Small Business – MOJO Marketplace Blog https://blog.mojomarketplace.com DIY Website Guides and Tips Fri, 04 Oct 2019 01:02:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cropped-blog_profile_480-1-32x32.png Small Business – MOJO Marketplace Blog https://blog.mojomarketplace.com 32 32 CryptoCurrency: A New WordPress Theme from VisualModo https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/cryptocurrency-a-new-wordpress-theme-from-visualmodo/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/cryptocurrency-a-new-wordpress-theme-from-visualmodo/#comments Thu, 17 May 2018 19:58:22 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=6460

Looking to build a site without coding? Check out Visualmodo’s New WordPress Theme CryptoCurrency 

Cryptocurrency WordPress theme is not just a template, it’s a collection of amazing examples with tons of features. With this theme you can have a fully equipped website up and running within a few minutes.

1-Click Demo Content Import Included!!!

This is one of the most useful features that a WordPress theme can have. You will love to start the website development process at the same starting point as the wonderful theme demo pages, so you can quickly design the website of your dreams. You can fully use our carefully created demo content to start with a ready-to-go site with 1-click only!

This WordPress theme is in tune with all devices, browsers, and platforms. It is also retina ready and comes with Visual Composer. All customization options are available in the Front-End editor and no coding skill required to edit the existing content, improve it, remove it or add your customized blocks to a page.

Looking for a responsive ICO landing page or Cryptocurrency website for your Crypto project? Meet Cryptocurrency – the best premium ICO landing page and Cryptocurrency WordPress theme, that perfectly fits for any type of digital consulting services, finances or Crypto business.

Do you offer professional cryptocurrency or investment consulting services? Are you an ICO Advisor? If you are an expert focused on the cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin trading and Investments, Cryptocurrency WordPress theme will help you drive your services.

Cryptocurrency theme enjoys benefits from a clean yet functional design based on in-depth industry research – With Cryptocurrency theme you’ll get a robust WordPress solution for an ICO landing page, and a professional website for ICO Advisor or Cryptocurrency Investments consulting firm.

Blockchain technology consulting and ICO development agencies also can utilize the benefits and special features of the Cryptocurrency WordPress theme. This WordPress theme is in tune with all devices, browsers, and platforms. It is also retina ready and comes with Visual Composer. All customization options are available in the Front-End editor and no coding skill required to edit the existing content, improve it, remove it or add your customized blocks to a page.

Download at http://www.mojomarketplace.com/item/cryptocurrency-responsive-wordpress-theme

]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/cryptocurrency-a-new-wordpress-theme-from-visualmodo/feed/ 1 How to Build a Website for Your Business in a Day https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/build-business-website-in-a-day/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/build-business-website-in-a-day/#comments Wed, 17 Jan 2018 16:00:00 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=5160

Creating a website for your business, or building a business online, opens up amazing potential to reach new customers and provide a better experience. As soon as you’re online, you can start taking advantage of advertising technology and the convenience of the web. In this post, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to create an online business and website yourself.

Step 1. Create a Brand Strategy

Before you set out creating a website for your business, you should have a clear outline of your brand. All the aspects of the design, copy, and which features are included will be drawn from your brand strategy. The idea is to create something that fulfills your customers’ expectations and accomplishes your business goals.

Combining those two ideas can be very tricky, and that’s why having a solid strategy in place is important.

Plan Your Marketing Strategy

Read our guide to creating an ecommerce marketing strategy in a day.

 

Plan Your Strategy

As we cover in the guide above, finding the sweet spot where your audience’s needs intersect with your goals is about learning from interactions with customers. Creating a website gives you incredible access to data about what prompts your customers to buy, and how to optimize both your product and the experience you offer.

If you can, talk to your current customers about what works for them, what doesn’t, and what they would expect from your website. If you can’t access your customers, or you’re just starting your business, then you’ll need to start with a brand identity that you think will work best, based on your current knowledge and assumptions, and then refine as you learn more.

Free Tools

There are many free tools that enable you to measure interactions and refine your website copy, design, features and even the products or services you sell with data. Here are a few big ones to keep at the ready for when your website is ready to launch.

Step 2. Create a Site Map and Gather Content Assets

This step ensures that you don’t have to rebuild your website because you missed something important. Based on your research and planning from step 1, think about the features, pages, and information you need for your business website to be operational. For the initial launch, you should focus on the MVP, or minimum viable product.

Author/Copyright holder: Henrik Kniberg. Copyright terms and licence: All rights reserved

The idea of an MVP is to have a product that works and can accomplish business goals while meeting customer expectations. But an MVP doesn’t have to be the complete vision for your product—nor should it be. By starting small, you can discover what your customers really need, and how that plays in with your business strategy. This enables you to refine your products and website experience more and more with each new release or improvement to your products and services.

So think hard about what you need to be operational, and put the big goals on the map for the future. Then, you can create a viable map for your site that includes:

  • Each critical piece of information your customers need to know—what is your product, how much does it cost, how does it work, are there refunds, warranty, etc. Think about it as if you’re explaining it to someone who’s never heard of your product or service.
  • Find the breakdown of pages for all this info, organized so that customers can find it easily and intuitively. For example, don’t include product features without the price points.
  • Now, map the flow for every interaction you need for the MVP. For instance, the home page > the product categories > sub categories > product details and pricing > checkout > follow up (emails and content).

It can help to list out each piece of information critical to your sales cycle and then draw out a map, whether pen and paper or a post-it wall, of how all those pieces fit together. This will be an uphill battle, but when you get to the actual site building step, it will make it way easier to manage all your detailed information and processes.

Free Tools:

Mapping out your site can be a difficult process, especially if there are multiple teams or stakeholders involved in the process. Luckily, there are some really great free tools for keeping track of all of it.

I’d recommend Trello, which is technically a project management software, for listing out each piece of info, content, or feature you need for your MVP. Then, your whole team can keep track of progress, logins for tools, and details, while still having a bird’s-eye view of what needs to be done.

When you’re ready to create the visual map, GlooMaps is a free, web-based application that makes mapping it all out easier. And unlike post-it note maps, you can share this with your team, and access it from anywhere.

Step 3. Build Your Website

If you’ve created a basic strategy and mapped out your site, you’re ready to build it. And the first step to creating a website is finding a place to put it. Literally.

Website Hosting and Domain Name

Even though we all visit websites every day, a lot of us don’t know how that visit actually happens. Websites are basically files stored on servers connected to the internet, which your computer accesses and loads remotely. Website hosting companies provide the infrastructure for storing your website for others to access, and often provide domain names, which are like registered addresses for your websites, also known as URLs.

Learn how to get website hosting and a domain name.

 

Read Our Hosting Guide

Install WordPress

WordPress is our favorite platform for building a business because it offers the most flexibility and open-source/free tools. It’s great for startups looking to DIY without incurring the potentially huge development and design costs. It’s easy to integrate amazing marketing tools like OptinMonster, Google Analytics, and Constant Contact, and much more.

But first, you’ll need to install WordPress through your hosting provider. After you set up a hosting account, you’ll have access to the control panel, or cPanel, where most providers feature a one-click WordPress installation. Make sure your provider offers a WordPress installation feature—that’s a bare minimum these days.

Once you’ve installed WordPress on your website, you should receive an email with your login credentials. These will get you into your WordPress admin dashboard, which is where you configure all the settings for your website. You can access this login page any time by typing in your website URL with /wp-admin added to the end, for example: yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

Choose a WordPress Theme for Your Business

WordPress themes are essentially templates for your business website that you can customize with your feature sets and branding. Premium WordPress themes, which are what we sell on MOJO Marketplace, feature the latest and greatest in design, code, and customization features. Although you can find free WordPress themes, you will quickly run into limitations that require coding or editing of the theme files, especially with more unique business models and features.

We recommend finding a WordPress theme with an importable demo design that fits your business model. For example, The Core WordPress theme features 23 demo designs for a variety of businesses, which you can customize to your liking without writing any code.

With a theme like The Core, you can find designs for yoga studios, restaurants, mobile apps, creative agencies—you name it—that follow industry best-practices in design and are fully responsive. Also, these demos include content mockups that make it easier for you to base your site map on, using tried and true practices.

Check out more business and multipurpose themes on MOJO Marketplace.

Install Your WordPress Theme

Once you’ve chosen your WordPress theme, it’s time to install it through WordPress. Remember that installing a theme doesn’t mean it’s active, so you can install as many themes as you like and preview them with an existing site’s content. When you’re ready to push it live, you can click Activate on the theme you like by selecting Appearance > Themes > Activate (on the chosen theme).

Read our guide to install your WordPress theme.

Import Your Theme Demo and Customize

Now, if you found a great demo design with your WordPress theme that fits your business model, that’s where you should start. You can easily import those designs and customize the content in a matter of hours, getting your site off the ground super fast.

Follow these guides to import your demo and start customizing:

  1. Guide to Import a WordPress Theme Demo
  2. Guide to WordPress Pages, Posts and Menus

Kick Off Your Digital Marketing Strategy

If you’ve completed your website, you’re already on the market. With SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, your site will soon be indexed by Google and the more you refine your keywords and write quality content, the more you’ll appear in search results.

But your website is just the first step to making money online. It’s time to start integrating marketing, online scheduling software, and advertising tools and tracking your progress, and even optimizing your site for better user experience and a higher conversion rate. We’ve assembled a list of guides to get you started:

Learn WordPress and troubleshoot with real live experts via WP Live.

 

Learn WordPress Today

]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/build-business-website-in-a-day/feed/ 4 4 Reasons You Need a CRM with Built-In Project Management https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/4-reasons-need-crm-built-project-management/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/4-reasons-need-crm-built-project-management/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:33:01 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=915 Sponsored by Small Business Partner: Insightly

When you think about the number of tools you have at your disposal to help you run your business smartly, you might be happy to have so many options. But at the same time, it can be overwhelming to have so many different tools that you have to log into and manage. It’s easy to let things fall between the cracks.

That’s why tools that offer multiple functionality or integrate with other tools are so hot right now. Think about the social media dashboard that lets you manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram rather than you having to log into each separate site. That’s power that saves you major time.

The same goes for customer relationship management software (CRM). CRM that offers multiple functionalities keeps you from having half a dozen tools to get the same effect.

Take project management. It’s something every company needs in order to stay on top of project tasks and deadlines. And yet, if your project is tied directly to a customer, does it really make sense to have a separate project management platform from your CRM?

More and more, we’re seeing CRM platforms with baked-in project management features. The benefit to these platforms is that there’s no gap between the client data and the project management tasks. All the files, assignments, milestones, and due dates are in one place.

1. Projects are Easier to Manage

Let’s say you have a writing project for a client assigned to your best writer. Under this client’s profile, you assign the project to the writer and create a due date. She can sync that task to her Google calendar so she doesn’t even need to log into the CRM to view it.

But if she does log in, she can access your notes from your phone call with the client, view documents of past writing projects to get a sense of writing style, and then upload the documents when she’s completed the work. Everything related to this project and client are in one place. One login. It doesn’t get simpler than that.

2. Teams Have Better Communication

Teams that collaborate can easily see where each team member is on a project, what needs to be done in order to complete it, and any files that relate to the project. You don’t waste time hunting for a document on your computer or Google Drive, only to realize someone else has it or has modified it since you last viewed it.

3. Reports are Easy to Run

If you need to find out the status of a given project, you can easily run project reports from within the CRM that provide data on what’s been completed and what’s still pending so you can address any project bottlenecks that could potentially hold a project up.

4. Nothing Slips Through the Cracks

Not only can you view your assigned tasks on the CRM’s calendar, but you can sync it with your Google or Outlook Calendar so you don’t miss anything. Then, you’ll get email reminders as a backup.

Using CRM with built-in project management capabilities just makes sense. Being able to get a 360 view on both a client and the work you do for him from a single place cuts down drastically on the time you’d otherwise spend on several tools and websites.

In need of a CRM platform with integrated Project Management? Sign up for Insightly today for free.
insightlylogo

Sign Up
]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/4-reasons-need-crm-built-project-management/feed/ 0 Project Showcase: Flick Picks with Phil and Tom https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/flick-picks/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/flick-picks/#respond Fri, 23 Sep 2016 02:55:13 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=905 In this series we’ll be sitting down with small business owners who used MOJO Marketplace tools and services to establish their online presence.

This month we chat with Phil and Tom from Flick Picks, a film industry podcast. Both Phil and Tom aspire to film and television careers and dial up insightful and entertaining commentary on the latest Hollywood news.

They build their site in January of 2016 and have been focussed on building their podcast following ever since.

Tell us about your business
“Hi! We are Phil and Tom. We host and produce a weekly movie podcast that discusses the latest news, trailers, rumors & reviews. It’s called Flick Picks with Phil and Tom.

Our company is pretty small. It consists of just Phil and Tom. We do everything in house. From recording, editing, mixing and publishing a weekly film podcast to updating our website and social media with fresh and relevant content.”

Why did you need a website?
“The entertainment industry is fast paced and ever changing. To keep our fans and ourselves up to date with the latest news and reviews we needed a home base. Our website is the perfect medium to achieve this and has been a tremendous help with getting ourselves exposure.”
Which MOJO products did you use to create your site?
“We used the WordPress All in One service to jump start our website build. It came with a demo set up service to help with initial configuration. We also purchased the WordPress SEO and Sitemap service to start building search engine rankings.  ”

Want your own? See here: WordPress All in One
Why did you choose WordPress?
“We chose WordPress because we wanted something that would look great, but also be user friendly to set up. Neither of us has any experience in coding or web design, but we still wanted something that we could maintain, and still look professional. WordPress has been an incredible help in giving us the tools we need to make our content and website stand out among the rest. ”

Tell us about your experience with MOJO
Difficulties:
“In the beginning there was a learning curve with WordPress. It took some getting used to. But after coaching and watching a few tutorial videos, we were able to really take advantage of it.”

Easy Parts:
“Now it’s pretty much all a breeze. Uploading, scheduling and everything else that you can think of is just simple now, which is just what we need, as a majority of our time has to go into the recording and editing of the podcast itself, which our core business.”

How’s your site doing?
“It’s going great! Traffic is increasing and it feels like everyday we are learning new things and implementing them to the site. Still trying to come up with a funny 404 page...”

Any advice for Small Business Owners seeking to build their own WordPress Site?
“Don’t be scared, grasshopper. It may seem like a huge mountain to climb, but trust us it’s extremely doable. There are people that can help if you ever need it, but WP is embraced for its user-friendliness. And that was and still is the biggest selling point in our minds.“

Want to expedite your website build? Check out MOJO Professional Services and let us set up your site for you!

Get online
]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/flick-picks/feed/ 0 Poll: What are you building? https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/what-are-you-building/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/what-are-you-building/#respond Tue, 23 Aug 2016 22:56:19 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=868 MOJO Marketplace performs over 30k free WordPress installs per week, which begs the question, what exactly are our users up to? Updating your business identity? Creating an online resume? Perhaps a website for Aunt Linda’s cat blog?

Whatever it is you’re working on, we applaud you for taking the initiative to start something. And since we want to provide you with the tools and support to bring your vision to life, let us know what you’re up to!

[poll id=”4″]

 

]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/what-are-you-building/feed/ 0 Project Showcase: This Organic Girl https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/this-organic-girl/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/this-organic-girl/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2016 03:40:22 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=853 In this series we’ll be sitting down with small business owners who used MOJO Marketplace tools and services to establish their online presence.

This month we’re sitting down with Lisa from This Organic Girl, a New England based green living and healthy lifestyle blogger.

She built her site in December of 2015.

Tell us about your business
“I started blogging this past January 2016. It kind of came about by accident. I started sharing healthy living tips on Instagram last summer and I met this blogger online who encouraged me to start my own blog – so I did! My blog is called This Organic Girl and I talk all things green beauty, clean eating and nontoxic lifestyle.”

Why did you need a website?
“I love doing product reviews, sharing green living tips and posting recipes or ideas for whole foods kids lunches. I have an entire inspiration gallery dedicated to just school lunches – I love how it came out. I also have a page of “What I Am Using Now” which lists all of the current organic and/or nontoxic products I am loving from makeup to deodorant to cleaning products. 

I do all my own artwork, pictures, networking and I am currently the only one writing for This Organic Girl. “
Which MOJO products did you use to create your site?
“I am using the Semplice template by Sculpture Qode. I love Sculpture Quode so much I actually bought another theme from them as well for a website I am starting with my friend. They have great customer service and have answered AND RESOLVED all of my website building issues. 

I also used MOJO’s All in One service to set up WordPress and install Simplice”

Want your own? See here: WordPress All in One
Why did you choose WordPress?
“I had no idea what host to choose but after Googling reviews I decided to go with WordPress and Bluehost. When I was shopping for themes on my dashboard I saw an option for more themes under MOJO Marketplace which is where I found Simplice. I absolutely love this theme. It is beautiful and simple. ”

Tell us about your experience with MOJO
Difficulties:
“It was definitely hard to set up a website especially with NO prior knowledge. MOJO set me off on the right track and offerd a great jump start for someone like me with no experience. I paid several hundred dollars for the extra help but again it saved me hours and days on the other side. Also I recommend any Themes by Sculpture Quode – they really picked up where MOJO left off and I have them to thank for how my website looks today!”

Easy Parts:
“I had no idea how to build a website and MOJO offers an option to buy the themes in their marketplace fully built. They also offer a 1.5 hour one-on-one “how to” session to help get you started.  I chose to buy both of these and I know it saved me a ton of time.”

How’s your site doing?
“My website is doing well. It is 7 months old now and I have already had a few paid commissions plus I get a ton of positive feedback and I have a very deep reference list for companies I have written for or reviewed. I have just over 2,000 unique viewers per month which continues to rise daily. Next up I need a serious tutorial in SEO…and Lightroom.”

Any advice for Small Business Owners seeking to build their own WordPress Site?
“Setting up your own website is no joke. I seriously would consider outsourcing next time. BUT if you do decide to go the DIY route, you learn along the way and are better able to manage content and design when you have seen all the ins and outs of how things work.“

Want to outsource your website build? Check out MOJO Professional Services and let us set up your site for you!

Get online
]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/this-organic-girl/feed/ 1 Poll: Theme Attributes https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/poll-theme-attributes/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/poll-theme-attributes/#respond Sat, 30 Jul 2016 01:19:10 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=738 MOJO Marketplace has helped tens of thousands of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners harness the power of the world wide web. By using a good theme as a starting point, we believe we make website development accessible for many of our customers operating on a lean start up or small biz budget.

So we’d like to know, if you’ve decided to use a theme instead of hiring a full fledged website development shop or your techy Nephew, which theme attributes are most important to you?

[poll id=”3″]

 

]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/poll-theme-attributes/feed/ 0 8 reasons more companies are moving their business phones to the cloud https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/vonage-8-reasons/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/vonage-8-reasons/#respond Thu, 21 Jul 2016 09:40:45 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=664 Sponsored by Small Business Partner: Vonage

Why companies are moving to the cloud

The sport of business is a competitive one and, increasingly, companies are using cloud-hosted business tools as an advantage to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. The rapid movement to cloud-hosted phone systems is a case in point, as IT teams endure the limitations, frustrations and cost of managing their traditional or custom-built systems.

Check out these 8 reasons your company could benefit from the cloud:

1. More Workforce Productivity
Switching to a cloud-based phone solution can certainly make it easier for employees to communicate and stay productive. Employees have access to the the system even if they’re working remotely or on the go on their mobile phone, tablet or other device. They can even take their IP desk phones home, plug into internet and enjoy the same business phone features they have back at the office.

Cloud phone systems also extend business-grade hosted VoIP services to cloud-based business applications such as email and customer relationship management (CRM) to connect phones, people and devices like never before. From video calling and conferencing to instant messaging and more, increased collaboration makes work more productive.

2. Savings and More Efficient Spending
The prospect of saving money with cloud-based technology, versus traditional phone technology, is significant. Consider that cloud systems don’t require expensive on-premise voice and data hardware. Plus, cloud systems are managed virtually, so phone vendor maintenance visits are no longer required, adding extensions is easy, and expanding to an additional location requires no “buildout” at the new site.

For many organizations, the move to a cloud-hosted system represents an efficient shift from capital expenditures to operational expenditures, as well as the potential to reduce total cost of ownership. In addition, working with a more capable cloud-solution provider, businesses can consolidate their vendor services – such as their ISP, local and long distance carrier, conference call provider, IT consultant, PBX maintenance, etc. – under a single provider. This can be a big relief, especially if you’ve ever experienced an issue where multiple vendors point at each other for answers.

3. Business-enabling Voice and Collaboration Features
We’ve all become accustomed to instant access to information and the latest technology, and cloud phone systems provide just that for your employees and future employees. With a cloud phone system, the latest features – and updates to existing features – can be delivered seamlessly onto the system for the entire customer base, eliminating the hassle of a technician visit for upgrades.

Employees have access to premier calling features, mobile solutions that integrate with the full phone system, collaboration features such as video conferencing, and integration of devices and data – all through a single provider. Also, numerous applications are available that seamlessly integrate the phone system with popular business applications from Google®, Salesforce®, Microsoft® and others.

With a true unified communications platform, businesses are in a position improve productivity across the organization. They can also leverage their innovative business tools – and mobility features that allow employees to work remotely – to attract top talent.

4. Integrated Mobility That Keeps Business Moving
With more mobile employees distributed across multiple locations, it’s no wonder businesses demand better mobility solutions. Mobility is an area where cloud-based and traditional phone solutions differ greatly. With a cloud solution, employees’ mobile devices become just another end point within the phone system. This is referred to as “integrated mobility,” where calls generated on the mobile platform are recognized on the recipient’s caller ID as a call from the business. And users have the same phone system functionality that they have back at the office.

Traditional providers, on the other hand, can offer separate business mobile lines (“separate mobile”) but they’re not tied into the company’s business phone system. So, your employees would maintain a separate office line and mobile line, without integration with the company’s phone system. There are also costs involved with adding additional business lines to accommodate traditional mobile needs.

With the integrated mobility of cloud-hosted systems, employees can leverage their mobile devices to create a true unified communications network. For the company, integrated mobility makes it easier to establish a smart BYOD (bring your own device) policy – with voice, IM and collaboration capabilities accessible where employees go.

5. The Option to Connect Your Legacy System to the Cloud
For some companies, it makes most sense to connect their legacy phone system to the cloud. And the right provider can offer both a flexible and feature-rich path to the cloud through Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking.

SIP Trunking leverages the power and scalability of the internet to transmit voice, video, data, text and other unified communications. It’s often a popular – and cost effective – option for businesses since it allows them to get more mileage from their existing system. Plus, Private SIP interoperability allows them to connect with existing phone hardware.

6. Easy Scaling as Business Grows
Unlike traditional systems, cloud-based phone solutions enable businesses to scale quickly without the need to configure complicated hardware and tap into costly IT resources. With the phone system hosted in the cloud, extensions and features can be added virtually and quickly.

Also, unlike a traditional private branch exchange (PBX), a hosted PBX does not require customers to take on extra equipment to get the advanced features necessary for communicating at today’s speed of business. Whether the business utilizes a fully hosted solution from the start or connects its legacy system to the cloud via SIP Trunking – customers can scale easily and cost-effectively on demand.

7. Business Continuity, Even Through a Disaster
Traditional phones systems are hosted on premise at the business location, while cloud-hosted systems operate in data centers with redundant power and cooling. As a result, cloud systems can remain in operation – with employee access on any device – even during emergencies or when the business location is out of commission. Events like the loss of internet or power are also manageable, since customers can preset the system to automatically redirect calls to mobile numbers or other locations.

Traditional, on-premise systems meet emergencies at the business location quite differently. Events such as a downed or cut phone line, for example, can halt service for an unknown period of time. And, most traditional systems offer no form of remote access. If the office location is out of commission, so is the business phone system.

The name of the game is reliable service and business continuity, and cloud-hosted phone systems support these priorities very well.

8. A Better Customer Experience
It takes a lot more than a great phone system to cultivate happy customers. But adopting a reliable cloud-hosted phone system with clear HD voice, efficient routing, and service-oriented voice and collaboration features is a good start.

In addition, some cloud systems offer integrations with leading customer relationship management (CRM) applications, allowing more visibility to the customer on the call – right on the computer screen. For example, let’s say that some of your employees use the Salesforce integration and receive a call from a customer. With this integration, the customer’s account information instantly pops on the screen enabling your employee to reference key information in real time to serve the caller better.

Also, the information that is collected, entered and analyzed can help improve customer communications today and well into the future – particularly in a cloud-based call center environment.

Indeed, cloud phone systems offer outstanding call-center functionality designed to enhance agent productivity and ease operations supervision. Such solutions offer easily customized call pathways, fluid messaging opportunities, and seamless ability to scale up or down as business dictates.

Looking to Make a Switch?
Vonage Business Can Help.

Our hosted platform empowers businesses with a full suite of feature-rich communication solutions. Every business is different, and our teams work with you to deploy a solution that serves your organizational priorities and integrates as desired with existing technology. A partnership with Vonage Business comes with ongoing support, technology on demand and the reliability of the Vonage Cloud.

Want to futureproof your start up? MOJO Marketplace users receive EXCLUSIVE offers upon sign up.

Learn More
]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/vonage-8-reasons/feed/ 0 Project Showcase: Versatile Mechanical https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/project-showcase-versatile-mechanical/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/project-showcase-versatile-mechanical/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2016 20:32:32 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=433 In this series we’ll be sitting down with small business owners who used MOJO Marketplace tools and services to establish their online presence.

This month we’re sitting down with Danielle from Versatile Mechanical, a woman-owned mechanical contracting business in Port Chester, New York.

She built her site in June of 2015.

Tell us about your business
“We furnish and install equipment and materials for ground-up and gut renovations for commercial buildings in NYC. We have 15 employees and we’ve been in business 12 years.”
Why did you want a website?
“So we can showcase the projects we’re actively working on by having a portfolio page where existing and potential new clients can view our work, both past and present.”
Which MOJO products did you use to create your site?
“MinimalX theme, the “Amazing Page Builder” interface is easy to understand and versatile to shape how we want to display a certain aspect of our company.

We also used MOJO’s All in One service to jump start the project.”

Want your own? See here: WordPress All in One
Why did you choose WordPress?
“Ease of the interface, MOJO’s knowledgeable support staff”
Tell us about your experience with MOJO
Difficulties:
“Biggest was getting acquainted with the user interface but once I did a lot of trials and errors, I was able to see what would best fit what we wanted to do.”

Easy Parts:
“Once I got the hang of it, I was able to fine tune things that the owner wanted to change easily and that was a big plus.”

How’s your site doing?
“I don’t know, we had no way to track it. I spoke to Kenyon and he informed me about Google Analytics, and I will be tracking the site now via that Plug-in. The portfolio section has been useful for prospective clients, and it adds legitimacy to our company when working on large dollar amount contracts.”

Pro tip
Need help tracking your website’s performance? Google Analytics is a free service that can tell you all about your website visitors, where they came from, and even things like which keywords they used to find you. MOJO can help you with setup and configuration

Check it Out
Any advice for Small Business Owners seeking to build their own WordPress Site?
“Be patient, it pays off.”

Danielle from Versatile Mechanical used MOJO’s WordPress All in One service to get her business online. Click here to get your site set up in as little as 3 business days.

Get online
]]> https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/project-showcase-versatile-mechanical/feed/ 1 Bing Ads vs. Google AdWords: Why both search advertising platforms are important for your bottom line https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/bing-ads-vs-google-ads/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/bing-ads-vs-google-ads/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2016 20:13:07 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=515 Sponsored by Small Business Partner: Bing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to drive potential customers to your website and entice them to buy your products or services. Also known as pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, SEM advertisers pay for ads on platforms like Bing Ads. When a searcher enters their query into a search engine like Bing, search ads relevant to the query will display.

Most often, business owners will rely on just one PPC platform to reach their search advertising goals. Yet, many businesses miss out on reaching additional valuable searchers by not using both Bing Ads and Google AdWords.

Here are four reasons your SEM strategy should include both Bing Ads and Google AdWords.

1. Bing Ads reach searchers who spend more
If you think there’s no difference between searchers on Bing versus Google, think again. In the U.S., searchers on the Bing Network spend 24% more than the average Internet searcher.1 Worldwide, searchers on the Bing Network spend 145% more online than the average Internet searcher and 44% more than Google searchers.2 You may be ignoring valuable potential customers with more buying power if you’re not advertising on the Bing Network.
2. Differences between Bing Ads and Google AdWords
Both Bing and Google have a large number of searchers and potential customers who can only be found on their search engine exclusively.

According to internal Microsoft data, 32% of searches on the Bing Network in the U.S. are unique.3 Unique is short for unique query. A unique query is a search term that is only found on one particular search engine. A search term is a word or phrase potential customers type into a search engine when searching for something. These searches result in nearly 25% of the ad clicks delivered on the Bing Network.4 This shows two things: these searches are only found on the Bing Network, and the searchers conducting them have a high intent to buy.

As an advertiser, you can tailor your SEM campaigns to take advantage of these unique qualities. Importing a PPC campaign from one SEM platform into another is quick and easy, but remember to both customize and optimize your campaign to the new platform. One-size-fits-all campaigns are a bust for your business. You’d be missing out on targeting the unique customer qualities and traits that are found only on Bing and Google.

3. Why marketing on both Bing Ads and Google AdWords is important
To maximize your search advertising efforts, consider advertising on both platforms. If you’re currently using only Google AdWords, you may not need additional SEM budget. Allocating just 30% of your overall search budget to Bing Ads may give your business revenue and customer count a boost.

If SEM isn’t a part of your advertising mix, now is the time to get started. SEM platforms like Bing Ads can help you reach customers worldwide and locally. If you’re currently using traditional advertising avenues, consider shifting a portion of your budget to SEM. A little investment could bring big returns for your business.


Ready to reach your best customers through Bing Ads?
Put your new SEM knowledge to work with $100 in free* ads from Mojo Marketplace and Bing Ads.

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Footnotes
1. comScore Explicit Core Search (custom), January 2016. The Bing Network includes Microsoft Core Search sites, Yahoo (Bing Powered) sites and AOL Core Search sites in the United States.
2. comScore qSearch (custom), June 2015.
3. comScore qSearch, Explicit Core Search (custom), January 2016. The Bing Network includes Microsoft sites, Yahoo sites (searches powered by Bing), and AOL sites in the United States.
4. U.S. click data from Microsoft Internal Data, December 2015.

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