Shopify App Preview – Sales Pop by Beeketing

Online Merchants, building high quality trust and awareness for your brand in the online arena is vital to your business success. Sales Pop by Beeketing is a free app which is designed with your brand in mind. Sales Pop is responsive on all mobile devices. Plus, customization options are maximized. You can freely edit the message, position or display time of the notification to optimize the app and make it blend with your site. Sales Pop offers highly customizable messages, positions, display time, allows you to create your own custom notifications to create a busy sense for your store, hide notifications of orders which are too old or show notifications randomly, delivers both desktop and mobile responsive with eye-catching design, takes up minimal real estate on your store and has one-click installation, no coding required. Try a free demo today by clicking here. And let us know how we can help create and grow your Shopify business. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create True "Value" for Your Affiliate Marketing Customers - Part 5

Merchants, as we conclude our series on creating "value" for your prospects and customers we have explored Trust, Lead Magnets, Full Disclosure and Follow-through. So what is left? Testimonials and 3rd party Attestations. Regardless of your target avatar(s), the marketplace knows that companies large and small always provide the most favorable view of their products and services. However, if we go the extra mile to include truthful and candid testimonials from our customers along with comments or feedback from industry gurus, trade pubs and portals, the level of actual and perceived "value" for our offers is likely to increase ... leading to a boost in sales and long-term customer loyalty. What we are seeking here are testimonials by members of the same avatar who share their stories about how the use of our products-services helped them achieve a specific goal or transformed their lives from point A to point B. This is true for a customer's financial situation (from despair to freedom), health (from poor to restored health ... such as weight loss, diabetes, etc.) or gaining some new skill (whether expanded career opportunities or yes, a lower golf handicap). Let us know how we can help with your Shopify or WordPress ecommerce storefront today!  Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create True "Value" for Your Affiliate Marketing Customers - Part 4

eCommerce Merchants, in our series on creating and sustain customer "value" in the marketplace we have addressed Trust, Lead Magnets and Full (and Accurate) Disclosure. Another vital element of building actual and perceived value for your customers we'll call post-sale "Follow-up and Follow-through" (aka Support). Once a purchase has been made your customers rightfully expect your business to answer any questions they have about their new product or service. Whether such inquiries come in via email, social media, blogs, forums, instant messaging, etc. - on mobile devices or computer - providing credible answers, guidance and issue resolution is a must if you want to retain customers and set the stage for repeat or upsell opportunities. If you have a formal Customer Support system or simply field individual inquiries follow-up and follow-through it is essential to ensure customer satisfaction, follow-on sales and referrals. Let us know how we can help with your Shopify or WordPress ecommerce storefront today!  Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create True "Value" for Your Affiliate Marketing Customers - Part 3

Online Merchants,  so far in this series on creating customer "value" (both actual and perceived) we have looked at Trust and Lead Magnets. Now let's address "Full and Accurate Disclosure" of the features and functions of your product or service. We have all purchased items that did not match our expectations nor needs. We want to avoid this issue to the best of our ability. If you are marketing you own product-service by default you are intimately aware of what it does and does not do. Marketing 3rd party affiliate products is a greater challenge ... nonetheless, loyal customers rightfully expect us to provide an accurate description of what they are purchasing in feature, form and function. As high integrity Internet marketers we must especially be careful in making claims about "benefits and results" which likely will vary. In my many years of Fortune 500 corporate marketing I was always required by our internal legal department to avoid using 'superlatives' (e.g. the top rated XYZ or the best performing ABC in its class) unless we had definite, independent attestation from a credible source such as a trade association, industry forum or standards body. Remain blessed … Let us know how we can help with your Shopify or WordPress ecommerce storefront today!  Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create True "Value" for Your Affiliate Marketing Customers - Part 2

Online Merchants creating tangible "value" for your prospects and customers is the bedrock of your Internet marketing business. In our first post in this series we discussed the starting point in establishing on-going "trust" is the essential starting point. So what are the other elements of long-term "value"? There are many, however, offering a series of congruent, highly relevant "lead magnets" will definitely provide additional "value" in your niche market (avatar). Lead magnets can take the form of video tutorials, substantive articles, credible white papers, How To and Quick Start guides, and FAQs are all excellent "lead magnets". Depending upon your expertise you can create lead magnets yourself, outsource their creative projects to freelancers via Fiverr, UpWork, eLance, Skrill, etc. commonly at very affordable prices. For example, I frequently use a fine graphic designer based in the UK who has developed several eBook covers for me. Let us know how we can help with your Shopify or WordPress ecommerce storefront today!  Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create a Sales Closing Process Which Generates Leads & Revenue - Part 3

Online Merchants, with your Sales Funnel and Auto-Responder in place let's focus on your product or service offers. While there are an infinite number of items which may be offered they generally fall into a 3-part sequence. While you are initially building trust as you convert prospects into customers it is best to begin with a "Low-Ticket" offer such as $50 USD per monthly - ideally as a recurring subscription service (which yes, may be cancelled at anytime) These customers subsequently receive a follow-up email for a "Mid-Ticket" offer (e.g. several days after their first purchase ... at an incrementally higher price such as $400-$600 USD.) A subset of perhaps 3%-5% of your first-round customers will purchase. Assuming this second offer provides real value the stage is set to to offer a "High-Ticket" offer - perhaps in the $1000-$2000 USD range which will be purchased by some 3%-5% of your "Mid-Ticket" loyalists. There are many variations on this process but the key is to continuously offer "value" to your trusted customer base with which you have built a virtual but strong relationship. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create a Sales Closing Process Which Generates Leads & Revenue - Part 2

Online Merchants, with your Sales Funnel in place it's time to select the all-important Auto-Responder. The job of your Auto-Responder is to confirm and remind your customers that they are now vital part of your business and gently keep them informed of "value-based" opportunities to enhance or expand the initial product or service they have purchased from you. From our perspective the goal is to feed them "Mid-Ticket" and "High-Ticket" offers which enrich their experience and generate recurring revenue. There are many good Auto-Responders on the market today such as Aweber, MailChimp, iContact, GetResponse, etc. However most of these tools are "stand-alone" solutions and not necessarily "integrated" with your Sales Closing Process, Automated List Builder and Integrated Product Suite. That is where our solution differs. The Auto-Responder offered by Internet Digital Entrepreneur comes fully integrated and onboard with your end-to-end Internet marketing system. Sound useful? Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

How to Create an Online Sales Closing Process Which Generates Leads & Revenue - Part 1

Online Merchants, so you have selected an Integrated Product Suite and Automated List Building System. What comes next? It's time to convert "prospects" into paying "customers". You need an effective Sales Closing Process. This process starts with a well-defined "Sales Funnel." Yes, there are many types of sales funnels - free and fee based - including Lead Pages, Insta Pages, Click Funnels and more. The key is that your sales funnel is fully connected with your Integrated Product Suite and Automated List Builder. As one successful Internet marketer stated "the key is not in the traffic, it is in the sales funnel Genesys Internet Designs offers not only a proven and successful sales funnel, but a sales funnel that is fully integrated with a Sales Closing Process (more details to come in Part 2 of this series), an Automated Listing Building System and Integrated Product Suite. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Best Practices in Video Marketing for eCommerce Merchants - Part 2

eCommerce Merchants, in our previous post we looked at market leader YouTube and its Creator Studio. But which other video platforms are available if you want to go beyond or simply do not care for YouTube? Well, Internet marketers do have other options particularly if you need some specialized functionality or need to reach a niche market. Your video platform options include Vimeo, Wistia, Brightcove, Vidyard and Sprout Video to name a few (not to be confused with "live streaming" which we'll cover in our next post). Each of these platforms offer their own customized features, packaging and pricing. Some such as Vimeo offer free 7-14 day video hosting ... then charge for additional hosting time and features. Bottom line: If you want to keep things simple and are risk averse then stay with YouTube. By contrast if you want to the broadest possible market reach you might go with YouTube plus one or more of their smaller competitors. Hope this helps. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Best Practices in Video Marketing for Online Merchants - Part 1

Merchants, do you want to expand the reach and coverage of your Internet marketing tactics? Of course you do. Video marketing is one of the fastest growing elements on Internet marketing and YouTube is to video as Google is to search. I see three options with YouTube, perhaps more. You can create a one-time video for a specific marketing campaign, develop a dedicated channel for your brand, post a paid video-based lead magnet on YouTube via Google AdWords (paid advertising) or a combination of the above. YouTube's Creator Studio recently removed some of the "creation and editing" features from Creator Studio and thus you likely will need to use a free or fee-based 3rd party tool. While there are many such tools on the market I suggest trying "Kizoa" which closely matches the features removed from Creator Studio. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Defining and Targeting High Demand Niche Markets (Avatars) - Part 5

Small Business Owners, as we conclude our series on high-demand "Avatars" for Internet Marketer's let's take a look at the "Self-Employed" niche. Unlike the Millennial, Work From Home and Baby Boomer avatars, the "Self-Employed" market spans the full gamit of age range, occupational status, education and income. Thus, research on the specific sub-niche, their need(s), interest(s) and buying motivation(s) can vary widely. Examples of the "Self-Employed" include everyone from professional business consultants (accountants, management consultants, attorneys and most definitely Internet Marketers) to small or micro business owners and construction contractors. Many Fiverr, Upwork and Freelancer consultants are "Self-Employed". Facebook has multiple Groups of interest including "Self Employed Friends". Entrepreneur.com, Consulting.com and Glassdoor.com are excellent Internet 'hangouts' where you can learn the nuances of Self Employed occupations, needs and interests. And let us know if you would like to discuss implementing an new Shopify or WordPress ecommerce storefront. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Defining and Targeting High Demand Niche Markets (Avatars) - Part 4

Merchants, so far we have defined key target niche selection criteria as well as profiled two Avatars ... Millennials and Work From Homers. "Baby Boomers" are roughly defined as being born between 1945-1964 ... numbering 75 million in the US alone. They typically are approaching (or in) retirement, yet the younger half of this cohort still may be seeking "second career" opportunities either as part of a larger corporation, small business or sole proprietor where they can apply these skills from their 'first' career' in a different environment. Their professional motivation is two-fold: First, stay active and add value as they have the for the past 2-3+ decades. And second, generate a supplemental income which will enhance their life styles. Boomers are prime candidates for products and services which help them reach a specific goal such as gain new tech skills, improve health-fitness or lower their golf handicap. Take a look at Baby Boomer Magazine(.com) and the Facebook "Baby Boomer - A National Movement" Group. Contact us to see if a Shopify or WordPress ecommerce store is right for you. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Defining and Targeting High Demand Niche Markets (Avatars) - Part 3

Online Merchants, in this post series we have defined the 'profile and selection criteria' for your target Avatars and examined the "Millennial" Avatar. What's next? Let's take a look at the "Work From Home" Avatar. Men and women work from home for a variety of reasons which you will want to include in your market "messaging" (copywriting and/or video). The age range can vary widely from 20s to 60s. Reasons for working from home can include caring for a young child, home schooling, employer perks to work on-site or off-site, the logistical benefit of having a 2 minute versus 1 hour commute, etc. Conventional wisdom is that Work From Homers are college-educated professionals employed by a medium-to-large business or freelancers-consultants ... generally with good middle class incomes. Others - younger or older - are forming their own business and need to keep overhead expenses low. I highly suggest performing searches on Facebook Groups and/or Google "work from home" to uncover trade publications, associations and web portals which cater to this Avatar to learn first-hand about the gamit of Work From Homer circumstances and needs, including "Work From Home Mom Revolution”. . Let us know how we can help your business. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

Defining and Targeting High Demand Niche Markets (Avatars) for Online Merchants- Part 2

Merchants, our first post in this series on target niche market Avatars we looked at the key profile and decision-making criteria to help you assess the best Avatar(s) for your Internet business. So what are some of the ideal Avatars to consider? Well, in this and coming posts we will put several Avatars under the microscope to aide you in the assessment process. Let's begin with "Millennials". Millennials are aged 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) and Generation X (ages 35-50 in 2015). They have grown up with technology, spend significant time on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and are comfortable purchasing products and services on Amazon and other online businesses. Finally, Millennials tend to have strong purchasing power. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

SEO Best Practices for Online Merchants - Part 7 (“Google-friendly Content”)

Merchants, as a postscript to our SEO series I wanted to share with you the most up-to-date version of Google's Developer Documentation Style Guide dated June 8, 2017 (https://developers.google.com/style/). Do not be misled by the phrase "Developer Documentation". This guide provides an invaluable description of what Google deems to be best practices for almost any type of Internet "Content" such as articles, white papers, blog posts, lead magnets and even video. To what benefit for IMers? You guessed it: Boosting search engine rankings and ultimately Traffic. A few very basic golden nuggets include: 1) Sound like a knowledgeable friend, 2) Use clear, concise, short sentences, 3) Include numbered lists for sequences of events, 4) Write in a friendly, conversational tone with a clear purpose ... and much, much more. We are here to help build your business. Let us know how we can help.  Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

SEO Best Practices for Online Merchants - Part 6 (“Backlinks”)

Online Merchants, as we conclude our SEO post series let's take a look at "Backlinks". So what are Backlinks and why are they vital to your success? Backlinks are links from outside ("referring") domains that point back to pages on your domain. Your backlink profile is made up of backlinks from external sites. They contribute to the overall strength, relevance and diversity of your domain’s backlink profile which boost your sites "Authority" and "Page Rank" among Google, Bing, Yahoo! Search engines assess both the number of Backlinks and the Authority of the "referring domains" - thus the quantity and quality of Backlinks are essential. "Do-follow" links pass on the SEO benefits of the website where it is built from to the hyperlinked site. "No-follow" links do not have any SEO value and will not add up to the link profile used by search engines. SEO gurus believe you should use both types of Backlinks, yet a much higher percentage of your Backlinks should be "Do-follow" links. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

SEO Best Practices for Internet Merchants - Part 5

Merchants, this SEO series has focused so far on Domains, Hosting, Keywords, Content, Portals-Resources and the value of your own Blog. Let's now take a look at Guest Blogging. Why is Guest Blogging essential for successful IMers? First, Guest Blogging allows you to strengthen the "Value" of your "Content" and in turn generate incremental "traffic" from large pools of new prospects who read these 3rd party blogs. Second, assuming your "Content" is in fact valuable to the other blog's readers their blog owners are more likely to link back to your own blog ... which leads to a boost in the "Authority" of your blog from the perspective of Google, Bing and Yahoo. The more links to your blog from 3rd party blogs and portals resonate well with search engines. Bottom line: Guest Blogging on 1st and 2nd tier blogs which are in the same market or technology niche as your blog (or web site) is a vital SEO asset. While there are numerous blog directories I suggest simply performing a Google search such as "ABC blog portal" where ABC is your target avatar and/or solution area. Let us know how we can help your business. Bye for now. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)

SEO Best Practices for Online Merchants - Part 4

Merchants, so far in our series SEO we have looked at domains, hosting, keywords, content (is "king") and WordPress plug-ins. What comes next? Developing and managing your own blog dedicated to your target avatar(s), their needs and solutions to their problems is vital. Your own blog provides two important opportunities: 1) Establish an on-going "conversation" with your prospects and consumers, and 2) Build "authority" with Google, Bing and Yahoo! search engines. Note: Keep your focus on Google. A few tips - post frequently, include keywords ... but don't "stuff" your posts with them, understand your avatar(s) pain points (adder ss them succinctly and offer high "value" solutions). Experts vary widely on the optimal "length" (e.g. word count) for blog posts. You can address a given need in-depth via one long post or via a series on posts on a precise topic. Bottom line: Best-of-breed blogging serves your prospects and helps convert them into customers, can dramatically boost traffic, and is largely free of charge. Thus, you are building free, organic traffic. Be back soon. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

SEO Best Practices for Online Merchants - Part 3

Merchants in our recent posts we have addressed SEO Basics along with KeyWords and Content. But why should Internet entrepreneurs be so concerned about SEO optimization? Simply put, because SEO optimization is truly the lifeblood which will ensure maximum free organic traffic to your web sites, blogs, videos and landing pages. We all need to be SEO "literate", yet may not have the time and/or resources to become gurus in this critical area. Thus, let me suggest a short-list of the best SEO portals on the web which will help you stay abreast of key trends and techniques which will benefit your business. Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal (SEJ), Tutorials Point - SEO page and the Moz Blog. These sites offer free newsletters, video tutorials and/or eBooks which will keep you up-to-date without having to invest large blocks of time to become and stay SEO proficient. So take a look. Let us know how we can help your business. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)  

SEO Best Practices for eCommerce Merchants - Part 1

Merchants, do you want more high quality traffic to you web site, blog, videos, social media sites and landing pages? Yes, we all do. In this SEO series we will start by looking at the basics of SEO and then move into move advanced topics in later posts. For starters, define own your unique domain and use a reputable hosting service. Google Domains (my favorite) and GoDaddy are just two of many domain providers. Likewise there are countless hosting services. I use Hostgator. Bluehost, iPage, Domain.com and SiteBuilder are among the top-ranked domain providers. Creating and publishing "original" content - regardless the format and packaging - which solves tangible problems for a well-defined avatar is another SEO success factor. If you use WordPress use SEO plug-ins such as Yoast, SEMrush, LinkPatrol and All In One SEO to name a few. Finally, spend the time to build out robust social media "Profiles" (including your domain). Bottom line: Investing time, effort and modest budget is one of the best methods for generating long-term, low-no cost, organic traffic for your Internet business. Let us know how we can help your business. Lawrence, Genesys Internet Designs (https://genesysinternetdesigns.blogspot.com)