by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jun 10, 2019 | Internet Marketing
Top 7 SEO Tools For Spying On Your Competitors
SEO Tools. Running a Business can be tough, especially when you have those sneaky competitors that are always stealing customers from you. Luckily enough there are tools out there that enable you to see what your competitors are doing online so you could outperform them.
Today I will be sharing with you my top 7 competitor analysis tools that will help you spy on your competition. Some you may have heard about them and some you may haven’t considered them as spying tools.
1.Similar Web
If you put in a URL, even if its a competitor URL. It will show you how much traffic they are getting. You can use Similar Web to compare if your competitor is getting more traffic than you and where most of their traffic comes from. could it be referrals, social share, organic reach, etc? Knowing how much traffic your competitors are getting and where it’s coming from, will help you to better identify where they are most likely getting their customers from. You can use this data to come up with a better strategy to find more customers for your business.
Built with shows you all the technology that your competitors are using. I know you may be wondering why the heck should you care what technologies your competitors are using. Here is why, if they are using tools like optimizely that means they are running AB Tests, if they are running AB tests and it helps them convert better, you too should consider running AB tests. If running AB tests is a strategy that they are using to generate sales, then you also should be doing it and optimize for better conversions than them.
Built with enables you to see a different variation of your competitor pages, this will give you a clear idea of whats converting better and whats not. This will give you a clear insight on what copy you should be using and what you shouldn’t be doing. Knowing what copy is selling for your competitor’s customers and what copy is not generating more sales for them will enable you to better understand which type of content your audience likes to consume and what they are not interested in, having this type of data will enable you to keep your content more relevant to your target audience.
Uber Suggest shows you their search traffic, how much organic traffic and how much paid traffic they are getting per region. It will also show you their most popular pages, the keywords these pages are ranking for, how many backlinks these pages have and their social share. The reason you want to do this is when you are creating content for your website you will want to create content that’s popular and not create content that no one wants to read. What could be better than knowing where your competitors are getting more customers from? Knowing where they are getting traffics and what type of content your audience love will enable you to come up with a better marketing strategy than them.
5. Buzzsumo
Focuses more on blog content. If you put your competitor URL. Buzzsumo will show you all their popular blog content by backlinks and social share. This will give you ideas on which blog content you should be creating vs which content you should stop creating. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with content for your own blog. But knowing the type of content your competitor is creating to increase engagement helps you better understand the type of content. You would have to create to keep them engaged and have a clear understanding of topics that are trending in your field. How likely would people share your content? So, If you get enough social shares, more people will start to be aware of your brand and what you do.
Your Competitors have Social Media profiles, whether its Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. Likewise, social Blade will show you how popular their social profiles are. It will show you how many followers they are getting on a daily basis compared to how much content they are creating. if they are sharing 5 content per day and gain 1000 new followers per day. Sometimes your competitor may not be posting and get about 100 new followers. Sometimes they might share one content and get about 3000 new followers. Social Blade enables you to see which content they shared that increased their brand awareness and when was in creating. This enables you to better understand the content that may increase your social media presence.
Your Competitors are not just running Google Ads or Facebook Ads, So many people today are running banner ads. What runs where will show you what copy and which images they are using that are converting more for them. Using What runs where will enable you to see which platforms to focus on if you will be looking to increase your sales. What copy and which images are more likely to drive your target audience into buying decisions.
Using all these 7 tools will enable you to spy on your competitor’s marketing strategies. So, you can have ideas on how you can do better and crush them. Nothing is more powerful than knowing what your rival is doing. It will give you a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. So, you could come up with a better strategy to perform more better than they are.
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Feb 10, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
How To Decide Which Social Media Platforms To Use For Your Business
Social Media Platforms. Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram have become prominent social networking tools for millions of online marketing hopefuls. A vast number of users are using these channels to push out hundreds of thousands of links that promote goods, and services. But the question is, how can you choose the best social media platform for your business? There are many channels to choose from but it largely depends on the nature of your business, your ultimate goals and which platforms your target audience uses. Below are a few tips on how to choose the right social media platform for your business.
Consider your ultimate goals
Maintaining a social media presence takes lots of effort. As such, knowing what you wish to achieve with your social media channel will help you choose the right platform. Of course, the end goal is to engage your customers and increase profitability. While the ultimate goal of every business is to generate revenue, different organizations have different objectives for their social media plan. Knowing what you want to achieve will help you in choosing the best channel for your business needs.
Know who your target audience is
Now that you know what your end goals are, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. When you figure out who your target audience is, it is easier to find out where they mostly hang out and what they care about. People between the ages of 18-34 hang out on new social sites like Snapchat, while more mature people can be found on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. If you’re not sure, look at where your competitors invest their time and where they get the most engagement.
Find out what your audience wants
Figure out what gets your audience most excited on social media. Once you have determined what your audience wants, invest more time on the platforms they use most so that you can connect with them on their home ground. If you are unsure, see what other similar businesses are doing and what response they get from their audience. If videos seem to be doing well, then you can be certain that platforms such as YouTube and Facebook will be great for your brand.
Determine what you have time for
As stated earlier, maintaining a social media channel takes lots of effort. Therefore, choose one that you will be able to do easily and consistently. Some platforms are time-consuming to maintain while others would take less of your time to maintain. If you only have an extra hour every day for social media, keep your reach limited to one or two social networks that will make an impact. If you are short on time and think you have to be on multiple channels, consider outsourcing your social media management.
There you have it! Our tips on how to choose the best social media channel for your business. Whatever your choice, it’s a good idea to choose a platform that will help you achieve your business goals and reflect your business values.
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jan 19, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
There are tons of Options when it comes to Facebook Advertising. You Can Buy Fans, Drive Traffic to your Website or Landing Page, you can even Boost your own Posts. If you are great in Marketing and Copywriting, sure you can Boost your Posts. For those who are not great at copywriting, don’t Boost your Posts. Here are 3 Reasons why you shouldn’t Boost your Posts.
- You Boost posts you get traffic to your posts and probably engagement, but after you stop paying what happens? You don’t get any traffic to your post and no more post engagement.
- When you send people to your post, it’s unlikely that they will convert into paying customers. Posts are meant to be Funny, humorous, storytelling and educational. They are not build to driving people to a page and converting them into a customer, surely if your posts can do that, then you can boost them. But for most people, they are not going to see any ROI on it.
- When you Boost a Facebook post, It’s costing you money, why not use that money to a paid product or service. This way you will have greater chances of generating revenue.
Boosting a post is not meant for marketing a Business, its meant to engage with your audience. By Boosting Facebook Posts, you are actually paying people to like your post or even comment on it. Facebook has options where you can Advertise and actually be able to sell your product or service.
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jan 12, 2019 | Online Entrepreneurship
Working from your house has numerous advantages, but also comes with its disadvantages. Building a successful online business is a dream come true for many people around the world, though to some, it is not always fun and games. Sources have it that you can survive on online businesses and enjoy the freedom of earning real money from your passions. As earlier mentioned, running an online business is not always a walk in the park, and therefore it is wise not to underestimate the hard work that a successful online business requires.
To understand what it entails to run an online business, let us take a look at the pros and cons of running online businesses.
Pros of Running an Online Business
1) Flexible schedule and rules.
Owning an online job allows you to create your rules and be your boss. With the flexibility that comes with self-employment, one can even create time to see friends and family.
2) Low startup costs.
One key benefit of owning an online business is the low starting cost. Sources have it that you can start a website with less than $100, and as your business grows, you can invest more in it. Online business gives you the liberty of working from your house and requires no leasing costs. You do not have to worry about employee’s salary too!
3) You become the boss.
Running your own online business gives you the mandate of setting the rules and regulations. Nobody tells you what to do, and you get an opportunity of controlling your destiny. You get to make decisions about marketing, product or service development, customer service, and pretty much everything related to your business.
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The Cons of Running an Online Business
1) Long working hours
For any business to succeed, it calls for hard work and long working hours. Starting an online job from scratch takes a good amount of time to be successful and in some cases, people are required to work on weekends to reach their targets.
2) Requires a lot of discipline.
With all the freedom that comes with running your own business, discipline is fundamental. Time one takes for breaks should be limited, and more focus should be made to reach the set target.
Running an online business has its pros and cons. Low startup cost, and setting your rules are some of the advantages of starting an online business. Additionally, for all the people who are not afraid of working for long hours, online business is meant for you.
by Karabo Tlabakoe | Jan 10, 2019 | Small Business tips
A business plan represents the crucial foundation of your company. Regardless of how big or small this company is going to be, you need to put together some sort of plan for your future.
In the end, you want to create a roadmap that will accomplish two things:
- It’s going to be specific enough to help you define what needs to be done over the next year, two years, or even 3-5 years.
- It’s going to be open-ended enough to help you make adjustments no one could have accounted for earlier on.
Establishing a plan which incorporates both of these things is not impossible, or even that difficult. Nonetheless, it is still something that needs to happen, before you can move on to other aspects of establishing and launching your business.
Creating A Viable Business Plan Outline
Understand at this point, you’re simply crafting an outline. It needs to have some measure of detail, but it doesn’t have to account for every single little thing. You want to have something that will make it easy to define the next few steps.
A good business plan outline is going to offer the following:
- Executive summary: This element is going to summarize the plan as a whole.
- Company Description: With this, you’re going to not only focus on what your company is going to do but how your company is different from similar entities.
- Market analysis: Research your industry. This should include your marketing and your competitors.
- Organization/management: This is going to come down to discovering the optimal organization and management structures for your company.
- Service/product line: This is going to describe your product or products. What are the benefits? How about the lifecycle?
- Marketing/sales: Sales strategies and marketing plans are going to be discussed at this point.
- Funding: How much are you going to need? How is the money going to be spent? Transparency is key in this arena.
- Financial projections: If you do need funding, projections are going to be important.
- Appendix: Resumes, permits, and leases are just a few things one would include in an appendix if this needs to be part of your business plan.
Different businesses are going to utilize the above facets differently. Some businesses will be able to disregard some of those facets entirely. This is something you will discover for yourself, over the course of putting together a plan for your business.
