Developing Your Advertising Campaigns

Plan quarterly advertising campaigns that align with your customer’s interests and capitalize on holidays and events. Advertising that appeals directly to your target market by focusing on their wants and needs will deliver a stronger ROI. Being consistent helps to improve brand awareness, and capitalizing on marketing opportunities surrounding events and holidays captures a larger share of the market at critical opportunities for potentially higher sales.

How to Decide Which Channels to Advertise On

Finding the right online channels to focus your advertising on can make a big difference in maximizing your ROI. Depending upon your industry, one particular channel might serve you better than another, so it pays to research competitors to see where they are focusing their advertising dollars.

Various channels include:

Google—ideal for service providers and niche businesses that can utilize highly targeted keywords.

Google AdWords—ideal for targeting potential customers or clients that might not be aware you exist.

Facebook—ideal for companies that are seeking to engage their audience, as well as attract a local target market. Facebook also allows for very specific targeting and budget controls, making it an optimal marketing tool.

LinkedIn—ideal for B2B companies. Using LinkedIn, you can source leads, engage in networking, and advertise to specific professions, companies or industries.

Keep in mind that you might benefit from cross-channel advertising, utilizing one or more of the above channels to cast a wider net, subsequently improving your conversion rate.

Analyze and Revise Your E-Commerce Marketing Strategies

Consistent analysis of your marketing strategy to determine whether it is effective or if it needs revision is key to ensuring you continue to reach sales goals. A marketing strategy that was highly effective one month can deliver less than optimal results the next month due to changing trends, consumer behavior and competitor marketing strategies.

There are several ways to gauge the impact of your marketing campaign. For starters, installing tracking pixels on your website will enable you to see which parts of your e-commerce advertising campaign are leading consumers to your website, and, ultimately, making a purchase happen. Google AdWords makes this process relatively simple, and other channels, such as Facebook, also enable you to set up conversion pixels.

Second, using analytics to measure your conversion rate from your ads can give you additional insight into your campaign and consumer behavior. Google Analytics offers a suite of tools and products that you can use to improve your engagement, track and analyze website traffic, increase your click-through rate, and much more.

And lastly, you can experiment with different creative content and ads in order to increase conversions through A/B testing on your website. This is the process of trying out two similar ads or pieces of content to see which one works better—conversion pixels and Google analytics can help you track and compare the effectiveness of either ad.

With the data you collect from analytical tools, conversion pixels, and A/B testing, you’ll be able to fine-tune your strategy on a weekly basis, as needed, in order to keep an optimal ROI.

Secrets to Marketing Campaigns that Flow

Turning consumers into clients has several well-defined steps, which sales and marketing experts refer to as the Sales Funnel or the Customer Journey. These titles refer to the path that individuals take from being completely unaware of the brand to placing an order – and in some cases, returning to place additional orders again and again.

The first step in the Sales Funnel is creating brand awareness. Here, consumers who had no idea your company exists begin to develop an understanding of who you are and what you do. They discover that there is a solution out there for the problems they are facing. Some say this piece is the biggest hurdle for any marketing campaign because it takes research and planning to get your message in front of the right people.

Next, consumers go through the interest phase, as they move from understanding that a solution exists and your company can provide it to actively doing some research. Most choose to learn more online, but depending on the type of product and your distribution channels, some may conduct research in person or over the phone.

The next phase of the Sales Funnel is the pivotal moment of decision. After completing their research, potential customers determine whether or not they will move forward with a purchase. Finally, there is the actual purchase, when prospective customers become buyers.

As consumers go from awareness to purchase, your marketing campaign plays an important role. Your presence and promotion of your solution at each critical touchpoint makes the difference between a sale going to you or your competition. As your prospective customers move through the Sales Funnel, your marketing efforts through social media, email, paid searches, traditional advertising, user-friendly landing pages and follow-up analysis create new clients and keep them coming back.

WordPress Marketing Tools That Work

As you start to plan your marketing campaign, understanding the digital marketing tools available to your business ensures you can take advantage of every possible opportunity. These are a few of the most effective options you can access in WordPress:

• Constant Contact – If you have a Constant Contact account, the Constant Contact Plugin for WordPress simplifies and automates a wide variety of tasks. Connect with current and prospective customers with a robust email list, made possible with a simple Constant Contact checkbox on your site. You can also edit and add to your contact lists without visiting the full Constant Contact site, build forms, gain thorough understanding of your reach through built-in Google Analytics visualization, and permit users to subscribe to specific newsletters and mailing lists.
• OptinMonster – Many users rate OptinMonster as the number one lead generation plugin for WordPress. This tool makes creating forms fast and easy, with amazing results that are sure to impress your target audience.
• Google Tag Manager – Tracking data from all of your advertising sources, such as Facebook and Google, is a complex technological process. Google Tag Manager simplifies this task by making it easy to implement tracking pixels and more on your website without having to hire a developer.
• Google Analytics – If you aren’t already using Google Analytics, you are in the minority. This is one of the most popular data measuring tools available. Get in-depth visibility into how your site’s visitors find you, as well as which parts of your site interest them most. Best of all, there is no charge to use Google Analytics.
• Google Optimize – Gaining insight from Google Analytics won’t help your business if you are unable to take action on your results. Google Optimize is designed to make it easier for you to experiment with changes to your site because it offers detailed insight into the impact of every change you make. You can easily run A/B tests for copy, designs, and other strategic details.
• WP Form Builder Plugin – Once upon a time, you needed at least basic coding skills to create a functional online form for your site. Fortunately, those days are gone thanks to the WP Form Builder Plugin. You don’t need to write any code at all to create the fields you need, require answers for certain questions and send automated confirmation emails.
• Visual Composer Plugin – Building an attractive, user-friendly website can be intimidating. With the Visual Composer Plugin, you can move forward with confidence. This tool offers you drag-and-drop editing capabilities, along with an array of additional features to ensure your site meets your exact specifications.

Installing WordPress Plugins is easy to do, and the impact on your marketing campaign is extraordinary. Go from good to great with the help of these simple and affordable tools.

Using WordPress Plugins to Add Features Without Code

Plugins are essentially software that seamlessly integrates with your WordPress theme to add features. For example, the popular Yoast SEO plugin adds a box to all of your posts and pages that analyzes the SEO (search engine optimization) and readability of your content. And this requires no code on your part.

Choosing a plugin for a specific purpose can sometimes be overwhelming. If you’re new to WordPress, we suggest that you get used to the platform first and see which features add value for you. Then, a simple google search can go a long way.

Many themes come with plugins installed already. To see which plugins you have installed, click Plugins in the left column of your WordPress dashboard.

How to Choose a Quality Plugin

WordPress is an open-source software, which means that anybody can develop and publish plugins. There are two quick checks you can make to ensure you choose a quality plugin that meets your needs. (Also remember, you can always deactivate and uninstall a plugin if it doesn’t work, or you don’t like it).

1. Plugin Rating

When you search for plugins on WordPress.org, the first thing you’ll see is the rating. Look for higher ratings, and a higher number of ratings to ensure the plugin is being used, and people like it.

2. Plugin Info

Next, check the plugin info in the lower box of the display card. You can research the plugin author (in this case, it’s the company that created WordPress, Automattic, so that’s pretty reliable). Also, note the number of installs. If a plugin doesn’t have many ratings yet, this can be a good gauge of quality. And finally, the latest version of WordPress the plugin has been tested with. Here, the plugin was tested with the most recent, WordPress 4.8.

How to Install a WordPress Plugin

Installing a WordPress plugin is the easy part, and it requires no code whatsoever. The best way to do it is right from your WordPress dashboard. Click Plugins and Add New (the button right next to the heading that says Plugins). Once you’ve done that, you can search for plugins (searchbar to the right), and click install.

Next, wait for the plugin to finish installing, then click Activate. Your plugin will now appear in the Plugins menu of your WordPress dashboard, where you can access and configure settings, if neccesary.

The other way to install a WordPress plugin is to download the zip file. You may find this on WordPress.org, or a third party site. Just be careful with third party sites and err on the side of downloading official plugins. Free plugins that aren’t sourced from WordPress could potentially open up weaknesses in your site’s security. If you go this route, navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin as shown in the image above. Then, choose the zip file from your computer, and follow the prompts.

Now that you know how versatile WordPress is, with or without coding knowledge, ready to get started? Read our article about how to build a website from scratch using WordPress.

Chakra is an ultimate premium WordPress theme. It is ultimate especially when it comes to features, design, flexibility, and versatility. It includes slider revolution, mega main menu, visual composer, visual sidebar editor, and so much more. Chakra is also ready for integration with WooCommerce so your theme becomes a full-fledged storefront.

Music Hall is a sophisticated and complete WordPress Theme for musicians and music bands. Simple to use, this theme is built with semantic HTML5/CSS3 and is completely responsive (using mobile first!). Music Hall includes lots of advanced features like discography and songs management, parallax effects, SEO Optimized, Custom Post types, portfolio section. It’s designed to be customizable to exact requirements. It has all the features what you need for a music band theme.

Introduce GeekBlog, a responsive WordPress blog theme with clean and minimal design. It is suitable for many blogs like personal blog, travel, fashion, food & recipes, lifestyle, and many more. Compatible with the latest WordPress version and built-in WordPress theme customizer which let you customize the theme easily. Last but not least, GeekBlog is the theme that you’re looking for.

Make a statement with Elea. This WordPress theme focuses on elegance and readability. It includes a striking full-width slider, promo boxes, custom widgets, and tons of other options. You will get a responsive design and tons of layout options. Elea is also WooCommerce ready so you can start your own e-shop today!

Sideways is a WordPress theme with new perspective. It features a unique, split layout. You can feature your images on the left half of the screen while your content lives on the right. It also includes responsive framework, WooCommerce compatibility, customer page templates, and more. It is also ready to be translated into any language using the WordPress Multilingual plugin.

Stardental is one of the best dentistry WordPress themes out there. It is the perfect option for any kind of dentistry, dental clinic, and dentist office. With a beautiful color scheme and a clear theme structure, you will not only impress your visitors but also attract new clients. It includes a responsive design, translation ready, and ready to connect to your social profiles and analytics account.

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ELEKTRA is an awesome WordPress theme for artists, bands, musicians, or anyone working in the music industry. Seriously, this theme is tight. It is clean, responsive, and comes with tons of perks like an Instagram feed widget, responsive lightbox, and custom post formats for audio and visual. Whether you are a DJ or a budding solo artist, ELEKTRA is your theme.

Blogera is a great blogging theme suited for all niches with clean and minimal design. With multiple different post formats, sliders, and styles, you can truly make this blog your own. This theme is beautiful and allows you to showcase your aspirations and passions in style. If you have ever wanted to start a blog but keep putting it off, now is the time. With Blogera you can have your blog up in just a couple of minutes.

BRAND is a clean yet professional WooCommerce theme that you can use to attract more customers to your business online. This theme is designed for fashion eCommerce websites with the goal of leading customers to the most important part of your site, your stunning products. This theme not only comes with WooCommerce integration and unlimited categories, but it truly allows you to show off your products in style.

Creamer is a clean, minimal, and fully responsive WordPress theme for bloggers. It is easy to customize and easy to use. It includes a beautiful featured slider, unlimited color options, multiple blog layouts, and post formats.

Healey is a stunning, fully responsive, WordPress blogging theme designed specifically to showcase your love of food and your best recipes. With its Super Simple Recipes plugin included, you can easily create beautiful and engaging recipe cards to add to your posts or pages, perfect for sharing your recipes with your readers. Highlight your favourite foodie posts and other content with the featured content slider and the featured content boxes.

Have you ever had problems with finding a phone number, email or doctors opening times? MedicPress is WordPress theme which solves all these problems and it also looks great. An eye-catching theme will minimize your clients’ bounce rate and increase conversion rates with the highly customizable Page Builder and convenient widgets like Doctor Profiles, Pricing Packages, Opening Times and more.