusted brand name and persona, brands can improve perception and overall image to both existing and potential customers. Brand extensions can help to reinforce brand associations. Brand revival: Sometimes brands need a refresh, and rolling out a new product or service can breathe new life into a business. It can also work to generate buzz or bring attention to a brand looking to reach new customers. Disadvantages of brand extensions While the advantages of brand extensions are worth the investment, if not done correctly, the extension can negatively affect your company. Here are a few potential disadvantages of brand extensions: Loss of reliability: A brand extension can actually harm your brand reputation if the new offerings don’t relate to or perform as well as existing offerings. Failed brand extensions can also lead to brand dilution. Negative impact on brand image: If a brand rolls out a subpar product or service compared to their original offering, it may negatively impact the core brand’s image. Competitive barriers: It can be difficult for brand extensions to gain traction and overtake existing competitors in an oversaturated space. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try and expand your brand if you have the opportunity. Just be sure to consider all the possibilities before launching a brand extension. Rather than going to market right away with a new product, focus first on your customers’ needs and your brand identity. 9 brand extension examples to learn from The best way to learn how to apply brand extensions to your own company is to see how well-known brands do it. Not all the examples on this list are successful brand extensions; some show how brand extensions can go wrong so that you can avoid making the same mistakes. Apple Dove Michelin Food Network Virgin Dyson Google Colgate Amazon 01. Apple Apple started as a company that makes computers but became a trillion-dollar company through calculated brand extensions. It strategically considered its existing products and market needs before introducing new products and services. As digital music files went mainstream, people needed music devices to listen to them, hence the iPod’s invention. Then, the iPod evolved into the iPhone to fulfill the market need for a reliable and functional smartphone. The company further capitalized on its market saturation by releasing accessories and technologies that complement the iPhone, like Airpods and the Apple Watch. 02. Dove After successfully marketing to women for decades, Dove decided to extend its brand to include men. The personal care company created the Men+Care line and developed a marketing plan that was geared toward men while staying true to its body-positivity brand values. Men+Care was a simple brand extension that helped Dove become the most popular male skincare brand in the US. 03. Michelin What do tires and fine dining have in common? Not much. That’s what makes Michelin’s brand extension so impressive. In the early days of cars, society perceived driving as a luxury. To sell more tires, the Michelin brothers had to get more people on the road. So, they launched a guide of notable hotels and restaurants for motorists to stop on their journeys. The company initially distributed a few thousand copies of the guide for free. Today, Michelin has sold millions of copies of its guides and is the de facto decider of the world’s best restaurants. This brand extension was an undeniable risk, but with some out-of-the-box thinking, the Michelin successfully expanded into an entirely different industry. 04. Food Network Food Network pivoted from entertainment to consumer goods when the network partnered with Kohl’s to create a cookware line. While this brand extension could have been risky, the partnership was successful. The Food Network understood that its audience’s interest in cooking extended beyond the desire to watch its shows, and that they would be potential customers for new products. 05. Virgin Group Virgin Atlantic began in the seventies as a record store and has grown to include several subsidiaries in travel, food, hospitality, consumer goods and more. The common denominator between all of Virgin’s products was its portrayal of a lifestyle that interrupts the status quo. While this worked for some products, it didn’t work for everything—Virgin Cola, for example, was a bust. 06. Dyson You might not have thought that a vacuum cleaner producer would start selling hair dryers, but Dyson did just that. The company deftly handled a brand extension into sleek home products such as fans and humidifiers. With Dyson’s branding as an innovative producer of sleek, high-quality appliances, its upscale customer base embraced the hair dryer with open arms. 07. Google Where would we be without Google? (Still asking Jeeves, probably.) The tech giant began as a search engine in 1998 and now owns multiple products that make our lives and work that much easier. Google’s brand extension journey naturally aligns with technological advances, but this makes Google’s foray into other products so innovative. The search engine brand launched Gmail in 2004, paving the way for further brand extensions. Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Hangouts are just a few of the additional products Google owns today. Back in 1998, it might have seemed strange for a search engine to offer digital business tools, but as Google advanced, it made sense for the company to offer these products to its audience, too. 08. Colgate Attempting to pull its own Michelin stunt, Colgate, known for its toothpaste, attempted to jump into a new industry in the 1980s: food. Colgate inexplicably began offering frozen dinners. Needless to say, it failed. Its brand extension into toothbrushes, on the other hand, was very successful. Considering that toothpaste and toothbrushes make more sense together than toothpaste and lasagna, it was a much easier hill to climb. 09. Amazon Amazon is a great example of a brand with humble beginnings that expanded its offerings to become an industry giant. What began as an online book retailer in 1994 has transformed into a one-stop online shop. While Amazon’s expanded product offerings qualify as brand extensions, their acquisitions made it the multi-billion dollar company it is today. Today, the behemoth owns MGM, Whole Foods Market, Zappos, Audible and IMDB.

When you create a website for your brand, remember to include a contact or subscriber form so you can reconnect with your visitors. That said, many distractions and competing priorities often lure people away from websites before they take action. So how can we solve this? Facebook retargeting. In this article, we’ll look at how you can incorporate Facebook retargeting into your social media marketing strategy to get your ads in front of previous website visitors. Then, we will show you how to set up your first retargeting campaign. You can launch and manage your campaign using Facebook Ads by Wix. The tool uses advanced machine learning to automatically retarget people who have visited your site. What is Facebook retargeting? Retargeting is an online advertising method used to show ads to people who once visited your website. These ads appear to your audience on Facebook’s platforms, including Instagram and their Audience Network and are an excellent way to tailor your Facebook marketing efforts. What will your audience see? Ideally you will serve personalized content meant to quickly catch the person’s attention —like displaying a product they recently viewed. Remarketing versus retargeting You may have heard of the term “remarketing” before. While it sounds similar to retargeting, these are two different ways to advertise on Facebook: Remarketing is the process of emailing former customers with relevant offers or information to bring them back to your site. Retargeting is the process of displaying eye-catching, relevant ads to previous visitors to encourage them to pick up where they left off in the buyer's journey or make another purchase. Why are Facebook retargeting ads so effective? You can use a Facebook business page to promote your website for free. Facebook’s users spend, on average, 38 minutes on the platform every day—offering a big window of opportunity for you to reach former visitors and customers. It is easy to control spending on this beginner-friendly platform, too. They target people who’ve already been to your site Most importantly, retargeting ads differ from standard Facebook ads. Running ads online can be tricky. You need to know your audience and, more importantly, how to use the advertising platform’s parameters to reach them. With retargeting, your ads get targeted to people who’ve been on your site, know your brand, and have already shown interest in your offerings. The ads are personalized and, thus, more engaging You’ve likely seen a retargeting ad on Facebook or other platforms: A familiar product image or description you viewed just a few days ago pops up as an ad, and you stop to take notice. You remember that you didn’t complete the checkout process because you left your credit card in the other room. Now, with your wallet sitting atop your desk, you go back and complete the purchase. For many of your former visitors, a personalized ad may entice them back to your site, too. Tip: Check out our roundup of the best Facebook ad examples for inspiration. Retargeting ads can be used to boost new item sales You can also use retargeting ads to promote related items, attractive offers and new product releases to previous customers. Simply segment your audience based on their purchase history to show them an ad that matches their interests. Retargeting ads improve brand awareness Your company may need to interact upwards of eight times with a potential customer before they finally purchase. Help keep your brand top-of-mind with retargeted ads that pop up from time to time. Even if one ad doesn’t trigger a purchase, the stream of brand exposure may influence their decision later. Retargeting can bring back visitors, customers and your competitors' customers While Facebook retargeting ads can remind one-time visitors about your site, you can also use them to reconnect with previous customers. Just target people who’ve performed a specific action, like purchasing a product or buying a subscription. You can also target people from similar demographic or behavior profiles, or even those who visited your competitors’ websites. How does retargeting work? Because your ads will target previous website visitors or customers, Facebook needs to know who they are. Retargeting uses these technical methods: With pixels (cookies) When someone visits your website, your site places a cookie in their browser, or a tiny data pixel that allows website owners to track visitors and learn more about them. For retargeting, the pixel provides valuable information about a visitors’ site behavior, including which pages or products they visited. Facebook Advertising syncs this information with your account to choose who to target. Here, you have two options: Behavioral retargeting, which reaches people who visited and engaged with your site before. Contextual retargeting, which reaches people with similar habits and preferences to your audience, but on other sites. Keep in mind that with behavioral retargeting, Facebook can only reach people who have visited your site. So, if your traffic numbers are low, start with standard ads focused on acquiring new visitors. With contact info (lists) If you use forms, checkouts or landing pages to collect visitor’s contact information, you can import those custom lists into Facebook. The platform will then identify which email addresses or phone numbers match existing users and will serve them relevant ads. The best practice with this option is to upload segmented contact lists rather than your master list and then create relevant ads based on their demographics and previous brand engagement. How to create a Facebook retargeting campaign in 7 steps Ready to harness the power of the largest social media network? You can start by using machine learning technology to run campaigns with Facebook Ads by Wix. Alternatively, you follow these steps to set up a campaign manually: 01. Set up your accounts To retarget on Facebook, make sure to set up the following accounts: A personal account A Facebook business page A Business Manager account 02. Customize account settings Go to your Facebook business page. Click on the section called Ad Center in the left sidebar and open the All Ads tab beneath it. 3. Click on Ads Manager. The campaign dashboard looks like this: You will use this dashboard to create, manage, and track any ads you run on Facebook, retargeting or otherwise. Before you do anything else, go to the Settings (gear) widget in the bottom-left area of the sidebar. Take a moment to fill in your business’s information as well as your Payment Settings: Add a payment method that Facebook can withdraw funds from to cover the costs of your ads. Also make sure to set a withdrawal limit on your account to ensure you never overspend on any given campaign. 03. Create your audience To create retargeting audiences, click on the Business Tools (waffle) widget in the top-left corner of your Ads Manager. Select the Audience option and the following screen will appear: You’ll want to use Custom Audience. Click “Create a Custom Audience” and select the correct source from the next screen: Since we want to retarget website visitors, you’d choose Website. However, you can just as easily use your other sources: App activity if you also have a mobile app Customer list if you have a CRM, email marketing, or eCommerce spreadsheet with customer email addresses or phone numbers Offline activity if you have data to upload from your brick-and-mortar business Click “Next” and fill in the following info: Give your pixel a unique, descriptive name and enter your website URL. Click “Continue” to let Facebook know which data to track from this source: You can get as specific as you’d like here: Decide if your audience meets ANY or ALL of the following rules. Track All website visitors, People who visited specific pages, or Visitors by time spent. To include more than one group, use the “Include More People” option. When finished, name your audience and click “Create Audience.” 04. Install the Facebook pixel Open your Facebook Business Tools menu and go to the Events Manager. You’ll be taken to a list of your Data Sources (i.e. the pixel and site you set up in the previous step): You’ll now need to install the pixel so Facebook can pull in data from your site. Click “Continue Pixel Setup.” There are two ways to do this: Manual or third-party integration. If you built your site with Wix, you can use the built-in integration for Facebook pixels. Select Use a Partner Integration, then click “Use a partner” and choose Wix from the next screen. Facebook will take you through the rest of the Wix setup process: Toggle on the Turn On Automatic Advanced Matching button and click “Continue” to get your instructions for installing the Facebook pixel. Make sure you test that the pixel works when you get to the “Verify Connection” step. Also, follow the steps outlined under “Set Up Events.” This will take you back to the events manager, where you should now see your data source as active. 05. Set up your campaign Go to your Ads Manager and click the green “+ Create” button to set up a campaign. Choose a goal for your campaign: Your goal depends on your audience and what action you want them to take on your site. Should they: Sign up as a subscriber? Message you about services? Buy a product? Pick the objective that most fits your campaign goals. Once you’ve set up and named your campaign, create an ad set with your preferred rules. You need fill in the following information for your ad set: Name The conversion event on your website Budget Start and end date Your custom audience Placement type (automatic is best) When you’re done, click the “Next” button. 06. Set up your retargeting ad First, Facebook wants to know your destination URL; in other words, when someone sees your retargeting ad, where do you want to send them to? Then, give your ad a name—something memorable and distinctive from the other ads you’ll create. Next, you’ll see the option to segment your audience. Rather than use Facebook’s parameters, select your custom audience from the dropdown provided. Next, set a budget for your ad that aligns with your cost-per-lead and return on investment goals. After that, follow our best practices for creating successful Facebook Ads. When satisfied with your ad, click “Place Order” and let Facebook do the rest. 07. Measure your results Keep a close eye on your Facebook retargeting campaign to ensure success. Your Ads Manager dashboard will provide you with rich information about your ongoing and previous ad runs. This metric will tell you if you’ve optimized your ads to reach your visitors and bring them back to your site. If you do not see many views or clicks, this could mean: Your website traffic numbers are too small. Try to drive more traffic to your site. Your ad creative or offer doesn’t convince your target audience to return to your site. Change your targeting settings and test different copy and images. You can also use your most successful retargeting campaign data as a framework for future campaigns, helping you drive even more traffic back to your site.

The Wix SEO team has compiled the top 11 SEO trends we think will not only help your target audience find you on Google, but also help you build a solid organic growth strategy. But this important list comes with a disclaimer: we don’t really believe in SEO “trends.” SEO is not a short-term game or gimmick, but rather a part of your strategy that involves constant evolvement and growth. So whether you want to create a website, start a business, or just get your pages more visible in search—we’ve got you covered with SEO trends that will make your brand stand out. PS. Still not sure what SEO is? Start with our What is SEO guide. The SEO trends we’ll discuss: UX and performance Clustering SERP features Artificial Intelligence Brand trust Video content International SEO Site hierarchy Backlinks Conversion rate optimization Google updates and ranking volatility 01. UX and performance Key takeaway: Keep an eye on Google’s evolving user experience and performance metrics and measurement tools. Google introduced Core Web Vitals (CWV) over two years ago, and since then has gradually incorporated them into their algorithm (first mobile, then desktop). These performance metrics show us Google’s increasing focus on user experience and website performance. Not only should we aim to deliver the best content that matches a user’s search intent, but also Google also prioritizes fast-loading content that allows for immediate interaction. Since 2020, Google hasn’t introduced or updated CWV metrics. For the most part, how a site is measured against CWV is almost the same as when they were first introduced. But according to Asi Falcon, Technical SEO Expert, two recent updates show that Google is not only placing more emphasis on the user experience, but also making it easier for developers to improve page performance. First, in March 2022 Google introduced their Performance Insights panel, a tool that simplifies the CWV optimization process for developers. For example, it shows where a render blocking resource sits on a page, and makes it clear what slows it down the most. Additionally, in May 2022 Google introduced INP (Interaction to Next Paint), an experimental metric that measures all interactions in total runtime, beyond first load and responsiveness. Google states that INP is, “about making sure the website lets you interact with it within a short period of time.” Let’s say a user presses a button on a site. Originally, Google measured performance based on First Input Delay (FID). This metric indicated the time between the button being pressed and the signal sent to the “event listener” (what triggers the interactive element). Today, INP, by contrast, measures the entire time between the user pressing a button, and the interactive element actually appears. Google has not made it clear if INP will become a new metric or if it will replace FID entirely. But what is clear is that user first SEO is here to stay. 02. Clustering Key takeaway: Match your clusters with on-point internal linking. It’s no surprise that content quality matters alongside optimization for users and search engines. In the past, two specific Google updates—Hummingbird in 2013 and RankBrain in 2015—have placed topic-centered content in the spotlight. However, Ofir Buchsweiler, Content SEO Expert at Wix, predicts that the search engine is looking beyond single pages, and instead is looking for the big picture. “A satisfied user will get a whole journey around the topic on your site," she says. Judit Ruiz Ricart, Head of Growth for the Wix Blogs, agrees: "As search engine algorithms advance, our content efforts must evolve from keyword-centric to topic-wide.” Enter: clustering. Clustering means organizing your blog’s content according to relevant topics, in a way that helps signify to Google that you’re an authoritative source. Ricart says that at Wix, by covering a high percentage of entities (what Google refers to as a definable subject or concept) for a certain topic or cluster, all related content is more likely to rank in high positions. Let’s see what a marketing cluster looks like as an overarching topic: We’d create an in-depth article targeting “Marketing Strategies,” which will function as the cluster’s pillar page. We’d then expand on that cluster by breaking down its overarching topic. For example, creating a “types of marketing” subcluster, creating another pillar page that contained a complete guide to the different marketing types. But our marketing cluster doesn’t stop there. Let’s say that now, within the ”types of marketing” cluster we have an article about social media marketing. Our research shows us that this trending topic interests our readers and comes with a lot to write about. In this case, we’d build the topic of “social media marketing” into a sub-cluster and expand on “types of marketing” even further by including articles on Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, etc. Eventually, each type of social media marketing we wrote about on the pillar page turns into their own articles and even subclusters of their own, down the line. To help connect the dots, Yael Iba Tepeleni, International SEO Expert at Wix, recommends using the most “overlooked” SEO tactic: Internal linking. “It will help Google discover your pages faster, users navigate easier, and most importantly, boost your rankings for a specific keyword/anchor. It’s a quick win,” she says. Semantic SEO is a part of the process when it comes to clustering and worth checking out. 03. SERP features Key takeaway: The SERP always evolves, and Google always experiments—keep an eye on what SERP features your target keywords rank for and adjust your content accordingly. Google knows that even if users search enter very broad terms, they are still searching for a relevant answer. That’s why featured snippets, which highlight specific excerpts from articles to provide users with quick answers, have become a favorite among SERP features. For years, SEO experts have copiously tracked and secured featured snippets, but some of the most eagle-eyed have noticed that Google is now testing the position of other SERP features like People Also Ask or Videos, to more accurately meet user intent. This example from Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Branding, shows just how much query filtering Google offers searchers, especially when searching broad terms: With this, Kyle Place, SEO Content Expert, says that a fluctuating SERP can affect your clicks and CTR—even if your ranking remains the same. “As Google adds or removes features, the number of organic results varies from the familiar 10 blue links. So while you may not see a drop in position for a particular keyword, you could be pushed further down the page or onto another one,” he adds. Mikki Ben-Or, SEO Content Expert, elaborates on this, saying that in the past, when Wix gains a keyword’s featured snippet, the CTR for that particular page increases— even compared to ranking in the first position on the SERP without the snippet. 04. Artificial Intelligence Key takeaway: Be open to change—automation can only help you. AI is an exciting space in any industry, and where it goes in SEO remains to be seen. Ido Shazkin, SEO Content Expert, has his eye on the scope and impact of AI on SEO from three angles: search, content writing, and on- and off-page analysis. AI and search: The SEO world had Artificial Intelligence on its radar since Google introduced MUM (Multitask Unified Model) in May of 2021. MUM works with natural language processing (NLP) to process Google’s extensive global data (text, images and video in multiple languages) and accurately answer search queries. MUM highlights the following best practices for SEOs should: Focus on the specific intent of users more than ever Bring multimedia to your content when it matches users’ intent Cluster your content according to topics Organize your content by implementing internal linking and schema AI and content writing: Not every search query demands the best content in the world. Someone searching “how to start a YouTube channel,” for example, probably wants something straightforward, informative, with step-by-step instructions. They don’t want Pulitzer-winning content, so why waste time and resources creating it? It seems that AI-generated content (like those created by Natural Language Generation platforms Jasper, Copysmith and Writesonic) is stepping in to fill this void. One of the biggest concerns is if AI-generated content can meet the user’s expectations and Google’s strict content standards. Will they deem it of high enough quality or will they penalize it? Since this space is developing, there are no straight-forward answers with AI content generation. Plenty of content creators already use AI content tools for pre-publishing input, such as Grammarly and Wordtune, but Google is against AI pure AI-generated content. We predict that there’s room to experiment using AI to create a mix of article briefs and drafts, but we’re not losing the human element in the editing and publishing process. AI and on-page/off-page analysis If AI can make content creation faster, it can also help us organize, prioritize and scale our day-to-day workflows and research. AI has the potential to make SEO analysis more efficient in two areas: On-page analysis: An example is tracking and scaling tests to improve a page’s meta titles’ click-through-rate. AI tools like Rytr, Frase and Simplify can not only rewrite meta titles using SERP analysis, but they can also analyze your data and identify which keywords don’t reach your benchmark. Off-page analysis: AI tools like Similarweb can crawl the web and identify quality sites or content that advance your outreach efforts, saving you time. From niche podcasts, to sites with high topic authority and field experts—AI tools can help highlight relevant professionals to connect with. 05. Brand trust Key takeaway: First and foremost, be a great company—then focus on building up the signals that tell search engines just how great you are. Expertise, Authority and Trust (E-A-T) is not a new SEO concept, but a venerated and essential factor in creating high-quality, high-ranking content. What makes this worthy of our trends list, according to Ido Shazkin, SEO Content Expert, is that external brand and reputation reviews are now influencing the SERP and have a growing impact on a company’s online authority. Shazkin predicts that, in response, brands will signal authority to Google via expert-authored or verified content, dedicated author pages and expert-reviewed content supported by citations schema. Outside of on-page content, Adela Ance, International SEO Expert, suggests that a brand’s overall reputation can affect Google rankings as well. As consumers demand more commitment to trusted and sustainable practices, any material published that can detract from a positive and transparent brand image could also affect a brand’s E-A-T. One way your content team can establish company transparency is through webinars, which, regardless of topic, inform a large audience on essential information. As Clémence Arthur, International SEO Expert points out, webinars are not only a great way to build authority with strategic SEO content. They’re also a great way to make your online material more immersive and engaging, allowing your brand to speak directly and personally to its audience. 06. Video content Key takeaway: Start prioritizing video content by embedding videos in written content and devising a wider plan to get your videos ranking. Many companies overlook the game-changing SEO potential of video content, even when they already use videos as part of their marketing strategy. However, according to Yana Arad Raduzky, SEO Domain Expert, videos can be an easy win for SEO. “One of my greatest ROI successes was recycling paid ads promoting an RPG game into evergreen SEO content for YouTube and Google,” she says. Two key indicators show us that video could have a big future on SERPs: Video rich snippets appear as the top result for a growing number of user intents, especially on mobile search. In July 2021, Google announced automated identification of parts within a video, meaning that more videos will have the extended snippet showing ‘key moments” (or, specific chapters within the video). Video rich results take up a lot of SERP real estate. If you see a video tops the results page, Google likely has identified video as the most relevant content form for the query. This hints that another well-optimized video will have the best chance to rank, too. Following the pre-launch of YouTube Shorts in 2020, Google added a "Short Videos" carousel to mobile SERPs featuring clips from TikTok and Instagram Reels. Shorts are a new product, so it makes sense that Google makes them more visible on the mobile SERP to ensure their success. Let’s also not forget that Gen Z prefers to use video-first platforms, like TikTok, over traditional search engines like Google to identify and consume intent-driven content. 07. International SEO Key takeaway: To win international SEO, you need to go beyond translating keywords. International SEO is not a short-term strategy, Like other SEO strategies, scaling globally takes time and involves constant tracking and reporting. That’s why you should seriously consider if international SEO fits your marketing strategy and if you have the resources to do it properly. If you do want to dip your toes into localization, you’ll first need to decide if your audience needs localized content. You can get your answer by combining geo-specific competitor research with keyword research to understand how your target audience searches and behaves online. For example, if you’re targeting an Indian market, you may consider localizing your content for a Hindi-speaking population. But through your research, you may find that Indian consumers want English content, and that your translations would be in vain. According to Marieke Ehlers, International SEO Expert, the only way to win at International SEO is to localize everything along your site’s customer journey. Nothing turns off a potential customer more than arriving at your site via a blog post in the local language, only to be sent to a pricing page that isn’t. That may mean re-thinking where to start with your SEO research. While Google has a hold on search all over the world, that doesn’t mean you should disregard local search engines, too.. In Korea, for example, you might see pages behave differently in Google compared to Naver, the local equivalent. Once you gain international visitors, make sure you adapt images, videos and other multimedia to match local needs. A great example is the German Wix homepage, which includes an image of an actual person, rather than a product, since the German audience proved to respond more to this. 08. Site hierarchy Key takeaway: Make sure your internal linking strategy reflects the importance of site hierarchy—if you get that right, you’ll show your search engines your authority where it matters. Since site hierarchy is one way to show Google authority on a topic, you should identify your most important pages. According to Nitzan Papirov Eiges, Technical SEO Team Lead, the Pareto principle is a great way to understand what percentage of pages should be your authoritative ones. This ~20% (following the principle) will represent the pinnacle of your expertise—and you want Google to see these pages. The rest of your pages will support these top 20%, through internal linking. While you can show your authority in several ways, internal linking, sends a clear signal to both Google and your users about how your content fits together. To learn more about creating a strategy for your site, check out this internal linking webinar featuring SEO consultant and co-founder of Zyppy Cyrus Shepard as he delves into a recent case study on 23 million internal links. Two more ways to improve your authoritative content is to make sure: Your main menu (and its links) is consistent across your site pages. The menu, header and footer includes your most important links, as they will become the most linked to. 09. Backlinks Key takeaway: Focus on a diverse set of high-quality backlinks that support your site’s goals. Speaking of linking, the importance of backlinking and the best way to secure them is a practice that’s constantly evolving. “Backlinks are one of the more essential aspects of optimizing a site to gain the online presence and credibility it wants to achieve,” says Ophyr Hanan from the SEO Outreach Team. “The world of earning high-quality backlinks is a crucial and inseparable part of SEO.” While on-page SEO focuses on optimizing the pages themselves, off-site SEO focuses on increasing traffic to your website and improving your online reputation through backlinks. Since backlinks help search engines decipher how authoritative your site is, the more high-quality and relevant backlinks your site gains from reliable websites, the more likely a search engine will rank it high on the SERP for relevant queries and keywords. A high-quality backlink comes from a related page with original or well-reported content, from a reputable site. For example, if you published an original report about your site's SEO practices and related, reputable SEO sites (e.g. SEMrush's blog) cited the page in a round-up of the best SEO teams in enterprise marketing, there's a good chance Google would consider that a high-quality backlink. According to Sharon Greenfeld, Outreach and App Store Optimization Team Lead, the first step to gaining quality backlinks is regularly publishing and updating your site’s content. The next, more challenging part comes when you must audit your site’s backlink profile and rid it of duplicate or low-quality referral links. While Google suggests that toxic links don’t hold any weight on your site’s ranking (meaning you can just ignore them), you can still “Disavow” spammy links, or signal to Google that it should ignore them, too. While many of your backlinks may come organically, you can actively reach out to high-quality sites and seek strategic backlinks. To learn more about developing a backlinking strategy, read Wix SEO Hub’s Backlinking 101 guide, or their guide to getting started with backlinking. Check out Ophyr Hanan sharing her story as an SEO specialist with Semrush. 10. Conversion rate optimization Key takeaway: Not every page should convert, but when it can, make sure it does it well. Your conversion rate can impact how Google views your site and how well you can meet your user’s intent. “Google cares that your site is accurate and reliable,” says Amanda Weiner, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Specialist. “Of course, it [also] doesn’t hurt that if your elements are spot on, visitors will spend more time on your pages, clicking through to more inner pages. This ultimately shows Google that your site is what they were looking for.” Best practices for improving conversion rates include having clear cut buttons, text that explains exactly what you sell, plus images that support said text. 11. Google updates & rank volatility Key takeaway: Turn the focus from major algorithmic events to tracking ranking and behavior trends over time. SEO doesn’t sleep. While your rankings may have fluctuated after major Google algorithm updates, Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Branding, thinks these updates are becoming seemingly less powerful over time. Instead, the algorithm is heading towards more consistent, if not “real-time” updates. In October 2021, Oberstein found that there was a 68% increase in the instances (i.e. number of days in the year) that presented significant levels of rank volatility (i.e. the number of positions sites tended to move up or down the SERP). However, the actual rank movement was less drastic. Much of the volatility experienced in the past represented a series of rank reversals. Meaning, Google changes the URL’s SERP position only to reverse its ranking days or weeks later (with a possible reversal after that, and so on,). At times, Google tests new positions for URLs of a given keyword, reversing the rank to its former position only to release an official core update that cements the initial ranking change Google. Oberstein adds, “Google constantly changes the SERP rankings, testing new constructs (hence the reversals) and deciding on what makes sense for the query. At the same time, Google seemingly relies less on major algorithmic landmarks (i.e., core updates) to alter SERP rankings. Meaning, we seem headed towards Google making consistent (though perhaps less dramatic) and continuous ranking changes. This may sound like an outlandish concept, but remember Google’s Penguin went from infrequent specific releases to real-time functioning.”

If you're a business who prioritizes staying "in the know," keeping up with social networks is just a part of the job in the online world. We’re not just talking about posting regularly either — even though responding to questions and concerns from customers is an important step for your online business presence. However, if you often find yourself semi-swamped with Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram DMs, imagine how many people out there are discussing your business or product without directly mentioning you? There are so many conversations happening on social networks that several pertaining to your business can go unnoticed if you’re not mentioned or tagged within the post itself. If you’re missing these conversations, you’re missing potential opportunities to help existing and find potential customers, as well as resolve issues that may have risen for past ones. Moreover, these conversations can allow you to see how others feel about your business. This is called social listening, and it’s a vital tactic to improve the perception of your brand. From the way you choose to create a free website to all of your social media marketing strategies, below, we’re going to tell you about what social listening is and how you can apply it to your own business. What is social listening? Social listening is actively monitoring conversations that are happening across social networks about your brand, products, your competitors, or other industry-related and relevant keywords. Then, you try to find actionable responses to these conversations. These responses could be in the form of a literal response to a social post or an adjustment to your marketing strategy due to feedback you found. Social listening allows a brand to be proactive in conversations about it, improving reliability, social relevance, and trust with your audience. Social listening also allows you to see the social media sentiment, which is how people feel about your brand by gauging whether the responses (on either a particular post or a broader range, such as account as a whole) received are positive, negative, or neutral. Knowing this can let you respond accordingly by changing your wording, advertising strategy, and more, so you can increase your positive reactions. Social listening versus social monitoring If you’re new to the world of social media management for your business, the terms “social listening” and “social monitoring” may seem interchangeable, but they aren’t. While the two share similarities, each has their own purpose and benefits. Social monitoring is the act of responding to customer comments, questions, and issues as they’re received. This reactive approach is primarily in place to get the commenter from point A to point B — whether point B is a how-to guide, support article that solves the issue, or information, such as how to contact support. This type of social interaction is not only vital for customers, but also the minimum effort you should be putting forth on your social media branding. Social listening, on the other hand, is proactive. It zooms out on social monitoring’s macro focus and looks at the bigger picture: How are people talking about your brand in conversations you’re not tagged in? For many businesses that don’t take part of social listening, these conversations are as far gone as the dark web, and this valuable data is lost to the ether. It’s not just about your brand, either. Social listening zooms out to your entire industry, so you can identify trends, keep up with competition, and let your customers know you’re there for them when they need you. Why is social listening important? Now that you know the difference between social monitoring and social listening, it’s a little easier to discern why the latter is important. In a nutshell, it provides insight that social monitoring doesn’t and wasn’t intended to do. It doesn’t mean this reactive tactic is not important, but here are some of the things you can’t find with monitoring that you can with listening. Proactive tactic: Allows you to take initiative and create opportunities instead of waiting for them. Identify happy customers: Surprise and delight happy customers by thanking them, giving special offers or perks. Find unhappy customers: Address unsatisfied customers head-on, without being prompted, to direct them to the solutions they seek. Pinpoint influencers in your industry: Find social accounts that hold clout within your industry. Define trends in your industry: Provide relevant, on-the-nose posts that respond to a trending topic in your industry. Take note of potential customers: Chime in when people are looking for suggestions within your industry. Provide customer service: Offer help to customers or remind them that you’re available to help them if they need it. Avoid PR nightmares: Address potentially brand-threatening situations before they grow into a full day of damage control. Get a sense of what people think of your brand: Without adding a mention or tagging you in a post directly, people will tend to speak more freely about your brand, allowing you to get an idea of how people perceive your brand. This kind of customer feedback is invaluable. Social listening in action Sometimes seeing is believing, even if we’re talking about listening. While we can tell you all the ways social listening can be used, seeing real examples can be just as helpful. Below, we’ve detailed a few examples of the tactic in action. Netflix Socks: Sometimes, just showing that you’re listening can be effective. Netflix proved that in a big way. It received several complaints on social media from users that were falling asleep while watching Netflix, only to wake up to spoilers or rolling credits. So, the streaming service took action in the most hilarious of ways. It made socks. Not just any socks — socks with a built-in sleep detection system that will pause Netflix if you doze off. Falling asleep to Netflix is far from Netflix’s problem. Still, the socks it created were in response to the comments it received from its users. It’s funny, fairly amazing, and more than a little bit clever. The cherry on top? The socks won a Shorty Award for Best Creative Use of Technology. Samsung responds to competition: As mentioned earlier, social listening requires you to take a look at your industry as a whole, including your competition. When Samsung noticed that one of its competitors, Huawei, released a new smartphone and focused on its camera and slow-motion video capture features, it was able to respond by adjusting its marketing strategy and focus on its own phone’s slo-mo prowess. Morton’s Steakhouse delivers to airport for one traveler This one sounds too good to be true, but there’s enough coverage on it to shirk any non-believers. In 2011, Peter Shankman jokingly tweeted out to Morton’s Steakhouse, asking if they’d deliver a porterhouse at the Newark airport when he landed. Well, the steakhouse saw the tweet and a man in a tuxedo holding a bag was waiting for Shankman when he got off the plane. You can even read Shankman’s full rundown of the story here. Social listening tools After reading about the opportunities you can find via social listening, we’re sure you’re excited to start trying it out yourself, but it wouldn’t be right to send you off without knowing the tools to make the entire process easier for you. Hootsuite Insights: Not only does Hootsuite Insights offer a rich set of social media analytics tools specifically aimed at listening, they also include an analysis of sentiment, trend-tracking, and in-depth performance reports. Brandwatch: This is a “does it all” tool that may be overkill for many small businesses. Still, Brandwatch offers a fantastic set of tools for things like competitor analysis, brand management, influencer marketing, and much more. Awario: If you’re looking for a sophisticated suite of social listening tools, Awario can help. It specializes in social media monitoring, social selling, social listening for both teams and agencies, and influencer marketing. Audiense: If deep insights into your audience is what you’re looking for, Audiense Insights should definitely be on your list. Whether you’re trying to understand your audience, or looking to further develop it, Audiense will get you there. Sprout Social: To say that Sprout Social offers an elaborate set of solutions would be an understatement, but that’s very much a good thing. Whether it’s social monitoring, customer care, or data and analysis (including social listening), it’s really hard not to recommend. Starting with Sprout Social may be a smart idea if you plan on seeking out additional social media management solutions after you’ve become a social listening master. By Blake Stimac Wix Blog Writer

Climate change and the existential threats of global carbon emissions have become a primary concern worldwide — and not just one reserved for governments and political figures. The topic has worked its way into the modern conversation, leading many consumers to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. In fact, a third of global consumers will pay more for brands that produce environmentally-friendly products. A good marketing strategy must align with consumer values, and in response, many brands have modeled their businesses around sustainability and have shifted their strategies to provide transparency around their efforts. But before you add a sustainability page promoting your brand’s environmental initiatives while creating a website, it’s important to understand how to ethically—and impactfully—implement sustainable marketing in your strategy. A carefully designed sustainable marketing plan will help you avoid greenwashing, or misleading consumers into thinking your product, service, or organization is more environmentally-responsible than it actually is. In this article, we’ll not only define sustainable marketing, but show you how to effectively incorporate this concept into your business activities. What is sustainability? It’s important to understand the term sustainability in it’s modern conception before diving into how it affects marketing. The 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission first defined sustainability as, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Born from this definition, British management consultant John Elkington coined the term triple bottom line, or the idea that business decisions should balance people, profit and the planet. Elkington wanted to rethink capitalism and challenge business owners to consider the energy, natural resources and waste produced from sourcing, manufacturing, transporting and disposing of product material in addition to potential profit. What is sustainable marketing? While sustainability can have different meanings in terms of business, sustainable marketing refers to how a brand promotes its socially responsible products and services and commitment to environmentalism. Unlike other marketing trends, this type of marketing is not just another brand marketing strategy to promote a brand or product-–it’s the culmination of your business’ commitment to environmental and societal change. A sustainable marketing plan also needs to be just that: sustainable. This may imply an entire refresh of your marketing strategy and business operations while still considering your value proposition and customer pain points. To avoid greenwashing, sustainable marketing needs to also integrate and inform core business functions to ensure that the company practices what it preaches. If a sustainable marketing plan does not reflect actual business practices, it can lead to a huge loss of consumer trust. For example, fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M contribute a large portion of the 80% of discarded clothing worldwide. Both launched sustainable product lines but provide insufficient detail regarding their supply and production chains, inviting harsh scrutiny. Critics wonder if this lack of transparency is a false marketing ploy designed to make the companies appear environmentally cautious. Benefits of sustainable marketing Tensie Whelan and Carly Fink of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business wrote in the Harvard Business Review that sustainable businesses, both large and small, experience greater business efficiency and better financial performance. This is important as the cost of climate change is impacting businesses indiscriminately. Since sustainability requires a holistic business approach, it often leads to more innovation since these companies, as nonprofit digital marketing firm Yodelpop puts it, “look ahead to potential societal issues as opportunities.” Sustainable marketing also contributes to long term consumer trust, giving businesses a competitive advantage. Consumers identify more closely with brands committed to the triple bottom line and transparency. Creating a sustainable marketing plan Sustainable marketing requires a multi-faceted approach. All departments must unify to achieve sustainability goals without deterring each other's business efforts. Because of its transformative nature, adopting a sustainable marketing methodology is a worthy, but complex, process. And the route you’ll take depends greatly on how long your business has operated. Many newer companies were founded with sustainability as a fundamental brand value and adopted these practices from the get-go. For example, Oatly was created to reduce the demand for milk and the impact of the dairy industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. Oatly’s vision is to create “a food system that’s better for people and the planet,” and their sustainable marketing strategy centers around making customers feel that their purchase creates a more sustainable world. According to Forbes, 70% of Millennials pay more for brands that support a cause they believe in, a statistic Oatly has taken and ran with: As part of its sustainable marketing strategy, the oat milk company uses a casual, hipster brand voice that speaks to its young, environmentally-aware target demographic. The company aligns its vernacular, graphics and font across all marketing assets to emulate the characteristics of its branding. But they also know the value of consumer trust and work to attain it: Oatly is dedicated to ensuring all aspects of its business are as sustainable and transparent as possible. They do this by minimizing its impact, creating an alternative to milk, reducing the demand for dairy as well as committing to transparency. The company publicizes its environmental targets and their plan to meet them in its 2020 Sustainability Report. In addition, this document not only outlines the steps they’ve taken to reduce their carbon footprint, but how their product positively impacts the environment. While the reality remains that no business can produce zero waste or carbon emissions, there is still tremendous opportunity for companies to reduce their impact as much as possible. Oatly is a great example of how newer companies should create a sustainable marketing strategy because it exemplifies how to gain—and keep—the trust of your target audience. On the other hand, legacy companies often need to update their product and marketing strategies to better align with sustainable values. One of the most well-known examples is Lego. When the company was established in 1932, environmental impact was not a primary concern. But with the increased consumer demand for sustainable business practices, the company announced its new sustainability plan in September 2020. Today, Lego has an entire website page dedicated to its sustainability goals. Two primary targets include a commitment to creating all Lego pieces from plant-based materials, such as sugarcane, by 2030 and producing all packaging using recycled or renewable materials by 2025. Lego markets this initiative with website images and a YouTube video of Lego men collecting trash as well as tree structures made entirely of Legos. The toy company uses recognizable visuals of its iconic colorful building blocks and of course, the classic Lego man. The connection to childhood evokes emotion and nostalgia, and also screams the importance of creating a sustainable world for future generations. Lego shows that older companies are still able to incorporate sustainability into their business strategies. Now that you have an idea of what your business needs to do, here’s how you can start creating a sustainable marketing strategy. Take advantage of existing resources Keep in mind that sustainability is not a separate sector, but should be incorporated into your entire business. However, the idea is still relatively new and companies may not know where to begin. Here are some useful resources you can use to get started: The Small Business Administration offers a free Sustainability Toolkit that includes an abundance of information. You can also check out Constellation Energy’s guide on creating a business sustainability plan. In addition, there are climate consulting firms your business can hire such as: Green Places - Helps businesses calculate their carbon footprint and set reduction goals. Carbon Trust - Works with companies worldwide to become climate neutral. Lastly, check out these free online carbon emissions calculators to get a quantitative understanding of your company's environmental impact: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Carbon Footprint Conservation International Start broad and think long term As Adanma Onuoha, the Marketing and Communications Officer for the Network for Business Sustainability says, “The public knows that sudden change is almost impossible, so you need an objective that targets high-scale change over a large timeframe.” It’s helpful to designate a point person or team to keep track of your sustainability efforts as your business works toward its goals. Depending on your company size, you may even want to hire a sustainability director. Once you’ve named an owner of the project, have them create a list of sustainability goals, in collaboration with the rest of your staff. These goals shouldn’t be new marketing campaigns–they should be actionable steps you implement over time so your company can slowly adapt. Once you have a comprehensive strategy in place, start thinking about how to market your company’s dedication to sustainability to consumers. Promote communication across your company Your strategy needs to address your product’s lifecycle. While your product development may cause minimal environmental detriment, other areas of your company may still produce unnecessary waste and carbon emissions. Ensure all departments communicate their processes as part of your sustainable business strategy. Product developers, business executives and marketers need to align business activities and ensure that sustainability goals are implemented. If you do this, you’ll not only earn the public’s trust, but you’ll safeguard the business from any unintentional greenwashing. Form partnerships with other companies Sustainability forces businesses to think on a broader scale beyond profit through collaboration and transparency for the greater good. Marketers need to consider how combined industry activities contribute to a sustainable ecosystem. According to the Guardian, doing so allows all parties to do away with the “limits of their individual power to create transformational change.” A primary example of this is B-Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B-Corporations. According to their website, B-Lab “creates standards, policies, tools, and programs that shift the behavior, culture, and structural underpinnings of capitalism.” This organization works with business partners to create more holistic, economically-beneficial and environmentally-friendly business models. Those who certify as B-Corps have access to the organization’s resources to help bridge the gap between individual companies. In addition, B-Lab helps unify values and goals while ensuring they still earn a profit. Another example of an industry partnership is Sephora’s Clean and Planet Positive program. This partnership expands their original Clean at Sephora program, which included 50 makeup and skincare brands dedicated to chemical-free and plant-based ingredients. Sephora announced this new alliance in July 2021 and to be considered, companies must meet four requirements: a commitment to climate, sustainable sourcing, responsible packaging and donation to an environmental cause. All packaging is labeled with a green seal so customers know which products are a part of the program. As of writing, the program includes only 18 brands.

Not all that sparkles is gold. It could be a really beautiful Wix website with images of gold, like these jewelry websites we have here today. The exquisite taste of the Wix users who created these sites is evident not only in the jewelry, but also in the web design itself. Beautiful photographs placed just right, wonderful use of typography and great product display are just some of the niceties these sites have to offer. These websites, created with the Wix website builder, do a terrific job in presenting jewelry pieces as prestige and desirable objects. This is not bling, this is class.

Running Facebook ads is something that many small businesses eventually consider at one point or another. However, if you don’t know a lick about advertising, let alone on Facebook, it can be very intimidating. Don’t worry though, the insight and knowledge you gain far outweighs the learning curve. (Plus, you have us!) Seeing real success with your Facebook ads comes down to getting to know your audience. Gathering these insights through long, personal conversations with each of your customers isn't always possible. Instead, what if you could collect specific data about them that helps you better target your ad campaigns? Enter the Facebook pixel. When added to your free website, this small piece of code can give you incredibly valuable data that will help you along your path of Facebook advertising. We’re going to show you how to get started with it below. What is the Facebook Pixel? The Facebook pixel is a small piece of Javascript code that can enhance your Facebook marketing efforts when you add it to your website. Those who have actually heard of it may have the assumption that the pixel is only used for tracking and measuring user interactions. While it can very much do this, it’s not its only trick. This feature can be used in conjunction with your Facebook business page to build your audience, track general or specific conversion events, and assists with ad retargeting. The data gathered from these functions translates to sharper audience targeting/ad delivery and more thorough knowledge about how visitors use your website. So when creating a Facebook account, don't forget to remember the pixel. I’m not ready to advertise on Facebook, should I still install the pixel? YES. A resounding yes! Even if you’re not ready to begin Facebook advertising, you should install it as soon as you can. Why? When you're ready to start advertising, you'll already have an immense pool of data to work with. Simply because the pixel will begin collecting data from the time it’s added and you elect to keep that data for up to 180 days with certain tracking methods. This is also necessary for later facebook retargeting so don't neglect it. How to create the Facebook pixel Possibly the best part of the Facebook pixel? It’s not rocket science to implement. Creating and adding it to your website is a pretty straightforward process. Once you create a Facebook page, you’ll first need to make sure you’ve correctly set up Facebook ads before you can create a Facebook pixel. Once you’re ready to go on that front, follow the instructions below to create your very own pixel. Login to the Facebook Ads Manager Click on ‘Tools’ from the top bar menu Click ‘Pixels’ Click ‘Create a pixel’ Give your pixel a name Click ‘Create pixel’ Seeing something different? If you’re on a page that doesn’t show the top bar menu shown in the video above, click on the hamburger menu at the top left of the Ads Manager. Under the Measure and Report section, select ‘Pixels’ and follow steps four through six above. How to install the Facebook pixel to your website While creating a Facebook pixel is nothing but a series of clicks, installing it can be a little more involved, depending on your website host. Once you have created the pixel, it’s time to install it, and you’ll be asked what you’d like to do next. You’ll be presented with a couple of options: Connect a Partner Platform (like Wix), Manually Install Pixel Code Yourself, or Email instructions to a Developer. The installation process will depend on your website host and whether you’re comfortable enough working with code. (Some installations will be easier than others out there.) Luckily, Facebook does a great job guiding you where you need to go and how to install your pixel on your website. What can the Facebook pixel do, exactly? If you haven’t guessed yet, the Facebook pixel isn’t just a one-trick pony. It’s designed with a few core functions in mind, but how you use it depends on what type of goals you have and what data you’re looking to track. Below, we’re going to show you just how powerful and flexible it can be. Conversion tracking Conversion tracking lets you explore the specific actions your site visitors performed on your pages. You can use this information to your advantage — optimizing your ads for the actions people take or promote certain pages from your website that were previously visited by them. You could even add a coupon code within the ad, which will incentivize them to come back to your site. Conversions tracked will appear in the Facebook Ad Manager and Facebook Analytics dashboards for review. There are three ways to track conversions with the Facebook pixel: Standard events: Standard events are typical actions that are predefined when you create your pixel, such as when a visitor adds an item to their cart or wishlist, initiates or completes a checkout, views content, fills out a form, and more. fThey allow you to track specific activities performed on your website. Each standard event requires an additional piece of code added to your website, though you can avoid this by using custom conversions (more on those below). Custom events: Custom events are actions that you define and that the pixel tracks. These events go beyond what the standard events offer. For example, use custom events to track the visitors that clicked a specific CTA and see the paths they take from there. When you name these events after the action they correspond to, it makes it all the more easier to follow user paths through the data later on. Essentially anything outside of the standard event presets is considered a custom event. For example, inbound/outbound links. Custom conversions: If you want to get a little (or a lot) more specific in the data your tracking, set up custom conversions. This type allows you to add multiple rules to events that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to with standard events. Example: Track sock sales over $20 Add a rule for the socks page of your website Add an additional rule for the value of ‘20’ A benefit to using custom conversions is that since they’re URL-based, there isn’t any additional code to add to your website, like with standard events. You’ll simply need the base pixel that you created. While custom conversion tracking is flexible, it’s not without its limitations. For example, there’s a limit of 100 rules per ad, and they do not work with dynamic product ads. Feel a little lost with custom conversions? Don’t worry. Facebook has an article for just this. Custom audiences The Facebook pixel allows you to create custom audiences for ad retargeting. Custom audiences are flexible, and you can make them basic or complex, depending on what you’re looking to achieve and who you’re trying to reach. When creating a custom audience, you have the option to target all website visitors or people who visited specific web pages. Both options allow you to filter your list by setting a maximum on the number of days that have passed since someone’s last visit. This is important, depending on who you’re trying to target. For example, if someone has abandoned a cart on your site and you’re looking to target this group of people, they’re more likely to return if they visited your site 2 days ago versus 90 days ago. When choosing the option to “Target people who visited specific pages,”, you can either add the exact URL you want to be tracked or use the “URL Contains” box. This section will track all links that include a specific portion of a URL. To break this down:, If you have individual sock pages for both men and women, you can use the value of “socks” in the “URL contains” section to keep your eyes on both pages. You can also use “exclusions” to further home in on the exact audience you’re trying to reach. You can exclude specific site pages or parts of your audience that have performed certain actions. Say you’re looking to advertise to people who’ve already gone to your website’s online store, but never purchased anything, so they never got to the “Thank You” page that appears after someone completes a transaction. You can create a custom audience for just this by including visitors that went to the Store page and excluding the Thank You page. Another example would be if you’re trying to run an ad to a wide audience for potential new customers. In this instance, you could exclude people who have made a purchase within the past 30 days, so only new customers or people who haven’t bought anything from your site in over a month would see your ad. You may also create a custom audience based on the amount of time visitors spent on your website. It happens all too often: People spend a long time on your website but never make a purchase. Not to worry! A well-placed ad targeted at them, with a possible incentive (such as a discount or free shipping) may be just what they need to return to your website and make it through checkout. Lookalike audiences If you’re trying to reach potential new customers, you can create a “lookalike audience” based on a group of your existing customers. Creating a lookalike audience is very straightforward, asking only for a source group, location, and audience size. There’s a decent chance that your Lookalike Audience will be interested in your business but may not have been exposed to it yet. People that have similar qualities or interests of your source group will be placed in your new lookalike audience so you can begin targeting them. Audience size The audience size range is between 1% and 10% of the total population of the chosen country, with the 1% being those who most closely match your source group. So, if you’re selecting the United States, 1% will give you a Lookalike Audience size of over 2 million people. The further you widen the audience size, the less similar the people will be from the source group. Still, it can be a good idea to go with a more significant selection if you’re trying to get your ad in front of new faces. If you want to create multiple Lookalike Audiences that are different only in size, you can choose the “Show Advanced Option” drop-down at the bottom of the screen. Select the number of audiences you’d like to create, and then choose the value in size percentage for each. Creating a Lookalike Audience from a Custom Audience You can create a lookalike audience from a custom audience using your Facebook Pixel’s website traffic data. A great example would be building a custom audience of all the people who’ve purchased from your website. Then you can choose that custom audience as your source when creating the Lookalike Audience. Source groups for Lookalike Audiences aren’t limited to your Pixel data, and you can create one from sources such as the fans of your Page and more. You can create up to 500 Lookalike Audiences from a single source audience. Once you know how to use the Facebook Pixel to track conversions, retarget your ads, and optimize ad delivery to the best people, you’ll never look back. It’s an indispensable tool in your business toolkit to get in front of your customers. seo