Considerations for product descriptions

To highlight the right benefits and tell a convincing story in your product description, there are a few considerations you should keep in mind. These will help you shape the product description to appeal to the people most likely to buy in the first place.

Your ideal buyer’s needs

Every product you sell should be tailored to meet the needs of your ideal buyer. Every company has an ideal buyer or target audience. Your ideal buyer may be a mid-twenties career woman, or they may be a retired grandfather who likes fishing. Regardless of your ideal buyer’s demographics, what’s important is that you have a clear idea of how your product will meet their needs and fit into their lives.

When you’re writing your product description, keep in mind how your product will serve your ideal buyer’s needs, and emphasize those aspects. A young career woman may appreciate a product that saves time while looking stylish. A grandfather may want a product that can help him bond with the kids. Focus on their needs and you’ll have a great idea of where to start.

SEO keywords

SEO keywords can be listed as product features, included in the product title, or worked into the body of the product description itself as long as it still flows naturally. Good SEO can bring people directly to your product’s page, making the sale more straightforward.

Sensory words

Sensory words are an excellent way to engage your audience with your product. These types of descriptive words can act as a sort of shortcut past objections and skepticism. Words like “fresh,” “clean,” “bright,” “calm,” or “velvety” all elicit emotional responses. They help potential customers imagine the product’s story more clearly.

Research shows that people who have a clearer mental picture of using a product in their everyday lives are more likely to buy. Including sensory words in your product descriptions can help you boost sales.

Social proof

Finally, including social proof in a product description is a powerful tool. Social proof is any sign that other people also purchased, used, and enjoyed the product. Great reviews, mentions of places that use your product, or “as seen in” blurbs all demonstrate that your product is not just useful — it’s also popular.

Strong product description examples

Understanding the theory of writing great product descriptions is different from writing descriptions that sell. Here are three examples of actual, excellent product descriptions and why they work.

Madewell

The words “Best Seller” above the product’s name not only provide social proof, but can also induce fear of missing out (FOMO) before a potential buyer even gets to the body of the description.

This product description, of a flannel shirt, demonstrates its clear grasp on Madewell’s target demographic. Many of Madewell’s customers are young women who are environmentally conscious. Madewell uses casual language and references popular ‘90s nostalgia in the body of the description, then mentions its commitment to the environment in the bulleted list.

Madewell also uses an effective format for its description. By keeping the basic details contained to a bulleted list, they are free to use more sensory words and provide examples of daily use in the body of the description. This technique keeps their description vivid, concise, and easily scannable.

Weber

The Weber Grill description is just below its star rating, offering a potent example of social proof.

Weber’s grill description includes sensory words, “spacious” and “powerful”, it explains the benefits it offers with statements like “step up your grilling game” and “you’re already set up for BBQ succes,” it lists it’s features along with their uses, and it prominently demonstrates social proof by placing the description just below the reviews. With a 4.6-star rating out of 7,483 reviews, this is definately a grill that others enjoy using.

Wayfair

Wayfair’s description of their Ibiza Flared Arm Sofa uses sensory words to encourage customers to imagine sinking into the sofa.

The furniture retailer Wayfair understands how to appeal to customers’ emotions and senses. It uses words like “hug,” “comfort,” and “plush” to help people imagine sitting on the couch. Meanwhile, it includes more practical product features and details below the emotional description, so buyers with specific needs can easily scan for what they need.

How to Write Product Descriptions That Sell and Good for SEO

Now, let’s get into details on how to write a good product description that sells. How do you describe a product? Are long descriptions always better? How important is writing product descriptions for SEO? What’s an SEO-friendly product description?

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience

While you might probably get a sense of your target audience now just by asking, “Who is the product for?” knowing your audience doesn’t end there. You need to dig deeper than learning whether your audience is male or female, married or not. Ask yourself questions like:

Writing product descriptions would be so much easier and effective if you know your target audience on a deeper level. Hu Kitchen, for instance, knows their paleo and vegan food-loving audience too well:

The best product descriptions address the target buyer’s frustrations to pique their curiosity and communicate with them on a more personal level. Your product description can speak on behalf of the product using words that your target buyers use.

Step 2: Determine the Copy Format

Using bullet points is the perfect copy format to highlight key product details such as specs (size, color, technology, use cases, etc.) and features. Often these are short phrases perfect for shoppers who will most likely scan the most important product details only.

If your product requires a little bit of narrative to appeal to the shoppers’ emotions and imagination to engage them, bullet points will not cut it. This is where a paragraph of texts come in. A paragraph of three to four sentences can be used to convey the story behind a product. If you have more to say about the product, feel free to add another paragraph.

For product variants with technical specs like electronic devices, it’s good to use a table to list or compare variants and specs. It’s much easier to consume technical details in tables.

Step 3: Stand Out With Mini-Stories

What makes your product special? Is your sweatshirt hand-knit by underprivileged individuals? Are you using locally sourced, recycled, or sustainable materials to manufacture your product? What are your missions? Are there people or causes that will benefit from every sale made through your product?

Using heartwarming stories to connect with your audience on a more profound level breaks rational barriers that naturally come with persuasive copywriting. Remember, people buy on emotion and justify with logic.

Storytelling is not new but still so effective. According to a 2017 study, 87% of consumers would buy products from a company that supports a social cause. Toms and Patagonia are two well-known brands that have found success in using the power of social cause stories to connect with their customers and eventually increase sales. And this strategy has been mirrored by thousands of companies worldwide.

Step 4: Avoid Vague Descriptors

It’s tempting to just describe a product as “top-quality” and “perfect,” most especially if the product genuinely embodies these characteristics. These are average modifiers that have been used in almost every mediocre product description. But you don’t want mediocre product description. What you want is something that cuts through the noise, something that speaks to your target audience.

So instead of saying “high-quality,” why not describe the material that makes it high-quality? Instead of saying “durable,” why not use words to describe the materials that make the product durable? Instead of saying “good,” why not use the words that make the product good? Make your readers imagine what the product is like in real life.

Product description copywriting can be tricky, especially if you are selling the most mundane everyday items. How can you be creative if you are selling trash bags? Well, folks at Planet Wise managed to come up with some compelling product descriptions despite that.

Common Mistakes When Writing Product Descriptions

Now that we got the best practices of product description copywriting out of the way. Let’s talk about the common mistakes many businesses and copywriters make when writing product descriptions.

1. Overoptimizing for Search Engines

Long gone are the days when ranking at the top of Google’s search results could easily be achieved with keyword stuffing. Surprisingly, tons of product pages can still be seen riddled with keywords all over the place, begging Google to derank them. Today, keyword stuffing is not going to cut it anymore.

So as much as possible, place your main target keyword in the title, URL, and product description/details/overview in the most natural way. Depending on how you structure your product descriptions, you may also include your target keyword in the body copy.

Note that overoptimizing for search engines is not only off-putting for search engines but also your audience. Poorly-written product descriptions can lead to high bounce rates and low conversion rates. Who wants that?

2. Using Generic Copy From Suppliers

Equally as worse as keyword stuffing is the use of boilerplate product descriptions of manufacturers or suppliers. In the eyes of customers, it’s lazy and screams “I-don’t-care-if-you-buy-this-product-or-not.”

Even if the manufacturer’s product description is speckless (which hardly ever happens), make no mistake. It’s likely used by other vendors. As you may already know, search engines look at unoriginal content with disgust, and if you are lucky enough, you’ll be buried six feet deep in search results.

3. Does Not Include Benefits

A product description that puts emphasis on features instead of benefits is one thing. A product description that does not include benefit at all is another. Sure, the easiest way to create product descriptions is to list all the product features. Boom. Done.

But this is a grave mistake. You need to make sure your target audience knows what these features do. What’s in a feature that can help your audience ease their life? That’s a benefit!

I tackled this above, but it bears repeating. Using features as the center of attention is not as effective as putting benefits front and center. Features appeal to logic, whereas benefits connect with people’s emotions.

4. Lack of Structure

A lot of online store owners go in without a plan or process when it comes to crafting product descriptions. This is not smart for so many reasons. Having a go-to product description template ensures consistency in brand voice and tone throughout your store.

With a plug-and-play template for product descriptions, it’s easy to flesh out the most important details and make your product descriptions convert well. And that’s what you will find in the following section.

Step 5: Repeat

After following these steps you should have a well-considered and powerful product description that will help get your item found and convince shop visitors to become buyers. However, optimising product descriptions to be the best they can be is a process that happens over time.

This means revisiting your descriptions every once in a while. Over time, you should start to acquire useful data that you can use to improve your pages; be that over a month, a quarter or any such interval that works for your business.

Google Search Console can help you to discover data such as how many people are finding your page in the search results, which terms they are searching for when they see your page and how many of them are clicking through to visit. This can be helpful for understanding whether or not any changes you make to your descriptions have had an impact on your ranking and which products you should prioritise revisiting to improve your results.

Google Analytics can help you track the behaviour of people that visit your page, such as how long they spend on a page, where they go next and if they left your website. Using this, you can see how people engage with your content. If you notice you have a high bounce rate or the time spent on the page isn’t as long as you would expect, these could be indicators that someone hasn’t found the information that they’re looking for and work needs to be done to help these visitors.

Getting used to assessing your product pages with these tools will help you to develop a process continually improving your website over time. With such a focus towards improvements to your product descriptions, you will see this reflected in the results these pages produce for you over time.

We hope this advice has your creative writing juices flowing and you’re now raring to write about your products. If you have any fantastic writing tips about creating successful product information, please share them below!

Sources:

https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/product-description/
https://www.rootsdigital.com.sg/product-descriptions/
https://www.create.net/blog/how-to-write-an-effective-product-description

Influencer rates/preferred influencer marketing channels

Influencer marketing is more than a trend; it is widely held to be one of the most effective marketing channels open to the contemporary marketer. A 2019 survey by Mediakix found that 48% of marketers found influencer marketing ROI better than other channels, with a further 41% saying it was comparable. 71% of respondents to same survey agreed that customer quality and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources.

Investment has been on the rise. According to the Business Insider Intelligence report, in 2022 Influencer marketing investment is expected to reach $15 billion, giving almost twice more oxygen to influencers to capitalize on the rising demand.

Featured Influencer Marketing Companies

According to the InfluencerMarketingHub research, in 2020 62% of companies, that took part in the survey, increased their Influencer marketing budget throughout 2020, and an additional 20% committed to keeping the same level budget in 2021.

49% of these companies kept their Influencer marketing budget on the level – $10k and down, while other 23% spent up to $50k / year and about 9% were ready to spend more than $500k / year.

Another find from the InfluencerMarketingHub 2021 report was that last year the overwhelming majority of marketers had planned to invest more in the Influencer marketing. In fact, 62% said they will increase their Influencer marketing budget in 2021. To give you some context – in 2020 only 57% of marketers planned to increase their Influencer marketing budget.

And when it comes to where marketers get money to run Influencer marketing campaigns, almost 83% said they’d borrowed it from the overall marketing budget, at the expense of other marketing channels.

The same InfluencerMarketingHub report brings us the picture of what specific social media platforms marketers ran Influencer marketing campaigns on in 2021. A brief look on the graph below will show you that TikTok is rising as one of the major channels to run Influencer marketing campaigns in 2021. Only one company was used by a greater number of marketers – Instagram, with 68% of marketers ran ad campaigns on it and TikTok came second with 45%, followed by Facebook with 43%, YouTube – 36% and finally LinkedIn and Twitter closed the set with 16 and 15 percent respectively.

How to Post and Run Instagram Ads

To run ads on Instagram and get the desired response from the target audience, you need to know how to do so. You can advertise on Instagram from the app itself or through Facebook Ads Manager. If you are creating Instagram ads for the first time, it is advisable to do so via Facebook.

Create Your Business Page on Facebook

Connect Your Facebook Page to your Instagram Account

You will have to switch your Instagram account to your business profile. Visit your Instagram profile settings and tap the triple lines on the top right corner of your screen. Tap Settings>Account>Switch to Professional Account and then select Business.

Once you switch to a professional account, you can run Instagram ads from your app or Facebook Business Manager. Go to Ads Manager from the Business Manager, click Create, and then select one of the objectives below:

Then, name your campaign and choose the target audience by gender, age, and interests in the Audience section. Be general or specific when you choose the potential audience, as perfect targeting is important for a good ad relevance score.

Set a Budget and Schedule

Your Instagram ad budget can be on a per day or lifetime basis. To go for Lifetime, you should set Start and End dates for your campaign(check the image below). You can select if you want to pay charges for Instagram Ads CPM or Instagram Ads CPC and opt for automatic or manual bidding. As a beginner, you should go for automatic bidding as it allows the system to optimize your ads automatically for the desired results.

Decide the Ad Content and Format

You need to decide your ad content and format by specifying if you are posting a video, a single-image ad, or a carousel (multiple images). Write a catchy headline and add strong CTA buttons that match your advertisements.

Select Your Ad Placement

Below your “Instagram account” section, choose the account connected to your Fb page. Then, select the area where your ad should get displayed. You can choose to show your ad on both Instagram and Facebook accounts. To run your ads only on Instagram, check Instagram and uncheck other options. After choosing Instagram, you need to select the different types of ads and their placements.

The cost of Instagram-sponsored ads varies depending on different types of placements. Once you are okay with the Settings, you can click on Publish. When your ad is live, you get instant notifications. You can go through Facebook’s detailed guide to learn how to create and post Instagram ads through the Ads Manager dashboard.

Tips and Tricks to Optimize Instagram Ads

So, now you have an idea about the cost of Instagram ads. But how to optimize your Instagram ads to get the desired outcomes? The Instagram ads cost can get quite high at times, and thus, many small businesses hesitate to invest a vast amount, fearing not getting a high ROI. So, now you have an idea about the cost of Instagram ads. But how to optimize your Instagram ads to get the desired outcomes?

Capture the Attention of Your Target Audience

As Instagram is mainly a visual social media platform, you can use enticing images and videos to attract the target audience’s attention in the first two seconds after they see your ad. Since captions and other components are not as crucial as the main page, you should make sure your visuals appear and intrigue customers to take immediate action.

Add Trending and Relevant Hashtags

You can describe your brand in Instagram ads and boost customer engagement with various hashtags. But you need to add trending hashtags to your post as the common ones do not tend to get significant attention. The image below shows an Instagram ad with a hashtag(#optoutside).

Using relevant hashtags in your ad gets more exposed to target customers who are genuinely interested in your brand. Before adding hashtags to your ad, you should research the most popular ones by successful advertisements in the marketplace.

Identify the Perfect Time to Post Your Ad

After running your Instagram ads for at least seven days, you get specific data to scrutinize. Find out the time in a day when your ads received maximum customer engagement and experiment to publish your ads only during that time. If you do so, it decreases the Instagram advertising cost yet get the best results.

Instagram ad optimization demands a lot of time and experimentation. To get quick results, you need to be experimental with Instagram ad campaigns, monitor their performance, and work on them accordingly for better results.

Many business owners tend to get confused between Instagram and Facebook ads. Nowadays, business owners hesitate to use Instagram ads for their businesses as they are unaware of the cost and optimization techniques. You can find many free resources online that would help you learn how to post and run your Instagram ads successfully. If you implement the most effective techniques, you can extend your customer outreach and grow your business by running full Instagram ad campaigns.

You can also take help from social media advertising experts as they can estimate the average Instagram advertising cost for your industry niche and help you meet your advertising objectives. The experts can always run Instagram advertising campaigns to take your business to the peak.

The author is a first generation entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of India’s most award winning SEO Agency, PageTraffic. He also works as an advisor and consultant with many large companies. He helps value-conscious businesses build site traffic increase the user base, and boost web sales and bolster customer satisfaction. He can be reached @navneetkaushal on Twitter

Sources:

https://www.ictsd.org/business/how-much-does-business-advertising-cost-on-instagram/
https://www.businessofapps.com/marketplace/influencer-marketing/research/influencer-marketing-costs/
https://www.pagetraffic.com/blog/how-much-instagram-ads-cost/

Free downloadable business plan template

Business News Daily put together a simple but high-value business plan template to help you create a business plan. The template is completely customizable and can be used to attract investors, secure board members, and narrow the scope of your company.

Business plans can be overwhelming to new entrepreneurs, but our template makes it easy to provide all of the details required by financial institutions and private investors. The template has eight main sections, with subsections for each topic. For easy navigation, a table of contents is provided with the template. As you customize each section, you’ll receive tips on how to correctly write the required details.

Free download: Here is our free business plan template you can use to craft a professional business plan quickly and easily.

Types of business plans

There are two main types of business plans: simple and traditional. Traditional business plans are long, detailed plans that expound on both short-term and long-term objectives. In comparison, a simple business plan focuses on a few key metrics in concise detail so as to quickly share data with investors.

Simple business plan

Business model expert Ash Maurya has developed a simple type of business plan called a lean canvas. The model, which was developed in 2010, is still one of the most popular types of business plans emulated today.

A lean canvas comprises nine sections, with each part of the plan containing high-value information and metrics to attract investors. This lean business plan often consists of a single page of information with the following listed:

Traditional business plan

Traditional plans are lengthy documents, sometimes as long as 30 or 40 pages. A traditional business plan acts as a blueprint of a new business, detailing its progress from the time it launches to several years in the future when the startup is an established business. The following areas are covered in a traditional business plan:

What is a business plan?

Business plans can be written for different audiences, but they’re primarily prepared for lenders, investors or shareholders. It’s important to tailor your plan to the audience. Investors and shareholders often want to see an exciting potential return and ambitious business goals.

Meanwhile, lenders generally want to know how they’ll get repaid and that the business owner is prepared enough to leverage the money effectively. They like to see conservative assumptions about your sales forecasts and market, different scenarios (good, neutral and bad) and contingencies in case things don’t go as planned.

“It’s common for people to try to convince the lender that this is an amazing opportunity and that they’re going to make a lot of money,” Fryling says. “That actually can have an adverse effect on the people reading the plan. They might think the business owner is too optimistic and doesn’t know what they’re getting into.”

What’s in a business plan?

1. Company profile

• A business description
  Briefly describe your company, what it does and where it’s located. Clarify whether it’s a new venture, an expansion of an existing company or an acquisition.
• Products and services
  Provide a detailed description of your product or service. This should include unique features, how much it costs and how it’s delivered.

• Company history
  Explain the development stage of your company or business idea. Include how much time, effort and resources you’ve invested in the business so far. “You should get really detailed about what you’ve accomplished to date,” Fryling says. “Don’t gloss over it. People often don’t put in enough hard numbers here.”
• Mission statement, vision statement and company values.
• Legal structure and issues
  Give details on your legal structure, why it’s the right one for your business and any potential liability issues.
• Regulatory and insurance issues
  List any needed permits, licences or the like. Also explain any insurance needs, costs and providers.
• Your business goals
  Briefly list measurable short- and medium-term goals for the business and when you want to achieve them.

• A market overview—How the market works, who is serving it, what gap you’re filling and key challenges you face. Focus on the local market opportunity, not big-picture stats for the whole industry.
• Target market—A detailed description of your customer. Again, be specific.

• Executive summary
  The executive summary is a very brief, high-level summary of the business plan. It appears in many business plan templates, but Fryling says it’s optional. He suggests that companies leave it out unless the target audience specifically requires it. If you do include one, he recommends writing the executive summary last.

2. Sales and marketing

“It is really important to explain the numbers in this section,” Fryling says. “A lot of people think their product is so good it’s going to sell itself. That’s just not good enough reasoning.”

He gives the example of a company that projects 15 sales in April. It has averaged 15 sales a month for the past six months and already has 10 committed orders with a deposit for April. The company also has a record of strong sales in recent years. “That sounds totally conservative and achievable,” he says. “. The reader now understands how you’ve put those sales projection numbers together and hopefully feels that they are a conservative estimate.”

3. Operations

4. Financials

Include a cash flow forecast, usually broken down on a monthly basis and presented as a spreadsheet. Also add your financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and statement of retained earnings). And if you’re a new business, list start-up costs.

The cash flow forecast is especially important. Fryling calls it the heart of the entire plan, but says many companies fail to include it or complete it as an afterthought. “I won’t look at somebody’s business plan unless they’ve at least made an attempt at financial projections,” Fryling says.

“The real story happens in the financials. In the written part, every section mainly serves to explain and justify those numbers. A big part of the education we do as advisors is getting businesses to do the numbers at the same time as they’re writing the plan so they’re aligned with each other. It’s also not a bad idea to start with the numbers and then complete the written part.”

3 common business plan mistakes to avoid

How to write a small business plan

1. Do your research

Go deep in researching your industry and competitors — it can have many benefits. A deep understanding of the industry matters, especially if you need to set up manufacturing and distribution channels.

2. Gather your financial information

Remember, as you start to run and grow a business, money matters. So, you need to find a way to keep track of it all. Accounting software, such as QuickBooks, can help you monitor everything from the expected billable hours you’ll have to pay accountants or contractors, such as freelance web designers for your site or writers for your marketing, to invoices and inventory.

3. Follow the outline structure

Most business plans end up being around 7 to 20 pages, depending on the type of business. For something relatively simple, such as a solo consulting firm, you don’t need to worry about manufacturing and logistics in your operational plan section, for instance.

4. Write your executive summary

In the market research or market analysis section, the plan details more than you see in the executive summary. You’ll find more in-depth descriptions of the industry as a whole and the target market. The plan also outlines its competitive advantages over similar brands in the industry.

The operational planning section is pretty simple too. Since the business is a consulting firm, all product lines are services, with no assembly required. So there’s no need to list manufacturing, shipping, or logistical needs or concerns. It’s just a description of services with pricing.

Since this is a small, service-based business, the marketing and sales plan is quite simple. It lays out a simple strategy for growth as well as some marketing channels the company plans to use and the person in charge of most of the selling.

Sources:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5680-simple-business-plan-templates.html
https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/start-buy-business/start-business/how-write-business-plan
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/articles/small-business-plan/

Preschool teacher requirements

Preschool teachers need at least some level of college education and training in childhood development. Different states and schools also have different certification requirements.

Education

Most preschool teachers need at least an associate’s degree. Some programs, such as public schools, require a bachelor’s degree. Common degrees include early childhood education, psychology, English or other subjects. If you get a degree in a field other than childhood education, you will need additional experience teaching young children.

Training

States often regulate hiring based on a teacher’s level of child care experience. Aspiring preschool teachers can get training and experience as teacher’s assistants, teacher’s aides or day care assistants. Working alongside a certified teacher will help you gain an understanding of the different types of skills you’ll need to excel in this career. You can also learn about the various activities preschool teachers hold for their students and which ones are the most effective.

Certifications

States also require preschool teachers to get certified. Certifications vary by state and type of school. For example, public schools often have stricter requirements. Some standard certifications for this career include:

Council for Professional Recognition’s Child Development Associate certificate

To earn this credential, preschool teachers must complete training in both the classroom and in a teaching setting during which a reviewer will observe them working with children. They must also pass an exam and renew their license every three years.

National Early Childhood Program Accreditation’s Child Care Professional certificate

This two-year course is particularly useful for preschool teachers without college degrees or degrees in early childhood education. After completing training, they must pass an exam to earn their certification.

Skills

Preschool teachers should be comfortable guiding and working with very young children, which requires a high level of calmness and understanding. They must also be able to work with children of different backgrounds and stages of development and determine each one’s learning level. Other critical preschool teacher skills include:

Communication

A preschool teacher should be able to communicate effectively with both children and children’s parents. They should provide clear written and verbal reports of children’s progress.

Creativity

Organization

Patience

Problem-solving

Step 1: Enroll in an early childhood education program

The BLS reports that preschool teachers usually need at least an Associate’s degree. 1 The federally organized Head Start programs (which account for a sizable chunk of preschools throughout the country) require half of their teachers to hold at least an Associate’s degree and the other half at least a Bachelor’s degree in early education or a related field. 1

Some employers might require preschool teachers to have some work experience in a childcare setting. In this case, new preschool teachers might break into the field as childcare workers or teacher assistants, according to the BLS.

But the primary requirement for public schools is a license. In every state, preschool teachers must be licensed to teach early childhood education, according to the BLS. Most often, a state’s licensing requirements involve a Bachelor’s degree and passing an exam to demonstrate competency. 2

Step 2: Become certified

Certification and licensing requirements for preschool teachers vary by state and school, though the BLS highlights two common certifications: the Childcare Development Associate (CDA) from the Council for Professional Recognition or the Child Care Professional (CCP) designation from the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation.

The CDA credential is required in several states, according to the BLS. Earning it involves verification of coursework, experience in the field, a written exam and observation of the candidate working with children.

Even if your state does not require the CDA for preschool teachers, employers are likely to appreciate it in their applicants. Learn more about the benefits professionals can receive from the CDA credential at: Is Earning a Child Development Associate Credential Worth It?

Resource:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/careers/what-does-a-preschool-teacher-do
https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/how-to-become-a-preschool-teacher/
https://theconversation.com/why-your-childs-preschool-teacher-should-have-a-college-degree-88514

12 Proven Ways to Increase Sales

Your current customers are your best bet to increase sales and should be the focus of your sales and marketing efforts. They already use your products or services, so they trust you enough to purchase your solutions. If you provide them with high-quality customer service, they will be more likely to purchase from you again, which will help to increase your business’s sales.

1. Acknowledge current customer behavior.

Conduct research on how your customers use your products and services. Your products might have a lot of features, but your customers might only use one or two of those features. They might also have difficulty using or implementing other parts of your products or services. This will enable you to upgrade your products or services, or tailor them to your customers’ needs for a higher price.

When customers use a particular product, you can cross-sell related products that complement or add to the products they are already using. You have to show them how they will benefit from purchasing the other product. You can also upsell a premium product or service to help customers achieve better results, boost efficiency, reduce expenses or grow their own businesses.

Another approach is to provide customers with personalized training or customer service. Rather than upselling the service, this is an opportunity to strengthen the customer relationship and demonstrate where you can add value. The key is to show the opportunities available to the customer, rather than trying to hard-sell services they might not want.

2. Request customer feedback.

Whether or not you conduct research on your current customers, it’s always a good idea to ask them for feedback on your products and services, as well as how they feel about your customer service. Find out where you might be lacking or where they are having problems. Also, determine what makes them happy about your customer service.

Customer feedback can identify opportunities you had not considered, which can turn into new sales. Suppose that you develop websites for customers, which are optimized to increase sales leads for your customers’ businesses. Your customers might want to improve how they interact with their own customers, so they might want to create an email newsletter. You can set up a system to automate the collection of emails and publication of the newsletter, then connect it to a CRM system.

Customer feedback can help you to broaden your offerings, increase your sales and strengthen the relationship with the customer. If you don’t ask the customer for their feedback, you miss out on these sales opportunities.

3. Run promotions for current customers.

Running sales and marketing promotions just for current customers is a great way to reward them for their loyalty and business. Some customers are disgruntled or disappointed when they see a company run offers just for prospects and new customers.

Ideally, you should run sales and marketing promotions for current customers on a regular basis, such as monthly or quarterly. Scheduling your promotions like this will make your current customers look forward to each one, increasing your interactions and grow your sales.

Regular promotions for current customers also encourage them to share this “insider information” by referring people they know, who could then become customers. Referrals are an effective way of growing your customer base.

You can also run irregular promotions for customers, such as discounts or gifts on birthdays and special anniversaries, sneak peeks and free trials of new products and services, and invitations to company-sponsored events.

4. Provide excellent customer service.

Rather than always trying to sell to your customers, you should work on serving your customers. Consider their needs and how to make things better for them. Providing excellent customer service includes doing things for your customers outside of the sales experience to show how much you appreciate them. This helps to grow customer loyalty, which will increase sales.

Increasing sales with prospects

Prospects are a potential source of new sales. Every customer was once a prospect, and you had to spend resources to turn those prospects into paying customers. Prospects are aware of your business and its offerings, but they haven’t made the leap to customer yet.

1. Create packages, deals and free trials to attract customers.

As prospects are already aware of your existing products or services, you might need to package your offerings differently to turn those prospects into customers. There are many ways to do that:

Another option is to provide free trials and demonstrations of your products or services. This enables prospects to see how the product or service will work in addressing their specific needs and situation, without spending money to implement it. Providing prospects with a high level of training and customer service will ensure that they use the product or service properly and get the greatest value out of it, increasing the odds of the sale.

2. Conduct a content audit.

How effective is your content at promoting your products and services? You might have to conduct a content audit and make some significant changes to how you talk about your business.

Examine all your content, including your website and marketing materials. Ask yourself, “Does this content focus on features or benefits?” The answer should be benefits; if not, it’s time for a rewrite. Benefits focus on what your customers will get out of your products or services, while features describe what your products and services do. The goal is to show how your products or services will improve your customers’ businesses or lives.

3. Do something noteworthy or unique.

Prospects and customers are constantly inundated with advertising messages, so it’s easy for your message to get lost in the noise. The key is to be noticed by doing something different or worth noting.

4. Optimize your social media profiles.

Your business needs to be on social media, because that’s where your customers and prospects hang out. That’s why it’s important to create and optimize your profile on whatever social media platforms you plan to spend time on to find prospects.

Your social media profile provides more than your name and contact information. It’s like a small website that promotes you and your business. Your profile should clearly state who you are, what you do, what you stand for, and who would use your products or services. When people visit your social media profile, they should get an immediate sense of who you are and why they should get to know you.

Every social media platform is different, so your profiles should be different. Each should maintain your branding but be suitable for its particular platform. A LinkedIn profile should be different from a Facebook for Business profile, which should be different from an Instagram profile. Your audience hangs out on different social media platforms for different reasons, so it’s important to optimize your social media profile to fit those reasons and the platform.

5. Advertise on social media.

Your prospects and customers are on social media for both business and pleasure. Every social media platform offers opportunities to advertise your business, products and services. This is a relatively cost-effective form of advertising.

6. Generate word of mouth.

Again, your prospects and customers are already on various social media platforms. Hang out wherever they do so you can build community and generate word of mouth about your products or services.

7. Put a call to action on your website.

Every website – and every page on your website – should have a call to action (CTA). This directs the visitor to do something, such as contact you for more information, sign up for a free newsletter, download a report or set up a discovery call.

When deciding on a CTA, determine what you want your visitor to do. The goal is to convert visitors into prospects and prospects into customers, so put some thought into the CTA. It also depends on what page they’re on; make sure the instructions are clear and your CTA stands out. An effective CTA can bring in a lot of prospects and increase your sales.

8. Stay in touch with email marketing.

The path from prospect to sale is rarely short and direct. It could take several touchpoints and interactions with prospects to turn them into customers and generate sales. One effective way to lead prospects along the path to purchasing your product or service is email marketing.

Email marketing involves collecting a prospect’s email with their permission and then staying in touch with them. This can involve sending automated email messages, email newsletters and other correspondence. You can educate them about your products and services, offer special offers and discounts, provide links to case studies and testimonials, and notify them of new products and other news about your company. Staying in touch will keep you top of mind when the prospect is looking for a solution to their business needs.

How to Increase Sales through Existing Customers

Your existing customers should be the first priority when attempting to boost sales. They’ve already shown a willingness to give you money in exchange for products or services, which shows that they trust you. If you did an excellent job when serving them, then they should be primed to do more business with you.

Pay Attention to Existing Customer Behavior

When possible, study how your customers use and interact with your products and services. Perhaps they rely heavily on one particular feature or struggle with one aspect of your product. If so, this could be a great place to offer an upgrade.

Another approach for this is to deliver more personalized service or training. You shouldn’t really see this as an upsell. Instead, think of it as extending or enriching your relationship with them. You don’t want to be forceful here. Just be sure that they know what you offer because they could be unaware.

Ask for Feedback

For example, a printing company might do an excellent job printing promotional brochures that clients mail out to generate business. A client who wants to automate the process even more could be interested in having the envelopes printed and addressed. They may even like to have the printing company handle the mailing itself.

Run Regular Promotions

Sales and marketing promotions are a great way to reward your current customers and increase sales. Whether you hold them once a month, once a quarter, or whatever makes sense for you, you want it to be regular.

Once you establish a rhythm with them, customers will start to look forward to them. The more they anticipate interacting with you in the future, the better. Plus, they can let others know about your promotions in advance. These referrals should lead to a larger customer base and subsequently, more sales .

25 Hacks to Convert Your Traffic into Leads and Sales

1. Attract the Right Traffic

Earlier on, we told you that one of the reasons why you are not getting sales is that you are attracting the wrong audience. It then follows that attracting the right solution will help fix the problem.

2. Keep Your Website Design Simple

Bonus point: If you don’t have a good web design skill and your website runs on WordPress, just head over to the themes repository and pick any of the available website templates. Most are free, simple, and elegant.

3. What Makes You Better Than Competitors?

4. Make Your Site Trustworthy

5. Take Reviews Seriously

6. Display Testimonials

7. Optimize Your Sales Funnel

8. Write Better Sales Copies

Are you one of those marketers who suck at writing sales copies? You had better started to improve at it because it is through a solid sales copy that you can convince visitors to act.

A little word of encouragement: will attempting to improve your writing skills, you won’t be a pro copywriter right out of the gate. It will take a while to hone your copywriting skill. So, keep at it.

9. Make Your CTA Buttons to Shine

One more thing: creating an attention-grabbing CTA is important but more important is placing them right. They have to be visible enough on your website, else their purpose will be defeated. Details on this shortly.

10. Be Strategic with Your CTA Placement

11. Stop Directing Visitors to Your Homepage

12. Be Generous with Freebies

13. Gamify Your Visitors’ Experience

14. Segment Your Audience

Truth be told: not all visitors are the same. The simple reason is that people are different. Preferences, hobbies, behavior, location, occupation, language, devices, etc. are all different.

15. Product Recommendation Is a Must

As the name implies, product recommendation involves recommending products – or content for a publishing website – to visitors which they will most likely find useful – and valuable.

16. Loyalty Programs Still Work

17. Use Popups to Win Leads

One of the reasons why you are getting clicks but no conversions is that your visitors are simply not seeing your offers. And not because they are blind; your banner ads are just not just attention-grabbing enough to make them take notice.

18. Use Slide-ins to Boost Conversion

19. Floating Bars Work like Magic

20. Capture Exiting Visitors

Our natural human instinct is to take flight the instant we encounter an unpleasurable situation. This might explain why visitors abandon your website no sooner than they arrive.

21. Up Your Game with Two-Step Popups

22. Live Chat Anybody?

23. Offer Money Back Guarantee

24. Track Your Conversion

After following all the steps shared so far, the next step, apparently, is to know what is working for you and what is not. For that to happen, you need a way of tracking your conversion.

25. A/B Test Your Ideas

Sources:

https://www.business.com/articles/12-ways-to-increase-sales/
https://localiq.com/blog/how-to-increase-sales-for-your-business-on-a-budget/
https://adoric.com/blog/25-hacks-to-convert-your-traffic-into-leads-and-sales/

Good (and Bad) Excuses to Leave Work Early

Alison Doyle is one of the nation’s foremost career experts and has counseled both students and corporations on hiring practices. She has given hundreds of interviews on the topic for outlets including The New York Times, BBC News, and LinkedIn. Alison founded CareerToolBelt.com and has been an expert in the field for more than 20 years.

Do you need a good excuse for leaving work early? There are many reasons why you may need to leave work early or come in late. Some appointments and other obligations can’t always be scheduled around working hours.

Or maybe you just need to escape from the office. If you do, you’re not the only one. Jobvite’s Job Seeker Nation Survey reports that 34% of respondents had taken a sick day when they weren’t actually ill.

Here’s advice on company guidelines for taking time off, tips for asking permission to leave, and some of the best (and worst) excuses for asking to leave early or come in late to work.

Factors That Help (or Hurt) Your Chances of Leaving Early

Typically, it’s not a big deal to get out of work early once in a while. But some circumstances can make it easier—or harder—to get your manager’s approval. If you’re lucky, you work for a company that’s flexible and understanding. If not, you may have to work around company policy and formal approval to get permission for time off.

Organizational culture. Company culture is an important factor. Some companies expect workers to report early and stay late in the office to prove their dedication, while others encourage employees to maintain their well-being and keep a healthy work-life balance.

Company policy may provide for excused absences for part of the workday. If you’re not sure how much time off you’re allowed to take for partial day absences, check with your employee handbook, supervisor, or Human Resources department.

Your relationship with your supervisor. If you get along with your boss, it may be easier to persuade them to allow you to leave early. Some of this is within your control—for example, you can foster a trusting relationship by being honest and reliable—and some of it is the luck of the draw. If you and your boss have communication issues or other interpersonal problems, it will obviously be harder to convince them.

In general, employees whose supervisors and colleagues view them as dedicated are more likely to be treated favorably in the workplace and, in some cases, are more likely to get special privileges.

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About This Article

This article was co-authored by Jennifer Mueller, JD. Jennifer Mueller is an in-house legal expert at wikiHow. Jennifer reviews, fact-checks, and evaluates wikiHow’s legal content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. She received her JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006. This article has been viewed 366,390 times.

If you want to get out of an employment contract, you’ll need to find out the terms of your contract and decide on a valid way to end it. The easiest way to do this is to agree with the other party to terminate the contract early by mutual agreement. If you can’t do this, read through your contract to find the valid reasons for terminating it. For example, your contract may include a provision that it can be ended if you’re physically incapable of performing your work, or if the other party fails to live up to their obligations. Alternatively, you may be able to give the other party notice that you’re ending the contract, which can vary from a week or 2 to several months. If none of these options are possible, try to reach a deal with your employer, such as offering to stay in the job until they find a replacement. For tips from our Legal co-author on how to determine if your contract can be voided, keep reading!

Resource:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/good-and-bad-excuses-to-leave-work-early-4152103
https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Out-of-an-Employment-Contract

Business to Business (B2B) Sales

You’ve probably encountered the acronym “B2B” countless times in your sales career. On the off-chance that you aren’t familiar with the lingo, B2B refers to business to business sales or, in other words, the selling of goods or services to other businesses instead of consumers.

B2B sales are often more complex than B2C (“business to consumer sales”) because they involve selling to trained white collar professionals or decision-makers who themselves are familiar with business sales processes. For this reason, B2B salespeople have to abide by a different set of rules and follow separate strategies than their B2C colleagues.

The truth is that B2B sales are only going to grow in the years ahead, with B2B ecommerce estimated to eclipse a whopping 800.8 trillion in volume by 2023. This is just one reason why it’s so important that you brush up on your business to business sales game. Below, we’ve listed a handful of tried-and-true methods to do just that.

Examples of B2C sales activities

Inside sales activities can involve a wide range of customer types. You will also need to distribute your products through a variety of mediums, such as call centers and live chat rooms. An outside sales job will likely involve going door-to-door.

Who are the B2C consumers?

The B2C consumers are the people who are looking to add value to their lives by adding products that help them achieve some day-to-day solutions. A B2C business offers quick solutions for people who are looking to fulfill their basic essentials or enrich their lives with luxury goods.

It is more common for consumers in B2C to be bargain hunters than B2B buyers. Moreover, their buying decisions, too, are often emotionally driven. There are various factors about the product they are curious about, such as the price, the quality, the problem it solves for them, and how it adds value to their lives.

Sales based on benefits

Providing value to our customers

Relationship building with prospects

The Internet facilitates learning about the products online apart from comparing them, in certain areas of sales, prospects still find a personal service to be the best. To succeed in direct sales, you do not need a lot of experience. However, you do need sales skills, commitment to customer service, and sound strategies.

Although in B2C you will usually come across only a single decision-maker, there could still be too many hurdles converting the prospects. Therefore, it is of prime importance to learn how to build relationships in a short duration.

How are B2C and B2B Sales Jobs Different?

A lot of profit opportunities exist when it comes to B2B sales. The downside is that selling to other businesses can be challenging. Recent research suggests that coordinating and meeting with prospective suppliers is dedicated to a very short time. Reps are, therefore, limited in their ability to influence the purchase decision as they have a limited timeframe to do so.

Establish direct communication with decision-makers

Potential customers and purchasing agents can provide you with opportunities. But you need to establish relationships with decision-makers who are able to pay for your product or service.

Prepare well before you cold-call

Create a competitive advantage

Before going to a sales meeting, familiarize yourself with the unique value proposition of your offering. In order to sell your prospect on tangible results, you should know how your product solves similar problems and be able to demonstrate it.

Be Attentive

It is always better to listen more than you speak. This not only helps you be attentive towards clients’ requirements and concerns but also lets them feel your dedication. In such a scenario, the client is more likely to respond in a positive manner.

Let your prospects choose

Humans love to have options around them to choose from. If you present your client with only one product or solution, chances are that they may hop on to another business for a better price or better product feature, harming your sales funnel. Avoiding this is simple. Offer your customers more options which ensures them that they have seen enough and now is the time to choose. Thus, bringing them closer to the purchase.

FAQs About B2B Ecommerce

What is the difference between B2B and B2C ecommerce?

Due to the nature of B2B ecommerce, B2B transactions typically involve high-value, low-volume sales and fewer buyers. Since B2B transactions are often unique to each customer, price points can be negotiable, and the sales cycle often takes longer than a typical B2C transaction, since there is more money, more product and more decision-makers involved.

On the other hand, B2C transactions are usually low-value and high-volume and serve far more buyers. Just like you can’t negotiate the price of bread at the grocery store, almost all B2C sales are non-negotiable, however coupons and other discounts may be available. And since transactions are typically for less expensive goods, the sales cycle is rapid.

How is the B2B buyer journey different from that of B2C?

Since B2B transactions often involve higher-value goods and services, there is often more risk involved, and therefore the decision-making process is much longer than that of B2C. As a result, purchasing decisions must go through several people and opinions before being approved.

On the other hand, with B2C commerce, a customer is often purchasing products for themselves or a household, so there are normally only one or a few people involved. And because the cost of B2C goods and services is much lower, the sales cycle is often rapid and much less risky.

What is the B2B ecommerce market size?

The global B2B ecommerce market is forecasted to reach 800.8 trillion by 2023, which accounts for 17% of all B2B sales in the U.S. — up from 13% in 2019 and 14% in 2020. In addition, the global B2B ecommerce market in 2020 was valued at $14.9 trillion, which was over five times that of the B2C market.

Do you have to be a supplier to sell B2B online?

No, you do not have to be a supplier in order to sell B2B online. While supplying resellers is a popular type of B2B ecommerce, there are several other types of B2B ecommerce businesses, including wholesalers, distributors and B2B2C companies, and many online brands cater to both B2B and B2C customers.

How are B2B payments made?

Although historically relying on paper-based, manual processes, the B2B payments ecosystem has recently shifted toward cloud-based, automated payment systems. This significantly simplifies the B2B transaction process and makes buying and selling both faster and more efficient for businesses and customers.

Amid the changing landscape, B2B businesses have seen a decline in paper checks and a rise in smart payment options such as contactless and remote payments. And through collaborative commerce, payment providers and fintech companies have worked together to build more automation and reduce friction in the B2B payment process.

Among other methods, B2B businesses can make transactions through flexible payment options like buy now, pay later and virtual cards, much like in the B2C space, and the industry has even seen a trend toward AI, blockchain and cryptocurrency.

How can a B2B ecommerce website support custom ordering?

Thanks to custom quoting tools, unique variants and segmented customer groups, B2B businesses can allow customers to send in a PDF quote 24/7, then evaluate the quote and get back within regular business hours if the unique order can be filled.

Then, your B2B business can place that customer in their own unique customer group so that the next time they order, the customer won’t have to go through the quote engine. Instead, they can simply click and check out the item that is made specially for them.

Sources:

https://www.drift.com/learn/business-to-business-sales/
https://www.deskera.com/blog/b2b-sales-b2c-sales/
https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/b2b-ecommerce/