Sometimes called Pyramid Selling or Multi-Level Marketing, Network marketing can easily be described as a method of advertising and selling certain products or services, requiring a vendor or salesperson to enlist more people to do the same, ultimately creating a wide and unlimited network of salespeople. With network marketing, each person in the network makes some earnings from all of the people they have enlisted and those further enlisted by their direct recruits.

Network marketing has been around for many years and happens to be a great way for an individual entrepreneur to ensure significant sales of their products, as well as put the word out and create considerable publicity. Some people also describe network marketing has the best opportunity for people who don’t exactly have a lot of time on their hands.

If you’re an independent entrepreneur, network marketing can really turn your business around. Here are a few tips you should use:

Choose Your Target Audience

There are only very few products and services that will easily cut across every demographic. Mostly, your business satisfies specific needs and you must be able to identify those needs as well as the people who desire them the most. When you figure this out, you can market directly to those people. This is the best way to ensure that your recruits are as passionate as you are.

Know When To Let Go

There is always the chance that all of your strategies don’t work on a person or on a particular group of people. You need to train yourself to be able to quickly discern these things so you don’t waste considerable time on people you would probably never be able to convince. This will help you especially if you’re just beginning. As a rule, especially for beginners, it’s usually advised to keep away from family and friends, at least for a while. This is because, sometimes, they are the hardest to convince.

Acquire Knowledge

Even if you’re already a pro, always maintain a very strong hunger for more network marketing tips and strategies. No one can really know everything and the more you learn, the better you get at the job. Every mentor you can have in the network marketing trade is most likely still trying day and night, to acquire more knowledge and learn new strategies. You must constantly improve yourself.

Attend Related Events

There are many things that you can learn at several network marketing events that will do great for your business. Some of these conferences, like the Lyconet Elite Seminar, are the perfect venues for you to meet thousands of other people in the same line of work, at different professional levels and with different experiences. There is a lot you can read and learn on your own, however, there are just some things better and more easily learned when you meet with others to exchange tips, ideas and experiences.

There are several other tips that experienced network marketers use to make significant headway for themselves in the business. The best way to learn more is to actually seek out these people, especially at these seminars, and pick their brains.

After a long search our business hired the amazing PR from Interdependence PR and they have helped to completely transform our business. We never realized just how much we needed a PR firm until we got this team on board and there isn’t an area of our business which they have not been able to help. If your company is looking for a PR firm then I would first of all recommend Interdependence, if however you are doing for something different then you need to know what to watch out for when you are meeting with these companies. Each PR firm has its strengths and its weaknesses but there are some which just can’t deliver the job which they are being paid to do. There are some red flags to watch out for when hiring a PR firm and here are what I think you need to watch out for.

Track Record

All PR companies can talk the talk, because that is after all what they do best, unfortunately however not all companies are able to back up their talk and this can be easily seen if you look at their track record. You can speak with customers who have used certain PR companies to find out the truth about their operations and if you run into any negative feedback or complaints, it is best to move on to another company.

Customer Service

There are some industries where a service provider feels like you need their business more than they need yours and the result of this is a terrible attitude when it comes to customer service. At the end of the day you are paying for a certain service with a PR company and if you don’t feel welcomed or you don’t feel as though this will be a company which will utterly dedicate themselves to your business, then they are not worth the money which they are charging.

Results Driven

When you meet with a PR firm what you are looking for is a company who shares your vision of success and what it requires to achieve that. You need a PR company which is wholly driven by results and you need to feel that from them when you meet with them. You are not only looking for the right fit here, but also a team of individuals who convince you that they are just as ready to work towards results as you, if they are not then you should be looking for a different PR firm.

Jack of All Trades

Whilst mots public relations work is very much the same regardless of what sector the company is working in, there are many aspects of what they do which will be industry specific. This is why you should always look out for PR firms who have a certain industrial specialization. If you meet with a firm who claim they can do it all then you should certainly approach with caution, as they may not be able to meet your specific needs.

 

Technological innovations continue to improve manufacturing and packaging. With just in time inventory and delivery, manufacturers can benefit from packaging that is easy to order in precise amounts. Discover how flexible packaging printing is changing the way small and mid-sized businesses package their inventory.

Decreased Costs

Traditional packaging can come with several hidden fees and expenses. Typical packaging requires large orders to offset plate fees and other one-time processing and setup fees. However, bulk orders run the risk of becoming obsolete.

Instead, flexible packaging and innovative wide-web digital printing technology allows flexible packaging to be made in exact amounts with little turnaround. This enables both the packaging provider and your company to save money on printing and setup costs. Keep your packaging up-to-date and eye-catching by implementing new designs as often as you like.

Improved Customer Convenience

Customers love the convenience of flexible packaging. These packages can be made in multiple formats for use with different types of inventory. Packaging options can include the following:

• Flat pouches
• Stand-up pouches
• Roll stock
• Resealable zippers
• Child-resistant packaging

The air-tight seal of these packages helps ensure a longer shelf life for a variety of products. Many manufacturers are turning to flexible packaging due to its lightweight convenience. If you need specialized packaging for any product, particularly a small order, flexible packaging allows you to create a package design that stands out and is convenient for your customer.

Reduced Waste

Digital printing has opened up a whole new way to reduce waste while providing quality packaging. Unlike traditional packaging, flexible packaging that is digitally printed uses less material in the first place.

It’s safe to use for organic food packaging and is a more sustainable alternative that has a significantly smaller footprint than other forms of packaging. From production and transportation of unfilled packaging to the amount of packaging produced to fulfill the same needs, flexible packaging is a great alternative to help protect the environment.

Easily Personalized Packaging

Digitally printed packaging is one of the most customizable options available to manufacturers. Because every step of your package design and manufacturing is done digitally, even small orders can be completely personalized for unique packaging requirements. Alter every aspect of your packaging for multi-SKU orders and avoid any additional fees.

If you need a custom order to reflect a particular marketing campaign, variable imaging can easily adjust your package requirements to add new graphics and promote your current campaign. Unlike other forms of printing, you won’t have to wait for additional setup or be charged fees for modifying your orders on demand.

Learn More

These are just a few benefits that many manufacturers are already enjoying thanks to the latest advances in digital printing and packaging. The HP Indigo 20000 press, along with other advances, create a streamlined packaging model that assists small businesses in competing internationally.

From bulk food packaging to individual wrappers and supplement pouches, find all the convenient, flexible and efficient packaging you need. Contact ePac today to learn how you can place an order of any size and enjoy 10 day turnaround times.

 

For some of us, the concept of search engine optimization just comes naturally. For others, this is definitely not the case. No matter which category you fall into, it’s impossible to deny the importance of developing a search engine optimization strategy for business growth – not even just growth, but survival in general.

No idea what we’re even talking about? Let’s cover some SEO basics before we get into specific strategies. SEO, short for search engine optimization, is essentially the practice of ranking as high as possible on search engines. Not just any search engines, but Google in particular. A statistic from 2018 showed that 2 trillion – that’s trillion, not billion – use Google every year. That correlates to nearly 4 million Google searches per minute.

According to these numbers, ranking high on Google is of the utmost importance. And how does one go about ranking on Google? Through proper SEO strategies and techniques of course! There are plenty of strategies to choose one, but only one that is the ultimate way to see the rankings you’re hoping for.

Improve the Entire User Experience

It doesn’t matter how many internet searchers actually click on your website, if they only stay for a minute and then move on to the next result, you’re not doing so hot. Google can actually tell how long users are staying on your site. Actually, Google can tell exactly what users are doing while on each of your pages. If they lose attention quickly, Google will assume that your website isn’t valuable and give you a low ranking.

To prevent this from happening, focusing on your website and reputation is the first step. It obviously needs to be appealing to the eye, but also functional to the user. Once you’ve got aesthetics and functionality in the bag, you need to focus on the overall quality of the site’s content. Provide valuable, thought-provoking information that your targeted audience will find interesting – and ultimately keep them on your site for longer.

Keywords, Keywords, and More Keywords

The entire SEO world used to be focused solely on using the proper keywords. Now, there is way more involved than just keyword optimization, but it is still extremely important. You can utilize a keyword generator to come up with a list of the most important ones. Then, simply incorporate those throughout your site’s content in a way that flows.

And the #1 Strategy for Optimizing Your Site is…

Voice search! This is something that is becoming incredibly big and will just continue to become more popular. Now that so many people are using devices through Siri, Alexa, and other “virtual assistants”, voice searching is more common than ever. If your site isn’t optimized to cater to voice searches, you’ll start falling behind.

50% of all searches are voice searches, and this percentage is expected to grow even more in the upcoming years. For voice searching, the “searcher” is more likely to use full sentences, specifically in the form of a question. You’d be doing yourself a favor by adding these full-sentence questions throughout your website for full optimization of voice searching.

 

If you’re running an ecommerce store in 2019, you might have considered dropshipping. Dropshipping is the practice of selling inventory that you don’t actually have on hand. There are unique challenges involved in dropshipping that don’t come alone with traditional shipping practices, mainly because you need to rely on your vendors to send the products purchased by your customers.

When you get into the details of dropshipping, it all sounds very complicated – but it doesn’t actually need to be. Ever heard of EDI, more formally known as electronic data interchange? EDI is the practice of B2B communication via electronic means (and no, we’re not talking about email). EDI is much more structured than that and it is completely automated.

EDI comes in many forms, but for ecommerce stores hoping to take advantage of dropshipping, it is time to look for a drop ship EDI program.

Why Dropship?

Before we can cover the advantages of EDI for your dropshipping business, let’s first talk about the specific benefits of dropshipping itself. According to a company called DiCentral, dropshipping allows you to “ship directly to consumers by leveraging your dropship vendor community with the same confidence as shipping from your own warehouse.”

This means you never have to deal with the actual products you’re selling. As long as you make solid connections with your vendors, you can ship just about anything from anywhere to anyone. You don’t have to pay a cent to purchase your inventory at a wholesale rate before selling it to the consumer for the retail price. On top of this, you won’t have to pay for a storage solution for storing your inventory. Instead, it will be shipped directly from the vendor or manufacturer to your customer.

Potential Problems with Dropshipping

This all sounds great and all, but there are certainly some issues you could experience with dropshipping if you don’t go about it properly. There must be a greater level of organization involved and solid communication with your vendors and third-party sellers. If you don’t have a way to receive real-time updates from your vendors, then you might not have knowledge of what’s in stock vs out of stock.

How EDI Can Help

When you invest in an EDI solution for your dropshipping business, there’s not more questions like “Where’s my order?” from your customer base. All of your company data will be synced with the relevant information from your vendors and third-party sellers. This information is often synced in real-time, so as soon as a vendor runs out of an item you’ll be notified to mark that item as “out of stock”.

The beauty of dropshipping, though, is that you can have multiple vendors selling the same products. When one vendor is out of stock of a customer favorite, you should be able to sell it from someone else. You’ll also have plenty of time to find another vendor before the situation gets too dire since you’ll have complete visibility of inventory lists. When you see that something is running low, you’ll have time to organize another solution for your customers.

 

In the present, the capability to stay mobile is a vital skill. Clients can come from anywhere and may ask for services at any time. As long as you can go to a potential customer’s area anytime, with complete equipment and materials, you have an advantage over others in the same industry. You’ll be able to have a broader market and a better business overall.

The Importance of Being a Mobile Welder

As a welder, being mobile is becoming increasingly important. If a construction project needs a welder, the one who can easily reach the area fully prepared immediately has the advantage for the one requiring services. Being mobile also allows a welder to volunteer for projects that he or she wants to assist with. A freelance mobile welder can never go wrong with making his or her services portable. However, to become successful, there are several things you need to take care of.

What Does a Welder Need To Become Mobile?  

To become a successful traveling welder, you have to be able to secure the following:

• Sufficient Training – To maximize your potential as a traveling welder, you must be skilled enough for multiple varieties of welding. Every situation you’ll encounter may need different welding styles; the more you can do, the better you can earn, and the more customers you’ll be able to serve. You have to know at least how to weld using MIG; you can eventually add Torch Welding and TIG to your repertoire in the future after that.
• A Complete Set of Tools And Materials – As a mobile welder, you have to be prepared at all times, especially if you’re able to perform more than one kind of weld. Each type of weld requires different sets of materials to be performed, so you’ll have to carry more than one set of equipment. Make sure that you list down all the variations so that you’ll always be prepared for any situation, since you may not always get the chance to go back home and replenish materials.
• A Mode Of Transportation – A traveling welder needs a vehicle to be able to travel around. It’s advisable to have something that can carry both you and all your equipment. For this purpose, you should look into either a large capacity van or a truck with a wide payload carrier at the back. It should also have a reliable engine, with enough torque and power to take you places.
• A Portable Generator – The last thing you would want to happen is for your welding work to be interrupted by a power outage. Welding requires a lot of electricity, so it’s crucial that you have a portable generator with you at all times. It will allow you to keep working despite outages. For a list of reliable generators, you may check this out.

Building Your Network

Once you secure all the items above, you are now ready to be a traveling welder. The next step is for you to look for potential customers to provide services to. Start marketing yourself by asking for referrals from friends and family. You may also ask them if they need welding services themselves. Aside from that, you should also take advantage of social media and the Internet by posting about your services online, so that you can reach a wider market quickly.

Once you successfully build a network of customers, your next priority is to build your reputation as a welder. Do this by performing each job with a hundred percent of your effort, so that you will be able to establish yourself as a reliable worker and will be referred by your customers to others. No person will refer a service provider that they were not happy with, so make sure that you can establish a good relationship with all of them.

Conclusion

Setting up a mobile business is challenging but fulfilling in the long run. To be a successful traveling welder is to be able to go from place to place while carrying a ton of equipment at the same time. This is on top of the already present risks that welding poses to workers, such as the safety and health hazards of being exposed to intense heat. However, for someone passionate about welding, these are easy to overcome, so long as you prepare for every situation and are aware of everything you’re getting into.

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.

 

You can use various platforms for advertising and reaching a lot of people. You can use internet marketing, TV advertising and many others. The problem with these strategies is that although you allow people to be aware of your business, you do not have the chance to know them.

It is vital that you also meet the people who are potential customers of your business. You want to know how you can advertise to them in the future. Besides, you also want to have the chance to interact with them. These are some ways for you to engage with them directly.

Setup public booths

You can set up stalls in malls, schools and other public places where you get the chance to speak with your target audience. You can hand out flyers and posters at the booth. Make sure that you have enough staff to cater to the people who might want to find out more about your business. You may even distribute free samples of your products.

Attend trade shows

During trade shows, you will have the chance to speak directly with your target audience since they are going to move around and talk to various companies and organisations. You can answer their queries, talk about your business in detail, and even give samples of your products. You can also set up an exhibition display stand so that those who cannot go inside the booth to ask questions will still be aware of your business and what it has to offer.

Conduct a focus group discussion

Organising a focus group discussion is already common among businesses, to improve their advertising methods and messaging. It is also your chance to get an honest opinion of the people within your target group. During the discussion, you can ask questions about what they like or dislike about your products and services.

Sponsor local events

In sponsoring these events, you will see people who will possibly buy your products. You can sponsor concerts, seminars, conferences, charitable events, special galas, etc. You will boost the reputation of your business if you decide to sponsor these events. You can also set up a booth at the event or sell your products to the attendees. The good thing is that you can choose events where you are sure that the attendees are potential customers.

If given a chance to speak directly with the people who will most likely patronise your brand, you need to grab it. You want to engage with them whenever possible, so you will know their attitude towards your products. You also want them to feel that you are reaching out to them instead of being one of the many companies appearing on their social media feed. Besides, it helps if you have different strategies to advertise to your target audience. Relying on one method alone is not enough to boost your brand.

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.

Focusing on social media could be the smartest thing you ever do for your company. Billions of people around the world spend an absurd amount of time on social media platforms every single day… and you could be reaching every single one of them if you join forces with a social media advertising agency.

Once you have established that you should indeed start focusing more on social media as a marketing platform, it is time to develop a strategy. Here’s how to get started.

Set Reachable Goals

Before anything else, you should determine what your hopes are for social media in the near future. Perhaps you want to increase your following, create a business partnership, or just have a better presence overall. Whatever your goals might be, try and set attainable ones that can be accomplished within your desired timeframe. Completely revamping your Facebook business account overnight won’t be possible.

Perform Analytics on Your Audience

The next step is to perform research on your audience. Not only who your audience is, but things like their likes, interests, dislikes, and overall outlook on life. This can be done using a social media analytics tool or hiring a professional to analyze everything for you. So much of what you need to know about your target audience is already available to you, you just need to compile the data and analyze it.

Determine Important Metrics

Social media metrics are the pieces of data that give you knowledge on your social media marketing performance. You should be focusing on the metrics that matter for growing your company’s profits, not just things like shares and likes. You need to be focusing more on the metrics that are leading to high engagement and sales. Here are a few additional metrics you should keep an eye on:

• Reach
• Clicks
• Engagement
• Organic and paid likes
• Hashtag performance

Research Your Competitors

There is nothing sneaky about looking into your competition. Chances are, they have already done the same thing to your. Before you start dumping money into your marketing efforts, take a look at how your main competition is marketing itself. You can do this by just observing or use an analytics tool in order to dig deep.

The purpose of this is not to steal ideas or be sketchy in any way. It is simply to see what is working for them, and more importantly how you can improve their model and apply it to your own marketing strategy. You might even learn what not to do by looking at your competition’s social media accounts.

Engaging Content is Key

You can share as much information as you like on Facebook, but if what you share is never your original content you might not seem like a credible source. Creating your own original content to be posted on your website’s blog page or social media accounts is an amazing way to make your brand more reputable. As long as you create thought-provoking, relevant, accurate, valuable, and entertaining content you can’t go wrong.

 

Having a bad rep is never a good thing, especially when it comes to the reputation of a company. If your brand starts to get a bad rep, your profits will start to take a hit. As a company leader, you need remember that people talk, and they love to talk online where their faces might not be seen, but their words are definitely still heard.

Many companies around the world are investing time and money in reputation management and repair, way more than they ever have before. You might be wondering, “why such a spike in the world of reputation management?” Here’s what you need to know about the ever growing importance of brand reputation management.

Reputation Management Took a Different Form in the Past

Although online reputation management is a newer concept, the practice for a company to maintain a positive reputation is not new at all. This has been around for centuries and was even a thing in ancient times. When someone is selling a service or product, obviously that person needs to maintain a good rep with the people to keep business coming in.

However, reputation management has changed significantly over the years. Now that the majority of business is conducted online, the entire user experience has changed. A consumer doesn’t even have to leave the comforts of home to buy something. Groceries can be delivered, TVs can be installed, just about anything can be done with a few clicks of a button on a smartphone.

Because your user spends so much time trolling the web, your focus needs to be maintaining your online reputation. No longer do you need to be as concerned about your retail store location (if you even have one), but instead you need to focus on your website.

What does the future hold for reputation management?

Modern day reputation management includes everything from monitoring online reviews to improving a brand’s presence on social media. The ways of online reputation management have been established, but nobody knows exactly what the future will hold. Technology is changing by the day, meaning the user experience is changing at a rapid pace as well. What does this mean for reputation management?

It is predicted that online reputation management will only continue to grow as a key marketing and branding tool. Some experts even believe that reputation management strategies will be used by nearly 100% of companies worldwide by the year 2022.

Your company might even be practicing reputation without even realizing it. If you are working to build your social media following, practicing search engine optimization, or monitoring your online reviews you are managing your reputation. You can take it a step further though by hiring a company that specializes in rep management; you’re likely to see some amazing results.

How to Find a Top Reputation Management Firm

First, you need to look into the firm’s reputation (see what we did there). This is true any time you are looking to hire a service or purchase a product. You can look into a company’s reputation but researching what they stand for, reading reviews and testimonials, and checking them out on social media.

 

Ecommerce businesses everywhere are simplifying the consumer experience for people around the globe. Instead of shopping for products within a retail location, the process is as simple as opening your laptop or logging into an app. This is a huge reason for the major boom that ecommerce has seen within the past few years.

Although ecommerce businesses make consumers’ lives easier, there are challenges involved in these business owners lives that aren’t easy to deal with at all. That is, until the business owner decides to invest in an order management system. If you’re in denial about needing an OMS, here are a few signs that your company needs one.

You’re struggling with supply chain visibility

Having complete supply chain visibility is crucial for ecommerce businesses, but it can be a major difficulty. This is especially true if you have inventory stored in multiple locations, you utilize several selling platforms, and you deal with multiple vendors. If you don’t have complete supply chain visibility, you could be selling products that you don’t even have in stock.

Managing every aspect of the supply chain is so much easier with the help of an order management system. An OMS streamlines the entire business model, everything from the customer ordering the product to the final stage of delivery.

You need help with returns management

Managing returns and refunds is never fun, especially if you’re attempting to do it without the help of an OMS. There are so many variables involved with returning a product, and it needs to be done in a way that works for the customer.

No matter the reason for the return, you should try to simplify things for the customer as much as possible. We can tell you that the process certainly won’t be simple if you’re trying to juggle everything without an OMS. OMS solutions provide tools to handle communication and eliminate returns complexities for both you and the customer.

You’re struggling to meet peak season demands

Most online businesses experience a peak season and an off season. Peak season is when the demand for the product or service increases exponentially, and off season is when things start to level off. A major peak season for most businesses is around the holidays when it is time to purchase gifts for loved ones. Is your current ecommerce model able to keep up with the peak season demands?

If not, an OMS could help out. Maybe your existing softwares can’t keep up with the increases in ordering volume during high season. You need to prepare for this ahead of time, like the insane business you’ll get on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. An OMS will allow you – the retailer – to focus on the core competencies of the business, even when sales and customer demands are at an all time high.

You current system lacks security

You’ll be handling a ton of sensitive information on a daily basis with your ecommerce business. Not just your own information, but also the personal and financial details of your customers. An OMS will ensure that this information is protected and secure from cyber threats.

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