Small Business News

TikTok, the video focused social networking service, has released a 2021 Holiday Guide for Business. The guide was launched on November 16, just ahead of the holiday season in the US, which runs from late November to early January.

For many small businesses, the holiday period has a significant impact on annual profits, being one of the busiest times of the year. It’s no surprise therefore that TikTok released its comprehensive holiday guide just ahead of the holiday season, giving small businesses time to adequately prepare to reap the benefits of one the festive season.

The resource provides small businesses with a step-by-step guide on how to make the most of a burgeoning platform for businesses during the busiest time on the consumer calendar.

As the guide assures: “With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time to start planning for the season. But don’t stress, we’re here to help! We’ve put together a game plan so you can make sure our business finds success from awareness to conversion.”

Notable Dates

The guide pinpoints to the most important dates of the holiday season, so small businesses can mark them on their calendar and suitably prepare. Notable days for merchants range from November 19, when holiday shopping begins, to Black Friday on November 26, to last ship on December 1, to New Year’s sale and resolutions that run for the whole of January.

The guide maps out a holiday checklist for small businesses to plan their TikTok strategy.  The month-long checklist includes everything a business to prime their TikTok approach, including choosing ad products, creating content, finding and defining audiences, setting a budget and more.

The guide delves into how to set up the best ad campaigns on TikTok and how to optimize campaigns for performance.

Among the tips is refraining from making adjustments to targeting, bid, budget and creative before a campaign exits the learning phase.

For optimal ad success, TikTok advises refreshing a creative regularly, preferable every seven days. For conversion campaigns, small businesses should optimize based on higher funnel events like Add-to-Cart or Page Views before moving down the funnel to optimizing Purchases.

The guide offers some creative inspiration to help business prepare their campaigns for the holiday season. It lists the different tools provided by TikTok to help users embrace the creativity and authenticity of the TikTok community. Such tools include video templates, the TikTok video editor, smart video, automated creative optimization, and more.

The overarching message from the launch of TikTok’s holiday guide for businesses is not to delay in preparing for what is potentially the most profitable time of the year.

Image: TikTok

This article, "TikTok Releases Holiday Creative Guide for Business" was first published on Small Business Trends

Read more: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/11/tiktok-holiday-creative-guide-small-business.html

Apple recently launched their new Apple Business Essentials service which incorporates device management, 24/7 support and iCloud storage.

The service is currently available in beta and will include multiple flexible subscription plans aimed at small businesses with up to 500 employees. There is also an accompanying Apple Business Essentials app which allows employees to install apps for work and request support.

The Apple Business Essentials service will save small businesses significant time, particularly as they grow. Apple will also be providing full support covering the entire device management life cycle, beginning from the initial set-up.

Small businesses will especially benefit from the service’s employee onboarding and device upgrades, as well as the strong security features, prioritized support and secure data storage and back-up.

Apple’s vice president of Enterprise and Education Marketing, Susan Prescott, spoke about what the new service can do for small businesses, saying: “Small businesses are at the core of our economy, and we’re proud that Apple products play a role in helping these companies grow.

“Apple Business Essentials is designed to help streamline every step of employee device management within a small business — from set-up, onboarding, and upgrading, to accessing fast service and prioritized support, all while keeping data backed up and secure, so companies can focus on running their business.”

Apple Business Essentials aims to be a ‘complete solution’ that makes employee onboarding simple by enabling small businesses to easily configure, deploy and manage their integrated Apple products from any location.

The Collections feature within the service lets you configure settings and apps for individual users, groups or devices. Collections will also automatically push settings such as VPN configurations and Wi-Fi passwords when employees sign in to their device with their work credentials.

Security is obviously a big issue for businesses and Apple have ensured their new service is completely secure with FileVault, Activation Lock and User Enrollment. There is also a dedicated iCloud account for work which provides simple and secure storage and back-upon for files and documents. The business data in iCloud is constantly automatically stored and backed up, so switching between devices or upgrading to a new device is easy.

Businesses can benefit from adding the option to allow employees to receive fast and reliable support through AppleCare+ for Business Essentials, which offers 24/7 phone support and training for IT administrators.

There will be three Apple Business Essentials plans to start with, though each plan can be customized for each company’s requirements.

Image: Apple

This article, "Apple Introduces Business Essentials" was first published on Small Business Trends

Read more: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/11/apple-introduces-business-essentials.html

Converting visitors into leads is exactly what businesses want. But it’s no walk in the park. One proven way to drive sign-ups is by creating calls to action or CTA. There are many effective calls to action examples that can boost conversion rates.

There are various call to action examples to choose from at different stages of the marketing funnel. For example, in the early stages a simple call to action that encourages prospects to try your solutions can be highly effective to connect with them. Here, something as simple as Free trial for 30 days can be useful.

Let’s now take a look at some more call to action examples.

This call to action is effective in the early stages of the customer journey when businesses want to nurture new leads. The prospect is not encouraged to make any purchases yet. Instead, this CTA provides an opportunity for the business to share useful updates.

If you have an online community that you’d like to promote, the Join Us call-to-action can be useful. This call-to-action is also effective when you’re trying to promote an event such as a webinar.

Often, a free trial is the biggest incentive for prospects to try a product or service. This call-to-action works well especially when your product is pricey and your prospects need to try it out before investing.

One way to draw attention to longer gated content is by sharing a snippet that can tempt prospects to learn more. This is where the Read more CTA button can come in handy. Here, the effectiveness of the CTA depends on the call to action copy. Unless you have a powerful text, you will not be able to entice your audience to read more.

Buy Now is one of the most common call-to-actions in ecommerce. From a customer journey perspective, it’s best introduced towards the end of the process

The download CTA is effective for lead generation. Whether it’s an ebook, a whitepaper or a case study, the download CTA button can help businesses convert prospects into leads. The downloadable content needs to add value to inspire your prospects to take action.

This is a typical sales CTA that encourages prospects to get in touch with experts to know more. This can be useful for businesses that offer specialized services. For example, businesses that provide IT support or travel booking can add this option to provide a more personalized experience to the users.

Planning a webinar or podcast? The Register Now CTA button is both useful and important. With this CTA, businesses can encourage users to sign up for special events. This CTA works well across formats (email, landing page, and ad).

For many small businesses, growing a social media following is beneficial in many ways. It can help them with word of mouth marketing and create an effective channel for promotion. This CTA is meant to help businesses grow their follower base on social media. To be able to achieve success with this, it’s important to incentivize the users. Some of these may include latest updates, discounts and exclusive offers on social media channels.

This CTA works for videos. Here, the emphasis is on letting the prospects know they can find useful information by watching a clip or video.

Many small and well-known brands use CTA buttons effectively to drive customer action. Here are some call to action examples to inspire you.

The CTA in this Facebook ad is simple and effective. It encourages the audience to start shopping after giving them enough reasons to click the button. The benefits are clearly mentioned and the copy is interesting enough to entice the prospect to explore more. Also, note the attention to visuals that convey the key messages.

On Spotify.com, the same CTA (Start free trial) is placed strategically in two places. This is interesting because the Spotify CTA is asking prospects to try the free version before making a purchase. Many Shopify customers are small businesses that will appreciate a trial version before paying. Realizing this, Shopify encourages them to opt for a free trial before buying a plan.

HubSpot Blog’s uniqueness is its content. It has several articles, ebooks, guides and courses. with its CTA HubSpot has focused on generating leads. The gated content is relevant for prospects reading the article. This way, the site keeps the visitors engaged. Once they are on it, visitors will be redirected to related content that they might find useful. This is a great way of showcasing content and keeping the audience on the site.

In this email, podcast expert Steve Olsher creates a sense of urgency for his target audience. The action phrases “strictly limited” and “end immediately” stand out because they tell the audience they will miss out if they don’t act now. This is call to action example shows how businesses can entice audience to act quickly

Netflix gets straight to the point with its CTA. The Netflix CTA clearly mentions two values that its audience will find important: the option to watch shows anywhere and the freedom to cancel any time. The focus here is on simplicity. For busy customers, this simple CTA saves them time and gives them more reasons to take the desired action.

When it comes to webinars, it is important to keep straightforward CTAs. In this example, SelfGrowth has highlighted the free webinar part quite effectively. The placement of the CTA is also interesting because it requires little scrolling to be able to reach the landing page.

Vimeo has two CTAs on its website: See plans and Join for free. What’s really interesting about both CTAs is how they highlight the free bit in an effective way. When the user clicks on the See plans option, they are shown all the free trials that are available to them. The objective is quite simple: show all the free plans to the target audience in all landing pages to attract their attention and prompt the desired action.

Coffee-company Aquaspresso uses creative CTA copy in its pop-up. It’s also clever in the way it brings the whole experience of ordering real coffee by highlighting today’s specials. The idea here is to make the audience feel like they will miss out on the specials if they don’t act now. They have also not gone with the usual “Try our products” call-to0-action. This makes it difficult for the audience to ignore the popup.

A call to action, in simple terms, is a straightforward text inviting the audience to take a certain action. It can take different forms depending on where the audience is in the buyer’s journey or the type of content you want to drive. Some of the most common calls to action include Read more, Subscribe, Sign up for free and Buy now.

There are two types of CTAs: primary and secondary. The primary CTAs encourage the prospect to take the desired action while the secondary CTAs offer an alternative action. And the goal is to find ways for how to get more conversions.

Without a compelling call to action it is difficult to turn prospects into buying customers. It’s also difficult to keep them engaged throughout the buying journey. That’s why including a primary call to action is crucial for marketers.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Use These Call to Action Examples to Drive Customer Action" was first published on Small Business Trends

Read more: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/11/call-to-action-examples.html

The 12th annual Small Business Saturday is just a week away falling on November 27, 2021. The annual holiday shopping event puts small businesses across America front and center to celebrate the contribution of small businesses towards local economies and job creation. Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday Small Business Saturday takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage people to ‘Shop Small’ instead of making purchases at big box stores and e-commerce stores.

If you’re a small business owner or a small business supporter and want to know more about Small Business Saturday 2021 here are some insights on how you can encourage shopping locally.

Small business Saturday falls on November 27, 2021, and is designed to encourage consumers to shop at small and local independent retailers, local restaurants, and other independent local businesses. The first event was in 2010 launched by American Express to help support small businesses struggling as a result of the recession the annual holiday has become an annual holiday shopping event co-sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Small Business Coalition, made up of non-profit trade groups, public officials and municipalities.

If you are a small business owner, you don’t need to register with any organization to participate in Small Business Saturday. To participate in Small Business Saturday is easy all you have to do is follow these simple steps:

First register on American Express’ merchant profile submit your business’s Employer Identification Number (EIN) and become part of the Shop Small campaign. This helps you to access some great valuable resources for local small businesses to make the best of the shopping holiday.

Add your business to the AmericanExpress Shop Small Map. so that shoppers can find your location and you are all set. Successful Small businesses that are eligible for American Express services will not only be included in the online map but will be included in the small business online directory for free.

There is also an option for people to partake in Small Business Saturday for non-retailers where they can become a Neighborhood champions. Neighborhood champions take charge of organizing local events or promotions to encourage people and businesses about Small Business Saturday in your community.

Small Business Saturday’s is all about shopping small by encouraging customers to visit local businesses and support them during the holiday season. Whether you’re a first-time or a seasoned Small Business Saturday participant here are ten Small Business Saturday ideas that can help you make the most out of this year’s Small Businesses Saturday.

Because Small Business Saturday falls smack in between the holiday shopping season you will need to draw customers to your business or shop to capitalize on the event. Besides promoting the vent and your products and services you will need to extend both your opening and closing hours. This will help encourage people to shop longer and make as many purchases as possible.

Holiday shopping is all about drawing in as many customers to your store as possible. You can encourage existing customers and new customers to make more purchases by engaging them with exclusive offers, discounts, in-store events, and promotions.

You can make the best of the shopping holiday by hosting an event in your store or collaborating with other small businesses to not only inform clients of the event but also encourage support for small businesses

During this season lots of potential customers will be going online to research purchases and weigh offerings by businesses. One of the ways customers will research is through the world wide web make sure that you have tweaked your landing page with holiday-specific content including special offerings to let customers know what you are offering.

Successful small businesses know that the holiday season entails buying sprees. There is nothing worse than running out of stock and having to turn away customers. To avoid losing out in sales make sure your store is fully stocked before the holiday and have plenty of your bestsellers available.

Small Business Saturday is all about showing solidarity to local small businesses and helping them thrive. As a small business owner, you should consider offering goodwill to fellow small businesses by supporting small business Saturday events.

Social media is the new word of mouth where customers search for products, discover products, and read reviews. Social media is one of the best ways to connect with your audience and drive traffic to your website and ultimately your shop. You can boost your social media marketing campaign by posting offers and promotions as well as advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Don’t forget Small Business Saturday is all about shopping locally. You as a local business should also reach out to customers through local papers ads, flyers, posters, and billboards.

If you have an email list of clients then you should think about launching an email series to reach out to clients and inform them of special offers. This includes your working hours, whether you offer deliveries while also sending them your holiday greetings.

Offering your customers gifts shows that you appreciate their patronage. This can go a long way towards building long-term relationships with your clients that keep them returning to your business, year in, year out. Consider offering samples, tokens, and freebies to add to the holiday spirit.

You can create your own Small Business Saturday marketing collateral for the event or if you are not sure on how to develop your own then predesigned Shop Small downloadable resources and free campaign signs are available to download and use for free. In addition, you can also go to American Express’ Shop Small Studio to get additional downloadable posters, social media posts, and other resources to promote your business as well as the holiday shopping event.

All American Express’ Small Business Saturday marketing collateral come free AMEX offers guidelines on how to use the Small Business Saturday logo.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Small Business Saturday 2021: What You Need to Know" was first published on Small Business Trends

Read more: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/11/small-business-saturday-2021.html