Digital Marketing

6 ways to increase sales after the holidays

Your Business Guide to Beating Post-Vacation Fatigue

It’s no surprise that people shop more during the holiday season. A report from Adobe Analytics found that consumers spent $80.3 billion — and that was online alone — from November 1 to December 6, 2018.

If you were lucky, your business enjoyed great seasonal success.

But whether you’ve made a big profit or experienced a dip in holiday sales, there are ways to increase sales in January. I am sharing 6 of my favorites:

1. Launch another sale.

While customers may feel post-holiday fatigued after an overwhelming number of Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day deals, you can still reach your target audience with a tempting winter discount.

Here’s a good example: Home and clothing retailer Anthropologie is having a winter sale on all sale items. By taking another 40% off items that are already at a reduced price, they are enticing customers and removing old stock to make room for new spring inventory.

Remember that your fans are smart, so be authentic instead of just putting a sale sign on a poorly selling product or calling a small discount “winter clearance.”

2. Bind New Year’s resolutions.

No matter what product or service you’re selling, there’s probably a way to tie in the “New Year, New You” angle.

A 2018 survey by Tangerine found that nearly 70% of Canadians have made resolutions. More than half of those surveyed focused on improving their physical health and almost a third wanted to improve their financial management.

So start by thinking about how your product or service improves:

  • Financial, personal or professional success.
  • health or wellness
  • Confidence or self-esteem
  • productivity
  • Relations

Then, brainstorm ways you could incorporate New Year’s resolutions and goals into your sales program to avoid a post-holiday sales slump. For example, we created a publication for one of our clients, using personal success in 2020 to drive sales of their book Crash Course in Human Resources for Small Businesses.

3. Create a buying guide or blog.

While we tend to pay most of the attention to Christmas, don’t forget that people want gift ideas all year long.

According to the 2019 Holiday Shopping report, 47% of surveyed gift shoppers didn’t know what to buy. To turn browsers into customers any time of year, guide your visitors. For example, you can create a list of the top 10 popular gifts for teens or moms, or highlight the most popular gifts for Father’s Day.

People will be less overwhelmed and more likely to add an item to their cart with a little guidance, which can really help you boost post-holiday sales.

4. Update your newsletter subscription.

With so much going on in the life of a small business owner, it can be easy to overlook this important marketing tool. Are you offering an ebook that has been active for years with a newsletter signup or promoting an outdated promotion?

Take a look at your e-newsletter subscription page and think about the year ahead. Is there a way to make it more attractive to attract leads and sales?

Maybe you could create new content, like an ebook or video tutorial, or offer a free consultation.

5. Improve your social networks.

If you gave your social media accounts a festive touch, now is the time to take down the decorations, so to speak. Even if you didn’t add any Christmas flair, now is a great opportunity to reflect on the messages you’re posting.

While you shouldn’t update your logo or branding just because it’s a new year, at least do a sweep of your social media to see if you need to change/add:

  • Your business hours and location on Facebook and Google My Business.
  • Old tweets pinned to your Twitter account.
  • Images for Google My Business and Instagram.
  • Profile photos for all your social media accounts.

While you might argue that this isn’t a direct way to increase sales after the holidays, you’d be surprised! If you have old assets gathering dust or can’t be bothered to change a Christmas sign on a social media platform, people may wonder how efficient and trustworthy your small business is.

The Right Reasons to Rebrand Your Company Logo

Over time your business will grow and evolve. You can offer new services or products, enter different markets, or target another demographic. If this happens, you may need to consider changing your marketing graphics.

However, you need to be careful not to undo all the hard marketing and branding work you’ve put in and to fully understand how to rebrand for the most effective results. Read more on our website.

6. Get creative with celebrations throughout the year.

There’s a long list of January “holidays” you can check out online to help you get started. As you take note of relevant dates throughout the year, there are sure to be some fun ways to incorporate them into your marketing strategy.

You could offer a discount, a free gift or a promotion related to what you sell. Here’s a delicious example: Italian chain Carrabba’s Italian Grill celebrated National Pasta Day last year with a $10 pasta deal.

One of my favorite examples is what WWF did for World Penguin Day (April 25th coming up!). They shared an informative article “Top 10 Emperor Penguin Facts,” with a call to action to “adopt” one of these lovable waddling birds.

This campaign wowed us so much that we adopted some ourselves! Since the Emperor Penguin is our official mascot, why not?

No, we didn’t get our own penguin, but we did get a plushie, regular updates, stickers, and other cool stuff to support the initiative.

There is no reason why you should wait and accept a drop in sales after the holidays. While we tend to focus a lot of our marketing (and staffing) energy on the festive season, we need to remember that our customers are still out there! They want to hear from us in a meaningful and relevant way.

With a little planning and creativity, you can overcome post-holiday fatigue and set your small business up for a prosperous 2020.

Digital Marketing

The Booming Catering Industry: Facts and Statistics

Factual and statistical information

Worldwide catering market revenue is expected to reach US$265 billion within 4 years, with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 5 percent according to Research and Markets. Significantly, the market spans major sectors in various communities, including schools, senior facilities, sports centers, and even hospitals. These institutions outsource their food service needs so they can lower their expenses and focus their workforce on more important matters.

A recent study by Technomic shows that the US restaurant industry generated about $537 billion in total sales last 2017 with a continuous growth rate due to easy and fast online ordering system. There are more than 10,000 catering companies in the United States, employing about 110,000 people in total. Most of these companies are small and locally controlled and do not account for a large part of the market share. The demand for their services is higher in densely populated areas.

The largest catering market in Asia and the second largest in the world, China achieved an estimated revenue of US$616 billion as reported by the China Cuisine Association. At the moment, it has around 5 million companies active in the restaurant sector. This has been attributed to the implementation of an online-to-offline marketing strategy where customers are encouraged to order food by going to the caterer’s physical store rather than online.

Imagine how many people are choosing the convenient and practical way to serve food to their guests to celebrate life milestones. Statistics show that catering services are in demand for the following occasions: weddings, engagements, birthdays, corporate events, graduations, Christmas parties and even funerals. There is also a growing need for food services at trade shows and conferences around the world.

Reports show that the money spent on food service depends mainly on how much corporate clients or individual consumers can spend for certain occasions. This is why caterers often offer various packages and sometimes even create meals to suit the most limited budget.

Being able to cater to large groups opens up a number of catering opportunities for them, so it is rare for them to turn down any offer, deal or invitation. However, while the demand still exists, customers are less likely to request catering services during uncertain economic times.

According to Koncept Analytics market research, the top 3 factors driving the growing demand for contract and freelance catering services are people’s need for personalized food ordering, the rise of the middle class, and the continued use of the digital technology.

The 2018 analysis of the global contract catering market by Orbis Research

per segment

  • Business and Industry (B&I)
  • Education
  • Health care
  • Facilities for the elderly
  • Governmental agencies
  • Sports and Entertainment

By region

  • North America
  • Europe
  • Pacific Asia
  • Latin America
  • Africa
  • ROR (Rest of Regions)

For country

  • USA
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • France
  • Germany
  • Others (Spain, India, China, Japan, Australia and Brazil

So what kind of food catering service would you prefer to set up in your own local community?

  • contract catering
Digital Marketing

Hurix Digital among the top 20 training delivery companies of 2018 announced by the training industry

Mumbai, August 6, 2018 –

Hurix Digital, a leading corporate training and digital content solutions company, appears on the 2018 Training Industry Top 20 Training Delivery Companies list for the second consecutive year. Hurix has previously appeared on the 2017 Top Training Delivery Companies and 2016 Top 20 Authoring Tool Companies list.

Training Industry, one of the most trusted sources of information on the business of eLearning and training, released its list of the Top 20 Training Delivery Companies of 2018 last week. The list is part of its effort to closely monitor the market and identify the best service providers in the domain of corporate learning and development.

The Training Industry follows the following criteria for its selection:
• Platform capabilities and features
• Quality of analysis and reports
• Size and growth potential
• Customer quality
• Vertical and geographic scope

This year’s top 20 training delivery companies offer innovative technology platforms that are tailored to the needs of learners in a wide variety of training scenarios. These providers deliver training solutions through a combination of methods that are strategically aligned with business goals and optimize learning retention. This, in turn, helps companies retain their employees for longer.

For the second year in a row, Hurix Digital appears on the coveted list published by Training Industry. “We’re happy to feature in the top 20 training delivery companies this year as well. It’s a testament to the innovation and creativity we bring to the corporate training industry, with our future-proof products and content solutions,” he says. Subrat Mohanty. , CEO, Hurix Digital.

Hurix Digital is known to provide customized e-learning and training solutions to businesses, publishers, and institutes through its state-of-the-art platforms and products. Along with Content Solutions for Training and E-Learning, the company also offers content solutions for digital marketing and social media.

KITABOO is a cloud-based digital training platform from Hurix, which enables companies to convert their PDF training material to digital formats. KITABOO AR connects the physical world with the digital world through Augmented Reality and enhances the learning experience. Over the years, Hurix has innovatively addressed various industry needs by offering innovative products and solutions.

About Hurix Digital
Hurix Digital, founded in October 2000, is a pioneer in digital content solutions for global businesses. Hurix helps organizations around the world achieve their business goals through its learning content, digital marketing, and cloud platform-based solutions. The company offers cloud products, such as KITABOO, KITABOO AR and Docketzoom, that change the way companies create, transform and deliver content on digital platforms. The products enable businesses to create, deliver and manage multi-channel digital content across traditional and newer mobile platforms.

Digital Marketing

Keyword Research Long Tail Pro

If you are a website owner or spend time writing a blog, one of the things you need most is traffic to your site. You also want traffic that comes from different search engines.

In order to attract traffic to your site, you will need to rank well in search engines. With all the billions of websites these days, getting organic traffic is going to be a challenge.

However, there is a tool available called Long Trail Pro. This tool has been designed to make it not only easier but faster to get those high rankings.

How does Long Tail Pro work?

Long Tail Pro works by finding low competition keywords that will help search engines notice your website.

In order to outrank websites in your niche, you will need to use appropriate keywords. Making sure you outbid these websites will not only drive more traffic to your site, but you’ll also get more leads that could lead to more sales.

One of the great things about Long Tail Pro is that it has been designed to optimize for search engines. This means that there are more opportunities for all search engines to find your site.

How to use Long Trail Pro

This tool will help you save some time in searching for suitable keywords. It is very easy to use.

All you need to do is set up your account on Long Tail Pro. The good news is that this is a web-based application, which means you won’t have to install it on your computer.

This is great as it means that you can use the tool wherever you go, be it at home or when traveling.

This tool will allow you to filter keywords by month, suggested bid, and even advertiser competition.

Advantages of Long Tail Pro

One of the main advantages is the ability to find many keywords in bulk. This will save a lot of time.

It is very easy to use and you will be able to find as many keywords as you need based on the guidelines you set.

Since this is not a free app, you will pay for the tool through a monthly or yearly payment.

This is a must-have tool for any digital marketer.

Are there any downsides?

The only drawback is that you will have to pay more if you want to track more keywords. Other than stable internet because the tool is web-based, there are no other downsides that we can find.

Our recommendation

Long Tail Pro will help you discover thousands of keywords in no time.

If you’re going to rank your site in search engines, you’ll need to have the right keywords. This is not a guessing game.

Long Tail Pro will help you find the keywords that others might not be using, which will help your site rank better.

If you’re looking to convert traffic into leads or sales, then you’ll want to rank higher in search engines.

With this method you will not have to pay expensive ads to get traffic.

Digital Marketing

Tips for finding reliable locksmith services

There are numerous factors that you need to consider when looking for reliable locksmith services. While there are so many locksmith companies offering their services in your area, not all of them are reliable, credible or trustworthy and you need to know in an emergency situation that they will get back to you in the shortest amount of time.

The first thing you want to focus on when finding a reliable locksmith service is your location. If you expect fast and reliable service that you can trust, then you don’t want to choose a service that is too far from your current location. The company must offer a quick response time on your emergency calls, so you know and can trust that they will get to you in the shortest time agreed upon when you initially called them.

It’s always a good idea to rely on referrals from colleagues, family or friends. If someone you know has used a reliable locksmith service in the past and was delighted with the service they received, then you can use this service with confidence. Having a referral is always an easier option, giving you peace of mind when choosing a service to use now and in the future.

If you don’t have anyone who has used a locksmith service that you have found reliable or are satisfied with, then your next option is the internet. The Internet will be full of locksmiths who are ready to help you, the difficult part is choosing the one that will provide you with the best service.

Be sure to pick a few companies that you feel you can work with, and then review each one in detail. Go to their website to identify how long they say they take calls and then search for them to read through independent review sites for honest customer feedback.

While you’re looking at the company online to find reliable locksmith services, you’ll want to take note of the services they provide. Do you offer a twenty four hour service? Do they provide emergency services and how long do they take to respond? What about other services, do they provide repairs and change of locks? Knowing about their services can help you rectify what you need right now, but also make sure you have the number handy in case you need help with your locks in the future.

One of the tips when it comes to finding reliable locksmith services is to identify the costs involved. Be careful as some companies also charge a per call charge which is added to your final bill which obviously increases the amount you will pay. Look for hidden costs and ask the company directly what they are going to charge you and what costs there are that you may not be aware of. Knowing your costs can help you make sure you stay within your budget and don’t end up with a bill that’s far more than you expected to pay in the first place.

Never just accept that the person who comes to your door or your vehicle is the licensed and trained locksmith. Ask the company for the name of the locksmith, make sure they have been verified by CRB, and then ask the locksmith upon arrival for their credentials, putting your mind at ease.

The final step in finding reliable locksmith services is to make sure that any part you need, like a new lock, comes with a decent warranty that you can trust.

Digital Marketing

5 ways to avoid having a cheesy and unprofessional website

I learned several successful marketing methods by writing articles online. The same rules apply to commercial websites.

Writing useful content on your business website, to give your readers something of value, will help drive more traffic and lead to business success. It will also give your website a professional look.

Here are five ways to achieve that non-cheesy, professional-looking website.

1. Attract quality visitors

When you write quality content on the internet that offers value to the reader, you will get quality traffic from search engines. When I say quality trafficI’m talking about visitors looking specifically for what you have to offer.

If your website isn’t focused on the type of person you want to attract, you’ll get misdirected traffic. Those people will leave as soon as they arrive.

Using the wrong terminology or the wrong keywords can cause a search engine to match a query to the wrong topic. This causes the wrong visitor to land on your page.

You didn’t want them anyway, but search engines don’t know the difference. If Google tracks short visits or bounces, it will assume your site is cheesy and has little or no value. This will lower your ranking to the point where you may no longer get search engine traffic.

2. Make good use of Google Analytics reports

Your Google Analytics reports help uncover underperforming web pages.

Poorly performing pages may not necessarily be poorly written. They may just be attracting the wrong traffic. Using the wrong terminology or the wrong keywords can cause a search engine to match a query to the wrong topic. This causes the wrong visitor to land on your page.

When you review your Google Analytics reports, you can see what search terms visitors used and why they matched one of your pages.

Armed with this information, you’ll know what changes you need to make to attract visitor traffic that matches your business. That’s a quality visitor you want.

3. Add value to a marketing website

You can’t just sell stuff. You need to provide something of value to the reader. Write about your products with useful guidance and useful information that your potential customers are really looking for.

These readers will stay because they found something that relates to what they want. They will read what you have to say and may even refer to other pages on your site for more content if they feel they got something valuable from you.

Since I started writing online, I also started writing articles for my business site. I wrote informative pages that were not focused on selling. Its purpose was to give the reader something to use, without asking for anything in return.

Before this, my business site was full of product descriptions. I thought I had a professional website, but it was too focused on sales content and not providing helpful discussions. I didn’t realize you had a cheesy website.

By changing the whole concept, including articles that provide value to the reader, I found that visitors stayed long enough to become paying customers.

4. Rework and improve web pages

The work never ends. It is important to pay attention to what works and what does not. The information I get from Google Analytics reports is excellent.

You can get a lot of useful data on how well your articles are performing and why. This information is a gold mine.

It is important to review poorly performing web pages and work to improve them. I like to analyze the pages that are not working against the ones that are working. This helps discover what might be missing and what works.

Google notifies when pages are updated. Those pages rank higher because they want to send search traffic to pages that stick around instead of to pages that stalled.

Google assumes that pages that are not updated from time to time may be out of date or outdated. Therefore, it is to your benefit to keep your pages up to date.

5. How to get content ideas for your website

Articles are useful for sharing information between all customers. Since I would have conversations with clients from time to time, I would write articles on the topics that came up and post them on my company site.

The questions people asked and the answers I gave were always helpful to other clients as well. It was important to everyone that I take the time to write these articles and include them on my website.

As it turned out, the informative pages helped bring traffic to the search engines. It also had positive results with the sales of my products. It no longer has a cheesy look. People got what they wanted and didn’t feel like I was just interested in taking their money.

Conclusion and review

You see, when people do a search related to your product, Google will put more value on web pages that give the reader something of value.

If all you have are pages full of advertising or sales-focused product descriptions, then you’re falling into the vast sea of ​​all the other e-commerce sites selling things on the internet.

However, if you have pages with useful articles, Google will eventually send you more traffic. It takes time for that to build up. They rank those pages based on how long people stay to read.

Google also ranks based on how long people spend on your entire site. If a reader feels that he got something of value, you can encourage him to look around your site some more.

Google tracks whether someone left completely or followed a link to another page on your site. If your visitor first sees something that focuses on a sales pitch, they will quickly leave. That short duration looks bad on you. Your search engine ranking will suffer for it.

When you provide value with articles, visitors can return useful for more. You get repeat visitors. Google also keeps track of repeat visitors.

Now you know how to avoid that cheesy look with a professional looking website that will drive quality traffic, improve your website rankings, and improve your business success.

Digital Marketing

How to promote your blog in 5 easy steps

If you have a blog and are eager to be discovered by the rest of the world, then a roadmap on how to promote your blog is probably what you are looking for. And not just any roadmap, a detailed and descriptive roadmap, so you know exactly what to do, right? Here’s an easy-to-follow plan just for you…

Actually, focusing more on the topic of how to promote your blog effectively is an even better plan. Because effectiveness is key when looking for the best ways to promote your blogging efforts.

You work hard on your blog, so you want to implement promotion strategies that give you the most bang for your buck, right?

But exactly what to do and how to promote your blog can be a daunting task. Believe me, I know, I’ve tried almost all of them.

I’ve paid hundreds of dollars on all kinds of bookmarking, directory submissions, not to mention social media and extensive “google search”.

But what I found out is that there are a handful of proven methods that can attract lots of visitors to your blog. And you don’t have to pay money to promote your blog, it’s all FREE!

You can learn how to promote your blog very quickly and easily with these 5 easy steps.

Don’t worry if they seem long, they are really very easy and will bring you more readers than you ever imagined.

Step 1 – When looking at how to promote your blog, the first step is to identify what your goals are for your promotional efforts.

Imagine a business: Businesses don’t just buy advertising space or hire sales staff without a clearly defined plan. They have a goal in mind and everything they do is related to that goal.

The same goes for your blog. Write down some goals you want to achieve with your promotional efforts: do you want to hit the 100, 500, or 1,000 visitor/day mark, or get 500 new subscribers to your newsletter, or sell $x amount of dollars in your Amazon store? Why are you promoting your blog? This is a crucial step, one that cannot be ignored. Having a goal guides you in deciding where to send all of your blog visitors.

You wouldn’t want to send readers to your blog without having it structured to receive those visitors. Imagine getting a bunch of new readers, new leads for your blog, only to leave within minutes of arriving (check this percentage on how to use Google Analytics) or get sent to a page that isn’t relevant to what they were expecting. . All your promotional strategies went out the window! Setting goals and clearly defining what the customer needs to do next is critical to any promotion strategy. Key question here: Why are you promoting your blog?

Step 2 – After you’ve reached a concrete goal, then it’s time to put the wheels in motion. I’ll use the well-known example of dog training to help explain this step. Dog training is a very broad niche, imagine that your niche is more specialized: dog training in a laboratory.

Your blog, Dog Training a Lab, is up and running and you’ve been posting quality content for a few weeks now. You want to promote your blog with the goal of selling items from your Amazon links. That is your ultimate goal: to sell items that you will refer your readers to, through the Amazon links in your posts.

Now that we have defined a goal, we can move on to putting a plan into action.

And as with any marketing or promotional effort, the question to ask is how do I present myself to people interested in what I have to offer? Where are all these people hanging out? Where do people meet who want to talk about dog training…

Well, they meet on the forums…

People who want to know about dog training are found in the community forums discussing dog training with other people.

I googled dog training forums and several websites came up, then I googled lab dog training forums and came up with some forums that are geared just for labs.

Sparkly!

Go where the people are: There are people interested in training dogs in a lab on the community forums. Go there and participate. Contribute and you’ll get visitors to your blog to buy your latest and greatest dog leash or some other item you’re blogging about.

Step 3 – Next it’s time to get on Twitter and start tweeting, notice I said start tweeting. Just being on Twitter doesn’t do anything for your business, you have to say something.

If tweeting is too far out of your comfort zone, try tweeting someone else’s posts or retweeting what someone else has said to begin with. You still gain popularity because your name is in the tweet. Keep using it and you will gain followers. Take a big leap of faith and tweet something: spread the word on a new dog training video you just watched. You’ll start tweeting, which will send people to your blog, leading to sales in no time.

Step 4 – Configure Facebook for your business. Tell your friends about a dog toy sale or mention a new blog post you just published. The point is to be as exposed as possible so visitors can find you anywhere and everywhere. Generating friends on Facebook will be covered in another post, but for now put a button on your blog to encourage others to find you on Facebook.

At the bottom of your blog posts, place a social connect button with a Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Google+ button so readers can simply click a button to post to Twitter or any of the others; again, this makes it easy. for visitors to share a great post with others and it will drive more traffic to your blog. If you use WordPress there is a plugin for this, Blogger will also have an option in its settings.

step 5 – Comments make the world go round. You may have heard this from me before, but feedback really is like gold. Find other blogs in your niche or slightly outside of it. Let’s look at the dog training a lab example. I would jump to other dog training blogs in a lab and read their posts and make a smart comment. Then he would climb and jump to some general dog training blogs and read his posts and comment there. Do you see where this is heading?

Treat the comments you receive with care – they do much more than just take up space on your post’s page. Comments show interaction: Visitors like to see and read comments. Comments build your report with search engines. They provide links that lead to your website; They build links outside of your website. The comments mean that you have an interactive and attentive blog and that is what makes the difference between a successful blog and a failed blog.

Five easy steps on how to promote your blog, right?

In fact, these steps are very easy to implement: take a night and set up these accounts and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Finding out how to promote your blog is made even easier in my latest book, Profitable Blogging Made Easy. Get your copy today!

Digital Marketing

Christmas in America vs. Christmas in Italy – Two Pleasant Holiday Destinations!

There are similarities and differences between Christmas in America and Christmas in Italy. The Christmas holiday originated with the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25, the shortest day of the year. Therefore, the main reason we celebrate the holiday is to celebrate the birthday of Christ. Another reason to celebrate Christmas includes the changing of the seasons and the days that will get shorter before getting longer again. The shortest day, which does not necessarily fall on Christmas, is the winter solstice, which is also a pagan agricultural holiday to mark the changing seasons. Quite simply, we celebrate Christmas around the world as an inspiration to imitate the ethical behaviors of Christ, who unconditionally loved all men and women, regardless of his beliefs or background.

Americans and Italians provide countless special Christmas games and activities for their children, both at home and at school. Santa Claus, who is he?Babbo native” In Italy, it brings surprises to children on Christmas day. Almost all children receive some gifts on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas day. Children open their packages or empty their stockings while family members enjoy watching them rejoice over surprises Gifts for children range from sweets to stuffed animals to other more sophisticated toys.

The exchange of gifts between family and friends is the commercial aspect of the holiday that has been embraced by merchants large and small. Spending money in stores stimulates the economy during good years of prosperity. One thing that sets America apart is that Americans receive more merchant catalogs in the mail each year to show what items will be available before and after the holidays. Americans not only enjoy finding bargains on gifts, but also attend good deals the day after Christmas. Americans tend to hunt for the bargains, and now Italians have even started their own bargain sales on “Black Friday” the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. Reports indicate that Italians began most of their Christmas sales this year (2015) with decorations in their stores right after Macy’s in New York held its annual Thanksgiving Day parade. In fact, I was a witness to this case in Novara, Italy.

People in Italy and the United States often enjoy shopping for friends and family. There are many similarities between the gifts they give because both Americans and Italians like toys, electronics, clothes, and food for friends and family. Too often, some people forget that the meaning behind the season is to express the simplicity of love. Instead, some people expect big gifts or try to see who gives the best and most expensive gift of all. Christmas gets frustrating for those out of work who don’t have money to buy gifts, but some struggling people have been smart enough to bake cookies, do crafts, or provide a free service for their loved ones instead of giving the gifts. traditional. There is no doubt that both Americans and Italians occasionally forget the spirit of the season, that Christ would have recommended helping the poor and needy during the holidays. Regardless of one’s background, there is always a risk of forgetting the true meaning of Christmas as we try to outdo our neighbors, friends, and family. The essence of the season is not about “looking good” or “beautiful figure rate.”

Both Italians and Americans like to sit down and eat a lot of food with their family members. Some families live in difficult financial times with too many bills, high mortgages to pay, and no job. Fortunately for most, there are merry festive meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, when it’s also a time of festivity, possibly even more hours of festivity in the southern Italian region than anywhere else. Many of the dishes served are similar and others are different. Most Americans and Italians have a meat main course, some side dishes, salads, and some sweets at the end. The food served differs within the regions of Italy, with southern Italians tending to eat more seafood, while their northern counterparts eat more meat. Americans often enjoy turkey, ham, and roast beef. That said, dietary habits on both sides of the ocean are changing, so more and more people are turning vegetarian and serving dishes like vegetarian tofu and lasagna. Although most Americans literally go nuts for spaghetti and pizza, those two dishes aren’t usually eaten on Christmas Day and are reserved for before and after the holidays.

Italians and Americans often enjoy helping the poor at Christmas. This can be done by giving money at church and elsewhere. In American schools, students take food drives to give to the poor. In part, this is done wisely to teach young children compassion for others. Italians give their donations to help the poor at the supermarket instead of at school, and there is the famous Community of Santo Egidio that helps people in Italy at Christmas. Fortunately, the American branch of the Salvation Army rings its bells every year in front of grocery stores to help anyone in need get a warm coat, some shoes, clothes, and food. Countless Americans regularly donate food at churches and there are even homeless shelters. In some parts of Italy, Santa Claus tells stories and gives gifts to any child who shows up for the reading event.

Most people would agree that the true meaning of Christmas is to be different from Scrooge and more like Saint Francis. People must help all those in need, regardless of their origins. This message is emphasized by Pope Francis and other leaders with strong moral values. Catholics try to emulate the goodness of the saints who were not worshiped but rather observed for their great deeds, while both Protestants and Catholics follow the teachings of Christ and the various books of the Bible. People of other religions, even spiritual non-believers, feel the need to help others during Christmas, since the main point of such a widespread holiday is to love our neighbor and respect the world we live in as Christ did. . Few would argue against the notion that supporting humanity and nature is appropriate.

Italians are lucky enough to be able to eat many variations of Panettone, a large cake that often has fruit and vanilla. That same cake is now sold in American stores, but versions found in Italy tend to be more delicious. Such a cake can be easily baked at home in America with a good recipe using baking soda and/or baking powder. Alternatively Americans eat tons of fruitcake which is also delicious if one buys the right brand, one such delicious brand is from Collins Street Bakery in Texas!

Italians extend the national holiday until the day after Christmas, Santo Stefano, a day that has been an official holiday since 1947. Although Americans generally don’t pay much attention to the feast of Santo Stefano, most of them are still free. from work the day after Christmas. unless they work in the retail market and offer sales to vacationers. On Santo Stefano day, Italians enjoy another special meal as well as a nice passaggiata or walk around the city with the family. It is a good time for long family discussions or to visit the mother’s or father’s side of the family. Italians are very fortunate to visit markets, see small parades, and see nativity displays such as those found in the small nativity museums known in Italian as presepi.

Both cultures display lights in their homes and in the city. For Americans, it often turns into a festival of lights competition. Perhaps some of the most famous American lights can be found in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Italian lighting is usually carried out by the town hall or town in which you live. There is more lighting in big cities like Rome or Florence where the streets are filled with tourists. Certainly, almost all people have trees in their houses, as well as some lighting around the trees. Americans display more real candles than Italians, and one of the great American pastimes has been going out and cutting down real evergreens (that were bred for that purpose) every year. The felling of the tree was done with a father or grandfather in the tradition of a pioneer. In Italy, trees are more scarce, so they are usually fake trees that are reused year after year. Murano glass from Venice makes an excellent Italian ornament or decorates the home throughout the year in the form of lamps and small sculptures.

Italians are lucky that this celebration continues until the “Befana” arrives on Epiphany day in January. Between the night of January 5 and 6, the baby brings sweets to children’s homes in Italy. The name “Befana” is actually another way of saying Epiphany but in a folkloric and secular sense of the word. descriptions of the baby they are very similar to those of the American kitchen witches that are quite popular in the United States. In some small towns, an old woman dresses up as the Befana to amuse the children. Legend has it that she helped shepherds find Baby Jesus when she was born. This legend does not agree with biblical teachings, but it is a beautiful secular twist, much like Santa Claus.

Americans usually go back to school for Epiphany, but American kids would probably enjoy such a candy-and-stocking celebration too! Many American children have at least the opportunity to study baby in their primary classes as they eagerly try to learn more about Italy. In fact, I have observed that many Italian Americans in the Atlanta area continue to celebrate Befana in one form or another with their grandparents who immigrated to the United States.

In both Italy and America, the Christmas holidays are mostly about praising God and his son Jesus, with the spirit of the season being that of kindness and the spirit of people sharing precious moments with their families. The result is that the citizens of Italy and the United States try to be nice to each other in anticipation of a greater heavenly kingdom while making this world a much better place. We all share the tradition of contemplating those artistic nativity scenes with Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Angels and Shepherds in them! Angels, bells, wreaths, and candles continue to be the shared symbols of the Christmas season with Christians and others who recognize the beauty of a little child who grew up to be a fine example of how we should live with love for one another. all over the world. May some beautiful Italian and American traditions stimulate peace and goodwill on earth! These shared festivities are for everyone on earth who wants to visit two fascinating countries as their Christmas vacation destinations!

Digital Marketing

Get to the top of search results with SEM

How to Create a Powerful SEM Ecommerce Strategy

It seems that SEO gets most of the attention when it comes to marketing, but we can’t forget about SEM! Now… What is SEM?

First, let’s review the basics: SEO means optimization of search engines. It’s an unpaid effort that focuses on optimizing your website and its content for words and phrases that people would type into a search engine.

For example, if your eCommerce site sells supplements in Canada, you might use a combination of words and phrases including:

• canada online supplement store

• protein shakes for athletes

• probiotics for women canada

• beetroot extract

As you build trust with Google by providing users with fresh and original content, hopefully you will naturally begin to rank higher for the keywords you have chosen.

Google USES AN ALGORITHM to DETERMINE WHICH website or page can best answer a user’s query (there are other factors too, like how fast your site is and how long people stay on a page vs. bouncing back after a few seconds) .

If you do SEO correctly, you will be rewarded with unpaid or organic traffic, which means people type your keywords into the search engine and see your website or web page in the results.

Excellent! However, SEO takes time.

And, if you target high-end, high-competition keywords, you may never make it to the coveted #1 spot on Google.

That’s where SEM eCommerce comes in.

What is SEM?

SEM Means Search engines marketing, also known as paid search. The most used paid search tool is Google Ads, so I’ll focus on that.

By using SEM for your online store, you are speeding your way to the top of search results.

The process of using paid search ads (also called PPC, which stands for Pay Per Click) as part of your SEM eCommerce strategy includes:

• Orientation to geographic areas

• Create advertising campaigns aimed at that group

• Write relevant ad copy that will attract and compel your target audience to click on the ad

• Continuous monitoring of clicks, impressions and conversions

You’ll be able to see the cost per click (CPC) for the keywords you want to target in Google Ads.

The cost of your eCommerce SEM depends on how popular a keyword is and where you want your ad to appear in the paid results.

For example, targeting a keyword like “women’s red heels” for your ecommerce shoe store will cost you less than “women’s shoes.”

When using SEM for your online store, you can set a budget per day, per campaign, and per keyword so you don’t end up with any surprises.

Google Ads lets you target the audience you want, from time zone to language preference.

You can have your ad appear at certain times, choose which keywords you don’t want your ad to show for, adjust your bids for each keyword, and more.

The success of your SEM online store strategy depends on a number of factors, not just how much you’re willing to pay per click.

As I mentioned earlier, crafting compelling ad copy that entices visitors to click on your ad and monitoring the results is a big part of the process.

If you don’t have valuable content or a clear call to action on your website when a visitor arrives, you won’t get very far.

Also, if you’re not constantly adjusting campaigns and analyzing data, you’re wasting your eCommerce SEM budget on unqualified clicks.

Your online store’s SEM package will be tailored specifically to your product or service to give you the best possible results. Learn more about what we offer.

Are you a service-based business? Read my blog on SEO Vs SEM: What Should Service-Based Businesses Focus On?

It is not a battle between SEO and SEM

Search engine marketing is not an either/or game. SEO is still important when you’re focusing on an SEM eCommerce strategy, and vice versa.

An effective SEO/SEM campaign will mean lower costs and greater visibility in Google. If you don’t spend time on SEO and your site takes forever to load, you will lose money on SEM eCommerce.

People will click on your ad, but they won’t be left waiting for a website to load slowly. If people click your ad and quickly leave your site, Google will lower your quality score and raise your CPC.

SEO is a long-term strategy that can help you increase leads and sales. Using SEM can help you get results fast, but remember that you are paying for that traffic. If you can appear in more searches organically, you can reduce your SEM efforts or focus on new paid keywords to drive other areas of your business.

Digital Marketing

Top 5 Social Media Marketing Apps

Every online marketer recognizes the power of social forums. It can make or break a business. But with so many social media channels, how do you take advantage of these platforms?

Whether you’re a fan of Apple, Android, or Windows, there are plenty of apps with different features that can help you organize multiple accounts. Plus, these apps are smart enough to show you information about trends, the latest practices, and how people are responding to your messages.

To help you optimize your social media marketing strategies, we have listed 5 of the best apps for social media aggregation.

1. Hoot Suite.

Hootsuite – A social forum management platform serving over 15 million users worldwide. It is available in five versions: Free, Pro, Team, Business and Enterprise. HootSuite is fully integrated with most social networks, allowing you to manage your activities on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn accounts in one simple dashboard. The app has a simple and intuitive dashboard with advanced filters for the workplace. Some other Hootsuite features include:

1. A support service for inquiries.
2. A wise guide. It shows you how to schedule a post, add a social network, check keywords/mentions, share content using Hootlet, and social networks.
3. Social media courses where you can learn the basics of social media marketing.
4. Hootsuite Forums allows you to connect your Facebook or Twitter page to this forum.
5. 30-day free trial for the Hootsuite Pro plan
6. Provide support for the WordPress blog.

2. Social outbreak

Sprout Social is a SaaS service with three core functionalities: engagement, publishing, and analytics. As a social media aggregation tool, it aims to promote communication between people and a company. Monitor social conversation, get things done, and manage a portfolio from a single platform. The app has features such as:

1.Intelligent inbox
2. Cooperation
3. Publication
4. Mobile
5. Analytics
6.Monitoring
7. Account Structure
8. Discovery
9. Reports
10.Social CRM

These features are available on the dashboard and are divided into six sections: Source Dashboard, Task, Messaging, Reports, Discovery, Publishing & Scheduling, and Integrations. The topic area lets you know where you stand with your prospects and customers, as well as allowing you to build your presence on social media platforms.

3. Shock absorber

Buffer is social media integration software used to schedule posts, text, images, and photos to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts.

The app is available in four different plans: an individual plan that is free, Awesome, Small, Medium, and Large. The application is web-based and allows you to create, schedule posts, and update your entire account with a single click. The app has a browser extension and integrates seamlessly with Chrome, RSS, and WordPress.

Additional Buffer features include:

1. RSS feed support
2. Connectivity features
3. Team collaboration
4. Analysis and information
5. Statistics Comparison
6. Share social profile
7. Support for iOS and Android
8. Multiple posts and tweets
9. 2-Step Account Login
10. Share media format
11. Custom programming
12. Informative Social Analytics
13. Profile Management
14. Standard buffering
15. Agency/business planning
16. Statistics Comparison
17. 14 day trial for each plan

4. Brand watch

While other social engagement tools are for sharing and managing content, Brandwatch is more of an analytics tool. It listens, monitors and collects data from the Internet, social media platforms, product reviews, blogs, news about what people are saying about your service or product and offers a large amount of data for analysis and sentimental analysis.

Brandwatch sentiment analysis eliminates spasm and unnecessary messaging. It can also integrate with HootSuite and Spreadfast, allowing you to use data in those apps.

5. Social boost

As a social media aggregator, SocialOomph allows you to manage all your accounts on one platform. It has free and paid version. The free version allows you to manage up to five Twitter profiles, while the paid version allows you to unblock other platforms like FB, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. It’s easy to manage, enables URL shortening, has a keyword search feature, and tracks the clicks you get on each URL.

In addition, the paid version offers contact suggestions and allows you to link many Twitter accounts, manage blogs and RSS feeds, perform social updates by email and has filters to discard unnecessary messages.