Kelly Main

Marketing in the automotive industry is surprisingly easy and affordable, and the 12 automotive marketing ideas below are proof. First make sure your website is search-friendly, has valuable content, and you have a strategy for getting positive customer reviews. Then use a mix of automotive digital marketing and traditional marketing strategies to drive brand awareness and traffic to your business’ location and website to increase sales. Grow your business using these 12 proven automotive marketing strategies: 1. Optimize Your Brand’s Online Presence Starting with a great website is one of the best automotive marketing strategies. Even if you already have a website, it might be a good idea to start with a blank slate. Consider a complete redesign and then build again using one of the best website builders. Using an all-in-one site builder means you won’t have to find web hosting or a site designer to create what you want. A good website should be easy to navigate, look professional, and help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). If you do want help building your site, search for an affordable freelance website designer on who has experience using your preferred site builder. Optimize Your Website for Search Search engine optimization (SEO) is needed to help your website rank on search engines, and is therefore essential for your automotive digital marketing strategy. You can do this with properly written titles for your pages and articles, using keywords in your site’s page and blog article content that your audience commonly searches for, and getting customers to leave positive reviews for you online. is one of the best all-in-one web hosting and site builder platforms for creating a professional, search-friendly website. With Squarespace, you’ll get a website that’s easy for Google and other search engines to “crawl,” which can place you higher in automotive-related search results. Plus, Squarespace offers more than 100 sleek and modern templates, so you don’t need design or tech experience to get started. Improve Your Rank on Google With the Right Keywords Having a great-looking website isn’t enough for people to find your auto industry business online. It’s important that you take the right steps to rank higher on Google. It can take a while for the search engine to recognize you as an expert or authority in the automotive industry, especially when it comes to organically ranked content, which includes articles or pages on your site. Use a keyword search tool like to identify keywords your target audience is likely to be searching for. Choose keywords that have high volume but low difficulty. In Ahrefs, you can see how difficult it will be to rank for a given keyword based on “KD,” which stands for “keyword difficulty.” Difficulty is gauged from 1 to 100, with higher numbers indicating higher difficulty. Often, but not always, the higher the volume, the harder it will be to rank for a keyword because there will be a lot of other websites competing for rankings. Add local keywords, such as the name of your city, in addition to the keywords your target audience would search for. For instance, if you own an automotive repair shop in Phoenix, you might find luck with keyword phrases such as “repair shop Phoenix” or “car repair Phoenix.” Once you have a list of keywords you want your website to rank for, publish web pages and blog articles that answer the questions searchers are asking, and incorporate them with your keywords. For example, if your target audience searches for “best car repair shops in Phoenix,” you could write a blog article explaining why your business is one of the best car repair shops in the city. Show Up in Local Google Search Results There’s more than one way to rank on Google, and ranking in local search results is a must for local brick-and-mortar businesses. When someone searches Google for a specific type of business, like a car dealership or an auto repair or parts shop, near the top of search results Google will often include a map with local businesses. The top three organic results are called the “three-pack” or map pack. Being among the top three organic results is ideal as far as your automotive digital marketing strategy goes because these show up closer to the top of the page. The listing in the top organic spot in Google search results receives 31.7% of all clicks and is 10 times more likely to receive a click than the last listing on the first page of results. Less than 1% of clicks go to any listing on the second page of results, according to data from . To get to the top of Google’s local search results pages, aka SERPs, create and fill out your Google My Business profile listing. It’s free to do this and doesn’t take much time. To optimize your position in local search results, include keyword search terms such as those you use to optimize your website, like “car detailing Phoenix.” Just like regular organic search results, it may take time for your listing to rise in the ranks. However, there are some things you can do to speed up the process, such as getting more positive reviews and advertising on Google, which we talk about below. Get More Reviews From Happy Customers One of the best ways to get new business is by getting referrals from happy, loyal customers. In fact, review interaction is up 50% from pre-pandemic levels, and most consumers won’t do business with companies with lower than a 4-star review average. You can wait for word-of-mouth, or you can tip the odds in your favor by asking satisfied customers for a review on Google. The more positive reviews your Google My Business listing has, the more relevant your automotive business will appear to Google as the best option. When members of your target audience are searching for services or products like yours online, your listing is then more likely to be placed at the top of search results. To get more reviews on Google, the obvious first step is to simply ask customers to review your business. There’s more you can do, though. Make it easy by sending an email after servicing a vehicle or selling products asking for a review and including a link to your Google My Business listing. You can also add a Google review link to receipts to encourage customers to go online and leave feedback for your business after a transaction. If you sell online, you can add a link with a request for a review on the landing page customers visit after completing a purchase. You can also outsource your review marketing efforts to a leading reputation management service like . Podium will leverage text marketing, messaging platforms, and a chat widget on your website to encourage customers to leave positive reviews for your business on Google and Facebook. Advertise on Local Google Results Pages Even if you’ve done everything in your power to get your website to rank in organic search and your Google My Business profile to show up in local results, you may want a boost to the top of search results through local service paid advertising. Target ads to appear in local search results with keywords, just as you did for your website and Google My Business listing. Service-based businesses benefit by using Google’s local service ads because ads are placed above the organic search results. You can also get a “Google guaranteed” tag that increases trust with customers. To get the green badge as part of your Google ad listing, you’ll have to agree to a background check and your business must meet certain requirements based on industry. If you need a license to operate your business, you’ll also have to provide proof when submitting your application. Advertising on Google can get expensive, especially if your ads aren’t set up correctly or targeted to the right audience. The last thing you want to do is waste money on clicks that don’t bring in business. The experts at are a great option if you need to outsource Google Ad management, and they can also set up and manage your company’s Google My Business listing and Facebook page as well. Reach a Different Audience on Bing Google is often the search engine most people think of for searching the internet for anything, but don’t dismiss . Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, attracts a different type of audience in terms of demographics. Users tend to skew older and have a higher household income. To make it more likely for your automotive business to show up in Bing search results, fill out your free Bing for Business profile. Use some of the same keywords in your Bing business listing that you used to make your website and Google My Business listing search-friendly. To appear before organic results on Bing, invest in Microsoft advertising. Bing ads are generally more affordable—about one-third the cost of other search engines. Plus, Bing’s search engine receives about 1 billion visitors every month. Advertising on Google is one of the cornerstones of a solid search engine marketing (SEM) strategy. Learn the difference between SEO and SEM and how to leverage the four key elements of search engine marketing to drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and grow your business. 2. List Your Automotive Business in Online Business Directories Listing your business on Google and Bing is a great automotive marketing strategy, and you can go a step further by finding other online business directories that make sense for your industry. Listings can help improve your SEO and help people searching for a type of car business discover your listing, along with your hours of operation, address, and website. You’ll find plenty of general business directories, such as and Yellow Pages, but you can find more specific directories too. Search online for auto industry-related directories that allow you to create a free listing. Adding listings to a lot of different directories and maintaining them over time can be time-consuming, though. For example, if you change your hours of operation, business phone number, or website address, you’ll have to change it on all directories where you added a listing to ensure your data is accurate across the internet. Fortunately, you can use an online reputation management company like to manage and update your listings. 3. Create a Facebook Page & Participate in Groups Create a Facebook business page for your auto shop to make sure anyone can find your services, regardless of where they look. Facebook business pages can even rank on search engines. Incorporate some of the same keywords you used to optimize your automotive website into your Facebook profile’s “About” and “Description” sections, and in the content you share on the platform. Join or create Facebook groups all about specific cars, common auto repairs or issues, or even automotive parts—and share posts that show your expertise. Followers will see your business name every time you post, which can help your brand awareness. Plus, you can post about new products or services to help spark interest (and new visitors to your website or business). 4. Advertise on Facebook Facebook advertising is another good way to get your automotive marketing content in front of your local target audience. Rather than relying on keywords people use to search for something online, Facebook ads show up in the news feeds of users. So, as people scroll their social media, your ad (if relevant based on your targeting criteria) may appear for them in between their friends’ posts. Target your ideal audience for your ad campaign by location, interests, age, gender, and other demographics. Not only can you target specific audiences with Facebook ads, you can target “look alike” audiences that fit your criteria to a certain degree. So, if your ideal buyer types are males ranging in age from 25 to 49 who live in Phoenix, a look-alike audience might include men 18 to 24, or women in the same age range (25 to 49), all in Phoenix. Facebook ads can also target ideal and look-alike audiences based on recent searches conducted by Facebook users on Facebook or within its advertising network. For instance, if someone has a strong interest in sports cars and searched for similar content online, your ad or a sponsored post will show up in their feed. Because of its extensive capabilities, advertising your automotive business on Facebook may be more complex than you want to take on yourself. is a digital marketing company that can help you manage most social advertising campaigns. Plus, there are no long-term contracts, so you are free to try the service for a month to see if it works as part of your automotive marketing plan. 5. Attract Your Target Audience on Other Social Networks Facebook isn’t the only social network where you should implement automotive marketing ideas. Instagram and Pinterest are both visual social platforms, and so are an excellent place to post pictures of vehicles, parts, or before and after photos of what a car detailing service can do. TikTok works well for those who want to create fun, short videos for their followers, and these videos can also be cross-posted to Facebook and Instagram. On any social network, use hashtags so people interested in your industry can find your posts and your pages. For example, if you own a car dealership, you might use #carsofinstagram, #caroftheday, #autoparts, or #autorepair. Likewise, you can incorporate locale into your hashtags to hypertarget your audience, such as #CarRepairPhoenix. There are so many opportunities to build brand awareness and sales on social media as part of your overall automotive marketing plan. Check out our complete guide to social media advertising for more ideas on how to use online ads to reach people who don’t yet know about your business. 6. Add Your Business to Yelp & Optimize Your Listing Yelp for Business is often the go-to site for people wanting to check out the reputation of a local business before buying. It’s free to set up a listing for your business, and once you do, people searching Yelp can find your listing based on their searches. Use the same keywords that are helping your website rank higher in search results to optimize your Yelp business profile. Once you’re registered and listed on Yelp, keep an eye on any reviews left on your business listing and respond to each one, whether positive or negative. Listings with the highest number of reviews and most positive reviews get top spots in organic search results, but you can also pay to have your listing sponsored to appear higher than the organic results. 7. Grow Your Email Marketing List & Send Helpful Content An easy way to start collecting email addresses for your mailing list is to get customers to sign up at the point of sale. For example, offering a discount on their next purchase can help convince a customer to give you their email address, mobile number for text marketing, and even a mailing address for future direct mail campaigns. You can also use website forms to gain contacts, such as a pop-up form offering 10% off for new sign-ups. Create helpful content and publish it on a landing page on your website along with a sign-up form to capture emails. For example, you can offer tips on how to prepare your vehicle for driving in snow or rain, common do-it-yourself repairs, or a 100,000-mile car maintenance checklist. You can then send an email to your contact list with a link back to this content as well, and share a link to this content on social media for even more reach. is one of the best email marketing tools for reaching automotive marketing contacts. It’s easy to use and free if you have fewer than 2,000 contacts. Paid plans are affordable and include features like templates, A/B testing, predictive demographics, and a look-alike audience finder. Create pop-up forms for your website, surveys for your readers, and segment your contact list to deliver the most compelling information and offers to the right audience. 8. Try Traditional Local Advertising One of the most common automotive marketing strategies is to advertise in local newspapers, television and radio stations, and billboards. Despite being overshadowed by their more glamorous digital marketing rivals, all of these automotive marketing tactics are still viable. They enable you to hyper-target your ad’s placement and contribute to your brand’s credibility. In October 2021, National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) members spent on average 4.9% of gross income on advertising. According to the NADA, car dealerships spend more than 40% of their advertising budget on television, radio, print, and direct mail campaigns. Plus, depending on your location, billboard advertising can be surprisingly affordable. 9. Send Press Releases to National & Local News Agencies Press releases are an effective way to drive brand awareness for your automotive business. Writing them takes practice, but you can use our press release templates to make the process faster and easier. A press release is relevant for many occasions, such as when your business expands, for new product or service releases, when you contribute to a charity, or to promote a special event. In addition to being published online, a news agency could pick up your press release for a story, which could give your news and brand a big boost. Even simply publishing your press releases online can help your SEO. Links from high-authority sites, like news media outlets, are beneficial for your website’s domain authority. In turn, this makes your website more likely to rank in online searches. To increase your odds of getting picked up by news agencies, use a press release distribution service like . eReleases will target your press release to your ideal audience based on factors like location and industry, and can distribute your press release to more than 5,000 different outlets. 10. Put Your Business Cards to Work A business card is an essential marketing tool regardless of industry. Customers will often pick up your business card when they are displayed at the point of sale. If you have outside sales reps, they’re a must. Or if you network at automotive events, car shows, or with local business owners, such as through your Chamber of Commerce, you’ll need a supply of business cards to hand out. You can also establish a referral lead generation partnership with complementary businesses and provide them with business cards to hand out to their customers. For example, if you run an auto repair shop or a parts store, consider setting up a referral partnership with an auto detailing service. As part of the agreement, you will both display or even distribute one another’s business cards to generate referrals. Browse dozens of the best business card designs for ideas that would work for your automotive business or design your own. When you’re ready to print your business cards, we recommend . They top our list of the best places to print business cards quickly and affordably. If you’d rather have a pro create a unique business card design for your company, work with a freelance graphic designer from for as little as $5. You can view individual designers’ work on the platform and choose the one that offers the best price and design for your needs. 11. Sell Your Automotive Products Online Another automotive marketing idea is to expand into selling products online. Considering that online sales of auto parts and accessories increased almost 3% in 2021, you could take your piece of the $6 billion-plus U.S. market share. When you’re ready to create an online store, use one of the best ecommerce site builders to make it easy and save time. Visit each of the providers in order to choose the platform that is most suited for your business type. For example, check out which site builders have templates that could easily be modified to represent your automotive business and brand, and which make it easy to add products to your online store, manage inventory, and fulfill sales. If you prefer to sell as a third-party distributor, many ecommerce platforms could work for your automotive marketing strategy. Large sites, such as Amazon and Walmart, accommodate third-party merchants, as do more niche platforms. If your automotive business sells unique items such as car decals or decorative seat covers, for example, selling on Etsy would be a good option. 12. Send Direct Mail to Local Residents Whether you use a mailing list of your customers or create an Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM) campaign, you can drum up a lot of interest in your brand, an event, or a sale with postcards sent via direct mail. Add something memorable and fun to the design that provides value for the recipient, such as a scratch-off section that reveals a percentage off. Setting up a direct mail campaign can be time-consuming. However, using one of the best direct mail services reduces the time it takes to create mailers and set up direct mail campaigns, and makes it more affordable. Since many advertising budgets are leaning digital, direct mail marketing creates an advantage and opportunities for businesses that use it for automotive marketing. In fact, customers who receive direct mail often spend twice as much as those who don’t receive or use direct mail. Given the opportunity that exists to successfully reach new customers using direct mail, check out our article with 20 direct mail marketing ideas you can use to boost your business. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How much do auto dealerships pay for advertising? On average, car dealerships paid $273,000 on digital advertising in 2020 and $41,400 for radio ads. Overall, dealerships spent more than $7.4 billion on advertising in 2020. How do you market in the automotive industry? Your strategy should incorporate a mix of digital and traditional automotive marketing and advertising tactics to get the best results. Digital marketing has become the dominant marketing strategy for most industries, but there are many local advertising ideas that work especially well for local businesses, including car dealerships, detailers, auto parts stores, and repair shops. How do I get internet leads for car sales? The first step is to make sure you have a search-friendly website. It should have informative content that shows your expertise in the automotive industry and include keywords you want your content and site to rank for. Adding topic-specific landing pages to your website is an especially effective method for collecting the contact information of leads using web forms. Once a site visitor fills out a form on your website, these leads should be funneled directly to your customer relationship management (CRM) software or email marketing platform for lead nurturing. Bottom Line The key is understanding your customer’s journey—some may prefer to research online and buy in person—so you need to market appropriately. Whether you find the most success with email, direct mail, SEO, word of mouth, or social media marketing, try a mix of automotive marketing strategies, track your results, and reinvest in those that produce the best return on investment. You Might Also Like… One of the first steps any business should take is to create a small business website. If you’re trying to decide between Facebook ads or Google ads, it’s a good idea to understand how each works.

The jewelry industry is bursting with an estimated value of $292 billion by 2025―up from $230 billion in 2020. Those using the right marketing tools, strategies, and ideas will secure a larger share of the market. To help you promote your jewelry business, here are 18 jewelry marketing ideas. Use them to increase jewelry store sales, even with a tight marketing budget. From selling online to generating referrals and getting good press, here are the best jewelry marketing ideas to grow your business: 1. Build a Website Optimized for Search Regardless of where you sell your jewelry—online, at fairs, your own store, or in other retail shops—it’s vital to have a well-designed small business website for customers to find your jewelry, your story, and where they can purchase from your business. You don’t need to have website design skills to create a site with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind—instead, use one of the best website builders for small businesses. Using a site builder like lets you easily create a professional website with modern templates. Some of Squarespace’s built-in SEO features include properly written page titles and descriptions, a site map, and a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate. These features ensure your site is secure for customers and its content is optimized to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) on Google and other search engines. 2. Improve Your SEO for Better Rank on Google Success in ranking relies heavily on creating excellent content that inspires readers who visit your site to click on a call to action (CTA) to purchase your items. Use keyword search tool to find words and phrases to use in your site’s content to help it rank higher organically. Ranking higher increases your exposure online to new audiences that may convert to customers since more people see your content in online search results. If your website was published before you learned about the importance of SEO, it’s a good idea to reassess your site to find out what it needs to rank higher on Google. You can rank higher in Google with paid advertising, local search results, or organically when you create content that answers a searcher’s question well based on Google’s algorithm and best practices. 3. Use Pinterest to Promote Your Jewelry Business One of the best social media platforms to use for visual items like jewelry is Pinterest. Pinterest users often search for specific items or use broad terms and then discover items they didn’t even know they wanted. They might pin those items to boards for inspiration, or even purchase items directly from a Pinterest post. To be successful on Pinterest, you need to photograph your jewelry, create eye-catching graphics, and post your content on Pinterest with the right hashtags and keywords. For example, if you exclusively sell flat-back earrings, you could use keywords like “flat back earrings” or “earrings to wear with headphones” to attract a specific audience. If you want to aim for a broad audience, use keywords like “silver jewelry,” “gold jewelry,” and “earrings.” Most importantly, as mentioned before, Pinterest is visual, so it’s important for your posts to look great. You can use , a free online graphic design tool, to create graphics that are sized right for Pinterest (and other social media sites). Plus, you’ll get access to free templates, graphics, and stock imagery. 4. Create a Brand or Product Story Emotional selling is an excellent way to market jewelry, especially since jewelry is often purchased as a gift for a loved one. In "How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market," author and Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman claims that 95% of purchasing decisions are made in the subconscious mind. Tying emotion to a brand or an item has proven to increase sales for many businesses, according to the book. Jewelry is not a necessity, and convincing a person to buy a luxury product often comes down to selling them a story and showing them why they want it. A compelling brand story can generate brand loyalty, and creating a product story can motivate a customer to purchase. Sell rings related to love or friendship, or necklaces to celebrate a person’s individuality—and write that story. Emotional storytelling can be done with photos, graphics, and words. If you aren’t sure how to start writing the story of your business or your jewelry products, consider hiring a professional writer or photographer to help. You can find affordable freelancers to help you write your brand story or create storytelling graphic designs at , a freelance marketplace, starting from $5. 5. List & Advertise on Etsy Lots of shoppers turn to to find handmade products, so it’s an ideal platform for you to set up a shop to sell your jewelry, especially if you make it yourself. The process of how to sell on Etsy is easy: sign up for an account, set your shop preferences, name your shop, add items and pricing, and then set up payment preferences. You can even customize your shop if you’d like. Keep in mind that you have to pay Etsy fees for listing each product and also whenever you make a sale. However, these fees are relatively minimal if you think of Etsy as an extension of your online store or brick-and-mortar shop, plus a marketing channel. The platform works similarly to having a Facebook shop—you can run an Etsy ad campaign to appear to buyers who fit your target audience. 6. Hire a Marketing Expert You might find that you’re not only the owner of your jewelry business, but also the designer or buyer, customer support, tech support, and, of course, the jewelry marketing ideas expert and executioner. A lot of small business owners try to do everything themselves, but that might not be the best course of action. Try handing off some of the responsibility to someone else. is a full-service marketing agency that can help you build or maintain your online reputation (more on that below). Hibu can also manage your digital advertising campaigns and generate more site visitors for your business. . 7. Use Facebook Ads to Find New Audiences Facebook advertising is a little different from search engine advertising. Instead of keyword searches, it capitalizes on users’ tendency to scroll through their news feed. As they scroll, ads pop up between posts from friends or pages they’ve liked. The ads are targeted and placed based on a user’s browsing habits, interests, what they “like” on the platform, and a wide variety of demographics ranging from location, gender, and age to job title. After creating a Facebook business page and ad account, add Facebook’s retargeting pixel to your website—it’s a line of code that needs to be placed in your site’s footer. Then you can set up event tracking to see when someone goes to your site, your target audience (such as demographics and location), and choose the type of ad you want to display and your budget for advertising. Using Facebook ads for jewelry marketing may be a bit more technical than you want to deal with. In that case, consider hiring a social media advertising expert, like . A Hibu consultant will meet with you to make sure of your business goals, use that information for precise targeting and optimization of ads, and provide analytics that show your return on investment. 8. Add & Manage Business Directory Listings In a perfect world, that whole “build it and they will come” adage would work, but it doesn’t, and that’s why effective jewelry marketing ideas are needed. Whether you run a brick-and-mortar store or an online shop, you need to list your business wherever it makes sense to do so. Online business directories are ideal for any small business because they’re usually free to use and include your most important information: name, address, and phone number (NAP). You will often also be able to add other information, such as your website, hours of business, and sometimes even reviews from previous customers. Find the online business directories that are relevant to your business and add your listing to each one. Be sure you keep track of which directories you listed your business in and update all listings when changes occur. For example, if you change your brand name, your site, or your phone number, you need to change it on every directory. This is one of the easiest jewelry marketing ideas, but it can also be time-consuming. To save time, consider signing up for , a listings management service. Yext has directory listings management plans that are affordable for small businesses, starting at about $199 per year. It will add and track listings on your behalf on hundreds of sites across the internet, so your information stays up to date across all business listings. 9. Get Local Press Coverage Small local businesses have an edge with local media, which makes this an easy and possibly effective jewelry marketing idea. Figure out why your local newspaper or TV station might be interested in writing an article or doing a segment on your business—even something simple like “local hometown person celebrates grand opening of jewelry store” could be enough. All you really need is a newsworthy angle that will capture readers’ attention. Writing a press release isn’t complicated, but you might want to rely on a press release service to ensure it hits the news desk at multiple outlets. You’ll also want to prepare your store or product release for incoming jewelry sales and new business that could follow after a story is published. 10. Collaborate With Retailers to Promote Your Jewelry Exposure for any small business is worth its weight in gold—if it’s with the right audience. One idea to market your jewelry is to try to get a top retailer to notice your line. A partnership, even if it’s just for a limited time, can put a relatively unknown jeweler in front of thousands more eyes. If you already have connections in retail, reach out to your contacts and ask for an opportunity to pitch your line to a retail buyer or for a referral. Otherwise, consider attending trade shows to network with lots of different retailers that are there to find the next great thing. 11. Increase Your Reviews Online Having a lot of positive customer reviews on Google benefits any jeweler from large franchises to small, independent jewelry stores. When users search for a jewelry shop, the top results on Google will be a few paid ads followed by organic search results, which will be made up of local jewelry stores. One contributing factor to an organically high rank is happy customers leaving positive reviews. You can get reviews on Google to help market your jewelry business starting by asking customers for reviews as part of each transaction. Once you’ve completed a sale, ask a customer to leave a review on Google. Follow up with an email or a postcard with a link, a quick response (QR) code, or instructions on how to leave a review. It’s a good idea to respond to reviews to help increase brand trust. 12. Create Business Cards for Networking Events Business cards are still very relevant today, especially when you attend networking events. It’s quick and easy to pass along your contact information to an interested retailer, a possible partner, or a future customer. The content on your card can go beyond your business name and website. For instance, including a time-limited or first-time customer discount code on the back of your business card encourages leads to visit your site and make a purchase. A great jewelry marketing idea is to simply wear your own products wherever you go, and keep a handful of business cards on you. When you get a compliment on a piece you’re wearing, you can pass a card to them so they can buy the piece themselves. Creating your own business cards is easy, thanks to premade templates from most printers. Browse through the business card designs here to get inspired to make your own for your shop. When you’re ready to design and buy, is a popular place to print business cards. It offers more than 7,000 templates to get you started, and you can choose from a variety of unique materials for your cards, such as plastic or magnetic. You can also add metallic finishes to your cards, giving a nod to your jewelry business and making your business cards stand out. 13. Work With Local Retailers to Sell Jewelry In-store As mentioned earlier, trying to snag a collaboration to sell in top retail chains is a fantastic jewelry marketing idea, but it might be a long-shot bet. An easier option for small jewelry store businesses is to approach owners of local small independent retail shops. They will be more willing to sell your products at their store if you make it easy for them to stock your products, though you may also have to give them a percentage of sales. Put together a pitch that includes reasons why the store would benefit from selling your products. Your online sales history is a big selling point; if you can show that your product sells and brings in new traffic, a shop owner is more likely to give up a bit of real estate in their store for your display. Also, it’s a good idea to have a branded display for your jewelry. The idea is to make it easy for the retailer to carry your products while also driving brand awareness and recognition. Working with local retailers is just one great marketing idea for jewelry shops—consider these other local advertising ideas to get your brand on the map in your town. 14. Get Repeat Business With a Loyalty or Referral Program You love all your customers, of course, but you are likely especially smitten with your most loyal customers—the ones who return again and again to buy jewelry from you. Customer retention is worth its weight in gold, and it’s far more affordable to retain customers than acquire new ones. A loyalty or referral program is a great way to show your appreciation and keep customers coming back. To implement this jewelry marketing idea, use loyalty program software that integrates with your website and other software, such as your point-of-sale (POS) system. These programs help you capture information about customers for future email marketing campaigns and automatically reward customers for repeat business. Affordable options include and . 15. Use the Right Hashtags on Instagram Instagram is a social media site known for being a visual platform. Using Instagram as a jewelry marketing channel is similar to using Pinterest. You can include text with each post and multiple hashtags to increase your exposure on the channel, but it’s your imagery that will turn heads (and get those all-important “likes”). It’s important to use the right hashtags on Instagram to make sure you get your jewelry in front of the right Instagram users. Start by doing research on Instagram to figure out where your jewelry fits. Create a running list of the hashtags you want to use with each post, and make sure they’re relevant. You can’t include a link to your jewelry website or product links in a post, but you can on your profile, so make sure you keep your profile updated with pertinent information. 16. Create Relationships With Influencers to Market Your Jewelry Social media is a viable jewelry marketing idea, but if you aren’t all that comfortable photographing yourself wearing your jewelry, or your social media skills aren’t great, there’s another way to tap into the market. Consider working with Instagram influencers and other social content creators to get them to promote your jewelry. Start by creating a relationship with an influencer that fits your jewelry line’s aesthetic or your brand’s views or story. Follow them on social media, interact with their posts, and show your interest in what they have to say. After you develop a relationship, pitch a collaboration. You will need to pay them, just as you would with a model or an actor, and you can expect them to wear your jewelry in public, get photographs or shoot video with your products, and (hopefully) create a buzz about your products. 17. Create an Online Contest or Giveaway Everyone loves getting something for free, and it’s a way to market your jewelry business that mostly costs you just time and a single piece of jewelry. An online giveaway or contest includes rules you have to follow based on the social media platforms you want to use, so be sure you read through any requirements before you launch a contest. First you need to figure out what you want to get out of your giveaway or contest. You can use this marketing tactic to get more site visitors, more followers on social media, exposure on a platform you’re new to, sales, or possibly just brand awareness. Create a plan for the launch, graphics for the giveaway, and a budget for advertising. 18. Use Email Marketing to Reach Your Audience There are many ways you can use email marketing to increase jewelry sales. Send a monthly newsletter to keep your subscribers abreast of what’s new and include links to product pages or let them know about upcoming events or sales. Send timed email campaigns to lead up to a big sale or holiday specials. Use email to reach out to customers who haven’t visited in a while in an attempt to re-engage them. is one of the leading email marketing apps for small businesses. It’s easy to create website forms to get sign-ups, and the platform offers more than 200 email templates to get you started designing. Plus, there’s no limit to how many emails you can send each month. One more unique feature of Constant Contact is its seamless integration with Shopify, which gives you the ability to add your Shopify products to emails for easy calls to action (CTAs). Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How do you attract customers to buy jewelry? There is no one answer to this question—it’s about using a combination of jewelry marketing ideas to attract customers. A helpful avenue to inspire people to buy your jewelry is to get them to subscribe to your emails through landing pages, social media, digital advertising, and pop-ups on your website. Then use email marketing to continue to nurture your leads to become customers. Is a jewelry business profitable? Just like any business, selling jewelry can be profitable if you price your pieces appropriately, stick to a budget, and stay on top of finances and marketing. Use a point-of-sale (POS) system with inventory management features that shows which items sell well and which ones don’t, so you can stock the right items. To ensure customers can find your jewelry business, do everything you can to rank high on Google’s local search results pages, including following best practices for search engine optimization (SEO). Implement a combination of the jewelry marketing ideas above to drive brand awareness, increase sales, and grow a thriving business. What is jewelry markup? There are varying opinions on how much jewelry stores mark up, or increase, prices on pieces they purchase at wholesale prices to make a profit. Generally, the range of markup on jewelry is two to three-and-a-half times the cost, or a 100% to 350% markup. Larger brick-and-mortar shops tend to increase prices significantly because they have to carry a large inventory and have more overhead than small jewelry shops or online jewelry stores. Bottom Line You don’t have to use every jewelry marketing idea on this list to attract customers and sell more jewelry. Instead, use the ideas that make the most sense for your business, whether you run a small local jewelry shop or an online store. Regardless of the type of jewelry shop you have, a well-designed website provides a solid online presence for customers to find your business, even if you sell through online shops like or . is a top website builder that offers award-winning website templates that will let you showcase your jewelry beautifully. It’s easy to use the editor to create your site—even if you have zero site design experience. There are SEO features to help your site show up in search engine results, and it’s an affordable option. You Might Also Like… You might be on Facebook, but is your business? Create a Facebook business page to help market your jewelry. Reviews can help new customers decide whether they want to shop at your store, and Yelp isn’t just for restaurants. Plus, listing on Yelp for Business is free. Increase your chances of being discovered by new audiences by expanding your digital advertising to include social media advertising.

Every small business needs an email marketing plan to stay in touch with customers about new products, customer purchases, upcoming promotions, and business changes—to name just a few reasons. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to create effective email campaigns. Get inspiration for your email marketing campaigns with the 25 best business email examples from the past year. 1. Welcome New Subscribers With a Business Email Arguably, one of the most important business emails you can send to a new customer or subscriber is a welcome email. As soon as someone opts in to receive emails from you or makes a purchase, it’s vital to send them a note to say thanks and welcome them to your brand. It’s a good opportunity to offer your new subscriber or customer a better understanding of your brand, a promo code for their next purchase, or information to make them want to do business with you. Plus, welcome emails have an average open rate of 86% vs the average open rate of other types of business emails at around 25%, according to GetResponse. Try this: Sending an automatic welcome message that makes them look forward to your follow-up email drip campaigns is easy when you use . Constant contact enables you to automate tasks, like a welcome offer for new subscribers, so you can set it up and then get back to managing your business. Take advantage of the generous 60-day free trial to see how this email marketing platform helps you never miss a chance to say “thank you.” 2. Increase Conversions With Effective Cart Abandonment Emails When a customer abandons their cart, it can feel like a missed opportunity, but it doesn’t have to be. Sometimes a customer is just doing a bit of comparison shopping or they forgot they were doing online shopping when they closed their browser. A gentle reminder that they’ve left something in their cart is a great way to close the sale. Try this: Nudge a customer to complete a purchase by using an app that monitors customers' abandoned carts. users can use to incentivize a purchase, send multiple reminders, and track even guest users’ abandoned carts to analyze why customers are leaving items behind. 3. Use a Professional Business Email Address This is a different kind of business email example because it has little to do with the body of your email. First, it’s important to use a professional business email address because free email service providers can look suspicious. For example, would you trust an email from crateandbarrel@hotmail.com? Probably not. Plus, using generic email service providers (ESPs) might land your promotional emails in customers’ spam folders. Try this: Professional business email addresses are easy to get and affordable. To get one, you’ll need email hosting, and can cost as low as $6 per month. It’s worth it to ensure your email gets through spam filters and customers trust your email is legitimate. 4. Send a Thank-you Email to Customers A “thank-you” email is an easy way for a business to show gratitude to its customers, and there are so many opportunities to send these types of business emails. You can send one as a part of a welcome email, after a customer makes a purchase, following a customer support call, to request feedback, or when a customer hits a milestone (e.g., subscription anniversary, $100 spent, or 100 loyalty points accrued). Try this: Use an email marketing tool, like , to automate thank-you emails when customers hit certain triggers, like milestones. 5. Set Up Automated Re-engagement Emails One of the most popular marketing statistics that remains constant (and still not yet updated) is from the creators of the Net Promoter Score (NPS): Acquisition costs up to 5x more than retention. This is why re-engagement emails are so important. If a customer hasn’t booked with you or ordered in a while, a friendly reminder that your business exists could help. Try this: Even better than just a simple reminder email is one with a discount or a promo code to entice repeat business. Use a tool like on your WordPress site to automatically create one-time codes for your customers. 6. Invite Your Contacts to an Event From webinars to open houses, classes, company meetings, and VIP gatherings, regardless of what type of business you run, you may hold events from time to time and you need to let customers or subscribers know about it. When you send an invite, make sure you include a prominent call to action (CTA) to get readers to sign up or book the event. Try this: You don’t have to create a graphic-heavy email to get readers’ attention, and you don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to make an effective business email. Use a free graphic design tool, like , to create an email invitation. 7. Decrease No-shows With Business Email Appointment Reminders Whether you’re sending customers an email about their upcoming itinerary, a rental, or an appointment they booked, it’s a good idea to send a reminder. Not only can this decrease no-shows, but reminder emails also give you an opportunity to reinforce brand awareness and create anticipation or excitement. Try this: Pick a set time to send reminders (such as sending one a few days before and a second reminder the day before the appointment or reservation) in your email marketing software and schedule an email at that time. lets you send scheduled emails based on a variety of parameters. 8. Send a Business Email to Request Reviews One of the most valuable marketing methods is word-of-mouth advertising, and the internet equivalent of this is a positive customer review. Send a request to customers after they’ve purchased a product or service from you asking for a review. Incentivizing participation can further increase your chances of getting a good online review, which in turn helps others find your business and choose it over your competitors. Try this: Complete your Google My Business (GMB) profile and then send customers a link to it asking for a review. Having lots of positive reviews on your GMB profile can move your business up to the top of results, which is especially helpful for local businesses. But be sure to give customers enough time to enjoy their product before asking for a review, or they may not have much to say. 9. Announce New Products or Services to Your Customers Sometimes one of the best ways to increase sales is to just inform customers of new items or services—even if you aren’t selling them yet. Retailers, software companies, and service-based businesses can all use this business email example to inspire them. Send business emails to create a buzz around a new feature or product that’s coming soon, or maybe even a seasonal item. This type of email also reminds customers about your brand and shows that you’re always working to improve and give customers what they want. Try this: Send customers to your site to learn more about a product (not only to inform them but also to gauge interest in your new offering). But first, make sure you’re sending your customers to a great-looking site. One of the easiest ways to ensure your site looks great, works well, and offers a great customer experience is to use —plus, you don’t need any expertise in design or coding to create a professional, sleek website. 10. Use Business Emails to Ask for Referrals Growing your customer base doesn’t always feel like an easy task, but you might find that your existing customers are the best source of new leads. Asking your customers for referrals is an effective way to get new customers. And when tied to rewards or incentives, it’s also a proven way to generate leads and increase customer loyalty. Try this: Giving a customer a reward for suggesting your business to a friend can be effective, especially if you target your most loyal customers and advocates. Consider using a tool like , which lets you create custom rewards for your referral program—and then connect it to your email marketing software to make it easy to send referral emails. 11. Invite Customers to Sign Up for a Rewards or Loyalty Program One of the best ways to earn repeat business from customers is to offer a loyalty program. The more a customer shops with your business, the more rewards they earn, so they’re more likely to keep coming back. Whether you’re just starting one or want to remind customers your business offers a loyalty program, an email inviting people to sign up can be effective. Try this: not only offers an easy way to manage all your business emails and marketing campaigns, but it also integrates with multiple loyalty programs. These seamless integrations make it easy for you to craft emails to get more sign-ups for your rewards program. 12. Stimulate Sales by Sending Coupons or Special Offer Emails One of the most popular business email examples is a promotional email since the top reason consumers sign up for brand emails is to receive special offers or discounts. Every promotional email should include something of value (percentage or dollar amount off), a limited time (to capitalize on the fear of missing out, aka FOMO), and a clear call to action (CTA)—a button “above the fold,” or toward the top of the email, works best. Try this: If you don’t have a marketing or graphic design department to create marketing and advertising emails, consider hiring a freelance professional from to create email designs for you. Fiverr is an affordable freelance marketplace where you see examples of their work and rates before hiring a professional for your project. 13. Follow Up After Networking Here’s a completely different business email example that doesn’t rely on graphics or email drip campaigns. If you network regularly, you meet people in or related to your industry often and you want to nurture that relationship soon after an event. Jot down a few notes about those who might fit your customer or referral partner profiles and exchange business cards to get their email address. Then send a follow-up email after the networking event to keep the conversation going. Try this: Use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that offers a mobile app to take notes during a networking event, such as . You’ll be able to capture information about a person you meet, including email address, name, and details about a conversation you have with them. It’ll make it so much easier to reach out with a follow-up email later. 14. Create Lead Magnet Emails That Convert A lead magnet email is similar to a promotional email, but it’s less sales-forward. Instead, this business email example is meant to nurture a lead. Lead magnet emails are best for a segmented mailing list of contacts who haven’t purchased from your business yet. The goal is to send them something valuable that fosters trust with your brand and creates intrigue about your business’ products or services. Try this: Use lead magnet emails to send links to downloadable e-books, whitepapers, landing pages, or blog articles with valuable information. Using a tool like makes it easy for you to create unique landing pages for lead magnets or nurturing, and then track the clicks to see if you’re offering the right content for your segmented audience. 15. Use Surveys to Create Segmented Lists Segmenting your mailing list is important for targeting the right group with the right information. If you run a software company that caters to small, medium, and large businesses, for example, you wouldn’t send all three groups the same messaging, because they all have different needs and budgets. The same rule applies to retailers and service-based businesses. Try this: Send a survey to your customers to find out what they’re most interested in. You can easily create surveys with SurveyMonkey and integrate them with . Then just send an email with a link to your survey to find out about each of your customers (and then segment based on their responses). 16. Send Email Newsletters Once you know what type of content your subscribers want, send periodic email newsletters with content curated based on their preferences. Email newsletters don’t have to be very long, and if you’re already creating content for your blog or social media, you can repurpose that content here. Use teaser paragraphs to get readers to visit your website to learn more, and keep the design simple to make it easy for readers to know where to click to read more. Try this: Consistency in timing and design is important so subscribers know what to expect and can recognize your brand. makes it easy for you to create and save a newsletter template to save time. Simply pull up your template, change the content (but not the layout), and schedule your next newsletter. You can also then easily create variants of your newsletter for different contact list segments. 17. Combination Content Emails We’ve already covered promotional emails and thank-you emails, but you can also combine any type of email with another for greater impact. For example, combining a thank you after a recent purchase with a limited-time promo code can inspire additional purchases right away. Likewise, sending an incentive along with a cart abandonment email can be the catalyst to get your customer to finish the transaction. Try this: If you run an online store, use the plugin to generate promo codes, which costs $69 annually for one site. You can create a variety of coupon types, including percentage and fixed amounts. There are also options to customize codes, create bulk coupons, and create an abandoned cart coupon to inspire those customers to come back. 18. Follow-up Email After Sending Content to Users When you send leads e-books, whitepapers, or other types of content to help prospects learn more about your business, it’s important to follow up. This type of business email doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Simply reference the previous content sent, thank them for their interest, and then include a call to action (CTA) of some kind. Try this: Follow-up emails work best when you don’t leave an open-ended question via email. Consider using an appointment or meeting booking app like , which offers your recipient a couple of meeting time options and makes it easy for them to set up a time to meet with you. 19. Request a Link or Share From Another Blog's Link When you’re reaching out to request a backlink to your content or help with sharing it online, avoid cookie-cutter form emails. Take time to research the other site and find relevant content where it would make sense for them to add a link to your content. Tell them why their readers would appreciate your content whether they link to it online or share it on their social networks. Try this: Use a social media tool like to track your own social media accounts and content creators. You can quickly respond to comments and build relationships on various social channels. 20. Send Informational Business Emails When Things Change Not all business emails are meant to sell or promote—some are meant to only inform. For example, if you make any changes to your business, such as opening a new location or moving, hours of operation, terms of service, pricing, and so on, your customers need to know. Informational emails can be simple, text-based, and include a link for more information. Try this: Although this business email example is usually text-based and for informational purposes only, it’s still a good opportunity to increase brand recognition. Simply include your logo at the top and in your email signature. If you need a new logo or help with business emails, use to find freelancers who can help at an affordable rate. 21. Ask for Specific Feedback After a Purchase This email example is similar to requesting a review but is more specific. For example, when launching a new product or service, request feedback about the specific item from customers who purchase it in early stages or who are given free samples or a free trial period. This provides social proof you can include in future marketing campaigns, product descriptions, and advertising, and may identify important features or benefits you hadn’t used in marketing before. Try this: In addition to sending emails with a request for topic, service, or product-specific feedback, use reputation management software, such as . You’ll be able to manage all those customer reviews you get so you can quickly and easily respond to reviews, which also increases the value of that hard-earned feedback. 22. Request Feedback After Customer Support Interaction Most businesses offer customer service or support of some kind, and it’s a good idea to get feedback about the quality of service your customers are experiencing. Sending a follow-up email after a support ticket closes is the best time to ask for feedback. The customer’s problem was solved, but it’s still fresh in their mind, so they can offer helpful feedback. Try this: The best email marketing tools let you connect to support software and set up triggers for different types of business emails, including post-customer service emails. This can help you spot small problems with the customer experience before they become bigger issues, and give you a better understanding of how your support team is contributing to customer satisfaction and retention. 23. Send a Customer Satisfaction Survey Email Periodically sending your customers a quick and easy customer satisfaction score (CSAT) survey offers an objective way to find out if they’re satisfied with the particular products or services they purchase. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey is similar but is more about measuring brand loyalty and overall satisfaction. Either type is easy to capture through an email marketing campaign. Try this: Use survey software like to create short customer satisfaction surveys to gauge customer sentiment. Follow the business email example below by simply adding a link in the body of your email. Alternatively, consider adding an NPS survey embedded in the email, which makes it clear that it’s a short survey. 24. Celebrate Your Customers’ Business Anniversary You say love your customers—why not celebrate that love with a special anniversary email to remind them that you appreciate their business? You can include a special discount code, such as 10% off to celebrate a year as their customer (or 20% off for two years). This could encourage customers to stick with you even longer for a sweeter deal as the years go by. Try this: Stay on top of important dates with a customer relationship manager (CRM) that integrates with your email marketing software. Then use automation to set up triggers to send an email on their anniversary day or month with a limited-time offer coupon to show your gratitude (and encourage customer retention). 25. Send Birthday & Holiday Email Greetings When a customer’s birthday or a holiday draws near, they’re likely looking for those email greetings since they may contain free gifts with purchase offers, one-day-only discounts, extra loyalty rewards, or some other incentive. Likewise, sending holiday greetings enables you to stimulate seasonal purchases or remind customers about important changes, such as holiday closures or special hours. Try this: Use to automate the sending of birthday and anniversary emails to individual customers or to your whole contact list for holiday greetings. Plus, personalizing a subject line can increase open rates by 10% to 14%, regardless of industry, according to OptinMonster, and you can do that with Mailchimp as well. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How do you write a business email? Writing a business email is similar to writing a personal email (though more professional) when writing to another individual. In email marketing, though, you’re often writing promotional campaigns, which may include graphics, your business logo, and calls to action (CTAs). Every business email should include a compelling subject line, a polite greeting, concise body text, and a professional email signature. Is Gmail free for business? Google offers Gmail for personal email, and it is a free service. However, the business email version of Gmail, which comes with , is not free. But since pricing starts at $6 per user, per month, it is affordable for most small businesses. For businesses on a super-tight budget, here are some ways to get a free business email address. What is a business professional email? When your email comes from an address that has your business’ domain name in it, email recipients are more likely to trust it. Typically, a business professional email address includes some version of the user’s name, department, or role as well as your custom domain, such as “name@fitsmallbusiness.com” or “customersupport@fitsmallbusiness.com.” You can easily create a custom email address using multiple methods. Bottom Line Business email, and more specifically email marketing is used for many reasons, from keeping your brand top of mind to nurturing leads and stimulating sales. Get the most out of your next email marketing campaign by using an all-in-one email marketing tool, such as . It not only makes building email campaigns easy, but it helps you create more effective emails to help you drive more conversions and sales. You Might Also Like… For more information, check out the best email service providers for small businesses. Struggling to find an available domain? Here are some tips on how to choose a domain name. Make sure your website is in good shape before sending traffic from your email campaign. Learn more about how to design your small business website.

An email blast is a single email sent to multiple people at once, similar to sending a mass postcard mailing through the postal system. It’s an efficient and effective way to make announcements, nurture leads, and communicate with customers. Use email marketing software to create and send email blasts to a large number of contacts simultaneously and create reusable email templates for future campaigns, saving time and effort. makes it easy to segment your email contacts into lists, design email blasts, and set up automated email campaigns. Plans start at $20 per month and include unlimited email sends—even on the lowest-priced option. Analytics enable you to use the results from past campaigns to tweak future email blasts to make them more effective, in turn producing more site visitors and sales for your business. Types of Email Blasts There are different types of email blasts. For example, many businesses send a welcome email to new customers or subscribers. Businesses often send thank you or confirmation emails after a purchase. There are also triggered emails, such as an automated email sent when a customer leaves an item in a cart without checking out. Drip email campaigns that send a series of emails over time are often used for lead nurturing. There is no specific number of people you need to send to for the campaign to be considered an eblast—you can send to 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 or more people at once. Here are the most common types of email blasts, and you’ll find email blast examples throughout this article: Welcome email: When someone signs up for email updates, send a one-time confirmation welcome email and encourage them to add your email to their list of safe or known contacts to reduce the chance your emails go to the junk folder. It’s also a good opportunity to provide a few more details about your business and offerings or let them know how often to expect to receive email blasts. Promotional email: When you extend a time-limited promotion, such as a seasonal sale or a discount, send an email to announce it. Make sure your offer has an expiration date to create urgency. Promotional email blasts also refer to emails sent to all or segmented lists of leads or customers with content that is sales-forward in nature, such as announcing a new product or an upgrade option. Triggered email: A triggered email blast is an email sent after a customer takes a specific action. Examples include sending reengagement emails when a customer fails to repurchase from your business during a set time period or starts but doesn’t finish filling out a form on your site. Another example is sending a triggered email notifying a customer who signed up for alerts that an item is back in stock. The most commonly used triggered emails, though, are emails automatically sent after a site visitor fills out a web form, makes a purchase, downloads something, or visits a specific page on your site. Cart abandonment email: This is a specific version of a triggered email. For online stores and shoppers, one of the most useful email blasts to send is when a customer abandons their cart. Set up and send an automated email to the site visitor with a list of their cart’s contents with a link to the cart and a call-to-action (CTA), such as “Did you forget something?” Newsletter: Many businesses send regular updates in the form of an email newsletter on a scheduled basis, such as weekly, bimonthly, or monthly. While they may contain some marketing-related content, they’re generally more informative and helpful than salesy in nature. Drip campaign: An email drip campaign is a bit like multiple email blasts sent on a timer. At a set period of time, such as a week or a day, after the first email is sent, a second email is sent. Alternatively, if a subscriber opens the first email or clicks on a link in an email, it can trigger sending of the next email in the series. The second and subsequent emails are different but usually related. For example, a series of emails that spotlight different features offered in a software platform or a series of emails promoting various kids’ clothing outfits for sale. Announcement email: Announcement email blasts are meant for sharing the most important company news, such as a new product line, a high-profile new hire, major changes in procedures or pricing, or other news that is particularly impactful for customers. Feedback and survey emails: Send emails to get feedback from customers or subscribers after a significant event, such as a purchase or interaction with customer support. These emails can be open-ended and ask for a reply email or provide a link that sends the recipient to a feedback form or survey online. They’re often also used to request reviews. 5 Things Every Email Blast Needs Regardless of which type of email blast you send, start with a clean, segmented (targeted) contact list. In addition, make sure your email blasts adhere to applicable regulations, follow best practices, and include these five components: CTA: Every email you send needs to have a specific purpose. Include a CTA in every email that makes it easy for readers to know and do what you want them to do, like to click a link to a product page, blog post, or some other page on your site, schedule an appointment, call you for more information, request a demo, or place an order. Graphics or images: Your email should be visually interesting as well as informational, so strike a balance between text and graphics or images. Also, remember that many people read emails on mobile devices, so aim for emails of 100kb or less in size. Otherwise, they may be slow or even fail to open on the recipient's device. Personalization: Most email marketing software allows you to personalize emails, such as adding a subscriber’s first name to the beginning of the message or referencing their location. Clean contact list: A clean contact list includes only contacts who have given you permission to email them. Many email marketing platforms expressly forbid the use of purchased lists, and it’s a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you do purchase email lists for marketing, find an email marketing platform that allows you to use these types of lists and adhere to all applicable regulations, including those of the United States' CAN-SPAM Act. Contact info (+ unsubscribe option): Every email should have a footer that provides contact information and a button or link the recipient can click on to unsubscribe. Most email marketing software automatically adds a footer to comply with antispam laws. If yours doesn’t, or if you’re creating a new email template from scratch, make sure to include a footer at the end of your email: Who You Should Send Your Email Blast To Email blasts should only be sent to individuals who opt-in to receive email communication from you in some way. This could include subscribing to emails via a web form, making a purchase, downloading something from your site, and so on. There are various laws that protect email recipients from unsolicited email (aka spam or junk mail) including the two below, so be sure to adhere to best practices and legal requirements. How the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR Affects Email Marketing US businesses must follow specific rules when sending emails to their contact lists. The CAN-SPAM Act requires marketing emails to not be misleading, make it clear that the email is an advertisement, include your business’ name and address, and offer a clear way to opt-out of future messages. You also have to remove email addresses from your contact lists if someone unsubscribes or contacts your business and requests to be removed. The GDPR is a European legal rule of consent that requires businesses to only send emails to those who opt in to receive email communication. Although it only applies to companies that do business with European Union (EU) customers, some US states have their own version. Many businesses choose to voluntarily comply to build trust with their customers whether they’re covered under these regulations. How Often Should You Send Email Blasts? Best practices for email blasts start with sending emails at the right cadence. If you bombard your customers with too many emails or send them too frequently, it can cause your email unsubscribe rates to soar and even cause people to report your emails as spam. This is one reason businesses rely on email marketing software for triggered email campaigns since the email is often perceived as organic and are done in addition to general eblasts. There is no magic number of how many email blasts to send or how often to send them as it can vary based on the type of business, industry, and length of the buying cycle. Ultimately, you want your email blasts to be perceived as helpful and informative, not spammy and annoying. If you’re just starting out, send one email per month―apart from triggered emails. Then, increase the eblast frequency slowly until you’re sending them at the frequency best-suited to your business. How to Create an Email Blast In addition to following antispam and communication consent laws, there are other best practices that can make your email blasts more effective. Start by creating a goal for each email, use email marketing software to design your email blast, segment your contact list, and then hit send or schedule the email to be sent at a later time. Afterward, analyze the results of your email campaign and use insights to improve future campaigns: Use Email Marketing Software for Email Blasts It’s never advisable to send email blasts through your personal or business email account. They can be perceived as spam, potentially resulting in your email address or even the whole domain being added to blacklists. Email marketing platforms, such as and , and some customer relationship management (CRM) software platforms enable you to create and send professional, engaging email blasts without risking your personal or business email. With email marketing software, creating and sending eblasts is easy. You can start with a premade template or design your own in drag-and-drop editing interfaces. Plus, email marketing tools enable you to test subject line variations, discover the best times to send your emails for engagement, ensure emails are compliant with antispam laws, and segment your mailing lists: is a great option for email marketing. Use more than 100 pre-made email templates to create a professional-looking email blast. It’s very affordable and even offers a free-forever plan with unlimited email sends for businesses with fewer than 2,000 contacts. Set up drip email campaigns, schedule emails to go out at the best time for engagement based on your audience, and access analytics such as email opens, click-throughs, and more. Create a Goal for Your Email Blast The most important question you need to answer regarding an email blast is: What does my business want to accomplish? Each email needs to have a goal or purpose. There are several different types of business goals you can achieve using an email blast, including: Building brand awareness Promote a limited time offer (LTO) or sale Upsell a package, plan, or product or cross-sell a complimentary item Solicit feedback or reviews Announce company news (a product launch, new features, new hires, policy changes, and so on) Re-engage a customer (cart abandonment email, lapsed customer, in-stock notification) Decrease no-shows with event or appointment reminders Build authority by sharing updates or news that are helpful or informative in nature Provide customers with an order or account status update Segment Your Contact Lists Even more important than how your email looks or how often they are sent is that you’re sending relevant content to your subscribers. This is one reason why segmenting your mailing list is a necessity. By segmenting your list, you can send an email blast only to those contacts most likely to respond or value its content. In addition to sending content your audience wants, your emails are more likely to be successful. In a recent report by , an email marketing company, data shows that emails are 50% more likely to be opened if they have personalized subject lines. Examples of ways you can segment your audiences include geographic region, anniversaries (a customer’s sign-up date), past purchases or product line interests, sales funnel stage, or how much time has passed since they last purchased. Segmentation can also start with data you already have about your customers, such as their name or city they live in, and then letting customers set preferences. For example, a bookstore owner could let customers choose which genres of books they want to be notified about. With that information, the bookstore owner can curate content and alert the self-identified romance readers, mystery lovers, or horror fans when new books are available that fit their interests, send lists of best sellers in the genre, or share related book reviews. It’s easy to do with tags in email marketing software like . Send Your Email Blast Now it’s time to hit “send” and wait to see how your efforts pay off. Before you send your email or schedule it for sending, create a checklist to ensure you’ve included everything your email marketing piece needs. Items to check before sending an email blast: Subject line up to about 50 characters, including spaces Overall size of email is less than 100kb Includes relevant content for the segmented audience Graphics or images Your branding or logo A compelling CTA Compliant signature or footer, featuring the business name, address, and links for unsubscribing, email preferences, and privacy policy You may also decide to create a slightly varied version of the email blast you created to see which design or subject line works best. Most email marketing software, including , includes a feature that lets you do split testing (A/B testing): A/B Testing Split testing is a great way to figure out what resonates best with email recipients. When you design an email blast, create a similar but different email for A/B testing purposes. Use this feature to test different subject lines, graphics, the position or color of your CTA button or link, or the text of your content. Try experimenting with elements like personalization and emojis or the days of the week and times of day emails are sent too. For the best results, only test one variant at a time, such as two different subject lines. Testing too many variations will make it hard to know which element made one email version more successful than the other. Use Analytics to Improve Future Campaigns You’ll spend a fair amount of time and effort creating emails for each segmented mailing list, so don’t forget to take the time to review the results. Key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you to determine the success of each email blast. Email marketing platforms like and include reports and analytics tools that measure everything from open rates to link clicks and unsubscribes: Below is a list of some vital metrics to track. It’s important to note that most platforms will also let you drill down to see which individual contacts took each of these actions, so you can update lead nurturing strategies accordingly and identify any hot leads: Open rate: How many people opened your email Click-through rate (CTR): How many people clicked on a link in your email Bounce rate: How many emails were undeliverable and “bounced” back Unsubscribe rate: How many people chose to unsubscribe from your email list Conversion rate: How many people completed your CTA, meaning clicked a link, signed up for an event, purchased a product, and so on There are other metrics you can use to determine the overall business value of your email campaigns, such as cost per acquisition (CPA), return on investment (ROI), and customer lifetime value (CLV). Just as you create goals for your emails, you’ll want to create goals for your KPIs. For example, the standard email open rate varies by industry but, generally, you want to aim for a 12% to 25% open rate. Once you know your business’s or industry’s benchmarks, you can work to improve key metrics and results for future campaigns. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) What are the best email marketing tools? There are many professional email marketing tools that are affordable and easy to use. These tools automate processes, schedule emails, and help you build your contact lists. and are two of the top platforms for email marketing from creation and design of emails to list segmentation, campaign automation, and analytics. How does email blasting work? Email blasting works by sending marketing content to your whole contact list or segmented audiences to produce the desired outcome, such as visiting your website, scheduling an appointment, or making a purchase. Targeting specific audiences with highly relevant content increases the odds of a customer opening your email and completing its CTA. Learn more about how to make email marketing effective for your brand. When is the best time to send an email blast? Timing your email blasts to make sure they get the best chance of being opened, read, and a reader following through with your CTA is important. Email marketing platforms like suggest the best day to send an email blast by analyzing your contact lists. However, the best time to send email blasts varies based on factors like your business type, such as business-to-business (B2B) vs business-to-consumer (B2C), industry, the sales process, and more. In general, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays are the best times to send email blasts and give your email the best chance of being opened by a customer. Although email marketing statistics can help guide you to better open rates and success with your campaigns, you may need to tweak your day or time to suit your audience, so always be testing. Bottom Line An email blast is a proven way to build brand awareness and authority and an easy way to quickly spread the word about new features, products, and announcements regarding business changes or sales. Using top email marketing tools can make it easier to design, send, and track every email blast, ensuring you have the most success with your email blast campaigns. You Might Also Like… Stop sending emails with your personal Gmail account—a business email is affordable and much more professional How are you tracking your email blasts? Consider using customer relationship management (CRM) for email marketing to make your life easier There’s no point in sending email blasts with a link to a lackluster website—make sure your small business website looks great and helps your conversion rate

is one of the largest user-generated review sites. Its content helps other consumers find local businesses across a variety of categories, such as restaurants, bars, shopping, entertainment, contractors, and just about any other local service. To use Yelp for business for maximum results, build your free Yelp business profile, respond to all reviews and inquiries, and use enhanced features and ads to attract customers and grow sales. What Type of Companies Should Use Yelp for Business Yelp is one of the most-trusted online business directories when it comes to reviews. With more than 130 million monthly users, using Yelp for business can be a very powerful―and even free―tool for local businesses that want to get found online. Every day, people publicly share thousands of opinions and ratings of local businesses, from restaurants and comedy clubs to pet grooming, contractors, and home cleaning services. Here are nine main business types Yelp is right for: Restaurants and foodservice Local retailers Nightlife like bars and clubs Entertainment Home services, such as contractors, electricians, plumbers, home cleaners, and movers Auto services, such as auto repair, detailing, dealers, and towing Health & fitness Beauty services Professional services, such as accountants, consultants, legal services, and caterers General services like computer repair and pet grooming If you don’t see a main category that seems to fit your business, try searching Yelp for business services your company offers. To do this, visit and type keywords related to your business in the search bar. Then, check the categories of the businesses that appear in the search results. Why Use Yelp for Business Companies often use Yelp to increase their business’s online visibility, build brand awareness, and in return, increase sales. Yelp has high domain authority, so listings can rank highly on Google for search queries a small business might struggle to rank for. Millions of people visit Yelp from Google searches or directly, giving businesses a way to get found online without making a large investment in other local search engine optimization (SEO) services. Taking it a step further, businesses that use Yelp can take advantage of the platform’s marketing and advertising features. From pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that puts a business’s listing at the top of Yelp’s results to a call-to-action button that makes it easy for consumers to request a quote or make a purchase, these audience-engaging features generate more sales for businesses using Yelp. How Much It Costs to Use Yelp for Business It’s free to set up and manage a business profile on Yelp, making it an obvious choice for many small businesses. However, to get the most from your company’s Yelp profile, you should invest in additional features and consider advertising your business on Yelp. For example, for $1 per day, your business can add a call-to-action button or remove competitors’ ads from displaying on your page. In addition to paid page upgrades, Yelp also offers PPC advising similar to Google Ads. It will rank your page higher, but cost-per-click (CPC) ranges from about $5 to $10, so its CPC may be more expensive for your business’ keywords than PPC platforms like Google Ads. Yelp Costs by Feature How To Use Yelp for Your Business in 6 Steps The process of how to use Yelp for Business is easy and it’s free unless you choose to add paid options or advertising to extend your reach on the platform. From setting up and optimizing your business profile on Yelp to managing your profile, here are six steps outlining how to use Yelp for business to maximize your return on investment. 1. Claim or Register Your Yelp Business Profile Check that your business isn’t already on Yelp before creating a new profile. To do this, start by searching for your business on Yelp using the search bar. If a profile exists, claim it. If not, create a new profile by navigating to the footer and clicking the “Claim your Business Page” options and following the steps to create your business page: How To Claim an Existing Yelp Business Profile Navigate to Yelp.com and search for your business name in the top search bar. If your business comes up in the search results, click the listing to open the profile. On your profile, you should see the option to “Claim this listing” to the right of your business name. Click this button and complete the steps to claim the listing and gain ownership of the profile: Create a New Yelp Profile If your business doesn’t have an existing profile on , create a new one. To do this, scroll down to the footer. Click “Claim your Business Page” in the menu options. Then, follow the steps to register your new account, such as inputting your business’ name, address, hours, and contact information: 2. Add Business Information After creating a business profile, complete it by providing as much information as possible about your company to optimize the chance of someone finding your business profile on Yelp. This includes your company’s physical address (if applicable), website URL, hours of operation, contact information, and a detailed description. Then, add at least five photos representative of your business. Here are the nine sections to complete in your Yelp business profile: Business name: If you just created your business profile, this section will be all set. However, if your business had a preexisting profile, check to be sure your business name was input accurately after claiming it. Categories: Every Yelp business profile must be linked to specific major categories with a maximum of three categories allowed per business. Be sure your profile is linked to the most appropriate categories so users can find your listing when they browse Yelp. Location: Input your company’s physical address if it’s a business customers normally visit in person, such as a restaurant, retail store, or coffee shop. This is key as Yelp shows a map pinpointing its location on your profile and also gives users the option to get directions to this address. Hours: Ensure that the hours listed reflect your actual hours of operation. Be sure to also update any holidays hours as some users may be looking to see if your business is open at these times. Contact information: Give visitors a way to contact your business should they have questions, want to book a service, or make a reservation. Include a phone number and an email, as well as any other contact methods routinely used. Your website address: Make sure your website URL is accurate. More business info section: This section includes a breadth of additional information relevant to your category or categories. For example, a restaurant could input whether they accept credit cards, allow dogs, have Wi-Fi, offer takeout, parking, and more. Add all pertinent information for your category type. Business description: Add a summary description of your business up to 1,500 characters. This can include information about your company’s specialties or strengths, business history, staff, and any other information that would make someone want to do business with your organization. Photo gallery: Photos are very important. They visually illustrate what your business is (or can do) and give visitors a sense of what to expect when they visit, hire, or purchase from your company. Upload anywhere from five to 10 quality images representative of your business, such as its physical store (interior and exterior), products, services, before and after photos, and so on. Below is an example of an effective business profile on Yelp, called Menotti’s Coffee Shop. It has basic business information and important details about key offerings like bike parking, the ability to accept Apple Pay, and a dog-friendly environment. It also has a large gallery of high-quality photos, a link to its menu, a price level, a call to action (“request an appointment”), and a five-star rating based on dozens of reviews: 3. Get Reviews From Existing Customers The main reason people use Yelp is to research business ratings and reviews as part of their decision-making process. Therefore, it’s critical for your business to secure high-quality reviews from its customers. Get your new profile off the ground with reviews from existing customers, friends, and family, and invite new customers to leave reviews or encourage them to do so by offering incentives. Ask for Reviews From Your Network The fastest way to get positive reviews is to ask customers, family, friends, and staff to leave a review of your business on Yelp. Be sure reviews are genuine and left by real Yelp users as Yelp filters out any reviews it deems to be inauthentic or “rigged.” To solicit reviews from your network, ask them personally or post a link to request reviews on your website, on social media, in emails or newsletters, on receipts, or via text messages. Here are nine ways to ask for reviews from your network: Personal requests: Ask friends, family, and staff members to leave a review on your company’s Yelp profile. Also, keep your ears open for customers who openly speak about how much they like your business, product, or service and invite them to share a review on Yelp. On your website: Encourage website visitors to go to your Yelp profile by adding a Yelp badge on your site. Learn more about what a Yelp badge is and how to get one. Social media: Create a post on your business’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts asking for genuine reviews or leave a link to your Yelp reviews in your company description or bio section. Email: Send a mass email to your customers sharing the news that your business has a new listing on Yelp and you would appreciate their reviews. Email signature: Add a “Find us on Yelp” link or Yelp badge to your email signature, increasing the chances that someone you communicate with via email will leave a review. Newsletters: Periodically reference your Yelp business account in weekly or monthly newsletters, reminding and encouraging satisfied customers to leave a review. Add your Yelp badge to the footer area of your email newsletters. Countertop display: Set up a countertop display beside a register or checkout area asking for happy customers to review your business on Yelp. Via your receipts: Some point-of-sale (POS) systems allow businesses to add custom messages to the bottom of receipts. If you have this option, add a message inviting customers to leave a review on your Yelp profile. Follow-up texts: Businesses that offer reservation-based services, such as salons, dentists, or chiropractors, often use text notifications to remind clients of upcoming appointments. Leverage this tool after the sale as a customer service follow-up requesting a Yelp review. Incentivize Customers to Leave Reviews If you’re struggling to get the volume of positive reviews you need, try offering an incentive and applying it to nearly any of the methods above. For example, you can email a coupon or gift card to those who leave a review. Use an incentive likely to be attractive to your customers and the best method (or multiple methods) to reach them with this offer. For more ideas and insights, check out the complete breakdown on how to get more reviews. 4. Monitor Your Account & Respond to Reviews Your Yelp profile isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it type of business listing. After building out your profile and implementing strategies to get reviews, start monitoring your account. Check your Yelp account daily for new reviews—good or bad—and reply to them right away. Make sure you leave a public response to each review by going to the reviews section of your business account, finding the relevant review, and clicking “Add Public Comment.” Enter your response, click “Preview,” then “Post Comment.” Respond to Good Reviews When responding to positive reviews, show your appreciation by thanking the reviewer for their patronage and feedback. This can be done with a short public reply but be sure to vary your replies to avoid your response looking canned or automated. Respond to Bad Reviews It’s crucial to reply to bad reviews as fast as possible as they are an opportunity to correct an issue or explain a situation. Plus, many consumers won’t be put off by a bad review if they see that your business was responsive and tried to remedy the situation. Start by apologizing for the experience or issue the reviewer had, offer objective clarifying information, invite them to contact you directly to come to a resolution, and don’t get defensive. Review & Analyze Yelp Metrics Your Yelp for Business Owners dashboard provides data about those who visit your profile. Review and analyze these metrics to gain insight into when users are the most active, common issues or comments, or if they’re posting certain types of photos. For example, a restaurant might find that people visit its profile on weekdays before dinner and then use that when timing future advertising and marketing campaigns: 5. Use Enhanced Business Profile Features You can upgrade your Yelp business profile with enhanced, premium page features and Yelp Deals. include the addition of a call-to-action button, the inclusions of an enhanced photo gallery, and the removal of profile ads. Additionally, Yelp Deals allows you to offer exclusive deals on your profile, such as a discount or gift certificates, to monetize your account. Enhanced business page features include the ability to add a CTA button, remove competitor ads from your profile page, and use an enhanced image gallery. Each individual enhanced feature currently costs $1 per month, and Yelp also receives a commission for deals and gift certificates sold. To add enhanced business profile features, contact a Yelp Ad Representative via phone at (877) 767-9357. Add a CTA Button A call-to-action button gives visitors a way to immediately interact with your business by performing a certain action. For example, a restaurant could include a call-to-action like “Make a reservation” or “Place an order,” whereas a salon might use a call to action, such as “Book an appointment.” The CTA button appears on the right-hand side of your business page. Remove Competitor Ads from Your Business Page Yelp displays competitor’s ads automatically toward the bottom of your business page to give page visitors alternatives within your business category. This can be good for a visitor, but it’s not so good for your business. To keep the focus on your organization, you can pay to remove competitor ads from your page: Enhanced Photo Gallery The enhanced photo gallery option allows you to select the order in which photos are displayed in the photo gallery. This enables you to control what visitors see when they visit your business page. For example, your company may use this feature to showcase professional photos rather than user-generated or other photos added more recently, which may be lower-quality and less flattering: Yelp Deals & Reservations Yelp Deals are prepaid vouchers and gift certificates you can use to monetize your business profile. They’re sold via a CTA button on the profile page in the right-hand sidebar. Yelp Deals cost nothing upfront to use; however, Yelp charges a 30% commission for deals and 10% for gift certificates. 6. Advertise Your Business on Yelp Yelp advertising increases traffic to your business’ profile, thereby attracting new customers. It achieves this through PPC ads that position your company’s profile at the top of search results. The cost of these ads varies, but most businesses using Yelp ads spend anywhere from $300-$1,000 per month with a three-month commitment. For more information, contact a Ad Specialist. Learn more about using online ads as part of your organization’s search engine marketing strategy: Pros & Cons of Yelp for Business Businesses tend to have a love-hate relationship with Yelp. While some love the free exposure and social proof it provides, others dislike the negative impact bad reviews can have on their company and complain that Yelp ads are costly. The Pros of Yelp for Business When considering whether your business should use Yelp, there are some very strong pros. The top advantages of using Yelp for business include increased exposure, social proof, and that it’s free to create and manage a profile. These all make Yelp an affordable and effective way to market your business. Here are the top three pros of Yelp for business: Increased exposure: With more than 130 million active monthly users, your business is likely to gain a lot of exposure if it has a quality business page with many good reviews. Social proof: People use reviews when making purchasing decisions. Good reviews provide social proof, which gives those new to your business the confidence to try it or to choose it over that of a competitor. Free: While you can pay for enhanced business page features or Yelp ads, it’s free to create and manage a business page on Yelp. The Cons of Yelp for Business The cons of using Yelp are light compared to its pros; however, it’s worth acknowledging the downsides of Yelp for business. These mainly include the impact of negative reviews, the time it takes to manage another platform, and the cost to advertise on Yelp. Here are the top three cons of Yelp for business: Negative effect of bad reviews: People tend to only leave reviews when they’re either extremely happy or extremely dissatisfied, and negative reviews can hurt your business. However, you may face this problem regardless of whether you use Yelp for business since poor reviews can also be left elsewhere, such as your Facebook business page or Google My Business listing. Another platform to manage: Time is a limited resource and Yelp is another platform to manage. While many think they can “set it and forget it” when it comes to business directory listings, you don’t want to do this on Yelp. Instead, you’ll need to invest time maintaining your profile, responding to reviews and inquiries, and keeping it up to date. It can get expensive: While paid advertising is optional, Yelp’s PPC platform generally has a higher average cost-per-acquisition compared to other PPC advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Despite Yelp’s potential cons, it proves an effective marketing platform for businesses when used strategically. Some cons, such as bad reviews, can even serve as an opportunity to get customer feedback that can be used for making business improvements. Most importantly for small businesses, Yelp can be used for free as a way to draw in new customers. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How can I acquire and manage Yelp reviews? The easiest and fastest way to get reviews is usually by asking for them from your existing network, such as current customers, friends, and family. Whether they’re positive or negative, respond to every review. This shows that your business is proactive and cares about its customers’ experience and satisfaction. If you don’t have time to manage all your business’ reviews, opt for an online reputation management service, such as . What are the best local SEO tools? The best local SEO tools not only help you rank higher in online search results, but they’re also affordable, easy to use, and effective in helping your business reach its SEO goals. These include everything from for free keyword research and website insights, for performance data and optimizations, and or for online reputation management. How do I use keywords to optimize my Yelp page? Keywords are words and search terms people use to find businesses like yours in online searches. For example, Nonna’s Trattoria is an Italian restaurant so its primary keyword would be “Italian restaurant” as well as the city name where the user wants to find one. Discover top keywords people use to find your type of business with a free keyword research tool like and use them in your Yelp business info and description. Bottom Line To use Yelp for business effectively, create a comprehensive, search-optimized business profile, pay a small monthly fee for Yelp’s enhanced features, and engage with customers by responding to all reviews quickly. Doing so increases your visibility, in turn growing your customer base and leading to more sales. Even if you have a complete profile and manage all reviews, it can still be hard for your business to show up in Yelp search results. Try ads to give your business the boost it needs to gain visibility and to attract new customers. Get a free $300 Yelp advertising coupon by signing up today. You Might Also Like… Increase your visibility online and offline with the best local advertising ideas. Continue learning about how to improve your local SEO with free local citations. Want to drive more traffic to your site? Check out the best website marketing strategies.

Squarespace is one of the best all-in-one site builders. Aside from its sleek design, it’s known for its exceptional built-in search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, helping sites rank better online. To optimize your Squarespace SEO for Google, you’ll need to do certain steps: customize your SEO tags, add a favicon, optimize your images and content, organize your products, connect a custom domain, enable SSL, and integrate Google software. Here’s a breakdown of the 10 steps needed to use SEO to rank on Google: 1. Customize Your SEO Titles, Meta Descriptions & URLs allows you to add SEO titles and meta descriptions to each of your website pages. This can be found in the SEO settings of each individual page (accessible by clicking on the gear icon beside each page in the Page menu). These SEO titles and descriptions tell potential viewers what a certain page on your site is about. 2. Add a Favicon A favicon, or a brand icon, is the small image you see in your browser tabs, history archives, and bookmarks. Many companies use their company logo as a favicon. Take note that favicons don’t directly impact SEO, but they can go a long way in promoting brand awareness, name recognition, and site credibility. On , you can easily create a favicon by uploading your logo. Just go to your Home menu, click on “Design,” and then click “Browser Icon” to upload an image. You don’t have to upload a separate, smaller image either. Squarespace automatically resizes the image to fit your browser. 3. Optimize Your Images Although how Google ranks websites isn’t definitive, it doesn’t hurt to optimize everything about your website, including your images. Ensure that all the images on your website are of high quality, and make sure that they have readable and descriptive file names. Google also looks at alt text, or a short description of your image that’s indexed by search engines. Keep your descriptions short. We recommend using 12 words or less to describe your image, and always include relevant keywords without stuffing them. To add both the image name (without special characters, except for underscores and hyphens) and the alt text, click on the image you want to describe in your Editor. Then, click on the pencil icon that appears to open its settings. 4. Organize Your Tags & Categories Organizing your tags and categories might not directly affect your rankings on Google, but it does improve your user experience. This will hopefully lead to longer session times and lower bounce rates, which Google does take into consideration when determining your search result ranking. On , you have the ability to tag and categorize your blog posts, products, and events. Here’s when to use each: Categories: Used to organize the content on your site. Examples of categories are “International Travel” and “Local Travel,” and “Dresses,” “Tops,” and “Bottoms.” Tags: These are any words that your audience might search your site for, like keywords or very specific niches. In general, you’ll want to use categories to organize large amounts of content. On a food blog, for example, categories can include “Breakfast Foods,” “Brunch Foods,” “Lunch Foods,” and “Dinner Foods.” The tags for these categories can include “recipe of the day,” “meatless Mondays,” “holiday specials,” “Christmas meals,” and anything else you can think of to describe a specific post. To organize your posts, start by clicking on your Page menu. Choose your blog, store, or event page from the main navigation and click on the ellipsis beside the post, product, or event you want to categorize. From there, you can add tags and categories in the Options tab. Organize them by going back to the main navigation menu and clicking on the gear icon beside the page (e.g., your blog page). You will find the option to organize your tags and categories under Advanced. 5. Create a Custom 404 Page A 404 page is an error that your audience sees when they land on a broken URL. automatically uses a standard 404 page, but it’s easy to create a custom one. The purpose of a custom 404 page is to add links that your viewers can click on in the event of an error. For example, you can link back to your homepage or another page on your site that your viewer may find interesting. This can prevent them from leaving your website altogether. To create your own 404 page on , first, go to your Pages menu and create a new, blank page. Design the page by adding an error message, plus any links you want to direct your audience to. Make sure to unlink the page so that it won’t be visible on your menu by dragging it to the “Not Linked” section of the menu. Then, go back to the main navigation menu, click on “Design,” then click “404 Page.” You will then be able to select your custom page from the drop-down menu. 6. Connect a Custom Domain A custom domain name increases the chances of your audience finding you. As a small business owner, it also speaks to the professionalism of your brand when you have a custom domain instead of a site with a subdomain (e.g., www.yourbrandname.com vs www.yourbrandname.squarespace.com). Getting a custom domain for your website will require you to register on a domain registrar, like , , or . If you pay for an annual or bi-annual billing cycle via Squarespace, you are eligible to get a free custom domain for one year, after which you’ll need to start paying a registration fee to keep your domain. You can also choose to connect a domain you already own from another domain registrar through domain mapping. 7. Ensure SSL Is Enabled SSL, or secure sockets layer, is a certificate or code that provides security for communication between a web server and browser. Google does take this extra layer of security into account when ranking websites, so aside from customer protection, it’s imperative for SEO purposes. It’s standard for websites to have SSL enabled. In fact, provides this for free on all of their paid plans. However, it’s always good to double-check if your SSL certificate is enabled. To view your security settings, go to Settings via your main navigation menu. Click on “Advanced” at the very bottom, and find “SSL.” From there, you can see if it’s enabled. We recommend never changing your site’s preferred security settings. 8. Connect to Google Search Console Google Search Console is a service offered by Google that helps you optimize your website and submit it for indexing. After you’ve published your website, connect it to Google Search Console for free. Connecting your website to Google Search Console allows you to submit a generated sitemap that will help search engines “discover” your website. Google Search Console also scans your site for issues that they can alert you to. 9. Use Google Analytics is another free service Google offers that tracks basic site data. These analytics can then be used for optimizing and marketing your website. Squarespace has a built-in Google Analytics integration, but you’ll first need to create a Google Analytics account to connect to. With Google Analytics, you can track and analyze the traffic coming into your website. It tells you your audience's demographics, how they behave, and which pages of your site are the most appealing to them. Although there are more advanced trackers out there like and , Google Analytics is still a useful tool to have on your website. 10. Optimize Your Content Optimizing your website is only one part of the equation. To get people to stay, create and publish only high-quality content. Take some time to review your content to see if everything is in place. Insert relevant keywords, include meta tags, and prioritize long-form, informative, and engaging content. By increasing the quality of what’s on your site, you gain more relevant backlinks and increase dwell time and click-through rates (CTR). This leads to higher rankings on Google overall. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Is Squarespace good for SEO? Yes. is a top all-in-one site builder for SEO. It has a lot of integrations and built-in features that make it easy to optimize for search engines like Google and Bing. However, it still can’t compare with a platform like . Hence, if you’re looking for the best SEO capabilities despite a steeper learning curve, then we suggest heading straight there instead. Is Squarespace a good site builder? consistently tops our list as one of the best site builders available. Not only does it have good SEO and marketing features, but its templates and design capabilities are much more modern and beginner-friendly than many other site builders. You can quickly build a Squarespace website in five steps. If you’re looking for an easy way to set up a sleek, professional-looking small business website, Squarespace may be the perfect builder for you. How do I make my Squarespace site searchable on Google? Creating an XML sitemap and submitting it to Google is the fastest way to get search engine bots to crawl your site. While it isn’t a requirement (Google will find your site eventually), this speeds up the process significantly. You can easily connect your account to Google Search Console by going to your settings from the main menu and clicking on Google Search Console under “Connected Accounts.” Bottom Line has some of the most advanced search engine optimization features available for an all-in-one site builder. With Squarespace, you can easily optimize your website through a mix of built-in features and other integrations, like Google Search Console and Analytics. In just 10 simple steps, you can optimize your Squarespace site, rank higher on Google, and gain more traffic and visibility. Try it today. You Might Also Like… Don’t have a small business website yet? Don’t miss out and create your own site today. Not on Squarespace? Use our marketing tips to rank higher on Google. Increase awareness and boost your site’s traffic with easy website marketing strategies.

Angi, aka Angie’s List, is an online directory that connects consumers to local home service providers, from contractors and landscapers to home cleaners. With over 6 million monthly visitors, Angi can be an effective way to increase your business’ online visibility, generate leads, and land more clients. But whether it’s right for your business depends on a number of factors, from your location and industry to your budget, profit margin, and close rate. It doesn’t matter how many leads Angi sends you if your business website detracts from your business or looks unprofessional. A great site makes turning visitors into leads a breeze, requiring less effort on your part and a higher return on investment. If you don’t already have a website, check out . It’s affordable and easy to use (no coding or headaches required). With its award-winning designs and templates, your site will look great. How Angi Works for Consumers & Businesses On the consumer side of how Angi works, people go online to to find a qualified, top-rated service provider in their area. Individuals can use the platform to find local business services for free. However, they can also upgrade by paying for a premium plan to access features like complaint resolution and exclusive member-only deals. When it comes to how Angi works for business, you can set up a profile for your company for free. However, those looking to leverage the platform for lead generation and sales usually pay to advertise on the platform, gaining not only more visibility but also leads. Angi does this by essentially working as a member of your sales team, which comes at an average cost of $300 per month and requires an annual commitment. Keep in mind that the businesses that benefit most from using Angi are typically home improvement or repair services―lawn care, general contractors, handy services, plumbing, electrical, pet grooming, roofers, pest control, and housekeeping―to name a few. There are more than 700 categories listed, but some are more sub-categories or super-specific, like local services for bat control, GE dryer repair, or overhead garage door repair. How Much Does Angi Cost & Is It Worth It? For businesses, the cost to use Angi can vary from free to hundreds of dollars per month. While it’s technically free to create a company profile, those serious about generating leads typically advertise at a cost starting at $300 per month. Granted, pricing is on a custom basis and may change based on industry, location, and demand for the type of services you provide. For example, let’s say you pay $300 per month to advertise on Angi. In return, Angi sends you about 20 leads per month. Of these leads, you manage to close 20%, or four leads per month. If your profit margin for each job is $400, then you’ve earned an additional $1,600 per month (or $1,300 after subtracting your advertising cost) from Angi, at a cost per lead of $75. However, in the home services industry, profit margins vary tremendously. For example, while a residential home cleaning service may cost $80 per visit, many will get recurring business on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis—and many for years to come. On the other hand, a contractor hired to build an addition or remodel a bathroom will make thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands with the one job. The difficult part of starting out with Angi is that you won’t know how many leads it will generate, nor the lead quality. This is a frustrating aspect to the platform, but many businesses that are struggling to generate leads and land new clients often find advertising on Angi to be a worthwhile investment. If you’re OK with a little uncertainty and can experiment to optimize its features for your business, it could bring many new clients to your door. Best Alternatives to Angi Of course, Angi isn’t the only platform available that connects consumers to local businesses. A number of Angi competitors offer local businesses a very similar—if not identical—opportunity to connect with local consumers seeking their services. From and to and Google My Business, it’s worth getting to know your options so that you can best leverage any or all of these platforms to help grow your business. Here are the top alternatives to Angi for business lead generation and conversion: Yelp for Business Google My Business Bing Places Facebook Business Pages While you don’t necessarily need to create a profile and build a presence on every relevant business directory, it is advisable to list on multiple platforms. This gives your business more visibility online, enabling you to be more easily discovered by consumers, no matter which platform they use. For more insights, check out the complete list of the best online directories for small businesses. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How do you use Angi for business? Angi can be a very effective marketing platform for businesses looking to increase local visibility and land more local clients. It offers a variety of tools, and the process of getting started on Angi is very easy. To start, simply go to and create your free business listing by clicking the ellipsis in the upper right-hand corner, selecting “Join Now,” and following the prompts. For more help, check out our step-by-step instructions on how to use Angi’s List. Do businesses or consumers pay to use Angi? Before 2016, consumers paid a fee to access Angie’s List to find home service pros, but then the platform adopted a freemium business model (one with both a limited free and an upgraded premium version), where both consumers and businesses pay. While both consumers and businesses can use the platform for free, Angi also makes money from advertising placed by member businesses and from annual paid memberships that give consumers perks like member-only discounts. Which is better for local businesses, Angi or Yelp? and are both top online business directories geared toward helping people discover local businesses. However, each platform serves a slightly different audience and use case. For example, Yelp is largely for finding local businesses like restaurants, bars, event venues, and salons, whereas Angi is specifically geared toward home services, such as electricians, landscapers, or pool installation. Learn more about Yelp for business. Bottom Line Angi, or Angie’s List, can be an effective marketing tool for home service providers—particularly those with new businesses, those seeking to enter new markets, or those struggling to get online visibility in Google search. Angi’s platform does the heavy lifting for your business, working as a sales team member whose job it is to attract qualified leads and send them your way so that you can turn leads into customers and grow your business. You Might Also Like… Don’t waste money sending leads to a low-quality website. Instead, learn how easy it is to build a website with Squarespace that is beautiful and affordable. In addition to advertising on platforms like Angi, be sure to also work on your local search engine optimization (SEO) so that your site can rank on Google for free. Check out these other local advertising ideas to help grow your business quickly.

Part of building a professional website is deciding on the right domain name. This doesn’t stop at the root domain either; the right domain extension lends credibility to your business. There are a ton of options to choose from, but a commercial entity will probably end up choosing between .com vs. .net. As the most recognizable domain extension, you’ll probably end up going with .com, but don’t dismiss .net because it’s a good choice for businesses in the tech sector. Whether you go with .com or .net, finding the right domain name is easy. Search for your perfect domain name right here. .Com vs .Net at a Glance Comparison Both .com and .net are part of your domain name. As top-level domains (TLDs), these appear after the final dot in your URL. There are other common TLDs aside from these two, like .org and .edu, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll get the TLD of your choice, especially when it comes to popular and professional extensions like .com and .net. After deciding on your domain name (and TLD), you can register your name through a domain registrar like . Remember that domain extensions aren’t so straightforward. For example, nothing is stopping you from registering your tech company’s domain name with a .com TLD. However, the right TLD can further your branding and tell your audience a little bit about what your business does. When to Use a .Com Domain Extension Originally intended for commercial businesses (.com stands for “commercial”), it’s currently the most popular TLD in the world. Any business can register for a .com TLD, but because of its popularity, it is the most competitive and difficult to get. When to Use a .Net Domain Extension In contrast to .com, .net stands for “network,” and it was intended for companies and organizations in networking technologies. It isn’t as popular as .com, but it’s still widely used. Although it was almost always used for businesses associated with technology and the web, now it’s a professional—and suitable—domain extension for businesses that can’t snag a .com TLD. Alternatives to .Com & .Net Register your domain name today with the best domain registrars available. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Which is better for SEO, .com or .net? Domain names don’t really affect your rankings on search results directly. However, they can influence how your audience perceives your site, or even your site’s searchability. For most businesses, sticking to recognizable extensions like .com can get the most users onto your website, even for businesses in the tech and networking sector (Gmail still uses a .com extension, for example). Where can I get a domain name? The most straightforward way to get a domain name is to register through a domain registrar, like , , or . These registrars offer different introductory offers, prices, and plans, so you can shop around to find the most affordable deal. Otherwise, you can usually get a free domain for a year by building a website through an all-in-one site builder, or by purchasing a hosting plan from a hosting provider. Does it matter where my domain is registered? Different registrars offer different prices, deals, and services, but outside of that, it doesn’t matter where your domain is registered. Every accredited domain registrar goes through the same main registry, so you can choose whichever domain registrar fits your needs best. Bottom Line Both .com and .net are common top-level domains, but .com is the more popular choice for a majority of commercial businesses. Nothing is stopping you from using a .net domain name, but keep in mind that .net is popular for technology and networking websites. In case you need both web hosting and a domain name, you can get a domain name for free when you host on . If you’re only looking for the right domain name, we recommend using . You Might Also Like… Creating your website? Pick the right domain name with these domain name ideas. Still deciding on the right domain extension? .Com and .org are both good choices.