Every business receives negative online reviews at some point.

• Negative reviews give business owners insight into issues they may not have been aware of.
• Negative reviews give you the opportunity to improve your business.
• One unresolved negative review can put a big dent in an online business’s reputation.

Let’s look at five tips for turning those negative reviews into a positive situation for all.

• Is this your first holiday season marketing your products and/or services online?

• Are you a non-profit wanting to stand-out and bring in more donations?

• Did you experience less than stellar sales/donations last holiday season?

Here are a few social media marketing tips you might want to include in your holiday social media marketing strategy this year.

If you were asked ...

What’s your online business marketing strategy, and is it effective?

What would your answer be?

If you're having trouble articulating what your specific online marketing strategy is - then we have a few tips for you.

Think About This 

Business owners sometimes don't realize it, but your marketing strategy is the game plan for your sales approach.

Your game plan needs to frequently be reviewed, re-evaluated, and altered to mesh with consumer and market trends, buyer expectations, and company goals.

As a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to get more information about your business to appear in search results.

For the most part, Local Justifications have been flying under the radar, and haven't received much attention. Google has been using local justifications to help serve up businesses so they stand out as places where people will find exactly what they are searching for, and need.

Let’s take a look at current GMB (Google My Business) Justifications, and how they can be influenced.

People start shopping in October for the holidays.

Worried how your sales will go this holiday season?
More people than ever will be making their gifting purchases online, and that includes products, services and gift cards.

Now’s the time to start planning your email and social media marketing for the upcoming online shopping season. Take a look at our suggestions below, and see how you can expand your marketing strategy to bring in more sales.

Did You Know? 

Local businesses have different SEO needs than larger online-only companies.

Local businesses have a distinct advantage over online only and established big-box conglomerate store Brands.

As a local business, you have the ability to establish deep community loyalty - something most big-box companies have difficulty with.

Instagram audience numbers continue to increase - offering a huge untapped opportunity for many businesses to expand their reach and Brand awareness.

Have you been using Instagram to maximize your social media following?

Did You Know?

Instagram Stories boasts over 500 million daily active users

With a dramatic reach for Brands, Instagram serves up an advertising audience of 1.16 billion people.

How active is your business on Social media?

Now’s the time to up your game, because online time has never been higher.

Did You Know?

Online and digital use during the past 18 months has increased by 43%.
(resource: smartinsights)

Online Time Upsurge

People are spending more time online for several reasons:

• Researching companies, services and products.
• Online shopping. 
• Connecting socially with those who share common interests.

A Website is the Most Valuable Asset Your Business Has!

• In order to function properly and stay on top of search engine algorithms, sites require frequent optimization. 

• Without frequent optimization websites don’t function properly.

• Sites not functioning properly fall behind in the search engines.

• When websites fall behind in search engine indexing, income and goals are affected.

Ultimately you’ll lose more sales than you can ever imagine.

What is Website Optimization?

Website optimization is the process of utilizing tools, strategies, and experiments to improve the user experience, and overall performance of a website.

Appearances Matter!

Does your business use a free Email provider to send and receive email?
That’s a definite no-no in the ‘let’s be successful’ online business world.

Small Businesses Can Do Better

• If your business isn’t using an Email address such as: @yourbusinessname.com or @yourdomain.com, then you’re coming across as unprofessional.

• Why would people make a purchase from your website if they feel they can’t trust you? It’s always better to use a custom Email address created under your own domain name. 

Dedicated Email accounts are often included with website hosting plans. Email can be downloaded and read through a client such as Outlook, Apple mail, etc – or can be managed and read in the cPanel of your hosting account.