Advice | - Part 3

How to Start Your Own Affiliate Marketing Program (In 3 Steps)

It might seem like influencers are everywhere these days. However, you're not just seeing things – working with these representatives is a popular and effective way to promote a brand.

You might be wondering how to leverage this power by starting your own affiliate marketing program.

Fortunately, the process doesn't have to be difficult. By following a few best practices and focusing on the essential elements, you can build a profitable affiliate program for your brand.

In this article, we'll cover a few reasons you might want to consider starting an affiliate marketing program. Then we'll show you how to create your own in three simple steps. Let's get to it!

Why You Might Want to Start an Affiliate Marketing Program

An affiliate marketing program is a network of influencers. You connect with respected people within your niche, and they promote your products to their followers. In return, you pay them a commission from any resulting sales.

There are many benefits to running an affiliate program. For one thing, it's a simple way to spread the word about your products. You also don't have to pay unless a sale is made, so using influencers is cost-effective.

Influencers also get a lucrative deal. On top of commissions, affiliate links can be a passive and flexible income stream.

That means these marketers can promote your content even if they've shifted to remote work. Additionally, the influencer's audience might appreciate an informed recommendation.

With advantages for all parties, it's no wonder that affiliate marketing is a booming business. Statistics show that this market is expected to reach a value of nearly $8.2 billion by 2022. That means getting started now will be an investment in your brand's future.

How to Start Your Own Affiliate Marketing Program (In 3 Steps)

We'll now use this simple guide as a kickstart for affiliate marketing. If you're interested in promoting your business with affiliate marketing, chances are you already have a website up and running.

If not, you'll need a basic WordPress site ready before you get started with the Easy Affiliate plugin, which we'll be using in this tutorial.

Step 1: Install and Activate Easy Affiliate

Starting an affiliate marketing program can be a bit complex. It can be hard to juggle links, payments, and ads.

That's why we highly recommend you use an affiliate program management product, such as Easy Affiliate, to take care of everything for you:

Easy Affiliate enables you to host your affiliate program on a WordPress site. It's a simple way to integrate referral marketing infrastructure into your page.

Some other powerful features that you'll unlock with Easy Affiliate include:

Detailed progress reports to help you perfect your approach
Email marketing to spread the word about your program
One-click payouts to make commissions easy for you and your influencers

Additionally, Easy Affiliate doesn't charge any transaction fees. Once you purchase your plan, there are no additional hidden costs. The only per-transaction fee you'll pay is to PayPal, which the plugin uses to process payments.

The program also carries a 14-day money-back guarantee, so it's safe to give it a try if you're on the fence.

First you'll want to decide on your pricing plan. The options are Basic, Plus, and Pro. We suggest starting with Basic if you're new to affiliate marketing. However, Plus and Pro might also be worth considering if you have a few sites.

After you've made your choice, download Easy Affiliate. Be sure to grab your license key as well, because you'll need it to receive crucial plugin updates. Then install and activate the plugin.

You might also want to take some time at this point to consider your strategy. Understanding the essential elements for affiliate beginners can set you up for success.

Step 2: Customize Your Main Settings

Before you get started, there are a few settings you'll want to adjust. We'll take you through the most important ones. However, you might want to thumb through Easy Affiliate's helpful articles for more information.

Let's begin with the basic settings. You can find them in your WordPress dashboard under Easy Affiliate > Settings. Your screen will differ slightly depending on your plan:

If you'd rather use the built-in setup wizard, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page to find that option. You can also add elements such as your basic business info.

If you keep scrolling, you'll find an option to decide which pages will act as your affiliate pages. These pages will generate automatically when you add Easy Affiliate. However, you can also edit them from this area.

Next up, we'll take a look at the Commissions tab:

The Easy Affiliate commissions tab under settings..

Here you'll decide on your affiliate program commission structure.

You can choose to pay out commissions as a percentage of sales or as a fixed rate. Your payout settings are also in this tab. Feel free to take your time here – payments are essential for both you and your influencers.

If you want to add integrations, check out the Ecommerce and Integrations tabs. For example, you can set up one-click PayPal functions under Ecommerce.

Finally, head over over to the Advanced tab:

The Easy Affiliate advanced settings tab.

It has several useful fields, but we'll focus on the essentials for now. We encourage you to set up email notifications to keep affiliates in the loop.

Additionally, you'll need to adjust international settings if you work on a global level.

Step 3: Prepare Resources for Your Affiliates

Finally, let's get to the heart of your program: your affiliates! Supporting your influencers is the best way to help them succeed.

On top of showing them how to do things like accept credit cards without a website, you can also provide other resources.

Remain on the page from the last step. This time, navigate to the Affiliates tab:

First up is Registration Type. This is where you'll determine whether affiliates can join automatically, will need to apply, or will need direct administrative approval.

For your first program, we recommend requiring an application. This will help you screen for the best candidates directly.

The Form Fields section enables you to decide what information you'll collect from influencers. You can also make it so that users are automatically added as affiliates – which is perfect if you've built your WordPress site solely for your program.

Finally, you can change the affiliate dashboard. We suggest that you take the time to add your brand's colors and a custom welcome message. Doing so is a simple yet essential part of any new website branding checklist.

Next up, we'll change gears. Easy Affiliate enables you to expand your brand with professional-looking links and banners. Go to Easy Affiliate > Creatives > Add New:

The creative creation screen for Easy Affiliates.

Simply fill in the fields to create your new link. If you'd like to add a visual element, choose Banner from the Type drop-down menu. You'll then see an option to upload an image.

Try to make several links and banners. This can help make your marketing varied yet consistent. Once you've made a few creative assets, you can provide them to affiliates so they can advertise your business in places such as their social media accounts.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing spending is on the rise. That means there's a lot of potential for using influencers to advertise your company. Fortunately, starting your own affiliate marketing program can be simple with the right tools.

In this article, we showed you three steps to begin your affiliate program:

Choose and install a pricing plan from Easy Affiliate.
Customize the main settings, such as the commission structure.
Help your influencers succeed with a clear structure and dynamic assets.

Do you have any questions about starting your own affiliate marketing program? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

4 Tips From Successful Small Business Owners

Many people dream of becoming their own boss. However, with 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S., your new venture will likely face some stiff competition.

By making smart decisions early on, you can give your business the best possible chance of finding a place in today’s crowded market.

Regardless of your entrepreneurial idea, there are several universal best practices that can set you up for success.

In this post, we’ll share four tips from successful small business owners. We’ll look at how to drive more customers to your website, reduce those sky-high cart abandonment rates, and even explore how your closest competitors can actually help your business succeed. Let’s get started!

1. Prioritize Customer Support

Customer service is the direct connection between you and your customers. Get it right, and you’ll have no problem transforming one-time buyers into loyal repeat customers.

When it comes to delivering five star customer service, speed is everything. According to research, 66% of shoppers state that valuing their time is the most important factor in customer service. In fact, when they reach out for help, 82% of consumers expect a response in ten minutes or less.

If you’re going to meet these expectations, it’s vital that you make customer service a priority. However, as a busy business owner, it may not always be feasible to respond to support requests immediately, especially if you don’t have a large customer service department.

If the ten-minutes-or-less rule feels impossible, a chatbot may be the answer. With the help of a bot, your customers will have instant access to support at any time of the day or night.

These bots can be a lifesaver for overstretched small businesses, but they also appear to be popular among consumers. According to research, over 67% of shoppers used a chatbot in 2019.

There are various WordPress chatbots to choose from, including the Tidio plugin. This popular chatbot is customizable, so you can update its User Interface (UI) to reflect your company’s branding:

Many small business owners choose to use a chatbot plugin.

Alternatively, you can create your own chatbot. This may sound complex, but there are services to help you build your bot, including the Botsify platform and HubSpot’s marketing plugin:

Self-help resources can be another way to provide around-the-clock support. Online documentation, FAQs, knowledge bases, and video tutorials are all popular self-help methods.

2. Learn From Your Customers

No matter how much time and effort you invest into your small business, there’s always room for improvement. To keep moving forward, you'll need to be willing to learn from your customers.

This may involve asking consumers for their feedback. Wherever possible, it’s smart to integrate these feedback requests into your normal workflows. For example, you might use your email automation software to request a product review every time a customer makes a purchase.

Some customer-focused tools can even request feedback automatically. For instance, it’s not uncommon for chatbots to ask the customer to rate their interaction when they try to exit the chat window. This can generate valuable information, which you can then use to improve your small business.

However, this information can be biased. Humans are subconsciously influenced by social conventions, and may tailor their feedback to align with the expected response.

For this reason, you may also want to monitor your audience using a tool such as Google Analytics. This can provide an insight into subconscious customer behavior, and how users respond to your content and campaigns:

Many small business owners use a tool such as Google Analytics.

By deploying these two techniques simultaneously, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience. This is essential for improving the overall customer experience and optimizing your business website.

3. Spy on Other Small Business Owners

Chances are your business has several close competitors. While these organizations may feel like the bane of your existence, they can also be a valuable learning tool.

With over 40% of revenue for most stores originating from organic traffic, it’s important to get your SEO right. You can set yourself up for SEO success by using a tool such as Keyword Explorer to discover the terms your competitors are ranking for.

You can then analyze those high-performing keywords and identify any that are relevant to your business:

By targeting these keywords, you may be able to improve your search engine rankings.

Backlinks are another valuable way to boost your traffic and secure extra sales. You can identify competitor content that has generated lots of backlinks using a tool such as Link Explorer:

Link Explorer can be a useful tool for small business owners.

This can help you pinpoint topics that generate the most buzz. If you can produce similar content to a higher standard, then you stand a good chance of earning valuable backlinks.

Once you’ve refined your SEO and content marketing strategies, it’s time to turn your attention to social media. With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook can be an effective way to reach new customers.

If you’ve created a Facebook page for your small business, you’re off to a good start. However, it’s not enough to simply post content and hope for the best. It’s also important to identify the days and times your customers are online, and the content that generates the most engagement.

You can use Facebook’s Pages to Watch to record when your competitors post, how often they post, and the subsequent engagement. You can then use this data to create a more effective social media strategy, without having to learn through trial and error.

4. Simplify the Purchasing Process

Cart abandonment rates are a serious problem for online businesses. Some industries even report a 96.88% abandonment rate! There’s also evidence to suggest that some customers may fill their baskets with no intention of completing the purchase, making it the digital equivalent of window shopping.

This is where buy now buttons come in. These simple-but-effective buttons completely eliminate the add to basket stage, and whisk the customer directly to the checkout. This gives the consumer less time to reconsider their purchase, which is great news for your conversion rates:

You can create a range of high-converting buy now buttons using our free Buy Now Plus service.

To create your first buy now button, just register for a free Buy Now Plus account. If you already a existing Stripe account, you'll be prompted to connect the two accounts in the sign up process. If you don't have Stripe yet, you can automatically create a new one during the signup process.

Then, just create your buy now first button to publish on your online store, website, or even your social media platform. One of the best things about Buy Now Plus is that you don't even have to run a website to use it!

Conclusion

Launching a new business isn’t easy, and the line between success and failure can be fine. However, with the right tools, techniques, and know-how, you can achieve start-up success.

Let’s quickly recap four tips from successful small business owners:

Prioritize customer support by using chatbots.
Learn from your customers by requesting feedback.
Spy on other small business owners by doing keyword research.
Simplify the purchasing process by using Buy Now Plus.

Do you have any questions about how to grow your small business? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How to Keep It Simple and Keep Your Customers (3 Tips)

In today’s always on, always connected world, you have more opportunities than ever to communicate with your customers. However, you also have more chances to overwhelm and even alienate your target audience.

With the typical internet user suffering from information overload, you may be able to stand out from the crowd by doing less. By stripping your marketing down to its essentials, you can help even the most overwhelmed shopper make a smart purchasing decision and inspire customer loyalty.

In this post, we’ll discuss why keeping it simple may be the key to retaining your customers. We’ll then share three tips on how to do less while achieving more. Let’s get started!

Why Keeping It Simple May Be the Key to Retaining Your Customers

When trying to appeal to today’s tech-savvy consumer, more isn’t always better. There’s a misconception that the more content you provide, the greater your chances will be of holding the customer’s attention.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that a constant stream of marketing campaigns is the only way to grow your audience. However, this may not always work.

For many shoppers, the sheer amount of online content can be completely overwhelming. If you bombard people with even more information, you may be putting them off rather than drawing them in.

With this in mind, it makes sense to focus on decision simplicity. This is where you provide your customers with just enough data to make an informed purchasing decision – and no more.

For people who are already feeling overwhelmed, this can make your business far more appealing than a competitor who is pumping out content 24/7.

How to Keep It Simple and Keep Your Customers (3 Tips)

While it’s tempting to try and wow the customer, information overload is a very real phenomenon. By taking a less-is-more approach, you can cut through all of the noise and help your audience make stress-free purchasing decisions.

Let's take a look at how to keep it simple and keep your customers, in three easy steps.

1. Personalize the Customer Experience

When you’re trying to appeal to your entire customer base, it’s easy to overwhelm the individual with irrelevant information. Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach, you may want to focus on delivering a personalized experience.

This can help minimize the amount of content the visitor has to deal with, which can simplify the purchasing decision.

If you want to provide a personalized shopping experience, it might make sense to offer customers a membership service. This is often essential for creating a complete record of the individual’s preferences, habits, and behavior.

All of this data is invaluable for delivering a highly personalized, highly persuasive customer experience.

There are a number of membership plugins available for WordPress, but MemberPress is leading option:

Keep your customers, using a membership plugin such as MemberPress.

You can use this plugin to display different content depending on the shopper’s role and capabilities. This can be a quick and easy way to hide information that’s irrelevant to the individual, and prioritize the content that’s more likely to make them convert.

Meanwhile, if you’re using the popular WooCommerce ecommerce platform, there are a number of add-ons that can help you tailor your website to each user. This includes WooCommerce Customer History:

The WooCommerce History add-on can help you keep your customers.

The Customer History add-on records how each visitor browses your store, and maintains a full purchase history log. You can then use this information to strip out all the unnecessary content and create a more streamlined purchasing journey.

2. Simplify the Purchasing Journey

By reducing the number of screens the shopper has to navigate, you can reduce the amount of information they come into contact with. This is where a buy now button can be your secret weapon.

These call to action (CTA) buttons promise to simplify the purchasing journey by transporting the customer directly to the checkout page. You can quickly and easily create this button using our free Buy Now Plus service.

Simply connect Buy Now Plus to your existing Stripe account, or create a new free Stripe account right in the Buy Now Plus setup process. Then you’re ready to create a wide range of high-converting buy now buttons:

After creating a button, you can even deploy it across multiple platforms. This helps you provide a consistent and seamless experience regardless of whether the customer is making a purchase from your website, social media accounts, or marketing emails.

By providing this kind of omnichannel shopping experience, you can make the purchasing process feel effortless and intuitive across multiple platforms. This can help you improve your customer retention rates.

3. Segment Your Email Campaigns

According to Adobe’s Email Usage Study, Americans spend over five hours a day checking their emails. That’s a huge window of time where you could be promoting your products.

However, most businesses are fully aware of this opportunity, so your typical shopper is probably already drowning in marketing emails. If you add to the pressure, it’s unlikely to end well. The consumer might ignore your messages or unsubscribe from your email list.

Therefore, it’s important to minimize the number of times you contact the customer, while still using email marketing to drive conversions. The best way to achieve this tricky balancing act is by using segmentation.

A segmented email campaign is where you send targeted messages to your subscribers based on their characteristics or actions, such as their purchase histories. This enables you to replace multiple generic messages with a single email that speaks to the individual shopper’s needs.

Even if the customer is feeling swamped, highly-targeted messages can still spark a positive reaction. In fact, segmented email campaigns experience 74.53% higher click rates compared to non-segmented campaigns, and companies report a 760% increase in revenue from segmented emails.

All of the major email automation programs support segmentation. Many WordPress plugins also have built-in support for targeted emails, including the free MailPoet plugin:

The MailPoet plugin can help you send targeted emails.

MailPoet comes with an easy-to-use newsletter builder and a selection of responsive templates. It also enables you to send automatic WooCommerce emails.

For instance, you can welcome your new customers, send emails to shoppers who purchased a particular product, and reach out to those who abandoned their carts.

Conclusion

When it comes to selling your products, the customer needs just enough information to make an informed purchasing decision – and not a single word more.

While it’s tempting to try to dazzle your audience, your typical internet user is already suffering from information overload and won’t thank you for adding to it.

Let’s quickly recap how you can avoid overwhelming your customers:

Personalize the shopping experience by creating a membership site with MemberPress.
Simplify the purchasing journey by using buy now buttons with Buy Now Plus.
Segment your email campaigns by using a WordPress plugin like MailPoet.

Do you have any questions about how to keep it simple and keep your customers? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

5 Small Businesses You Can Start for Under $200

If you're tired of working for an employer, you may be looking to start your own business. However, this can be expensive, with many small businesses costing at least $2,000 to set up. If you don't have that kind of capital, you may be looking for more affordable options.

Fortunately, there are plenty of business ventures you can explore without spending a lot of money. You can tap into your creative side, share your professional expertise, or coach other people.

By identifying your skills and strengths, you can monetize them and start generating income.

In this guide, we'll take a look at five different small businesses that you can start for under $200. We'll also outline the skills and resources you will need for each one. Let's get started!

1. Consulting

Many companies hire experts to help them with their business strategies. If you have expertise in a particular area, like finance or law, you can offer your consulting services to different companies in your industry.

For instance, Bain & Company is an international consulting firm that works with organizations in various industries, including finance, healthcare, and retail:

Homepage of a consulting company called Bain & Company

In the United States, freelance consultants make an average salary of $78,922. Therefore, if you have the skills and knowledge to offer, you could potentially set up a very profitable business.

To get started, you'll need to set up a website to promote your services. WordPress equipped with a membership plugin is a great option.

You'll also have to spend some money on a domain name and web hosting service. However, many hosting companies offer very affordable plans for first-time buyers.

2. Tutoring

Tutoring can be a lucrative business if you're qualified in a particular field. For example, you could teach a foreign language to students or professionals.

Tutors make an average of $18 per hour. However, if you have a degree you may be able to charge much more.

To get started, you can sign up with an established tutoring company, such as Tutor.com:

You could also create your own website to advertise your services. Remember that you'll need to pay for a domain name and a hosting service to keep it running.

As a tutor, you can create your own lesson plans and host your lessons online or in person. You don't need a large investment to set up this business, and you can purchase additional resources like textbooks as your company grows.

3. Freelancing

Freelancing is one of the most flexible businesses you can start. Rather than working for one company, you can deal directly with different clients and work on your own terms.

There are many freelancing options, including writing, blogging, graphic design, programming, and working as a personal assistant. You can also draw upon your skills and experience from previous jobs .

Freelancers make an average of $21 per hour. However, if you are an expert in your field, you may be able to charge much higher rates.

There are various ways to find jobs as a freelancer. For instance, you can join an established freelancing marketplace like Fiverr:

Alternatively, you could try to source your own clients through advertising and reaching out to your personal network. You might also want to set up a LinkedIn account and pitch your services to potential clients.

4. Selling eBooks and Other Digital Products

If you have writing talents and great ideas, you could make money by publishing ebooks or other digital materials. You can write in any genre, from short novels to travel guides, depending on your interests.

As the creator, you can set your own prices for your ebooks. In 2020, customers purchased more than 191 million ebooks in the United States, so there's a large market for this material:

Creating and selling ebooks doesn't have to be expensive. You can create the template for free through an application like Canva. Then you can approach publishers or use a self-publishing service like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.

Alternatively, you could sell your digital products on your site. We recommend using our Buy Now Plus service to add high-converting buy now buttons to your product pages:

Our program is free to use and very easy to install. Moreover, Buy Now Plus is powered by Stripe and charges a flat 3% fee on your transactions.

If you want to maximize your ebook sales on the cheap, you might want to consider setting up an affiliate program. To do this, you can use a plugin like Easy Affiliate, which helps you create a self-hosted affiliate program and manage your affiliates from a user-friendly dashboard.

5. Fitness Coaching

If you love fitness or have professional accreditation, you could create an online fitness program. For example, you could upload videos of yoga routines and workouts:

At the end of 2019, the online fitness market was worth approximately $6 million. Analysts predict it will grow in value to $59 million by 2027, so there's an opportunity to make significant profits in this industry.

An effective way to make money from your online courses is to build a fitness membership site.

With this type of site, you can upload instructional videos and customize your subscription settings so that only paid members can access this content. Additionally, you can offer a discounted or free trial period to attract new business.

Conclusion

Starting your own business doesn’t need to cost a fortune. By capitalizing on your existing skills and interests, you could quickly set up a small business and start making money.

Let's recap our main ideas for starting a business for under $200:

Offer your consulting services to other companies.
Give online lessons to students and professionals.
Freelance in your area of expertise, such as web design and photography.
Write e-books and sell them on your site, using Buy Now Plus.
Create an online fitness program and set up a membership site.

Do you have any questions about starting your own business? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Join the Great Resignation (Start Your Ecommerce Business in 3 Steps)

In 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a record number of resignations. You may dream of joining the great resignation, but quitting your job is never a decision to take lightly.

Fortunately, there is an industry that’s going from strength to strength. By starting your own ecommerce business in 2021, you can finally become your own boss without feeling like you’re taking a massive gamble.

In this post, we’ll look at why more people are quitting their jobs than ever before. We’ll then show you how to start your ecommerce business in three easy (and affordable) steps. Let’s get started!

An Overview of the Great Resignation (And Why You May Want to Join It)

The number of people quitting their jobs is on the rise. There are many reasons why so many employees are joining the great resignation, including burnout.

While exhaustion has always been an issue within the workforce, 67% of employees feel that burnout has worsened over the course of the pandemic. For tired and overworked employees, a change of career may seem like the perfect solution.

The seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired many people to re-evaluate their lives, including their jobs. The historic rise in resignations could signify that employees are taking actionable steps to improve their work situation.

Whatever the reasons for it, this trend shows no signs of slowing down. The job site Monster reports that 95% of US employees are currently considering a career change. If you’re one of these people, then it may be time to start your own ecommerce business.

While the pandemic forced many physical stores to close their doors, it also sparked an online shopping revolution. In 2021, over 2.14 billion people are forecast to purchase goods and services online. That’s a lot of potential customers for your new venture.

In fact, with the global population expected to reach 7.87 billion people in 2021, these figures suggest you could be promoting your online products and services to around 27% of the world’s inhabitants.

If you already run a website, you could add ecommerce functionality to your existing content. For example, if you run a successful membership site, you might consider creating a members-only store. This can be a way to monetize your audience and turn all of your hard work into profit.

Join the Great Resignation (Start Your Ecommerce Business in 3 Steps)

According to Microsoft, 41% of people plan to change jobs in 2021. If you’re eager to join them, then starting your own ecommerce business may be the answer. Here’s how to become your own boss in three easy steps.

Step 1: Find Your Niche

Running an ecommerce business offers many opportunities, but there’s also lots of competition. With more and more online stores opening every day, you may get the best results by focusing on a specific niche.

Choosing a niche immediately reduces the competition and gives you a stronger brand identity. In particular, it helps differentiate your venture from ecommerce giants such as Amazon, which already excels at being all things to all people:

By promoting products that have huge appeal to a very specific audience, you can often achieve more conversions and a higher Return On Investment (ROI). With this niche approach, you can also tailor every part of your business to speak to the deep needs of your target audience.

If you don’t already have a niche in mind, then the next step is identifying some products that you’re passionate about.

By specializing in items that you’re genuinely interested in, you can tap into an authentic drive and enthusiasm that will influence your business. For example, this passion can enhance your marketing and advertising campaigns.

While it’s a good idea to keep your business tightly focused, it’s important to find a big enough niche to generate healthy revenue.

Here, you can use tools such as Google Trends to evaluate the level of interest in the products you’re considering stocking:

The Google Trends dashboard can help you join the great resignation.

When crunching these numbers, keep in mind that you’ll want to grow your business over time. This means there should be enough interest to support your future expansion.

Step 2: Create a Business Plan

A business plan is a written document that defines what your ecommerce business is, the activities it’ll perform, and its core objectives. It also details how you’re going to achieve those aims.

By creating a business plan now, you can verify that your grand idea has the potential to be a viable ecommerce company before you start pouring time and money into it.

This document can also help you secure funding without a proven track record if you're seeking external investment.

Every business plan is different, but most documents start with an executive summary. This outlines your ecommerce business and its mission statement.

Next, you’ll detail your products and pricing, how your business benefits the customer, and your Unique Selling Point (USP). If you’re focusing on a niche, this is the place to stress that you’re offering a specialist, focused service.

This is also the perfect opportunity to demonstrate a deep understanding of your target audience and prove the demand for your products.

Even if this document is for internal use only, it’s a good idea to include a section on financial planning. This can help you budget and balance your cash flow. Otherwise, you risk negative cash flow completely derailing your operation.

3. Generate Buy Now Buttons

It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that your new ecommerce venture requires a website. While many successful businesses do operate an online store, this isn’t a necessity.

Designing, developing, and launching a digital shop requires a significant amount of financial investment. This includes purchasing web hosting, securing a domain name, and potentially even hiring specialist designers and developers.

If you want to minimize your running costs, then you can operate an entire ecommerce business and sell anything from anywhere, thanks to Buy Now Plus:

You can use our free online service to generate a wide range of buy now buttons. Buy Now Plus operates on top of the popular Stripe payment gateway, so you can even accept credit card payments without an online store:

The Stripe checkout can be useful tool for joining the great resignation.

After creating these buttons, you can post them to any location that accepts text, including all major social media platforms.

You can even sign up for an email automation service such as ActiveCampagn, and run email campaigns featuring your buy now buttons.

Conclusion

Quitting your job is never a decision to take lightly. However, if you’ve always dreamed of running your own ecommerce business, then now may be the perfect opportunity.

Let’s quickly recap how to launch your own ecommerce venture and join the great resignation:

Find your niche.
Create a business plan.
Generate buy now buttons, using a tool such as Buy Now Plus.

Do you have any other questions about how to start a successful ecommerce business? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

4 Ways Accepting Cash Can Cost Your Business

Statistics show that modern consumers overwhelmingly prefer to pay by card, yet millions of small businesses still only accept cash. As a result, these businesses are missing out on an estimated 11.8 million customers.

For many retailers, the decision to operate on a cash-only policy is based on the belief that it will save them money. They assume it will enable them to avoid hefty card payment processing fees.

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. On the contrary, accepting cash can actually hurt your bottom line.

In this article, we’ll reveal four ways that accepting cash can cost your business money. Then we’ll discuss how you can avoid these risks by going cashless with the help of Buy Now Plus. Let’s get started!

1. It Can Lead to Revenue Loss

According to recent research, 73% of customers said they’d leave a store without making a purchase if there were no card payment terminal and they didn’t have cash on hand. This is especially significant now, given that people are carrying less cash than they were pre-pandemic.

Not only that, but nearly half of Australians feel inconvenienced if they can’t pay by card. The upshot of this is clear: if you’re not offering a card payment option, you’re not giving your customers what they want.

This can indirectly impact your revenue, since customers who feel they’ve had a negative experience are less likely to act as brand advocates for your business. They might even leave a negative review, thus deterring other customers from doing business with you.

Even those customers who are happy to pay with cash tend to spend less when doing so, as they feel more connected to the purchase. Physically handing over cash feels a lot more “real” than just touching a piece of plastic to a payment terminal.

2. It Exposes You to Increased Security Risks

Accepting cash can expose you to additional security risks that may cost your business money. These include:

Accidental acceptance of counterfeit notes. Providing your staff with adequate training to detect and reject counterfeit notes takes time, which increases labor costs.
Internal theft. Accepting cash and holding it on your premises puts you at risk of internal theft by your team members.
Change scams. Some customers may attempt “change scams”, in which they try to confuse you or your staff into giving them more change than they’re entitled to.
Break-ins/robberies. Holding cash makes your premises a more attractive target for burglars. This doesn’t just put you and your staff in physical danger; it also exposes you to significant financial risks.

Aside from the above. you may also have to spend more money on security-related costs, such as:

Theft-prevention measures. This includes CCTV, alarms, theft prevention officers/security guards, etc.
Courier costs. Cash deposits of large amounts need to be handled securely. In many cases, this means paying a secure courier to transport it safely to the bank.
Higher insurance costs. Handling cash may increase your business' insurance premiums.

Not accepting cash payments minimizes the above risks or avoids them completely. A recent report shows that the risk of robberies decreases with the use of digital payments.

3. There Are Hidden Costs of Handling Cash

The idea that accepting cash is cheap is a myth. Many business owners think that accepting card payments is expensive. However, the reality is that handling cash costs a lot more.

Credit card processing fees typically range from 1–3%, whereas cash handling costs around 5–15%, according to research from IHL Group. These hidden costs of cash handling come from:

Higher labor costs. Labor is one of the biggest costs of handling cash. Employees must spend time giving out change, calculating floats, keeping records, and performing other banking-related tasks.
Working capital tied up in business cash floats. This could be reduced significantly if transactions were handled electronically.
Administrative errors. Humans aren’t perfect – we all make mistakes from time to time. Unfortunately, simple administrative errors can cost your business money.
Bank fees for cash deposits. Some banks charge business customers fees for large cash deposits.

These costs quickly add up. However, once again, you can avoid all of them by offering digital payment methods instead of cash.

4. It Leads to Operational Inefficiencies

Finally, accepting cash can also lead to operational inefficiencies that eat into your potential profits. For example, dealing with cash at checkout takes much longer than processing contactless transactions.

This can lead to longer lines and limit your ability to serve as many customers as possible – and fewer customers served means fewer sales.

If you don’t have enough change on-hand in your store, you might have to temporarily close the store (or at least, leave it understaffed) while you go out to get some. In the time you’re closed, you might miss out on potential sales.

How to Go Cashless Using Buy Now Buttons

Businesses can avoid the drawbacks of accepting cash by going cashless. However, if you’re a small business owner, the prospect of implementing cashless payment technology may seem a little daunting.

Don’t worry – it’s not as complicated or costly as you might think.

If you want to start accepting digital payments online, the simplest way to do so is by using Buy Now Plus to add a buy now button to your business website or social pages:

Our Buy Now Plus service makes it easy to sell your products or services anywhere on the internet through stylish buy now buttons. It offers super-low fees, and only takes a few minutes to set up.

All you have to do is sign up for free. If you already have a free Stripe account, it will be connected during the signup process automatically. And if you don't have a free Stripe account, the signup process will automatically set you up with one.

After that, you can create your buy now button and add it to any compatible platform using the provided embed code:

The 'create a new button' interface on Buy Now Plus

To start accepting card payments in-store, you'll most likely want to use a (POS) card payment terminal. There are many different POS suppliers on the market, so you'll have to shop around to find the best deal.

Most will quote you a basic rate for credit and debit card transactions. This might be a percentage of the transaction value (e.g. 2%) or a fixed rate.

Conclusion

Accepting cash might seem like a smart business move, but it can actually hurt your bottom line. Fortunately, going cashless isn’t as hard as you might think.

You can use Buy Now Plus to add buttons to your website or social pages, and start accepting payments online in minutes.

Let’s quickly recap the main ways accepting cash can cost your business money:

It can lead to revenue loss.
It exposes you to increased security risks.
There are hidden costs of handling cash.
It can lead to operational inefficiencies.

Does your business plan on going cashless this year? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How to Get Customer Testimonials (3 Easy Ways)

Marketing and advertising are essential for raising brand awareness and securing sales. However, the modern consumer is naturally suspicious of everything that business owners have to say about their own products.

This is where customer testimonials come in. If a third party speaks highly about their experience with your business, then shoppers are more likely to pay attention – and maybe even act on that recommendation.

In this post, we’ll explore what testimonials are and why they’re so prized by online businesses. We’ll then share three easy ways to generate all the testimonials you need to win over even the most suspicious customer. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Customer Testimonials (And Why They’re Important)

Consumer testimonials are recommendations from happy partners and customers who can confirm the value of your products and services. This customer feedback can take the form of lengthy case studies that are sometimes produced together by the client and the company:

In some cases, happy customers simply share their feedback. Many businesses pick their favorite reviews and present them as quotes on their sites and product listings:

This third-party feedback can be a powerful tool for boosting your sales. According to a report from the Spiegel Research Center, people are 270% more likely to purchase a product that has reviews, as compared to a product that has none.

There’s also evidence to suggest that customer testimonials are more persuasive than any in-house marketing materials. In one study, TurnTo Networks discovered that 90% of consumers are more influenced by user-generated content such as testimonials than email marketing and search engine results.

Your bottom line is influenced by your total number of sales, but also your profit margins. If you ever need to increase your prices, customer testimonials might be the answer. In fact, data from Podium shows that 68% of customers are happy to pay up to 15% more for the same product or service if they’re confident that they’ll have a better experience.

3 Easy Ways to Get Customer Testimonials

Positive testimonials could be the key to boosting your sales, securing new customers, and potentially increasing your prices. Here are three techniques for ensuring that your business gets the feedback it needs to thrive.

1. Make It Easy for Customers to Leave Reviews

There’s no such thing as too much positive feedback. However, there is evidence that the first five reviews have the biggest impact on conversions. This means that you may experience an uptick in sales after just a handful of reviews.

You can use a WordPress plugin like WPForms to create a feedback form that's easy for customers to use. The plugin comes with several forms that work great for gathering feedback. One we really like is the survey form.

This form is available in the Surveys and Polls addon:

The template is pre-set, and includes fields like the Rating field and Paragraph Text field. You can even use conditional logic in these fields so that they appear only if a customer rates you below a set threshold.

2. Ask for Customer Testimonials

According to Bright Local, 76% of consumers are happy to leave a review – all you need to do is ask. To increase your chances of receiving positive reviews, it’s smart to approach the customer when their behavior indicates that they’re happy with their experience.

If a client contacts you about renewing their subscription or leaves a positive comment on your Facebook page, that may be the ideal time to request a review. However, for busy business owners this kind of one-on-one interaction isn’t always possible.

Fortunately, there are ways to automate these requests. Many companies use email software to remind customers that they’ve recently made a purchase, and that you’d appreciate a review:

There’s a chance that automatically contacting everyone may result in some dissatisfied customers leaving negative feedback. However, when it comes to reviews, quantity is key.

Over half of consumers are more likely to purchase a product that has a large number of reviews and an average rating, compared to a product that has a small number of reviews and an excellent rating.

This suggests that it may be worth risking the occasional poor review, so long as it’s outnumbered by positive feedback.

If you do attract negative reviews, then we always recommend publicly responding to the person, and trying to bring their complaint to a positive conclusion.

If people see you interact with unhappy customers in a polite, helpful manner, they may feel confident that you listen to your audience and always strive to provide a good experience. This could have a positive impact on your sales.

3. Register With Popular Consumer Review Sites

When Canvas8 asked customers which sources they trust to provide honest reviews, third-party sites ranked second. Even when your audience is free to post reviews on your site, there's always the suspicion that you may be moderating this content in some way.

However, you have no control over third-party sites, which makes them a powerful tool for proving the quality of your products:

How to get customer testimonials via your Facebook Page.

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to register your business with all of the major consumer review platforms. This includes Facebook, Tripadvisor, Yelp, and Google My Business:

Get customer testimonials for your Google listing.

Once you’re registered, we recommend monitoring these platforms carefully, as some consumer review sites highlight businesses that are responsive. This may earn you some additional reviews.

Since these review sites carry so much authority, it’s smart to show people all the platforms where your business is registered. Many developers have created plugins that make it easy to embed this third-party content on your WordPress website. This includes Reviews and Rating, which provides a widget and shortcode for your Google My Business content.

Conclusion

Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Research suggests that if you can secure as few as five positive reviews, you might experience an uptick in sales.

To help you set up a steady stream of positive testimonials, we’ve shared the following tips:

Make it easy for customers to leave reviews, using a plugin like WPForms.
Ask customers for testimonials by emailing them after they make a purchase.
Register your business with popular consumer review sites, such as Tripadvisor and Yelp.

Do you have any questions about how to secure more customer testimonials? Ask us in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How to Improve Sales With Social Media Content (4 Tips)

Social media represents a huge opportunity for any business owner. After all, there are over 2.7 billion monthly active Facebook users and 69.3 million Twitter users in the US alone. However, if you don’t plan your social activities carefully, it’s easy to let that opportunity go to waste.

Fortunately, there are tried-and-tested methods and tips proven to help improve your sales with social media content. By leveraging this advice, you can ensure that the time you spend on these platforms has a direct, positive impact on your profits.

In this post, we’ll discuss why social selling is more than simply posting your products across Facebook and Twitter. We’ll then share four actionable tips that you can implement today to maximize your profits. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Social Selling (And Why It’s Important)

Despite its name, social selling isn’t always about posting your products and services to social media. While it’s smart to keep your followers in the loop regarding new launches, discounts, and other product-related developments, this is only part of a successful social strategy.

If you really want to smash your sales targets, we recommend using these platforms to build brand awareness and connect with prospects. You can also develop relationships with both new and existing customers by responding to their comments on platforms such as Twitter:

By actively engaging with your target audience in a positive and helpful way, you can increase the chances that yours is the first company that person considers when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Social selling can also be an effective way to keep existing customers engaged and encourage them to remain loyal to your business, rather than defecting to your competitors.

How to Improve Sales With Social Media Content (4 Tips)

Social media has grown into a powerful marketing tool. If you’re ready to improve your sales, then here are our top tips for success:

1. Do Your Research

Today, there are countless social media platforms. With so many channels to choose from, it’s difficult to maintain a presence across every single site.

To achieve the highest number of conversions, it’s smart to focus on the platforms where your target audience is most active. Some platforms are more popular with certain demographics. For example 41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. By contrast, 80.9% of LinkedIn users are aged 24 or over.

If you’re unsure about your target demographic, you can learn more about the people who are visiting your site and purchasing your products using a tool such as Google Analytics:

Once you know where your audience is spending the majority of their time, you can focus all of your efforts on those platforms. This should have the greatest impact on your sales.

2. Avoid the Hard Sell

While it may sound counter-intuitive, it’s a bad idea to focus solely on driving sales. If you treat social media as an advertising channel, then you’ll probably struggle to attract a following.

Instead, we recommend building your social strategy around sharing valuable content. Ideally, you’ll already have a company blog.

These posts are great material for your accounts, but you can also create content solely for social media, such as infographics that you post directly to Twitter, Facebook, and other popular sites.

You might also share the occasional third-party resource, such as informative blog posts written by industry experts.

With social media, the clue is in the name. Therefore, it's a good idea to always look for opportunities to engage with your audience. This may involve liking and sharing customers' posts, answering questions, or responding to comments:

All of these activities can position you as a helpful, valuable person to follow on social media. Then, when you do post purely sales-focused content, your audience should be far more receptive to your message.

3. Partner With Relevant Influencers

An online influencer is someone who has a significant digital following. Similar to a traditional celebrity endorsement, an influencer can promote your business to their fans and followers.

This can be a very effective sales strategy, with around 34% of Instagram users admitting to purchasing something due to an online influencer:

An example of an influencer partnership, which may help improve sales.

The key to a successful partnership is finding the right influencer. Ideally, there will be an overlap between the person’s fanbase and your target audience.

In addition, when there’s a relevant link between the influencer and the content they’re promoting, you can capitalize on the assumption that they only promote products they genuinely like. This can further increase your sales.

Although it’s easy to get star-struck by the large follower numbers of social media’s heavy hitters, it’s worth noting that micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates.

This is most notable on TikTok, where micro-influencers receive 17.96% engagement, compared to 4.96% for mega-influencers. If you can identify a micro-influencer who appeals to your target audience, then you may be on to a winner.

One great way to recruit and manage social media influencers is to start your own affiliate marketing program. There are several tools that allow you to do this easily. One of our favorites is Easy Affiliate, a WordPress plugin that works beautifully with all kinds of membership and ecommerce sites.

Easy Affiliate WordPress plugin homepage

4. Leverage the Power of Buy Now Buttons

Although it shouldn’t form the core of your social content, you’ll want to spend some time promoting your products and services. However, even if a follower decides to make a purchase, they’ll still need to click through to your store in order to start the process.

This gives the customer plenty of time to change their mind. In fact, studies show that 69% of customers abandon their shopping carts. Therefore, it’s important that you simplify the purchasing process in order to encourage people to complete an order.

This is where buy now buttons come in. When you create a button using a flexible service like Buy Now Plus, you can post them across all major social media platforms:

You can improve sales by posting Buy Now buttons to social media.

Your followers can then access the checkout process directly from their favorite social networks.

To create your first buy now button, simply connect Buy Now Plus to Stripe, then follow the onscreen instructions:

We’ll also provide everything you need to post your buy now button across your social media networks. This includes dedicated Share to Facebook and Share to Twitter buttons.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful platform for promoting your products and services. However, it’s important to use it wisely in order to maximize your conversions.

Let’s quickly recap four ways to improve your sales with social media content:

Choose the right platform for your business, based on your target audience.
Share valuable content and avoid hard selling.
Partner with relevant influencers to reach more people.
Add buy now buttons on your social media pages, using Buy Now Plus.

Do you have any questions about how to improve sales and engage with potential customers on social media? Ask us in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How to Boost Online Sales Fast (Top 3 Ways)

In the world of ecommerce, speed is essential. This can be particularly true if you're looking for a quick way to boost your online sales. However, marketing can be unpredictable, making this goal a tall task at times.

Fortunately, a customer-focused approach can help. By using strategies that make purchases easier and more fun for your shoppers, you can increase your online sales in record time.

In this article, we'll discuss a few key things to know about boosting your online sales. Then we'll cover the top three ways to increase your revenue in a snap. Let's dive right in!

What You Need to Know About Boosting Online Sales

It's hard to argue that driving online sales is anything but good news. However, how you increase your revenue can make a big difference. Even if you're focusing on speed, you might want to think of the long-term as well.

For example, one study found that customers who have been shopping somewhere for 30 months or more spent 67% more per order than shorter-term consumers. That means you might want to find a strategy that boosts sales now and also lays the groundwork for future profits.

One way to do this is to focus on customer service best practices. Any sales tactics that are misleading or confusing can end up hurting you in the long run. By focusing on serving your shoppers' needs, you can avoid future complications.

Additionally, it's best not to expect sales to balloon overnight. Even speed-focused strategies can take time to work. We recommend that you keep an eye on your analytics plan. This can help you get an idea of what's working for your site and what isn't.

Finally, we suggest that you keep your individual site's needs in mind. Every audience is different. Therefore, an approach that works for a competitor may not work for you. Try to follow your marketing instincts: if a strategy feels off-brand for your site, it might not be the best fit.

Top 3 Ways to Boost Online Sales Fast

If you're ready to get your sales numbers up, consider implementing one of the following effective tactics in your online store.

1. Add Urgency to Your Sales Pitch

A valuable deal can be hard to find. However, your customers may not feel inspired to act on one unless there's a finish line. That's why you might want to consider adding a timer to your sales to add a sense of urgency.

Publicizing the end of a sale can be a powerful way to pique interest. Rather than an abstract end date, shoppers have a hard deadline. This can encourage them to act quicker on their sales rather than putting them off until later.

This can also be an effective strategy when used with a calendar holiday. You can consider a recent Macy's campaign based around Memorial Day as an example:

A banner ad for a Macy's Memorial Day Sale.

Not only does this approach make use of urgency, but it also helps your customers plan. If they can expect a sale around a holiday, they might be more likely to visit your store when that time comes around.

Adding sale deadlines is also a pretty quick process. Simply add a timer to whatever campaign you had planned.

However, it has long-lived potential too. For example, you can consider recruiting influencers to spread the word of your urgent sales in the future. It may take time to cultivate the right ambassadors, but they can help you quickly reach new audiences once they're involved.

2. Send Out Free Promotional Items

Another way to quickly boost sales is to run a giveaway. It can be a physical product, a coupon code, or a small sample. Whatever form you choose, a well-run contest can create tremendous buzz around your site.

Giving away free items is a well-proven strategy too. One study found that millennials are 75% more likely to make a repeat purchase after receiving a free item. Thus, even a small gift can make a big difference.

One popular approach to this is a raffle-based giveaway. Hosting a giveaway can quickly drive traffic to your site. This may lead to more people discovering and potentially purchasing your products.

Even users who don't make an immediate purchase will now be aware of your brand. You can consider the recent giveaway from Chef's Corner Store as an example:

A giveaway can also grow your email marketing list for future use. In the above example, users must sign up to an email list to win, making this strategy useful for growing your leads.

As an alternative, you might also change up the ways people can enter to win. For example, you could require users to comment on a post or view a product instead. This can boost your engagement while also helping potential customers explore your site.

3. Make Checkout an Easier Experience

Checkouts can be a maze. Shipping information, payment data, and confirmation pages can bewilder your shoppers. Every extra step can increase friction. This can be a waste of all the careful marketing you've done to get customers to the checkout page.

Fortunately, the solution is simple. All you have to do is cut down on cart complexities and minimize the steps your customers have to complete to purchase your products. By doing this, you can capitalize on interested parties instead of spending time reaching new audiences.

It's not just about the steps themselves. You can start a checkout off on the right foot by making it as easy to begin as possible. Our plugin Buy Now Plus can help you do just that:

A banner for Buy Now Plus, an easy way to boost sales fast.

With Buy Now Plus, encouraging more sales is easy. First, you can create customized buy now buttons. Then, you can post them on your site. Finally, when a user clicks those buttons, they'll be taken straight to a secure checkout process.

Buy Now Plus has a super-quick setup. This means you can focus less on getting used to a new program and more on using it to drive sales.

In addition to your site, you can also use Buy Now Plus on your social media accounts. You can place a button anywhere you can add a URL or HTML link, so the possibilities are nearly endless. Simply add the link and let our platform do the rest.

Conclusion

Running an ecommerce store can come with a lot of pressure. If you need to increase your sales as soon as possible, this stress is likely to rise. Fortunately, you can quickly boost your revenue by focusing on your shoppers' experiences.

In this article, we covered the top three ways to boost online sales fast:

Use a deadline to add urgency to a sale.
Give out free products to attract new customers.
Streamline your checkout process with a tool like Buy Now Plus.

How do you boost your sales on a tight timeline? Let us know in the comments section below!

How to Sell Anything from Anywhere with Buy Now Buttons

As an online store owner, there are lots of different places you can promote your products. However, by default, customers have to navigate to your store to purchase the products featured in your social media posts, marketing emails, and other locations.

Here's where buy now buttons can be the secret to driving conversions. That's because they allow customers to jump straight to the checkout stage with the click of a button. Using these simple but effective call to action (CTA) buttons, you can sell anything from anywhere. You don't even need a website.

In this post, we’ll discuss why every business and online store can benefit from buy now buttons, and show you how to create one within minutes. Then we'll explore four places where you can use your new buy now button for maximum sales. Let’s get started!

How to Create a Buy Now Button (And Why You Should)

Typically, whenever a customer wants to make a purchase, they’ll add that item to their basket and then navigate to your checkout page. Depending on how your store is set up, there may even be additional steps, such as creating an account and reviewing the items in their basket.

Every step in the payment process is another opportunity for the customer to change their mind and abandon the purchase. This is where buy now buttons come in. These powerful button can reduce cart abandonment rates and drive conversions by allowing customers to jump straight to checkout:

An example of a buy now button on the Amazon website.

If you create these powerful CTAs using a flexible service like Buy Now Plus, you can post the same button across multiple platforms. In this way, you can transform external platforms into additional revenue streams and sell anything from anywhere.

To create your first buy now button, all you have to do is register for a free Buy Now Plus account. If you already have a Stripe account, you'll be able to connect the two automatically in the sign up process. If you don't have a Stripe account, you'll automatically create a new one during sign up.

Once you're all set, go to your Buy Now Plus dashboard and select Add New:

How to sell anything from anywhere with Buy Now buttons.

You can now create a high-converting button by completing the form. When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on Create:

On the main Buy Now Plus dashboard, find the button in question and click on the Share icon. This opens a little popup that contains everything you need to sell your items.

How to Sell Anything From Anywhere (4 Ways to Use Your Buy Now Buttons)

In 2020, ecommerce sales surpassed $4.2 trillion. With more people purchasing online than ever before, there’s huge potential to boost your profits. Here’s how you can seize this opportunity by posting your buy now buttons across your site and the wider web.

1. Add Your Button to Any Page or Post

You can add your Buy Now Plus button to any page or post using the supplied embed code. Many online stores choose to feature this button on their product pages, alongside their regular Add To Cart buttons. This gives customers the choice to continue shopping or jump straight to checkout.

You can also add a buy now button to locations where you mention a specific product. For example, you might write a guide to using a new product or share five top picks for the summer. By providing easy access to a buy now button, you can encourage the reader to purchase the featured products:

An example of how to sell anything from anywhere with Buy Now buttons.

In the Buy Now Plus popup, copy the embed code and then switch over to your WordPress dashboard. You can then navigate to the page or post where you want to feature this button. Open the page for editing, and create a new shortcode block:

How to sell anything from anywhere using the WordPress shortcode widget.

Now, simply paste the embed code into this block and save your changes. This buy now button will now appear on this page in the exact location specified by you.

2. Feature Buy Now Buttons Across Your Website

To drive conversions, you may want to incorporate a buy now button into your site’s recurring elements. This enables customers to start the checkout process from any page:

Sell anything from anywhere by adding a Buy Now button to the sidebar.

You can achieve this by adding your button to a Text widget. Once again, copy the embed code, but this time navigate to Appearance > Widget in your WordPress dashboard:

You can now grab a Text widget and drag it to the area where you want to feature your button. Then select the Text tab and paste your embed code:

Switch back to the Visual tab. If you’re happy with your button’s appearance, you can save your changes. This button will now appear across your website.

3. Post CTAs to Your Social Media

With over 2.7 billion monthly active Facebook users and 69.3 million Twitter users in the US, social media is a powerful platform for promoting your products. By posting your buy now buttons directly to social media, your followers can start the checkout process directly from their favorite networking sites.

This can also be a way to encourage impulse purchases. A customer who’s scrolling through their timeline might spot your product, complete with a convenient buy now button, and decide to make a purchase on a whim.

Our popup has sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Simply click on this button, and Buy Now Plus will auto-generate a post for your chosen platform:

However, there are dozens of social networks out there. That’s why we also provide a link that you can copy and paste into any social platform that accepts text input.

4. Include a CTA in Your Next Email Marketing Campaign

According to the 2019 Adobe Email Usage Study, Americans spend over five hours per day checking their work and personal emails. That’s five hours when you could be promoting your products.

For example, you might email your entire list about an upcoming sale or recommend products based on the customer’s purchase history. If the recipient decides to covert, including a buy now button in your email can help nudge them over the finishing line:

An example of Buy Now buttons inside an email.

Our popup contains an email button that you can use to generate a message containing your buy now link. Alternatively, you can copy and paste the link directly into your next email campaign:

An example of a buy now link in an email.

Depending on your choice of mailing software, you might even be able to paste our embed code directly into your email. ActiveCampaign is one platform that we now allows embedding buttons (because we use it!).

For more information about whether your provider supports embed code, we recommend referring to their official documentation.

Conclusion

Platforms such as social media and email can be excellent places to promote your products. However, requiring customers to navigate to your store and then search for items isn’t going to deliver the best conversion rates.

Fortunately, buy now buttons can be the key to selling anything from anywhere. Let’s quickly recap four places where you can use these powerful CTAs:

Add your button to any page or post.
Feature buy now buttons across your website.
Post CTAs to your social media.
Include a CTA in your next email marketing campaign.

Do you have any questions about how to sell anything from anywhere with buy now buttons? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you liked this post, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.