Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a brand?

A brand is the way that a business presents itself, its products, and its services to customers. It includes superficial elements like the company logo, color story, packaging, and all other assets in the business that convey a public image. Each asset is carefully designed to encourage customers to associate the brand with specific emotions, like trust, safety, and happiness.

2. Why is branding important?

Branding is important for two main reasons.

The first reason is it creates an impression on your customers and clients that will stick in their mind. They won’t forget you, so that the next time they need your product or services, they will remember where to go.

The second reason branding is important is it tells your customers what they can expect from you when they use your business. Your brand should reflect your core values and how you run your business. These qualities should be clear enough so that potential customers will know just by looking at your branding what kind of quality you offer, so that they choose you over your competitors.

3. I’ve got a logo, isn’t that my brand?

Having a logo is important, but it’s not what makes a brand. A logo only has value if it means something. For your logo to mean something, you first need to establish a positive relationship between yourself and your customers. Your goal should be to get them to remember and recognize your logo, not just because it’s eye-catching, but because it represents the high quality of service and products that they know and love.

4. Can’t I just get my branding done for $5 on Fiverr?

Do you spend $5 on a meal and expect it to be gourmet quality? Of course not. The same can be said for buying a logo. Sure, you could go on Fiverr and only spend $5 for one, but don’t expect it to be anything special or appealing to a customer’s eye. Also, remember, cheap, low-quality branding only attracts cheap, low-quality customers.

5. What makes a successful brand?

​To make your brand successful, you should be able to accomplish the following goals:

  • Clearly demonstrate what your business is, your core values, and what makes you stand out from your competitors
  • Project a distinct voice and image that your target audience relates to and empathizes with
  • Keep a consistent message and design scheme throughout all your branding assets, to reinforce your values, voice, and image throughout.
  • Don’t just tell, but show customers the value that your business provides for them, and the process that goes into creating that value
  • Keep up with the times and don’t become stagnant or entrenched in one point of view

6. What are the fundamental components I need for a successful brand?

  1. Brand Definition – Literally, this component is the definition of what makes your brand unique: what your business is, what it offers, and who your target audience is.
  2. Brand values – Your brand values are the values that your business stands up for and operates by.
  3. Brand Promise – Think of your brand promise like a customer guarantee. What values or services do you guarantee they will receive from you anytime they do business with you?
  4. Brand Identity – This term refers to the visual assets of your business, the elements that are visible to the public eye (think logo, color scheme, etc.)
  5. Brand Differentiation – This term is a measure of how well you stand out from your competitors. It is also called known as your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your brand should always have a thoughtful and well-rounded brand differentiation.
  6. Market Position – Market position is literally the position of your brand in the market. It’s calculated by quality and price factors.
  7. Brand Messaging – This is an umbrella term that covers any asset that conveys your brand’s message, including your brand promise statement, marketing copy, tagline, etc.
  8. Brand Experience – The way that your customers interact with your products or services is called brand experience.

7. How do I increase brand recognition?

To increase your brand recognition among potential customers, use these 6 strategies.

  • Give Your Brand A Distinctive Voice And Image – To make your customer base aware of your brand, you need to make that brand strong and distinctive. In other words, you need to make it memorable. To do that, give your brand a voice and image that is instantly recognizable and sets your business apart from the competition.
  • Tap Into Influencer Marketing – Influencer marketing makes a product or service look appealing by putting it into the hands of a popular figure on social media. This figure, AKA an influencer, has thousands (if not millions) of followers and holds a lot of sway over people’s purchase decisions. It’s a great way to get your brand out there in front of a large audience.
  • Dive Into Content Marketing – High-quality, relevant content is key to increasing your brand recognition on social media. Make a content creation schedule and populate your social media accounts with videos, pictures, blog articles, and other engaging posts that will resonate with your target audience.
  • Set Up Referral Programs – A referral program incentivizes your current customers to refer people they know, like friends, families, and coworkers, to your business. Referral incentives include a gift card or a discount code for their next purchase.
  • Post More Video Content – Video marketing is one of the top ways that digital marketers use to increase brand recognition and grow a customer base.
  • Don’t Forget To Market Offline – While you’re honing your digital marketing skills, don’t forget to market your brand offline, as well! You can do this by word-of-mouth, going to trade shows or conventions, and passing out business cards, to name a few strategies.

8. What makes a brand successful?

There are three key elements that make a brand successful.

  • Standing Up For Your Core Belief – Every brand starts with core beliefs or a reason for existing. When you have strong beliefs and stand up for them, you’ll attract likeminded customers. Even if they don’t feel as strongly about those beliefs as you do, they will admire your honesty and code of ethics.
  • Demonstrating Your Beliefs – Your beliefs don’t mean anything unless you demonstrate them throughout your brand, both visually and the way you treat your customers. When you do that, you are on your way to success.
  • Sharing The Story Of Your Brand – Everyone loves to hear a good story. It’s an essential ingredient in a lot of successful brand marketing campaigns. Incorporate elements of the story of your business and your core beliefs throughout your branding to make it resound with your audience.

9. How can I be sure I’ll like what you design?

When I start a new branding project, I start with the customer’s needs and wants. I am a great listener and I’ll always try my hardest to get the design right the first time. However, if it doesn’t turn out quite the way you wanted it, never fear! I always listen to feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, and will tweak the design until you are 100% satisfied.

10. How do I know we’re a good match for each other?

If you’re looking for someone with experience in collaborating with entrepreneurs and SMEs (small to medium enterprises), then we’re already a great match because that’s exactly who I am. And if you like my sample work and are impressed by the expert knowledge I’ve shared in this FAQ, we’re already off to a great start! All that’s left is for you to send me a message so we can start working together on your next big project.

11. How much does a branding project cost?

What you really want to know is, “what can I expect to pay for a branding project?” The general answer to that question depends on you. If marketing is the biggest driver of revenue for your business, then you should expect to invest a lot of money in it to get the biggest return on investment (ROI). If, on the other hand, you rake in more revenue from direct sales, then your branding project will be less expansive and therefore cost less.

In general, my branding project packages cost from $1695 to $3000, depending on the scope of the project. Once I have all the details of your project, I will provide you with a list of solutions that I recommend that will help you meet your goals and a custom quote for my services.

12. I need a logo and I already know exactly what I want it to look like. I just need someone to make it. Will you help?

Of course! Knowing what you already want your logo to look like will just simplify the design process. You can provide me with the specific requirements you have for your branding project when you fill out the form on the Contact page.

13. We already have our brand identity established. Can we hire you for a smaller project like a postcard or a single ad? Also, we need it ASAP.

No job is too small! I am happy to work on any type of branding project you need, even if it’s just a small ad. I can also provide a fast turnaround time, although be aware that the speed may affect the final invoice.

14. How long does it take to complete a branding project?

The length of time it will take me to complete your branding project depends on several different factors, including:

  • How large your business is and how you may evolve as your industry/market changes
  • How complex and technical your products or services are
  • The number of branding assets you need me to create
  • The size of your brand’s audience
  • The amount of time you have available to dedicate to the process of creating your branding project from start to finish
  • How big your budget is
  • How much of your branding project you assign to me
  • The launch of your brand and all the logistics that go with it

15. Can you manage the printing of my project?

Managing the printing of your project is no problem. I have a list of professional printers that I have curated and that I have worked with on several projects already with great success. I have the resources to print a variety of branding assets and materials for your marketing campaign, including brochures, business cards, flyers, and exhibition materials.

16. We need a website, too. Can you help?

Absolutely! A website is one of the most important assets of your branding campaign, which is why I include it as part of my services. I am an experienced, professional web designer of 12 years, and I’ve helped dozens of women make their brands stand out with a clean, beautiful website.

Here are some of the benefits you’ll find when you purchase my website creation package:

  • Access to customer support 24/7, in case you ever have questions
  • An SSL certificate that’s good for 1 year, and which will help keep your website and your business information secure on the internet
  • Customized interfacing that is mobile-friendly, which will allow your customers to enjoy your website on their mobile devices and boost engagement
  • An option to open up to 3 email accounts for your website
  • An installation of Google Analytics so you can monitor your website’s views and track engagement rates

17. Do you do copywriting?

Yes, I offer copywriting as one of my services. Branding is not complete without it. As your branding copywriter, I will create written as well as visual content that grabs your customer base’s attention and entices them to check out your brand. My goal is to help your brand stand out, and copywriting is a huge component of that.

18. What is the difference between marketing and branding?

Branding is like the ingredients in a recipe for business success, while marketing is the cooking of the recipe. You can have as many ingredients as you want, such as flyers, video content, and a cool logo, but until you start marketing them, you won’t get the results you want just by letting your branding assets lie there unused. You need both branding and marketing to generate the customer base and the revenue you’re seeking.

19. What is SEO and why do I need it?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a way of making your business more visible and discoverable through Google searches. When you have good SEO, more people can find your web content, which will lead to an increase in online traffic, which will lead to a greater opportunity for you to make sales.

Not only does SEO help your web content become more visible and discoverable. It also helps increase your website’s authority within your industry niche. Authority helps you appear more trustworthy to potential customers and is just one step away from loyalty.

20. What are the most important social media platforms?

There are more social media platforms out there than I can count on two hands. Should you focus your branding and marketing power on all of them, or just one or two? If the latter, which ones are the most important?

Let’s go over the most popular social media platforms and which one you should be focusing on, depending on the type of business you own and who your audience is.

  • Instagram – This platform is perfect for businesses where visuals are everything, such as lifestyle, ecommerce, or photography. It’s also ideal if your target audience is under the age of 40.
  • YouTube – YouTube is most appealing for audiences under the age of 50 who are looking for video content that educate and entertain them.
  • Facebook – If your audience is primarily adults and you want to start an online community of likeminded followers, or you want to encourage your audience to share their emotional reactions to your content with their friends, Facebook is the platform to be on.
  • Twitter – Twitter is primarily populated by men between the ages of 30 and 40. You have a wide variety of options for content here, so mix it up with videos, photos, discussion prompts, and polls.
  • TikTok – If your audience is young and hip and you want to provide them with entertainment, then concentrate on TikTok. Just be aware that forthright product promotion won’t help you gain a lot of followers. It’s best to focus on entertainment first and attract viewers to your product or services with the quality of your videos.
  • Pinterest – The majority of Pinterest account holders are adult women, so if this is your audience and your business is related to fashion, DIY, décor, or lifestyle, you should get familiar with this platform.
  • Snapchat – Much like TikTok, Snapchat is most popular with younger audiences. Once again, make sure that your content is entertaining more than anything else. Shameless self-promotion doesn’t work on this platform.

21. What does "organic" mean in terms of websites and social media?

When visitors find your website through search engines like Google and Bing, without the aid of advertisements or other paid sources, that’s called organic traffic.

When we refer to organic social media, we’re talking about the social media content, including photos, videos, Stories, written posts, etc., that aren’t paid for by the author. They show up naturally in your timeline based on the algorithm and your personal preferences, not because someone bought ad space for it.

22. How do active social media accounts benefit my business?

Social media allows you to connect with people that have never heard of you or your brand before. It allows you to promote your business to complete strangers and create a large customer base that wouldn’t have known otherwise that you even existed.

When you’re active on social media, you can share links to your website, products, and services. If your branding and marketing is appealing, the people who follow your accounts or similar ones will see these links, as well as any other content you post (such as an entertaining meme or an educational video). Then, they will become interested enough to click on them.

23. How do I create good social media content?

  1. Make Sure Your Content Is High-Quality – Too many businesses skip over this all-important step. They think that they can post anything, regardless of whether they took any time to perform market research or hire a great branding designer, and they will instantly gain thousands of followers. This is not the case. Social media users prefer content that looks professionally made and grabs their attention (in a positive way). If you don’t put much effort into your content, then users won’t put any effort into engaging with you or seeing what your brand is all about.
  2. Structure Your Content To Keep People Engaged – On the internet, it’s all about speed: how quickly can I absorb this content, get the information I’m looking for, and move on to something else? You can structure your content with this desire for speed in mind. Use headers, bullet points, and numbered lists to break up your content and split up those meaty “walls of text” that nobody likes to read.
  3. Offer Something Of Value – Your social media content should always offer something of value to the reader of viewer. Whether that’s a solution to a problem, or a funny joke that makes them laugh, the user should receive a benefit from it. If you can do that with all your social media posts, you will increase brand loyalty and ensure that your content is easily shareable.
  4. Never Forget Your Audience – When you’re creating content on social media, never forget your audience. You’re making this content for them, so that they will engage with it and share it with their friends and family members. Before you create any kind of content, research what kinds of posts your audience would like to see. Look at past surveys of customers from your industry or poll your customer base directly. If you give them what they want to see, they are more likely to engage and share.
  5. Make And Share Infographics – Infographics are your friend. They convey a large amount of sometimes complicated information in an easy-to-understand visual graphic. They also make you look more professional and prepared, since it’s clear you took the time to create it on your own. You don’t even have to be a graphic designer to make one. There are plenty of programs out there, like Piktochart, that make the process easy. It’s a small effort to make to provide value to your audience while increasing the authoritativeness of your brand.
  6. Play To Your Audience’s Emotions – The social media posts that go viral are usually the ones that incite a strong emotion in the audience. This can be anger or sadness over a painful issue or laughter in response to a hilarious video. However, you choose to play to your audience’s emotions, make sure you don’t co-opt an issue or a cause that you’re not involved in, as this will make you seem disingenuous and cause you to lose engagement. Be respectful, but don’t underestimate the power of emotions in social media content.
  7. Hype Up Nostalgia – As easy way to become popular on social media, particularly among an adult audience, is to post content that reflects fondly on “the good old days.” Depending on the ages of your adult audience, you may go as far back as the 90s, 80s, or even 70s. This tactic provides ample ground for emotional engagement and discussion, as your followers reminisce about some of the best years of their lives.
  8. Incentivize Your Audience – Posting giveaways is an effective way to provide incentives for your audience to engage with you on social media. For example, you can hold a giveaway and require the entrants to like, follow, and share your account. Everyone loves getting stuff for free, so you should see a lot of engagement on this type of post, especially if the giveaway is something good.
  9. Post About What’s Trending – You may not personally be interested in the latest trending topics, like what celebrity did what scandalous thing or what meme is the most popular. But staying on top of trending topics and creating content that references them is one of the easiest strategies you can use to boost engagement. It allows you to insert your voice into a conversation that is extremely popular at the moment, which will increase the chance that more people will like and share your content.
  10. Hold Contests – People love friendly competitions, and a contest provides just that. Hold contests relevant to your business that engages your followers’ competitive drives, and that rewards them with a tantalizing prize.
  11. Be Humorous – Don’t shy away from making jokes or sharing memes just because your business is not very funny. Laughter is the best medicine, and it’s also the best shareable content on social media.
  12. Use video content – Video is quickly becoming the dominant form of online content, and some studies even say that video content will make up 80% of all Internet traffic by 2018. As a result, you must embrace video as part of your content strategy. This is also why Twitter – once known as the photo-sharing network – added video to its portfolio. This kind of content has a big potential to go viral, just like this Nike video did.
  13. Post Video Content – Did you know that 86% of businesses use video content as one of their marketing tools? To keep up with your competition, you should make a game plan for consistently creating and posting videos on your social media accounts.

24. Why choose InspiredMelissa.com?

You should choose Inspired Melissa because, unlike many other creative advertising and marketing management agencies, I specifically focus on serving women business owners and entrepreneurs. My goal is to help you navigate this new world of branding and marketing that you’ve entered as smoothly and stress-free as possible. This way, you can focus on all the other important parts of setting up and running your business, as well as family life and any other pressing matters you need to tend to.

I’ll provide you with a customized solutions based on the latest technology and marketing trends so that together, we can make your business a success.

25. Do you work at a fixed price?

Yes, we will decide on and fix a price for your project before we start working on it. Contact us today so we can draw up a custom proposal based on your needs/wants.

26. Why are you more expensive than a web-based platform?

There is a big difference between a web-based platform and an agency, which is what Inspired Melissa is. Too often, the platforms you find will employ agents from around the world who may not have any knowledge of your corner of the market or how to market to people in your country. They may also not have much experience in creating content or marketing in general.

That’s not the case with Inspired Melissa. Our team is US-based, experienced, and dedicated to making sure you are always 100% satisfied with our deliverables.

27. What exactly do I get after you complete designing my logo / marketing / branding?

At the end of your branding project, you will receive these files:

  • Source file (PSD or AI formats)
  • Font files (or links to the online store where you can purchase them, if I used premium fonts in the design)
  • PDF
  • Any other design files
  • Easy-to-read instructions to help you open and/or use the files

28. Will my logo be unique?

You won’t ever have to worry about your logo being the same as someone else’s. We never plagiarize our designs, nor do we use cheap or free pre-existing art like “clip art” or Google Images. The design will be uniquely yours, so that you can submit it to the US government for design registration or register it as a trademark. Obviously, there are lots of other factors to getting your logo registered or trademarked that we can’t control from a design perspective, but we’ll at least help make the originality aspect of the application go smoother.

29. Who will own the copyright?

After the project is complete and the invoice which we agreed upon is paid for, we will give you full copyright ownership of the designs we delivered.

30. How can I check the progress of my projects?

We are happy to provide updates on the progress of your projects through periodic Zoom meetings, emails, and phone calls, depending on your preference. Even though we may not be able to meet in person, I’ve never had a complaint that we didn’t provide sufficient communication or didn’t keep a client up to speed on how their project is developing.

31. How can we make something “go viral”?

  1. Look At What’s Current And Trending – Your video is more likely to go viral if you make it relevant to what’s current and trending on the internet. This way, when someone searches for that topic on Google or a social media platform, your content will show up in the search results.
  2. Make Amazing Video Content – Videos are usually the top form of media to go viral. That’s why it makes sense to concentrate on your video content and make it as amazing and high quality as possible.
  3. Include Relevant Keywords In Your Content – Whenever someone searches for a topic on Google or social media, they type in keywords that they believe describe best what they’re looking for. The content most relevant to those keywords will appear in their search results. To get your videos, articles, and other content on the first page of search results, populate them with relevant, descriptive keywords which you expect your audience to search for when they’re looking for content like yours.
  4. Partner With A Well-Known Influencer – Brands and brand content often go viral nowadays because a well-known influencer promotes them. An influencer is someone on social media with a huge number of followers and a lot of “influence” over their followers’ purchase decisions. Consider partnering with one to increase awareness of your brand.
  5. Hold A Contest – A contest will help you get more engagement because you can offer people a chance to win a prize if they like, follow, and/or share your content. It’s also fun and taps into the natural competitive streak that most people have.
  6. Find Your Funny Side – There’s nothing people love more than watching and sharing a video that made them laugh until their sides hurt. If you want your content to go viral, find your funny side and incorporate comedy into your social media posts.
  7. Don’t Be Afraid To Shock Or Make Controversy – Just as something positive like a funny video can go viral, something negative like a controversial opinion can spur millions of likes, dislikes, and shares. Any kind of publicity is good publicity when it comes to social media engagement. Just remember the image you want to present and don’t take it too far, or else your audience may push back against you.
  8. Push Your Visuals – Visuals like infographics, GIFs, memes, photos, and videos are great attention-grabbers. They are also easier to digest than articles or long captions.
  9. Upload Content To Reddit – Reddit is your ticket to going viral if you can get on this platform’s front page. Upload your best content to Reddit. As more people upvote it, the platform will move it further up the page. If it gets enough upvotes, it will arrive on the front page and get even more attention.
  10. Stand Out By Being Unique – This may sound like an easy decision, but it’s important to remember that there are lots of the same types of content on the internet. To stand out, you’ll need to make yours as unique and original as possible.

32. How does marketing strategy work?

A marketing strategy is a series of tactics (such as placing ads on Google, promoting your brand on social media, and even handing out business cards) that a business uses to “market” themselves. These tactics aren’t all used at once, nor are they deployed at random. Instead, they are strategically used and placed to help a business reach a certain goal.

The ultimate object of all this marketing is to convince complete strangers to buy or hire your products or services. Among the tools that a marketing strategy uses are the business’s value proposition, target customer demographics, and branding.

33. What is a marketing campaign?

A marketing campaign is a concerted effort by a business to promote a certain thing – a product, a service, a new brand image, basically anything to do with the relationship between a business and their customer base. It typically promotes the thing across several different mediums, including television, social media, and print.

Businesses will frequently use marketing campaigns to promote new products or services, but also to build brand awareness, increase sales in a particular demographic, and other purposes. You should always decide what the goal of your marketing campaign is before you start creating it (or hire someone to create it for you).

34. What’s the difference between marketing and advertising?

Advertising is a form of marketing, and it’s also only one aspect of it. Not all promotional materials are considered ads.

To make the distinction even clearer, here is an outline of the different types of marketing content that a typical business will publish or spread.

  • Paid Media – This is the type of content that a business will pay a platform, a newspaper, a magazine, or an advertising agency to publish and promote. Some examples are ads on Google or social media, billboards, and printed advertisements in the paper.
  • Owned Media – When a business uses its own social media accounts, websites, channels, etc. to publish marketing content, this type of content is called owned media.
  • Earned Media – Earned media includes promotional material that is not paid for or owned by the business but originates from an external source. It can include customer or client reviews, articles written about your business, and customer demonstrations.

35. What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a way that businesses and entrepreneurs increase brand awareness, build their customer base, and increase their sales, by actively using and consistently posting on social media platforms.

The process of social media marketing includes posting high quality photos and videos to your accounts, having a regular publishing schedule, interacting with other users, and promoting your products or services. The point of all these strategies is to drive up engagement with your accounts and convert social media users into customers.

To help you navigate social media marketing on the major platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, and LinkedIn – you should take advantage of the free tools that those platforms provide or use a third-party site like Buffer. This way, you can see where the gaps are in your strategies, which demographics your posts are reaching, which posts are getting the most engagement, etc. These are key details that will help you improve your social media marketing in the future.

36. How do I create a social media marketing strategy?

​It’s important that you create a social media marketing strategy before you start uploading posts to your accounts willy-nilly. To start one, you should ask yourself what goals you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to increase your customer base? Promote a new product you just released? Drive traffic to your website? It’s okay to have multiple goals at the same time, but you should define each one of them. This way, you can determine what type of content you should post, and which platform will help you reach those goals.

Speaking of platforms, you must decide which social media platforms to focus your energy on. Especially if you’re a small business or a single entrepreneur, you won’t have time to keep up with every single platform. Instead, you should ask yourself, “Who is my target audience, and what platforms are they using?” For example, younger audiences nowadays gravitate towards Snapchat and TikTok. Older demographics are more likely to be found on Facebook and YouTube. Do some research and allocate your energy wisely.

Finally, you need to develop a game plan for the type of content your target audience would be most interested in. Let’s go back to our younger audiences for a moment. Content on Snapchat and TikTok consists primarily of short, succinct videos with high entertainment value. If this is your audience, then this is the type of content that you should plan to create.

37. What is email marketing?

In email marketing, a business sends emails to their customers to promote their products or services directly. These emails are typically written ahead of time and programmed to be sent out at a specific date and time. Email marketing is a great opportunity for you to generate repeat purchases by keeping your customers informed about discounts, sales, new products or services, new milestones, upcoming workshops or meet-ups, and anything else that you believe they would find valuable.

38. How can I understand email marketing metrics?

How do you know if your email marketing has been successful? Here is a list of metrics that will help you put your success into measurable terms.

  1. Open Rate – This metric measures the percentage of your email subscribers who actually open the emails you send them. You can calculate the open rate for separate emails to help you determine which ones are the most clicked on and why. This way, you can improve your email marketing strategy in the future.
  2. Click-Through Rate – Click-through rate, or CTR, calculates the percentage of your email subscribers who clicked on the links you included in your email. This helps you by telling you what types of links are capturing your subscribers’ interests the most.
  3. Conversion Rate – The conversion rate measures how many of your email subscribers clicked on a link in your article and then performed a certain action immediately afterwards. One way this metric is useful is it can tell you how many people are clicking on a link to one of your products or services and then purchasing that product or service.
  4. Bounce Rate – The bounce rate tells you how many of your current subscribers did not receive an email from you during your last automated send-off. This could be due to a temporary glitch, which is referred to as a soft bounce, or to a more permanent issue, such as the email address being deactivated. The latter is called a hard bounce.
  5. Number Of Unsubscribes – This metric shows you how many people on your email subscriber list have unsubscribed recently. If you see an uptick in unsubscribes, this could be an indicator that you need to make some changes to your current email marketing strategies.
  6. List Growth Rate – It’s helpful to know how fast your email subscriber list is growing, especially if building your list of subscribers is one of your top marketing goals. That’s why we have the list growth rate metric.
  7. Spam Complaints – Spam complaints occur when one of your subscribers flags your email as “spam.” If you get these often, you should analyze your content carefully and make sure there is nothing in it that could be interpreted as malicious or phishing. Keep an eye on this metric in case it gets extremely high, at which point your email service provider may lock your account down.
  8. Forwarding Rate – This metric measures the percentage of your email subscribers who shared your email with friends or family by forwarding it to their email addresses.
  9. Engagement Over Time – The best way to learn what the best day, as well as the best time of day, to send your emails is to measure subscribers’ engagement with your emails over time. After you’ve collected weeks or months’ worth of data, you can spot the times with the highest and lowest CTRs and other metrics and adjust your email marketing strategy accordingly.
  10. Overall Return On Investment – This metric, also known as overall ROI, tells you how much of a return on your monetary investment into your email marketing campaign that you’re receiving as time goes on. It can help you decide if email marketing is worth the cost, or if there’s anything you should do to boost those numbers.
  11. Email Sharing Rate – The email sharing rate, despite its name, does not measure the rate that your subscribers share your email by forwarding it. Rather, it measures the rate of your subscribers that share your email via social media.
  12. Mobile Open Rate – This tool of measurement is like regular open rate, but it’s more targeted. It specifically measures the open rate of emails on mobile devices.
  13. Mobile Click Rate – The mobile click rate measures the number of times that subscribers click on links in your emails using their mobile device.
  14. Domain Open Rate – The domain open rate shows you the percentage of your subscribers that are opening your email in a specific email provider, such as Outlook or Yahoo!
  15. Domain Click Rate – This metric measures how many people are clicking on links in your email while using a specific email provider.
  16. Revenue Per Email – This metric is more targeted than ROI. Rather than showing you your overall return on investment in your email marketing campaign, revenue per email tells you how much money you’re making per email.
  17. Revenue Per Subscriber – To take revenue metrics a step further, you can use revenue per subscriber to discover how much of a profit you’re making off each individual email subscriber on your list.

39. Are your customers aware of all of the features, products, and services that you offer?

​Before we start a project, I make sure that the client knows all the features, products, and services that we have to offer at Inspired Melissa. This way, if they need any of them right away or at any point in the future, they know they can come directly to us rather than outsource to yet another agency and waste more time and money.

I recommend that all businesses and entrepreneurs adopt the habit of making their clients aware of just how much you can offer them. This can be through a brochure, an email, or a link to your Services page on your website.

I also suggest that you listen carefully to your client. If they express any needs or wants related to your business that are outside of the scope of the initial project, pay attention to those and let them know how you can help with them, as well.

40. Does your brand appear trustworthy?

Trust is a priceless currency that will help you go far in whatever industry or niche your business is in. You build it by treating the customer with dignity, respect, and kindness, by following up on your word, and by being honest and professional in your branding. You also build trust by keeping your customer or client up to date on the product you’re making or the service you’re providing for them. Keep them in the loop. Don’t give them a reason to suspect you of being selfish or scheming.

41. Why do certain pages have high bounce and exit rates?

You may find that certain pages on your website, such as the checkout page if your business is ecommerce, have high bounce and exit rates. Anytime you notice that visitors to your site are quickly leaving webpages, you need to try to discover the reason.

First, you need to make sure the webpages in question look professional and clean, rather than sloppy and chaotic. A jumble of misspelled, grammatically incorrect sentences along with clashing graphics that overwhelm the customer’s screen is extremely off putting.

Next, you need to verify that the buttons and information that are specific to those pages are easy to find. If it takes a visitor to your webpage longer than a couple of seconds to find what they’re looking for, they are more likely to leave without continuing any further. You can lose customers simply because your website is too difficult to navigate, or because they can’t easily find the “Purchase” button.

If both those items are in order, you may need to dig deeper and reevaluate the content on the webpage itself. Is the information you’re trying to convey too complex? Are the shipping rates you have listed on the “Checkout” page unreasonably high? Do you state clearly that you will issue a full refund if the customer isn’t satisfied with your product?

These are just some of the issues that could prompt customers to leave a webpage before taking an action on it (AKA “bouncing), like filling out a contact form or making a purchase.

42. Why are conversions lower on mobile than desktop (or vice versa)?

​According to Content Square, the customer conversion rate for desktop users across all ecommerce industries is 3.7% (as of 2022). For mobile users, the conversation rate is 2.2%, more than a point lower.

There are several potential reasons for this small but significant difference, including the fact that not all ecommerce websites are mobile-friendly. When a website is not mobile-friendly, it’s more frustrating to try to use it on a phone or a tablet because the text and buttons are smaller.

The closeness of the conversion rates, however, proves another point: you should always focus on making your ecommerce website mobile as well as desktop-friendly to maximize your conversion results.

43. What’s really causing users to leave your site at those points?

Here are 5 reasons why users may be leaving your website.

  1. The content on your website is not actually relevant to what users are searching for
  2. Your website is hard to read or even see on a mobile device
  3. It’s not obvious where the button the customer needs to push is to take an action
  4. Your website design is too simple – or too complex
  5. Your website loads too slowly

44. How are you utilizing the feedback you receive on social media to shape the product?

The best way to make improvements to your product, services, website, or any part of your business that the public interfaces with, is to get your customer base’s feedback. To accomplish this task, you can set up polls on social media, email surveys, or reach out directly to customers that you’ve worked with a long time and whom you know will tell you the truth.

When you have your customers’ feedback in hand, you can start shaping your improvements to meet their needs/wants as much as possible. This way, when you start rolling out the changes or launching a new asset, you will increase the adoption rate among your customer base.

45. Does your target market understand what you’re offering when they land on your homepage for the first time?

When someone in your target market inputs specific keywords into an internet search bar that leads them to your website, this is only a partial win for your business. Now that they’re on your website, you must convert that person into a customer.

The most effective and efficient way to convert random visitors into customers is to show them what your business can offer them right on the homepage.

Displaying a description of your services and the type of products you offer on your homepage is a smart marketing strategy. If someone clicks on your website and it’s not clear from your homepage that you offer what they’re looking for, they’re going to go back to the internet results page and keep searching. To prevent this, you need to help your target market understand right away, from the first click, that you sell the thing they need/want.

46. How likely would they be to recommend your company to a friend?

You’d be surprised by how much you can learn from customers’ answers to this question and others like it.

When you own a business and you want to make improvements to your products or identify gaps in your services, a great strategy is to calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Your NPS measures how satisfied your customers are with your business and/or specific assets, such as a new product.

To calculate NPS, all you need to do is create a survey using a service like CustomerSure or Survey Monkey. Then, you’ll send that survey to your customers by text or email, or you can share the survey on your social media accounts.

Calculating NPS is also another method of mining customer feedback, but in such a way that automatically calculates a result for you. For example, if 95% of people answered, “extremely likely,” you probably don’t have much to worry about. If more people are “extremely unlikely” to recommend your business to someone they know, then you have some work to do.

You can also use more specific questions to obtain feedback in a particular area of your business. For example, you could ask, “Rate how well we communicated with you,” or, “How likely are you to purchase from us again in the future?”

You can also leave a comment box at the bottom of the survey for customers who wish to go into more detail than your rating questions allow.

It may sound like a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the end to find out where your business is doing a great job and where you need to improve to increase your sales.

47. How can you bridge the empathy gap with your customers?

The empathy gap is the emotional disconnect between businesses and customers. Many customers feel that businesses don’t listen to them or understand their wants and needs enough. To bridge this gap, consider interviewing customers one-on-one to hear their complaints about your products or services. It may be tough, but I’ve found that it’s the best way to save your relationship with your client when they have a complaint you didn’t know about or don’t quite know how to address.

48. What is the best channel for generating quality leads?

Below are the best channels in marketing right now to help you generate high quality sales leads.

  1. Email Marketing – In case you thought emailing was not still a top marketing strategy, think again! According to Emarsys, 81% of small and midsize businesses still use email to acquire customers. In addition, every $1 spent on email marketing yields a $42 return on investment.
  2. Content Marketing – One of the most effective lead-generating channels is content marketing, which converts customers by first providing them with educational or entertaining content (blog posts, videos, photos, etc.). With content marketing, you can build a relationship and trust with your customers, as well as show them why you’re such a great business.
  3. Promotional Giveaways – Giving away promotional products will help not only help you increase brand awareness, but, according to PROmotion Marketing, it will also make consumers more likely to purchase from you. According to a PROmotion Marketing survey, 82% of customers who receive a promotional product from a business have a more positive impression of that brand afterwards.
  4. Social Media Marketing – Social media marketing puts your business where your target market demographic is every day: on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and any other platforms where your customers like to gather online for entertainment, discourse, and product purchasing.
  5. Networking Opportunities – Never underestimate the power of networking events and other opportunities. Even in the day and age of Zoom meetings and instant messaging through Slack, as of 2016, LinkedIn reported that 85% of job positions were filled via networking.

49. How can I improve the performance of my campaigns?

  1. Define Your Target Market – Before you start creating your marketing campaign, it’s important to define your target market. This information is essential to developing a campaign that will help you hit your business goals.
  2. Tailor Your Campaign To Your Target Market – When you’ve defined your target market, tailor your marketing campaign to that demographic. Choose marketing strategies that will resonate with your particular audience and drum up more engagement.
  3. Use Trigger Marketing – Use the free or paid-for marketing analytics and management tools on the internet to develop a strategy for trigger marketing. This way, you know who to use trigger marketing on and where they can be found within your larger target demographic.
  4. Track Your Marketing Campaign Results – After your marketing campaign has run its course, track the results. Your marketing strategies are like ripples in a pond, and to know where those ripples go and who they touch – in other words, to measure the campaign’s success – you must follow them closely.
  5. Test Your Current Marketing Campaign’s Performance – Don’t forget to assess your current marketing campaign’s performance. Use the metrics we discussed earlier in this FAQ to measure the campaign’s successes, as well as its failures. This way, you can adjust your plan as needed and also develop better strategies for the next venture.
  6. Throw Away What’s Not Working – During your testing and tracking of your marketing campaign, you may find elements of it that just aren’t working. If that is the case, don’t be afraid to throw it away and go back to the drawing board!

50. How can I get more traffic to my website?

Here are 10 tried and true ways to drive more traffic to your website.

1. Insert Relevant Keywords Into Your Content – Perform keyword research and find out which keywords your audience is likely to use to search for content relevant to your business. Use these throughout your web content, including the webpage title, the titles, headers, and body of your blog posts, the meta description, and the URL. Make sure to use them only where they naturally fit in, however, so that your content remains high quality and easy to read.

2. Make Your Content Unique And Memorable – There’s so much content out there on the internet, that you just publish a poorly written blog post or a grainy video and expect it to get a lot of engagement. You need to make your content unique and memorable, so that it stands out from all the other businesses vying for your customer’s attention.

3. Offer To Write Guest Posts For Other Websites – Writing a guest post for other websites within or relevant to your industry will help you increase your website’s authority and therefore its search engine results page (SERP) ranking, generate backlinks, and drive up referral traffic.

4. Keep Your Social Media Accounts Active – When you maintain a consistent posting schedule on your social media accounts, you can boost a lot of traffic to your website and increase brand awareness. Below are some strategies you can use social media to build an online customer base.

  • Consistently post content – blog posts, videos, photos infographics, etc. – to all your social media accounts
  • Engage with your followers by replying to their comments, tagging them in your content, and reposting their content that you find relevant to your business
  • Use hashtags that are relevant to your content
  • Update the link in your social media account bio to promote your newest content, product, or service
  • Change your profile and cover photos to promote your newest content
  • Tag people who you think would be interested in your content, like influencers
  • Post an enticing lead or sneak peek of your content to get people interested in clicking on it
  • Reply to users’ questions with links to your website or other content so they can get more information there

5. Advertise To Boost Traffic To Your Website – Take out ads on search engines, social media, and websites to boost traffic to your website. Be sure to develop a gameplan and a budget before you start buying ad space, so that you spend your money wisely for the largest return on investment (ROI).

6. Send Out Email Newsletters – Increase traffic to your website with well-written, engaging email newsletters. This is an effective method of keeping your customer base updated on your latest products and services, while enticing them to click on links that lead to your website to get more information.

Below are some of the best email marketing techniques you can use to maximize your traffic numbers.

  • Make the text in your subject line and the body of your email as attention-grabbing as possible, using words that invoke strong emotions.
  • Include a hyperlink or a button that your subscribers can click on to read more content from your newsletter on your website.
  • Design your newsletter to be mobile-friendly so that your subscribers can open and read them easily on their phones or tablets.
  • Personalize the newsletter by addressing each one to the name of the individual subscriber.
  • Make your newsletter attractive with professional, clean, easily navigable templates.
  • Implement A/B tests to determine which version of your email newsletter is opened and clicked on the most

7. Connect With Influencers For Outreach – Contact social media influencers in your industry whose followers would enjoy your content. They will likely be willing to promote it if they know their followers will engage with it, thereby boosting their own numbers. There are a few different ways you can make connections with influencers, such as:

  • Reference an influencer’s research or content in your social media post by tagging their handle
  • Request an interview with an influencer, and then, after you posted the interview, tag them in it
  • Create a video, blog article, or social media post that rounds up the expert opinion of several influencers in your industry and then tag each one it
  • Pay an influencer and sponsor their posts to incentivize them to promote your product or service

8. Create Tools Or Content That Helps Your Target Audience – When you create a tool or a resource on your website that solves a problem or helps your target audience in some way, you will see an uptick in website traffic.

9. Write Press Releases And Send Them To Influential Publications – A press release is a way to promote your business and anything new you just released or plan to put out, like a product or service. Write them and send them to influential publications in your industry. If they believe the press release will be useful to their audience, they will put it on their blog or in their magazine, and you’ll have a bigger audience from which to receive website traffic.

10. Trade Backlinks – Backlinks are links on other sites that reference the content on yours. They are essential for establishing your website’s authority and trustworthiness. Reach out to other businesses in your industry and offer to trade backlinks for mutual traffic-boosting benefits.

Take the first step and book a complimentary Discovery Session with Melissa.

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