I work at a coffee shop so I interact with a lot of different types of people everyday. We always go back and forth between how my schooling is going and what they are doing with their family (most of the customers have the classic 8-4 jobs). We would eventually go on talk about the career they are in and their company. As a business major these conversations always intrigue me because even though my schooling tells me there are certain types of business, this type of exposure makes be believe that literally anything can be a business.

For one customer, Sharon, in particular, she actually just got recently promoted at her job during the initial quarantine. I asked her how that was possible considering she worked in retail. Apparently, before the quarantine she randomly suggested that they put in some effort to set up and promote their website. From a marketing perspective, they now opened up another marketing channel to also be considered ecommerce. I was shocked that they are barely starting an ecommerce website so far into 2020, even though ecommerce has been booming for a while now thanks to Amazon.

Her new job is to put all their available products on the website with pictures and a description. Even with all the non-essential stores closing, she actually informed me that business is even better. Sharon tells me that her managers were just too lazy to set it up. They were apparently too focused on the brick-and-mortar. Now we do not know if this is due to the fact that with quarantine, people are shopping more online or the fact that is it more accessible to customers. Regardless, their shop would be benefitting from having and online presence.

I know there a lot of “traditional” business owners out there that are stuck in the pre-digital age who refuses to use anything with modern technology. It is okay to be scared, but their needs to come a point where you value your business and want it to succeed. If you do not want to do it, then hire someone else to do it. Although initially you will not see the benefit because it is just another person on your payroll, it is an investment. If handled correctly, your business will be able to reach the entire globe since the internet is accessible by a good percentage of the world, while your small shop in a small town can only be accessed physically, which limits the amount of customers that can be exposed to you.

My message to you out there is that you have to be adaptable to the current times if you want it stay relevant. It would only be selfish of you towards your business if you did not do what was best. Digital is king and will always be growing so go out there and build your ecommerce website!

We are all familiar with the giant that is Google. They have become a common household name to “search for something online.” Google has managed to monetize their business by charging businesses with the ability to post relevant ads on their searches. They understand that the search pages have so much exposure that it can be a place for advertisements. The initial system that Google had was very flawed, but have since become more “fair.”

To businesses, Google is the grandparent that you want to impress so you can get a big present by being the favorite. In terms of search, the present is being higher on the search engine result page (SERP). The way you can impress Google is by showing relevance to the keywords that you are trying to match too. Google’s form of customer service and integrity is by giving those who use their search engine to be given accurate and results close to what they customer wants. The way to get on Google’s good side is based off your sites impressions. You want to have a high ad rank to even be considered in the auction for said keywords.

Earlier, I mentioned a flawed Google system. That is actually in reference to that any company can buy the keywords of any industry. That means that Starbucks can buy keywords for when you want to buy a car. Google now sees this as lacking in quality for their customers, so now you can only buy keywords within your industry. There has to be a form of justification for why you want specific keywords.

Things you can do as business to impress Google is to increase your budget and increase your bid. By increasing your budget, you are allowing your campaign to have more room to invest, thus increasing your impressions. By increasing your bid, you are increasing your positioning on the SERP. This is important because the first page of a SERP is very important. Rarely do consumers make it to the second SERP. The positioning of the current Google Ads are on the hot spot of both PC and mobile. They are placed in a spot where everyone looks first so that exposure can be very beneficial for your website.

Although Google has a specific criteria, is easier and better if you just play their game. Do not try to fight it because you will only lose. If your grandparent tells you to do something a certain way, you will listen because they have more wisdom and generally more money.

Social Media is an interesting thing because they all differ in terms of content and how it is delivered. Between Facebook and Instagram, one is blog focused and the latter is picture focused. It is a thing to be Instagram famous, but not a thing to be Facebook famous. I will help navigate on what I feel is the best way to handle social media.

Let us start with Instagram. This is where products thrive because the actual product can be in the image and manipulated to stand out. For example if you are an outdoor backpack company, you can have an influencer take a picture wearing the backpack while hiking. With this photo, you are getting exposure while hitting the correct personas. Through association, if this influencer is having a great time with a good quality backpack, then the viewer will want the same experience. In the caption, or a small blog, the influencer can thank the backpack for making this outdoor experience easy. As simple as tagging the backpack, or having a hyperlink, to your company’s Instagram is huge because it is essentially impressions. From there, if your Instagram page is aesthetic and appealing enough, then it will result in conversions.

Twitter is a good and interesting place to show your company’s face and values. The company’s that have the most exposure on Twitter are those who are constantly interacting with customers, not with product or services, but just pure interaction. I suppose it is a form of UX. You can kind of humanize and make yourself more relatable by instead of acting like a corporate giant, but act like another person. You can potentially go viral by doing so or even just be familiar and personable in the consumer’s mind.

LinkedIn and Facebook are very similar because they both are blog formatted and relationship based. Generally, the personas who are using these forms of social media are older and in a more formal setting, relative to Instagram and Twitter. Since the website design is still a scroll function, but wider you will want to use advertisements and word of mouth. Through cookies, customers get relevant advertisements to products that they recently were searching for. By having quality advertisements and landing pages, these constant impressions will lead to conversions.

It is important for your company to use social media as a way to receive impressions and expose yourself. Depending on your product or service will determine which social media platform you will use to optimize your budget.

Would you rather have a 100 soggy and unseasoned french fries or 10 of the best french fries ever? Honestly, it is probably subjective and depends on the person, but most people would want the 10 french fries. It leads to an enjoyable and short experience whereas the 100 bad fries leads to an unenjoyable and long experience . This is similar in regards to digital marketing on social media platforms. It is very easy to skew the initial data, but will result in a lacking result.

Some businesses believe that if they can pump out as many ads or emails or phone calls that it will give them high impressions and eventually lead to conversions. It actually does the opposite because the impression ratio will be terrible and the efficiency of campaign will be really bad. It is important to be efficient through high quality. The budget given won’t be rightfully used and is a waste of money. There exists such a thing called marketing fatigue, where if a consumer is overexposed to a certain product or service, then it will leave a bad taste in their mouth and make them less willing to convert.

From a social media standpoint, there are a lot of people who buy followers on Instagram or Twitter to appear to have a high following. This will actually be disadvantageous because if a brand reaches out to have the influencer sponsor their product, they will end up with a really low impression count. If they, for example, have 100k followers, the company expects 90k impressions. If a majority of these followers are bought and the actual follower account is 20k, that will only result in 18k impressions. It is a significant drop from what is expecting. This will cause the brand to drop you and give you a bad name in the industry.

Regardless, it is considered as unethical because you are essentially morphing your data to seem like you are more successful than you are. It is similar to taxes, why report that you have less money so you can be in a lower tax bracket, it will only lead to trouble. If you are actually at 20k followers, try to get a brand deal where the company expects impressions of the 20k. This will actually give you more followers because of the partnership and endorsement. Although it is a longer path to achieve that 100k follower goal, it is the most ethical and will be safer for you as a business.

When people hear the word blog, they think about somewhere you can just write about random things. May it be about life or a recipe or something you’re passionate about. What some people don’t know is that a blog is a tool that businesses can use to help their online presence. It has been proven that blogs will increase traffic to your website.It helps talk about new products or services or even success stories.

A good blog helps tell your company’s story to potential customers who want to buy your product or use your services. They tend to spend their money with people that they like, so blogs kind of humanize your company in a way. It is a to convey your values in a very easy way, directly.

Not only are blogs used to tell stories, but it also helps with SEO. If you just released a new product channel, it will be difficult for it to be found organically since it is very new. Now should you write a blog about it, then the blog will contribute towards organic searches. It makes it easier for the consumer to find you. They can also read about the product incase the description is not easily understandable.

Blogs are also very easy to start and do. With websites like WordPress, it is as simple as to just start writing. It does not cost any money and is essentially free because no one knows the company better than those working there. You would not need to outsource a writer for your blogs, because they would not even know what to write about or be able to convey the passion needed to get consumers to like your company. The return is very high as well. AtkinsMarketingSolutions actually got a 300% traffic increase after starting his first few blogs.

My final advice to you and every business owner out there is to start a blog now. It is free and you can talk about anything. Preferred it be quality and about your business and products, but essentially anything. You have to treat your blog with as much respect as any other part of your business because it is accessible to your consumers and have the potential to either help you or make you seem unlikable. As long as your writings come from a place of passion and positivity, then consumers can feel that and will reciprocate it through impressions and conversions.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.