small business

Top 6 Technology Tools

Improve your website with the latest technology tools

You might be pleased with your company’s website and think it is performing well, but do you know for sure? Even a website that brings in sales could be improved to bring in more sales. The only way to discover whether your website is doing the best possible job is to test its performance. This review covers the best technology tools that will help you improve the performance of your website by identifying your potential customers and asking them about the site. Word of mouth is an important sales tool, so you need to ensure your back-office functions and after-sales service are also maximized.

Until recently, to get product testing for your website, you would need to hire a marketing firm. However, new feedback technology, analytical services, and website traffic analysis services can do much of the work for you. Take a look at the top six technology tools that will help you improve your website.

1) UserTesting

The classic method of product testing involves gathering a group of typical people from your target market, getting them to use the product, and requesting their opinion. UserTesting offers analytical services that do exactly that with websites. No matter where your website is hosted, it is accessible throughout the world. You don’t need to go to the UserTesting offices. They communicate with you over the Internet. Because you can’t physically be there to witness the testing, the company creates videos of typical users moving around your site and then sends those videos to you. The tests are specifically based on an aspect of your site you want investigated; for example, you can determine whether users can find the FAQ page or whether the payment page is easy to use on a smartphone.

2) Mixpanel

Mixpanel is a technology tool that covers information similar to that provided by UserTesting. However, the data that is used by the analytical technology of Mixpanel is gathered from regular users of your site rather than from nominated test subjects. To use the feedback technology of this service, you have to install a set of programs on your web server. This enables you to request data on the behavior of your site’s visitors. The aim is to gather business intelligence on how people use your site, which gives more detailed information about your site’s strengths and weaknesses than a simple count of the number of people who visited each page. You get information from the system by assembling data queries from a series of drop-down option boxes. Mixpanel’s pricing structure is a monthly subscription payment. The analytical services track either a certain number of people or a certain number of data points in your site. The plans cost up to $2,000 per month, but there is a free version available.

3) Mint

Mint is similar to Mixpanel in that you install the technology tool on your web server. The program applies analytical technology to visits to your site, and you access the gathered business intelligence through a dashboard program. Mint is much cheaper than the paid version of Mixpanel. You pay a one-time fee of $30 when you install the technology tool on your site. However, the information you receive from the system is much less comprehensive than the data presented by Mixpanel.

4) Clicky

Clicky provides feedback technology through a range of technology tools, the list of which expands with increasingly more expensive plans. This analytical service has a much wider range of analysis options than Mint does and doesn’t require you to assemble queries of data to get business intelligence from the system. Clicky has a menu of pages, each of which presents a different graphic covering aspects of your site. All the information shown in the analysis includes live data, so the reports are up to the minute. A distinctive feature of Clicky is its Heatmap presentation of your webpages. This shows which features of each page attract the most clicks, by overlaying colored spots over the image of a particular page. The Heatmap feature is available only with the Pro Plus plan and more expensive plans. Pro Plus costs $14.99 per month, while the Pro plan, the cheapest paid plan, costs $9.99 per month. There is a free version, but it only allows you to monitor sites with daily page views of less than 3,000.

5) Kampyle

One of the most straightforward ways to get customer feedback is to ask for it. You can either put feedback buttons at various locations on your site or program a dialogue box asking for feedback. Kampyle specializes in the process of asking for customer feedback and interpreting the captured data. Feedback technology can be an effective method to get public opinion about your website’s performance.

6) Jira

You may have lost many customers in the past because you didn’t realize that your customer service methods weren’t good enough. The technology tools in this review may help you gain business intelligence into what is going wrong, but you can’t fix lousy procedures if you are prone to poor organization. A good work- and team-planning tool like Jira will help your improve your overall task management.

Implementation

The three key technology tools for website traffic analysis are Mint, Mixpanel, and Clicky. Each of these business intelligence tools can be installed and run without the need for additional technological capabilities. You could try the free version of Clicky and then progress to one of the paid plans once you become familiar with the tool. Once you have worked out how to analyze your site’s performance, you can ask for a second opinion by getting UserTesting to check the vital functions of your webpages. Adding feedback features through Kampyle will enable continuous feedback data to drive your website’s design. Implementing a task management tool for user support or project management should improve your customers’ opinions of your site. You can get started today with these technology tools and improve your site’s sales performance.

Top 8 ECommerce Tools

ECommerce Tools That Will Get Your Business Online

People with the entrepreneurial spirit come up with great ideas, but then sometimes encounter technological and psychological barriers that stop them implementing these ideas. You may have turned your enthusiasm to eCommerce a few years ago, but then found it all too complicated and just given up. If this is the case, try again. There are many new eCommerce tools available now that will make your online enterprise a lot easier to set up.

You don’t have to be a computer genius to get an eCommerce shop going. In this review, you will read about eCommerce platforms, services, software, and shopping cart solutions. It takes time to get familiar with new systems, but this roundup of eCommerce solutions has done some of the groundwork for you by narrowing your search to the eight top eCommerce tools currently available.

1) Recurly

Getting people to subscribe to a service is a great way to tie in repeat business automatically. Services like investment tip sheets, diet plans, exercise regimes, and lifestyle coaching can be charged with monthly or yearly repeat billing. If that’s the type of business you are in, you should look into Recurly, an eCommerce platform specifically serving subscription businesses. They have credit card verification methods that minimize any impact you might suffer from fraud, and their confirmation procedures reduce incidences of canceled payments and chargebacks.

2) Shopify

Shopify offers a complete eCommerce solution. This platform hosts and helps you build your website, provides an online shopping cart, and processes payments. You can interface your Shopify site with PayPal and many other payment processing systems. Shopify integrates some of the best eCommerce software, and it has pretty much covered all the eCommerce tools you will need. They even offer an interface that enables you to use a Shopify screen instead of a point of sale (POS) system if you have a brick-and-mortar business as well as an online outlet.

3) Vendio

Vendio is very similar to Shopify, and you will need to examine each of their websites to decide between the two. Vendio places more stress on the fact that you can sell on eBay, Amazon, and Facebook through its system. You can do that with Shopify, too, but you have to dig a little deeper through its presentation to find this information, suggesting that Vendio gives those services a little more priority than Shopify.

4) Sift Science

Fraudsters win by gaming the eCommerce world—getting goods delivered and then demanding refunds from their credit cards without returning anything. A credit card refund, called a chargeback, can be made without your permission, and if you get hit with too many of them, credit card companies will withhold a large chunk of your revenue for a time. If the chargebacks continue, they will refuse to deal with you, and your business will be finished. Sift Science is a fraud detection system that analyses shoppers’ habits and prevents fraudsters from buying from your site. This will protect you from excessive chargebacks and unpaid deliveries. This eCommerce solution integrates with Shopify.

5) Google Adwords

Google offers a chance to get ahead in the search engine optimization game, right to the top of search results. This method is called Google AdWords. You may not be interested in paying for your slot on Google’s results, but signing up for Google AdWords is free. You can use it to research what keywords are popular at the moment. So, it is a useful eCommerce tool even if you never actually use it for advertising.

6) Open Cart

At first glance, Open Cart seems to be just an online shopping cart. However, it isn’t just that; it is a comprehensive eCommerce platform like Shopify and Vendio. Just like those other two eCommerce solutions for instant online shops, Open Cart integrates with payment processing and shipping companies such as PayPal and FedEx. If you already have your own domain and hosting package, Open Cart has one big advantage over Shopify and Vendio—it’s free.

7) Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer relationship management (CRM) system. CRM systems enable you to chat with potential customers to answer their questions about your products, and then you can provide support and help through those systems for after-sales service. Zendesk isn’t an eCommerce platform—you will still need an eCommerce solution, such as Vendio or Shopify, that has an online shopping cart included. Zendesk is more of an eCommerce service that you could add to your existing online store. This eCommerce tool can be integrated with Shopify.

8) IDChecker

IDChecker, like Sift Science, is an eCommerce tool for fraud prevention. This eCommerce service includes document and face scanning, which is performed through the buyer’s webcam. As with Sift Science, the motivation for integrating IDChecker into your online shop is to reduce the damage of chargebacks. A main benefit of IDChecker is its scalability and effectiveness for enterprises of all sizes.

Solutions

Starting an online business is an exciting venture, and you should take time to read through the descriptions of Shopify, Vendio, and Open Cart to see which of these three eCommerce platforms would work best for your products. If you sell subscriptions to your services, then you should consider Recurly for your billing method. Sift Science and IDChecker provide essential eCommerce services to prevent chargebacks and keep your business running. Google AdWords will help you analyze your market and target your advertising. Finally, eCommerce tools like Zendesk will encourage nervous shoppers to buy and increase word-of-mouth recommendations by making sure you help buyers fix problems with your products. Your eCommerce strategy just got a lot easier to plan.

Content Writing: Using Words to Benefit Your Business

How Content Writing Can Benefit You

Running a business is hard work. Some days, there is so much to do that it’s difficult to keep track of all the tasks you’re responsible for. Add to this the increasing demand for marketing yourself online, and you have one mighty to-do list. How can you find the time to reach out to your potential customers? That’s where content writing and marketing come into play. Writing content is a process that should be tackled continually over time. Making your content writing a regular part of your day can help this task feel like less of a burden, and it can also help you create more engaging content. Here are a few examples of ways to use your content marketing strategy to benefit your business.

Highlight the strengths of your business

Many businesses find it a struggle to communicate effectively with their target audience. Finding the time to produce a weekly newsletter or blog can help you reach out to both current and potential customers. Writing content can assist you in highlighting what you and your company do best. A content writing strategy can ensure that you stay on track while meeting your communication needs.

Ensure professional results

Establishing an online presence is not just a matter of purchasing a website domain. It requires knowledge of many areas of the online industry. To get the most out of your content writing efforts, you need to educate yourself about the basics of search engine optimization—that is, using tactics to drive traffic to your website. Although acquiring knowledge of website design is not an easy undertaking, it will be worth it to ensure you get the professional results you’re looking for.

Compete with big companies

Most big businesses can afford to outsource their content marketing. They may also spend a great deal of money on paid advertisements. However, not all businesses are large enough to support this kind of spending. The financial benefits of a content writing strategy mean you can focus on developing quality content to establish your brand over time. Your smaller budget doesn’t limit the level of expertise you can offer to your audience, just as it doesn’t take away from the quality of the services you provide. A content marketing strategy, when executed properly, can help you expand your brand to compete with big businesses without the added expense of paid advertisements.

An up-to-date strategy will help you avoid outdated content

One of the cardinal rules of website management is not allowing your content to get stale. Outdated content can be a huge hindrance to attracting readers and clients looking for fresh information. When your site looks old, it implies that your company either has a lack of organization or does not have sufficient resources to support itself. Making your content writing strategy an integral part of your business strategy means that someone is always keeping track of your website maintenance schedules. Keeping your website content current shows that you are relevant and worthy of the consideration of your site visitors.