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Follow These 5 Tips to Write Great Content in 2020

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST

There are always changes taking place in the digital marketing landscape. Businesses need to stay on top of the latest trends and developments in technology platforms for the best outcomes. 

In 2020, the impact of artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, and other platforms will impact content creation. We already see increased personalization and automation in content marketing. 

Also, more people than ever before have access to the internet and use mobile phones. Such developments affect how marketers create content and distribute it. Social media platforms and search engines also implement changes to their algorithms that you need to follow.

Content needs to reflect such advances to serve people who consume it. Writing great content will remain at the heart of digital marketing, and it's important to what makes good content today.

Here are five important ways a business can create great content to get results. 

Create researched-backed topics

A study shows that 90.88% of a billion web pages don't get organic search traffic from Google. Most online content is not visible, which means companies aren't creating engagements or getting conversions.

One of the reasons so many pages don't get traffic is because businesses are not creating relevant content. It's essential to create information that people are actively seeking. You can do this with research and by incorporating keywords that match what people use when seeking specific information. 

Doing content research lets you create information that's timely, relevant and search-friendly. You risk wasting a great deal of time and effort if you create content that's irrelevant to your audience. 

Creating content should start with research. Today, there are new and in-depth tools powered by AI to give you invaluable insights. Big data and analytics enable content research tools to analyze millions of content sources to spot trends and critical patterns.

Use tools for content creation and content research to generate topic ideas. Such platforms can help you develop topic ideas by giving you helpful information like:

  • Historical trends in content for a specific topic
  • The best formats to use when creating content, such as infographics, lists, how-tos, videos, and other formats
  • Related keywords that you can use to create more content
  • What the top platforms are for your content and the best formats for each platform
  • The average engagements for a post
  • The best sites and publications for your content
  • Ideas for evergreen content that builds engagement over time

With information like this at your fingertips, you'll create more impactful content with certainty.

Use free tools like Google Trends that let you know what topics are trending at the moment. Google Alerts is another free tool that sends emails informing you when content is published based on your choice of keywords. 

With the help of content curation and research tools, you have data to guide your content creation. You may find that creating videos work best on Facebook or that you should create long-form content to get the most visibility. You'll make timely and relevant posts that will boost traffic and conversions. 

Doing research also gives you benchmarks against which you can compare your content's impact. You can set up KPIs and create proxies to understand whether your content is doing well. Research enables you to measure things like the number of shares, likes and comments generated. Content research in 2020 is more insightful than ever before. Use free and premium tools available to inform how to make your content and where to distribute it. 

Use video content

It's well known that video content is highly engaging. Video content can make people stay on a site 2.6 times longer, and it also plays a crucial role in product purchases. 

In 2019, it was found that there were 4 billion unique mobile phone users, and 48% of all web page views come from mobile devices. Video content is easy to consume on mobile screens compared to text posts. It's highly accessible and engaging, although challenging to create compared to articles and images.

However, you need to consider creating more video content in the future as people seek visual content for information. Creating videos allows you to reach more people on different platforms, and can bring more attention to your brand.

Leverage personalization

People respond to personalized content. AI can enable your business to create exceptional personalization in customer interactions. AI today makes it possible to send personalized emails that are triggered by user behavior. Some of these behavioral triggers can be when you get a subscriber to your blog, when they choose to upgrade to another package, or any other action. 

We see personalization in content when we use video streaming services. Streaming platforms often ask you to choose specific topics and interests. You then get emails and content recommendations based on these choices. AI enables this type of personalization. 

You can also use email marketing services that allow you to segment your email list to a high degree. Segmenting your email list and using the right tools will help you send personalized content that users will appreciate. 

AI applications can study user behavior and send reports. You can launch emails automatically to users who have abandoned carts or have not visited your site in a while. If you have a membership site, then you can send your subscribers a weekly report of their accomplishments and activities. 

AI and predictive analytics allow you to study customer behavior, get insights and create emails built on such data. You'll have information on when is the best time to send an email. You can also recommend products based on browsing history or suggest products related to a user's previous purchase.

AI makes it possible to personalize virtually every interaction with your business online. Use it to create subject lines that address people by their first name to generate a unique landing page for different user groups. Your aim is to build a relationship and make your brand more real to people, and AI-backed personalization can make that happen. 

Make your content readable

The usage of mobile internet is increasing every year. People often search for information and visit websites on their phones. This means that optimizing your site for mobile screens is a must. Google has also implemented a mobile-first policy where it indexes mobile versions of a site first and then the desktop site. 

It's clear that mobile content matters, and you need to write for mobile users who form a significant part of your audience. Here are some basic guidelines that ensure that your content is mobile-friendly for 2020:

  • Write in small paragraphs as smaller paragraphs are easy to read and scan.
  • Organize content into headings and subheadings. Doing so makes your content easy to read and it's also SEO-friendly.
  • Use conversational language. Write as if you're talking to a person in a direct and friendly manner. Your content will be easy to understand, plus it reflects the natural language that people use when searching for content.
  • Use keywords and long-tail keywords in your content to make your posts that people are looking for.

It's important to use website platforms that are mobile-responsive. Boosting the performance and speed of your site on mobile and desktops also affect SEO and engagements. Making your mobile site easy to use and readable will help you get better search rankings. You'll also create more conversions. 

Write for voice search

People use voice search as a convenient way to search for information. They use voice search to navigate to places and to find answers to simple questions. 

Voice assistants are now common in the form of devices like Amazon's Echo and Google Home devices. Search engines will prioritize websites with content that answers voice search queries. As the usage of voice search grows, your business needs to create content that appears for voice search queries. Here are a few helpful ways your content can be optimized for spoken queries.

  • Add the speakable tag: Google has introduced the speakable tag, which can be found in schema.org. The speakable tag enables you to organize content so that search engines recognize that a piece of content is good for a voice query. However, the speakable tag can only be used by news publications. It's possible that its application in the future, which is why it's good to be aware of it.

  • Use long-tail keywords: When people make a voice query, they are more likely to use long-tail keywords, which is more natural. Create content containing long-tail keywords so that it's more likely to appear for voice queries.

  • Make use of phrases: Optimizing your content so that it reflects how people naturally speak. This means that your content should contain phrases people use in daily life.

  • Add specific content: When people make spoken queries, they often look for specific information. Ensure that your website has clear information such as its address, timings and other details.

  • Answer questions: People will search for information by asking questions. They'll expect complete answers to their queries. You can create content that answers an issue directly and completely. Make these answers concise and informative. It is suggested that you keep answers to under 30 words. You can also create an in-depth FAQs page. This will make it easier for search engines to pull up answers from your site, creating engagements.

Grow with great content in 2020

Content needs to evolve as technologies, search engines and people's behavior change. You can transform the way you write content by using research and curation tools available today.

AI, big data and analytics can give you insights that will help you understand your audience. With information, you can make better decisions that shape your website, email communication and more by looking at how people consume content. Focus on producing content that reflects the changes happening today to make your digital marketing successful. 

7 Actionable Tips for Improving Your Website's SEO

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST

If there's one piece of advice you should take when growing your small business online, it's this: Don't make your business's success depend solely on borrowed land.

Social media may be the most effective way of discovering, engaging and being engaged by your targeted audience, but even if your profiles are yours, the properties on which they reside are still on someone else's land (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc). And this pits several elements against your website, such as overcrowding, constantly changing social algorithms, network crashes, etc.

That's why it's essential in our digital age to have a self-hosted website and/or blog for your business; your property, your rules. This brings us to the focus point of this article and the main issue with having your digital property, which is not getting organic traffic to your site. After all, if nobody is finding and visiting your site, it's going to be hard to create a thriving website for your business.

That's why you need to build up your website's SEO (search engine optimization), which makes it easier for people, as well as search engines, to find (and rank) your website.

So without any further ado, here are seven actionable tips to help you improve your website's SEO rankings.

Make sure your website is well structured and labeled

The easiest way for people, and search engine web crawlers, to find your website is through having a clearly defined and well-organized domain property. This means, ensuring proper and relevant naming and meta descriptions for your website's labels, pages, menus and anything else created in the building and maintenance stages.

Think about it this way: If you can't easily find something on your website, how will your users and search engine crawlers be able to?

Another good tip to remember is to make the most important details, products or services of your business available in three clicks or less. Requiring more than three clicks to reach this information often results in your page content being ranked as less important, as well as making it more likely that your users won't  find vital information they're looking for about your products or services.

In other words, this causes higher bounce rates, less time spent on the page, and overall lower search engine rankings.

Know your most relevant keywords (and use them!)

Think about this: When you're searching for information online, what do you type into the search bar to find that particular information?

Now, think about what entries you'd like your traffic to be entering when you want your business to be found in their searches. Write these ideas down because these are the keywords you need to be using on your website. These keywords should be used in your blog entry titles, URLs, your meta descriptions and alt-tags, as well as in any of your top-performing and most relevant content. Just make sure not to spam or use keyword stuffing.

In the past, bloggers were able to trick the search engines into ranking their pages higher by stuffing their content with keywords. But today, the use of keywords too many times in any piece of content (keyword stuffing) can be detrimental to your website's SEO.

Speaking of URLs, customize them

Your URL may just feel like a quick shortcut entryway to your website, but your URL content can be another crucial aspect of your website's SEO. Rather than using a dynamic URL, like "www.yourbusiness.com/201908/page###/content###", use a customized, static URL, such as "www.yourbusiness.com/product-category/product-name-keyword" instead. Note how much easier the static URL is to read?

It's so much more clear and concise and lets the reader know exactly what to expect when they view the page's content. Keep in mind that web crawlers pick up on URL content, as well as the website's actual on-page content. Use this to your advantage, and make sure that your URLs are easily readable and relevant to the page's content. This might seem like a simple SEO tip, but I guarantee that it can make a world of difference for both your readers, as well as your website's SEO rankings.

Add alt-text to your images

Images don't just make your website look great. In your website's backend, they can also make your website more relevant to its audience. When uploading images to your content management host, always fill in the titles, descriptions and especially the alt attributes with useful, relevant keywords.

Web crawlers won't know what an image is just by looking at it (after all crawlers don't have eyes to see with), but when you fill in the alt-text of your images, they'll be able to scan this information and understand the context of the image it's crawling. And at the same time, if your website's images don't load up properly when someone visits your page, for example, the alt-text will still be displayed, allowing the visitor to understand what the image was meant to be, despite it not being displayed.

Avoid creating irrelevant content

You know those conversations you often find yourself in? You know, the ones that just go on and on, full of fluff and unnecessary details, and that seem to repeat themselves over and over and over again?

Well, unfortunately, many people also do that with their websites. Essentially, they believe that the more content they put out there, the better, regardless of its quality or relevance. However, this is hardly the case. In fact, by creating content that isn't useful or valuable in any way, you won't have any way to keep your readers engaged with your website. In other words, most users will bounce and look for better, more valuable content somewhere else. Therefore, it's important to always keep your content fresh, relevant, and not too long so that it's going to bore your readers before they get to the end. Also, be sure to use the relevant keywords in your content, which you should have already identified by now.

It's a good idea to use a healthy mix of both your focus keywords, as well as a variety of LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords. LSI keywords are essentially synonyms of your focus keywords, which help search engines better understand the content that's being viewed. In other words, the mix of both, focus keywords and LSI keywords, ensures a better read, as well as making it easier for search engines to understand the content. In turn, this results in better SEO rankings.

Network within your niche

One of the best off-page ways to let the internet, and thus the search engines, know your website exists is via other websites and blogs that are willing to talk about it and link to it. External linking to your website is known as backlinking. And when this is done from a relevant, high-quality, authoritative website, your website essentially becomes associated with that higher-quality, more authoritative website.

In turn, this works to improve your website's trust and optimization relationship with search engines, making your site that much more organically searchable. There are many different ways you can go about backlinking. However, it's best to avoid sponsored or paid backlinking. Various online services may try to promise you numerous backlinking opportunities in one shot, but their hosted content is often spammy and un-authoritative in their published niches. And since the websites that link to yours will inherently affect the perspective of your site's quality, it's best to avoid this type of poor-quality backlink.

These services may be able to offer a large number of backlinks, but their poor quality will cause your site to take a hit in the rankings. Therefore, stay clear. Know your value, and let others see it for themselves. 

Take advantage of social media (but don't depend on it)

Any time you publish new content on your website, promote it on social media with to-the-point descriptions, relevant images and the proper links.

Promoting your content on social media doesn't work directly to improve your site's SEO. However, it's an easy way for others to not only see your content but also to share it with the people they're connected with on their social networks. Just remember, these applications can go down or go away quicker than you can boot up your computer in the morning. So don't depend solely on social media to keep your site alive and well.

Improving site SEO in 2020

SEO can seem like a daunting experience; just another large item on the to-do list. But it's best to think of your SEO efforts as optimization of your entire business practice, not just your website. Because that's what you're doing here. Better SEO rankings are just an additional result of improving the way you do business online.

The fact is that well-made websites, clear content, positive networking, and an authentic, well thought out social presence isn't just appealing to search engine web crawlers, it's appealing to everyone: customers, online communities, potential clients, other business owners, your co-workers and even yourself. 

In the end, always think about what you want your target audience to find and how you want your content to be conveyed. Then optimize your website and its content to offer the most in terms of both value and entertainment. And remember that SEO isn't a process that happens overnight. So make sure to take it just one day at a time, or even one image at a time.

Keep your audience happy first, improve the structure of your website and better SEO rankings will come naturally.

Understanding Web Accessibility and Its Importance for Businesses

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST

Have you ever gotten frustrated while using a digital tool or a website? It may be because it was difficult to use/navigate or hard to read. You probably abandoned the website or uninstalled the app and just found something else that met your needs better. After all, there are plenty of other alternatives. But what if this kind of experience happened to you often?

Why accessibility becomes more and more important 

We live in a digital age where our main source of information is the World Wide Web. We use it as well as other digital products to conduct a lot of day-to-day activities such as shopping for groceries, banking, paying bills, and watching movies. The beauty of the digital world is that it eliminates barriers that prevent us from communicating and interacting with each other in the physical world. Need to talk to someone across the globe? There's Skype. Want to buy something not available in your country? Try Amazon or a similar website. Because of the World Wide Web, almost everything is now at our fingertips. And if you want access to a lot of areas such as education, employment, and healthcare, you mostly will use the Web.

Unfortunately, not everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of this digital world. In fact, a shockingly high number of digital products are not accessible to the largest minority in the world - people with disabilities. Approximately 15% of the world's population has a disability. That's around 1 in 5 adult Americans who may not be able to use a digital product that most of us take for granted. As we mentioned, most people would probably look for an alternative solution if they encounter any difficulty using a digital product. But for the disabled, that's not always an option. 

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, once said that the power of this technology is in its universality. That means that it should be accessible to everyone. All people should be able to use it regardless of their ability, location, language, hardware, software, etc. It should provide equal opportunity to all. No one should be excluded.

This means that individuals who have a disability, permanent or otherwise, should be able to gain access to the internet and enjoy all the benefits it provides. This enables them to interact with the world in a way that they could never do due to physical barriers (i.e. going to a physical store). 

Why web accessibility is crucial for business 

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility, in its most basic sense, is about universal design; a product's digital content and design should be useful and reachable for all people, regardless of their abilities (either cognitive or physical capabilities). According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, access to information and communication technologies is a basic human right. 

Now, some companies might believe that the "digitally challenged" are not part of their "target audience" and therefore not worth the investment of time and money. In their eyes, the focus of web accessibility is primarily on the disabled. However, there are plenty of benefits to ensuring that your digital products have web accessibility. 

#1: Drives innovation

A lot of innovations that we enjoy today are a result of designing with accessibility in mind. Everyone takes advantage of architectural and digital features that were initially designed to provide disability access in the physical environment such as automatic door openers, lower curbs, and ramps. Products such as the typewriter, text-to-speech, email, and voice controls were also designed initially to help those with disabilities to overcome physical and social. But these are innovations that are widely used by all, users.

#2: Increases market share

The global population of people with disabilities is large and continues to grow. There are at least one billion people in this population. As the world's population ages, more individuals acquire disabilities due to aging (i.e. poor eyesight or hearing) but don't identify as "disabled." Their global market share is estimated to be almost $7 trillion. In the US alone, the discretionary spending of people with disabilities is more than $200 billion a year. 54% of this population spend their money online. In the UK, people with disabilities and their families spend a minimum of $249 billion a year. By designing inclusive digital products, you increase your company's market reach.

#3: Enhance your brand

Your brand is what consumers identify with. Showing a clear commitment to web accessibility has the potential of enhancing your brand image. It shows that your company has a genuine interest in being socially responsible, ensuring that its products and/or services are inclusive and available to the widest and most diverse audience possible. A lot of companies such as Microsoft and Barclays have demonstrated their commitment to accessibility which has strengthened each company's overall brand image. Positive brand awareness increases customer loyalty and allows you to create a wider, larger customer base.

What is the ADA?

The ADA is short for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which is a law passed in 1990 that was designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in the United States. Because of this law, all government entities, businesses, non-profit organizations, restaurants, schools, etc. are required to ensure that all goods and services provided to the general public are accessible to all, including people with disabilities. In 2010, the ADA Standards for Accessible Design was added by the Department of Justice to ensure that all electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. 

What is Section 508

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires US Federal government agencies to ensure that all their Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities. This applies to when these agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use information and communication technology. For example, if a federal agency uses word processing software that does not work with adaptive equipment, then it will be required by law to replace that software with one that can be used by persons with disabilities, whether they are employees or members of the public.

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) was developed through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) process with the help of individuals and organizations across the globe. These guidelines aim to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of people, organizations, and governments around the world. 

The WCAG is primarily intended to be used by web content developers, web authoring tool developers, web accessibility evaluation tool developers, and any others who want or need a web accessibility standard. The documents explain how web content can be made more accessible to disabled people. This content generally refers to information found on websites and web applications such as text, images, sound, and color.

Differences in WCAG 2.0 and 2.1

There are two versions of WCAG documents - WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1. The former was published on December 11, 2008, while the latter was published on June 5, 2018. The main difference between these two standards is that WCAG 2.1 includes additional success criteria that deal with mobile accessibility, people with low vision, and people with cognitive and learning disabilities. All success criteria in 2.0 can be found in 2.1. This means that if your content conforms to WCAG 2.1, then it also conforms to WCAG 2.0. In short, it is better to meet the existing success criteria from the most recent version (2.1).

What is VPAT 

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT is a self-disclosing document that helps evaluate the accessibility of a specific product based on Section 508 Standards. Within this document, a vendor can detail the requirements of Section 508 and how they have supported each criterion in the product. VPATs are used by buyers prior to purchasing a product in order to determine if the product's level of accessibility and if there are potential deficiencies that they need to be aware of. 

Accessible web design can lead to a better user experience

When web accessibility standards are applied, the result is usually a high level of user-friendliness. Not only is the digital product usable by people with disabilities, the design now works better for everyone else (even those without a disability) as well in a variety of situations. There are various factors that can affect a person's ability to use a digital solution as well as impact the quality of the product.  With the ease of use comes a better user experience. And with a great UX design comes to increased customer satisfaction.

What is an accessibility guide and accessibility statement?

Part of a company's commitment to providing equal access to all is the creation of an accessibility guide and accessibility statement. The Accessibility Statement is a published statement on the organization's website that describes its goals, policies, and achievements in relation to web accessibility. It shows the company's commitment and identifies the standards that were applied.

An accessibility guide can be included in the statement. This portion of the statement will provide users with instructions on how to use any accessibility technology available on the digital solution and how to get in touch with the company should there be any problems. It may also provide users with information on where they can find interim solutions if the website or product has yet to achieve complete accessibility.

Usability and accessibility testing

Usability testing is when you conduct tests in order to determine how useful and easy to use a certain product or service is. Accessibility testing is a type of usability testing that determines whether people with disabilities can access the digital solution and the ease of which they can do so. 

Ensuring the accessibility of your digital product/s isn't going to be easy. You may have to implement a number of changes in your product or start it from scratch altogether. But all that effort is going to pay off. Aside from the monetary benefits and the issue of legality, there's one main advantage of becoming web accessible. Your business will play an integral part in bringing down walls and creating a world without borders. Whether they're permanently disabled or not, everyone will feel welcome.

 

How to Reach Your Target Audience on Social Media in 2020

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST

  • Over 3 billion people are active members of at least one social website. 
  • Each platform, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have benefits that you should consider. 
  • Consumer engagement through polls and sharing valuable content results in increased brand awareness and sales. 
  • Social media drives 31.24 percent of all referral website traffic. 

It's safe to say that social media has fundamentally changed the way we think, research, and communicate. Over 3 billion people are active members of at least one social website. It's our job as business owners and marketers to reach out to our target audience and use their thoughts and experiences to improve our products, websites, and services. 

There are plenty of ways you can reach your target audience through various social media platforms. We are going to take a look at some expert tips and tricks you should keep in mind if you plan on expanding your social media strategy this year, or want to start your first business social media page. 

Let's dive in! 

Build detailed customer personas 

The first step in reaching your target audience on social media is understanding who you should listen to when gathering data. Customer personas are detailed profiles that every marketer should create before they start crafting their first piece of content. Essentially, your personas should encompass all of the different demographic factors of your audience. 

For instance, do you know the average age group of your subscribers? If not, you can review your Google Analytics and social media statistics to learn about the age of most of your followers. When you know how old your subscribers are, you can create content with a voice and tone that they will find relatable. 

Additionally, customer personas can help you price your product by understanding their median income and location. Review your analytics throughout the year to ensure that you're gathering accurate information about your followers. 

Understand the benefit of each platform 

Each social media platform has a benefit that you can use to reach your target audience. For instance, many eCommerce storefronts benefit from advertising their products and services on Instagram. Instagram is focused on photos, so the chance to create a flashy picture can help convince customers that spend most of their time in this app.  

Facebook is great for researching your audience from afar. There are countless groups in your niche where consumers talk about their pain points, questions, and successes. You can use this information to flesh out your customer personas or create content that's tailored for your target audience. 

We recommend that you spend time on each of the major social media platforms and see how potential leads interact with the website. For instance, if there's a hashtag related to your industry that's regularly used by tens of thousands of people, you can make a note to include that hashtag in your upcoming social media posts. 

Engage with your subscribers

Consumer engagement is vital to the success of your business. If you want to reach new customers, you have to spend some time communicating with the people who are already following your brand. 

People want to feel like they are talking to a real person behind the brand, as opposed to a faceless entity. Take the time to comment on positive and negative feedback, share glowing reviews, and answer some of your followers in the comment sections of your posts or videos. 

Depending on the platform, engagement can cause your content to go viral. We all know social media videos that seemed to blow up overnight. The reason these posts were so successful is that people were commenting and sharing at a blistering rate. People are much less likely to share posts if it doesn't resonate with them, or if they don't think the marketer behind the brand cares about their opinion. 

As you interact with your current followers, their friends will see the communicates in their timeline or in their feed, which results in greater brand awareness. If you continue engaging, eventually, your content will reach consumers that are interested in your industry but have never heard of your brand. 

Create and share content that resonates with your audience 

Now that you understand your audience and the benefits of each platform, it's time to create content on your website. There are various types of content, including infographics, videos, and standard blog posts. Each type of post has a unique benefit, depending on where you share the post. 

For instance, video content is known as one of the most shareable pieces of content you can create. Marketers understand this, so they end up repurposing their text posts into a video to make the posts easier to share. As a result, a YouTube upload could easily make its way to Facebook, where it can spread like wildfire. 

Consider that 60 percent of marketers product one piece of content every day. It's no surprise that many business owners and marketers struggle with coming up with relevant posts to engage their target audience -- but it is possible. If you're using all of the research tools at your disposal, you'll have no problem understanding consumer pain points, goals, and interests. Use this information to create a framework for your content. 

The videos and text posts you share have to resonate with your audience in a way that leaves them thinking about your brand long after they've closed their laptops or shut off their phones for the day. If you produce one piece of content a day, but what you say doesn't have a meaningful impact on people interested in your industry, there's a slim chance you'll see a significant increase in sales, traffic, or conversions. 

For example, if you run an online pet store with a blog, and find out that only 2 percent of your subscribers own rodents, while 70 percent own dogs, you would miss out on a huge opportunity by failing to write about dogs. As your content library expands, you can dabble in other categories like rodents. But when you're starting out, stick to the content that will resonate most with your ideal customer. 

Analyze what you learned 

The process of reaching your audience never ends. As your business grows, your fan base and customer needs will shift drastically. When you consider that social media is responsible for 31.24 percent of all referral website traffic, it's easy to that this is one marketing strategy that's here to stay. When you're willing to tackle complicated questions or create content that solves legitimate problems in your industry, you're more likely to grow your following and expand your brand awareness. 

If you want to find consumers in your niche, start by creating accurate customer personas by reviewing your analytics data and conversations happening in groups and comment sections. Once you start producing content, you have to continue analyzing your traffic, sales, and subscriptions to create a campaign that draws in new visitors at a consistent rate. 

As more people get comfortable joining and talking about brands they like on social media, you can expect to have access to more of your target audience than ever before. Use these techniques to master social media marketing and turn your small business into a global brand. 

Free Job Posting Tips to Hire Better Employees

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST

Thanks to the internet, employment is now easier for both employees and businesses. Before, job hiring is put through newspaper ads, posters, TV and radio commercials. Now, with one click, you can post a job and advertise it through search engines and social media. 

However, looking for employees nowadays, whether in-house or remote, becomes tougher since you face a bigger competition in the market. You have to sell not just the position but the company values and environment to encourage them to apply. 

If you're looking to hire your first employee, you should be familiar with how you post your job on the internet. Different job boards offer free and paid postings depending on the demand and urgency of the position to be filled. 

Free vs. paid: What should you consider?

You should consider a few factors whether you choose free or premium job posting sites:

  • Urgent hiring. Paid job posts will put you on top of search pages instantly while the free ones might take time getting noticed on boards. 

  • Hiring specialized or higher-level roles. You should choose a paid job post when you're looking for a higher-level or specialized position.

  • Regular opening. Paid job posts keep you on top no matter how many new posts from different companies come along. This helps if you have a regular job opening and you continuously hire employees.

  • Cost control. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads help you control the cost of your job posting when you're targeting a highly specific audience. You only pay depending on how many people have seen your job post.

  • Hiring by location. If you're looking for applicants at a specific location, paying for your job post is recommended. You can attract top talent with a paid job post, especially for those with high competition for applicants.

Tips for entrepreneurs managing a lot of job postings

When you have a lot of job postings to manage, recruitment can take up much of your time. You might not be able to attend to all of them at once. As a result, recruitment process might take longer than usual. More important tasks are also set aside which slows down the growth of your business.

Whether you're a solopreneur or have a small team at your startup, you can try hiring an online worker to manage your job postings. They can help you screen applicants and manage different job boards.

Meanwhile, if you either run a recruitment firm or screen a lot of applicants regularly, then contracting a business process outsourcing company might help. There are companies that specialize in human resource management, particularly recruitment, which can help you with your processes. Your team can process applications in bulk and screen them at the same time for more convenience. 

Job sites we recommend

You can check these job boards for your recruitment needs. Note that the following may only have limited free features while others offer either a free trial or a standard plan.

Google for Jobs

Google for Jobs is the latest algorithm by Google that posts your job for free on the search engine. It features postings from different boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter. To qualify, you need to post a job with proper information and correct formatting through your website or a third-party job board. Google will then crawl you posting and feature it on their site. Once an applicant searches for a specific role, it will show the featured postings on the top or middle of the search page.

Glassdoor

More than for posting jobs, Glassdoor can be both a job board and a company branding website at the same time. Employees and clients can anonymously post company reviews and leave ratings on your Employer account. Applicants can then see these reviews and salary information before they decide to continue their application. With a free trial account, you can post up to 10 jobs and build your company profile. However, if you will post only one job, you only need to purchase a one-time fee of $199. Your ad will expire within 30 days upon posting.

Indeed 

Indeed is the leading job site in the world with millions of visitors in 50 different countries. The platform helps you look for the best talent for a role you want to fill. It also allows you to contact your applicants, scheduling interviews, and arrange your company profile to highlight your work culture and environment. This is to attract more applicants in applying to your company. You have the option to post your job for free or with a minimum of $4 per day. Sponsoring your posts allows you to see it on top of their search page and gain up to five times more views. 

Monster 

Monster Jobs aims to connect employers and applicants around the globe. The platform posts local hourly and fixed salary jobs from different roles and sectors. With it, you can share your posting on different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Creating a job post, however, doesn't have a free option. You can choose a standard or premium option for your posting with a 30-day or 60-day duration. Aside from social posting, standard posting allows you to post to different newspaper sites, emails, and mobile app.

Craigslist

Though Craigslist has users from different countries, it is most popular in the US and Canada with job offerings for blue-collar and less-senior office roles. You can post for free when you're outside the US. However, you are required to pay a fee if you're within the country. Cost of posting ranges from $10 to $75 depending on your city and state. Paid job posts enable you to format your jobs through HTML to make it more presentable. Free posts can last up to 45 days while the paid ones are up to 30 days.

Neuvoo 

Neuvoo enables you to post jobs according to your city, region, or country. Employees and job seekers can also view salaries depending on the industry and tax information depending on the city and country you're located in. Posting through the platform is totally free and lasts up to 30 days.

CareerJet 

CareerJet is a worldwide job posting site that allows you to post your offering depending on your location. Posting through the site, however, is not free. You need to pay for either a direct post or an indexed one. Direct posting charges you a fixed amount and lasts for 45 days while indexed posting only charges per number of views.

ZipRecruiter

Lastly, ZipRecruiter allows you to post jobs to over 100 boards aside from the platform itself. It offers a four-day trial then charges a minimum of $249 per month for a renewable standard posting. What's good with the platform is that it automatically matches thousands of resumes with the right skills, education, and experience to your posting. From this, you may invite them to apply for the role or screen them if they've already submitted their application. It also allows you to close your filled position and replace it with a new one even before the 30-day posting period once you've hired a suitable employee.

What are some tips for free job posting option?

Here are some tips you can use when posting a job for free to make it stand out:

  • Your post should sound natural. You should sound natural within your post. Make your job title simple and explain your duties and objectives in layman's term. Avoid using big words or make it too academic or formal unless you're looking for a higher-level applicant. 

  • List a reasonable salary range. Depend your salary on the role level and the number of tasks they are going to do. If possible, set a fixed amount. Don't leave the salary range blank. This will make them doubt the job post.

  • Don't list too many job duties. Explain the role and its duties in three to five sentences. Yes, employees can do a lot of tasks at once. However, you should limit these to those relevant to their positions. 

  • Determine the timeframe of your posting. When you're posting a job, determine if this position needs to be filled immediately or not. Consider how many applicants do you need in this position and if you have to hire regularly. 

Sell the position. Last but not least, you need to sell the position and your business to job seekers to get it noticed. Introduce your company and your work culture. State reasons why they should apply to your company. Do it in a casual and conversational approach to encourage them into applying for the position.

What Is a PEO?

Posted: 17 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

  • A professional employer organization (PEO) provides comprehensive human resources services for small and midsize businesses.
  • The partnership between a business and a PEO operates under a co-employment arrangement, which means the PEO becomes a co-employer of your employees.
  • A PEO can free up time and resources for a company, allowing an employer to focus on growing their business. This is one of the key benefits that newer businesses tend to appreciate about PEOs.

A full-time human resources team to handle payroll, benefits management and a host of other tasks is an investment many small businesses can't afford. That's where professional employer organizations (PEOs) step in.

PEOs are great options for small businesses with understaffed HR teams because they take all of the necessary HR responsibilities off their plates. Businesses that work with a PEO enter into a co-employment arrangement. This means that while businesses are still responsible for running their own operations, their employees are technically also working for the PEO and reported under the PEO's Employer Identification Number (EIN).

PEOs operate in every state and provide numerous services and employee benefits to small and midsize businesses. These services can help increase a business's growth, financial success and employee satisfaction.

According to a recent study published by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, small businesses that use a PEO have 40% higher revenue growth and are 16% more likely to report an increase in profitability. Additionally, PEO clients' employee turnover is more than 10% lower than non-clients' turnover.

What is a PEO and how does it work?

A PEO is a third-party human resources provider that assumes co-liability for its client's workforce. From managing unemployment and payroll taxes to providing workers' compensation insurance, PEOs offer numerous employee benefits that can provide more HR stability for your small business.

Many small business owners may cringe at the idea of a co-employment agreement, but it's not as daunting as it may sound. Your business remains the primary employer, while the PEO handles specific HR tasks set forth in the service agreement. This allows the PEO to manage employee benefits, payroll, and tax and government-related filings.

What does 'PEO' stand for?

"PEO" stands for "professional employer organization." These companies allow small and midsize businesses to outsource their HR and administrative needs. It's best to think of PEOs as independent companies that manage daily HR functions and employee benefits, such as payroll, tax compliance, 401(k) plans, health insurance and workers' compensation.

The partnership between a business and a PEO is known as co-employment, which means that the PEO becomes a co-employer of your business. While you continue to manage your employees' work and daily responsibilities, the PEO manages compliance, legal and HR-related policies. This co-employment arrangement relieves small business owners of some liabilities and allows them to focus their time on growing the company and generating revenue.

 

Editor's note: Looking to partner with a PEO? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you with free information.

 

 

What does a PEO cost?

While the cost of a PEO varies, most have one of two cost structures: 

  1. Per employee: Some PEOs that bill per employee also charge a base fee. They are usually monthly costs that you negotiate directly with the PEO.
  1. Payroll percentage: With this cost structure, you pay a percentage of your total payroll for each pay period. This percentage includes workers' compensation, employer practice liability insurance, and local, state and federal taxes.

The cost of a PEO is not fixed because it depends on the company and its services, according to Matt Diggity, CEO of Diggity Marketing.

"Generally, there are two methods of charging – per employee or payroll percentage," he said. "Charges per employee mostly range between $1,000 and $1,500 per year. This approach has a benefit that while devising a business's yearly financial plan, you have an accurate expense of [your] PEO."

Payroll percentage, on the other hand, continuously changes according to your payroll amount that month. It's important to remember that PEO costs vary based on service offerings, number of employees and the negotiated rate. These costs are usually less than those of hiring your own team to manage your human resources.

PEOs can also charge for their services in other ways, such as by retaining the Section 125 benefit as a co-employer or with SUTA taxes, according to Michael Roloson, director of business development at PEO Focus.

"If you take into account all fees across the board, you can get a better picture of the total costs," Roloson said. "It's important not to evaluate purely on costs. Entering into a PEO relationship is about adding value and efficiency to your organization."

Roloson believes that by first identifying the PEOs that can bring the most value to your business, you will then be in a better position to negotiate contract terms.

What is the difference between a PEO and a staffing company?

A staffing company provides temporary employees, while a PEO is a full-time co-employer. The staffing company usually handles business operations, including day-to-day management, production, marketing and sales. PEOs typically manage employment operations, including tax affairs, HR services and benefits administration.

Roloson said that a PEO does not provide any workers, but rather partners with its clients as they enter into a co-employment partnership where both parties employ the workers together.

"Through the co-employment model, the company can then leverage the PEO for their HR expertise, payroll, administrative technology and employee benefit programs," he said. "The company can still dictate the culture that it chooses to instill as a small or medium-sized business while also gaining access to the expertise and economies of scale that a larger partner can bring to the table." [Read related article: What Services Can a PEO Provide to Your Small Business?]

What is it like for an employer switching to a PEO?

Depending on the size of your business and what the PEO offers, switching to a PEO can be a good thing. Most PEOs provide an implementation representative to assist with the onboarding process, according to Shraga Jacobowitz, managing partner of ARC PEO Consultants.

Jacobowitz said there are a few stages to this onboarding process:

  1. Company decisions (health insurance plans, funding strategies and other HR policies)
  2. Employee data input and online portal building
  3. Orientation meetings with employees
  4. Employee enrollment in HR platforms
  5. Training on how to use the online portal (e.g., payroll processing, reports and transactional items)

A PEO can free up time and resources for employers, allowing them to focus on growing their businesses. This is one of the key benefits of a PEO in a business's early stages of growth.

A PEO also plays a decisive role in managing a company's employee affairs, according to Tim Uittenbroek, founder of VPNMash. "Mostly, the small and medium-sized businesses need the services of a PEO, and the PEO model provides the suggestions and recommendations to facilitate the employee."

PEOs can offer unique pricing on certain healthcare benefits, sometimes lower than what your business would pay outside of the PEO, according to Nicholas Tzoumas, president of ClearscopeHR.

"At the same time, in addition to the costs associated with these premiums, workers' compensation premiums and payroll processing, there are also administrative costs assessed by the PEO," Tzoumas said. "When comparing PEO versus non-PEO options, employers (or their benefits consultant) need to compare the costs inclusive of the PEO admin fees."

Tzoumas believes that once a business reaches a size of 20 to 50 full-time employees, the HR functions become too important to outsource and more advantageous to handle in-house.

Depending on the size of your business and the HR services your prospective PEO offers, opting for a PEO over in-house HR might be a beneficial move for your small or midsize company. Generally, the relationship between a business and a PEO is established as a co-employment agreement. The PEO usually handles tax withholdings, employee wages, HR services and benefits administration, so you can focus on managing your employees and running your business. [For more information on PEO services, check out our review of The Best PEO Service Providers of 2020.]
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