1. Find a co-founder who is willing to work for equity.

2. Bootstrap your company by using free or low-cost resources.

3. Get creative with your marketing efforts.

4. Focus on building a great product first and foremost.

5. Pay Attention to Pre-Money and Post-Money Valuation

With these tips in mind, let’s dive into each one in more detail.

1. Find a Co-Founder Who Is Willing to Work for Equity 

One of the best ways to start a tech startup without funding is to find a co-founder who is willing to work for equity. This means that they will own a portion of the company, but they won’t receive any salary until the company is profitable. In the meantime, they’ll be working for free (or for very little money).

This arrangement can be beneficial for both parties involved. The co-founder gets a chance to be a part of a potentially successful company from the ground up, and the startup doesn’t have to worry about paying salaries until it’s generating revenue.

Of course, finding a co-founder who is willing to work for equity can be difficult. You’ll need to find someone who shares your vision and who is passionate about the idea behind your startup. They should also be skilled in the area that they’ll be working on, and they should be comfortable with the risks involved.

2. Bootstrap Your Company by Using Free or Low-Cost Resources 

Another way to start a tech startup without funding is to bootstrap your company. This means using free or low-cost resources to get your business off the ground.

There are a number of ways to do this. For example, you can use free or low-cost hosting services for your website. You can also use open-source software to save on development costs. Additionally, you can use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to market your startup without spending any money on advertising.

Of course, bootstrapping has its downsides. It can be difficult to get started without any funding, and you may have to make some sacrifices in terms of the quality of your product or service. Additionally, it can be tough to scale a bootstrapped business once it starts to grow.

3. Get Creative with Your Marketing Efforts 

If you want to start a tech startup without funding, you’ll need to get creative with your marketing efforts. Traditional marketing techniques like advertising can be expensive, so you’ll need to find other ways to get the word out about your company.

One way to do this is to focus on content marketing. This involves creating useful or interesting content (such as blog posts, infographics, or videos) that will help to promote your startup. You can then distribute this content through social media, your website, or other channels.

Another way to market your startup without spending any money is to focus on public relations. This involves getting media coverage for your company by pitching stories to journalists or appearing on podcasts or other shows.

4. Focus on Building a Great Product First and Foremost 

If you want to start a tech startup without funding, it’s important to focus on building a great product first and foremost. Even if you don’t have any money to spend on marketing, if you have a great product, people will eventually find out about it.

Of course, building a great product takes time and effort. You’ll need to have a clear vision for what you want to create, and you’ll need to put in the work to make it a reality. Additionally, you’ll need to constantly be testing and iterating on your product to make sure that it’s the best that it can be.

5. Pay Attention to Pre-Money and Post-Money Valuation 

If you’re looking to raise funding for your tech startup, it’s important to pay attention to pre-money and post-money valuation. This is the value of your company before and after investment, respectively.

Pre-money valuation is important because it determines how much equity you’ll need to give up in order to raise funding. If you have a high pre-money valuation, you’ll only need to give up a small amount of equity. However, if you have a low pre-money valuation, you may need to give up a larger chunk of equity.

Post-money valuation is important because it determines how much your company is worth after investment. This number will be higher than your pre-money valuation, and it’s what investors will use to determine whether or not your company is a good investment.

We hope that this article was helpful in teaching you how to start a tech startup without funding. Remember, if you want to be successful, you’ll need to focus on building a great product, getting creative with your marketing efforts, and paying attention to pre-money and post-money valuation. Good luck!

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The post How to Start a Tech Startup Without Funding? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

In fact, if you are having trouble getting your website ranking on Google’s first page, this is a good indication that you are not doing proper SEO. You can also take the help of a crypto pr agency to do the work for you.

There are plenty of hacks and tools which can help you rank your website on page one. However, today we will be focusing on five SEO hacks to get your Crypto startup ranked on Google’s first page.

The most important thing to remember when you’re trying to rank your cryptocurrency app is that SEO takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight, which can be really frustrating if you’re an entrepreneur who’s trying to turn their startup into a lucrative project.

However, if you follow these five simple steps, you’ll be able to create some great SEO hacks that will help you get the ranking you want and with time, you’ll be able to develop a killer SEO technique for your cryptocurrency app.

1. Use Title Tags Wisely

The title tag is one of the most important things on your entire website but many people don’t have any idea how to utilize them properly! If the title tag on your homepage says “Cryptocurrency App,” that’s not going to bring anyone in you need something more specific and enticing than that in order to make sure that people will come in and take a look at what you have to offer.

2. Use Specific Keywords In Your Meta Description Tag

One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your ranking in search engines is to make sure that your meta description tag uses specific keywords. This is because many people will only read the first few lines of your meta description and then decide whether or not they want to click through to your website.

By making sure that your meta description uses the same keywords that you are trying to rank for, you are giving potential customers a compelling reason to click through and visit your site.

Meta descriptions are a great place for SEO because Google uses them to determine what and how much of your page it should show in search results. Use these tips to rank higher than your competitors, increasing traffic and leads to your website.

You can check out keyword suggestions using Google’s Keyword Planner tool. This site will help you generate a list of relevant keywords and competitors’ websites to target.

There are many useful tools that small businesses can use to find the right keywords, including WordStream and SEMRush. Just be careful not to overuse these tools, which can lead to unnatural results.

3. Use Relevant Keywords In Your Website Content

The most important thing you can do to start ranking high in search engines is to make sure that your site includes relevant keywords for the kinds of topics people are searching for.

You’ll need to do a bit of research to find out what those keywords are and can take the help of various tools online to do that.

Keywords are very important in SEO. You need to know what people are searching for online so you can make sure you use it appropriately on your site. So, if there is a particular niche that you are targeting, then make sure that you use those words in your content!

Using relevant keywords in your content is still an important part of SEO strategy. Don’t get discouraged; just because ranking high in Google isn’t as simple as stuffing every page with keywords doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow some basic guidelines.

When you put relevant keywords into your content, your rankings will improve. If you’re struggling with how exactly to implement this strategy, try keeping a list of the keywords and phrases that best describe your business and then adding them to the appropriate places when you write new content.

4. Be Different From Your Competitors

SEO isn’t just about creating a website or writing quality content. It’s about making sure that people can find what they’re looking for and give them no reason to browse anywhere else.

In order to understand this, you need to first determine who your competition is and what they are offering their readers. Then, look at how they’re ranking and why they’re ranking that way. If they’ve got a lot of backlinks and high-quality content, then try doing the same thing with yours! Differentiate yourself by adding new ideas or information to the table that others won’t offer.

5. Get Other Sites To Link Back To Yours Using Relevant Keywords

When you’re searching for a new startup to invest in, where do you go? A lot of the time, you’ll turn to Google and search for the company name. So what’s the first thing that shows up when you search for your company? If it’s not your website, it’s probably something from an industry blog or news site.

That is exactly why you should take advantage of SEO (search engine optimization) to get other sites to link back to yours using relevant keywords. The goal is for every page on your website to rank.

The best way to make sure your website gets ranked well in the search engines is to have other websites link to yours, with relevant keywords in their anchor text. This is known as “backlinks,” and it’s one of the most important rankings factors for Google and its ilk. So how can you get other sites to link back to yours?

The first step is finding the right kind of sites: ones that are relevant to what you’re doing, have a good Alexa rank, have at least a few hundred incoming links from other sites, and aren’t already linking back to many other crypto-related websites.

You also need to find ways to contact the site owner contact information can be found on the individual site’s “About” page.

Here are some possibilities for contacting people:

• Email them directly
• Post a comment on their personal blog or on an article they wrote
• Contact them via Twitter or Facebook

If you don’t feel comfortable contacting them directly, you can use an online service like HelpAReporterOut.com, which will forward your email inquiry to journalists who specialize in covering your topic.

Conclusion:

These are the most important SEO hacks to get started in the cryptocurrency business. These tips will help you grow and develop your business and will help you build value in your business. If you have ever tried to start an online business and failed, then you have no idea how important SEO is.

You might have heard that SEO is dead, but that’s a lie.

SEO is more important than ever! In fact, if you want to rank high on Google’s first page, it’s essential to have good SEO.

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The post 5 Top Most SEO Hacks To Rank Your Crypto Startup appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Marketing your new business or startup can be very difficult. In some cases, there are not enough people to do the job while in others, the budget is simply too small to be able to afford massive campaigns.

The situation becomes even more complicated if you are a foreigner in the country where you opened your startup. It can be difficult to understand the local culture and people. That being said, it is still possible to market your startup successfully. Hence, here are the best marketing tips for startups of foreigners.

#1 Start with Your Target Audience

First and foremost, you need to start with your target audience. Consider whether you want to market to foreigners like yourself or whether your status as a foreigner doesn’t play a role in your marketing strategy. Then, research who your audience is and how you can market your business to your customers in the most effective way.

As a foreigner, it will be easier for you to understand foreigners like yourself living in the country. If you decide to market your products or services to them, you will already have a significant advantage. Moreover, you might have a business that is meant to cater to foreigners in the first place.

That being said, you don’t necessarily need to market to foreigners. You can market your brand to locals, but this might be difficult for you if your own culture is very different. Of course, you can hire an expert in the field who will help you with this. But it is still necessary to keep in mind such challenges.

Once you decide which direction you want to move in with your target audience, you can start actually researching it. Likewise, you should also research the market. Who are your ideal customers? Who are your competitors? How big is the demand for your products or services? What kind of marketing have your competitors used before and to what success?

#2 Define Your Brand Identity

The next thing you should do is define your brand identity. Your brand identity or image will determine how your business will be perceived by your target audience. Furthermore, your brand identity can influence how successful your marketing efforts are because certain traits of your brand image will appeal to your target audience more than others.

For example, brands that want to appear professional and exclusive (e.g. Apple) will often use sleek, modern designs. Such brands prefer black, white, or cool tones such as dark blue. Their marketing presents their products as luxury items or products specifically designed for high-profile professionals in the business.

On the other hand, there are brands that want to appeal to a wide audience that mainly consists of younger people. They might want to display a playful, casual tone through their marketing campaigns and social media activities. Their brand image also reflects this (e.g. their logo design uses bright colors and a cartoon-style mascot).

Your brand identity should be based on your target audience and your products or services. Decide what your brand name will be (and select your website domain and social media handles). Then, design your logo and choose your color theme, slogan, etc. Keep in mind that your website design and product design should both be in line with your brand identity.

It’s a good idea to have a set of guidelines for your branding. You can hire a professional writer from the writing services reviews to site Best Writers Online to help you create these. In your guidelines, think about all the details listed above as well as the brand tone you want to have (e.g. casual, sarcastic, playful, professional, friendly, etc.)

#3 Choose Your Marketing Methods

When you know who your audience is and what your brand identity will be like, it will be much easier for you to choose the marketing methods you will be using in your campaigns. There are many types of marketing available to you as well as numerous marketing channels to choose from for executing your campaigns. Here are some things to consider when choosing your marketing methods:

• Target Audience: Who is your target audience? Which platforms does your audience use (e.g. Instagram, email, blogs)? To which marketing tactics does your audience respond to the best? What are your audience’s personal preferences?
• Competitors and Market: Who are your competitors? Which marketing techniques and channels have they used before? How effective were they? What is the current situation on the market like?
• Brand Identity: What is your brand identity like? Which marketing techniques and channels would work the best for your brand identity?
• Available Resources: What are the resources available to you? What is your budget? Do you have a marketing team? What has been your past experience with marketing?
• Personal Preferences: What do you personally prefer in terms of marketing? Are you willing to take risks? Do you want to play it safe?

#4 Set Your Goals and Priorities

Speaking of your personal preferences, this is the time when you need to set your goals and priorities for your marketing activities. You already know which types of marketing you will be using (e.g. PPC ads, social media marketing, emailing, etc.), so you will now need to consider which goals you want to pursue with your campaigns.

Keep in mind that your campaigns can (and should) use multiple marketing channels at once to achieve the best results. That being said, you can still prioritize certain types of marketing or marketing channels (e.g. social media marketing over PPC ad campaigns).

When setting your goals and priorities, it is crucial to be realistic. Unless you are realistic, you will constantly be disappointed by your marketing efforts. The best thing you can do is use the SMART approach to setting goals and priorities:

• Specific: Your goals are specific. Nothing is vague or unclear.
• Measurable: Your goals can be measured (e.g. number of followers).
• Achievable: Your goals can be achieved because they are realistic.
• Relevant: Your goals are relevant to your marketing and business strategy.
• Time-Bound: Your goals have a timeline and deadlines to meet.

One example of setting a goal using the SMART approach is the number of users you want to have on your mailing list by a specific date. If you aren’t sure that you can set goals by using the SMART approach, you can always get in touch with professionals. Hire an experienced writer from the custom writing reviews site writing judge who will help you with the planning. This way, you will be certain that your marketing goals are appropriate.

#5 Assess Your Resources and Budget

While this is a separate step, it is actually best to follow it at the same time as the previous one. Budgeting and resource management is directly related to setting goals and priorities. This is exactly why it’s best to plan these things at the same time and avoid potential inconsistencies in your marketing strategy.

Assessing your resources and budget in a realistic way is one of the most important things for your marketing strategy to succeed. Why? Because you can’t jump over your own head. As a new business owner, you likely don’t have many resources or a big budget to spend on your marketing. This is why you need to be mindful of what you can and cannot do.

Luckily, many types of digital marketing will cost you nothing if you perform them yourself. Of course, you will need to learn how to use these marketing techniques and spend time doing the marketing itself. Yet, this is still the best way to market your startup if you don’t have many resources or a big budget.

When allocating your resources and deciding what to spend your marketing budget on, keep in mind your goals and priorities. For instance, if you are prioritizing social media marketing over PPC ads, then you should probably spend more on the former.

#6 Act, Monitor, and Improve

Last but not least, execute your marketing plans and start tracking the performance of your activities. Based on what you see (e.g. goals achieved or not, resources sufficient or not), you can make adjustments to your current marketing strategy to launch more successful and efficient campaigns in the future.

Monitoring and assessing the results of your marketing activities will help you understand how to market in the future. It will also help you avoid the mistakes you made with your current campaigns so that future ones can run smoothly.

Moreover, if you see that a specific marketing technique isn’t working as effectively as you expected it to, perhaps you will want to prioritize a different marketing method. For example, if your email marketing isn’t very successful while your PPC ad campaigns are, then you can shift your focus to the latter in the future.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, even as a foreigner, you can successfully market your startup. Use the tips in this article to help you get started with marketing and launch your first campaign to promote your new business.

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How you can apply for startup loans?

Along with other things in life, proper preparation is extremely necessary if you want to apply for a loan, especially if you want to start a business. Here are some of the steps that you need to keep in mind when applying for a loan.

Make sure that you are making a detailed plan regarding your business, focusing on the products or services that you want to serve.

• Do not forget to demonstrate the relevant industry as well as management experience.
• Make sure to keep your personal finances as well as credit in order.
• Make up your mind since you have to offer collateral to the bank or other financial institution from where you will take the loan.
• Prepare a detail regarding the loan and its purpose.
• Do not forget to detail your business so that you can get the proper licensing.
• Opt for a bank or lender with whom you have a good relationship.

Create a business plan

This is undoubtedly one of the significant processes which will act as the foundation for your loan application. Therefore, when you will make a business plan, do not forget to include certain elements like an executive summary, company overview, market as well as competitive analysis, details of the financial forecast, etc.

With a proper business plan, your lender won’t take much time to give a green signal for your application and within no time you will get the necessary fund amount. For help with the writing as well as plan refining, you can take the help of local chapters of various business associations. Besides, you might also need the help of the CPA for determining the business structure for renewing the financial forecasts.

Do not forget to show industry experience

When it comes to your business plans, it is better to opt for a detailed explanation regarding your management experience since it plays a vital role in getting a startup loan. The lender should feel that you are capable enough to start and take your business to a whole new level. To make things more prominent, make sure to prepare the resumes for your new business. In fact, you can take references from your colleagues as well as other community members, who are experienced enough to talk about your relevant experience.

Keep your credits and personal finances in one place

Since you do not have a business, the bank or other lenders will ask for your personal credit report. Therefore, it is your responsibility to check the report and if you find any problems, then it is better to take care of it. Even a small mistake will eventually ruin your dreams since you will not get the funding.

Moreover, banks always look forward to borrowers who are having good credit scores and a proper loan account. On top of that, if you have a good credit history record, then you will easily get the funding amount. Overall, the credit report plays a vital role to determine whether you will qualify for the financing.

Make up your mind to provide collateral or a down payment

It is yet another one of the essential factors that you need to keep in mind if you need funding for your collateral. You either have to make a personal guarantee or opt for a down payment. Since you don’t have a business asset for pledging, the lenders will ask for your personal assets like your home, savings, or your vehicle.

Therefore, while repaying the amount back, your collateral will work as the refunding amount. Besides, these pledges will be combined with a 10% cash down payment for the loan. Let us not ignore the fact that startup businesses are quite risky. Due to this reason, the banks and other lenders want to make sure that you have the capability of giving back the loan amount even if your business fails to take off.

Provide the detail against which you will take the loan

Entrepreneurs these days make the common mistake of not estimating the exact amount they need to begin their business. To avoid such a situation, it is better to make a proper list of the things that you will need so that your business can take off. One thing that you need to keep in mind is trying to be as specific as possible.

For example, you have to purchase inventory. So, you have to be particular regarding the inventory; that you want to buy, the number of units, its type, etc. If you want, you can include the exact price per unit while making the estimate. While applying for the loan, do not forget to share the list since it will make the loan application process quick and hassle-free.

Do not forget to register your business

Getting business registration, permits, as well as licenses before you are asking any lender for a loan, is yet another of the essential thing that you need to keep in mind. You have to verify everything from the state government. The best part is you can fill out these applications online. If you fail to do this, you won’t get approval for your loan.

Select a lender whom you know well

Nothing beats the power of an existing relationship while you are applying for a startup loan. If you know the lender, you won’t have to worry about getting your loan approved. First things first, make sure you are asking the banks first, then the credit union. Even if you do not get a loan from the banks, you can take the help of other lenders with whom you have a mutual connection.

Hence, these are some of the ways by which you can get a loan for your startup business if you are planning to begin your business.

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The popularity of WordPress & WooCommerce is very huge on the global level. There are more than a million websites that are powered by WordPress & WooCommerce technology. Business owners can Hire WooCommerce Developers easily to craft & launch their online store with top-notch features & appearance. So this piece of content will deliver you the best details about WooCommerce and how it will be the best tool for your eCommerce business success.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a free plugin of WordPress that easily integrates with the WordPress website and adds the eCommerce functionality. WooCommerce was launched in the year 2011 and soon became hugely popular. The integration of WooCommerce will allow trading the varieties of products like physical goods, digital goods, affiliate transactions, and ongoing memberships.

Reasons Why WooCommerce Is Best For eCommerce Startups

WooCommerce Is Pocket & Design Friendly

When you are a startup then, pricing plays a crucial role in the establishment of the business. There are various other platforms available in the market like Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce, etc but they are quite expensive than WooCommerce. You can craft and launch your online store with the reliable technology of WooCommerce within your budget. Even when you hire a professional it will be cost-effective as compared to the other technology stake of eCommerce solutions.

The online store looks & feel influences the online visitors to purchase from your website. The online store with unaligned or cluttered looks can increase the bounce rate which will reduce the revenue and brand value. With the advanced themes of WooCommerce, you can provide storefront look customization for the stunning feels which create an enticing storefront that converts online visitors into paying customers.

WooCommerce provides free themes which can be customized as per the requirement of all business niches. The storefront can also be optimized by the CSS & color theme to deliver the desired looks similar to the brand theme.

Easy Installation, Setup & Integration

WooCommerce is designed to launch the online store as quickly as possible. With the simple installation process & setup wizard, you can start running your eCommerce store in your WordPress theme.

The WooCommerce plugin can be installed similarly to the other plugin, WordPress. After the installation, the setup wizard configures the plugin to initiate the functionality of the plugin. Since WooCommerce is a part of WordPress it integrates with the themes and easily provides a stunning eCommerce website in a few spans of time.

The integration functionality also allows the business owners to add social media tools that boost the marketing activities of the startups. Social media helps to build the brands more valuable for the target audience. 

Advance Built-in Features & Plugin

When it comes to flexibility, the majority of the developers & professionals will show their trust in WooCommerce. With the basic plugins, you can also add the premium WooCommerce plugins which will add more features and values to your online business so it can grow from its full potential.

• Using WooCommerce, the stripe & PayPal payment option can be added. It also allows adding the payment options with credit/debit card, Net banking or cash on delivery. If you have another payment system, you can also add that to make online shopping hassle-free.
• Advanced built-in features of the multiple currencies & geolocation support. This feature allows the detection of the location of the shoppers and adds the essential required shipping taxes. WooCommerce has a set of built-in currencies options that one can easily configure to make the default currency in the specific demographics.
• The WooCommerce built-in features allow you to optimize the loading speed of the website. The customers did not have to wait too long or refresh while adding the products to the cart. WooCommerce uses AJAX to boost speed.

Full Data Control & Easier Tax Management

WooCommerce does not allow you to lose any business or customer data, it gives full control to you. With the integration of the third-party application, there is a high chance of losing the data, while WooCommerce saves all data regarding the customer’s history, product sale performance which enables it to optimize the eCommerce business.

Running an online store means following all legal compliance of taxes. WooCommerce simplifies and makes taxes easier. It provides the facilities to add the custom tax rates, major tax rate calculation, and other geo-location taxes. You can also define the tax rates associated with the shipping cost & estimation.

SEO Friendly eCommerce Platform

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps to drive more traffic on the website and convert them into paying customers. If your online store doesn’t follow all compliance of SEO then it will not get rank on the search engine result. The WooCommerce added in WordPress makes the SEO process much easier. The few tips which can make SEO easy are:-

• Optimization of a product’s page title & meta description.
• Adds the breadcrumbs for the search engine & online visitors.
• Optimization of the product pages with the alt-tag function.
• Avoids the same content for the multiple pages
• Use the SEO Yoast plugin to improve & optimize the SEO performance.

Easy Inventory Management

The online owners have to keep a constant watch on the stocks of the available products. There are various businesses that spend massively to track & identify their online store inventories. Meanwhile, with WooCommerce you can track your inventory very easily and save a huge amount of startups. The WooCommerce inventory management allows you to get the notification of the out-of-stock products and also hides the out-of-stock products from the storefronts. The inventory management of WooCommerce also manages the refunds orders, cancel orders to help you to manage the online store efficiently.

Powerful Analytics With Vast Room Of Customization & Improvements

Analytics is a powerful handy tool that provides the overall performance of the online store. Currently, there is various free & premium analytics software that is used for tracking, but their complex visuals are hard for small business owners & startups to understand the metrics.
WooCommerce provides clean, minimal & initiative data which can be easily understood by small business owners & startups. It helps the owners to identify which product is getting sold & which one has needed optimization.

The eCommerce business required constant improvements to provide the best buying customer experience. The features & functionalities constantly evolve as per the business & customers’ demands. The implementation of WooCommerce in the eCommerce business allows you to implement the various exercises and other steps for the business expansion. WooCommerce also provides the various APIs ready which can be used to build the various plugins, tools & other business software.

Conclusion

The above elaborated and discussed points are the best reasons to launch your eCommerce startups with the WooCommerce platform or why you should proceed with the WooCommerce solution. It provides full control to the admin to modify the products descriptions to other essential information for the online buyers. The entrepreneurs can expect continuous improvements in the overall technology of WordPress. It enables optimizing the performance & other bug issues without the knowledge of heavy technical coding.

In terms of stability & reliability, WooCommerce is the best choice. Small businesses, startups & big enterprises can effectively adopt WooCommerce to set up their online stores. WordPress & WooCommerce are both open source platforms and have a wide community of developers. Its customer support can be easily accessed whenever problems arise from launching to running the online stores. The professional WooCommerce developers can add more innovative functionalities to the online stores which provide a better experience to the online buyers.

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Still, have you ever measured the success of your customer acquisition campaigns? For starters, you need to calculate your Cost per Acquisition (CPA). This metric tells you how much money you spend to aggregate one paying customer. 

If your CPA is high, don’t worry. You can reduce it using the following tactics.

Track your Customer Acquisition Costs

There is a simple formula to use when calculating your CPA: dividing the total cost of marketing by the total number of customers. For example, if you spend $1500 on your marketing tools and strategy and you acquire 50 new customers, your acquisition cost will be $30. In other words, this means you are spending $30 on each customer you acquire.

To understand your customer acquisition cost, you also need to measure:  

• The average purchase value tells you how much your customers spend on average when buying from you. It is calculated by dividing your total revenue by the number of orders.
• The average customer’s lifespan indicates customer loyalty. It is measured by dividing the sum of each customer’s lifespan by the number of customers.
• Customer lifetime value tells you how much money each customer spends on your business during their lifetime. You can calculate it by multiplying customer value by their average lifespan.

Keep your Content Targeted and Relevant

Always keep in mind that the one-size-fits-all approach to sales and marketing doesn’t cut it anymore. Your customers expect your content and offer to be highly targeted and relevant. And, this is an immensely important thing to know for young companies wanting to minimize their cost per acquisition.

Namely, the longer it takes to turn a lead into a customer, the greater your customer acquisition cost will be. Above all, you risk attracting low-quality leads that won’t convert into paying customers or even brand advocates.

The key to attracting the right leads and converting them lies in building detailed buyer personas. Start by collecting customer data through website analytics, online surveys, polls, quizzes, chatbots, and social listening. Then, use their demographic data (geolocation, age, marital status, profession, salary, education) and psychographic data (their hobbies, interests, problems, frustrations) to segment your audiences into smaller groups and develop personas.

Segment your newsletter audiences.

Sending a single, uniform email doesn’t work for online users. To grab their attention in their overcrowded inboxes and get them to click on your subject line, you need to offer something valuable to them. Focus on addressing their needs and preferences. There are many ways to segment your email newsletter lists, such as by their geolocation, previous purchases, browsing habits, interests, activity/inactivity, etc. By investing in a reliable email service provider like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or AWeber, you will do so easily.

Target relevant keywords.

Your target audiences dictate many aspects of your SEO strategy, from choosing link-building prospects to your UX elements. However, they play a particularly important role in your keyword research process. You should always optimize your pages for relevant keywords that will support your prospective customers at each step of their journey.

For starters, you need to focus on search intent. For example, if someone is visiting your website for the first time, they will want to learn more about you by reading your blog posts and news. On the other hand, people at the bottom of the sales funnel already know what they want to buy from you. To convince them to do so, you should provide them with targeted incentives, case studies, customer testimonials, discounts, etc.

The idea is to optimize your website for the right keywords, based on the user’s intent. Apart from optimizing for exact-match keywords, you should also use conversational and long-tail keywords to stay competitive. To learn what your audiences are really searching for, you could also use People Also Ask or Google Suggestions.

Educate customers through diverse content.

Content marketing is the backbone of brand-customer relationships. Diversify your content to make it relevant to different audience segments. For example, you could create powerful company newsletters to deepen customer relationships. Comprehensive guides and how-to articles to offer actionable tips. Customer testimonials, case studies, and demo videos will gain their trust. Provide self-service options, like a detailed knowledge base or a FAQ page that will solve their problems quickly.

Build a Sold CRO Strategy

When attracting customers, you cannot expect them to convert overnight. You need to have a solid, well-defined CRO strategy to convert your prospective leads into paying customers.

Prove your website is safe

This is particularly important to companies that require users to provide their sensitive information. With the rise of cybersecurity threats, customers are concerned about the security of their data. According to some recent stats, 17% of shopping car abandonment rates are caused by security concerns. Therefore, before purchasing from you, they will want to know that they are buying from a trustworthy store. For starters, invest in SSL certificates and add trust badges to your website.

Show social proof

Many customers rely on online reviews when making purchasing decisions. Precisely because of that, social proof is a fundamental part of your CRO strategy. Here is how to use it:

• Enable customer reviews and ratings on your website. 
• Leverage social proof software. Use a CRO tool to provide your website’s visits, leads generated, and conversions in real time. Third, encourage customer testimonials and display them on your website. Finally, create detailed case studies that show your previous customers’ problems and explain how you solved them.

Make your site easily navigable

Complicated website architecture frustrates customers and prevents them from converting. To prevent that, you need to optimize your website navigation. Start with your navigation menu. Reduce the number of categories and subcategories – include the most relevant ones. The categories should be logical and informative, helping customers find the right content faster. For those customers who already know what they are searching for, you should also offer search and filtering functionalities.

Turn Customers into Brand Advocates

In today’s highly competitive digital marketing landscape, acquiring a customer is only half the battle. The other half is increasing their brand loyalty and turning them into a raving fan base. Even though retaining customers and building a growing community of brand advocates takes lots of time and effort, the results are amazing. You will get tons of positive word-of-mouth marketing, boost sales, and help you regain your acquisition costs faster.

Now, there are many ways to nurture your leads and sales into loyal customers.

Show you care about their opinions

Listen to your customers on social networks and monitor your brand and product mentions to understand what they feel about you. You could also create customer satisfaction surveys on your website, social accounts, or email. Use their feedback to improve your customer support, marketing, and products and, in this way, increase their satisfaction.

Build a customer loyalty program

A customer loyalty program rewards customers who are continuously buying from you. The more they buy from you, the more they are incentivized. This practice keeps your shoppers satisfied, as it shows them that you value their loyalty. There are different types of loyalty programs, such as point programs, tiered programs, and value-based programs, and you should always choose ones that resonate with your target audience.

Have a social responsibility strategy

Your startup is more than just a product. Customers would always choose to buy from companies that share their values and missions. Precisely because of that, you should inject your core values into a corporate social responsibility program. Give back to the community. Make your products more eco-friendly. Those are just some of the numerous ways to build trust with your audiences and inspire them to stay loyal to your brand.

Conclusions

Attracting new customers and yet, reducing acquisition costs is any startup’s priority. To do so, you first need to measure your CPA and know how much you spend to acquire a new customer. Based on this data, you will formulate your customer acquisition and conversion rate optimization strategy. Those are just some of the numerous tactics that may serve as your solid starting point.

The post Best Ways to Optimize Cost per Acquisition in the Startup Environment appeared first on Tricky Enough.

What is the point of starting a new company if you do not know how to reach the right customers? This is where Search Engine Optimization comes in to save your business from failure. While Google takes the lion’s share with 79% search traffic, Bing and Yahoo stand at 7.27% and 5.06%, respectively. Both the bishop and the knight to the chessboard of business, SEO can not only usher in early success for your business but also help you duck the potential risks. Wondering how? Read on for more. 

7 Ways Seo Can Work Magic For Your Startup Business

Here are seven reasons why you need to capitalize on SEO for your Startup:

1. To get your hands on Customer Behavior Data

The more you understand your target audience, the better it is for your startup to make fruitful conversions. When you begin a business, you may feel at sea because you do not have much idea about the audience you are catering to. SEO gives you a heads-up here and relays an idea on what course to take. SEO digs up essential data about your potential customers and give you insights into what they are searching for. This way, you learn to veer your business according to the needs of your customers. You can trace the words that your target customer audience uses to do searches and optimize your website accordingly. 

Here is a list of some of the best SEO tools that you can use to get a higher rank in Google. Most of them come with trial versions so you can check out and settle with the best option for your company.

2. To fetch Higher Traffic and More Conversions

Right from choosing the apt keyword strategy to ensuring high-quality content on your website, SEO encompasses it all and can drive in a reasonable amount of organic traffic. Remember one thing: The more digital footfall on your website, the better are your opportunities to make more conversions. And it is only the right kind of SEO efforts that can bring in more traffic, thus yielding more conversions, leading to a better turnover. What I recommend is that you build an SEO plan and focus on optimizing your website instead of spending your limited resources on other marketing strategies. Moreover, organic traffic that comes through search engine queries like Google has the power to convert leads four times more than any other type of traffic.

3. To secure your business at zero cost

I know how hectic building a startup is, especially financially. There are setup and installation costs to eat up a significant portion of your capital funds. On top of that, marketing can be a costly affair too. But not all marketing efforts come with high costs. Like, SEO. Although it is mostly free, the results yielded by SEO are far better than any other marketing strategy. Even with some of the best tools, like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, SEO can be a low investment tactic when done right. Apart from the above analytical tools, several other SEO tools offer free trial versions, so you do not have to worry about your pockets.

The ‘gratis’ factor of SEO also comes with another benefit. Since you do not have to spend a lot on the tools, you can spend the money on an SEO firm where you will get the guidance of professional analysts. 

4. To make informed and better business decisions

Once you figure out who your target audience is and what their preferences are, you get a better understanding of how to convert them. But the use of the data that SEO practices mine for you does not end here. SEO findings make long-term contributions to your company’s growth. You can vertically integrate the data to create specific click-funnels for all users that fall under the category. You can also apply the data you have gathered on customer behavior to form an overall business strategy for your startup. SEO data can also help you shape business decisions better, thus leading to a successful launch and steady growth stages. Suppose, if one keyword does well, you can tailor other long-tail keywords based on the more-used search query to drive other traffic for more conversions.

5. To build better brand value and strengthen consumer trust

If you want your startup to find its ground in the rat-race of business, you need to establish a brand image. This is where SEO comes in to provide you with a higher ranking. It, in turn, adds on to your brand’s authority in its niche. When you rank higher, your potential customers begin to trust your brand. A highly rated, clean, and accessible website with SEO-centric content will build better goodwill. From there, you can work towards building credibility, which is necessary for a new brand. 

“As an online assignment help company, our business depends mostly on goodwill and word-of-mouth recommendations. SEO is our only choice to create organic traffic for a better ranking, thus building intrinsic brand value”, says Emilia Eckhart, the branding head of AllEssayWriter.com. 

6. To build a long term audience

While you may get attracted to PPC campaigns for its fast-churning results, showing patience on your SEO tactics can be beneficial in the long run. Paid advertisements will not only cost you a high price, but the results are short term too. Unlike advertisements that tank the moment, SEO will help you build an audience over time and retain them. When you optimize your content according to the needs of the search engines, you reach better ranks with Google rewarding you for providing quality information. 

However, SEO is dynamic, and you need to keep up with the ever-changing algorithms. You, therefore, need to stay up to date on the current SEO marketing trends.

7. To yield digital prominence for your startup

Building a digital presence is crucial for any company, especially when you are taking baby steps into the competitive world of business. The best way to gain this digital awareness is through organic traction via SEO tactics. Moreover, when you optimize your website for the search engines, you offer better user experience to your audience via quality website content, optimal keyword usage, and image optimization. This, in turn, converts your leads into final consumers. If you think it through, you earn more at the cost of almost nothing, since SEO is the most affordable way to build trust and a loyal customer base.

If you dig into website analytics for your site, you will realize that maximum conversions come from organic traffic. So you understand how essential it is for your company’s revenues to focus on such traffic. Especially for entrepreneurs who want to minimize their investments, SEO is the best way to get easy access to data to form better decisions and build the brand value for your company.

To ensure success for your new business establishment, do not forget to add SEO to your business strategy. Here’s to the hope that your startup sees new heights. All the best!

The post 7 Reasons Why SEO Matters for Every Startup appeared first on Tricky Enough.

An astute entrepreneur can anticipate events before they occur and be prepared for them. Above all, such a person shows a willingness to learn from others’ experiences. Before you enter any industry, it is essential to research your options and understand the environment. Here are some ways for you to ensure your startup doesn’t fail. 

1. Do something you love

Running a budding business is not a piece of cake as it requires stellar stamina and intense dedication. Otherwise, how would you work for more than forty hours a week? If the startup aligns with your passion, you will be able to gift your venture the love and effort it requires to bloom. Therefore, it is your best bet to enter a business that holds your interest.

For example, if you own an online leather store or you sell beauty products through your website, you need to update yourself on the latest fashion trends and the current celebrities that carry such products in style. So if you are interested and informed in your business domain, then there is no one stopping you from reaching new heights of success.

If you have no interest in the sole purpose of the firm, you will find yourself wanting to bail. How will you find the motivation to keep on striving? When you are passionate about something, and you believe in the concept, you won’t want to quit. Your startup deserves dedication and love if it is a genuine source of passion for you.

2. Create a blueprint

Your startup needs to have a realistic roadmap toward the future. This roadmap will be your business plan. Every entrepreneur desires to see their venture performing with excellence. However, without schedules or deadlines, things keep on getting delayed. When building your plan, set goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound).

When you have a blueprint for the future, you will have a better sense of focus and direction. Knowing where your startup should be in a year will help you understand what you need to do today. Consider investing extra time in creating a great business plan, since it will be viewed as the blueprint for the business’s continuous growth and improvement, as well as the basis for applying for a small business loan, such as the ones provided by Kapitus, perfect for when you choose to expand your business.

3. Build a brand

The brand is the face of the firm, which directly influences consumer behaviour. When you are running a startup, you need to have a unique presence in the industry. Why would a customer choose you over the various alternatives available? You need to name your startup effectively and provide visibility to the value proposition. You may even need to use SEO to brand your business.

You may be offering the best product, but you won’t generate return sales if the customer doesn’t recognize you. Strong branding will create a loyal customer base who act as evangelists for your firm. Not only do loyal customers bring revenue, but they also spread positive word-of-mouth. There are no compromises when it comes to branding.

4. Be flexible

Sometimes following every single detail of the business plan is not a good idea. Large firms have failed because they were unable to react quickly and effectively in the face of disruptions. Take the example of Nokia, which refused to invest in the smartphone business when it mattered the most. They did not exhibit the flexibility that was required for them to grow in the future.

Entrepreneurs must be able to take the right action quickly when a surprise hits them. Large firms are too risk-averse to react instantly to surprises. Whatever you do as an entrepreneur, don’t become rigid with your plan. It isn’t worth it. While having a plan will help you focus, being adaptable will help your startup grow. 

5. Leverage your network

Imagine trying to figure out how you can build a website for your startup without having any technical know-how. Maybe you’ll outsource your work. The web design firm will assess your understanding of websites and work accordingly. You might fail to point out some vital requirements of the site because you lack the technical skills.

However, you can leverage your network to solve this issue. For instance, if you have a friend who has experience with building websites, he can guide you. You’ll know what to look out for due to his guidance.

When you launch a startup, you have limited means to achieve a given end. However, the mix of people and firms in your network can prove very valuable if you use them properly. Therefore, having brilliant soft skills is a huge advantage as an entrepreneur. If you can communicate effectively and be persuasive, you will benefit the most from your network.

6. Continue learning

You will find several opportunities to learn something new about the nature of your business, consumers, or suppliers over time. Sometimes you will receive feedback and criticism that can help you improve your processes. You could even end up generating more revenue. Always keep your eyes and ears open for information that can help you progress.

If one of your decisions led to an adverse consequence, gather the key learnings, and move ahead. Over time you will keep on learning better ways to run your company. Never assume you have complete knowledge. Always keep a growth mindset that searches for positive experiences passionately.

7. Engage in meaningful marketing

Since microenterprises and small businesses have limited resources, they cannot spend abundantly on marketing. Initially, when you start a business, you need to build credibility. One excellent way of doing that is running a blog that shows the consumer that you care about them.

As an entrepreneur, you need to understand and engage the audience. Customers want to see the human element of your startup. Tell them your story and keep them connected to you by strengthening the bond. A startup may not have a huge marketing budget, but it must have an authentic storyline that touches the audience’s heart.

8. Be customer-centric

Always remember that a startup should serve the customers’ needs, not the entrepreneur’s vanity. You are passionate about your venture, but you can still fail if you forget to satisfy your customers. You need to become customer-centric and make decisions in light of their needs. Observing sales, analyzing data, and picking up on trends are necessary to please them.

You could also consider building an online community that revolves around your customer base. This community will provide you with an opportunity to engage with and observe your target audience. Ideally, the entire customer experience should be such that your customers are excited when they think about your product. Try to understand your audience and respond to their feedback. 

9. Be resilient

The keywords are perseverance and grit. No startup can survive its first few crucial years without resilience. Things will get tough. There will be significant obstacles in the way, but despite that, the work must go on. Having effectual reasoning and being persistent with an idea is necessary to create a success story.

The USA is home to more than 30 million companies that hire about 58 million employees. Refuse to quit and keep on striving to keep your business on that list. Your efforts will pay off, and you will be able to run a meaningful and robust business. 

Final Thoughts

To run a startup successfully, an entrepreneur must be willing to learn, refuse to quit, and persist against all the odds. Many startups fail because of a lack of focus and planning. Paying attention to the consumer and fulfilling their needs is necessary. 

Moreover, tactful marketing is also essential as it ensures the customers have awareness of the brand. If a firm builds a loyal fan following, it may act as a brand evangelist and bring more revenue.

The post Tips to Make Sure Your Startup Doesn’t Fail appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Every month, 540,000 people in the US start their new business to realize their dream of being their own boss or to pursue their passion. According to the US Small Business Administration, there are 28.8 million small businesses that account for 99.7 percent of US businesses. While 240,000 start-ups were established in 2016, 215,000 businesses exited in the same period. A Forbes article states that 90 percent of startups fail, and a Statistic Brain study shows the failure rate for US startups was 50 percent after five years, and more than 70 percent after ten years.

While there are many factors that determine the success or failure of startups, one of the most important factors relates to professional liability insurance.

If you are considering starting your own business that focuses on providing services or advice to customers, it is important to get insights into some of the most common mistakes new business owners make while protecting your financial health with the right professional liability insurance.

1. Not having a business Plan

While brilliant ideas and the excitement of starting a new venture are good starting points, they are not enough to ensure business success. Putting the plan on paper is the critical first step that many startups miss out on. Developing a detailed business plan enables you to preview all angles of the business idea, including value proposition, financial planning, marketing assumptions, market analysis, customer profiles, and growth plan.

A past study of 11046 companies showed a business plan improved business performance while another study found that startups with a business plan grew 30 percent faster as compared to those that did not have a plan in place.

While building a business plan, it is important to focus on the quality rather than on the volume or number of pages.

Research indicates entrepreneurs who began the process of business planning early were more likely to succeed.

2. Ignoring market research

In an analysis of 101 startup exits, 42 percent named lack of market need for the product or service as one of the key reasons for failure. Comprehensive market research is a crucial aspect that cannot be ignored before starting the business. Venturing into the business without understanding if there is a market for your offering is a colossal waste of time and energy. Misinterpreting the market in terms of the target demographic, overestimating or underestimating costs, launching too late or too early and targeting the wrong market are some of the costly mistakes startups can make.

While there are professional market research agencies, some of the questions that you can start with to understand the market are:

• Is there a real need for your product or service?
• What real-world problems of your target audience does your product or service solve?
• Who are the primary competitors, and how well are they doing?
• Where are the key prospects for your product or service?
• What are the price points for similar service or products in the market?

3. Putting the product or service above the customer

A great business idea by itself may not be enough to ensure the success of a startup. It is equally important that your business idea appeals to your target customers. The story of Los Angeles-based ‘Shoes of Prey’ is a case in point. Michael Fox, the co-founder of the shoe retailer that offered customized footwear, cited lack of demand as the reason for the failure of the business. The founders learned ‘the hard way’ that while there was a niche segment of people who liked the customization idea, the mass market only wanted to be shown what trends to follow and what to wear.

To ensure the success of a new business, it is essential to understand the target audience as thoroughly as your market. A product that is not user-friendly or one that has pricing issues is doomed for failure in the market. User-unfriendly product is fourth among the top twenty startup failure reasons. Discounting your customers’ desires can fast-track failure. Investing in getting insights into what your customers are looking for will enable you to tailor your offering to match their needs.

4. Not securing enough funding

San Francisco-based ‘Anki,’ a robot maker, closed down after its funding dried up while ‘Wow Air,’ an Iceland-based airline, ceased operations abruptly after they failed to secure new funds.

A recent survey that had 600 participants found that one-third of startups have less than $5,000 as initial capital, while 58 percent had less than $25,000. Close to 65 percent of participants admitted that they were not confident of having enough funding for the business. An alarming 82 percent of businesses fail because of cash flow issues as per a US-based bank study.

Funding is a key factor that can determine the failure or success of a startup and is one of the top three reasons for startup failure. The business plan needs to include the details on the volume of funding required in terms of initial investment and operating capital and the possible sources of funding. A major mistake many entrepreneurs make is to underestimate the amount of money required to fund initial costs and to run the business for the first two to three years. 

Consulting a financial adviser is the first step to understand the different sources of funding that are available, including personal investment, money loaned by friends or family, crowdfunding, venture capital, equity financing, government grants or bank loans. Traditional business lenders may require loan applicants to have been running the business for six months to qualify for the loan. Some startups have had to close, as they found it difficult to raise enough capital to match the increasing manufacturing costs. Professional financial consultants can also help you understand how to plan for inflation and unexpected costs.

5. Not having a marketing strategy

One of the key mistakes new business owners make is to overlook the critical importance of marketing and branding. Successful entrepreneurs believe 90 percent of a startup is about marketing. The primary goal of a startup is to scale up the market and find more customers for the service or product. Strong branding and marketing help the startup establish brand identity and are integral to business development.

The marketing plan should include details of the objectives, product or service definition, customer profile, competitors’ analysis, and the action plan that incorporates pricing, marketing budgets, resources, metrics, and tracking. In terms of setting a budget, experts recommend setting aside 3 to 5 percent of the sales revenue for marketing. A report that analyzed marketing trends from a research company shows that marketing budget on an average was 11.1 percent of a firm’s total budget in 2018. What percentage of marketing budget you allot will depend on the nature of your business, your business goals, competitor analysis, and on your target customers.

Strategies for both offline and online marketing need to be developed. While 87 percent of purchasing processes start with an online search, the top three digital marketing tools are the website, email marketing, and social media. Given the power and reach of social media, it is not surprising that 96 percent of small business owners have a social media marketing strategy.

5. Not having a mentor

One of the most overlooked factors is that of having a business mentor. It is well-known that some of the most successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs had mentors. While Steve Jobs mentored Zuckerberg, Jobs himself was mentored by Apple executive Mike Markkula. Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page were mentored by Eric Schmidt.

While not every entrepreneur has a world-renowned business mentor, the concept has been shown to be an important element of business success. A non-profit organization conducted an analysis that showed that the chances of success of founders who have top-performing entrepreneur as a mentor were three times higher.

A Kabbage survey of 200 or more small business owners in the US highlighted the importance of business mentors. The survey found that 92 percent of entrepreneurs believe mentors have a positive impact on their business growth. A previous report revealed that 84 percent of small businesses achieve profitability in the first four years, and having a mentor in the early stages of a business is crucial for success.

Mentors have rich experience in the field, which can be valuable for the new business owner. Apart from experience, mentors help provide networking opportunities while boosting the emotional intelligence quotient of the entrepreneur. Research shows mentors help boost self-confidence and motivation levels of the new business owner, which are crucial to startup success.

6. Not having professional liability insurance

Business owners have to deal with a host of decisions every day. When it comes to deciding on the right course of action, there are equal chances of making both bad and good decisions. From the moment you plan on starting a business, and while running the business’s day-to-day operations, it’s crucial to know what kind of mistakes have occurred in the particular field. While no entrepreneur starts with the intention of making a professional mistake, they do tend to happen. As per the Court Statistics Project, a contract dispute has a median legal cost of $91,000. Many times, legal defense of frivolous claims from clients can be anywhere up to $5000.

Also called the E & O (Errors and Omissions) insurance, professional liability insurance provides financial protection for lawsuits for a range of alleged or actual claims related to negligence, delays, budget overestimation, miscalculation, data entry errors, technical errors, data breach, project mismanagement, and malpractice. In the increasingly litigious culture, professional liability insurance is the most crucial risk management tool that protects your financial health in the face of a claim.

In conclusion, while it is true that mistakes cannot be avoided at all times, knowing some of the common pitfalls can help business owners get a head start. The key elements of business success are planning, organization, focus, confidence, and flexibility. As important as it is to build a detailed business plan, it is equally important to pay attention to hiring and retaining the right talent, delegating, and focusing on customer service excellence.

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