Every business needs to be active on social media to be relevant in today’s digital world.

If your company is on social media, you’re probably uploading photos to your profile on a regular basis. Pictures and other visual elements will improve your marketing strategy.

But it can be challenging to find the right pictures to post.

Let’s say you want to upload at least one new picture to a social platform each day. That’s 365 images per year.

Many businesses don’t have a library of that many original photos. They just take random pictures and post them to their profiles last minute without putting much thought or effort into it.

This will be a major problem for your business if you’re using a similar strategy.

Everything you share with your followers on social media must have a purpose. To get the best results from your campaigns, you need to produce content of high quality.

Fortunately for you, modern technology allows you to have a professional quality camera in your hand or pocket at all times.

You don’t need fancy equipment to take great marketing photos. All you need is some basic photography skills and inspiration for your subjects.

Every day, 300 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook. Instagram has an average of 95 million photos uploaded daily.

If the photos you add to social media don’t look professional, they’ll hurt your brand image. That’s why I identified these 12 tips to improve your social media marketing photos.  [click to continue…]

Starting a business is daunting.

There is so much to think about and so much to do.

It’s hard enough trying to figure out how to build and grow a business. The last thing we want to think about is figuring out how to put together an operating agreement or picking the right accounting system.

The good news is that all of the things that need to get done in order to start your business have been done a million times before. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or waste brain power on figuring out what to do.

There are at least 23 things that you should do when starting a new business and we can walk you through each one of them step-by-step.

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As we close out 2018 and enter a new year, it’s time to look toward the future.

Many of you might be making some new year’s resolutions such as diet changes, workout routines, and quitting bad habits.

But outside of your personal goals, you also need to keep an eye on your business operations. More specifically, you must focus on your marketing department.

Marketing continues to change over time. Each year we’re seeing new trends.

What worked for your company in 2010 may not work in 2019.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to completely abandon or change your strategy that worked in 2018. But you need to at least recognize the newest trends.

It will be up to you to make any necessary adjustments based on what’s trending.

Here’s the thing. Other marketers are already jumping on board with new trends and technology.

To gain an advantage over your competitors, you want to prepare yourself to adapt to these trends before they have the chance.

I’ve narrowed down the top ten marketing trends you need to look out for in 2019.  [click to continue…]

With online shopping growing in popularity, retailers need to come up with new ways to keep their customers engaged to drive sales.

Retail stores are no longer just competing with other neighboring shops. Consumers can shop for virtually anything from the comfort of their own homes or even on the go from ecommerce shops.

If your retail business can’t adapt to new technology and the latest trends, you’ll struggle for survival in the coming years.

Beacon technology is definitely something your business should consider using. While the term may sound futuristic and complex, it’s actually quite simple.

You’ll be using beacons to track your customers, similarly to GPS. Although beacons and GPS are often confused and associated with each other, they’re not the same.

GPS technology needs three major components to work:

• satellites
• ground stations
• receivers

Receivers, such as a cell phone or a car, send signals to satellites that calculate the distance between each one. As a result, these calculations can pinpoint exactly where the receiver is located.

Beacons are far less complex.

These devices are small and not very expensive. They run on battery power.

Instead of broadcasting their locations to multiple satellites, beacons simply share their locations with devices capable of receiving their identities.

It’s easy to install beacons throughout your retail store locations. Implementing this technology in your retail shops will help you increase sales by personalizing the customer experience.

If you have never used beacon technology before, this is the perfect guide for you. I’ll show you how to leverage this technology to drive retail sales.

You’ll even learn how beacons can help generate revenue for ecommerce businesses without physical locations.  [click to continue…]

Chargebacks have become a growing problem for ecommerce companies. In fact, credit card chargebacks are rising at a rate of 20% each year.

Statistics show 40% of consumers who file chargebacks will do so again within 60 days. And 50% of those people will file another one within 90 days.

Banks and credit card companies make it easy for their customers to dispute charges on their accounts. Ecommerce companies are paying the price for this behavior.

Those of you who have an ecommerce shop know what I’m talking about. I’m willing to bet you’ve had to deal with these situations in the past.

They are a real pain, to say the least. On your end, you thought you did everything right.

A customer placed an order online. You fulfilled the order and got paid.

Only later, you see that the transaction was nullified. You probably weren’t even notified of this chargeback until after the fact.

What happens now? Why are you being punished for fulfilling an order? How far do you need to go to optimize the customer experience?

Chargebacks have become a hot topic lately in my consulting work. And nobody seems to know how to handle them.

That was my inspiration for writing this guide.

First, I’ll explain what you need to do once a chargeback has been filed. Then, I’ll show how you can prevent this from happening again in the future. At the very least, you’ll be able to minimize your chargeback rates moving forward.

Here’s what you need to know.  [click to continue…]