I always think about it too and it should be your first question! If you’re spending money then it’s your right to have at least a basic understanding of how long you should expect to spend it. Every person selling advertising has told me that it takes time to work. That’s just it though, they’re selling advertising. The longer you advertise the more money they make.

I’ve heard that it takes time to work from both Google and especially Yelp. Yelp and I have a questionable history of advertising which of course you can read more about. They’ve made a lot of changes in the past 3 years but that’s something I can’t speak to. I’m not willing to spend the money to take that chance anymore.

To be fair, Google has told me that too. I’m sure if you could talk to a real human being that works at Facebook they would say the exact same thing. Does Facebook have real people working there?

See how we grew our client’s sales income over 152% with Google Ads.

The most important question aside from “will this work?” is “how long will this take to work?”

Advertisers will always give you a rosy picture with data and graphs that tell you how wonderful their advertising works. The problem is that what they’re showing you is absolute best case scenario. They cherry-pick their best case scenarios and only show you that data.

What Advertising Companies Tell You

Advertisers are always going to give you the best case scenario from their examples of success. Their case studies aren’t an accurate cross-section of advertisers. They’re usually the exception.

That means you’re only seeing a small piece of the picture. Ad companies intentionally filter all the bad out and show you the finite good.

Take ad companies success stories with a grain of salt. They're the best case scenarios.
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Ad companies will always tell you that ad campaign duration should be longer. They’ll say you won’t see results in the first few weeks to a month. Of course they’ll tell you that, they’re paid to tell you that and their job relies on it.

There’s always a “ramp up” time according to the salespeople. And to a certain extent there is for complete results. It doesn’t take that long to see if campaigns are going to work, though.

If they tell you the best results come after weeks to six months and others say no, who do you listen to?

How Long Should An Ad Campaign Duration Be?

There are many variables when it comes to an ad campaign duration. That’s what makes it so difficult to give you an exact duration. Maybe difficult is too nice of a word, impossible is more like it.

The time it takes for an ad campaign to be successful varies depending on your industry, where you’re advertising, and your budget.

If you’re selling a $50,000 service then advertising isn’t going to work quickly. Advertising might only warm people up to your brand or warm them up to the idea. Your campaigns might be 6 months or more and it’ll be hard to pinpoint exactly how it helped.

If you own a restaurant and are catering to the lunchtime crowd, advertising could have a more immediate effect. Although the effectiveness of an ad would be hard to track you might see an overall increase in business.

Online stores could have an immediately trackable success in advertising. Because tracking is easy for an online store, you’ll be able to see if advertising is working within the first few days.

So, that doesn’t give you much of an answer for an exact duration.

For most campaigns, you’ll see something happening within a week. That means you should at least try for a week but my recommendation for most ad campaign durations is two weeks.

So, two weeks. Give any campaign at least two weeks to see if it’s going to work or not.

But (yes there’s a big but) you don’t want to allocate only $5 in a two-week span. A minimum of $10 per week should be allocated to trying for two weeks and that’s entirely dependent on what you’re advertising. Experiment a bit.

If it works then continue until it stops working. Even if it works at first it will likely stop at some point. Platforms change their algorithms often and ad fatigue is a real thing.

Now the challenge is understanding when an ad campaign is going to work or if it’s a failure.

When You Can Tell It Isn’t Going To Work

There’s usually a time that you can point to and say that an ad is either working or not. That is if you’re able to separate yourself from the investment you personally put in to get things running. If you can separate yourself from your hard work then you’ll be able to see the point of success or failure.

When I advertised with Yelp the time it took for me to realize it wasn’t going to do much was one month (it was a three-month contract).

When I run Google campaigns they should start showing some results within a week if you have enough budget ($5-$10 per day). Some campaigns will be an instant hit while others may take a week for Google to learn what works best.

Ad campaign results should start showing up within the first week & be in full swing in week 2.
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If my click-through rate (CTR) is below 1% after a week or two then I ditch that campaign and try again.

Facebook is different. It takes a bit of time for Facebook to learn who to show ads to and what works best. The better your Facebook ad targeting is, the quicker it will start working (if it’s going to work).

I like to give Facebook ads a five day to one week span with a $10 budget to see how it does. That’s a good starting point for any ad campaign on Facebook.

Sometimes an ad will work out and perform great. That doesn’t mean it’ll continue to perform well forever though. There are many factors that play into an ads success or failure.

How Ad Fatigue Plays Into It

No matter how well your ad does in the beginning, it’ll eventually fade.

The biggest players in ad success fading?

Ad platform changes and ad fatigue.

Ad fatique is where people are seeing your ad so much they simply get tired of it. After someone sees your ad a few times they’re going to stop paying attention to it let alone clicking on it.

Most companies that sell advertising won’t tell you about ad fatigue. In fact, they’ll tell you that the longer you run an ad the better it will perform.

That’s a lie.

While ad companies will tell you that you won’t see results in the first month and the best results come after 6, don’t believe them.

A contract for 6 months will more than likely end up disappointing. It won’t fail for everyone which is why they will show you a few successful case studies.

Some will succeed, many won’t with a DIY ad solution. Just as DIY websites don’t often work without more in-depth knowledge, DIY advertising won’t either.

You’ll have to do some deep thinking and analysis to understand if an ad platform will work for your business.

DIY anything won't succeed without the right effort and knowledge.
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Not only that but you have to run the right kind of ad campaign for what you’re trying to do. Selling an expensive business service on Facebook probably won’t work.

If you’re selling something cheap and you’re advertising to people searching for it on Google then there’s a good chance it will work well.

It’s not possible to eliminate all risk from advertising. There are simple ways you can approach advertising to make sure you’re not risking too much.

How You Should Approach Advertising

Take advertising nice and slow with plenty of planning and preparing. Advertising may not work immediately but it should never take months to ramp up.

Any time a salesperson tells you their advertisers see the best results after six months it should raise a red flag. That red flag should also be accompanied by a deafening alarm bell when they want you to sign a contract for those six months.

No campaign should be beholden to a six-month contract and it shouldn’t take six months to ramp up.

What to do:

1. Know your audience thoroughly before doing anything.
2. Pick the goal you are going for and follow a path that helps you reach that goal.
3. Pick the campaign type and network that best fits your goals. It’s all about the right strategy, especially on Facebook.
4. Target in the right place for your audience.
5. Plan your campaign thoroughly through the entire customer journey (including a great landing page).
6. Invest enough in your budget but monitor your campaigns closely.
7. Give your ads time but understand when they’re not meeting your goals.

If you do all of these things then you are more likely to have a successful campaign or at least know when it’s time to cut your losses.

An ad campaign duration is highly dependent on many factors. No matter what the factors are, monitor closely and make decisions weekly whether to keep going or stop.

Your industry and specific business will determine a lot about how you should approach advertising. You’ve been given general guidelines but specifics are hard to write about.

What it all comes down to is that you need to approach advertising carefully. It’s not always about the ads, either. Sometimes it’s just as important to have a professional website design as it is to have good ad copy.

What’s your experience on when to keep going or quite an ad campaign? Let me know in the comments!

Unfortunately it’s not possible to leave WordPress raw. Most necessary functionality comes from the amazing plugin ecosystem that WordPress offers over other website platforms, and they’re a must. The power of WordPress and the weakness of WordPress is entirely in its plugin ecosystem.

Some plugins are more important than others, though.

A few plugin types that you pretty much need for any WordPress installation are

• Security
• SEO
• Formatting (in addition to the theme)
• Speed optimization
• Analytics
• Spam Protection
• etc.

The list could go on of necessities that don’t come with WordPress but are a must. The more you build out your website the more you find plugins you need to accomplish necessary functionality. Speed optimization, for instance, isn’t super necessary on the base WordPress installation. Core WordPress is FAST! As you start setting things up it becomes more necessary especially as you add images and content.

When I start every installation there are a few free plugins that I start with and stick with without a doubt.

I’ll cover the plugins and why I have to install them.

Keep in mind that I won’t cover the configuration of each of these plugins, that will be for another time.

This is my list of 9 must have free WordPress plugins.

Match Plugins to Purpose

This list is my starting point for most of my sites but in no way is it a complete list. There may be some plugins on this list that aren’t even needed for your configuration.

I will describe why I use some of these plugins but there are a few that you may not want to use. Some may not fit the purpose of your website.

It’s always important to match the plugin to the purpose of your website. If you’re creating an eCommerce WordPress website, you’re going to have very different plugins than a personal blog. Just the same, if you’re working with an agency on creating a complex WordPress website and course platform then you’ll end up with a lot more plugins than a small business website. Always keep that in mind when choosing your plugins.

As you’re installing plugins be sure to always ask “what is the purpose of this plugin?” and “can I do without this plugin?”

If you find yourself installing a plugin because it looks cool, shiny, or you just want to play with it. Don’t. Keep a separate WordPress installation for that and don’t muck up good sites just to play around. Every plugin you install will also likely put a lot of data to your database. Some don’t remove that data, either.

Every plugin should be installed only with a strict purpose.

The Must-Have Free WordPress Plugins

Start from the top and work your way down. Not all will be the perfect fit for your needs, but you’ll still find some useful.

Wordfence Security

This is one of those must-have plugins from the start of your WordPress installation. As you start installing more plugins into WordPress, this security plugin will become even more necessary.

Immediately Wordfence makes some basic changes to your WordPress installation to make it more secure. Not only that but the dual factor authentication is a must have for every important login of yours.

Autoptomize

This used to be the only optimization plugin I used and it’s still a good plugin if your budget is free. If your budget is a bit more than free (it should be if you make any money) then I recommend WP Rocket. More on that below.

Autoptimize will make several changes to optimize your WordPress installation and make it load faster. It’s a good idea to play with different settings to find the one that makes your website load the fastest.

The best part? It’s under regular active development so you’re always going to be getting improvements.

Now for my recommended upgrade if you want to go beyond free. WP Rocket is a premium optimization plugin but it does a lot more than any others. It’s simple to use, has caching built right in (so you can skip those below) and works great.

Beaver Builder

This one isn’t an absolute necessity but it’ll make your life so much easier. The free version is pretty basic but you can do a lot with it. I use it on all my websites.

The best part about Beaver Builder is that it won’t add much overhead to your WordPress installation at all. It’s one of the most streamlined page builder plugins on the market if not the single best one.

This may be one of the plugins you don’t need, but if you want more freedom designing in WordPress then get it. If you want to take it to the next level then the premium version is well worth the investment.

There are three different versions you can get and they start out at only $99 which is really a steal for what it can do. You can learn more about it and get the premium version of Beaver Builder (affiliate link).

SiteKit by Google

You can install Google Analytics manually in many themes but this plugin does so much more. It even shows detailed states from Google Analytics and Search Console right in your WordPress dashboard. You can even connnect other Google services (ads, etc.) really easily with this plugin.

Most of the time I don’t just need to install Google Analytics, though. Google Tag manager has become my go-to method for analytics, pixels, and all that other stuff a website needs for good marketing. This plugin also makes that easy.

ShortPixel

Optimized images for your website are a must. Sometimes it can be a pain editing every image before uploading it, though. This plugin will send your images off to a powerful server to be optimized and then ship them back in optimal format.

This is a freemium plugin which means you only get 100 images per month optimized but it’s such a good plugin, it’s worth it.

WP-Optimize

If you opted for the WP Rocket (mentioned above) then you don’t even need this plugin. If you are going the 100% free route then this is a good alternative.

Because WordPress is far from perfect, some management and cleanup is necessary. As you install plugins, themes, and modify your installation and database is bound to get a bit messy. This plugin helps you clean the database up to keep your website running fast.

An SEO Plugin

This one used to be a sure suggestion of Yoast SEO but that has evolved over time. There are a lot of great alternatives these days.

Yoast is still a good SEO plugin but there are many that are just as good if not better. My favorite alternative that I’m using on all my websites is SEOPress which is free. Even the premium version is much more affordable.

Search the WordPress repository for SEO and you’ll find several highly rated SEO plugins. Download a few of them one by one and test which one works best for you.

Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg

With Gutenberg pretty much the norm these days, this plugin is a must have. It’s from a trustworthy plugin developer that creates many great plugins and extends the abilities of Gutenberg.

You’ll get some great additional Gutenberg blocks to enhance the look of any Gutenberg page.

WP Super Cache

Again, if you opted for WP Rocket then you don’t need this, it’s already built in.

If you want something free, WP Super Cache is a decent option. The best part is that it’s created by Automattic which is the same company behind the commercial version of WordPress and also a big contributor to the open-source version.

In any case, you’ll want to install your cache plugin last.

Why install the cache plugin last? It makes the rest of your plugin installations go much smoother and quicker. Many cache plugins interfere with many parts of editing a website. They’re great for speeding it up but not for editing it.

Other Suggestions?

There are so many plugins out there. I’d love to hear from you what your must-have plugins are for WordPress.

There are tons of amazing premium plugins also and many are affordable too. I mentioned a few of the best premium plugins but if you aren’t making any money from your website, this is a good place to start.

One piece of information in this article was a study of Facebook which uncovered that posts without hashtags do better than those with hashtags. That is what led to me creating this infographic and post.

There’s a lot to learn to understand the social media ropes, and some of it can only come with experience. Understanding social media demographics and how they relate to your audience is helpful

While the infographic at the end of this post isn’t comprehensive as far as every aspect of the perfect social media post, it does cover the important basics:

• Hashtags
• Links
• Length

You’ll find the full infographic at the bottom of this post. I also broke down each section into smaller graphics for the purpose of this post. I cover each section in more detail to help explain the intricacies better.

Jump right to the big infographic.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Tweet

Creating the perfect Twitter takes a lot of moving parts, but these tips will help give you a framework.

Number of Characters

Twitter doesn’t give you much to work with on characters although it was recently increased. You still only have 140 characters to begin with but each element now takes less characters away.

A picture is a necessity for your Tweet (see the easiest way to create the perfect social media image) and now Twitter lets you attach up to 4 pictures with no character penalties.

Picture: no longer takes any characters from your 140 characters.

Unless you’re Tweeting a quote or something text only, you’ll also want to include a link. Whether you shorten a link or not it will always take up the same space, 23 characters. That leaves you with 117 characters.

Link: 140 – 23 = 117

It used to be that a pictures + link would leave you with only 93 characters. That’s no longer the case so you still have a comfortable 117 characters after all that.

You have 117 characters for your Tweet after a picture and link."
Click To Tweet

You still have to be brief with Tweets but there’s much more wiggle room with the recent updates (they’re already released).

Twitter Hashtags

The modern hashtag was born on Twitter way back in 2007. While this wasn’t the birth of the hashtag, it was the first use of it on modern social media. I was using hashtags well before that though in the land of mIRC at least 5 years before this.

The modern hashtag was born on Twitter in 2007.
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That Tweet is the first one to include a hashtag and it proposes the use of hashtags.

While hashtags are important for your Tweets engagement, 2 is the limit. If you go over the 2 limit then your engagement steadily begins to drop off according to the research cited in this post. You’re fine with one or two hashtags, but never venture into three or more.

Before you start investing too much time posting on Twitter, be sure you have your Twitter profile set up for your business.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Facebook Post

Surprisingly the ideal character count for a Facebook post can be less than a Tweet. It’s also surprising to me that the ideal Facebook post doesn’t use a single hashtag, they were never adopted well.

Number of Characters

Analysis of numbers from Facebook posts shows drastically inconsistent results. Some studies I found showed 40 characters were ideal while others showed that 80 or more words were better.

Facebook posts should have at least 40 characters and longer only if interesting.
Click To Tweet

I decided to go with the 40 character number as the base but it seems there’s no consensus. I would start with at least 40 characters but if you write too much, it needs to be for a good reason. In other words, it better be interesting.

Facebook Hashtags

Research from EdgeRank Checker shows that in all circumstances, the best option is to leave hashtags out of Facebook.

As you can see below, Facebook posts with hashtags have less viral reach than those without. This trend continues throughout all the research. Posts without hashtags regularly outperform those with hashtags.

Facebook posts without hashtags have greater reach than those with.
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This research is a bit stale now considering the rapid pace of social media (which is why I limit most of my Google searches to the past year) but there’s more recent research from BuzzSumo and QuickSprout in 2016 that almost mirrors the findings.

As you can see the research behind this has consistently shown that hashtags on Facebook are not the best option. My personal experiments mirror these findings also. To fully take advantage of using Facebook for your small business, take the time to complete your Facebook page.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Instagram Post

Instagram is even more unique than Facebook. It’s unique because it’s primarily picture-based, which means you have to do your best to describe the picture. This will help you put together the best Instagram post you can to get more engagement (which Instagram is great for).

Instagram Hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram are one of the single most important factors for how much engagement your post gets. Aside from how many followers you have, the hashtags help get your post out there into the community. If your picture is unique and stands out as people are browsing through images, you’re going to get noticed.

Use 11 or more hashtags on Instagram, the more the better!
Click To Tweet

This is precisely why Instagram posts with 11 or more hashtags get better engagement. That doesn’t mean there’s a ceiling for hashtags either! The only rule of thumb to keep in mind is that your hashtags should be relevant. Don’t put a hashtag in just to have a hashtag.

Instagram Description

I didn’t include this one in the infographic because there’s no hard data on it, but it seems to be just as important. The better your description and the better it tells the story of your image, the more engagement you’ll get. The Instagram account is a perfect example of this. They include a thorough story behind each image they post.

Tell the story of your picture in the description on Instagram to increase engagement.
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Including your image’s story not only helps orient the viewer, but it also makes your picture more searchable. Images aren’t searched very easily with today’s technology (though that’s changing fast), so Instagram relies on what you write to help people searching find what they’re looking for.

Make sure you read more about how to set up your Instagram profile for business.

Doing Social Media Right

Now it’s time for the full infographic with everything I just talked about but in a briefer and easier to digest format.

The ever-popular infographic format.

So, without further ado, enjoy this infographic. Please share it if you find it helpful, others will too.

This post was originally published on April 25th, 2016.

In the digital age, “experience” is the thing that your clients prize more than anything else. Customers frequently say that they would happily pay more for a better experience.

Already, countless companies have begun to work on this demand for better interactions by designing more intuitive websites for customers and training agents for better face-to-face interactions.

However, there’s another element to consider in the changing service landscape too – the chatbot.

Now that customers expect more instant interactions with their favorite brands, chat is becoming an increasingly valuable part of communication. However, it takes a lot of time and personnel to keep on top of chat with humans alone.

Chatbots introduce a way to provide your customers with 24/7 support – even when your team isn’t available.

With 47% of consumers saying they’re happy to purchase through chatbots, the potential of these solutions is growing. The question is – how do you make sure that you’re delivering the quality experiences that your consumers need?

47% of consumers say they're happy to purchase through chatbots.
Click To Tweet

What is a Chatbot and Why Do You Need One?

First, it’s worth understanding what a chatbot is and what it means to your company.

Chatbots are an automated method of communicating with your target audience.

These solutions can be automated algorithms that respond to questions using a pre-set selection of answers. For instance, your chatbot could search through a FAQ to deliver responses to customer queries based on trigger words in their conversation.

On the other hand, you can also implement more intelligent chatbots.

AI-infused solutions learn from discussions with customers and use context in conversations like people do, providing more personalized customer service.

Although the demand for bots is growing, Forrester research reveals that many business owners using chatbots fail to use them correctly. Since the main problem with mastering chatbots is a lack of strategy for their design, here are four tips on how to create a better bot.

1) Keep Things Simple and Authentic

First, the last thing you want to do is try and trick your audience into thinking that they’re interacting with a human. While people want conversational interactions with chatbots, they also don’t want to be lied to.

With that in mind, make sure that you start each conversation by letting people know that they’re talking to a bot.

Once you’ve got that out of the way, concentrate on infusing your bot with language that makes them feel more natural and engaging.

Just because your customer knows they’re talking to a bot doesn’t mean that they have to be continuously reminded of it with complex language and awkward jargon.

• Use language like “oh” and “y’know” and “gotta” to make the conversation more informal if it fits your brand.
• Think about how you can break up chunks of information to make the experience feel more natural for your customer.
• Remember to stick to simple vocabulary. Use language that anyone can understand, combined with quick, brief sentences.

If talking to a bot gets too complicated, your user will simply leave.

2) Design Your Bot by Reflecting on Your Customer

Every customer is different. We all have our own unique ways of talking to people.

With your user personas and enough information about your target audience, you know what kind of audience you’re targeting with your bot. This will allow you to design a system that talks to your customers in their own language.

• Think about whether your customers are likely to use emojis and slang in their conversations. If so, then your bot might be more endearing if it uses that kind of content too.
• Think about what type of personality you want your bot to have. It should feel as though your customers are almost talking to a human – even if they aren’t.
• Think about whether your bots should be enthusiastic, considerate, or professional. What matches your brand style, and what’s most appropriate for the kind of queries you get from your audience?

With AI, your bot will be able to learn from your audience and respond to their style in a similar manner. That’s why AI-infused interfaces are becoming more popular today, as customers demand more immersive and natural experiences with bots.

3) Gather and Remember Context

If you are implementing intelligence into your bots, then one of the most important things you can do with that “brainpower” is making sure that your bots can remember crucial parts of conversations.

People hate repeating themselves, and in today’s world of cloud computing and data storage, they really shouldn’t have to.

AI chatbots can collect information, store it in the cloud, and then tap into that information in the future to deliver more personalized experiences.

For instance, if a chatbot has a conversation with a user about a problem with them logging into their account then the bot also gets a message again the next day, they should remember all of the previous information the customer gave the day before.

That bot should also be able to convey valuable information to any agents that take over from the bot to help address the issue. That way, people spend less time repeating themselves, and companies can deliver a better end-to-end experience.

4) Learn and Repair

Finally, although today’s chatbots are growing increasingly immersive and intuitive, it’s worth remembering that there’s always room for additional development.

Always review your chatbots and tweak them to make sure they're doing their job and users are successfully using them.
Click To Tweet

As you continue to learn from the experiences that your customers have with your bots, you should be implementing changes and repairs that constantly improve the experience for your users.

In part, learning how to develop your bot will be something that you do with the assistance of your customers, who can provide you with both quantitative and qualitative feedback about their experiences.

However, if you have AI infused into your system, then your bots will be able to learn for themselves too, adapting to the information that they’re exposed to over time.

The more you and your bots learn about effective customer experiences, the easier it will be to design a strategy that resonates with your target audience.

Ready to Embrace the Bots?

The digital world is becoming more incredible by the day.

We now have cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to transform the way that we live and work on a massive scale. However, for companies to take advantage of these disruptive new tools, they need the right plan of action.

Using the tips above, you’ll be able to make sure that you approach your chatbot strategy from the right angle – focusing on putting your users’ needs first.

Good luck experimenting with your bots!

I’ve fended off much of the nervousness with a healthy dose of preparation, though. My session is on Saturday, September 21 at 10:40 Am in the Dagobah room. This year WordCamp Sacramento is all Star Wars themed.

If you’re coming to WordCamp Sacramento and have nothing planned for this session, come. Hopefully, I’ll deliver a healthy blend of information and entertainment. I couldn’t help but throw some entertainment in there given the topic of mine is WaaS. Say it aloud.

Here’s a brief overview of the topics I’ll be covering in my talk.

But first! Here’s the official name and description of my talk from the WordCamp Sacramento page for my session:

Use WordPress Multisite To Create Your Own Website As A Service (WaaS)

And the description:

You will learn what Website as a Service (or WaaS) is, everything to consider before starting one, and the beginning steps of starting your own WordPress.com-like site. You’ll learn a few options for setting up WaaS with WordPress multisite and a few plugins options.

Now for some of the overview for my talk and the slides too. There’s not a whole lot of value in the slide notes without my talk so I left those out.

I’m going to cover the following:

What’s WordPress Multisite

Without knowledge of this at a basic knowledge my session falls flat. So, I started by covering it briefly.

What’s a SaaS?

Again, this is extremely important to understand in order to know what a WaaS is.

What the heck is a WaaS?

Finally, I smush the two together into what a WaaS is. Website as a Service in case you’re still wondering. It’s what you get when you combine SaaS with WordPress multisite.

The Biggest WaaS

I can’t mention WaaS without mentioning WordPress.com which is the biggest WaaS in the world.

Why Build A WaaS?

Why would you build a WaaS instead of separate WordPress installations? Here are some great reasons.

• Consistency
• Central control
• Updates
• Fast delivery
• Productize offerings
• Simplify training
• SLA (Service Level Agreement)
• Automate more
• Lower support costs

Examples of WaaS’s

I did a survey of some of the WaaS community for people OK with me sharing their WaaS.

Domain Structure

There are three different domain structures for WordPress multisite and a WaaS. Subfolders, subdomains, and top-level domain.

Managing Users

It’s easier to manage users in WordPress with one account for all sites.

Important Considerations

• Whitelabel
• License
  • Register in every site
  • Register in wp-config file
  • Register in network admin dashboard
• Is it legal?
• WordPress repository GPL license
• Not sure? Ask!
• Are plugins multisite compatible?

The Fine (Legal) Line

What separates a WaaS from a host? In some cases not much but for others quite a lot.

Whitelabel

Do you want people to know you’re using WordPress or the plugins? If not, think about whitelabel options.

Client Experience

• Manual
• Automated
• Hybrid

WaaS Challenges

WaaS can be easier for something and more complex for others. These are things that could be made more complex and you need to think about how to deal with them for clients.

• DNS
• Hosting
• Database

How I built my first WaaS

I go over how I built my first WaaS, the hard way.

How to automate a WaaS

There’s an easy plugin to create your own WaaS like WordPress.com. I’ll cover it briefly and what it lets you do.

Facebook Group

There’s a great Facebook group dedicated to the topic of all things WaaS. You can check out the WaaS Facebook group here.

Closing

That’s it for what I cover in my talk. You can check out the slides on my website and the talk will be this Saturday at WordCamp Sacramento. If you haven’t purchased a ticket yet then you better get busy because they’ll surely be gone soon.

As someone who has built a career in digital marketing, I am almost ashamed to admit how effective my own craft can be used against me to enable or justify my online shopping problem.

Promotions with the subject line reading “Special discount code just for you”? Nine items in my shopping cart.

Instagram Ad for a 24 hour flash sale? Proceed to check out.

My favorite influencer preaching that this new product is going to change my life? Shut up and take my money.

While digital businesses have grown exponentially thanks to culpable consumers like me, the fitness market vertical within e-commerce has surged from nonexistent to a market powerhouse in less than a decade.

The fascinating facet of these fitness-related companies is that many of them have achieved incredible success by strictly offering their products or services through e-commerce channels.

In less than ten years, some of the leading e-commerce based companies have achieved so much success that they have become as recognizable as big-name labels like Nike or Adidas. Although some of them have eventually extended their reach into brick and mortar locations, the majority have maintained their primary revenue channel through online sales.

In the United States alone, digital fitness climbed to $3.46 billion in revenue in 2018. Projections indicate these figures will climb 4.3% annually to reach $4.1 billion by 2022.

E-commerce based fitness companies have brilliantly capitalized off the power of social media platforms, brandings, and digital convenience to create a dynamic new marketplace ripe with earning potential.

Right Industry, Right Time, Right Strategy

It’s no secret that the fitness industry as a whole is burning hot right now. The global industry itself has exhibited 2.6% growth annually since 2015, climbing to 87.5 billion dollars in revenue in 2018. With over 162 million health club attendees worldwide, the prospective international audience holds a wealth of potential for companies within the fitness sphere to thrive.

When you drill down, the generation leading this wave are millennials (a.k.a. me) and younger. Studies indicate that 81% of millennials exercise regularly or would like to compared to 61% of the Boomer generation. This also speaks to how millennials are driving the changes in the fitness industry, like the rise of boutique studios and fit-tech like wearables.

Working in tandem with fitness industry’s worldwide public interest, the internet world has exacerbated its popularity to new extremes. Social media has taken fitness’s thriving commercial success and generated a full-scale culture comprised of millions of loyal engaged followers. This community thrives on sharing their own health and wellness content or re-syndicating others for inspiration.

This hyper-connective environment that has pushed fitness to its elite status is equally responsible for the international boom of e-commerce based businesses.

Why Ecommerce Works

As a business owner, the-commerce based model offers a wealth of benefits, especially for new companies breaking into a saturated market. The Amazon revolution paired with consumer codependence of the world wide web for…well, everything, has created the ideal environment for internet-based companies to prosper.

Start up costs are relatively low and operations continue to be cost efficient without the financial burden of rent, management and upkeep needed for brick and mortar models. Without the geographical restrictions of a traditional store, digital companies boast a worldwide customer pool instead of a regionalized one.

Even the more complex aspects of e-commerce business have been dramatically simplified, like digital payments and shipping. By removing the option to pay with cash, ordering purchases online streamlines payments processes, which can be difficult to manage properly.

Similarly, shipping costs and procedures have been greatly eased by modern technology. There is no shortage of shipping methods or strategies at their disposal to maximize profit or appeal to customers. In fact, many e-commerce companies have cleverly merged logistics with branding by incorporating custom packaging, which adds perceived value and a little class to their brand’s image.

E-commerce: Fit for Fitness?

However, the inherent risks that accompany strictly e-commerce businesses are not to be ignored, especially in regards to the fitness realm. Customers may be wary to trust products, especially at higher prices, without inspecting quality firsthand.

This central characteristic of e-commerce business begs the obvious question: given the nature of fitness products, why purchase online vs. in-person?

The notion is almost counterintuitive: Why would anyone buy skin-tight leggings, sports bras and spandex universally known for fitting different body types inconsistently before trying them on in person?

Why would anyone opt to buy a specific nutritional supplements online with shipping costs instead of buying locally?

How can a company convince new customers that its products are superior to anything they could sample in-person from a health and nutrition store?

Transition to E-Commerce led by Fitness Clubs

Fitness clubs paved the way for the e-commerce fitness boom when they began selling their products online.

When gym attendance surged, fitness clubs capitalized off additional revenue opportunities by offering popular products for purchase at the front desk. Seeing the success of point of sales revenue, many clubs strayed away from offering only protein shakes and healthy snacks to include more sophisticated and versatile options.

In fact, many gyms expanded their secondary spend opportunities to include products from partnering labels or even designed their own, like gym-branded high-quality apparel or accessories.

Seeing as software for gyms is now typically intricate enough to provide an integration for an e-commerce platform, the transition to the online market is relatively easy to achieve. This dual revenue channel is not only great for profit’s sake, but it doubles as expanded opportunities for branding by having their satisfied customers happily sport their apparel outside of the gym.

For example, one of the most popular boutique clubs, Orangetheory, further boosted their brand by producing trendy, high-end workout apparel and accessories through their e-commerce channel.

The line is characterized by the brands traditional colors, orange (duh), black and charcoal, and is durable enough to be worn comfortably during their infamous high-energy circuit routines.

Like Orangtheory, many other fitness clubs benefited tremendously by selling their products online. However, their success can partially be attributed to their home court advantage.

Fitness clubs were already groomed with a client base through their members, advantaging them with brand familiarity in a new market. This sense of brand loyalty allowed them to seamlessly transition into digital sales without the typical obstacles encountered by other online fitness companies.

Enter: E-commerce Fitness Giants

While gyms succeeded online with a foot in the door, they were instrumental in paving the way for future companies by normalizing the concept of buying reliable fitness products online.

Stemming from this traction, here’s how these companies created a brand new thriving market out of thin air:

Audience: Reach Global, Target Youth

Easily the most significant advantage lies in their nature; internet-based retailers are not confined by a location. Since interest in fitness is a global phenomenon, these companies took advantage of broad marketing initiatives catered to a worldwide demographic as opposed to a localized one. This speaks to the larger trend exhibited by most of the top online companies: go international or go home.

In addition to social media based marketing strategy (discussed below), many successful companies have achieved this by hiring remote influencers or representatives to spread their brand name to new places. They have also invested in additional offices and warehouses overseas to expedite shipping in popular areas.

Since the fitness craze and its social media subculture is dominated by younger generations, these companies focused their marketing initiatives on the millennial generation or younger. This demographic continues to comprise the majority of sales for most apparel and nutrition companies.

Influencer Marketing

The power of the modern day influencer cannot be understated. The 2019 definition of celebrity has been immensely shaped by social media, making influencers as well-known and successful as others who reached stardom through more traditional routes.

Influencers are a force to be reckoned with across social networks. They separate themselves from other celebrities in that they did not achieve their success based on talent alone, their followers personally identify with them on a much deeper level. Therefore, fitness companies that employ influencers receive the overwhelming benefit of their loyal following base within their niche field, which is much a stronger call to action.

Since clients are not able to “try before they buy”, so to speak, the advocacy from a famed fitness influencer can be some of the most powerful marketing tactics in your arsenal. With most influencers doubling as famous YouTubers, they can use the platform to bridge the online gap between products and consumers through detailed product review videos.

Influencer Marketing Pioneer: Gymshark

The undisputed champion and founding father of utilizing influencer marketing is Gymshark, which is widely recognized as a leading e-commerce company, reaching over £100 million in revenue ($126 million) in six years and serving over 1.2 million customers in only six years.

From its early days, Gymshark carefully selected famed bodybuilders and fitness celebrities like Steve Cook, Ryan Terry, Nikki Blacketter, and Whitney Simmons to represent their brand’s mission statement: “Be All That You Imagined You Could Be. Be A Visionary.”

Not only do their combined multi-million following brings great exposure and brand notoriety, but Gymshark has successfully used these like-minded and inspiring influencers to build the “Gymshark family”, which are now the leaders of the multi-million worldwide Gymshark digital community.

Influencers turned Entrepreneurs

In addition to collaborating with other brands, many influencers have personally contributed to this e-commerce boom under their own self-branded initiatives. They have achieved this by launching their own individual online ventures to their followings, primarily with products like work out guides or exercise accessories like resistance bands, lifting straps, or ankle weights.

Most famously, Australian influencer Kayla Itsines, used her platform to first produce her famed Bikini Body Guide Ebook, which has been downloaded over one million times. From there, she developed her own subscription-based mobile app called Sweat, which now has 100 million active users per month and is projected to bring in $77 million USD in revenue by the end of 2019.

Brand Identity through Social Media

An e-commerce brand will not survive without exceptionally strong social media profiles to back it up. The internet era has changed how consumers interact with companies and their services: consumers want to support brands that not only create great products, but that also resonates with them personally.

While a crucial aspect of this is using sponsored athletes who fit your brand’s image, equally important is the content and network developed through your social media platforms. Most fitness e-commerce companies have prioritized Instagram as its most important channel since the platform incurs the highest user engagement.

Keeping all social media platforms, especially Instagram, active and flooded with engaging content is essential for cultivating this interactive community. Posts should be in line with the brand’s aesthetic and mission; however, the content underlying them needs to provide some type of value for their intended audience. Every post should echo consistency across the board, from color schemes, to fonts, to tone, to message.

Finding this balance can be tricky: blasting socials with sales information is important to inform your audience of new products and release dates, but nobody likes getting constant sales pitches.

Therefore diversifying content is imperative to keep your following engaged in your brand. Brands can also benefit from creating more localized social media accounts aimed at a particular subgroup of their following.

For example, Women’s Best, one of the world’s leading nutrition and supplement companies created a series of targeted regional Instagram accounts in addition to their main profile. They also developed an Instagram specifically for how their nutrition products can be repurposed for new recipes, like how to use protein powder as flour for mouth-watering desserts.

Gymshark has segmented their Instagram into three respective profiles: Gymshark, GymsharkWomen, and GymsharkTrain, amassing 5.5 million followers total.

The slight diversification enables the brand to post more audience specific content while also encouraging its following to tag them in their own pictures and videos sporting their apparel.

YouTube

With YouTube reaching over 30 million active viewers per day, the importance of this platform to market an e-commerce brand is incalculable. Metrics indicate that the most popular and highest viewed videos on YouTube are product/service review videos. In fact, a study conducted by Think With Google revealed that 55% of consumers watch an online product review video before making their own purchase.

While YouTube videos from big-name sponsored athletes or influencers are great for exposure, they will clearly be taken with a grain of salt since viewers know they are being paid to do so. Therefore, review videos from lesser known YouTubers or non-affiliates can be even more important for blossoming digital companies.

Since many YouTubers build their brand and internet persona on honest and authentic reviews, a strong endorsement of your product can achieve volumes in terms of sales and customer acquisition. Likewise, these videos give your potential customers an in-depth analysis of all important information relevant to the product.

Alphalete, now a multi-million dollar company, staked its reputation by sending its athletic apparel line to fitness YouTubers with varying subscriber counts, who were known for their brutally honest reviews.

Although the YouTubers received the clothes for free, they were not paid later for the review itself. This gamble proved effective when rave review videos spiked sales, bringing newfound notoriety to Alphalete’s brand that pushed their expansion to what it is today.

Incentives

One of the most popular tactics online companies use to drive up sales is attractive pricing incentives.

Ecommerce companies can capitalize off sales and discounts more easily then brick and mortar just based off accessibility. If I hear a store is having a sale, I still physically have to make time to be able to go.

However, flash online sales that I can access with the click of a button are likely to draw in far more interest, and more importantly, action. Direct advertising these sales on Instagram or Facebook also takes users directly to sales portals without distraction.

In fact, many popular eCommerce companies align their business model with the power of the flash sale notifications in mind. They do so by leaving their regular prices at a higher mark-up, but offer some type of discount promotion or free shipping three weeks out of the month.

Another common strategy is to offer affiliate links where customers can use discount codes distributed by their sponsored athletes or influencers. The logic behind this being that customers may feel incentivized to make purchases if they know a small percentage could benefit their favorite fitness social media celebrity on top of a discount.

Similarly, by building hype and anticipation around their biggest sales of the year on social media, these companies will bring in a massive influx in customers.

Closing Thoughts

The ultimate success and growing number of fitness companies entering the e-commerce realm every day evidences the prosperity of this new market. A commonality between the major e-commerce fitness companies is that their products live up to their promise. The quality is exceptional enough to entice first-time buyers and keep them coming back.

Regardless of differing business models, products, or services, these prominent companies as well as the overall marketplace have adapted to digital transformation through innovating customer experience with convenience to deliver a truly seamless relationship between business and customer.

Attracting new customers while retaining current ones can be a challenge for even the most established businesses. Luckily, there are resources available to help market your business, meet customers demands, and deal with potential issues. Some are free, while others come at a cost.

Here are a few tools your small business may need to boost your brand and bottom line.

Your Small Business May Need Some Tech Upgrades

When it comes to providing customer service, nothing beats old-fashioned gratitude and kindness — that’s something that tech cannot replace. But when it comes to bolstering your bottom line and keeping customers coming back for more, having the latest tech can definitely help.

There are quite a few small business tech upgrades to consider. In terms of building trust with your customers, security should come first. Each year, information leaks and online hacks cost businesses millions. They could cost your own business nearly $200 for each customer file that is breached. Those costs include data recovery efforts, but your business could suffer even more financial losses if customers do not feel safe shopping with you anymore.

So, don’t wait for an issue to arise before taking action. Look online for small business lending guides that will show you how to afford these important tech and business upgrades without offsetting your budget. From SBA loans to term loans, you can find a funding option that will work best for you and your business, and help you keep those loyal customers.

Your Marketing Strategy May Need Some Improvements Too

Creating an eCommerce business can be a great first step toward building a successful small business. You also need to think about getting traffic into your shop though. You may need to check out similar small businesses first to get an idea of what customers may be looking for. It’s also helpful to use this type of research to determine what may be missing from the customer experience.

A smart marketing plan is essential to growing your small business online.
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Whether your business operates online or as a brick-and-mortar store, you also need to put some time into developing a smart marketing plan.

Building your brand is the core of any successful marketing strategy. For small business owners, this can mean using social media outlets to make more personal connections with your customers. Share small details of your life and be willing to share struggles as well.

When people can relate to a business on a personal level, they are more likely to become loyal shoppers. Marketing yourself on social media can be tricky, so you may also want to invest in social media marketing tools that will make reaching your target audience simpler.

Your Communications Need to Be Clear, Prompt, and Meaningful  

Kindness and gratitude were mentioned earlier, and your communications are where these two qualities should really shine through. Whether you are reaching out to potential customers or connecting with existing clients, setting the right tone with your calls, emails, and conversations is so important.

So, before you respond or reach out, take a moment to really pay attention to the tone of your voice or words. If you are writing an email, try to read it from the perspective of your customer. Keep in mind that written communications can often have a tone that is quite different than the original intent.

So, be especially gracious and positive when emailing or writing to clients. That positivity can be tricky when you are trying to diffuse situations with a more difficult customer. You may need to change up your messaging or tone when dealing with these types of customers. Always try to remain in control of your emotions, especially when other customers can hear or view your replies.

If you own a small business, you need customers to keep your profits high and your business afloat. Attracting those committed customers, and establishing your business, can be much simpler when you have the right tools and strategies to guide you. So, ensure your marketing, customer service, and operational needs are met so you can ensure your own success.

As is common with news and sensationalizing it, there’s some truth here but a whole lot of misinformation. WordPress isn’t insecure at all. In fact, WordPress is extremely secure.

WordPress is the most vulnerable simply because it’s the most used and the most known. There are more developers creating plugins and themes for WordPress than any other platform.

Along with that and the huge user base, there’s also more hackers trying to do harm.

Also with more developers comes more opportunists looking for ways to make a quick buck with little effort. That also leads to more shotty work from poorly written plugins (mostly) and themes too.

Because WordPress is a very much living environment that means care must also be taken to stay up-to-date.

The Methods That Will Keep WordPress Extra Secure

If you take care to manage your WordPress installation properly there’s little to no risk of ever getting infected or hacked. With proper care your WordPress website can be just as secure as any other content management system or even an HTML website (almost).

These practices will help keep your website nice and secure.

1) Use A Crazy Secure Password

This one goes for every platform, website, device or anything. A common and guessable password is the most harmful thing you can possibly do.

Please don’t use Blink-182 as a password, you’re just asking for trouble if you do.

Use a secure password generator to create as secure of a password as possible. There are many apps out there to manage passwords so you don’t have to remember them.

You can even use the one built right into your Apple device or even Chrome browser. I only have to remember one password and my password for everything else is unique and extremely difficult to hack.

Yes, use a different password for every. single. account. online.

That goes for WordPress too, every one of your installations should have a unique username and password. I’ll cover the username shortly.

2) Change Your Password Often

For those websites that deserve and demand the highest level of security (like your website!) then you should change your password often.

My recommendation is to change your password every 90 days but you can find what works for you. It’s better to change it every 6 months than to never change it at all.

3) Don’t Use The Username Admin

Just as important as using a secure password is to not pair your password with the username admin. It’s the most tried username for WordPress website hacks. I typically see anywhere from 3 to 20 tries every week to login with the username admin before the other end gets blocked.

It used to be the the default WordPress admin username was admin but that’s changing more and more. Generally WordPress installation tools don’t use that username anymore.

Just to be safe, verify you’re not using it either because it’s an invitation to get hacked. If your username is admin and you’d like to change it, read this.

How To Change A WordPress Username

It’s true, WordPress doesn’t let you change your username if you already created your account. It’s easy to switch to a new administrator account, though.

Create a new user in the WordPress admin dashboard under Users > Add New. Fill out your information and make sure you select Administrator from the role dropdown menu. Also, you have to use a different email address for this new user but you can change it once you delete your old account.

Once your new account is created, log out of your current account, log into the new one and head back to Users > Add New and delete your old account.

You’ll now be asked where to attribute all the old content and you can select your new account (probably the only one that shows up on the drop down menu).

Now you can change the email address of your new account back to your regular email address.

That’s it!

This will better protect you against automated scripts that try to hack into your WordPress account using the default username and a list of commonly used passwords. But you wouldn’t be using a commonly used password now, would you?

4) Keep WordPress Up-To-Date

Only 33.2% of WordPress installations are using the most recent version according to WordPress.org stats. That means a staggering 66.8% of WordPress websites are using an older and potentially more outdated version. That also means there’s a lot of WordPress websites out there that are vulnerable which is 100% on the shoulders of the owners of those websites and not at all on WordPress.

WordPress can lead people to a secure WordPress installation but they can’t make website owners drink it. That statistic shocks me every time because aside from having a crazy secure password, updating WordPress is next in line of importance.

There are no excuses for not updating WordPress. There are plenty of excellent WordPress maintenance services (that one’s us!) that can do it for you if you don’t have the time.

If your installation is so custom that you can’t update then you probably should be looking at better solutions to your problem.

WordPress is a dynamic environment and needs to be updated soon after there’s an updated. That especially true if it’s a security update.

5) Use Only Well-Known & Maintained Plugins & Themes

This is an important one after keeping your plugins and theme up-to-date. If you’re using a more obscure theme or plugin then they’re not updated as often nor are vulnerabilities found as quickly.

A popular plugin is more likely to hav a lot of eyes on it correcting issues and checking for vulnerabilities than an obscure plugin that nobody cares about. Of course this isn’t going to guarantee anything but it’s just a good idea.

If a plugin hasn’t been updated for more than 6 months then it’s safe to say you need to find an alternative quick.

There are some malicious plugins out there too which is why I am a firm believer in using well-known plugins and themes. If they have a reputation to uphold in order to bring in new customers then they will care a lot more.

You don’t want to be using a theme that can harvest user information and perform malicious activity themselves even if they say they’re not going to. Those kinds of plugins and themes are out there too.

Don’t believe me, look at the recent debacle that was outlined on the Wordfence blog.

6) Check For Plugin & Theme Updates Often

This is similar but not the same as actually updating your WordPress installation. If you’re going to update often then you need to be aware if there are updates to run.

If you install WordPress, set up your website and then leave it for six months without checking in then you’re going to have issues. Your updates aren’t going to run on their own, you have to actively check for them and run them.

So, check for updates at least once a week.

7) Security Plugin

Install a security plugin to keep your WordPress installation safer. These plugins do a number of things to WordPress that will help secure it.

Not all of them do the best job and some interfere with plugins but generally, you’re safer with a security plugin than without even if your host takes care of some security measures.

The security plugin I use and prefer is Wordfence but iThemes Security is another popular option. The reason I prefer Wordfence is that it is easy to configure and hasn’t caused any interference with other parts of my website while iThemes Security has.

8) Delete Unused Plugins

Not only do unused plugins waste space on your server, but they can also still leave vulnerabilities on your server while disabled. If you’re not using it or it hasn’t been updated in a long time, delete it!

This also goes for themes you’re not using too.

9) Setup Google Search Console

It’s free to set up and in your search console, you’ll be able to see if your website has been flagged as hacked.

Check it out here and sign up for a free account.

Older Recommendation/Security Myths That Aren’t That Important

I just rewrote this entire article in April 2019 because things (and my knowledge) change a lot. There are some items I had on the original list that were debunked as true security measure.

There are also other that I knew were bogus suggestions and I decided to include them here also. I still see a lot of people who don’t know any better but I cannot blame them because at one time I didn’t know any better either.

The best I can do is make it known like the rest of the security gurus have.

Now for the list of some older security recommendations and myths that are no longer useful.

1) Change the wp-admin URL

This isn’t a good way to do security at all. It’s going to do more harm than good because some WordPress plugins are hard coded to use the wp-admin URL for admin login.

In the long ru this isn’t going to help you, just make your life more difficult.

2) Delete readme.html

In the root directory of your website (usually the public_ftp folder on FTP) there’s a readme.html file that shows what version of WordPress you’re using.

Many websites have this file and it was previously recommended to delve it. No need, there are many other methods hackers can use to figure out your version of WordPress.

This also shouldn’t matter because you’re using the most updated version of WordPress, right!?

This method is also outdated because it’s a losing battle. No matter how many times you delete the file it’ll show back up. It’s like playing whack-a-mole!

8. Choose An Obscure Table Prefix

A recent article from Wordfence (a recommended security plugin above) debunks the benefit of this security method.

I recommend reading the article and of course fully implementing a security plugin such as Wordfence.

When you’re initially setting up your WordPress website and have to choose the table prefix, just leave it alone. There’s no reason to change it and it won’t protect you anyway.

What Else?

That’s all I have! Those are the most important security measure you can take to keep WordPress secure. There are more, I know, and I will add them but for now, if you see any important ones missing, leave them in the comments.

WordPress.org has a whole page about hardening WordPress. That’s just a fancy way of saying keep it more secure and make it less vulnerable to hackers.

This post was originally posted in 2015, updated in 2016 and majorly overhauled with a new date in April 2019.

Up to the rollout of Nextdoor offers there was no way a business could post anything on Nextdoor, not even an event. To post a business event you had to use your personal Nextdoor profile to do it.

Exciting news because this is the first feature just for businesses to actively post something so neighbors can see a message from your business. It’s not just any type of message that you can post, though.

Right from your business page you can post an offer from your business. It may not be rolled out to every business yet because it’s still in the pilot stages but it’s coming.

Nextdoor has a promotional page for offers on their website, but it simply asks you to sign up for Nextdoor. There’s no information yet on what areas actually have access to offers as it is still in pilot as of April 2019.

Luckily I am in the pilot group (or maybe everyones is, who knows!?) so I put together the whole process of creating an offer and what they look like on Nextdoor.

What Offers Are For

As with most things online, people will try to abuse offers. Thankfully Nextdoor has been good up to now policing the abuse that business owners throw at it.

Nextdoor isn’t a medium for you to spam your neighbors about your latest greatest business venture.

Keep this in mind before you start posting several offers a week: it’s not about you, it’s about your neighbors.

That means offers should be focused on the benefit for your potential customer rather than about spreading the word about your business.

What’s in it for them?

Nextdoor has laid out several rules for the offers section for what businesses may post about:

• Businesses can only post about discounts and promotions. If you post anything else your offer will likely get removed and if you continue to violate the rules your business may get banned.
• Offers still must adhere to Nextdoor’s community guidelines.
• Businesses can only post for their own business, not offers promoting another business or partner.
• It’s still in the pilot stages so by posting an offer you’re agreeing to provide feedback about offers. My guess is their purpose here is to fine tune it so they can eventually monetize it.

Now for the good stuff when you’re ready to post your first offer.

How Often Can You Post Offers?

Two per week.

That’s the top limit for posting offers but unless you have something really compelling to post more often than ever week or two, I wouldn’t even recommend two per week.

If you’re posting the same offer twice a week and people stop responding to it, stop. At that point you’re annoying your neighbors and nobody is going to want to do business with that guy.

My recommendation for really good promotions is for them to last a week for the most part and if you’re getting responses then continue until it stops.

It’s also a good idea to switch up your offers every week and post something different. Offer something new, great, and unique that captures attention.

How To Post Your First Nextdoor Offer

This is exciting!

It’s time to post your first offer on Nextdoor. I would recommend you do this from a computer and even there it’s still a bit rough around the edges.

I found that I had to switch to my profile a few times during the process of setting up my offer. You can get acquainted with switching pages/profiles and checking that you’re in the right one on this Nextdoor help article.

Now it’s time to share something special with your neighbors that they’re going to love.

The first step starts in your Nextdoor business page. If you don’t have your Nextdoor business page set up then you should set up your business page first.

Step 1: Post an offer

From your business page there’s a new Offers tab, in there you can learn about offers and create your own offer.

To create your first offer, click the Post an offer button.

Step 2: Create the offer

I know, I’m not exactly in sync with the Nextdoor steps. This isn’t only the offers steps, though, it’s the whole process before and after.

This is where the bulk of your offer is written and what you need to spend the most time on. Make sure your offer is something genuinely special that will attract attention.

The offer I saw do the best and get the most response is a complimentary appetizer in the lounge of a restaurant. It was miles above the 15% offs and generic promotions with no special offer.

Give something cement, something free, something that people will genuinely like. Remember, this isn’t about you and making a huge sale that’s worth tons of money to you (15% off kind of says hey I want to give you a tiny bit off but I still want to make a ton on this offer). Offering something really great is key.

The Offer Sections

Here’s what you need to include in the offer section:

Headline: Tell someone right from the headline what it is you’re offering. If someone has to tap on the headline to see the full offer then you lost them. Spark their interest with a catchy headline that tells them what to expect from the offer.

Details: Sum up the headline with more details about the offer, explain how they can redeem the offer in more detail than what’s coming next, and tell them why they should redeem the offer.

Expiration: Every good thing must come to an end and that goes for an offer too. It could be an ongoing offer but don’t try to put the deadline 2 months out, there’s no sense of urgency there. Put a limit that’s coming up and post your offer again if it continue to go on.

Terms and conditions: Who can redeem it, what exclusions may apply, etc?

Coupon code/website: You can select whether their’s a coupon code or on a website. You can even choose both if either/or will work. If they must use a code in the store then put that here. Make sure everything is in its place so people know what to do and by when. If you’re putting in a website, make sure the website URL you type in goes to a page specifically for that deal with information about it. Don’t put your home page URL in because you’re just going to confuse the user and nobody’s going to redeem your offer.

Now to the next section of the offer.

Step 3: Select your audience

You can post your offer to individual neighborhoods that you have access to or you can post to them all.

If you want to reach the maximum audience then I recommend you leave the defaults selected and then continue on.

You can see there’s an overview of how many neighbors might see your offer in each neighborhood and then the overall number.

That’s a lot of neighbors!

Now to make your offer really pop and capture attention.

Step 4: Add a photo

You don’t have to add a photo but consider it a requirement. Your offer will get lost on a screen of other offers if you don’t include a captivating and relevant photo.

You can find lots of great high resolution photos online that are OK to use for businesses. Just be sure the license is good for commercial use.

Just drag your photo over to the box or click on the box to pull up the file browser.

And here’s what you’ll have once you upload your photo successfully.

This is me actually posting an offer by the way.

Step 5: Preview your offer

Now you’ll want to make sure your offer looks good and will make sense to someone seeing it who has no idea who you or your business is.

Read over it very carefully, think about the offer and how it might appear to others. You may even want someone else to look at it for you.

Don’t take this review step lightly though if you want to make a good impression on neighbors and get some traction with your offer.

Check both tabs (newsfeed & email) where your offer might be seen. Different information is shown in each one so be sure you put equal attention to reviewing them both.

When you’re sure everything is looking good then you can post your offer!

That’s it!

Now that you’ve clicked the post button you get a confirmation that your offer has been posted. There’s a tiny little X in the top right corner of that box that you can click.

When you click the X Nextdoor brings you to your offer but you’re not in your profile, you’re in some weird halfway profile (or at least I was) that didn’t show that I was logged into Nextdoor.

It looked something like this:

That’s where I had to switch profiles to see my offer displayed in the offers tab of my business page.

There is it, my offer shown in the new offers tab:

What Offers Look Like In Nextdoor

Now that you’ve posted your offer on Nextdoor it’s time to verify it’s posted everywhere it should be and take one last glance over to make sure it looks good.

As new offers are posted on Nextdoor the old ones get pushed further down the list. That’s part of the reason you should refresh your offers on occasion after the old one has expired.

If you’re on the Offers tab in Nextdoor your offer will look like these. Neighbors can save the offer or click on it to learn more.

See the little red heart with the number? Those are the number of recommendation your business page has. That means getting good recommendations is more important than ever on Nextdoor.

Your business offer is going to stand out significantly more with recommendations and it also builds trust with your neighbors who are looking at offers.

Once a neighbor clicks into your offer they see all the juicy details. This even includes information from your business page.

See those recommendations again? They really stand out and add another dimension to your business.

Below your offer you’ll also see other offers from neighborhood businesses.

And here it is on mobile.

Start Your Engines Posting Nextdoor Offers

As you’ve seen it’s easy to post Nextdoor offers to tell neighbors about awesome things you’re doing.

They are also a tool that can be misused as a tool to spam neighbors. Of course the spammer never understand the harm they’re doing to their own business, they simply want to tell everyone about what’s important to them.

Make sure you’ve read this blog post about Nextdoor offers so you understand how they work and how you should approach them. Nextdoor also has a lot of helpful information about offers, read it.

Balancing your excitement about your business with a focus on how it benefits your neighbors is key to success. With the right approach you can be very successful in driving more customers to your business.

Offers is an exciting new medium for promoting your business on Nextdoor beyond simply creating your business page. Of course recommendations are still extremely important so it’s important to get some recommendations first so your offer is trusted.

You can use this free email template to get more recommendations for your business.

Go forth and offer the best offers and help your neighbors discover new great things that will benefit them greatly.

Remember, focus on their benefit rather than yours.

Google Ads are known for being expensive, but the new responsive ads will save you big bucks on testing and keyword research.

A recent Google event comes with great news: advertisers and business owners will be able to cut costs and time spent on keyword research and testing.

The new responsive ads use Google’s learning machine to perform A/B testing automatically and will publish your highest converting ads.

The need for in-depth keyword research when you have a large volume of items? That will no longer be needed, as it’s now done automatically by Google via bots that extract keywords from websites.

But these aren’t the only changes. Ads are now easier to customize. You can add multiple lines of text and headline variations. For Google to get a good handle on how ads are performing, running your ads for some time is still necessary.

Google Ads are easier to customize with Google Responsive Ads and you can add multiple lines of text and even headline variations.
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All this sounds like good news, but how do you actually set them up? What happens when you don’t want Google’s algorithm to choose what ad will be displayed? Can you run ads with your own keywords instead of those selected by bots?

The answer to all of these questions and more are found in this 5-minute guide to Google’s new responsive ads.

Let’s dig in!

How the new responsive ads are different from expanded text ads

Google designed their new responsive ads to fit any display, screen size, and content type. They also solve the problem of rich media.

Previously, Google automatically picked an image from the advertiser’s website or Google+ account and placed it in display ads. As you may expect, the results were less than ideal and Google+ is going away anyway.

When it comes to the length of the ads, you’ll get:

• Longer text (90 characters)
• 4 unique descriptions
• 15 different headlines
• The descriptions + headlines can lead to over 40,000 versions of the same ad

Here’s a comparison between the new responsive ads and expanded text ads when it comes to text length, testing, and keyword research.

Automated keyword research will save you quite a bit of money and time. Moz teaches it’s audience how to perform keyword research in 90 minutes. Imagine how many resources automated keyword extraction saves.

How Google’s learning machines automate A/B testing

Google’s learning machine takes all the versions of the ad and decides which ones work best for your potential customers, as shown below:

However, if you currently do A/B testing for a living, you shouldn’t worry just yet. Google doesn’t offer detailed reports of the testing, and the methodology used isn’t disclosed.

Do I still have the option to keep my branding message consistent?

If you want to send a consistent brand message, you can do so by pinning headlines and descriptions.

This feature enables you to keep descriptions and headlines no matter the results of the A/B testing done by Google.

How to set up Google’s new responsive ads

Before you begin, keep in mind the following points:

• Because the new ads are compatible and made to look seamless on many screens, sometimes the images in your feed won’t be used.
• You won’t be able to gather information related to sensitive categories (mental health, personal hardships, identity, and beliefs)
• Ads that collect identifiable information aren’t allowed (email addresses, phone numbers, or credit card numbers)
• Alcohol, gambling, clinical trial recruitments, and ads that target children under 13 aren’t allowed.

To get started, sign in to your Google Ads account. Go to Display campaigns > Ads & extensions and click the blue + button.

Now you have the option to choose the ad group.

You can save your images in multiple formats:

• Landscape (ratio of 1.91:1 and bigger than 600 x 314, max size is 5 MB)
• Square (ratio of 1:1 and bigger than 300 x 300, max size is 5 MB)
• Logo (ratio of 1:1 and should be 128 x 128 or bigger)

Tip: Avoid text, as it may cover up 20-30% of the image.

After you pick the image and the format, you can preview it to get an idea what tweaks (if any) should be made so the ad looks good in different layouts.

You also have the option of adding a Call To Action (CTA). Go to More Options and select CTA.

Click save and once approved your ad will start running. Don’t start making any changes, though. You have to let the ad run for at least 7 days to complete the performance test and receive a complete report.

Best practices

Before you dive into this section, why not get some advice straight from Google?

Google has put together The Best Practices Newsletter. Here you’ll receive case studies, insights, studies, consumer trends, and more.

Also, Google warns that for the time being, there are some restrictions on who can use the ads as well as how they can be used.

How to achieve the best conversion rates

If you aim high, take advantage of the flexibility the new responsive ads provide and create unique descriptions. Avoid repetitive variations, as this could lead to Google not showing your ads because they’re too much alike.

The old features vs benefits

There are two ways you can sell a product or service: discuss its features or its benefits.

You’ve probably heard that highlighting the benefits works better than talking about features. But what happens when the features are truly revolutionary and should be mentioned?

Let’s take a look at a comparison between features and benefits.

Features:

The Unix 1000 processes 2 billion instructions per second.

Benefits:

The Unix 2000 processing power makes it comparable with models on the upper end of the spectrum but comes at a significantly lower cost.

When you sell features, you’re trying to make customers excited about something without providing any context. Does the average computer buyer know how many instructions the average computer processes per second?

Plus, if you focus solely on features, you may miss out on other perks that your product comes with. In the example above, it’s price.

With this approach, your prospect goes from “Um, what’s this?” to “A strong computer at a lower price? Sounds like a great deal!”

Magic words

What words should you choose to describe your products or services? What grabs people’s attention?

By far, the one word that rules them all is “free”. Sure, consumers ask themselves what’s the catch, but if used properly, there won’t be a catch and you won’t lose money either.

Here’s an example of two ads that make the same offer but have different wording:

• Black leather shoes 50% off.
• Black leather shoes, buy one get the second pair free!

To use or not to use keywords in your headline

This might sound like an obvious one. Of course, you should use keywords, but use keywords for only 3 headlines. For the rest, you should focus on being descriptive when it comes to your offering.

Use keywords in 3 our your Google Responsive Ads and for the rest, focus on being descriptive.
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With this strategy, you give Google’s learning machine more to work with. Plus, you might leave the table with an important conclusion based on the testing. What works best? SEO-optimized headlines or creative freedom for copywriters?

You won’t find the answer to this question in this guide, but one of the beauties of advertising is having to test everything for yourself and finding out.

What devices are the new ads compatible with? What about extensions?

As expected, the new responsive search ads can be used both on desktop and mobile. Also, they can be used with any of your favorite extensions.

Wrapping up

The new Google Ads give you more creative freedom. They also take some of the mundane tasks off your plate.

If you’re still struggling to understand how to use them, join Google’s forum where business owners and advertisers like you ask relevant questions and talk business.

How do you advertise on Nextdoor with a small budget? By small budget, I’m talking $500-$2,000 per month. Ad brokers are the only answer as of right now. Read this before you jump to that conclusion.

Advertising on Nextdoor is fairly limited as I’ve written about before in previous posts about advertising on Nextdoor.

The only two options up to this point (even after many years) is to either

1. Have a huge budget that only a national brand can afford ($5,000+ per month).
2. Be a real estate agent or broker (and even then it’s still limited).

If you aren’t either of those two then you can’t advertise directly with Nextdoor. That has opened the market a bit for some third party players, though.

Yes, there is a such thing as an ad broker for Nextdoor ads. The only problem? I’m not sure how trustworthy they are or how effective they are.

I know of two companies which have services to facilitate advertising for small businesses on Nextdoor. One is highly questionable in their tactics, the other more trustworthy but the effectiveness is still left up in the air.

What is a Nextdoor ad broker?

These are companies who buy up large blocks of ad space on Nextdoor, break it up into smaller chunks, then sell it to small businesses for lower monthly costs.

Budgets for Nextdoor ad brokers still start out at $500/month for the most basic ad package, though. That means they still aren’t that cheap for a small business budget.

One company that offers advertising on Nextdoor sells it as a full-service plan. They seem to be more trustworthy. They work with you to create ad copy, images, etc.

So, if you’ve ever worked with an agency to do Facebook ads then it’s probably somewhat similar. You pay a management fee to the company and then you pay for ads on top of that.

The legitimacy of at least one of the ad broker companies is up in the air though. I’ll explain because I’ve received some highly questionable information likely from them.

Are they legitimate?

I can’t speak for all Nextdoor ad brokers but I can speak for one as for their legitimacy. It isn’t good. I won’t name names here because I don’t want to promote the idea further.

An example

A few months ago I was left a comment on my advertising on Nextdoor blog post. This company left a link to their landing page that is geared towards selling advertising on Nextdoor. The commenter didn’t even leave a legitimate email address.

The email address of the spam comment was a @gmail.com account which is nearly always a sure sign of a scam.

Here’s the comment marked as spam from my website:

As you can see it looks highly suspicious. Why wouldn’t they talk to me directly to share what they do? I felt that I needed to do a bit more research on what this company is doing.

You won’t find links to the actual website because I don’t know how trustworthy it is. Any company that resorts to spam tactics is absolutely not trustworthy in my book.

If a company resorts to spam tactics for their marketing then they're absolutely not trustworthy.
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Verifying legitimacy with Nextdoor

I emailed Nextdoor with information on the page and asked about the “recently partnered with Nextdoor” claim. What I got from Nextdoor was a less than a satisfactory answer and never clarified if there was in fact any partnership.

Finally I received this email:

That doesn’t make it look like there’s any sort of partnership. I got conflicting information on whether the partnership was legitimate and then I got this email which seems to say you’re on your own if you advertise with this company.

The lack of accountability and clarity on whether there is an official partnership or not makes me question that companies claim of a partnership.

Wouldn’t Nextdoor have something about the partnership on their website if it was true?

I couldn’t find anything.

When I search Google for the two companies, there’s no overlap. The questionable company has information about Nextdoor but Nextdoor has nothing about the questionable company.

Suspicious.

Here are the advertising plans from the company and their claim that they’ve partnered with Nextdoor.

What should you do?

As a local small business on Nextdoor, you now have two great opportunities to reach local customers. Neither will cost you a penny but they will have more limited reach than the paid methods on other platforms.

These “ad brokers” have added a bit of hope that Nextdoor will offer their own ad platform to smaller budgets but the trust with ad brokers just isn’t there. It’s best to wait at this point.

The two methods I recommend to use right now are posting events on Nextdoor and posting a good offer every week or so.

You can read more about how to post an event on Nextdoor the right way (yes there is a wrong way). I’ve also written in more detail about the new offers on Nextdoor which is the first thing you can post directly from your business page.

The one that I think might be trustworthy would still be priced above most small businesses budgets who are trying to get established. It’s well above the budget especially given the potential for the advertising to provide a positive return on investment (ROI).

Be patient and wait for the native small business Nextdoor advertising platform. It will come and it will be better than working with an ad broker which may not be trustworthy.
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So, it’s ultimately your decision on what to do but my recommendation would be to have patience and hold off on advertising on Nextdoor for now.

I know a lot of people are itching to advertise but using an ad broker for it isn’t the way to go.

Wait for the platform to offer native advertising that you can then work with an agency on.

The steps you should be taking on Nextdoor right now is to be sure you’ve put some time into creating a great Nextdoor business page. After that, ask for some recommendations and then keep an eye out in your feed for people looking for what you do.

You’re absolutely allowed to recommend yourself.

That’s going to be the most effective way to gain traction and take advantage of the Nextdoor platform right now.

While Nextdoor will be a great platform to advertise on, it’s not there yet. Your advertising dollars can still be effective with pay per click advertising and Facebook ads as long as you work with the right person and do it the right way.

There are definitely more ways to do it wrong than right.

Your business needs a little passion to survive — passionate ideas, passionate leaders and passionate customers. Even when this passion turns negative, it can still contribute to driving your business growth.

In fact, angry customers can be your secret weapons.

Here’s the secret: with a little bit of targeted intervention, you can turn a detractor into a disciple.

The passion inherent in an angry customer can be redirected into a positive passion. These detractors have strong opinions and are willing to share them, so if you can turn them, they will become your business’ biggest advocates.

Make sure you see the feedback

The first step in turning detractors into promoters is giving them a voice. Frequent and accessible venues for real-time feedback give you the power to establish audience trust, make amends and prevent negative experiences in the future.

If you haven’t done so already, implement a live chat or feedback tool. Allow direct messaging and prominently feature your contact information. Whatever platform customers are using, it should be easy to get in touch. They shouldn’t have to go to an additional channel in order to have their voice be heard.

With just a bit of targeted intervention you may be able to turn a detractor into a disciple.
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Offering many outlets for complaints allows you to nip criticism in the bud. If customers know there is an easily accessible venue for feedback, they are less likely to be venting pent-up emotion. They are coming to you directly, rather than airing your dirty laundry for friends and strangers.

You don’t even have to wait for customers to come to you. Constantly remind them about feedback options that they can use, so they know upfront that their opinion will be valued.

Monitor Online Reviews

urning detractors into disciples starts with knowing where your detractors are. You would hate for a negative voice to go unnoticed.

Customer feedback that comes directly through your support line or in response to an NPS (net promoter score) survey is easy to monitor. But online reviews cannot be neglected either. Because reviews are public, it is even more important to track down these detractors and make things right as quickly as possible.

Some companies try to game their customer feedback on Google or Facebook or even buy Yelp reviews, but there are easier, more ethical ways to improve your online reputation. Use reputation management software to help you invite and track reviews on every platform.

Keeping an eye on promoters and detractors on a continuous basis will allow you to resolve any problems as often and as efficiently as possible.

Respond ASAP

To convert a detractor, they need to know you are an attentive company. Respond as quickly as you can, while still maintaining a professional stance.

Try to fix the problem before you post your response. Talk to all parties involved so you know the whole story first. If you can resolve the problem as quickly as possible, your detractor won’t have the chance to sit and stew and become immovable in their dislike.

Detractors are, by nature, more passionate—which is a great asset when they are turned into promoters. However, allowing their emotional language to fuel an emotional response from you will get you nowhere. Consider taking a day, sleeping on it, and then crafting the perfect reply.

Say “I’m Sorry”

Before you do anything else, apologize. Even if you feel that the customer’s comments are unfair, consider their perspective—they had a bad experience. Just acknowledging that is often enough to cool them down.

Besides, you will have more success in improving customer relationships if you are willing to empathize and take the fall. You’re not perfect either, and odds are, at least some of what your customer is saying is true.

Always take the time to listen and say you're sorry. If you start out with a sorry then you have a good footing to gain a disciple.
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Publicly say “I’m sorry” and don’t fall into the trap of blaming your customer. Beware of sounding scripted, just keep it simple. You can not change the way they felt when they left the review, but you can change their perspective moving forward.

Offer Individual Solutions

Disciples and detractors tend to care about the same things: price, service, and product. In order to convert a detractor, you need to identify the flaw in their specific customer experience.

Get to the bottom of the complaint and work with the detractor to find an individual, best fit solution. A general solution (like a standard discount or free meal) may help calm the detractor, but it won’t tip the scales into discipleship. Do your research first, investigate solutions and offer reparation.

To put it simply, show that you care. If you really are invested in the customer experience, solving the problem individually and making your disgruntled customer feel respected will be worthwhile.

And if it takes time to implement feedback or solve the problem, keep them informed along the way.

Don’t leave them stewing in the dark.

Wow your Detractors

If you really want to turn negative passion into positive passion, you have to add a little pizzazz.

Go above and beyond to do something unique, something they haven’t seen and wouldn’t expect other brands to do. Personal emails, handwritten notes, flowers—these things are still meaningful but have been done. What can your business offer that others can’t?

Lego famously replaced a seven-year-old boy’s lost mini-figure. Trader Joe’s made a holiday delivery to a snowed-in elderly man. Sainsbury’s renamed a product — from tiger bread to giraffe bread — at the request of a confused three (and a half) year old. In their early years, Amazon scored big by sending a new PlayStation to a customer whose package had been stolen.

While this level of customer service is not always cheap, it is very effective. Don’t worry about the short-term losses, think about long-term brand loyalty. In addition, it doesn’t hurt to do nice things just for the sake of being nice.

Having top executives personally respond to complaints is another powerful way to show how invested you are in your customers. As a detractor, it feels good to be recognized and have your feedback taken seriously.

Ask for an Update

Many customers who feel that their complaint has been addressed are willing to change their reviews. However, they probably won’t think to do it on their own.

If they shared feedback publicly on a review site or elsewhere, ask them to update their post to reflect how you worked to solve the problem. This will show anyone reading the thread that you are focused on making customers happy—loyal or not.

Take Feedback to Heart

While the end goal is to turn a detractor into a disciple, take advantage of the qualitative data these individuals provide to your business. Honest feedback is a great drive for honest evaluation, so listen with an open mind and make the changes you need to.

Typically, for every 1 customer complaint, there are 26 customers angry about the same thing. If there are multiple comments about an issue, then it’s time to implement a solution. Focus on macro-level problems, but offer individual-level solutions.

If detractors don’t turn right away, have patience. Optimization is a long-term process and some detractors need to see continued efforts from you. Just keep at it. Being willing to learn from your mistakes and trust your customer will save you the stress of more negativity in the future and will also help your business be more effective.

Don’t Neglect Employee Satisfaction

As an aside: Team members can be some of your best prospects for brand advocates. 47% of consumers say that they view employees as very credible sources of information about a product or service. Don’t let unhappy employees become detractors. Just as the customer experience is critical to your business reputation, so is the employee experience.

By managing and responding well to feedback from all angles, your business’s reputation will grow with a small army of your very own passionate promoters.

Woohoo! That’s a game changer for Yelp.

Whether you’ve thought about advertising on Yelp or are already advertising, you should be using this new tool for managing Yelp ads. I’ve written plenty about my experience advertising on Yelp and mentioned specifically about the lack of ability to control who sees your ad.

That recently changed when Yelp rolled out the ability to see keywords someone used when your ad was shown and now even allows you to choose keywords more accurately. You may be shocked about where your advertising dollars on Yelp are going if you haven’t looked already.

The good news?

You now have better control over where your ad dollars are spent. If you see your ad is showing up for some crazy words, then you can stop it.

Yelp has a new tool for advertisers that gives you better control over how your ad dollars are spent.
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Managing Yelp Ads

There’s a new option in the Yelp ads tab to make managing Yelp ads easier. It’s part of your Yelp management page when you log in at biz.yelp.com.

Look for this section in the ads tab:

See that? You can see all the keywords people have used, saw your business, and clicked on. You won’t see anything show up here until they click on your ad though. That will make managing Yelp ads a lot better but it’s still far from perfect.

Notice how bizarre some of these keywords are?

This is an actual example from my Yelp ads dashboard. How Yelp decided to show my business for the search word “toddler modeling” I’ll never know. They’re supposed to show ads only within a functional category (such as Marketing).

I’m supposed to be in the following categories:

• Web Design
• Marketing
• Graphics Design (though I continue to try to get this one removed)

Most of the keywords my ad were seen on makes absolutely no sense at all. In fact, there continues to be only one keyword that I haven’t blocked yet (I’ll get to that in a bit).

Keywords Targeting in Yelp

The keyword targeting of Yelp ads leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, it’s the worst targeting I’ve seen but Yelp has given advertisers a nice tool to help combat that.

I say help and emphasize it because while it is helpful, it’s not nearly enough to prevent ad money waste. I still have to pay a massive amount of money just to discover I absolutely don’t want my ad to show up for a keyword such as toddler modeling (bizarre!).

A massive amount of money means it can cost me upwards of $10 for each keyword failure. Sometimes it could cost more if I don’t catch it right away because maybe it was clicked on twice.

My ad could have shown for “toddler modeling” and been clicked on 3 times before I noticed it. Thankfully I’m on top of monitoring my keywords to reduce waste.

Managing Your Yelp Ads

So how do you solve the issue of showing ads on keywords you don’t want them to show up on?

By managing Yelp ads using the new keywords management tool!

Right inside the Your Keywords section is a button you can click to manage your keywords.

You need to be using the keywords manager in Yelp to get the most from your advertising. The more you check it, the less money you’ll waste and the more effective your Yelp ads will be.

Yelp now lets you block any keyword that someone has used to click on your ad.

That means you can now block forever anyone searching for toddler modeling!

Yay!

Here’s what managing Yelp ads look like (when you click the Manage/View All button):

Pretty cool right? The only shame is that I can only block the keyword after it has been clicked on rather than when its shown. That would save me a lot of money because then my ad would never be seen by those searching for toddler modeling!

As you can see from my keywords almost every single one is useless to me.

In fact, I’ve only left one keyword unblocked, advertising and marketing.

You simply have to click the block button next to the keyword you’d like to block. Before you block it the button will say Block, after you’ve clicked it then it will say Unblock (so you can choose to show your ad for that keyword again).

Managing Yelp ad keywords gives you a lot of power but it also may leave you with very few keywords to show your ad on.
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It’s really that simple. There’s even a tab (the blocked keywords tab) that shows all your blocked terms. They also show in the past searches tab.

Keep in mind that this only shows keywords for the past 30 days.

You can also block keywords before they’ve even been used! That’s great if you can predict what you don’t want to show up for.

Block Yelp Ad Keywords

If you know some of the keywords that might be used to find your business but you don’t want to show up for them, Yelp has you covered.

You can proactively block keywords.

If you go into the blocked keywords tab there’s a space you can type a keyword in. Just type the keyword you’d like to block and click the block button.

That will add any word you’d like to the blocked list and your ad should never show up if that keyword is used.

Just like that, you now have more power over where your ad shows up and for what searches.

Beyond Ad Keywords

The keywords you see shown on Yelp are only a fraction of where your ad can potentially show up.

Why?

Because ads show up in many places on Yelp. They show up in other Yelp profiles and even partner websites.

According to Yelp the keywords my ad shows up on account for only 44% of the total ad clicks for my ad. Yours may vary a bit.

There’s not much control for you there but that may be an impossible feat. There’s still a lot that Yelp ads lack because I still get a lot of odd requests for service.

Exprance is a digital marketing agency yet still gets requests for printing and even computer repair. Yelp gives no way to not pay for these requests.

My recommendation for trying out Yelp ads still remains the same as it was when I wrote my first post answering the question if Yelp advertising was worth it for a small business.

If you’d like to discuss the ideal path for your business to get more local customers, book a free consultation so I can give you more personalized advice. Yelp advertising may be good for some but there may be a better route for you.

I’d like to help you find the ideal path to grow your business online.

Sometimes the conversation devolves a bit and you may hear someone mention you can have a project good, fast, and cheap but you can only choose two.

Your industry isn’t immune to that saying I’m sure. I know web design and digital marketing isn’t!

You can have a website built fast and cheap but not good. Maybe you’d like it fast and good but not cheap. Last but not least, cheap and good but not fast.

So, there are three scenarios possible. They sound good at first glance. If we dig a bit deeper into how that all works out, though, don’t take the saying too seriously, it’s trouble waiting to happen.

I’m going to break down each of the three scenarios and we’ll look at what it really means to your business.

For reference, here are the options again.

• Fast & Cheap | NOT Good
• Good & Cheap | NOT Fast
• Good & Fast | NOT Cheap

Good, fast, cheap. You can only choose two. If only it was that easy. In most scenarios, you'll end up out of luck, see which ones.
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Yes, the saying can’t be taken literally but I also think it’s also bad as a joke and urges us towards a dangerous mindset.

Let’s take a look a bit closer at each one.

Fast & Cheap, Not Good

Is it possible? Yes.

Do you want this? No!

This seems to be the biggest red flag in the whole scenario.

Who honestly wants something that’s not good?

I would imagine that the only time this would be remotely OK is if you’re doing it yourself and the outcome doesn’t matter one bit and nobody will ever see it.

If the outcome doesn’t matter then why are you wasting the time (even if fast) and the money?

No, fast and cheap doesn’t work because having something done badly is just a waste.

As a business owner, you don’t want to be a part of this scenario in any way, from hiring to being hired fast and cheap.

Good & Cheap, Not Fast

Is it possible? No!

Do you want this? No!

I don’t know of anybody out there who’s willing to give you a discount or somehow do it for cheaper just because you don’t need it in a hurry.

In no scenario and on no planet does cheap ever lead to good no matter how long it takes.

I’ve tried my hardest to think of any scenario where good & cheap but not fast applies accurately.

My guess is that anything I agree to provide that’s good and cheap but not too fast will most likely not be that good in the end.

If a price is agreed upon that is cheap then you’re going to get just that, cheap, which never equals good. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, cheap will still never be good.

That brings us to the last scenario, good and fast but not cheap.

Good & Fast, Not Cheap

Is it possible? Yes.

Do you want this? Maybe.

Of all the scenarios here, this one is most likely to happen in reality and have a decent outcome (aside from someone being a lot poorer).

Everyone wants good, sure. Everyone also wants things fast in most cases. At the least it’s nice to have it done faster rather than slower.

It can be expensive to achieve this goal though. And I do mean expensive because it requires great (and quick) planning which isn’t easy, or cheap.

So of the three options, this is the only one that could possibly play out in a way that anybody would want it to.

What Might Work?

The only option that could possibly be desirable (though not ideal) is to throw money at the problem and get it good and fast.

If you go for fast and cheap then it’s not going to be good and nobody wants something that’s no good.

There is no reality where good and cheap ever works. It can be as slow as you want (even years) but it’ll never be good and because it takes so long it probably won’t be cheap either.

Good and fast? Sure! Why not? This could work but it will cost you a pretty penny (sunny boy!) to achieve it.

So when someone tells you that you have to choose two out of the three, that’s not accurate. You’re going to strike out in two out of those three scenarios. In the last scenario, you’ll be a lot more broke.

Last Thoughts

I know it’s a fun scenario that people say when they’re frustrated with the limitations people put on them. You know, the people who want a whole eCommerce website designed, built, content written, SEO done, and have a budget of $1,000.

I talk to a lot of potential web design and digital marketing clients who have the expectation that they can get it all somehow. I make sure I always set expectations and then point them in the right direction so they can see that other people’s work is every bit as hard as theirs.

Even saying that they can choose only two between good, fast, and cheap is too generous in most cases.

Want to have a little fun?

Check out this Fast, Good, Cheap user interface and see if you can get them all working.

My thought is that the interface should only have one enabled at any given time. There’s no possible way to have even two of the three.

Can you think of a scenario where the two that aren’t likely to work would work accurately?

Having a website is a great way for a business to increase its online presence and promote its brand. However, it is also an easy way for someone to steal your content and use it for their purposes. Plagiarism is not anything new in the world of creative minds and you should make sure that all the necessary precautions are in place to protect yourself.

Sometimes, you will have to create your own rules, while other times you will have to seek assistance from the law and regulations governing intellectual property. Since websites fall under various copyright and trademark regulations, you will have to do some extensive research. Additionally, this will not only help protect yourself but also your clients and customers from breach of data.

Here are some of the things you can do to prevent people from stealing your digital content or at least make sure they borrow it properly.

1) Use the copyright notice

Just like alarms don’t stop thieves, neither will the copyright notice at the bottom of every page. However, it will lower the number of times plagiarism happens because it will help put the law on your side. Make sure that you have done everything appropriate to protect your digital data legally and by being very clear about permissions in the copyright notice.

Based on the copyright law, the moment you publish something on your website, it is protected by this legislation in the United States. If you want, you can file copyright protection with the U.S. Copyright Office or other countries where you registered your website for work. This means that your work falls under the copyright infringement laws if they’re stolen by persons from another country or translated.

Therefore, if they’re stolen by persons from another country or translated without your permission you can address your copyright office based on World Intellectual property Organization (WIPO).

2) Create original content for SEO

If you have a business, you should use SEO on your website because it will bring you more customers and increase your revenue. One of the ways to make sure this all works perfectly is to have original content on your website. Besides being unique, it also has to be high quality so Google will rank it higher in relevant search results.

This will require putting in extra effort, but it will be rewarding in the end. Since Google carefully monitors pages for plagiarism since 2011 with its algorithm, your thief will not benefit much from copying your content. The position on the search result list depends on your content, and stealing yours will only damage the potential thieves standing in many search engines.

3) When to allow the theft

People will steal your content, you can’t stop that completely. You can only appeal to their common sense and dignity by forbidding the taking of your content without permission in your website terms of use, copyright notice and copyright symbol at the bottom of every page. This may deter some, but not all.

Therefore, since the theft will happen, then you might as well get some use from it. This strategy means that you allow people to republish your work and you are making this decision clear to the potential thieves. It could be wise to write a separate document on proper ways to copy content from your website stating there that the copier should state where they got it from.

Sometimes it might be okay to just let theft of your content happen. You have to weight the benefits and drawbacks.
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To help people understand and easily copy your material, place an embedded code on after each content on your website so that others can use it to republish your work. Additionally, if someone asks you for permission and you grant it, then this is also a proper way to copy something from your website.

Using these actions will help your content reach a wider audience and it will bring more traffic to your website. When they publish your content, it is linked to the original source thus giving you a natural link which will help your SEO. In addition, this is one of the easiest ways to get more exposure and promote your website.

4) Find out if your digital content is stolen

Since you can’t know if your digital content was stolen without doing an exhaustive check on the Internet manually, you can try some of these tools to help.

Google Alerts will help you scan the Internet by creating specific criteria. You can adjust several options for the search results like sources, language, and frequency of alerts. With Google Alerts you can receive notifications about copied content. You just need to copy the text in the search bar and you will receive alerts whenever someone uses it. This way you can detect plagiarism and find the right approach to solve it, especially if your content is under legal copyright protection.

Other tools include Article Checker which is free online service which will allow you to manually check an article from your website for plagiarism. Duplichecker is another free online service where you can insert text or URL you want to be checked. Plagiarisma supports over 190 languages and accepts file formats like .docx, .pdf and .rtf.

5) Be clear about your digital content

One of the ways to check what is allowed regarding your content is to be clear about what people can do with your content. terms of use are one way to do that, but they can be too much trouble for website visitors to read. That is why being very transparent and stating your rules on your website about us section is much better.

For example, you can address the visitors directly by introducing yourself, your business and your website. You can state that if they want to use the materials, they are more than welcome to if they contact you. This is easier and more clear for most and may lead to less copyright infringement.

Make it easy for a website visitor to understand how they can use your website content. The easier you make it to comply with copyright, the more people will comply.
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Additionally, if you want to collaborate with other websites and people, create a special page with more details on how they can do this. This will allow you to form business connections with others and boost your SEO.

Using the tools mentioned above to detect content theft will help you decide if you need to confront the thieves or not, but it will not prevent copyright infringement entirely. It’s always important for every business owner to maintain terms and policies.

Closing

Before you publish a website, make sure you have all the information necessary to protect yourself from digital content theft. Also, consult an expert in digital legal issues since they can better help protect you and do things lawfully online.

Looking for the right candidate to fill a position in your company can be a daunting task, especially if you are starting from scratch. There are many job applicants in the market, but which of them is the right fit for you?

Sometimes just qualifications aren’t the only basis on which these decisions are made. Knowing that the employee will fit into your work culture and believe in your company is necessary. It’s is vital to write job descriptions that put forward just what you want in the candidate and help you search for the perfect job candidate.

Here are a few simple and effective tips to help you with your next job posting in finding the right candidate for the job.

1) Don’t make the description too long

No one likes to read long descriptions and most of the time people just skim through the content. It is important to keep the job posting short and concise so that it has all the necessary information and nothing more.

According to research, an ideal post should be anywhere between 400 words to 800 words. It should also have 3 to 5 essential responsibilities or competencies for that job, as well as the basic requirements such as education and work experience.

2) Make it lively

You need to entice your desired candidate into choosing you over your competitors, which is why you need to make the job posting dynamic and different. Use graphics such as company logo and bullet points to break up the content.

Keep the tone fun instead of sounding serious and monotone. Try to keep the posting as clean as possible instead of cluttering it unnecessarily.

3) Make an impression from the get-go

Catch the attention of your potential candidate from the very beginning of the post so that they are interested in what you have to say. Using targeted statements or questions can be a good start to capture their attention and get them thinking.

Your job description must catch an applicants attention from the beginning. Use targeted statements or questions to capture their interest.
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For instance, “Are you interested in saving the world while working for an open and dynamic company?” Use something that helps set you apart from other businesses and will help be the main point in the candidate you choose.

4) Keep it light and simple

No one is interested in reading a post written like a robot that has no personality. Mix in a sense of conversation and personality into your job post to show the company’s tone and environment.

Let the reader know that joining your business means a healthy work environment and along with great company benefits.

5) Keep the application process simple and easy

Having an elaborate application process deters people from applying. This, in turn, means you’ll miss out on some perfect candidates.

Avoid using long forms to fill or websites that require you to sign up just to apply. Instead, keep the application process simple and write it in 4 to 5 bullet points to clearly explain what is to be done next if the candidate is thinking of applying for the job with your company. Try not to make the instructions too confusing, keep it straightforward.

6) Learn to differentiate between what is preferred and what is required

Certain traits or qualifications are absolutely required for a candidate to apply while some are simply preferred. Keep this in mind when listing out what you need from the candidate who is applying. You don’t need to list out every single point but make sure to write down the absolutely necessary ones without which the company cannot do. These include qualities such as years of experience, or knowledge of a certain skill.

Attract The Right Candidates

Writing the right job posting can take some practice and skill, and a lot of revisions! Job posters for companies need to make sure they understand exactly what kind of candidates they are looking for to help them reach the right people online for their business. People looking for jobs appreciate this and find it easy to apply to companies that understand their needs.

Copywriting can make or break your business. It’s how you directly and indirectly communicate with your customers. It brings out emotions, answers questions and leads users towards the sale. You don’t have to be a pro either to improve your sales copy.

Ahead are 10 copywriting strategies that will improve conversion rates and are easy to implement.

1) Features versus Benefits

When writing product and service descriptions, don’t forget to include the benefits of what you’re offering. What are benefits you ask? They are everything the customer should experience by using your product and generally include emotion.

For example, instead of just stating the materials and color of a rain jacket, you can add it will keep them dry while looking stylish. This makes purchasing much more enticing and justifiable as they can imagine exactly what they will experience.

Similarly, you can communicate pain points that customers may be facing. Continuing off the jacket example, we could mention that they won’t have to worry about arriving to work soaked anymore or getting their hair messed up.

Where your customers are in the buying journey will also change how you write your sales copy. These are the three stages and how you can adjust your copy accordingly:

• Awareness stage: Customers in this stage are beginning to realize they require a solution for a problem. Ask questions you believe they’re thinking and write about pain points. This will get them more emotionally invested in your brand.
• Consideration stage: Some research has already been done by the customer. They may be considering you already so add more call to actions.
• Decision stage: The customer is making a final decision on whether to purchase or not. Testimonials, reviews, and case studies can help convert them to a final sale.

2) Storytelling

Connecting with your audience is a great way to build trust and community. When users can relate to you and your business, they are more likely to become customers. One of the best ways to achieve this is through storytelling. It can be done in many forms.

Consider the position a potential customer is in and talk about how you were once there too. Maybe you were in a financial struggle before starting your business. Tell them about it and how you got to where you are now. Storytelling can also be a lot simpler, like mentioning something recent you experienced that inspired your latest article.

3) Sound like an Expert

If you sound like an expert on any given subject, people are more likely to trust your brand. When speaking about your product, service or while writing content, use statistics and numbers. This is a surefire way to build credibility. For example, instead of just saying a marketing strategy generates more revenue, state exact numbers. Use case studies and real data to back up your claims. This is a simple and easy way to make you appear more trustworthy and credible.

4) Use Urgency

Imagine you’re shopping and there are 100 items left of what you’re looking for. Odds are you wouldn’t be in too much of a rush to get one. Now, if there were only a few left, it would probably be a different story. This is what we call urgency and it’s easy to implement into sales copy, such as:

• Announcing a sale is almost over.
• Displaying how many units are left of a product if it’s low.
• Saying a coupon only lasts until a certain date.

Strategies like these create urgency for the customer. It makes them feel like they must take action now or they may miss out.

5) Buy with Emotion, Justify with Logic

The purchasing process is very emotional based even if you don’t realize it. It’s very common to wish to buy something based on emotion and then justify it with logic. An example would be fancy sports cars. Some people enjoy the allure of how it would make them appear and believe it puts them in a higher class. This is pure emotion of course but they would justify by claiming the gas mileage and high tech features are what sold them.

Always lead sales copy with emotion and then justify the purchase with logic.
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With this in mind, always make sure to lead sales copy with emotion and then justify the purchase with logic. This ties in with the previous features versus benefits approach as well. Tell the customer how they will benefit but mention why the purchase is reasonable. Will they save money? Will it improve their health? That is how you finish it with logic.

6) Exclusivity

Everyone loves feeling special and unique. This is how a lot of luxury companies brand themselves. If you purchase a product from them, you’re part of an exclusive group. Not all businesses can pull this off but here are some ways to try:

• Having a members only area of a website.
• Branding your product as rare and one of a kind.
• Selling limited edition products.
• Offering a private newsletter.

7) Honesty

Being honest about your business is key to success. You may think that mentioning disadvantages or cons wouldn’t be beneficial but it can help quite a bit. This makes you appear more trustworthy and credible since you aren’t only focusing on the good things about your product.

Be honest about how your company started, what your products do/don’t do, and what you can deliver. The last thing you want to do is surprise your customer or make them feel unsatisfied.

8) Calls to Action

This is the first copywriting strategy almost every entrepreneur learns first. It’s also one of the most effective. A call to action is simply a phrase that tells users to take a specific action. These include:

• “Buy now”
• “Don’t wait any longer”
• “Contact us today”
• “Get your free quote”

They are often short and sweet. It’s enough to make a sale or lead a customer towards one. Depending on your business, you will use different calls to action.

9) Formatting

Have you ever come across an article that was pure paragraphs of text? You probably took a few scrolls and left. Without good formatting, content is hard to digest. It makes it difficult to find the answer you need and understand what the article is going to discuss. Some good formatting rules are:

• Use header tags to break down different points within the content.
• Use lists and bullet points for organization.
• Bold certain keywords in every paragraph.
• Include useful links to other resources.
• Add images or video.

10) Get Them Saying Yes

When you understand your customers well enough, you can tailor your content perfectly to their personas. You should ask questions they are probably thinking throughout your sales copy. If the answer is yes, they are more likely to agree with the purchase later. It also is a wonderful way to build trust as it shows you understand them well. Examples include:

• “Have you been trying to build a website?”
• “Struggling with SEO?”
• “Are you thinking about X or Y?”

Key Takeaways

Small changes in your sales copy can make a big difference. It’s an aspect that every business owner should strive to improve. The following is a summary of the 10 above strategies:

1. Include how the customer will benefit from using your product or service, not just what it does.
2. Tell stories that relate to your audience.
3. Use statistics, studies, and data to sound like an expert.
4. Create urgency to entice customers to purchase.
5. Justify the purchase with logic.
6. Make your product appear exclusive or rare.
7. Be honest about your brand, history, and products.
8. Use call to actions.
9. Format your content so it’s easy to digest.
10. Ask questions your audience would be thinking.

As you can see, copywriting doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for any business. Try one or a combination of the above techniques and experience the results for yourself.

Think about it. What kind of content are your friends and family sharing on Facebook?

Websites.

News, blog posts, images, videos, etc. It all comes down to content that’s most likely on a website.

Your website.

Also, where do people go to learn more about your business?

Your website!

That’s why websites are more relevant than ever. If you don’t have a website then your content is just floating around the internet with a short shelf life and little control from you. That means people aren’t likely to know where the content comes from or that it belongs to you.

In a social media and sharing world, your website is the center of your brand and online presence.

That means it has to do a great job at converting visitors into leads.

While a website is more important than ever there are some circumstances where it’s not the right solution. Overall a web design is more important than ever.

When You Don’t Need A Website

When you’re just starting out a new business, a website isn’t the first step to take.

If you’re light on money and/or are in a crowded niche then a website may not help right away. Not until you’ve built a little something that is.

It may even be that you don’t need a hugely complex website right away, in that case an affordable website may be all what you need in the early stages.

The first place you probably want to start a new business is getting it listed online. You need to get on every local business directory you can because that’s where people are probably going to find you in the early days.

A business website isn't where a new business should start in most cases. Proper allocation of resources is an absolute must in the early days.
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You’re much better investing what money you have in putting your business on platforms people are already on rather than creating a website just to have one.

That’s why I recommend not going the DIY website route. The purpose of the DIY website is just to have a website which is a waste of time and money.

You also don’t want to end up with something you can’t afford to maintain. While a WordPress website will eventually be a good idea, you may not have the monthly income to maintain the necessary level of WordPress maintenance service.

If you don’t have the money to invest in a website, you don’t need one. You’re sometimes better off not having a website if the proper effort and purpose isn’t put into it.

Once you have something going then a website is probably somewhere you’ll want to venture.

Business Website Purpose

Business websites still matter IF they’re done for the right reasons.

There are two main purposes having a website should fall into. Make sure at least one of these applies before you bother with a website.

1. Build confidence with potential leads so they know your organization can solve their problem.
2. Convert visitors into leads that are ready to buy your service or product.

In the first point, people are doing their research and hunting down information to solve their problem.

The second point someone is interested in your business but needs to convert. How easy is that to do on your website?

I see these points failing to be covered with many DIY websites. It’s easy to tell a DIY website from a mile away because they don’t appear to have any goal they’re moving visitors towards.

Keep your eye on the prize. Most websites fail at doing that.

DIY websites fail because they’re simply a template to plug generic information into. That’s not enough for a business website.

There’s more to a website than just the two points above though. I’ve written plenty on the art and science of web design including that web design is 10% web design and 90% marketing.

Many businesses can have a family basic website as long as it’s done right. There are many web designers who may want to do too much though. Sometimes simple is good.

Overkill

A website can also be overkill depending on what’s needed. There is a fine balance between a useful website and overkill for a business website.

Hand-coded websites used to be the only way to go. In face, hand-coding where I got my start. Now though they can be too expensive for most businesses. Unless there’s a specific reason for a hand-coded website, it’s not necessary.

In fact, the assumption should be a website should be built on a CMS like WordPress until proven otherwise.

There is such thing as underkill in web design too! Underkill is DIY platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. If a website is for making money then web design isn’t about design unless it can point back to how it’s helping to make money.

Web Design Isn’t Design Anymore

Design isn’t all about design in the traditional sense. It’s not about looking pretty and simply functioning how it should.

A website that functions as it should doesn’t mean the goal was determined properly.

If a website is designed to tell people about a business then that’s easy to do. What’s wrong with that?

It’s not a meaningful enough goal.

Design is also about having a meaningful goal for a website that’s business driven.

That means the website is designed around doing one of the two things I mentioned above.

This will lead to an evolution for most web designer jobs from designing websites towards adding value to the process of finding new visitors and converting them into leads.

If you’d like to talk about your business and how a website should fit into your strategy, schedule a free consultation so we can work together determine if and when a website would be the right solution for you.

Nextdoor is the best social media network for neighborhoods around the world. It’s private and for verified neighbors only. That means it’s a treasure trove of connecting and doing business with neighbors.

But how do you promote your business on Nextdoor?

Nextdoor is has many options they’re exploring for promoting your business on Nextdoor. One of the earliest methods I explored for this is posting a business event in the events section of Nextdoor.

You have to post your event properly so it doesn’t get rejected (and you potentially reported) but it’s a good option for connecting with neighbors. I’ll get to that in in just a bit.

Before I get into posting an event on Nextdoor, there’s also a newer method for promoting your business on Nextdoor called offers. It’s still in pilot which means you may not yet have access to it but it will come.

Download the free Nextdoor review request email template instantly.

If you’re going to post an event (which I still do recommend!) then there’s a lot more you need to know than just to go create an event though. If you jump right into it without learning about the right way then your event will get removed and again you’ll end up with a tarnished reputation in the local community.

I’m assuming that you’ve already set up your Nextdoor business page. That’s an important part of having your business become part of the local Nextdoor community. Also, getting more recommendations on Nextdoor is important because that’s how your business can be shared in the Nextdoor main feed by your neighbors.

So, read on to learn about how to promote your business on Nextdoor with events. Before you do that make sure you also explore what the opportunities for advertising are on Nextdoor in case you fit into that category.

Advertise On Nextdoor

There are two groups of businesses which can advertise on Nextdoor. Your business likely doesn’t belong to the first group so that leaves only one business type in the local community that can advertise.

The two types of businesses that can advertise on Nextdoor are:

1. You’re a national big brand.
2. You’re a real estate agent or broker.

You can learn all about advertising and how to do it in the post I wrote about how to advertise on Nextdoor.

If you’re not a real estate agent or broker then you’re out of luck for advertising on Nextdoor. That doesn’t mean you can’t promote your business on Nextdoor though.

If you get creative with events and do them correctly then you can promote your business and connect with neighbors.

Using Events Cleverly

I have heard from several people who have noticed business events on Nextdoor. It came to my surprise that this isn’t entirely against the Nextdoor policy and is actually recommended by Nextdoor.

If you post a commercial event on Nextdoor the right way then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Your event does have to be an actual event though so you can’t use events to simply promote your business. If you’re doing something cool in the neighborhood then share it with the community.

What are some things you can post as events?

• Tupperware party
• Tax preparation basics class
• Happy hour
• Concerts
• Real estate open house
• Canning classes (yes, it’s a thing in my neighborhood events…)
• Free Yoga event (good way to introduce people to your business)
• Meditation & mindfulness (another one from my local events list)

It’s a great way to make a connection with the community and reach new people who would otherwise never know your business existed.

They don’t have to be free but you do have to provide something that makes people want to go.

It’s actually pretty open. Nextdoor stated the following on their website about events:

You are allowed to share commercial events such as happy hours and concerts, real estate open houses, and classes that charge fees to the public Event Calendar on Nextdoor.

There is one catch. You have to post it the right way or you risk getting the event removed. I’m not sure if worse can happen but I wouldn’t test it if you want to keep your business honest and upstanding in the community.

These are your neighbors after all.

So, how do you post an event the right way on Nextdoor?

How To Post Event The Right Way

There is a right way to post commercial events on Nextdoor and there’s a wrong way.

Be sure you brush up on the right way to do it or your event will get deleted. Not only will it get deleted but you risk diminishing your business standing in the community.

There are some guidelines for posting an event to Nextdoor such as the over-posting guidelines that you must follow. Beyond that, you just need to post commercial events in the correct way so they don’t get taken down.

The correct way?

Yes, don’t announce it to your neighbors or it will get removed. Announcing an event to your neighbors is the incorrect way.

I know you want your event to be seen as widely as possible but it’s just too much according to Nextdoor. People who browse the events section will see your event and that’s as good as you can do.

Here’s how you add a commercial event the right way.

Step 1

You can only post commercial events from a computer. Nextdoor doesn’t allow you to disable neighbor announcements in the mobile app for iOS or Android. So, you can post a commercial event from a mobile phone but since the app doesn’t have the proper settings it will be promptly removed by Nextdoor and/or reported by neighbors.

So, head on over to the events page on your computer only.

You’ll see a button above the events feed to add an event. Click that to open the add event pop-up.

Step 2

Now you have to put in all the correct information. You can post your event to your immediate neighborhood or your neighborhood + nearby. Either option is okay by Nextdoor so I recommend the one with the biggest reach if you’re trying to promote a business event.

You can select the type of event it is. Be as accurate and truthful about the event type as possible. Select the correct one and only use other if it doesn’t fit into any other category.

Here are the categories you can choose from:

• Classes
• Concerts
• Festivals
• Fundraisers
• Garage sales
• Meetings
• Open Houses
• Parties
• School
• Sports
• Other

There are a lot of categories but of course, your event may not fit into one perfectly.

Whether your event fits into a category neatly or not, your event title is going to be even more important. This is what tells people what your event is really about.

Don’t try to squish too much information in here, just the basics that tells what the event is so people know if they’re interested or not. The description is the place for the details of the event and to tell who’s welcome, what to expect, and all the juicy details.

You can keep the box selected at the bottom if you want to be notified of RSVP. I think this is a good idea so you know who’s interested and can keep tabs on your event easier.

Once you get all that filled in click the next button and be very careful about the next step.

Step 3

There are a few more details you must fill in here such as the date and time of the event. The first two options are pretty basic. Make sure you put the exact location of the event.

The last section is the most important for your commercial event though.

Sharing options.

Make sure you un-select the Announce to neighbors option. If you leave this option selected your post will be removed and if you do it enough you could get banned from posting events.

DO NOT announce your post to your neighbors if it’s a commercial event.

As far as I can tell you’re allowed to add your event to the public event calendar though. Nowhere in the Nextdoor commercial event instructions does it say you’re not allowed to for commercial events.

The reason you should not post your event on your mobile device is that it doesn’t currently have the option to unselect the announce to neighbors option.

Once you’ve filled everything out and un-selected announce to neighbors just click the next button.

Step 4

After you click next you can add a picture to your event. To help your event stand out more and look better, upload an image.

Just like on other social media platforms, images help your event stand out. You can use one of the optional pictures Nextdoor offers but I would recommend uploading a custom non-spam looking image.

You can upload an image that is a .JPG, .PNG, .GIF, or .TIFF format and the ideal (but not required) dimension is 700 x 240. I wouldn’t get too wild with .GIF animations if it allows that (I haven’t tested it). You can see more of the details about what’s allowed on the regular Nextdoor post an event instruction page.

Once you click post your event will go public and be in the public event feed for your neighborhood and other nearby neighborhoods if you selected it.

Your Event Posted

You can see my test even posted in the event feed of my local neighborhood (don’t worry, I deleted it shortly after I capture screenshots).

And once you’ve posted the event there are some other things you can do to enhance it even more.

This is what the event page looks like that I created.

See the add photo button right at the bottom?

Ya, you can add more photos to your event. That button is also visible to your neighbors so they can add photos of the event also. It’s a good way to get some user-generated content.

If you hold similar events regularly then you could encourage your neighbors to post pictures of previous events. That’s a great way to increase local interest and engagement in your business.

Commercial events are allowed on Nextdoor and you can even encourage user-generated content.
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Yes, Nextdoor limits how a business can promote itself on Nextdoor but events can be fairly powerful. For now, it’s all a local business has so think about how you can make events work for you in a way that’s also helpful to the community.

There are always ideas circulating for how to promote a business on Nextdoor. Not all of them are ideal for maintaining a good standing in your community though. Are there other ways besides just events?

How Else?

I don’t know any other way people are using Nextdoor to promote businesses. If you have seen a way then please share.

I had someone mention to me that they’ve seen the new interest category used to promote a business. I checked out my Nextdoor and don’t have interests that I could find. That could mean it’s a new feature that’s being rolled out slowly though.

If you have seen some creative ways used to promote a business on Nextdoor leave it in the comments. It’s always good to share different ways of doing things.

Nextdoor is one of the most trusted forms of social proof and referrals I’ve seen online. You just have to keep the recommendations flowing because they build trust and keep trust. You can even automate the process of getting recommendations because to make the request process work successfully, you have to do more than just send an email or text. It takes constant followup, tracking, and more.

A good local marketing automation tool can help you do that easily.

Even if your business is doing well today and you’re getting plenty of referrals, that’s not guaranteed tomorrow.

That means you have to stay on top of the changing world and changing markets. What works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow.

People have to pivot, we have to change. If we choose not to change and not to constantly reinvent then we get left behind.

Business is no different.

There will eventually be a pivot that happens and there will be many more to come.

Pivot Your Business Strategy

There comes a time in every business when you decide something isn’t working. Either that or you find something that will work better for you.

That’s where your strategy must pivot and a new path must be forged.

You’ll have to reassess your strategy to see how everything is working. Improvements can be made in every business. Some improvements are incremental over a long time and others are sudden larger shifts.

My favorite way to think about this is windshield wipers on your car. You don’t really notice how bad they are because they degrade so gradually. When you change your windshield wipers then you notice a huge difference. Suddenly you can see in the rain again!

Same with your business. Compare your business now to just one year ago and you’ll be shocked at how much things have changed. There have been slow incremental improvements.

A business pivot is different. There’s a time when big changes are needed and your strategy needs to change.

This is a good thing. It allows you to reinvent yourself and become a better, stronger business. It’s a time where you can assess where resources go.

It’s all about finding the right balance in time, effort, and strategy to have the most effective business possible.

Balance Time, Effort, And Strategy

Do you want to take resources away from something not working too well and assign them to something more effective? You should do this from time to time.

There’s the gradual shift and then occasionally it’s important to take a step back and make necessary bigger adjustments.

If you find one strategy is working better than another, shift resources. They both may be working well but if one is doing better, focus more energy on it. You have to prioritize and that’s exactly what the business strategy pivot is all about.

All businesses must pivot at one time or another. You have to balance time, effort, and strategy.
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There’s always something that works better. It’s a matter of discovering what that is by testing. Once you’ve tested and found something even better, pivot.

It’s not all about taking advice from others either. You have to listen to others but you can’t implement it exactly as they have.

Even if it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for you. Testing is necessary even with recommendations from others.

It’s all about listening, testing, and finding how things will work best for you. Take advice from others, listen to them, but don’t do exactly as they do. Use what others have done and then test it for your specific business.

Build a strategy for you based on recommendations and testing.

Every business is unique and experience can only dictate your strategy so much.

My Pivot

I make changes in my business every day and assess how things are working. I want to spend more time on things that work and less on things that don’t.

It’s not that simple though. Some things still work but just not as well as others. Things don’t either work or not work. There are varying degrees of working.

To adjust for this I’m making a shift (possibly temporary) to an adjusted blogging and email strategy. I need to build out my email marketing automation a bit more which is why I’m shifting my strategy towards this.

I blog weekly and have been doing so twice a week for almost two years. Monday and Thursday were the blog days. Friday was the automated newsletter day with my two blog posts. I also sent out a bi-weekly newsletter as an email blast.

No more. I’m going to shift from the newsletter in the coming weeks and focus more on automation. I will plan and create a strategy for different automations that make more sense for people. It will be better for recipients and better for me. Everything will be more tailored and I can tweak to improve.

So, you’ll see some changes in the coming weeks. There will no longer be a separate newsletter sign up and blog sign up. There will be only one sign up. I will adjust what happens at the time depending on what I’ve built out for automations.

I already have some automation built out which is the starting point. I will fine tune those and build new ones. It will all feed into my blog posts which I am shifting for now also. I will have a somewhat more random posting schedule which I haven’t decided on 100% yet.

Your Pivot

Do you have a business strategy pivot planned or have you made one? Let me know in the comments what you’ve done to shift and improve your business.