What are the key drip campaign best practices? To help you best conduct your drip campaigns effectively, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best advice.

From segmenting your target audience to sending emails that add value to the recipient, there are several pieces of advice that should serve as your best practices for conducting successful drip campaigns that bring in more leads.

Drip campaign best practices

Here are 14 drip campaign best practices these leaders follow to increase leads:

1. Segment your target audience
2. Personalize your message and include a clear call to action (CTA)
3. Make use of the yes ladder
4. Send birthday and anniversary emails
5. Keep drip emails short and to the point
6. Test different lengths of time for each message
7. Use an appropriate drip software according to your needs
8. Resend emails to non-openers with a new subject line
9. Determine triggers accurately
10. Stay consistent
11. Time your emails right and make them engaging
12. Know your audience and speak to their experience
13. Write each email short and concise with a clear message
14. Send emails that add value to the recipient

Segment your target audience

You want to personalize your email marketing as much as possible. The best way to do this is in the intake form on your website or a landing page. Ask two or three qualifying questions that will help segment your list.

Don’t ask more than three questions.

Keep it simple. For instance, a business that sells online parenting classes offers a free webinar. In their intake form, they ask how many kids they have and their ages. Obviously, parenting classes for kids under 9 will be different from those for tweens and teens.

Therefore, you can market the right class to a parent and have a better chance of getting a positive response. So, think about your target audiences and how you can segment your list so it makes sense to them. Then you can walk them through their buying journey with an effective drip campaign.

Giselle Aguiar, AZ Social Media Wiz

Personalize your message and include a clear CTA

One of the most important drip campaign best practices is to make sure your campaign has a clear call to action. If people aren’t sure what you want them to do after opening your email, they are likely to not do anything.

This can really hurt the effectiveness of your campaign, so you want to avoid this at all costs. You also want to make sure your drip campaigns are personalized as much as possible. This means using the recipient’s first name and making sure the content is targeted specifically for them.

This will increase opens and click-through rates, which will help improve the overall effectiveness of your campaign.

Curran Van Waarde, CallScaler

Make use of the yes ladder

When using drip campaigns to get a user to take actions like booking a demo, making a purchase, or converting from free to paid, one tactic that can help improve conversions is to make use of the “yes ladder.”

What you’re looking to do is to get your prospect to say “yes” to your end goal/big ask by getting them to say “yes” to much smaller, trivial asks that you’re confident your prospect will say “yes” to. With each “yes” your prospect responds with, the more likely they are to say “yes” when it comes to the big ask.

Essentially, you need to identify your end goal – this is the top of your ladder (and subsequently the last email in your drip sequence).

You then want to work backwards, with each email in your drip campaign having the purpose of building the rungs to your ladder. This is done by making sure there’s some type of ask that will get your prospect to say “yes” to. Because forward inertia is key, it’s critical that you get your first “yes” in your initial drip email.

Josh Brown, Helpjuice

Send birthday and anniversary emails

I found anniversary and birthday emails are some of the best ways when it comes to drip campaign best practices. As they let buyers know that we care for them. Also as per the statistics, birthday emails have a 481% higher transaction rate and 179% higher unique click rates than promotional emails.

I always recommend adding an extra field on your sign-up forms as it helps you acquire this information. Sending birthday or anniversary emails with appealing texts along with a small discount as a present/gift for the next purchase always leaves clients happy and suffice.

Hima Pujara, BugRaptors

Keep drip emails short and to the point

This might be an unpopular viewpoint, but my drip campaign emails are very short.  And the emails look as if they are coming from my personal account.

I treat every email as if I’m writing to a friend (often I am) and I tell them what I’m sending, why I think they will appreciate it and provide a link.

I’ve been following this format for the last year and have seen an increase in click rates from as low as 1% to as high as 5%.

Ivana Taylor, DIYMarketers

Test different lengths of time for each message

One of the more strategic drip campaign best practices is to test different lengths of time for each message. You might find that your subscribers respond better to messages that are sent more frequently, or that they prefer a longer gap between each message.

When you’re testing, be sure to include a control group – a group of subscribers who receive the same number of emails as your test groups, but at regular intervals.

When you’re testing your drip campaign, don’t forget that there are many factors that could affect the results. For example, if your product has been featured in the media recently, it may get more clicks than usual. If one particular person in your company is more active on social media than others, they may be included in every test group and skew the results towards one outcome or another. Make sure you account for these factors when analyzing your results!

Benjamin Basic, Fast Food Menu Prices

Use an appropriate drip software according to your needs

Welcome aboard if you’ve chosen the drip campaign tool you’re going to use if you’re reading this. However, if you are weighing your alternatives, you should choose the one that has all the characteristics you require for your campaigns.

A good email automation tool should offer a number of essential capabilities so that you can build up your email sequence properly. While email customization tools enable you to adjust your emails in accordance with various data, list segmentation makes it simpler to target various demographic groups within your target audience. Setting up a drip campaign involves many different steps, including determining the best time to send emails based on the campaign plan.

Michael Garrico, Total Shape

Resend emails to non-openers with a new subject line

For most drip campaigns, less than half of your recipients open your emails, meaning the majority of your target audience never sees the content in the email itself. Consider re-sending emails to people who didn’t open the first time with a new subject line.

Not only does this increase the overall number of people who see your email content, you’ll also learn what types of subject lines are more likely to result in opens.

Peter Zawistowicz, Pace

Determine triggers accurately

Determining triggers accurately can help implement a successful drip campaign. Triggers serve as a signal for automated emails to start. For instance, ecommerce businesses, like home appliance online stores, utilize abandoned cart emails.

Sending automated abandoned cart emails is triggered when a potential customer adds items to the shopping cart and leaves the website without checking out. This best practice helps reduce abandoned cart rates and boost sales.

Robert Johnson, Coast Appliances

Stay consistent

Staying consistent while not being overbearing is the key to converting customers with a drip campaign. A good practice to implement with a drip campaign is having an automatic email to be sent within 24 hours.

Having a follow up email reminding customers of their abandoned cart within the first day will make sure it stays fresh on their mind.

If the customer isn’t converted with the follow up email, having a third email sent by the end of week with a discount offer could do the trick. Making sure to stay consistent will ensure you are able to have an effective campaign.

Charles Tichenor IV, Disrupter School

Time your emails right and make them engaging 

Decide first how often and at what intervals you want to send emails. Depending on the campaign kind, this will happen. With fresh leads, you need to follow up right away, however, with subscribers, newsletters can be delivered weekly or monthly.

Your email’s content must be pertinent, interesting, and succinct.

Per the email, stick to one subject and avoid overusing links, attachments, and CTAs. Add a few well-selected images to the emails to make them bright and engaging. Not sending too many emails to your list is one of the most important drip campaign best practices to keep in mind.

Generally speaking, it’s preferable to space out for a few days. You must also take into account the best days and times to send, which may depend on the schedules and time zones of your recipients.

Richard Harless, AZ Flat Fee

Know your audience and speak to their experience

Consumers are becoming more and more savvy and know when they are being marketed to. My advice is to incorporate personalisation techniques into your strategy to engage the attention of the reader.

For example, speak to the consumer’s personal experiences with your company, such as past purchases. Educate yourself as to why your customer bought your product. Perhaps it was for a gift? If so, they may be likely to buy your product again at the same time of year in the future.

To do this, segment your email list with this criteria. Then set up a drip campaign addressing them directly and speaking to their past purchase. Schedule the campaign to send at the same time the following year to encourage another purchase.

From my experience, consumers are likely to respond positively to your drip campaign when it is addressing them directly, and speaking to their personal experiences with your company.

Taleisha Barker, Flowers Across Brisbane

Make each email short and concise with a clear message

A drip campaign’s beauty is that you naturally don’t need to cram a lot of information into each email. You may distribute information throughout the email series using the built-in formatting.

Profit from that.

The likelihood that your audience will interact with your content is increased by concise paragraphs, a brief email overall, and a clear message. Your email receivers will lose interest in your message if it has lengthy paragraphs and rambling tales that don’t get to the point.

Amit Biwaal, Amit Biwaal

Send emails that add value to the recipient

When it comes to drip campaigns, one best practice is ensuring that each email in the campaign adds value to the recipient. This could mean providing helpful information, offering a discount or special offer, or simply reminding the recipient of your product or service.

Start with the subject line. It is the first thing that a recipient will see, so it’s important to make it count. Keep it short and to the point, and make sure it’s relevant to the rest of the email. Personalize your message as much as possible. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line and throughout the email.

Providing educational content leads to customer satisfaction. If you can solve a problem that your recipient is facing, they will be more likely to remember your product or service the next time they need it. Whatever the case, each email should provide some value to the reader to encourage them to continue reading and engaging with your brand.

Erik Emanuelli, ErikEmanuelli.com

Closing thoughts on drip campaign best practices

With their relative ease to launch and high return on investment, drip campaigns are fast becoming a must-have for any online venture. But it’s important to avoid firing off messages willy nilly. Hopefully, our list of drip campaign best practices can help you get the most from this powerful strategy.

If you’re wondering how to do social media for your business and think you need a roadmap to navigate the ins and outs of today’s social media landscape, you’re in the right place.

Use this guide to position your venture for success on the social platforms where your customers spend their time. 

Let’s get started.

The discussion about social media for small businesses used to be simpler. It revolved around a few social networks, which had differences that were easy to parse. Instagram equaled pictures; YouTube equaled videos. “Facebook? It’s the one with opposable thumbs.” 

Social media platforms have climbed out of their primitive goop and evolved from simple organisms to complex forms. And, despite the vast landscape of social media, platforms are evolving to look more and more alike.

Live video? Sure — on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and Twitter.

Yet no single map precisely navigates the landscape of more than one platform. It’s worth it to take the time to do it right, though — by being authentic, offering content your audience values, and building relationships with your customers and prospects.

Social media marketing can generate returns like nothing else can.

You won’t go viral with your first post. And you shouldn’t expect to boom on every platform simultaneously. But the payoffs are life-changing for those small business owners who learn how to do social media the right way.

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Simply put, social media marketing is the process of sharing content (photos, videos and text) on different social media channels, where it’s viewed by the public. It’s an extension of your digital marketing efforts.

At the core of social media for small businesses is the opportunity to connect with new and existing customers and build your sphere of influence through those outlets.

Central to your success with social media marketing is your customers’ and prospects’ ability to find value in what you have to offer.

Mindset: You have to earn people’s attention on social media; no one owes it to you, and they won’t pay attention unless something is in it for them.

Your audience’s default is to do nothing.

Their lives were fine before you arrived.

Their lives will be fine after you go away.

Your goal is to help them feel enough excitement about your pitch to overcome that inertia.

— Wes Kao (@wes_kao) December 13, 2022

By learning how to do social media in a way that provides clear value to your customers and prospects, you can::

1. Establish expertise. When you share your knowledge freely and display your expertise on social media, you build more than just a following — you create an audience that remembers you as a thought leader in your industry.
2. Build brand awareness and audience. You already undertake a wide variety of brand awareness tactics routinely. Social media marketing is just the latest evolution of setting up a booth at industry events and sharing your elevator pitch.
3. Drive funnel and website traffic. Sharing a valuable freebie or new product announcement that interests your target audience can generate clicks to drive traffic to your funnel, selling your products and services.
4. Be remembered. Attention is a powerful currency, and attention from social media marketing results in you being remembered as the “it” person for what you offer.
5. See conversions. Ultimately, these activities all lead to the same place: conversions.

While a business’s ultimate goal is sales, social media marketing can also result in other powerful indirect conversions:

• Referrals. Someone who’s never used your services but remembers you as “the X person” will be quick to recommend you.
• Industry elevation. Being included in industry publications and round-ups won’t drive sales directly but are a fantastic way to reach an even larger audience.

Exercise: Look for examples of successful social media marketing from brands that you buy from. Can you identify the purpose behind one of their social posts? Start to pull back the curtain on social media marketing.

Bottom line: Always remember why you’re sharing. Learning how to do social media to reap its benefits rests on sharing with a clear purpose in mind.

Using social media marketing as a funnel

Social media marketing unlocks a spectrum of possibilities for your business — both positive and negative. And no, I’m not talking about negative comments.

This is an important realization: You don’t own your social media channels, either the content published there or your followers. Social media accounts live on borrowed land, and you could always lose access to what you’ve built there. Every single business still needs a website.

Always treat social media as a funnel that leads back to your owned content.

Vine disappeared overnight in 2016 (though it might return). Pinterest and LinkedIn accounts get mistakenly suspended. Instagram and Facebook accounts get hacked and held for a hefty ransom. TikTok has been banned altogether by a (potentially growing) list of countries.

Social media marketing is a way to explode your brand awareness, but small businesses should continue the conversation off of the page.

The benefits of social media marketing are exciting, but if you don’t enter the jungle with clear expectations you’ll quickly get discouraged.

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Setting realistic expectations

On any given social network sit countless abandoned profiles from creators who gave up on their social media marketing strategy, leaving their accumulated audience, followers and invested time to collect dust.

The most common mistake? Not accounting for the buy-in period of sweat equity that social media marketing requires. 

As a Pinterest marketer, I’ve seen countless creators loftily declare “flags at half-mast — Pinterest is dead!” They abandon their strategy, making a dire miscalculation: it takes months for Pinterest to even index your pins for search results.

Exercise: Research how long growth takes on the social channels you’re pursuing.

@cherylporterdiva It’s #vocalwarmup time! #vocalexercise #fyp #cherylportervocalcoach #vocalcoach ♬ original sound – Cheryl Porter | Vocal Coach

Give your social media strategy time

There’s no hard figure for how long it takes to build an audience on social media, but as a rule of thumb:

Don’t start executing a social media strategy on any platform if you’re not committed to at least a year of work.

Give yourself time to:

• Learn the ins and outs of making quality content.
• Nurture a real, genuine relationship with viewers and earn quality followers.
• Upskill your graphic design, video editing or whatever skills the platform demands.

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Should you spend money on social media marketing?

Part of the allure of social media has long been the price tag: free. Minus your time and the resources used to develop quality content, of course. Those resources are especially hefty, though, to an entrepreneur juggling all their daily responsibilities while exploring how to do social media for the first time.

Small businesses can make three main forms of financial investment in social media marketing:

• Paid ads
• Social media management
• Software

Social media ads

Ads can seem like a social media marketing hack: spend some money and see your reach skyrocket. But they aren’t the solution for every product, service or small business.

“Paid ads aren’t a magic solution where you spend money and immediately get sales,” warns marketer Ravi Davda. “It must be done properly, but it’s a way to be seen and drive traffic rapidly, rather than counting solely on organic methods.”

So, how do you know if you’re ready for social media ads?

Social media ads specialist Joe Brady shared this advice:

“When you have a proven offer with positive reviews, that’s when you’re ready to pursue paid ads. You don’t want to run ads for something that’s not been proven. Otherwise, you won’t know if it’s the ads that are the problem or what you’re selling is not in demand.”

Social media management

You can hire social media managers, sometimes also referred to as ghostwriters or freelance content creators, to create and publish content on your behalf.

You can hire help that’s:

• Platform-specific, such as a Twitter manager.
• Content-specific, such as hiring a short-form video content creator.

Note: This is not to be confused with an influencer, who would create content for your account and post it on their own social media profiles.

LinkedIn ghostwriter Renate Linnenkoper shared this insight:

“It’s easy to end up spending hours producing social media content instead of actually having the time to find new clients. Outsourcing your social media content creation is a great way to attract dream clients to your profile through storytelling content without having to rely on paid ads.”

Both of these financial investments save time, but there’s also another option that fits every budget.

Editor’s note: The experts at GoDaddy’s Digital Marketing Services can help you attract and manage your customers with targeted social ad and email campaigns — and measure your success.

Free social media management tools

Behind every social media marketing strategy is a host of systems and tools that save time.

Building a social media presence takes consistency, and that’s best achieved using a content calendar and scheduling tools.

A few popular social media management tools include:

• Sprout Social for scheduling, analytics, engagement and account management.
• Free native schedulers within the different social channels.
• Collaborative software such as Airtable, Notion or Trello to help visualize your social media content calendar and plan out social media campaigns.

Don’t worry about picking specific tools from the get-go; instead, reference this list once you’ve picked which social media channels you’ll focus on.

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Despite their overlaps, each social media channel has unique strengths.

An effective social media strategy weighs the strengths of each social network and looks at what type of content thrives there.

Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate the best social media channel(s) for your business:

• Who is my target customer, and where do they spend their time?
• Do I prefer to write instead of sharing visuals?
• What content will I routinely share?

Let’s see which platform is your smartest starting point.

LinkedIn

Post content on LinkedIn providing value and showing that you’re a reliable source of information on your given subject, and the recommendations will start to come in.

Sound too easy?

As personal branding specialist Jessie van Breugel puts it, “Treat LinkedIn as your job for six months and you’ll never be out of work again.” Jessie has used his account to grow his email list and position himself as a go-to source on personal branding.

Important: That translates to building your own personal account, not your company’s LinkedIn page.

LinkedIn roll-call:

• Content type: Text-based content with optional photos or videos; plus live video.
• Content style: Can be polished, relating to your small business, or can be personal and casual, relating to your lifestyle.
• Unique opportunity: Instead of just creating fresh content for yourself every day, you can grow your network by simply engaging with content from others (like this). 

Pinterest

Plot twist: Pinterest’s actually not a social network.

Pinterest is a search engine where users look for answers to their queries. When a user enters a term in the search bar, they’re directed to images or videos (called pins) that link back to the websites of bloggers, brands and small businesses.

As a Pinterest specialist, my Pinterest account reaches millions of people per month, which has driven website traffic, brought in new clients, and grown my email list.

The opportunities are enormous, but Pinterest isn’t the ideal platform for every small business owner. Businesses with a lot of quality links on their website (products, blog posts, etc.) are going to see the most success.

Pinterest roll-call:

• Content type: Visual content, either static or video; plus live video on Pinterest.
• Content style: Seasonal, informational and lifestyle.
• Unique opportunity: Longevity. Content on Pinterest lasts for years, not days.

Related: The entrepreneur’s guide to Pinterest marketing

TikTok

TikTok is the adolescent of the social media family, but there’s an audience there for all demographics. In 2021, it became the most visited website in the world, but do you have the type of content to grow your business on TikTok?

In order to answer yes, you must be prepared to produce a lot of content focused on the same topic. 

SEO specialist Kate Smoothy, who has amassed some 19,000 TikTok followers and uses the platform to grow her email list and client base, shared this advice:

“You don’t have to be focussed on one type of content on TikTok, but you do need to be focused on your niche. I would actually encourage creators to try lots of different types of content to find what their audience likes best! But stay in your lane.”

@webhivedigital You can pay a lot of money for SEO tools but you don’t need to. Some of the best SEO tools are free! #seo #searchengineoptimisation #digitalmarketing #marketingtips #seotipsandtricks ♬ original sound – Kate Smoothy | Websites & SEO

TikTok roll-call:

• Content type: Short-form video, or static content with a video or audio element, accompanied by text; plus live video.
• Content style: Trending, informational, lifestyle or entertainment.
• Unique opportunity: Virality and quick growth potential.

Instagram

Open Instagram today and you’ll notice a very different type of content than you used to see pre-2020. Once a social network for hyper-curated photos, Instagram is “no longer just a square photo-sharing app.”

Small business owners can now reach new customers and clients through photos (posts), permanent videos (reels), disappearing videos, text or images (stories) and direct messages.

Most platforms have a direct messaging feature, but Instagram is one of the social media platforms where this feature really shines.

Charlotte Brand uses Instagram to find new clients for her content marketing business, and shared this advice for new small businesses joining the platform:

“Instagram is FULL of marketing potential for all types of small businesses, but when it comes to growing your account, you have to focus on the right metrics. Don’t worry about likes and followers too much; instead, focus on building a community and providing valuable content for your audience.”

Charlotte noted that sharing on Instagram stories provides personal, human connection like no other social network. Users watch stories as much or even more than they scroll the home feed, which means that casual and uncurated access to connect with your audience is uncapped.

Instagram roll-call:

• Content type: Photos, short-form videos and disappearing content; plus live video.
• Content style: Informative, lifestyle or entertainment.
• Unique opportunity: Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, specifically in stories.

Related: How to sell on Instagram

YouTube

Like Pinterest, YouTube is actually a search engine, and the content you share there has an incredible shelf life: videos sit in search results for years.

Video marketing specialist Doug Dibert, Jr., has been using video marketing since 2005 and says that YouTube’s big opportunity lies in the fact that there’s more demand than supply.

“Imagine you discovered Google My Business before anyone else did. You’re getting all the benefits and your competition is baffled as to why you’re winning,” he says. “That’s what YouTube is right now for businesses.”

Google owns YouTube, which means that videos also get prime placement across Google search results.

The platform also offers a special direct monetization opportunity, where accounts (called channels) that meet certain engagement thresholds are eligible to directly monetize their content.

YouTube roll-call:

• Content type: Video, traditionally longer-form but also short-form (YouTube Shorts); plus live video.
• Content style: Informative, lifestyle or entertainment.
• Unique opportunity: Visibility across both YouTube and Google, and high demand for content.

Related: How to get more customers with YouTube

Facebook

Facebook might be an old social media platform, but it still has an enormous and diverse audience, across all demographics.

Not only does this present small business owners with many potential leads, but users are also actively turning to businesses’ Facebook pages for information like reviews, business hours and direct communication through Facebook messenger.

Arthur Freydin is an entrepreneur with 10 years of Facebook marketing experience and these insights into the power of the platform:

“The platform allows business owners to communicate updates, new products, discounts, opening hours, customer testimonials, and much more on a platform with a very wide audience.”

Business owners can market their business through a Facebook business page or in Facebook groups using their personal account. It also has an incredibly robust ad system.

Facebook roll-call:

• Content type: Text, images or video; plus live video.
• Content style: Photos, videos and short-form video content as well as business page features consisting of reviews, business hours and direct messaging.
• Unique opportunity: The ability to reach your target market through paid ads (called “boosting”). 

Related: How to use Facebook Messenger for business

Twitter

Twitter is the fastest-moving social media platform, where a post (called a tweet) has the shortest lifespan when compared to the other platforms we’ve looked at .. a mere 23 minutes.

But a post on Twitter also requires the least amount of work. Currently, a tweet has a limit of 280 characters. That might change, but the concept won’t: tweets aren’t meant to be profound works of art.

The nature of the platform rewards short, spicy and conversation-provoking content, which makes it ideal for the big-picture part of your brand messaging.

Samson and Cecilia Hollmerus, who together run a small business offering travel coaching and community, use Twitter to build brand awareness:

“We use Twitter for our top-of-funnel content, and our aim is to create brand awareness for our travel community and courses.”

9 Insider travel tips from experienced globetrotters:

That will save you:

• Time
• Money
• Energy

Without compromising quality for your upcoming trip pic.twitter.com/vcbZDgixS3

— Samson | Spontaneous Backpackers (@spontaneousbkpk) December 25, 2022

Twitter roll-call:

• Content type: Short-form text, can include images and videos; plus live video.
• Content style: Short, timely and topical.
• Unique opportunity: The size of the stage. Tweet about a trending topic using a hashtag and your words can be seen by tens of thousands of viewers, no matter how many followers you have.

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You’ll find no shortage of tips online about how to use social media — a single TikTok video might flash 15 tips in a matter of seconds.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Follow these five basic steps and you’ll be ready to start creating the kind of social media content that converts.

1. Do your homework

The first step in any successful social media marketing strategy is listening.

See what kinds of accounts are popular in your industry and research:

• Who’s being followed?
• What topics are popular?
• What content is resonating?

Listening might sound passive, but small business influencer Ivana Taylor shared this exercise:

“Make a list of frequently asked questions and answer them. Or, share your secrets, shortcuts and hacks that will help your customers or audience get better at what you do.”

Actively engage in the listening process by:

• Writing down frequently asked questions (FAQ).
• Saving good posts that you see.
• Creating an ongoing idea document.

As you listen and gather content ideas, it’s time to define your social media marketing strategy.

2. Define your strategy

Start defining your social media strategy by answering these questions:

1. Which social media platform will you start with?
2. How many months will you commit to creating content, regardless of results?
3. How often will you post?

Bear in mind your target outcomes.

Target outcomes

What is the goal of each social media post? These goals can cover:

• Sales
• Education
• Authenticity
• Follower growth
• Lead generation
• Brand awareness
• Email list sign-ups
• Display of expertise
• Community engagement
• Data collection 

A well-rounded social media strategy would encompass all of these outcomes, even the ones that might seem less valuable, like authenticity.

Branding studio CEO Shana Sanders shared this insight into how authenticity generates more aligned leads:

“Be authentic with your social media marketing. Authenticity helps the audience see themselves being in the environment of working with you.”

Focus on creating content that covers all of these target outcomes in turn. Keep them front of mind as you’re creating social media content.

@megemikoart (shop link in my bio) #trans #elliotpage #transgender #nonbinary #lgbtqia #pridemonth #protecttranskids #lgbtsmallbusiness #fyp #comingout ♬ A Moment Apart – Hannah Stater

Add value

Anyone can post on social media, but not everyone turns their social media posts into conversions.

The biggest culprit? Failing to add value. Repurposing other small business marketing content, like sharing a link to a press release, is a losing approach.

Create content that’s:

• Funny
• Unique
• Helpful
• Engaging
• Entertaining
• Inspirational
• Conversational
• Thought-provoking
• Community-oriented

You already have the ideas for your value-driven social media marketing; you just need to identify them.

Business and marketing strategist Annelise Worn shared this advice:

“Ask yourself: ‘what does my ideal client need to know, think and believe about me and my offer in order to say yes?’ Write them all down. Categorize them into three buckets. That’s your content.”

Exercise: Hold a 15-minute brainstorming session where you write down every single answer to this question.

Identify your target market

Before you can create content that speaks to your audience, you have to know who your audience is.

Consider both demographics and psychographics, including:

• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Struggles
• Education level
• Income or budget

Getting into the demographic information can start to feel overly technical, but copywriting specialist and professor Jasmin Alić, who’s written for Fortune 500 companies, shares this advice:

“Every time you post on social media as your brand, remember you’re speaking to humans. Not businesses and robots — you’d be surprised how many business owners don’t understand this concept.”

Exercise: Just like an actor breaking the fourth wall, look the camera dead in the eyes and speak directly to the viewer. Use “you,” not “you guys.” Likewise, say “I,” not an anonymous “we.”

When your social media marketing converts and a viewer is ready to become a follower or purchase your products or services, it’ll be the act of a single human. Speak to them.

Related: How to update your business for changing demographics

3. Create shareable content

After you’ve defined your social media marketing goals and understand your audience, you must reach viewers with content that engages them.

Digital marketer Yogesh Kumar simplifies the type of content that gets shared online to just two words: “People share creative and relevant content with their followers.”

Exercise: Think about your own behavior as a social media user. What type of content do you deem share-worthy?

I’ve edited 3+ million words.

Here are 8 common content writing mistakes,

and how to fix them:

— Erica Schneider (@ericasmyname) May 23, 2022

Related: How to create content calendars

4. Engage with your audience

Here’s one of the golden rules of social media marketing:

It’s not about you; it’s about them.

A relationship between two entities cannot be built if one party speaks about themselves into a megaphone. Your followers must be the focus of all of your social media marketing efforts, and engaging with them is an important part of this rule.

• Ask questions.
• Answer questions.
• Respond to every comment.
• Thank viewers for sharing their thoughts.
• Engage one-on-one in direct messages (DM) with viewers when appropriate.

Lyssa Jackson, instructor and program manager at LinkedIn, shared this insight:

“Direct messaging is for starting conversations and for building our like, know and trust factor. Even if you don’t make a sale or book a call right away, approaching DMs with a relationship-first mindset will open your network if you’re clear about the problem you solve.”

Exercise: Make time to send followers or peers in your audience thoughtful messages (if it’s appropriate on the platform).

5. Measure success

What does success look like on social media?

Consider these key metrics:

• Followers and views. These numbers give a sense of reach.
• Engagement. Are people commenting on your content?
• Shares. What content is motivating your followers to share it?
• Clicks. Which posts are driving traffic to your website?
• Action. Once they’re on your turf, are they converting?

For tangible measurements, look at platform analytics to access data from within each platform.

For intangibles, look at the quality of community you’re building and how qualified your inbound leads are.

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Conclusion and next steps

You’re making a wise investment by learning how to use social media marketing to grow your small business.

Instead of opening a brick-and-mortar establishment and waiting for potential leads to walk in, you’re going out into the world and finding them.

• Start small.
• Experiment.
• Test your content.
• Try out different platforms.
• Play with the timing of your posts.
• Treat every social media post as an opportunity to improve.

Watch your content evolve. You have no idea how your business might evolve with it.

Develop a quality, successful social media marketing strategy that’s an agent of your overall marketing goals, and your business will never be the same.

Amazon’s marketplace is as lucrative as it is crowded.

To profit as a seller, you have to stand out against over two million merchants. But if you do grab buyers’ attention, you’re bound to make sales since so many shoppers flock to Amazon. According to Seller App, a good conversion rate for Amazon sellers is between 10 – 15 percent, depending on the type of products listed.

The key to reaching Amazon shoppers is maximizing your listings’ visibility. There are so many products on the marketplace, and buyers don’t have the time or patience to sift through every single one. Make it easy for buyers to find your products, and you’ll be on track to win greater sales.

To boost your listings’ visibility, we’ll highlight nine key ways to drive external traffic outside of Amazon and internal traffic within the marketplace to your products. Using these strategies will lead buyers to your listings, so they can make their way down your sales funnel and become a customer.

What visibility means for Amazon listings

For products in your own online store, promotion is straightforward. You spread product awareness outside of your store through ads and other marketing efforts to drive traffic back to your listing pages.

Amazon listings are more complicated. They require both external and internal promotion. And with so much competition in the marketplace, sellers have to craft their listings to be highly visible on Amazon’s website, not just outside of it.

External promotion

External promotion for Amazon listing involves using outside channels to drive traffic back to your listing. It allows you to hook shoppers who aren’t already on Amazon to check out your listing.

Here are a few examples of external promotion methods for Amazon listings:

• Social media: Create ads and connect with influencers to spread awareness of your Amazon products and link back to your listings on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• SEO: Include keywords your target buyers are Googling to have them rank high in search engine results.
• Getting backlinks: Find opportunities to link to your Amazon listings — such as publishing blog posts — to increase your items’ visibility and drive external traffic to your products.

With external promotion, you can make your listings stand out to shoppers outside of Amazon and maximize your sales.

Internal promotion

Internal promotion on Amazon helps you get more eyes on your merchandise. The process involves you paying the marketplace to present sponsored ads for your products, which are higher in search results.

Say you’re an Amazon merchant and you want to sell women’s sunglasses. You won’t be the only merchant selling the accessory on the marketplace. As shown below, there are over 20,000 other listings offering “sunglasses for women.”

Sunglasses aren’t an exception — Amazon, across all products, is saturated with merchants. To beat the competition, you have to find ways to increase your product listing’s visibility on the marketplace.

Here are two examples of internally promoting your Amazon products:

1. Win the Buy Box. When sellers share a single listing on Amazon because they all sell the same product, there’s always a Buy Box — the first highlighted price option.

Winning the Buy Box means prime visibility, so it’s a key way of attracting buyers on Amazon. Amazon considers a multitude of factors to pick the Buy Box seller — mainly price, but also others like credibility, seller rating, and shipping type. For Mrs. Jessie’s Quick Curls, the hair product company themselves won the Buy Box. As you can see below, they are the seller boldly listed on the upper righthand corner. Competing sellers are listed on the lower right corner — receiving less attention.

2. Rank high on Amazon product search results. Most buyers won’t move past the first page of search results, so getting a high ranking is a critical way to reach shoppers. You can boost your product rankings on Amazon by applying our promotion tactics below.

According to Amazon Seller Central, the marketplace search engine considers text match, price, availability, selection, and sales history to rank listings. These internal promotion tactics ensure shoppers can easily find your listing in Amazon’s crowded marketplace and make a purchase.

9 ways to promote your Amazon listings

An ideal Amazon promotion plan has a mix of tactics — including internal and external methods. You have to understand both marketplace policies — Buy Box winning and search rankings — to maximize sales. Also, look at ways to drive outside traffic to your listing. In this guide, we’ve outlined nine strategies for driving traffic from inside and outside of Amazon to your listing.

Let’s dive in.

1. Optimize your listings with SEO

Search engine optimization attracts a wide range of buyers to your listing. Both shoppers who are already on Amazon and those who are using other sites can find your listing when you include popular keywords. With these additions, search engines — both Amazon’s and others — determine that your listing is a relevant result and rank it higher.

Two key tools identify the keywords your shoppers are searching for most frequently.

1. Google Keyword Planner: This free tool indicates the monthly search volume of keywords on Google’s search engine. Since Amazon listings can rank on Google, this tool is especially helpful.
2. Scope: This is a keyword tool specifically geared for Amazon. It allows you to track keywords’ monthly volume, ranking position over time, estimated sales, and more.

You can learn more about other SEO tools for finding keywords using this guide.

Once you’ve collected your keywords, place them throughout your listing, such as in the title and description. Detecting these popular keywords, search engines will recognize your listing as a relevant result for your buyers’ searches and rank it higher.

2. Buy Sponsored Product ads

Even with SEO, there’s no guarantee your Amazon listing will be placed higher in search results. The marketplace’s engine considers other factors for ranking — selling history, price, and more — so SEO alone doesn’t necessarily lead to higher rankings.

To gain more control over their listings’ visibility, Amazon sellers can pay for the marketplace to sponsor their products and place them higher in search results.

Sellers only pay when shoppers click on their ad, so the payoff with Amazon promotion is guaranteed. Your listings’ visibility is increased, so shoppers on Amazon can easily find your product and potentially make a purchase.

3. Share listings on social media

The average person spends nearly 2.5 hours per day on social media platforms. Given this popularity, sharing your Amazon listings on social media through your business’ accounts is a powerful way of getting your products in front of more buyers.

Since your followers expect to receive value from your posts, it’s best to avoid creating posts on your account that are basically ads for your listings. Instead, it’s better to share your listing in more subtle ways that are still helpful to your followers.

Here are three ideas:

• Use a social media promo code. Merchants with a Professional Selling account on Amazon can create a promotion link to share through social media about a discount they’re offering. Unlike a traditional ad, sharing a promo code gives users value by helping them save money. For more details on setting up this promo code, check out Amazon’s guide.
• Share content that includes your listing link. Post an informative, helpful blog post or video that includes a link to your Amazon listing on LinkedIn, such as a how-to video or listicle. It’s a great way to indirectly promote your products through social media.
• Host a contest or giveaway. Announce on Facebook or Instagram that any user who posts your Amazon listing in their story will be entered for a chance to win a prize. This reward will motivate users to share your listing and spread the word about your Amazon products.

By creating exciting and relevant content on social, you can promote your Amazon listings in a way that feels natural rather than invasive.

4. Run competitor analyses

For internal visibility on Amazon, your listings need to stay ahead of competitors’ products. In buyers’ searches, your products will fall behind competitors’ items in rankings if you aren’t monitoring how those listings are engaging shoppers.

To keep your listings high in Amazon’s search rankings, here are three factors to monitor in competitors’ listings:

1. Price. You want to keep your listings’ prices at or lower than competitors’. Not only because shoppers are looking for the best deals, but you also want to win the Buy Box if you’re sharing a listing with other sellers. Plus, Amazon highly prioritizes price in choosing the box winner.
2. Images. When Amazon shoppers are browsing through search results, they’re not only looking at price — they’re also checking out images. Visuals can be a very persuasive factor in encouraging purchases, so make sure your listing has higher quality images than competing items.
3. Text. If your listing currently isn’t ranking high for your product keywords, it might be because the listing text isn’t considered relevant by Amazon’s search engine. Analyze the text of the current top-ranking listings for potentially relevant keywords you can include to boost your product.

Finding ways to make your listing outshine competitors on Amazon will increase your product rank in the marketplace’s search results.

5. Partner with influencers

Just like products in an online store, Amazon listings can gain significant traffic through influencer marketing. When prominent individuals in your industry stand behind your product and link to your listing, it sends a message to communities of your key buyers that your listing is worth checking out.

To promote your listing through influencer marketing, start by coming up with a list of key individuals in your sector with a large base of social media followers. Brainstorm this list by considering your own personal network or use an influencer platform like Influence.co.

Once you have a list going, check out this guide to learn about the best ways to reach out to influencers and measure results once they share your Amazon listings.

6. Maintain strong product ratings

First impressions matter when you’re on a marketplace as competitive as Amazon. Buyers are browsing through thousands of products, so they won’t settle for items that seem to be low-quality.

A clear way to give shoppers a positive first impression of your Amazon listings is to maintain high-star ratings. When buyers are browsing through Amazon search results, the star ratings are visible for each product.

Along with the price, these star ratings are a major factor in whether shoppers decide to click on your listings. They can’t see your products in person, so this feedback from other buyers is especially meaningful to shoppers trying to make a purchase.

Here are three tips for maintaining high-star ratings on all of your Amazon listings:

1. Describe your item exactly as it is in your listing. False product details and images may boost sales initially, but ultimately they only hurt your Amazon business. Buyers who receive a product that’s totally different from the listing are bound to leave a low rating in disappointment.
2. Provide excellent customer service. If you don’t handle customer requests properly, such as shipping an item late or not being prompt in completing a return, you’ll upset buyers. Avoid receiving a low product rating by delivering the item as expected and promptly resolving issues.
3. Reach out to disappointed buyers. When a customer leaves a poor rating, reach out to the buyer to see if you can still resolve their issue. If you can fix their problem, they do have the power to edit their review. And if they do, it’ll improve your product’s overall score.

Ratings are a key way for buyers to quickly assess your Amazon products. Make sure your items’ scores stay high to keep buyers interested in your listing.

7. Maintain strong shipping performance

Shipping, at first, might seem totally unrelated to promoting your products. But on Amazon, your shipping performance is a key factor in your listings’ visibility.

Amazon wants to keep shoppers happy, so they discourage poor shipping practices by making shipping a factor in winning the Buy Box and ranking high on Amazon’s search rankings. With consistent shipping issues, you’re less likely to win the Box or to rank high in search.

Instead of hurting your visibility, use these three tips to maintain a strong shipping performance on Amazon:

1. Regularly check your shipping performance metrics. In Amazon Seller Central, you can monitor key shipping performance metrics — like on-time delivery rates — to ensure you’re consistently offering great shipping and pleasing customers.
2. Use Amazon FBA. By signing up for Fulfillment by Amazon, sellers no longer have to worry about providing great shipping as the marketplace handles fulfilling your orders. If there are any complaints about your shipping from buyers, the marketplace will remove the rating since they are responsible for shipping issues.
3. Use inventory management software. Adopting an inventory management program, like GoDaddy Marketplaces, keeps you on track so you can avoid understocking and being unable to complete orders. GoDaddy Marketplaces monitors when your stock is low across channels so you always know when to reorder.

Always provide good shipping, and you’ll increase your potential to rank higher in search results and at winning the Buy Box. With this visibility, Amazon shoppers can easily find your products.

8. Monitor your seller rating

Like shipping performance, your overall seller rating on Amazon also impacts your chances of winning the Buy Box and ranking high in Amazon’s search results.

Punishing low-rated sellers with less visibility is a measure to keep Amazon shoppers happy and sustain the marketplace. It ensures buyers are working with merchants who have a positive record and can provide great service.

To keep your listings visible on Amazon, follow these three tips to maintain a high seller rating:

1. Monitor your seller rating. On Seller Central, you can view the factors that contribute to your overall seller ratings — such as Perfect Order Percentage and Late Response Rate — and determine which ones need to be improved to increase it.
2. Be prompt in customer service. Set a daily reminder to resolve customer issues and respond to customer messages. The quicker you give buyers attention, the more impressed they’ll be with your service.
3. Determine whether negative feedback could be removed. Amazon has clear guidelines for providing feedback. Review this post to determine whether any of your negative feedback from buyers should be removed.

Overall, make an effort to keep your seller rating as high as possible. You’ll help your listings stay visible through the Buy Box and Amazon search results.

9. Launch a Lightning Deal

Beyond convenience, many shoppers come to Amazon for the marketplace’s low prices. With this interest, a primary way of attracting Amazon shoppers to your listing is by launching a Lightning Deal.

Lightning Deals are time-based, marked-down products buyers can find in Amazon’s Today’s Deals section. They draw a lot of attention and sales from Amazon’s shoppers not only because they appreciate discounts but also because their limited time frame motivates buyers to make a purchase.

Sellers have to pay a fee, and Amazon has to approve Lightning Deals before they’re launched.

Here are three of the key guidelines sellers need to meet for their Lightning Deals to be approved:

1. Lightning Deals run for four to twelve hours.
2. Lightning Deals can only run once in a seven-day period.
3. You should have your proposed quantity for the deal available at least seven days before the deal is expected to launch.

To learn more about Lightning Deal guidelines and setting them up, review this guide. With Lightning Deals, more buyers will come across your listings in the Today’s Deals section — driven to purchase within the limited promotion time frame.

Play with promotion to boost Amazon sales

Promoting Amazon products is unlike traditional marketing for a single store where you’re mainly focused on driving external traffic. You also have to find ways to increase your listings’ visibility internally on Amazon. The marketplace is competitive, so you have to find innovative ways to make products stand out against other sellers’ items.

To simplify promotion on Amazon, make the most of the nine key strategies here for boosting your listings’ visibility inside and outside of the marketplace. Experiment with these different methods, and track your results to see which ones lead to greater sales. The more you test these tactics, the better equipped you’ll be to win the attention of Amazon buyers — leading you to stay ahead of competitors.

If you plan to launch an ecommerce store this year, you’ll need a strategic sales and marketing plan to help you stand out. You’ll also need to know where to source the best products if you don’t manufacture them yourself. These types of businesses need to know how to find products to sell online.

The competition for online consumer traffic and sales has never been steeper. Many small businesses (SMBs) have recently launched ecommerce stores to reach customers who prefer to shop online, with 92% of online SMBs claiming they had a significant sales growth in 2021.

How to find products to sell online

Let’s explore how to find products to sell online and ensure they fit with your overall business strategy and budget.

1. Identify products that you’re passionate about

It’s essential to have a profitable small business. But it’s hard to stay committed to it long-term without a passion for what you sell.

As you embark on your online business journey, start by identifying those passions. Do you love books, fashion, food, jewelry, or technology? Do you have a hobby, like buying art or collecting dolls, that you’ve always wanted to turn into a business by helping others do the same?

More than 65 percent of participants in a Customer Thermometer study said that “being emotionally connected to a brand made them feel like the company or business cared about people like them.”

So the more you’re able to align with and communicate your passion for your digital or physical products through your online business, the better you’ll attract like-minded, loyal shoppers.

It’s also critical to think about what the products that you want to source and sell will say about your business and brand.

For example, if you decide to sell organic, fair-trade coffee beans, you’re promising to deliver a product that is healthier for your customers while showing that you care about the people who grow and package that product.

If your potential customers also care about those values, you know they’ll be looking for a site like yours to purchase those products.

That’s why you must identify the right product niche and target market before you source the products you want to sell online.

2. Align those passions with a niche product-market fit

Business News Daily defines a product niche as “a specialized or focused area of a broader market that your business serves specifically.”

Taking the time to identify your niche properly will help you to stand apart from your competitors in a crowded online marketplace.

For example, if you love jewelry inspired by or from the 1920s and 1930s fashions but can’t find it all in one place online, you could build a small business that caters to that niche.

Or, perhaps you want to sell trendy costume jewelry for young women to wear to work. It all comes back to your passions and which customers you want to target online.

When choosing and searching for your niche items to sell online, you should also consider:

• The size and weight of your physical products: To keep shipping costs down with lighter and easily packable products
• The selling price of your sourced products: Especially when getting started — to be profitable and to cover the cost of returned items
• Product durability and quality: You don’t want products to spoil or get broken en route to your customers
• Trends in your chosen niche: For example, search terms for “nostalgia” have grown over the past few years and is reflected in everything from current fashions to music, TV, and toys

Profiling your niche customers

Try to get as specific as possible when defining your niche target customers. Include everything from demographics like age range, occupation, and household income to psychographics like their personality traits, lifestyle, special interests, and values.

Using the costume jewelry example from earlier, your target customer could be a single woman in her 20s and 30s who works in advertising or PR and makes $30,000 to $75,000 a year. She likes to go out with her friends after work, belongs to a book club, is a foodie that watches baking shows, and cares about climate change and product sustainability.

Once you’ve completed your customer profile, research how they’re likely to shop for your products online. Small business owners can start by reading free blogs and consumer studies published on online marketing sites such as eMarketer, Econsultancy and MarketingCharts.com.

You can also get a lot of free information from ecommerce news sites like Retail Dive, Digital Commerce 360, and the National Retail Federation.

Look for trends that reveal where your potential customers spend most of their time online and try to learn how they discover new products.

For example, are they more likely to research vintage jewelry through search or fashion and celebrity websites? Do they follow influencers on social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest? If so, which ones and what are those influencers saying about those products and styles?

You can also send out an online survey to friends and family who fit your niche customer profile using Survey Monkey or Google Forms. You can ask them specific questions like:

• What do they love about that product niche?
• Which niche product trends are they looking for right now?
• What products in that niche are they most likely to research or buy online?
• What’s missing from that niche market that they’d like to see filled?
• How much would they be willing to spend on a specific niche product?
• Where do they typically learn about new niche products online?
• Which competitor sites do they currently buy from, and what do they like or dislike about those ecommerce sites?
• Do they buy their niche products from local, national, or global competitors?
• Would they prefer to have products shipped to them if they buy locally, or would they like to purchase products online and pick them up in-store?
• If they buy products nationally or globally, how much would they be willing to pay for shipping?

Giving them specific answers to choose from, rather than asking them open-ended questions, will make it easier for them to fill out your survey. Although, a combination of the two is often necessary.

It’s also helpful to offer an incentive to get them to complete your survey, like gift cards and discounts when shopping with your online store.

Once you have all of your answers, it’s time to look for the right products that meet all of their needs.

3. Find the right products to sell online

As you prepare to source your physical products, think about the type of ecommerce business you want to create.

For example, many small business owners start with a dropshipping business model where you don’t need to make or store any inventory yourself physically. Instead, you’d source and curate the niche products on your site while your suppliers would store, package, and ship the items for you.

With a dropshipping business model, your suppliers will take a bigger cut of the profits.

However, dropshipping is a flexible and scalable way for a small online business to get off the ground quickly and affordably, with lower overhead costs.

As your business grows, you can potentially add your own manufactured products to sell on your site to make a larger profit.

Identifying products for your dropshipping business

Where you source your dropshipping products depends on your chosen product niche.

According to SixAds.net the top dropshipping niche categories last year were:

• Home decor and home improvement
• Jewelry
• Health and beauty
• Fitness
• Pet products
• Boho clothing and accessories
• Phone accessories

To find the top trending niche products right now, SixAds recommends looking at:

1. The top Amazon Bestsellers for your niche product category.
2. eBay Watch Count to see what the top eBay shoppers are adding to their “watch list” by keyword.
3. The SaleHoo Market Research Lab uses data from Amazon and eBay to help you find highly profitable dropshipping products to source and sell.
4. Google Trends: Since most people start their shopping journey with a search, you can look at growth trends for specific product keywords over time.
5. AliExpress Dropshipping Center to discover the top niche products to source and sell online via AliExpress.

Sourcing those products via dropshipping suppliers

You have many options to choose from when sourcing products for dropshipping.

Access a network of sellers via ecommerce marketplaces

One of the most common places to start sourcing your products is via an ecommerce marketplace that connects you to a large network of manufacturers and sellers. As mentioned earlier, the AliExpress Dropshipping Center is a good place to start.

Additionally, you can research and contact niche dropshipping marketplaces like BrandsGateway for luxury brands, Buy2Bee for clothing and footwear, UniqBe for IT and electronics products, Gold-N-Diamonds for jewelry, and Wholesale Interiors for furniture.

Choose high-quality niche products via wholesale supplier directories

Directories like InventorySource.com give you access to thousands of high-quality wholesalers and suppliers for niche product categories.

Keep in mind, however, that they charge a monthly subscription fee to integrate and automate the SKU data onto your site. However, some let you look at the content for free to decide whether or not you want to invest in a subscription.

Go straight to the source with brand manufacturers

You can also go straight to your favorite niche brand manufacturers to negotiate a dropshipping partnership. Keep in mind that not all of them will be interested in dropshipping, and this can become a laborious process as you add more partnerships.

Be sure to ask about their revenue share model (e.g., how much of the sales revenue they would keep to store and ship the physical product to your customers), and compare prices among a host of your favorite niche brands.

You’ll need to factor that number into your price, along with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), to make a profit. Refer to our post on product pricing for help when developing the right ecommerce sales strategy for your small business.

Enable manufacturers and sellers to come to you

You can also make it possible for niche product creators to post and sell their wares through your site.

For example, Society6 created a platform for artists to affordably upload photos and sell their designs (e.g., prints on mugs, t-shirts, and socks) to the world. In this way, artists can reach out to them and post their own products on the ecommerce site.

Sourcing products for your general online store

If you already own a retail store and plan to launch an ecommerce site, or you’re an online retailer that buys commoditized physical products (e.g., high-demand, essential items) and/or niche products to store in a warehouse, then you have some additional options to consider.

In addition to the resources listed above for dropshipping sources, you can purchase your niche products from ecommerce marketplaces like: Alibaba.com and Amazon wholesale. You can also purchase inventory from wholesale partners like Costco.

To decrease your overhead costs, since you’re renting out a physical warehouse and covering your shipping costs, look for discounts when purchasing large product quantities in bulk.

Additionally, keep in mind that suppliers are currently dependent on manufacturing capabilities during the Covid pandemic. Check-in regularly with your suppliers to make sure you don’t frequently sell out of items and keep customers waiting for long periods.

Related: Top-notch shipping tips for your online store

4. Identify and integrate online product sales channels

Once you’ve sourced your digital or physical products, it’s time to decide where and how you’ll sell to customers online.

First, you’ll need to develop and launch your online business website. If you don’t have one already, there are a variety of options out there and many ecommerce platforms, like GoDaddy Online Store, can help you to:

• Buy a domain name
• Build your site with affordable mobile-friendly templates
• Process payments quickly and securely
• Host it all on one integrated platform

Use GoDaddy Online Store to build your site and sell everywhere

If you’ve already done your research on where customers are likely to discover and buy your products online, working with GoDaddy will enable you to sell directly from your website or your customers’ favorite platforms and marketplaces, like eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Facebook or Instagram.

Plus, GoDaddy Online Store integrates with GoDaddy Payments to help you process payments securely — both online and in-store.

Your payments will arrive in your business account as soon as the next business day, and GoDaddy offers the lowest fees in the industry per transaction, compared to leading competitors.

GoDaddy Payments processes all major credit and debit card transactions — both online and using our POS devices. If you use our Smart Terminal and Card Reader devices in-store or in-person, we also provide contactless payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Finally, you can access all of your orders, inventory, reviews, and customer emails — across all of your online business sales platforms — from one easy-to-use online dashboard.

Add WooCommerce to our managed WordPress ecommerce platform

If you already have a WordPress website and want to add ecommerce functionality, you can do so using WooCommerce extensions — choosing from over 50,000 WordPress plug-ins and  10,000 site design templates.

GoDaddy’s managed WordPress Ecommerce platform with WooCommerce gives you the freedom to sell anything, anywhere online — from physical products to digital downloads, services, and subscriptions.

It also seamlessly integrates with GoDaddy Payments, giving your customers more ways to pay you, and helping you get paid faster.

Related: 6 types of products you can sell with WooCommerce

Launch, test and iterate on what’s working

Once your site is live, it’s important to track how each product is performing on your website, so you can offer more of what your customers want, and consider removing products that aren’t driving sales.

First, you’ll need to install an analytics tool like Google Analytics on your site to track your customers’ online shopping behaviors. For tips on what to track and which reports to use, read:

How to use Google Analytics enhanced ecommerce features to gain more customers.

Next, consider using A/B testing on your homepage, product pages, and check out to see which design features and copy can be improved to increase sales (or conversions) on your site.

Essentially, A/B testing is a split test between two variations of the same page. At the most basic level, you can test whether a checkout page with a green button will outperform a red button to drive more sales. However, you can get a lot more sophisticated with what you want to test.

Related: The what, why, and how of WordPress A/B testing

5. Your online customers are out there

Once you’ve found the right digital or physical products to sell online and launch your ecommerce site, it’s time to build your brand and promote your online business.

From search engine optimization (SEO) to email, social media marketing, and online advertising, the GoDaddy blog can teach you how to launch, market, and advertise your small business ecommerce site to potential customers.

We also cover case studies on how businesses like yours are succeeding online and provide insights into consumer behaviors, seasonal strategies, and more.

If you don’t have a large budget, start with one or two marketing strategies that you know are likely to reach your potential customers and convert sales, based on your consumer research.

Then, test and improve on what works. As your business grows, so too can your budget to drive more traffic and sales to your site.

Your content usually appears in one of three forms: things you read, things you hear and things you see. That can be blog articles, web pages, whitepapers, ebooks, special reports, tweets,and so on. Email campaigns (87%) and educational content (77%) are the two of the most popular content marketing methods that B2B marketers use.

You also might use videos, photos, infographics and navigation schemes as 84% of people have decided to buy a product or service after watching a video. Or it could be podcasts, music, presentations or (again) videos. More than half of podcast listeners say they are more likely to consider brands advertised on podcasts.

When customers show up in your sales funnel, they’re already pre-qualified and just need to be shown how and why yours is the best possible product or service they need.

That doesn’t mean you can be boring and create mediocre content and just expect people to show up.

There are a lot of people out there who are creating interesting content and winning people over by being clever, humorous, and informative. They’re writing interesting copy, taking gorgeous photos, and producing high-quality video and audio content.

Improve your content marketing with a basic strategy

If you wanted to create a basic content strategy, you can follow these steps:

1. Pick three to four frequent problems your product or service solves. Dedicate one topic per week for each month. You’ll cover all four topics in a month for blog articles and social media updates.
2. Pick three to four themes for your strategy. Pick one theme per week of the month. For example, 1) how-to, 2) client case study, 3) typical client problem, 4) industry news analysis.
3. Write one blog article per week about each theme. Post it to your blog as a way to boost your website’s SEO, but to also show your audience that you’re an expert in this field. (If you’d rather do videos or podcasts, do that too, but try to stick to the same schedule.)
4. Build your social media audience. Do a search for people who are likely to buy from you and then follow them on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn and Instagram. Engage with them in regular conversations, don’t push out sales messages.
5. Share industry news stories on your social channels. A great way to remind people of their pain points is to share news stories about them. If you sell a device that helps fleet drivers reduce fuel costs, share news stories about gas prices going up. And write blog articles that analyze the issue.
6. Do NOT build a day-to-day or week-to-week calendar. I’ve known agencies that scripted out an entire year’s worth of tweets and social updates, plus blog articles, only to have the entire script collapse when something in the industry or company changed. Think guidelines, not schedules.
7. Incorporate holidays and events. Be sure to take holidays or special events into consideration. Hotels should have themes for Valentine’s Day, conference schedules and so on. Accountants should talk about tax day a month in advance. And retailers should make plans for the major shopping holidays several months in advance.

I’m leaving out the basic, it-goes-without-saying elementary “secrets” to improve your content marketing that every other expert tells you, but they’re still things you should do anyway:

• Understand your unique value proposition.
• Define your audience and create personas.
• Know your keywords.

Or my most-detested “secret.”

Write good stuff.

(Seriously? That’s not optional! And it’s certainly not a secret. That’s like your family telling you “Drive safely” when you drive to work. Boy, I’m sure glad you said something because I was just going to swerve all over the place. Basically, if being told “write good stuff” makes you decide to write good stuff, then you need to re-examine your life choices.)

But assuming you already plan on putting forth your best effort as the very foundation of your business’ existence, here are the other 12 steps to improve your content marketing.

1. Optimize your website’s SEO

Depending on how you’re doing your SEO, your website and blog may need a tune-up.

Run your site through tools like SEObility or Moz’s free SEO tools to check the overall SEO health of your website, and then make the necessary updates.

But it doesn’t stop there, because it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it process. This is an ongoing task that you will have to perform until you shut your business forever.

If you have WordPress, install the Yoast SEO plugin and you’ll be able to optimize every page and blog post on your website. Just follow the instructions to earn a “green light” for every page or post and you’ll know that you have covered the SEO basics for your site.

Finally, keep in mind that your blog is going to play a critical part in your SEO efforts. A site with a great blog that is only partly keyword optimized will outperform a site that is greatly optimized but doesn’t have a blog. That’s because Google wants to see lots of written content, and a blog is an excellent way to provide that.

2. Think about your searcher’s intent

Very often, people will optimize their sites with Google’s search bots in mind. Make the bots happy, give the bots what they want and you’ll rank high for your keywords.

The problem is, the bots don’t buy from you. Also, you may not actually care about the keywords you rank for. And eventually, a bot-first strategy will fail because you forgot the people.

Some unscrupulous SEO pros will tell website owners they can get them a No. 1 ranking. The problem is, they’re ranking for really esoteric long-tail keywords — “finger exercises for big data practitioners with degrees from Big 10 universities” — that don’t actually do anything.

Think of why people come to you in the first place. Do they have a problem? What kinds of problems? People even ask their phones or Google that question:

“How can I redesign my house on a budget?” “What should I do after a car accident?” “How do I stop my faucet from dripping?”

Write blog posts and rewrite your web pages to answer those exact questions. You can also do comparisons and reviews of specific products or services, comparing yours to your competition. Or review products that your customers might use, but you would provide for them, such as a heating/AC company reviewing different AC units.

3. Optimize your website for mobile devices

Google now ranks websites based on how well they perform on mobile devices. It doesn’t matter whether your visitors are using mobile devices or not. Even someone looking at your site on a laptop and 30″ monitor will only find your website if it’s mobile-friendly.

Use WPTouch Mobile Plugin if you have WordPress, or better yet, make sure your website is designed with HTML5 elements. If you don’t have WordPress, you still need HTML5. As long as your website looks great on a mobile phone, you’ll improve your rankings.

That also means adding small file-size photos that are roughly 900 pixels wide and 100 dpi resolution. Those load faster on a phone, which also helps your mobile rating.

4. Create INTERESTING content

Think twice before you publish that how-to article or explainer video, said the guy writing a how-to article. They’re usually boring, lack emotion and cover the same material as 1,000 other articles. (Said the guy whose article has 12 WHOLE STEPS!)

• If you really want to interest people, write cool stuff about cool topics.
• Write the in-depth, advanced, 401-level material super-secret knowledge instead of that 101-level stuff everyone else does.
• Tell us how to use the Hero’s Journey storytelling model in our case studies. Do an interview with a notable leader in your field.
• Do a Q&A session with your staff and ask them things like, “What’s your favorite non-business book?” or “When did you first decide to get into this field?
• Have everyone answer the Proust Questionnaire.
• Or develop your own Proust-like questionnaire and ask your staff and partners to answer it.

5. Post photos and videos to your Google My Business listing

When people do searches for products or services, oftentimes, Google will often show several business listings. One way to make sure your listing appears near the top (which puts your website at the top) is to add photo and video content to your Google My Business (GMB) listing.

After you’ve claimed and optimized your GMB listing — you <em>have</em> done that, haven’t you? — you can start adding photo and video content to it to help your Google rank but to also show your customers, followers and fans that you’re keeping the listing up to date.

Post videos of commonly asked questions.

If anyone ever emails you with a “How do I …?” question, turn that into a two- to three-minute video, as well as a blog post.

Post the video to YouTube and then embed it on your GMB listing.

6. Develop a voice and a personality

Most people write in a very serious, business-like tone. It’s rather dry and uninspiring, and it doesn’t convey any emotion or pull people in. But if you adopt a distinct voice and personality for your content marketing, you’re more likely to win people over because you’ll touch them.

Emotionally. I mean touch them emotionally.

See, my voice/personality is often humorous and lighthearted. Other times, I’ll adopt a personality or teacher voice, or put some Dad energy into my writing.* And in a lot of cases, I’ll use first person so you feel more connected to me as a writer.

* Be sure to get your car serviced before winter sets in.

Your voice can be serious, proper, fun, friendly, confident, admiring or inspirational. Think about how you normally speak to your friends and customers and then start dictating your writing. If you need some help, dictate a possible blog article into your phone’s recorder as if you were explaining a concept to your friend, and then upload the audio file to Otter.ai  to transcribe that into text.

Clean it up, get rid of the “umms” and “uhhs,” and make that your article. The tone of voice you used there is your website —and company’s — voice and personality.

7. Answer complex questions

I’ve said it elsewhere, but if you want your content marketing to stand out, avoid that 101-level of information. Stop writing lists about “10 reasons to hire an interior designer” or “5 ways to lower your taxes next year” because it’s the same boring nonsense that everyone else has posted.

Instead, dive deep into the weeds and esoterica of your field. Pick those questions that can’t be answered in just 500 words. If you take 2,000 words to deal with a topic, so be it.

Search marketers are finding that long content is actually performing better than short content.

This article is more than 2,000 words, and if you’ve read this far, then it’s clearly working.

8. Share personal stories and vulnerabilities

People buy from people they like and trust. One way to do that is to share stories about yourself that show you in something other than a heroic, gets-it-right-all-the-time light. Share stories where you learned tough lessons. Share stories of your mistakes. Share stories about your fear.

One of my favorite articles on my work blog deals with how, as a writer with more than 25 years of experience and four books under my belt, I still deal with imposter syndrome on a regular basis. It didn’t get me a lot of business, but I heard from other people with whom that article resonated because they also deal with imposter syndrome. I even had a couple of clients say something about it. It helped them understand me better and deepened the relationship.

You don’t have to uncover buried secrets that you’ve never told anyone. But it’s okay to share your feelings about certain topics if it will, as Simon Sinek says, help people understand your Why.

9. Start using TikTok and other short videos

I’ll confess, I’m not a big fan of TikTok. I see the point, I see why people like it and there are a few TikTokers I subscribe to (@bdylanhollis, @bmotheprince, @cheechandchong). I’ve even toyed with using it myself. But while I may not use it, I believe it will be the “Next Big Thing” in social media and content marketing.

There are already 1 billion people using TikTok worldwide and 100 million users in the United States, which makes it one of the largest social networks out there. TikTok is not an ideal B2B marketing tool.

I can’t imagine many manufacturers saying, “We need a new freight shipper! To the TikTok!”

But if you’re trying to reach Gen Z, you definitely want TikTok: 47.4% of active U.S. users are between 10 and 29, but the over-30 crowd grew 5.5 times from 2020 to 2021.

So if you’re in any kind of B2C market, TikTok and/or Instagram Reels need to be on your content marketing plan for 2022. If you don’t have a knack for video, then consider hiring some college students to produce some videos for you. Hire some kids from the film-making department or the theater department and ask them to produce some TikTok videos about your product.

10. Measure everything

You don’t know what to improve if you don’t know how well you’re doing. So you need to measure everything you do. Even a basic Google Analytics setup can tell you how well your website and blog are performing, and what you should do about it.

Do you receive more web visitors when you publish a blog article? Then publish more articles. Are your how-to articles outperforming your product review articles? Then write more how-to articles.

Similarly, take a look at your Twitter analytics, Instagram analytics (if you have Instagram Business), and even your LinkedIn and Facebook pages’ performance. See what kinds of content are seeing positive engagement from your visitors and fans, and do more of it. The things that are not performing well? Do less of those, or figure out how to make them better.

11. Hone your skills

This is important for anyone doing content marketing themselves. Whether you’re a professional content producer, or you have to write blog articles and shoot videos as a small part of your job, as you get better, you’ll improve your content marketing too.

(Honestly, this step should be No. 1 on the list, but it disrupted the flow of the whole piece.)

That means deliberately practicing new skills and techniques you want to improve.

Photographers and videographers, that means shooting content every day. A professional photographer friend told me that he didn’t get good enough to become a professional until he spent several months shooting photos every single day. He learned about framing, composition and point of focus, but only because he shot photos for two to three hours a day.

It’s the same for us writers. If you want to be a better writer, you need to read books and see what outstanding writers are able to do. Don’t read blog articles, because most of them aren’t that good. Read books from established and well-known authors.

Borrow their techniques and tricks, and then practice them in your normal everyday writing: emails, reports, even your social media updates. If you want to learn how to cut adverbs, do that everywhere. If you want to learn to write short sentences, practice it constantly. Soon, those things will become a habit and you can move on to the next technique.

12. Hire a professional

If you just don’t have the time to improve your content marketing skills, but you want to improve your actual content marketing, then hire a professional. There’s no reason to muddle through it and try to make slow improvements, even while you’re putting out less-than-stellar content. That doesn’t help you in the short or long run.

Think of it this way: If you were to offload all the stuff from your job that isn’t the stuff your business actually does, how much more money could you make?

If you’re an attorney who bills by the hour, how many hours do you lose when you’re doing the books? If you’re a building contractor, how many projects could you do in a week if you didn’t have to do your own estimating or get supplies from the lumber yard? If you have a technology startup, how much time do you want to spend dealing with HR issues or managing payroll?

In these instances, it’s going to save you a lot of time and even make you a lot of money if you outsource those tasks to a trained professional who can do it faster and better than you. That not only frees up some additional time for you, but it can also even give you time to make some extra money to pay for that person’s work.

This is true for content marketing, too. If you hate writing or don’t have the time or expertise to do video editing, then hire someone to do it for you.

Just like every other skill you learned, improving your content marketing is an ongoing process. Some of these things can be done a few times a year, but others need to be done on a constant basis (i.e. practice every day).

Editor’s note: If you need help with SEO, social media,  and more, the experts at GoDaddy are here for you! GoDaddy Social, SEO Services, Website Design Services and Logo Design Services can help save you time so you can do what matters for your business.

Concluding thoughts

Even if you do just a few of these steps in 2022, you’ll see a major difference in the quality of your content marketing, which will lead to increased web traffic, which can only lead to more sales. Pick the two or three that are easiest to tackle and start on those. As you get them under control, pick another one or two and work on them.

And in all cases, if you need help, call in a pro. Don’t spend many hours mucking around with a solution that doesn’t quite do the job for you. This is your company, so make sure you do it right the first time and then reap the benefits that come from it.