Website structure is critical for a superior user experience and better search rankings.

Few things deter quality visitors from using your site than frustrating navigation. If a potential customer cannot identify critical information quickly, they're going to bounce away to a competitor.

Defining how to structure a website is the first step to marketing success. But, what goes into a quality structure?

If you're struggling to earn new clicks and need some tips to shake things up, you're in the right place. We'll define the different types of structures you can use and explain how to build a solid foundation for SEO best practices.

What is Website Structure?

Website structure is a term that explains how we organize webpages and their content on the domain.

A quality structure sees website owners carefully grouping related content for classification purposes. Users then should be able to navigate to and from content with an intuitive sense of progression.

Before we dive in too deeply, be aware that there are four primary ways of structuring a website.

Hierarchical Structure

We list this first as it is the most common website structure and likely the style you're currently using.

A hierarchical structure follows the pattern of moving from a broad category to more specific ones. Think of any modern website you visit and how those developers segment certain types of content to certain sections of the website.

For example, when a user visits the DashClicks site, everyone arrives on the same home page.

Immediately at the top of the site, you see a navigation menu that separates the core content into four specific categories. You can then follow the main category into smaller sub-categories down the line. The navigation ends up looking like this:

The Home page always serves as the top of the hierarchical tree and then branches downward. However, the branches can exist separately to distinguish each type of content from one another.

The hierarchical structure is popular as it is the only real solution for medium to large websites. Even if your new website is on the smaller side, choosing a hierarchy early on will futureproof your site as you add new pages and content.

If you were to eventually add a blog, a store, or even a native help center, you would continue to follow the same hierarchical structure you already have in place. Users will already understand the pattern and be able to discover new content without it having any impact on the experience they’re accustomed to.

Linear Structure

A linear website structure is ideal for a site that exists to promote one general product, service, or offer. Think of your standard landing page or sales funnel.

With this structure, the user is only moving in a line from Point A to B. Of course, your site can have more than one or two pages, but the content is always directly related to the page that came before.

For example, a user clicks on an ad that leads to a website focusing on lead generation. The user fills out the form on page one and then automatically gets redirected to page two. This makes the structure look like this simple formula:

‍

However, you can add more steps to the linear structure as necessary. Instead of leaving users with a thank you/confirmation, you could instead ask them to book an appointment, creating a new page in the sequence.

In either scenario, the user is always meant to move forward and does not need to provide a pathway away from this linear structure.

A “Webbed” or Network Structure

This type of structure technically breaks the rules we just established for traditional website planning.

Instead of having rigid segmentation of your content, users can quickly access any other page from their current URL at any time. This can work for brands that have a smaller website promoting products, services, or ideas that directly connect.

However, this structure also works great for eCommerce sites. Users can be viewing a product in one category segment, but quickly access links to related products or items from unrelated categories. This is often tailored to the user based upon prior browsing history or data pulled from other users with similar behaviors.

Database Structure

This final style only applies to websites that must produce sensitive data that's only meant to be viewed by a specific user.

Examples of database structure sites would be banking, loan companies, social media platforms, etc. When a user logs into their account, that website provides content specifically tailored to that user. This is as opposed to the prior models which see all users viewing the same content regardless of how they choose to navigate.

This type of structure is advanced as it requires sophisticated programming to properly display the correct data. However, it's important to be aware of when understanding how different websites are planned and developed.

Why is Website Structure Relevant for SEO?

Website structure impacts SEO both regarding the user experience and how well Google understands the content the site offers.

Site Structure and User Experience

If a user can find quality information and engage with the website, then you are providing a quality user experience. Google cares about the UX enough to consider it a primary ranking factor for SERPs.

A quality user experience can be defined by the following qualities:

• Optimal loading times
• First input delay (how long it takes a user to act)
• Visual stability (does the site behave as intended?)
• Mobile-friendliness
• HTTPS
• No intrusive interstitials (no popups or elements that prevent users from engaging)

With these factors in mind, we know that Google makes inferences about our website structure based on user behavior.

If a user searches for a term and clicks on our website, they should be able to find the information they need within three clicks. If the user is frequently clicking links while spending little time on each new page, it can be a sign that the structure is flawed.

What can prove worse for SEO is an increase in bounce rate based on poor website structure. If users are clicking on navigational links, but quickly leaving without engaging, Google recognizes this. It may stop serving your pages as a result as they do not seem to properly match the user intent when they search for specific keywords.

Impacts on Technical SEO

Google regularly crawls websites on the internet to properly index the content.

During this process, Googlebot follows the website structure you have in place. It will attempt to move from the home page to each page following each pathway.

As it moves from URL to URL, it begins to form associations based on the structure.

Let’s say that a landscaping business has a page dedicated to “irrigation.” This keyword can serve a variety of purposes, which makes it hard to match content to the user intent by itself.

Google then crawls the brand’s website. It follows this pathway using the site’s hierarchical structure:

Home > Services > Irrigation

Because Googlebot crawled this pathway to completion, it now better understands the relationship “irrigation” has to other pages on the site.

It is then able to properly classify your irrigation page as a service URL for your brand. It can then better serve that page as a result to users that are searching for an irrigation service, not necessarily facts about irrigation itself.

Image Source

With this in mind, we can begin to understand why having a poor website structure will negatively impact our SEO. Properly segmenting the content on a site ensures that Google can effectively crawl each page and properly index the content.

That means that Google serves the web page to better-qualified users, which then leads to improved SEO and search rankings.

Keyword mapping, page crawling, and matching search intent are all SEO factors that directly root themselves in your website structure. If you want to ensure that your pages rank well, you must begin web development with a solid foundation in place.

Creating an SEO-Friendly Website Structure

The first part of this article described the “what” and “why” of quality website structure.

Now, we need to understand the crucial steps that go into building a strong foundation from the start.

Start Compiling a List of Essential Keywords

Let’s face it – keywords are pivotal for helping any webpage rank on Google.

Keywords are how users find our websites. They’re also what Google looks for to match page content to the user’s search intent.

You’ll want to create a preliminary list of any keywords that tend to get results. A great place to start is by entering any terms relevant to your industry into keyword planner tools like SEMRush or Moz Keyword Explorer.

Another ideal strategy to consider is examining the core keywords of your competitors’ website pages. Try to get a solid understanding of how they structure their websites, particularly the ones that are in the running for the top rankings.

During this step, you’ll like gain a preliminary idea of which pages you’ll want to create for your site based on certain keywords. You don’t necessarily want to go after the terms with the most clicks, but rather ones that will best suit the true intent of each page.

Certain keywords may have a lower search volume but can exhibit a much higher engagement rate because they match the user’s search intent.

Visualize the Structure and Begin Categorizing

Next, you’ll need to determine which keywords are worth pursuing and which best match the functional needs of your website.

It helps to come up with clear category titles to help with compartmentalization. Let’s call back to the example we used earlier – the new DashClicks website.

Our team created a hierarchical structure by categorizing all content into five distinct categories:

• Platform – any pages related to platform software & tools
• Fulfillment – any pages related to white label fulfillment services
• Solutions – any pages related to customer use cases
• Resources – any pages related to support and education
• DashClicks – any pages about DashClicks as a business

From these major categories, we can then add individual pages or even create sub-categories that fell underneath that umbrella. These segments also prove broad, yet descriptive enough to allow for future additions without making changes to the structure.

The pages we chose to create underneath those hierarchies are a result of two major factors:

• A functional need (explaining or offering something of value to the user)
• Keywords with matching user intent (users that search this term want the type of content we will offer)

Creating a hierarchy may prove simple or complex depending upon the number of pages your website needs. A basic site may only need sections to describe a company and its services, while large eCommerce sites need unique categories for every type of product.

Take all the time necessary to nail this foundation down. Plan not only for what you have now but anything that you could potentially offer in the future.

Make Sure Navigation Steps Logically Help the User Progress

Once you get an idea of the core categories you want to use, pay close attention to the path of navigation.

There’s a rule that’s been long perpetuated online known as the “three-click rule.” This commonly held belief explains that the average user loses interest if they cannot find the ideal content within three clicks on your domain.

However, many studies have been held that directly challenge this belief. Among these is a study by Center Centre – UIE that found no correlation between clicks and user satisfaction. The Nielsen Norman Group corroborates this with similar findings.

This widely held belief may lead to an unnecessarily broad browsing experience where more detailed-focused categories may serve users better.

Regardless of which side you fall on, we can agree that the navigation should intuitively make sense to users. So long as the categories make sense and the pages fall under appropriate hierarchies, users will likely prove satisfied.

Instead, what alienates users is unnecessarily complex or dysfunctional navigation. Users should never feel lost when moving too far away from the landing page. They should understand how to easily move forward or backward from any given page on the domain.

Reflect Navigation with Clean URLs

Examining page URLs is a great way to test the cleanliness of your site's navigation.

A quality URL should provide users with key clues that indicate where they are on the site. Let's take a look at yet another example from our website:

dashclicks.com/platform/apps/analytics/

This is the URL that appears in the browser when you visit the DashClicks Analytics page. From this URL, we can understand that the user followed this pathway:

Home > Platform > Apps > Analytics

Notice that the categories become more specific as you progress to the result. At any point in the process, the user should understand where they are and why that particular content was placed where it is.

If they want to check out a different app, they know to go one step back. If they want to go back home and check out something else, they can revert to step one or simply click the logo at the top of the page.

Make sure every URL follows this setup. Try to avoid unnecessary characters or strings that offer nothing to the end-user.

Utilize Internal Linking

Internal linking is a great SEO strategy that can reinforce connections between pages in a category.

This can provide users with quick ways to discover similar content, but it can also teach Googlebot more about the website. If we refer back to our Analytics page as an example, we can see examples of effective internal linking.

Because this page teaches users about the Analytics software, we can infer that users may also want to learn about the other software. That's why we include a direct link to each other app so that users can take the next step with just one click.

Avoid linking to additional pages unnecessarily. Your website is there to inform, not to overbear the user with sales pitches. Help Google better understand the content, and they'll help deliver results organically.

Utilize Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a secondary way of highlighting the user's navigation on a website.

Many websites utilize breadcrumbs by placing them just above or near the title of the current page. The breadcrumbs show a pathway similar to what your page URL should show.

By using the breadcrumb, you can provide quality internal links that help users jump back to any previous page in the path. This provides a better user experience as it allows them to always be one click away from a previous page.

This type of breadcrumb applies to hierarchical structures. However, you can also utilize attribute-based breadcrumbs when applicable. This is primarily reserved for eCommerce sites that show users exactly how an item is listed under categories and subcategories.

Finally, you can use history-based breadcrumbs that keep track of the user's actual clicks. This can help improve the UX by tailoring the site to their experience rather than sticking to the rigid structure.

Fix the Main Navigation Menu to the Header and Footer

Just like with internal links and breadcrumbs, providing quick navigation at all times makes for a better user experience.

High-ranking websites will often fix the header, meaning it scrolls with the user and remains in the viewport at all times.

When you attach the main navigation menu to this header, the user can click around to new pages much easier.

Likewise, adding a navigation menu to the footer calls users to click on another page once they finish consuming the content. This can keep users on the site for longer and provides more space for detailed menu layouts.

The footer can also lay out the hierarchy for additional categories that do not necessarily need to go into the main menu. This applies to less commonly clicked content like legal documentation, privacy policy, and similar pages.

Create an XML Sitemap

To further assist with creating an SEO-friendly structure, Google encourages the creation of sitemaps.

A sitemap, most commonly an XML file, is a document that lists all of a website's pages and corresponding URLs.

When you submit a sitemap to Google Search Console, you are helping Googlebot understand which pages of your website to crawl. With this in mind, you can use your sitemap to omit certain technical pages or define key pages with canonical tags. This can help in scenarios where you find yourself getting flagged for duplicate content.

Image Source

Telling Google which pages to crawl will also make better use of your monthly crawl budget. The more updates you make to the site, the more frequently you will need to crawl to index those changes.

Overall, a sitemap helps Google to more accurately portray the health and status of your website and its structure.

Monitoring Your Website Structure

Use Google Search Console to Crawl the Site

As with any SEO strategy, you'll want to actively monitor your website for structural health concerns.

Google Search Console will crawl your website regularly either automatically or by manual request. Whenever it completes the crawl, it will generate descriptive reports.

Within your report, you can see how many pages are indexed and which are not. If Google is unable to index a page, this indicates an error on the site.

These errors can result from a variety of factors. It can be something as simple as broken links, which are easily fixed by updating the link or editing the URL. However, continued issues may indicate a structural problem with your hierarchy.

Use the reported data to guide changes in your website design or structure.

Monitor User Activity within Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another free tool that can provide you with 24/7 updates regarding your website activity.

This tool can tell you everything you could ever want to know about a given page including:

• Clicks
• Bounce rate
• Average session duration
• How they got to the page
• Other pages clicked
• Actions are taken on a page

Understanding user behavior is an excellent way to measure the qualities of a site. Regarding structure, you'll want to be on the lookout for red flags such as high bounce rates or low session duration.

These negatives generally occur when a user is unsuccessful in finding the content they require. This may be a result of having low-quality content on the page.

However, if your research shows that you have content users want, but no one is clicking, you may need to revisit your site structure. Finding opportunities to make that content more accessible and visible through improved navigation and internal linking can help to improve your SEO and search rankings.

Quality Website Structure Provides a Quality User Experience

Creating a strong foundation for the website benefits the user first while offering SEO benefits as a bonus.

The type of structure you choose depends entirely on the complexity of your content and how you're using it to communicate with customers.

For most brands, a hierarchical structure will not only support you now but futureproof your content for years to come. Plan your keywords, compartmentalize the content, and establish clear pathways to and from each URL.

Finally, always monitor any changes or activity on your website if you want to improve your SEO. You cannot obtain better rankings overnight but through continued testing and mindful changes that ultimately improve the user experience.

Your website requires attractive, high-resolution images. Nothing turns off a user more than seeing a sterile page accompanied by a wall of text.

Writers can create the best content in the world, but it will often go overlooked without a bit of spice.

Image optimization is crucial for providing a quality user experience.

Beyond aesthetics, image optimization also directly impacts your Google search results. If you've been struggling to gain traction in the rankings race, this guide is a great place to start.

Below, we’ll discuss the following:

• What is image optimization?
• Why is image optimization important?
• How can I check my site for health errors?
• How to properly optimize an image?

What is Image Optimization?

Image optimization is the process of delivering an image of the highest quality possible while maintaining a smaller file size.

An image contains data just like any other form of content or media. The higher the resolution of an image, the more data that file contains. You will not only notice this with the increase in file size, but you can also see it with your eyes.

For example, an image that's 144p will feature minimal detail. You'll still be able to make out the broader image, but the colors will appear dull and blurry. It can be an eye-strain to look at a low-quality image on modern high-resolution screens.

Conversely, a 4K image is robust. You can see nuance in the coloring, shadows, and even fine details that you might otherwise only notice up close and in person. The downside is that such a detailed image generally has a large file size. Tools like image extender can be helpful when you need to resize or enhance images for different formats without losing quality.

Image Source

Why Does Image Optimization Matter?

Image optimization directly impacts your ability to host high-quality images without negatively impacting the user experience.

In other words, if you were to upload a 4K image to your home page without any optimization, a few things are going to happen.

• The average loading time for this page will increase significantly as it struggles to load the image.
• Because the image is in its native state, it will likely take up a significant portion of the page, disrupting the flow of your page design.
• The time to load may be long enough that the server request times out. The image may not load for the user or the page might not load altogether.

It may occur to you to avoid using high-quality images to avoid these issues. However, the better images you have, the more well-received it is by your audience.

Image Quality vs Audience Retention

We prefer images for several reasons. Experts explain that our minds process visual information 60,000 times faster than standard text. Images tend to stick in our brains longer than a few paragraphs. Another useful photo editing feature is the ability to change backgrounds effortlessly, which can help create more engaging visuals for your content.

However, when we pair images with text, we end up getting better results all around. When users recall the visual cue, they are better able to remember the data associated with it.

This means that our company content becomes far more effective the minute we apply even one image. Dominating that mindshare is essential when it comes to improving our marketing results and sales.

Therefore, leveraging an AI image generator to produce higher-quality images increases the likelihood of making a lasting impression on audiences.

Impact on Page Speed

When it comes to technical SEO, image optimization is crucial.

As explained above, the first and most notable impact an image has is on load times. If the page or the image itself takes too long to load, your bounce rate will increase. This has a direct negative impact on your rankings.

A Pingdom website study found that the average loading time for a page is just over three seconds. When your load time surpasses this, your bounce rate skyrockets.

Image Source

The study finds that your bounce rate can reach nearly 40% by the time you hit 5 seconds of waiting. Unoptimized images will easily cause your page to exceed this limit.

Impact on Web Hosting Resources

Every website goes live on the web thanks to a service provided by your web host.

Depending on your hosting plan, your website may be using a shared server that meters how much bandwidth you may use. If the amount of data on your website regularly causes you to exceed the allocated bandwidth, you'll need to consider upgrading.

However, most brands, particularly small businesses, tend to stick with the cheapest plans due to having a smaller site. It's ultimately a waste to upgrade to a private, dedicated server when it's ultimately unnecessary.

Instead, using best practices to optimize images and host media on external servers will yield better results. Your site health will improve without the need to pay for increased server capacity.

How Can I Check for Image-Related Health Errors?

Because image sizes directly correlate to page speed, that's where we want to start.

Google wants your site to load faster for users. That's why it offers everyone its free PageSpeed Insights tool.

You can monitor every page on your website simply by entering the URL and clicking Analyze.

This will bring up all errors found on the webpage that are negatively impacting the loading times. Among these, you will find a metric titled Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which explains how quickly all content on the page loads.

Green means everything looks good.

Yellow indicates that the content is acceptable but could be improved.

Anything in red indicates that the page requires urgent attention.

PSI will also provide more detailed reports so that you know exactly where the errors lie. If you should switch your image to a different file type, it will notify you. It also shares the expected time savings you can expect after applying each optimization.

Finally, clicking the dropdown on the error will provide you with a brief explanation of how to go about correcting the error.

PageSpeed Insights is something you'll want to bookmark as it can help you with everything from image optimization to minifying scripts. It costs nothing to use and will never lead you astray when it comes to making proper updates.

Alternatively, your SEO team can use SEMRush to not only monitor image health but virtually every on-page or technical SEO issue.

How to Optimize Images for the Web?

The good news here is that optimizing images is a relatively simple task that anyone can accomplish.

It requires very little technical knowledge with no coding or web development skills required.

Use the Correct Image Format

There are numerous image file types you can encounter depending on the tech used to create the image or the software used to process it.

When it comes to general website use, we only need to consider three of them at any given time.

• JPEG – This is the most popular image format available. It features excellent compression efficiency, meaning you get a smaller file while still maintaining quality.

• PNG – If you see an image that isn’t a JPEG, it’s likely a PNG. This utilizes a different compression process that allows for better quality. However, because it holds more information, load times are usually longer than the alternative.
• SVG – This file type is for vector image files. Without getting too technical, a vector allows the image to scale to any size smaller or larger without losing any quality.

The question is - how do you know when to use each file type?

JPEG is the standard for photographic images. This is due to the universal compatibility with any photo-editing tools. It provides excellent quality and allows you to make any changes to your headshots or business photos with ease.

SVG is often the go-to choice for graphics, logos, and patterns. These types of images are typically less detail-intensive. Meanwhile, the ease of scalability makes your job so easy you'll find it hard to go back to using anything else.

However, that doesn't mean that PNG doesn't have its uses. In some cases, you may require the higher quality that the file type can provide. The more busy the graphic is, the more you may want to lean on the PNG. Just be wary of your load times before you upload too many.

Compress the Image File

In many cases, converting the image to the proper file type will be enough to do the job.

However, if images are still impacting load times, consider further compressing the file.

There are two primary methods for compressing an image file to reduce the size.

• Lossy Compression – Eliminates inessential pixel data from the original image
• Lossless Compression – Eliminates redundancies in data and preserves the original image

Image Source

While it seems like a no-brainer to utilize lossless, there are pros and cons to each method.

Lossy will reduce image quality, but yields a much smaller file size. This is our primary goal when trying to improve page speeds. You can also adjust the compression intensity to configure how much detail you're willing to lose.

Lossless preserves full quality. However, that means there are limitations to how much it can reduce the file size.

It's best to determine the best action on an image-by-image basis.

If the image can fare to lose some quality while benefiting from faster load times, use lossy.

If quality is essential, or if you only need slight compression, use lossless whenever possible.

Kraken.io may be the best paid option due to providing several professional compression options. It starts as low as $5/mo., but limits you to just 500 MB. Realistically, you're looking to use at least the BASIC plan at $9/mo. Which provides 2 GB.

When it comes to free options, there's JPEG-Optimizer. This allows you to manually set your desired compression levels but exclusively focuses on the one file type.

Finally, Tiny PNG allows compression of both JPEGs and PNG files on both free and paid plans. The free option limits you to just 5 MB, while the $39/year plan upgrades you to 75 MB.

Use Plugins Supported by Your CMS

Platforms like WordPress also provide users with a marketplace of third-party tools.

Some of the tools mentioned above like Tiny PNG have a WordPress plugin so that you can automatically track your images without leaving your website's back end.

A much more popular option exists called Smush. It offers lossless compression and can process up to 50 images simultaneously. Speeding up your webpage could be that easy.

Plugins will vary depending upon your CMS. Popular platforms like Shopify also feature alternatives like TinyIMG SEO & Image Optimizer on the Shopify App Store.

Perform a search for “image compression” or “image optimization” where your CMS plugins are found. We would recommend avoiding anything too new and sticking to apps that already have a strong history of reviews and updates to avoid issues with your images or site health. You can also contact a WordPress development expert to run a quick check of your image libraries and link to a much more effective plugin that won’t break your website.

Use a Content Delivery Network

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is an external network of servers that helps deliver content to the end-user faster.

Normally, your website server delivers your rich media to the user from the same point regardless of where they are in the world. This can result in unnecessary latency the more that the content needs to pass through additional servers.

A CDN eliminates that slowdown by caching the data in servers all over. Then, when a user goes to visit a page, their browser can pull the cached data from a server closer to their immediate proximity.

Image Source

CDNs work to make the internet as a whole faster and more accessible for everyone.

Many popular web hosts now offer content delivery options including BlueHost and Cloudflare. Check with your provider today to see if you can set up a CDN for your content for a small additional monthly fee.

Further Optimizing Images for SEO

After converting and compressing your images, be sure to run another PageSpeed test.

If your page speeds are looking good - congratulations!

However, there's still a bit more we can do on our back end to benefit your website's search result rankings. These tips are best practices for SEO and should be utilized any time you add a new image file to a page.

Always Include Alternative Text

Alternative text, also known as alt text or alt tags, is a short description that appears when the image cannot load.

Including alt text benefits the reader, but it also allows Google's search crawler to understand the image file.

Adding alt text is simple regardless of which CMS you are using.

When you are in the editor mode on a web page, click on the image in question. A menu will appear that shows details about the image including resolution, file type, a caption field, and an alt text field.

Your alt text needs to be short, descriptive, yet to the point.

Here is an image we can use as an example:

We want to explain what’s in the image as well as the context if possible. Here we have DashClicks CEO Chad Kodary speaking to the audience welcoming them to our marketing education YouTube channel.

A poor example of alt text would be:

“Man speaks to the camera in front of a monitor”

A better example would be:

“DashClicks CEO Chad Kodary welcoming the audience to YouTube marketing education channel from office”

While both descriptions are accurate, the latter helps Google better identify key details for proper classification. We may even have an opportunity to throw in a keyword like “marketing” as long as it’s relevant to the image.

As always, the better Google’s search crawler can understand the content, the easier it will be to categorize and rank the page.

Give Your Image Files a Proper Name

Though it doesn’t get seen by users, Google also needs a proper file name for the image.

It’s easy to upload a file and completely forget this step. That’s why you end up with files titled “IMG_00024581.jpg.”

Instead, take a few seconds to rename the file something like “Technical_SEO_Infographic.jpg.” This is short, descriptive, and gets the message across effectively.

Accurately List the Number of Images on Your XML Sitemap

An XML Sitemap is an important SEO tool that helps Google’s search crawler identify and crawl the essential pages on your website.

A sitemap lists URLs, shows the last date you made edits, and can even allow you to hide certain pages from the crawler. This can help your SEO in several ways such as avoiding duplicate content or overusing your monthly crawl budget.

However, you can also dictate the number of images you can find on a page within the sitemap. When the crawler sees that there is an image on the sitemap, it knows to look for that image on the page. It then confirms the image, classifies it based on the content and alt text, and includes it as a ranking factor.

Make Sure Your Images Are Responsive

A responsive image is one that automatically adjusts its dimensions to suit any screen size or device.

Whether someone is looking at the image on a 4K monitor or a mobile phone, the image should clearly appear without negatively impacting other aspects of the UI.

Source

One way to make sure your images are responsive is to utilize SVG files as we discussed above. Many modern CMSs will also automatically scale images for desktop, tablet, and mobile.

If none of these apply to you, then you'll need to get more technical with your cascading style sheets.

Cascading style sheets (CSS) is the coding language that defines how the different elements of your page should appear on a screen.

You can use CSS to either:

• Define specific rules for specific screen sizes
• Set responsiveness rules to make the image automatically adjust

This requires some coding experience and knowledge, and you may need to enlist the help of an expert.

If you're interested, you can learn more about CSS and responsive image rules here.

Optimize Images for the Web the Right Way

Image optimization is essential for helping your website stand out positively.

Not only does it make a lasting impact on users, Google actively seeks out images and related site health errors to factor into your search engine rankings.

Thankfully, optimizing images is a relatively simple process that takes little time to achieve.

Make sure you're using the correct file types, look into compression tools, and switch to a CDN if your web host provides this feature.

Finally, don't forget to edit your images on the content side by adding alt text, file names, and appropriate responsiveness rules to your CSS.

Welcome to episode 11 of Whiteboard Wednesday. In this episode, I will teach you how to master social media content distribution. I’m not discussing content distribution for blogs today. Instead, I will focus on mastering social media and diverting traffic from your social media channels to your website to convert those people.

So, let’s dive straight into it.

Again, I’ll discuss things we implement at DashClicks, so I’m super excited to talk about these proven tactics.

These are some of the newer strategies that Daniel, our new content director, has introduced. Daniel is the content strategist at DashClicks, and he also looks after social media content distribution.

Daniel Matthews - Content Director, DashClicks

Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your website, but honestly, we weren't doing the best job at it in the past. Although we provide the best-in-class social media services to our clients, we were not putting enough time and effort into our home project.

1. Leverage the TikTok Boom

Let's discuss the popular small videos app TikTok. It's an excellent app making waves in the social media world and going by engagement, ranks ahead of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Youtube, which rank number two, three, four, and five, respectively.

Image Source

You can create just one piece of content and redistribute it across all five channels using the same video format. So, we start by creating a TikTok video with an average length of 15 to 30 seconds. You must be wondering just how on Earth can you communicate with your audience using such a small video. But, here is a secret to social media ā its users have very short attention spans and often don't want to watch long videos.

Source: Ep. 11 – 04:39

They scroll through social sites when sitting on their couch, watching TV, eating their dinner, or while at work. They look for quick quality content that they can go through quickly, and 15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot.

2. Quality Wins Hands Down

If you use TikTok, you must be aware that just by scrolling through TikTok videos, you can watch quality content within seconds. Moreover, it’s pretty engaging. If you offer quality, even small videos can do magic.

You should create content that people love to share. It’s the number one metric on social media. Tiktok loves when your content gets shared. Their algorithms will show your content to more users if they like or share it.

You can quickly get 500 to 1000 views for every video you post. We post two videos per day, which seems to work best for us. If you’re not creating shareable content, it’s better to not create the content at all. It’s a sheer waste of time.

3. Repurpose Your TikTok Videos

First, we create a TikTok video, post it, and then roll out the same video on Instagram reels. On Instagram, we get more views than TikTok. On average, we get about 2500 to 5000 views on every video we post, which is impressive.

Source: Ep. 11 – 09:34

We also post it on our Facebook page. When we publish it as a video, it creates a watch version of it. Engagement on videos is relatively low on Facebook, so we throw it up as a post. We get an engagement of around 100 views per post or sometimes even less than that.

We did have a video go somewhat a little viral on Facebook, and we got around 3k views, but that’s still better than what we usually get.

We also post on Pinterest and get around 100 to 300 views. On YouTube, we post these as “Shorts.” Youtube Shorts is a comparatively newer thing that YouTube has introduced, and we get an average of 50 to 100 views on it. We also had a video go somewhat viral here with around 5k views.

So, we create a short video and post it across all five channels in the following posting formats:

• On TikTok, as a post.
• On Instagram, as a reel.
• On Facebook, as a post.
• On Pinterest, as a post.
• On YouTube, as a short.

And we do this twice a day — once in the morning and once in the evening.

We also post on weekends.

Pro Tip: Rather than creating one video at a time, the best practice is to make a batch of videos. We can easily knock out 15 to 20 short videos, which is enough content for two weeks.

Pro Tip: Create videos in batches and then schedule them all. Not every platform will let you do the scheduling. So, if you can’t manually schedule it on every platform, you can go there and post it.

It is a great content strategy for social media that will drive tons of traffic. Start redistributing your initial video from TikTok, driving it down four other major channels.

So, now you have five channels (with the same video) driving traffic to each one of these videos.

Final Words

With these videos, you’ll build followers, and eventually, the platforms will start driving traffic to your website. You can start implementing this strategy for your business right away. If you liked the video, hit the like button, and if you have any questions about it, post them in the comments down below. My team or I will try to answer all your questions. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for daily videos like this, and we look forward to seeing you in the next Whiteboard Wednesday.

Everybody makes mistakes, and it's human to do so. However, mistakes are good as long as you can identify, fix, and learn from them to move ahead.

Often, salespeople are clueless about why they cannot convert their leads. And since they are not aware of their mistakes, they keep repeating them.

This article discusses 11 common but fatal sales mistakes that most salespeople make and ways to correct them.

So, without further ado, here are the 11 most frequent sales mistakes to avoid to increase your conversion rate.

1. Using The Cookie Cutter Approach for Every Sale

If you manage teams and workflows, you are more likely to continually deploy the same old tactics in every situation. Most managers are habitually inclined to a template-based approach because most situations demand quick, standard responses. Sadly, it doesn't work in sales.

Sales require a personalized approach and an understanding of the buyer's psychology. According to sales experts, cookie-cutter sales pitches don't work every time. The buyer's interest soon vanes when you sound too salesy.

Not listening to your customers leads you into a lethal trap of cold, frozen leads. In many cases, a salesperson becomes aggressive and pushy with cookie-cutter tactics, completely overlooking your prospect's needs.

That's why "super successful formulas" and "generalized approaches" seldom work in sales. It's crucial to make the prospect feel unique about your deal. However, this doesn't mean that you should reinvent the wheel with every customer. Instead, improvise a bit and keep different talking points ready in your spreadsheet to appease different kinds of customers.

2. Absence of a Robust Follow-up System

Most salespeople don't have a sales plan ready to approach the prospect after the first meeting. However, the aftermath is more important than the meeting itself. Creating a plan on the go can be a big strategy disaster.

People generally need a lot of touches' before they convert. Hence, to successfully convert a lead, you should focus on:

• Building a priority sales plan
• Setting up a robust follow-up system

According to Harriet Chan of CocoFinder, a good sales plan includes many follow-ups. The first meeting or contact can be exciting, but a follow-up is necessary to keep the prospects interested. Staying in touch with your potential customer is essential for lead nurturing.

Due to the increasing complexity of social and buying behavior of the individuals, the number of communications initiated by the salespersons can vary. However, it's undisputed that a robust follow-up system should reinforce the entire sales process. And you should prioritize it based on the funnel stage and activity.

3. Talking Prices Too Early

You shouldn't kill your customer's curiosity, but highlight the value you offer before disclosing the price. If you don't maintain this balance, you'll not be able to close the sale.

Customers are often interested in knowing both the value and price of the product. It's, therefore, crucial to reiterate the value you're offering before you disclose the price.

The customer should know how the product can address their problems before you even start discussing the price. Cost can be a concern when your product offers little value, but most customers often agree to a higher price, given that the product provides a compelling solution.

Here is a word of caution. If the prospect asks for a discount or demands additional services, you might have coined the price too soon. Here, it's essential to shift the conversation back from the money to the product itself.

Also, don't project your views and perceptions such as, "it's a bit expensive." Your prospect is a different human being altogether, and they may hold an entirely different viewpoint.

4. Not Having Good Listening Skills

The blunder people sometimes make in sales is talking too much and not allowing their prospects to speak. They continue to brag about their brand, product, and services. Your prospect is not interested in any of these. Highlighting a bit of branding is fine, but it sounds repetitive when you start overdoing it. First of all, you should listen to your prospects and try to understand their needs and pain points.

But, this doesn't mean that you should be tight-lipped throughout the conversation. You need the right balance between listening and speaking, and according to the experts, it should be 60:40. A survey showed that the top salespeople allow their prospects to speak 57% of the time.

Every sales rep wants to hear the "yes" words from their prospects, but that's quite unrealistic. Objections are pretty natural in sales, so first of all, you shouldn't get disheartened. If you put yourself in the buyer's shoes, you'll realize that it comes as an opportunity. Good salespeople often show their best products in the end, so if you get a flurry of "Nos," you can expect a sigh of relief.

Use your common sense, stay calm, welcome the objections, exhibit receptiveness, and understand the concerns your prospects raise.

5. Lack of Strategy for Handling Sales Objections

Handle the objections and questions honestly and provide satisfactory answers. Still, if they are not convinced, it's best to quit the sales process as the prospects may not be in the buying stage yet.

Pro Tip #1: Sales objections are natural and normal components of sales. The prospects have the right to ensure that they get value for money.

Pro Tip #2: Identify the most common objections in your niche and prepare honest answers for them.

If you want to learn how to handle sales objections, learn it from the best resources within your organization. Listen to the conversation between the sales reps (of your organization) and the prospects during a sales pitch.

Image Source

Use the conversation AI software to filter out calls to listen to the objections and how the agents handle them within your organization. You can use it for agents' training to mend their ways if there is an anomaly.

The better you become at handling objections, the more confident and successful you become at sales. Pricing and competition are among the most common objections people raise.

You can also use enthu.ai to configure the system to capture specific call moments easily.

6. Focusing on Products Instead of Offering Solutions

Most sales reps think that features alone are sufficient to convince prospects to buy your product.

Sadly, they aren't.

It's one of the most dangerous mistakes salespeople make.

Most customers are smart, and they conduct thorough research before they even invite you for a discussion.

In most cases, they know your product's features and your competitor's features beforehand.

So, you should instead focus on solving their problems and present your product as a solution.

Let's discuss how we do it at DashClicks.

Instead of bragging about the SaaS technology that we use to offer the central dashboard-based agency platform to help manage their campaigns, we stress the usability of our platform.

For example, we can tell them that it allows them to manage their CRM, run campaigns, generate reports, manage sales funnels, and build stunning websites.

Above all, we tell the agency owners how DashClicks helps them scale their existing resources and workforce.

So, we should talk about benefits instead of features.

7. Taking Objections Personally and Arguing With a Potential Customer

Salespeople easily slip into arguments when their prospects don't agree on something or if their opinions differ.

But it's pretty standard for two people to have different opinions on something.

Sometimes, your potential customer is not exposed to accurate data, and they get the wrong picture of your products and services. So, the objections they raise can be unreasonable and annoying.

When you try to prove your point, an argument may erupt. It happens because people's egos often don't allow them to take a contrary view, even if it's logical.

Remember the golden rule the world is full of negative and positive data. As a sales rep, it's not a personal interaction, and you're just representing your organization.

Furthermore, you need a specific approach to deal with such situations. So, steer clear of arguments.

Empathy can help you in a big way in these situations. Stay silent and empathize with their concerns. Ask questions if you don't have clarity.

If you need some time to resolve their issue, inform them upfront and stick to your timeline. The idea is to keep your prospects informed and offer excellent service.

But, if you feel that you are heading towards a dead end with the prospect, it's better to wrap up and move on.

The golden rule is stay away from any verbal spat or arguments, even if you are right.

Sometimes, we lose small battles only to win the war.

8. Behaving Like a Sloth

We live in the 21st century, where things are happening at a rapid rate. With faster lifestyles and fast-moving businesses, people consider multiple solutions to their problems. Keep up with the pace of your customers if you don't want to lose out on sales.

A slow response time almost ensures a killed deal. The most successful salespeople admit that the secret to success in sales is a faster response time. If somebody else responds even faster, they will likely grab the deal.

There is a famous misconception that you may appear desperate and not too busy if you respond too quickly. On the flip side, experts say that they never lose sales by reacting promptly.

If you don't have the right or detailed answers, assure your prospects that you will get back to them ASAP and give them a time frame in which they can expect a response. Lack of response can be dangerous for sales. Response time should be a part of your productivity KPI.

9. Not Knowing When to Stop Selling

Sometimes an object is already sold, but the salesperson keeps pouring details. It can kill the deal.

When your prospect has the necessary information, they only need to give the nod to close the deal. Highlighting more features and giving unnecessary details might raise further questions, leading the customer to change their mind.

So, as a salesperson, you should know when to stop selling. Sometimes, prospects like a specific feature so much during the sales pitch that they immediately decide to buy. You should identify this moment and stop selling quickly, moving on to the next stages of the deal.

10. Not Asking Tough Questions

Believe it or not, complicated questions can make your job easier than ever, especially if you work in sales.

But, according to a study, sales reps avoid hard questions simply because they think they may sound offensive and rude.

Sometimes, they lack the experience and self-confidence to ask tough questions. However, most of the time, they are not prepared enough.

It's simply an opportunity lost as it helps build rapport and increase trust.

Here are a few examples of tough questions.

Q 1. What prompted you to choose us after your long-term relationship with our competitor?

Q 2. What's your opinion about our price?

Q 3. Do you know about our company's policies?

Asking such questions will help you understand the mindset of your prospect. It will also help you close more deals.

11. Allowing Your Prospects to Take Control of the Sales Narrative

After your first sales meeting, when you start doing follow-ups, prospects may come with several excuses such as:

• They are traveling
• They have to discuss the product with someone else
• They will get back to you in a week
• They will do a thorough analysis before they buy

It's a common practice to avoid further sales pitches. So, you shouldn't allow it to happen. Otherwise, it will ruin all your prospects and decrease your conversion rate drastically.

Image Source

You should take complete control of your sales narrative and request the prospect to fix up an appointment ASAP. Maybe in the forthcoming week! If they still say "no" or show hesitation, your prospect is still in the initial stages of the funnel and not ready for the sale.

Conclusion

Sales managers need to train their teams consistently to meet their sales targets. The best sales reps are eager to learn from their and others' mistakes. If you can spot your mistakes in time, further damage is unlikely to happen.

Sales mistakes & revenue performance are closely linked to each other ā€” that's where rep coaching and mentoring become essential. It yields measurable results and helps you improve your team's overall sales performance.

Did the article help you identify the mistakes you make in sales? Let us know in the comments. Also, feel free to share the tactics you use to close sales at your own company. We're happy to learn!

Building a new startup is simultaneously exciting and terrifying.

If you've come here, you're likely scrambling for marketing ideas. A startup demands rock-solid business promotion ideas that will net clicks, signups, and, ultimately, sales.

You don't have the revenue to compete with the top dogs in SEO and PPC either. Thankfully, you won't need it (for now).

You need to focus on building a brand personality worth acknowledging. With a bit of innovation and creative thinking, you can get users talking about your product or service.

Here are 20 marketing ideas for small businesses that are sure to kickstart your startup.

1. Brand Yourself in a Unique Way

Some might argue that companies live or die based on their branding.

You and your team may have created the most convenient, innovative product on the market. However, if you're unable to penetrate that market and make audiences recognize your name, no one will ever find out.

For almost any product or service you can think of, there's usually a go-to brand that comes to mind.

For computers, it's Windows.

For cellular phones, it's Apple.

For workplace communications, it's Slack.

The point here illustrates the power of branding. Of course, the brand is ultimately propped up by the power of the product or service. But, would the iPhone be such a household name without Steve Jobs' standout presentation?

Powerful branding starts with a few key areas:

• Brand logo
• Brand slogan/tagline
• Brand voice
• Brand values
• The face of your brand

Image Source

A great place to start is scoping out the competition. Analyze each competitor and see how they brand themselves in these key areas. Think about what makes their branding weak and what your team can do better.

In a world full of countless landscaping companies, don't be another cookie-cutter Bob's Landscaping. Be bold and be different to stand out from the start.

2. Grant Exclusive Early Access

If there's anything that grants as much attention as free, it's exclusive.

Countless companies have successfully gathered attention quickly and efficiently by offering exclusive access. This works for your startup as a whole or for introducing new products or services into the marketplace.

Earlier this year, DevriX wrote about how some startups used this very same strategy to gain attention.

The strategy has also been used by juggernaut companies like PayPal, Slack, and Google to incredible effect.

The psychology at work here is that people always seem to want what others can't have. A more recent example of this is when Activision Blizzard, Inc. shared exclusive beta access to their upcoming title Overwatch 2 with carefully selected Twitch influencers.

There was an added caveat in this campaign as regular viewers could gain exclusive access by watching streamed content for two hours.

The result? Activision Blizzard shattered viewership records with over 1.5 million concurrent viewers. For a relatively small investment, they instantly generated mass interest in their upcoming launch.

The amount of activity and number of beta signups does not necessarily mean your startup will be a success, but it succeeds in grabbing much-needed attention. Whether or not your brand will take off depends on the quality of your offerings.

Finally, exclusive betas offer your team the added benefit of collecting valuable marketing and quality control data. You can use your average beta experience and feedback to further improve your startup before the official launch.

3. Get Involved in Public Forums

A great rule to follow in digital marketing? Get involved with your audience.

This remains a great practice from startup to becoming an established, household name.

The primary reason for this is that it establishes authenticity with the average consumer. For startup owners, it also allows you to bring attention to your brand in a very natural, appealing manner.

This doesn't mean that you should create a Reddit account and start spamming various boards with promotions. Doing so will, at best, alienate everyday Redditors, and, at worse, get you banned immediately.

Instead, you need to use these public forums like an actual user.

Start by browsing the threads that relate to what your brand has to offer. With some careful research, you're likely to stumble upon conversations between everyday consumers that talk about:

• The problems they are facing in areas relevant to your offerings
• The problems they have with a competitor’s product/service
• The features they want from a new company

Should your brand happen to appeal to that need, let those people know that your brand offers what they need. Don't be salesy or pushy, simply give them the information they need to help themselves.

Also, like beta testing, conversing with your target audience online can help you better understand their everyday problems and needs. This sets your startup for better positioning when it comes to achieving better marketing results.

4. Seek Out Users That Are Unsatisfied with Competitor Platforms

This business marketing strategy relates directly to the previous tip.

However, instead of sticking strictly to forums, you can seek out target audiences on other platforms to evangelize your brand.

You can seek out these users on any platform that features content based on your industry or one of your competitors. This might include sites like YouTube, Google Reviews, Yelp, Quora, and others.

Your startup is specifically looking for users that are expressing dissatisfaction with the quality of a product or experience with a service. Take the time to understand their concerns and position yourself to explain why your new startup offers a better long-term solution.

5. Host Giveaways with Industry-Relevant Products

While one of our previous tips talked about the power of exclusivity, this tip focuses on the power of free goods.

You can quickly drive signups and referrals simply by hosting a giveaway for a desirable product or service.

While some brands have found success giving away things like iPods or computers, we find it best to focus on something central to your offerings.

While giving away a brand-new laptop to the audience will drive form submissions, there's a great chance that many of those will not be qualified prospects. In other words, just about anyone is willing to give up their email address to save a few hundred dollars. They don't need to have any interest in your startup.

Image Source

For example, a new coffee brand startup might give away an expensive, high-end coffee maker. Meanwhile, a computer company might give away a free upgrade to Windows Professional Edition.

There are other ways to get creative with your giveaways such as giving away subscriptions to your very own startup. Not only do users get something free, but you ensure that they continue engaging with your brand for continued conversions.

6. Give Away Credit to Help Users Get Started

This option can be more costly and risky compared to other alternatives.

However, this tactic has proven effective for many companies, particularly in finance. Virtually every credit card provider offers intro cash offers, like Wells Fargo's Active Cash which grants $200 when you spend $1,000 over three months.

PayPal also offered $10 when users receive their first QR code and another $10 reward after completing five payments. This incentive made it even more appealing for users to create a free QR code and start using it for transactions.

These types of offers can help users side with your startup when comparing their options. When many brands position themselves with the same offerings and price points, bonus incentives like this can make the decision much easier.

While it may be more costly upfront to use this tactic, it can pay off dividends when all of those potential prospects sign up with your platform over the competitor.

Furthermore, using a credit reward system incentivizes those users to continue using your brand after they create their new account.

7. Form Partnerships with Established Brands

Trying to get your unknown property in the limelight is tough when you're on your own.

But, what if a brand that audiences already know shared some of the spotlight?

Brand partnerships happen for a specific purpose - to introduce new audiences to each brand. However, your startup's offerings will need to be relevant to the partner brand's audience for this to be worthwhile.

A great example of such a partnership is Apple's collaboration with American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. This was to promote the new Apple Pay functionality, which would allow users to easily apply their credit with their phone.

Likewise, these credit card companies would highlight the Apple Pay integration when applying for and using your issued card. This introduced both parties to new services that are immediately relevant to one another.

While your startup doesn't have the star power of these companies, the marketing principles still apply.

Carefully consider which brands could both help and benefit from a partnership with you. Work on your pitch to those companies and make the effort to reach out.

Image Source

8. Create Content That Breaks the Mold

Few things help startups catch fire like a viral marketing campaign. There are countless examples to show for it.

If you're a man that spent time online in the 2010s, you've likely seen Dollar Shave Club's Our Blades Are F***ing Great viral video. What was a small startup exploded overnight and now sees its products sold online and in general stores like Target and Wal-Mart.

While IHOP is a much more established brand, many likely remember its fake name change from a few years ago. What initially caused laughter and disbelief online led to a surge in sales across all locations.

While achieving virality is often a crapshoot, there are key characteristics that this type of content has in common.

The primary characteristic is that it is wildly different than content seen by similar brands. Many companies tend to portray a more reserved, professional tone. The intention is to show a level of seriousness and authenticity in the way they prepare their product or service.

However, campaigns like the Dollar Shave Club show there is great power in defying those expectations. Instead, we have a short, sweet ad that uses brash language and speaks directly to the everyday man.

The upset in expectations also leads to another strong factor - humor. Users are way more likely to identify with and remember something that made them feel a positive way.

With your new startup, audiences do not expect anything from your brand. They do, however, have preconceived notions about competitors. Use your introduction to the scene to take advantage of this and force users to pay attention.

Don't be afraid to take chances. Be bold, test the results, and keep trying new things.

9. Attend Events Regularly

Though much of our marketing now takes place online, trade shows and events are still relevant.

Even if these types of gatherings do not connect you to the end-user, they can still prove effective in promoting your startup.

Chances are that representatives from other established companies will be present at key events. They also present guests with the opportunity to network and learn about new brands, products, and services that are coming up in the industry. Make sure to share your smart business cards that will help you effectively network and generate leads.

You'll want someone with an outgoing, charismatic personality to represent your startup in these situations. This person might end up becoming the permanent face of your brand as other industry leaders will remember personal connections with that person in the early days of your company.

Even if you don't knock it out of the park with these meetings, you take the first steps in speaking your brand's name in a public setting.

The next time you have the opportunity to pitch your startup to someone of note, there's a good chance you'll be a known quantity instead of a nobody.

10. Give Away Branded Merchandise

Another way to promote brand recognition at those events is to give away physical goods with your name on them.

Examples can include t-shirts, stickers, cards, tote bags, pens, or anything else that might be of everyday use. You could even design t-shirts so it's more memorable.

Even if the recipient ends up not using your merch, you'll achieve success by reminding them of your brand once more when they revisit your gift.

Likewise, something like a pen can slowly fix your startup's name in someone's mind as they continue to use it for everyday activities.

Branded merchandise can act serve as anything from a conversation starter to turning others into walking billboards for your startup. Most merch can prove relatively inexpensive to manufacture, especially when made in bulk.

11. Use STP Marketing

STP marketing stands for the following:

• Segmentation
• Targeting
• Positioning

Segmenting your audience in digital marketing is a practice you will use now until you stop working in business and marketing.

Audience segmentation allows you to differentiate your whole audience into several distinct groups. This then allows you to better target and position yourself to market to those groups' particular needs.

According to a Statista study, 93% of U.S. internet users claimed to receive marketing content that is irrelevant to their needs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 93% of B2B marketers attributed revenue growth to the creation of customer-personalized content.

Not only does STP marketing better aid you in creating this personalized content, but it also helps startups use limited marketing funds more efficiently.

You will obtain more high-quality leads from your spending and ultimately end up with a superior ROI.

12. Offer Social Proof by Using Your Own Product or Service

Businesses exist to make a profit.

While all customers are aware of this, we still tend to gravitate toward brands that we believe to be authentic or concerned about our interests.

The more trustworthy a brand appears, the more likely we are to believe its product or service is of superior quality.

You can speak to the outstanding quality of your startup's offerings by becoming your own number one fan and user.

In other words, don't just tell audiences about how great your offerings are. Demonstrate examples of your team using them regularly along with the positive results. If it's working for you and making your startup more well known, then the benefits can no longer be denied.

Social proof is paramount when selling anything online. Nearly 90% of buyers will research a product and review it before making a decision.

While customer reviews are more trustworthy, you can slice away doubt by demonstrating that you also benefit from what you wish to sell to others.

13. Ask the Audience How You Can Improve

Garnering feedback from your audience and customers is essential for business success. After all, the saying is the customer is always right.ā

While that may not always be entirely accurate, learning about your customer's experiences is important. As the people who use your product or service regularly, they'll be the best suited to speak to the shortcomings you can improve upon.

There are numerous ways to ask for feedback. Some brands will automatically provide users with an option to rate and review after making a purchase.

For service-oriented platforms, you can set up automated notifications to trigger after the user spends X amount of time making use of the service.

Finally, you can send out personalized emails asking for such feedback. Be sure to thank the customers that convert early for your startup, and ask them how you can improve the service to help even more customers.

14. Converse with Your Audience on Social

This tip takes communicating with your audience to the next level.

Social media is an active, everchanging area with nearly 4 billion users worldwide across all platforms.

The sheer volume of activity that happens daily has changed a variety of industries. These platforms are no longer just for sharing funny videos with friends, but now serve a variety of purposes.

Platforms like Facebook or Twitter can act as news timelines, provide groups for like-minded individuals, and allows brands like yours to promote new services.

When you bring your startup on social media, you allow yourself to connect with both existing customers and prospects. You can also network with others in your industry so that both parties can mutually benefit from the shared exposure.

Not only is social media an excellent way to boost brand awareness, but it also allows you to share your content in a way that promotes a feeling of authenticity.

Rather than promoting ads from the outside, creating a personal voice that actively participates allows users to recognize the people behind your startup as opposed to being another faceless, for-profit brand.

15. Implement a Referral Program

Studies suggest that someone who is referred to your brand by a friend is 30% more likely to convert. Those same customers are 4x as likely to pay the referral forward than someone that discovered your brand on their own.

Social proof and word-of-mouth recommendations are paramount for driving conversions. It's the reason why we research, look for reviews, and ask family members for recommendations.

If someone we know and trust had a great experience, then we easily believe we will also have a similar one.

For this reason, your startup's early adopters may be your best tool for bringing in new customers.

You can incentivize your existing customers to do this by introducing a referral program. A great example of this is MeUndie's referral reward program, which works like this:

• An existing customer invites friends with their unique referral link
• The new prospect opens the link and purchases at least $12
• The initial referring customer gets a $20 credit added to their account

The customer can continue referring new customers to get a maximum of 25, $20 credits. They essentially pay their loyal customers for actively marketing their brand to new people.

Referral programs generally have great success rates. Those that are happy with your startup's offerings are generally willing to share their positive experience with others. When you throw in an added reward for their efforts, it makes referring your brand a no-brainer.

16. Send Personal Follow Ups and Reminders

With how competitive digital marketing is, capturing a prospect's attention is difficult. However, evidence suggests that keeping their attention is even harder.

Think of each new lead as being on a temperature scale. When a lead is hot and fresh, they're far more likely to engage. Data purports that you may be 100x more likely to connect with a hot lead than a cold one.

How long can you consider a lead to be hot? Some of the top marketers suggest that you have just five minutes before conversion rates begin to nosedive.

That's why it's important for all businesses, especially new startups, to proactively send personalized emails and texts to follow up with leads.

Earlier in this article, we talked about the power of personalized messaging with STP marketing. The same rules apply when it comes to converse with the individual customer.

When a new lead comes through a campaign, they get added to your sales pipeline. However, many brands make the mistake of sending out one generalized email to all of these recipients. Chances are, the user sees this vague email in their inbox and ignores it, deletes it, or relegates it to spam.

Instead of sending users an email that looks like this:

Thanks for your interest in BUSINESS NAME.

What if you sent one that looked like this:

Hey Thomas, thanks for checking out our new service. We appreciate your support and would like to chat with you soon.

First off, you immediately grab their attention simply by recognizing their name. You then follow up by reminding them of where the message is coming from and what exactly it relates to. The prospect immediately has context and feels appreciated as an individual.

Your sales reps can achieve this by taking the time to write out messages manually. However, DashClicks offers sophisticated solutions for this problem within our platform.

Our Deals app allows you to create and schedule an entire sales pipeline. This will track leads as they first enter your system until the final sale.

The impressive part here is that when a lead enters a deal stage, you can design unique automation to trigger. You could send out this type of welcome email instantly without any additional input.

Furthermore, our messaging allows you to instantly personalize pre-written texts and emails with user information. The software automatically pulls details like names, numbers, business associations, and much more.

17. Tell Customer Stories

Much like with referrals, nothing sells a brand quite like relatable success stories.

When you reach out to your startup's early adopters, don't just look exclusively for information that benefits you. Take the time to interview your customers and chart their journey from the beginning to settling on your brand.

Then, ask clients if they're comfortable with you sharing their stories online. Let them know that their experiences can help illustrate the effectiveness of your product or service to others in similar situations.

While it's your team that chooses how to present the story, new prospects will simply see a solid sales pitch from someone unassociated with the company. This makes them far more likely to trust the advocation, and, in turn, more likely to convert.

18. Send Invites to Industry Influencers

Influencer marketing is on the rise.

You can’t click on a YouTube video or live stream without seeing the content creator pausing to promote a product or service. Here’s how it works.

The company with the product or service reaches out to an influencer that shares a common audience with them. They then offer the influencer an agreed-upon payment to promote their offerings to their audience for a defined period. The influencer will also get free access to the product or service to use it firsthand before agreeing to any advertisements.

For the influencer, the payout is generally worthwhile. For the sponsoring company, the cost is insignificant when compared to the amount of potential new leads you can acquire.

The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach about $16.4 billion in spending in 2022.

The psychology behind the power of influencer marketing is simple. Many of our tips above speak to the power of social proof. When we trust someone’s opinion, we’re more likely to purchase what they suggest.

Image Source

Influencers have that same power. Though we don’t know these people personally, we associate positive traits with them because we enjoy their content. Therefore, if they were to recommend a product they claim to personally use, we’re more likely to remember that brand when we’re in the market for that item.

Your startup can harness the power of influencer marketing in the same way. If your offering is a service, it costs nothing to send out free invites to key industry players. Simply ask them to write about or record a video that honestly describes their experience with your brand.

That content then goes out to an entirely new audience of people that already trust the person advocating for you.

19. Grant Loyalty Rewards or Gifts with Purchase

You can drive repeat purchases from existing customers, or potentially acquire new ones with this strategy.

When customers are in the market for something, they’re typically researching and weighing several different brand options. To remain competitive, these companies likely have similar offerings starting at near-identical price points.

Offering those customers a little extra incentive can sometimes be enough to sway their purchasing decisions.

Some brands like beauty company Ulta regularly provide customers with free items after reaching certain price thresholds in their cart. The company carefully decides on these limits to ensure they are always making a profit even when giving away quality goods.

If your startup cannot afford to give away free products or lies more in the service industry, a loyalty program can be a great alternative.

Loyalty rewards incentivize customers to continue pursuing business with you. The more money they spend with your brand, the more rewards they get in return. This usually comes in the form of credits that can be used for future discounts.

If a loyalty program is sweet enough, it can also convince discerning prospects to side with your startup over competitor alternatives. After all, why not get rewarded if you’re going to spend money on a service regardless?

20. Reach Out to the Media

Finally, you can try to give your startup a boost by reaching out to media outlets.

This can work for traditional media like magazines or local papers as well as new media online.

Depending on the size of the publication, reporters and journalists are always looking for stories to fill content quotas. A local paper might be interested in giving your startup space to inform the community of your new offerings.

What will likely work even better is to reach out to media outlets that specialize in creating content about your industry. For example, if you’re a startup tech company, you could inform sites like Wired or TechCrunch of what’s to come.

It costs nothing to pitch your startup as a story and can only result in free exposure. Like influencer marketing, getting your startup featured in front of a new audience can be a great way to secure much-needed adopters for your startup.

Image Source

Use These Marketing Ideas for Additional Startup Exposure

Launching a startup is difficult, and gaining the exposure you need will require creative thinking and a lot of effort.

Instead of simply throwing money you don’t have at the issue, you need to carefully consider the resources the internet offers in 2022.

Because of the lack of resources, you’ll face early on, it will be all hands on deck to connect leads, influencers, and existing customers online and in person.

Furthermore, don’t give up on leads that turn you away. Respect their decision, remain personable and make the effort to check in on their status at a later date. The more authentic are in regard to their needs, the more likely they are to remember you when the right time comes.

Sustainable business growth is paramount for longevity.

That growth comes as a result of implementing an effective market penetration strategy. Learning how to make more high-quality leads aware of and interested in your brand is how this becomes possible.

The optimal strategy for achieving high market penetration is known as STP marketing.

However, before we get caught up in the details, let's step back and evaluate what these ideas represent. Let's first identify what we mean by market penetration.

What is Market Penetration?

Market penetration refers to the amount of sales transactions that occur between a business and customers that belong to a specific market segment.

That market segment refers to only the customers that exhibit interest or could benefit from the products or services your brand provides.

In other words, your market is not defined by every individual in your area. It only applies to the potential persons that would be in the market for your offerings.

Importance of Market Penetration

Understanding and regularly measuring market penetration is a direct indicator of both your marketing and sales performance.

When more of the market is aware of your brand, the more likely they are to use your company for their needs. If your brand is at a high level of market penetration, they're likely to dominate the mindshare, making other options seem less desirable.

Here are some indicators and benefits of achieving high market penetration:

• Your brand is well-known among your target audience
• You achieve high sales with regularity and are trending toward growth
• You’re capable of opening multiple locations in an area and sustaining each
• Influencers and industry leaders reference your products or services

All of these are the desired goals for any growing brand. However, using market penetration strategies incorrectly can also create undue pressures and strains on your existing operation.

Image Source

Now that we better understand market penetration, let's explore how your brand can take action.

You'll learn how to calculate your current level of market penetration and learn about specific STP marketing strategies that can get you better results.

How to Calculate Market Penetration?

We know that market penetration is the relationship of your product's sales in conjunction with all related products a potential customer could buy. Therefore, the equation looks something like this:

Market Penetration = Number of Existing Customers & Sales / Total Possible Customers in the Market x 100

The total possible customers refer to those that specifically qualify for your product. It's important to discern the difference between low-quality leads and high-quality leads for this reason. The resulting percentage indicates how high your penetration rate is.

Juggernaut companies like Amazon boast market penetration rates as high as nearly 60%.

For smaller, local businesses, an average market penetration rate is anywhere between 2% and 6%. Achieving a number higher than this indicates that your brand is already faring better than most across the nation.

However, it also demonstrates just how stiff the competition is for small business owners. It's a difficult situation as resources are tighter for small brands in a scenario where it's already tough to stand out.

It can feel hopeless, if not impossible, for your new brand to succeed.

The good news is that you don't need to let these figures intimidate you. What you need is a powerful market penetration strategy using STP marketing.

In the next step, let's define what STP is so that you can leverage it in your local and digital marketing.

What is STP in Marketing?

STP is now the gold standard for digital marketing.

Rather than wasting time and resources appealing to a wide consumer base, STP marketing carefully directs efforts to highly-qualified prospects.

The acronym STP stands for:

Segmentation

Segmentation, in marketing, is the process of dividing an established audience into distinct segments.

While your entire audience shares a mutual interest in your offerings, sections of the audience can be effectively classified through different characteristics.

This information becomes valuable as it allows you to better understand why specific individuals come to your brand.

For example, a computer company can have success selling its computer products to almost any demographic. However, an 18-year college student and gamer will benefit from different selling points than a 35-year old office manager.

Targeting

By segmenting these customers into different groups, you can determine which groups are worth targeting.

This is especially important for smaller brands that may currently lack the resources to capitalize on every possible segment. Instead, you can review your existing marketing and sales data to determine which segments demonstrate a better ROI.

However, it's worth making note of other possible segments to pursue as your brand begins to scale.

Positioning

Now that you've created your segments and narrowed your targeting, it's time to position yourself for success.

Understanding your target segment allows your team to create highly-personalized ad campaigns. The better your proposition speaks to the unique needs of the prospect, the more likely you are to drive conversions.

A beautiful aspect of STP marketing is that it is proven to benefit any business regardless of size or industry. As marketing becomes increasingly competitive, bespoke advertisements will always yield better results than minimal, generalized efforts.

Effective Market Penetration Strategies (with STP Marketing)

Market penetration is a relatively safe, effective strategy for every brand. The primary reason for this is that it allows you to move in on audiences that you've already established.

This is, as compared, to diversifying your audiences and/or products, which can often have unpredictable results.

Instead, these market penetration strategies should help you connect with more qualified customers and reinforce relationships with existing ones for continued transactions.

1. Personalized Marketing Campaigns

For starters, we're leaning into the ideas discussed when introducing STP marketing.

Your ad campaigns thus far have landed your brand its current customer base. While your efforts are connecting with these individuals, they're not quite pushing audience segments to convert.

To further your market penetration, you can begin to explore those audience segments that are still on the outside looking in. We recommend utilizing marketing analytics tools like Google Analytics to study audience behaviors.

You can use tools like these to analyze your ads, landing pages, sales funnels, and more. Determine which part of your pitch is causing customers to drop off, and begin to rethink your approach.

Instead of having one campaign for a large audience, start to develop highly-personalized campaigns that speak to specific demographics. This will position you to speak better to the problems they face and explain why your brand is the solution.

Image Source

Not only will this grab their attention, but it also allows your brand to cut through the noisy competition by offering something unique and special.

2. Reconsider Your Pricing

We specifically mention pricing only as increasing OR decreasing your prices could be beneficial. Whichever action you choose to take depends upon careful research of your target audience.

The price of your products and services can communicate a great deal of information to a prospect before you even make your pitch.

A product marked above the industry average might communicate that your brand cares about maximizing profits over the consumer. However, with careful marketing, it can also communicate that your product is simply of better quality when compared to competitors. This may boost conversions with the right audience simply to gain access to superior goods.

On the other hand, intelligently lowering your prices can make your products accessible to new audience segments. Slashing prices, so long as it doesn't harm your bottom line, can instantly improve your market penetration.

Be aware that lowering prices can also create the opposite perception of raising them. If consumers see that you're comfortable with lowering the value, it can lead them to believe that your goods are of subpar quality.

3. Introduce New Products or Update Existing Ones

To sell more of your product or service, you need to satisfy all of the customer's needs.

Those needs include:

• Features
• Build quality
• Price point
• Warranty / protection

If your product fails to meet any one of these standards, you're likely to lose a potential sale. The same is also true if a competitor has a similar product that exceeds your standards of yours.

In this scenario, you have a couple of options. The first is to consider the features your products lack and consider how you can create a superior model.

A second option is to introduce a new product into your offerings.

A great example of this is Apple's iPhone - one of the most popular products in the mobile tech world.

They recently released the iPhone 13 which features all of the latest upgrades to display, memory, and camera functionality. However, it retails for $999, which is a hefty price point considering that new ones appear each year.

Understanding cost is a barrier to market penetration, they introduced another low-cost model known as the iPhone SE. This product costs only $429 in comparison. Of course, it lacks in features and build quality in comparison. This is the trade-off made to protect the bottom line.

However, having this affordable option suddenly makes iPhones more accessible to the greater market. Furthermore, consumers feel empowered by having options and the ability to choose what's best for their needs.

Finally, having different options negates the potential drawback of altering base prices. Consumers that want to pay a premium for a superior product still have that option available.

4. Introduce Referral / Loyalty Programs

A great way to boost brand awareness and market penetration is to empower your existing customers to help.

Many brands institute referral programs that provide the customer with rewards or discounts for every new customer they bring to your brand. It's an easy sell as existing customers can already speak to your brand positives, while also getting a small reward for minimal effort. Positive word of mouth from trusted sources can help push prospects to convert.

Likewise, you can further boost that engagement and loyalty by rewarding customers that shop regularly. Brands like Best Buy offer points for each dollar spent, which can then be converted into discounts.

Image Source

5. Position Your Sales Reps for Success

Your marketing team may be doing a great job of attracting new leads.

However, having more leads than your sales team can handle may cause you to lose customers permanently.

Having an effective sales management system is essential for boosting market penetration and achieving business growth. DashClicks' own Inbound software is an excellent example of this.

The Inbound tool allows you to quickly integrate all of your marketing campaigns into one dashboard. Filter all of your leads from Facebook, ClickFunnels, and CallRail, for easy access.

With all of your leads in one place, you can automatically:

• Assign leads to sales reps by campaign or round-robin style
• Track close rates by campaign/channel
• Track close rates by sales rep
• Track time to respond to new leads
• Reassign sales reps at any time

All of these features ensure that you capitalize on fresh leads by giving them immediate attention. Your analytics will demonstrate the areas in which your team requires improvement.

Furthermore, DashClicks offers the ability to automate emails and text messages within the same platform. This way, even if a rep is unable to manually communicate at a given stage, you can trigger personalized messages to go out regardless.

6. Expand Mark eting Efforts to New Channels

Finally, making the effort to reach new audiences through different means can help boost market penetration.

Paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google are some of the more common digital marketing methods. However, not all potential prospects are interested in clicking on ads or reading landing pages.

Social media is a popular marketing channel that's often neglected by smaller businesses. An estimated 7/10 U.S. residents use at least one social media platform in 2022. Instead of working to get everyone on your website, brands should make the effort to reach the market where they spend most of their time.

Consider all of the options you aren't currently using and determine how they might help boost your market penetration. Other channels we recommend are:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Influencer marketing

Implement Market Penetration Strategies to Grow Sustainably

Market penetration is essential for brands that seek continued growth and longevity. It allows you to continuously pursue the individuals whom you already know to be in the market for your offerings.

Understanding and utilizing STP marketing will universally boost the effectiveness of all of your marketing efforts. Likewise, making key adjustments that are appropriate for your brand and offerings may suddenly make your products and services accessible to new audiences.

The best part is that all of these strategies are relatively low-risk and low-cost to implement. Select the right strategies, test and measure results, and continuously refine your efforts until you perfect the process.