2020 has been a tough year, especially for small businesses. We have all had many eye-opening realizations about financial stability. And the most prominent one would be the fact that relying on one income stream is not an option anymore.
To survive and thrive in the post-COVID19 world, having multiple income streams has become a necessity. For small business owners, building a couple of passive income streams can ensure that your business can stick through the toughest times too.
When the times are tough, passive income streams can help you fund your small business, with almost little to no effort. In this article, let’s see some of the top passive income ideas that will support you during these unprecedented times.
What is Passive Income?
Passive income is the process of earning money from a business in which you aren’t actively involved anymore.
Many people mistake passive income for money that is earned from get-rich-quick schemes. That is not true. It cannot magically help you earn money instantly. Otherwise everyone today would be successfully owning multiple passive income businesses today.
Most passive income streams involve you putting in the initial hard work for weeks, months, or even years before it turns into a consistent passive income stream. Or, in the case of investments in rental properties or shares, you need to invest time and money to turn it into a passive income stream.
Passive Income Ideas for 2021
Let’s look at some of the top passive income ideas that are most suitable for small business owners in 2021.
1. Sell Online Courses
The eLearning market has been booming ever since the pandemic outbreak. Since everyone is stuck at home, more and more people are investing in online learning. So, why not make this your passive income idea?
As a business owner, you must be an expert in an area or two. You can easily monetize your expertise by creating and selling online courses. You can use platforms such as Udemy or Coursera, or you can even sell online courses on your website.
The idea will need an initial investment of time and money in creating high-quality digital courses. But once the course picks up, you’ll be earning a consistent passive income on the side.
2. Invest in Peer-to-Peer Loans
Using investment marketplaces such as Swaper, you can invest in peer-to-peer loans for other consumers. This idea will require an upfront investment from you. But you need not be actively involved in the process as the platform offers you auto investment options too.
Investing in P2P loans can be a great way to earn a significant income on the side to help you generate steady income to fund your small business during uncertain times.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great passive income idea as it involves earning commissions by promoting and selling others’ products. So, you don’t have to put in the efforts to create your own products. You can simply sell others instead.
Affiliate marketing can be a great option especially when you have a website with consistent traffic or a good digital following.
4. Sell Digital Products
Selling digital products is, again, a great way to generate steady income after you put in the initial hard work. Since there is no active inventory and physical shipping involved as in the case of physical products, the income turns passive after some time.
Your digital products can be ebooks, guides, templates, or even mobile apps. You can also sell audio tracks or professional stock photos, and generate royalties for them.
5. Create and Monetize a Blog or a YouTube Channel
Creating blogs and producing YouTube videos is one of the best options to generate a significant amount of passive income. Lots of people today, earn 6 and 7 figures through these ideas.
Unlike the other options, the kind of hard work and time required here will be much more. But, the potential to generate a significant amount of income is the highest here.
6. Invest in Real Estate
Real estate investments are one of the oldest forms of generating passive income. The initial investment will be expensive, but if you’ve got the money, then this is definitely a good option.
A downside of real estate investing is that it will go down if the economy is not good. But if you are ready to be patient and wait for the industry to get back, then nothing like this kind of passive income.
7. Rent out your Car
If you do not have the capital to invest in a rental property right now, you can rent out your car through apps like Turo.
All you need to do is some initial set up and you are good to go. Instead of simply sitting in your garage, your car can make some passive income on the side. This idea is a no-brainer and you can use this as your second or the third passive income stream alongside others.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, we can say that after the outbreak of the pandemic, relying on just one income stream is not the best idea.
If you are worried about your small business going into a loss, plan for it beforehand by building at least a couple of passive income streams that can keep you going even during the tough times. Use the ideas in this article to start working on your passive income idea.
Want to put or increase ads on your show? Here’s what you should know
The podcast industry is growing quickly, and advertisers are paying attention. Selling advertising is one popular way to monetize a podcast.
Even if you don’t have your own show, you can take advantage of the expanding market by acting as a liaison to facilitate sales between podcasts and advertisers.
Podcasters can sell advertising space on their shows in a few different ways. There are podcast ad networks that act as a marketplace for podcasts and businesses; typically, these services take a cut of the sale.
Shows can also negotiate with brands on their own. Familiarize yourself with similar podcasts and pay attention to the advertisers on their shows. This will give you a good starting point for brands to approach. If your show has a larger following, sometimes advertisers will come to you.
Advertisements are typically sold by CPM, which stands for cost per mille, or cost per 1,000 listeners. Ad buying platform AdvertiseCast lists the going industry average rates for podcast advertising at $18 per 30-second ad CPM and $25 per 60-second ad CPM.1
CPA, which stands for cost per acquisition, is another metric for podcast ad sales. This is results-dependent and calculated based on the number of sales or sign-ups an advertisement creates.
Some advertisers might prefer a mix of the two methods, or want to negotiate a completely different option.
Why Sell Advertising on a Podcast?
Fifty-four percent of podcast consumers say they’re more likely to consider brands they hear advertised on podcasts, as opposed to the 7% who say they’re less likely, according to “The Podcast Consumer 2019,” a report by Edison Research and Triton Digital.2
But when starting a new podcast, focus on building your audience first, rather than pursuing a sponsor right away. Creating a dedicated following will, in turn, attract advertisers. Uploading your podcast on big platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts can help to expand your audience. These outlets provide marketing tools and resources, and can increase accessibility for smaller podcasts.
Audience size, usually measured by downloads per episode, is often the biggest draw for advertisers. The demographic of listeners, the type of show, and audience engagement are also taken into consideration.
When deciding what advertisements to feature on your show, make sure your first priority is staying true to your podcast identity. Don’t work with brands that aren’t cohesive with your message. You never want to risk jeopardizing the trust of your audience.
While advertising is a well-known podcast income source, there are numerous other ways to generate revenue in the industry. Money-makers like affiliate marketing, selling branded merchandise, or relying on crowdfunding can all be effective options. We’ll dive more into these other types of income later on.
How to Sell Advertising for Your Podcast
There are two main types of podcast advertising—host-read, or dynamically inserted ads.
For host-read ads, the advertiser will usually provide key talking points, and let the host fill in the rest of the dialogue, so that it doesn’t sound too scripted. Depending on the product, there may be some parts that must be read verbatim, such as a legal disclaimer. If the sponsorship includes an endorsement, the company usually sends the host a product sample to try so that they’re able to speak candidly about their experience.
Host-read ads are “baked-in,” which means that listeners will hear the same ad regardless of where they are, and unless someone edits the original audio, the commercial will always be there.
Dynamically inserted ads are pre-produced commercials that are added to a show from an ad server. Listeners often hear different commercials as advertisers target specific demographics or locations.
Advertisements are usually placed in the beginning (pre-roll), middle (mid-roll), or at the end of an episode (post-roll). Pre- and post-roll placements tend to be cheaper and shorter, lasting about 15-30 seconds. Mid-roll ads typically cost more, and can run as long as a minute. Longer shows might include a couple of mid-roll ad spaces.
Selling advertising on podcasts works best for shows that aren’t already trying to promote their own products or services.
You don’t need to have your own show to take advantage of the advertising opportunities available. You can create a full-time job out of negotiating ad sales between podcasts and sponsors, either working for a marketplace or individually.
Alternatives to Podcast Advertising
There are lots of other ways to make money through podcasting, many of which you can pursue with a smaller audience.
Affiliate Marketing
Many podcasts participate in affiliate marketing programs. When hosts mention a product on their show they provide a unique URL, often giving the audience a discount. When listeners make a purchase using that code, the podcast gets a cut of the sales.
Premium Subscriptions
In lieu of advertisements, some podcasts prefer to charge listeners to subscribe to the show, or offer their audience access to ad-free content for a premium.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding platforms like Patreon give listeners the opportunity to donate in return for perks such as exclusive content or early-episode access.
Merchandise Sales
Podcasts with a dedicated audience also can make extra income through sales of branded merchandise or offering tickets to live shows or events.
Monetizing Expertise
Hosting a podcast is a great way to assert your expertise in a field. Monetize your knowledge through public speaking gigs or create a course. You also can sell your services as a podcast consultant or producer or by helping new podcasters learn the ropes.
How Much Money Can Advertising Make?
While Bloomberg Businessweek reported that several top podcasts making more than $1 million a year, don’t expect to start earning the big bucks right away.3 Most podcasts take a long time to establish an audience base and advertisers.
How much you earn from podcast advertising is based on three main factors—episode CPM, the number of episodes produced each month, and how many episode downloads you’re getting. The website Improve Podcast gives the following formula to calculate your estimated income:
Monthly income = episode CPM x number of episodes per month x number of downloads / 1000.4
Once you start working with advertisers, experiment with selling different-length ads in different places in your show to find the most effective combination for your podcast.
Advertising can be a key revenue source for your podcast. The first step to attracting sponsors is to focus on building your audience. Big platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts can be a good place for new shows to find resources and increase accessibility.
Make sure to be realistic with your expectations—growing an audience, gaining their trust, and attracting advertisers takes time and effort. When you’re ready to pursue sponsorships, you can join a marketplace through an ad network, or approach brands independently.
Even if you don’t have your own podcast, you can earn extra income by selling advertisements for other shows, either on your own, or through an agency.
Ella Ames is a freelance writer and editor with a focus on personal finance and small business. She has a background in business journalism. Read The Balance’s editorial policies
Confusion ensued when Google continued to disagree with pending legislation that would force them to pay Australian publishers for the pleasure of showcasing their content in the SERPs, while simultaneously signing a deal to pay French publishers for their content.
However, when you look at the two agreements side by side, there is a clear difference.
The Story Behind the French Agreement
In 2020, French readers saw news results from European publishers pulled from the SERPs in response to a copyright law that was passed.
In October, Google announced that they were investing $1 billion over three years to pay publishers for content showcased on Google News Showcase.
The agreement with France allows Google to negotiate individual licenses whereby payment will be based on specific and measurable metrics. This includes Google paying on behalf of the reader for any content published behind paywalls, allowing users access to content they wouldn’t be able to see unless they made a payment.
It will be interesting to see if any new ideas for solving the trans- Atlantic data privacy problem arise during the many conferences on the topic being held in over 40 countries, including Ireland, on International Data Privacy Day tomorrow. Data privacy is a very big issue for the European institutions, but maybe less so for the Americans (and British) where data surveillance seems to be the government priority for the last 30 years or so.
It’s not only a matter of human rights, and politics: its critically important for the world economy, in the medium term. All experts seem agreed that the move to the Cloud will bring great productivity benefits and growth opportunities for business and other sectors of all economies. But, there is a leading impediment to this move, and that’s Security of Data… the fear in corporations and other data owners that the privacy of their data will be lost- in effect their ownership of their data- if it is to sit on Cloud-based servers owned and operated by third parties.
The debate revolves around the rights of other parties- especially governments- to access your data at will when you decide to transfer its location to the cloud server from its traditional resting place in your office computer. The best way to secure your data is to encrypt it strongly at source and make sure it stays encrypted all the time it is stored or travelling in the Cloud, until it finally returns to your own computer or other destination designated by you. But very few tech vendors offer this facility. (One that does is the Donegal start up, Netsso.com– where I must declare an interest.!)
The matter will not be resolved this week. But its got to be resolved soon, alongside the other two great issues of taxation of and data sharing by the tech giants. Hopefully, the Data Privacy Day in Ireland will help focus the minds and, especially, improve the understanding of the issue by the general public.
The most interesting part of a study from Sidecar not shared on Monday in Search & Performance Marketing Daily points to the percentage that marketers rely on data vs. instinct to make marketing and advertising decisions.
Sidecar surveyed 146 marketing professionals in the retail industry. The majority of respondents were based in the U.S., with the remainder in Canada. All reported that they contribute to ecommerce marketing efforts at their company. The study was fielded between September and October of 2020.
When marketers were asked whether their team makes decisions based on data versus experience and instinct, the balanced response was 50% data and 50% instinct, with 24% of respondents reporting this way.
From here the findings become quite unbalanced. Only 1% of participants in the survey said they base their decisions on 100% instinct and zero percent data, and 1% base their decisions on 90% instinct and 10% data. Some 7% base their decisions on 80% instinct and 20% data, and 18% base their decisions on 70% instinct and 30% data.
When flipping the percentages, the findings are a bit surprising. It turns out that none base their decisions on 0% instinct and 100% data. It does get better, however. Only 4% base their decisions on 10% instinct and 90% data, while 10% base their decisions on 10% instinct and 80% data, and 16% base their decisions on 30% instinct and 70% data.
Some 62% of ecommerce marketing teams are making half or more of their decisions based on instinct rather than data, indicating significant headroom to become more data-driven.
In this new year marketers need to think differently to drive growth and connect with consumers. Thinking differently has important implications for marketers in terms of hiring.
Automation will find a home in more companies this year, from ad testing to keyword analysis, and audience segments and performance trend analysis. Among C-level executives, 82% want to automate bid adjustments, while 59% want to automate ad testing, 53% want to automate retargeting, 47% want to automate bid analysis, and 41% want to automate performance trend analysis.
What will marketing teams look like in 2021 as they reach consumers? Ecommerce marketers, for example, plan to grow their internal and extended teams. Some 66% plan to hire vendors and 67% plan to hire in-house talent.
Enterprise and small businesses plan to hire marketers with affiliate marketing and SEO experience.
Enterprise companies plan to hire content marketing to round out the top three, whereas small companies plan to hire those with video production experience.
Midsize companies are looking for specialists with experience in social media, video production and data analytics.
Google and Facebook colluded to undermine competition in advertising, according to documents uncovered by the New York Times. Obtained during an antitrust lawsuit in Texas, the documents lift the lid on ‘Jedi Blue’ – a cloak and dagger sweetheart deal between two tech giants that monopolize online advertising.
So what’s the deal?
Google and Facebook are accused of abusing their market position to strike a backroom deal to further their business interests.
The agreement is said to have seen Facebook win more favorable terms when bidding for advertising in return for its support for Google’s Open Bidding platform for selling adverts over header bidding – where advertising space is auctioned across multiple ad exchanges.
Google has long agitated against this method of buying advertising, maintaining that it slows down web pages and causes batteries to drain faster, as well as elevating the risk for fraud and billing errors.
As a result, Facebook gained more time to bid for adverts and was able to strike direct billing deals with sites hosting the ads. The underhand arrangement is also said to have seen Google furnish its rival with its data to enable Facebook to better target audiences.
In a quid pro quo, Facebook consented to bid on a minimum of 90% of ad auctions when it could identify users, with a pledge to spend at least $500m a year.
Such terms handed Facebook an unfair advantage over Google’s other advertising partners according to the New York Times, which spoke with six of these to help build its case. This meant Facebook was almost guaranteed to win a consistent number of adverts.
Evidence of collusion was first obtained from documents filed as part of an antitrust complaint lodged by the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, amid suspicion the tech pair were getting too cozy.
This relationship even included a clause that committed both companies to ’cooperate and assist’ in the event of any investigation into their business practices.
Why it matters
Should apparent collusion be corroborated it would further undermine confidence in digital advertising – particularly if a guaranteed win rate is confirmed.
In response to the allegations, Google contends that its agreement has been misrepresented, while Facebook maintains that such deals serve to enhance competition.
Irrespective of the truth of the matter, the lack of transparency shown by both parties will do little to instill confidence in competitors or legislators.
Addressing the claims directly, Google director of economic policy Adam Cohen wrote: “Our agreement with Facebook Audience Network (FAN) simply enables them (and the advertisers they represent) to participate in Open Bidding.
“Of course we want FAN to participate because the whole goal of Open Bidding is to work with a range of ad networks and exchanges to increase demand for publishers’ ad space, which helps those publishers earn more revenue.
“AG Paxton inaccurately claims that we manipulate the Open Bidding auction in FAN’s favor. We absolutely don’t. FAN must make the highest bid to win a given impression. If another eligible network or exchange bids higher, they win the auction.
“FAN’s participation in Open Bidding doesn’t prevent Facebook from participating in header bidding or any other similar system. In fact, FAN participates in several similar auctions on rival platforms.”
Both Google and Facebook have been in the eye of an antitrust storm, with Google fending off multiple lawsuits from the Department of Justice and three dozen states centered on its near-monopoly of search and search advertising, as well non-search advertising.
Do you want to earn more money? Invest in real estate, in e-commerce with Amazon or take advantage of the opportunities of the sharing economy.
Is the money you have in your account affecting your health? The American Psychological Association revealed a survey showing that stress over money affects people’s health. And it turns out that this stress also affects people who have a lot of money, not just those with low incomes.
You can get rid of some of that financial stress by earning extra money, even if you have a full-time job. Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob started a million dollar business while still working.
Whether you are looking for money to launch your startup or money to invest or to pay off your debts, a few thousand extra pesos a month can change your life. Here’s how to get started.
1. Launch a service business
This can be done even without having a large network of contacts, or having a digital presence or a lot of experience. The easiest way to get started is by telling people what you offer and asking them to spread the word.
AppSumo’s Noah Kagan hit the nail on the head with this concept. He decided to see if he could earn $ 1,000 in 24 hours. He ended up founding a beef jerky subscription business that he gave one of his students to try.
You can steal their concept with a business like catering, writing, or digital marketing. Start by creating a killer email to make yourself known.
2. Invest in real estate
Becoming a property owner is not always easy when you don’t have money. But you can look for options to get a small property in another country, or a space to vacation. This is generally more accessible even if you want to hire someone to help you run it.
Commercial real estate can also be a lucrative way to invest and earn passive income.
3. Launch a digital resource
Share your experience creating an ebook or a course to help others while passively earning money. My own ebook, 100 Days of Growth, ended up making me more money than my full-time job. It took me a lot of work to finish, but once it was done it required minimal effort to maintain and sell.
If writing isn’t your thing, take a video course. I did not stay with the pure book, I also launched a content marketing course through ContentMarketer.io to help my clients master the skills necessary to do content marketing in 10 weeks.
4. Harness the power of Amazon
One goal that is always admirable is to launch your own digital store and build a customer base, but this also means wearing a lot of hats. You must search for products, find manufacturers, promote your website, and figure out how to fill orders. And of course, don’t forget about customer service and returns.
Better you can sell a product directly on Amazon without the need to assume so many roles. Some sellers even use the Amazon supply center and never have contact with the product.
5. Join the sharing economy
It is not difficult to get a few thousand pesos a month taking advantage of the shared economy. But it’s not just about renting a room in your house on Airbnb. You can also rent your car, or rent a camera that you don’t use, or sports equipment.
If you are going to rent on Airbnb, think that you can earn much more if you rent your entire house, and take advantage of that time to visit your family or go on vacation.
Not every marketer does influencer marketing, but a large majority do. In our first-ever forecast, we estimate that 67.9% of US marketers with 100 or more employees will use influencers for paid or unpaid brand partnerships in 2021.
Although some marketers cut spending on influencer marketing during the pandemic (such as travel marketers), the interest in working with influencers actually increased; between 2019 and 2020 the percentage of US marketers using influencers grew from 55.4% to 62.3%, according to our forecast.
And budgets for influencer marketing look ready to rise. In July 2020 research by Kantar Media, senior marketers worldwide said they expected to increase budget allocation for branded content shared by influencers by 48% in 2021.
What it means for marketers: Influencer marketing has its pitfalls, but an increasing percentage of marketers are working with influencers. Considering the important role they play in other trends in our list of social media predictions for 2021, such as social commerce and livestreaming, the impetus to use influencers will continue to grow.
The answer is: A fast loading website is in-friggin’-dispensable. The human attention span is in a downward spiral – no one wants to wait, especially if they are on a mobile device.
How fast do we need to be? Google recommends a page load time of less than two seconds.
There are many popular measures across on-page and technical domains of SEO that help you meet the goal.
However, one of those measures – Setting up Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for the mobile version of a website – is used sparingly.
Why? In a nutshell, going AMP takes a fair bit of time, effort, and funds depending on how big a website is. In the end, it may not even be worth it.
Is it worth it for you to invest in AMP? If the answer is yes, this post will help you with a step-by-step process of effectively setting up AMP for your WordPress website.
Step 1: Choose the right plugin
Plugin options
WordPress offers many plugins for AMP. I have tried a few of them with success to varying degrees. One of them gave marvelous results in the Google Pagespeed Insights for a while. But it broke all my AMP pages on mobile!
My recommendation
I would recommend the AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages – WordPress plugin. This plugin provides a lot of options to customize mobile webpages. The rest of the post will be about setting up AMP for your website using this plugin.
After you install and activate the plugin, the WordPress dashboard will show the option of opening the AMP version of your website. You will also see the new plugin (AMP) as highlighted in the below image.
As in the image above, you will see a set of options, we will cover each of them one-by-one.
Lets jump into the settings.
Step 2: Basic setup of the plugin
Website type
Select the option that best represents your business. Select ‘other’ if nothing else matches, you will get an option to type in your website type after that.
Where do you need AMP?
Select where you want to implement AMP. When you go for AMP, you are deciding to keep your mobile web pages almost completely HTML. You need to let go of the CSS/JS codes that reduce the load speed.
The downside to that is, the user experience (UX) gets impacted. For instance, you can no longer have a call-to-action (CTA) button that swivels to attract a visitor’s attention. AMP cuts out that code, thus saving on page load time. This may eventually result in a reduced engagement rate.
In the above list, you may want to choose to have AMP on your pages, or posts, or both.
Design and presentation
Here, you can Setup Your Logo, the recommended size is 120 x 90 pixels. I would recommend not using the logo as it adds to page load time. If no logo is updated on this panel, the AMP page will only have the website name in place of the logo.
The Global Color Scheme option will help you pick a color for your AMP pages that appears on the CTA links on the page, and on the footer link.
For instance, I chose light blue as my Global Color, as seen in the image below.
Analytics tracking
In this option panel, you can enable the tools that you use for tracking. For instance, you can enable Google Analytics by adding the Tracking ID. This way data from the AMP pages will get updated directly in your Google Analytics account.
Similarly, you can add multiple other tracking tools as listed in the image above.
Privacy settings
The Cookie Notice Bar enables you to seek consent from visitors for the cookies you are using on the website. In the below image, the dialogue box in black is a cookie notice bar.
If you or your audience base is from a GDPR country, you need to turn on the settings for GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation.
Please note, if you have to choose, you can choose only one of the two options, not both.
Advertisement
In this segment, choose where you want to position your Advertisements. You can customize as per need – you can have Ads published sitewide or on single posts, or headers among other options.
You can choose the Ad type, Ad size, and Data Ad Client and Data Ad Slot from the Adsense Ad Code.
3rd party compatibility
The last entity captures the list of plugins that you need AMP compatibility for.
Gravity Form and Elementor for AMP require you to pay for extensions. Structured Data, Ads for WP, and PWA for WP are free plugins. The last three shall be covered in a bit more detail later in the post.
Step 3: More AMP settings
General Settings
The General tab covers the options we covered in the basic set-up. In addition, you get to choose if you want to have AMP on archives, category, and tags pages.
Enabling the last option – AMP Takeover (Beta) – will cause your desktop and mobile version to be the same. This means, your desktop version will also have AMP pages.
I would recommend keeping this option off. Page load is usually better on desktop than on mobile. Having AMP on desktop means trading off UX for a small increment in Page speed. Not a good bargain.
Advertisement
This section has the same options as the Advertisement section in the basic setup.
SEO
If you choose to turn on Meta Description, the text you fill in the Head Section will be picked up by Google. This will be different from the text you filled in for the desktop version. I would recommend keeping the setting off, and keeping the Meta Description consistent across the two versions.
OpenGraph Metadata tags are snippets of code that control how URLs are displayed when shared on social media. This section is visible for the desktop version when you are setting up Title and Metadata in your SEO plugin. Below is an example of the Yoast SEO plugin.
You can find it by going to the Editor section of any post or page, scroll to the bottom. Once you see the section for Yoast, click on the ‘Social’ tab, then you can choose the social media platform of choice.
The AMP plugin allows you to select the SEO plugin of choice on the same option panel. In the above example, Yoast is the plugin chosen. All the data you enter into Yoast for the Desktop version gets copied into the AMP version.
You will see the option to Remove Paginated Pages Indexing and URL Inspection Tool Compatibility.
Paginated pages should be indexed but only as canonical. I would recommend keeping this setting off.
URL Inspection Tool Compatibility fosters a more transparent search for you. It provides detailed reports on crawl, index and serving information in your Google Search Console account. I would recommend keeping it turned on.
Elementor Support
The option of AMPforWP PageBuilder will let you build individual pages for the AMP version, different from the desktop version. It is useful when you want to have slightly different text or CTA for AMP pages.
For example, if you have a ‘Contact Us’ CTA for desktop but you would rather the mobile visitors to call you, you can activate this option and create a separate page.
PWA
As per AMP for WP Plugin’s description – Progressive Web Apps (PWA) transforms your website into a web application and gives visitors a native mobile app-like experience.
It is a design enhancement. Activating the module is a matter of choice.
It enables you to Minify CSS/JS to reduce bandwidth usage without impacting UX or functionality. Leverage Browser Cache enables you to speed up load time for returning visitors. I would recommend keeping both the options turned on.
Enabling Optimize CSS will trigger the tree shaking feature of optimizing CSS. You can keep it turned on in case you don’t have a different plugin that already does that job.
Analytics, Structured Data, Notice Bar and GDPR
These sections have the same options as those covered in the basic setup.
Push Notifications
In case you want to set-up push notifications, you can opt for one among OneSignal, iZooto and Truepush.
In the above example, I have selected OneSignal. However, for any selection, you will see a section to enter the APP ID, an option to enable push notifications for Pages. In addition, you need to choose where you want to position the notification (bottom of the page for example), and what text you want to display.
Contact Forms
This enables you to choose one of the 3 plugins to optimize AMP for – Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and Ninja Forms.
All three require you to pay for an extension. In case your CTA is focused mainly on forms, it is prudent to invest in the extension.
Comments
This screen lets you choose where you want the user-generated comments to show on your website. You can also choose the sources to display comments from.
Choose the settings that work best for you.
Instant Articles
Instant Articles is a feature on the Facebook App for mobile users that lets you host your website articles.
The benefit of turning this feature on is an even faster load time compared to having the same article on your website. Since the article loads within the App, you get up to 10 times faster load speed.
However, since the content stays on Facebook, you might lose out on some website traffic. It’s a trade-off between page-speed and website traffic. I would recommend keeping it off.
If you choose to keep it on, you will see the below settings.
After entering your Facebook Page ID, you can customize the article settings. A setting that requires more explanation is – Crawler Ingestion.
When the link of your article hosted on your website gets shared on Facebook, Facebook crawlers look for the ia:markup_url tag. If it’s present, Facebook ingests your article and creates an instant article on your Facebook page.
Tools
The Individual AMP Page option lets you choose if you want to show the AMP pages by default or not. When you choose Show by Default, all your pages will show the AMP version. However, you can choose to hide AMP for individual posts or pages.
To do that, go to any page and click on Edit Page. In the Settings tab toward the right, you can find the option of turning it off.
Similarly, you can choose to Hide the AMP versions for selected categories and posts.
Query Monitor is the developer tools panel for WordPress. If you are a developer, who needs to see the queries on the page, you should keep the setting turned on.
Advance Settings
The Advance Settings option panel has a host of settings most of which are self-explanatory.
I would recommend keeping the default settings turned on unless you are a WP developer or have hired an expert to design your website.
eCommerce
If you own an online store, you can customize your AMP version for WooCommerce. If you primarily sell digital assets, you can turn on the Easy Digital Downloads Support option. Both the options require you to enable a paid extension.
Translation Panel
This panel enables you to select the right translations for a commonly used set of words into the language of your choice.
For instance, you need to type in the translation for the View Non-AMP Version suited to your audience.
For multilingual translations, you can turn on the Use POT file method of Translation. POT (Portable Object Template) file is a template for the PO files. They are plain text files that contain the translations. Each language has its own file extension. For instance French has po.fr.
Step 4: Design
Themes
Just like for the desktop version of your website, you can pick a theme for the AMP version.
There are four free options to choose from.
Design One
Design Two
Design Three
Swift
In addition, every page and post has a section that enables you to create your own design.
Here’s how you can find it. Go to the page or post, and click on ‘Edit Page’ in the top toolbar. Scroll down to see the below screen.
If you select the Use Builder checkbox, the template you create will be shown, if not, the free template you select will be shown.
In case you are building your own template, you have the below modules to choose from.
Remember, AMP is basically an HTML page. You can not get much customization or fancy buttons.
Please note: You have to select a theme. The plugin needs it to pick icons and structure – even when you create your own design.
Global
This option panel lets you customize your AMP version.
You can select the colors of choice as above. In addition, you can select Google Fonts. However, I would recommend keeping it off as Google Fonts increase the load time, defeating the purpose of AMP.
Further on, you can choose to keep Sidebar and Infinite Scroll on if that’s what you want your webpage to look like. However, from a page speed perspective, you should keep it off.
The Font Icon Library will be the same as the theme you had chosen at the beginning of the Design panel.
Header
The Header options panel, lets you decide the layout of your header and how your navigation menu should look.
It also lets you add a Call Now Button. It’s a useful button for mobile users.
You may choose to show your Non-AMP link in the Header. However, if your audience is not technically SEO oriented, they may not click on the link.
You can also enable the Search bar. It’s beneficial if you have a blogging website.
The Advanced Header Option enables you to get more specific with your header section settings. It’s a matter of choice. However, keep in mind not to add to the code, as it will negatively impact the page load speed.
Homepage, Single, Footer, Page, Social Sharing, Date and Misc
These option panels, just like the header, are completely a matter of design choice. You can choose any settings that suit you the best.
Summing up
The above steps will help you implement AMP effectively on your website. Once you have saved the changes, check out the AMP version on your phone, or, by appending ‘/amp’ after the URL.
The below images capture the features of your AMP page.
AMG PAGE VISUAL
FOOTER
There you have it. Follow these steps to have error free, superfast pages that load in less than 2 seconds for mobile phone visitors.
Sai Kalki is a Digital Marketing Consultant specializing in SEO. He is the founder of DigiGrow, and has helped small businesses grow their business through SEO, PPC and Instagram Marketing.
We know there are numerous ways to generate B2B sales leads, but let’s face it, the same old methods have been done to death.
It’s time to take an unconventional approach to lead generation, especially for B2B companies, because B2B is a different ballgame than B2C — and your strategies need to reflect your audience.
As a refresher, here’s how organization goals differ in the B2C versus the B2B sectors:
Source: Venngage
Before we begin detailing these B2B methods, it’s important to keep in mind that lead generation isn’t a one-and-done deal.
You have to be open to A/B testing your strategies and your content. Regularly track your content performance, metrics, conversions, and be ready to improve.
So, what are these unconventional methods to generate B2B sales leads? Read on to find out.
1. Tailor content for B2B sales leads
B2B content is brand and agency-focused, and you want to create materials that attract attention from that audience.
Getting eyeballs on your content won’t mean much if they aren’t converting into customers — those aren’t the right B2B sales leads for your company.
Most businesses create audience personas to help them reach their target market. In the B2B arena, don’t aim for a company — look for the decision-makers within that company.
Every target company will have a few key people who decide which products and services benefit the business. These are the decision-makers your content needs to be tailored to, and for whom you can build buyer personas around, such as this example:
Source: Venngage
Determine who within a business will most need your product or service, and build your buyer personas based on the following:
Age
Location
Job title
Level in company
Preferred content channels
Desired goals
Pain points
Create a flow chart with these details to facilitate the content creation process. This also helps you decide which channels will get you the most traction.
Search intent
Once you know your audience, your next step in tailoring content to earn B2B sales leads is to determine their search intent, which can take numerous forms:
Searching for information
Searching to buy
Searching to learn
As a largely B2B company, we do extensive research before creating a piece of content. We ascertain keywords related to our topic, but we also check Google, the “People Also Ask” section, AnswerThePublic, and conduct surveys among fellow marketers.
Choose keywords and terms that are relevant to your audience — not solely based on search volume. Popular searches in your industry will attract more B2C consumers, whereas focused keywords that have a higher value, but a lower search volume, usually fall in the B2B realm.
2. How to use B2B email marketing
B2B email marketing has a higher click-to-open ratio than B2C, and is a favored channel for 59% of B2B marketers.
This is a channel that can consistently bring in B2B sales leads — if done right. You have to keep a few things in mind to make email marketing a successful lead generation channel.
Automate email marketing
Marketing teams know the benefits of automating processes: smoother workflow, faster processing time, and time funneled into creativity instead of repetitive tasks.
You can use marketing automation to segment email lists, send targeted campaigns, respond to abandoned carts, and convert customers, as this graphic explains:
Source: Venngage
Imagine this scenario: a customer gets to the final stage of purchasing, but leaves your site right before checkout. Whether that customer was distracted, lost connection, or changed their mind, it’s up to your company to encourage them to finish the process.
If cart abandonment is being handled manually, this customer could fall through the cracks, or get a response well after they’ve decided on another brand.
Email automation can be programmed to respond to them immediately upon cart abandonment — and you’ve earned a customer who would otherwise have been lost.
Email deliverability
Automating emails is one thing, but are your customers receiving your emails? You can create the best content in your industry, but it will amount to little if your newsletters end up in the spam folder.
Emails sent with a company name instead of a person’s name are more likely to end up in the spam folder or not opened at all. Use an individual’s address to send emails, and include a reply-to option to that address.
Don’t change the frequency of your email campaigns too often. There will be certain periods when you send more emails, but be as consistent as possible so your subscriber base knows when to expect your emails.
Regularly check and clean your lists so you aren’t sending emails to addresses that no longer exist and increase your bounce rates.
Email content
Keep these things in mind when creating your email content as, at the end of the day, your email content is what will be most successful in earning you B2B sales leads:
Your content should be consistent with your brand. Send emails about products, services, events, industry news, and your latest blog posts.
Create a consistent design for your marketing newsletters, including branding elements like your logo, brand colors, and fonts.
Don’t go for the hard-sell approach! If every email is selling products to your list, people will unsubscribe.
Make it worth their while to click on and open your emails by sharing news, updates, and stories that will enrich your customers’ lives.
3. Hybrid events
Conferences have always been a good place to make potential B2B sales, as they’re shared spaces for people with similar interests. But 2020 changed all that.
Though the COVID-19 vaccine is ready for distribution, it’s going to take a while to return to business as usual. We’ve seen an increase in virtual events in 2020, but the future of networking lies in hybrid events, like Apple’s annual announcements.
Combining physical and virtual elements and attendees, hybrid events allow access to a greater swathe of industry specialists and clients.
There are three ways to get B2B sales leads from hybrid events:
Attend the event: B2B marketers should look at attending more hybrid events in their industry to meet potential clients.
Participating in events: search for speaking engagements at conferences to place your business as a thought leader in the field and generate more organic leads.
Hold events: your business can hold hybrid events to connect with experts in your field and establish partnerships with prospective customers.
Events can be a lot of hard work, but the potential for earning leads, converting customers, and boosting ROI make the process worth it.
4. Personalize B2B sales lead content
Personalization is a huge part of content marketing — and it’s crucial for finding B2B sales leads. In the B2B arena, you need to build personal relationships, not just transactional ones.
Because every relationship isn’t just a customer earned, it’s also a customer retained, with the possibility for future referrals that will bring in more sales.
Here are the three areas you want to focus on for personalization:
Presentations
Social media
Landing pages
Sales presentations
You can start building customer relationships early on in the lead generation process by designing a presentation that includes your branding and your customer’s.
In the pitch meeting, talk about subjects that matter to your customer — don’t focus too much on what your business can do, unless you’re talking about the solutions you can provide.
Don’t be afraid of getting granular in your pitch by mentioning buyer intent keywords related to your customer and their industry.
Do your research so you can show them how knowledgeable you are about their company, but also that you’re planning for a future with them.
Social media
Take it a step further by personalizing your social media outreach. Long believed to be the realm of B2C lead generation, social media has its advantages in the B2B field, too.
I’ve mentioned the importance of finding decision-makers within target companies. Most of these decision-makers will have a presence on social channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Choose personnel who can make personal connections with key decision-makers on these channels. But don’t treat every channel the same way.
Work with your team to craft LinkedIn summaries that showcase your brand’s ethos — and not just on your company page but also on staff profiles, where you can exhibit some personality.
Twitter is another place to generate B2B sales leads, and it’s a good one for understanding your customers, because Twitter is where people tend to share personal stories.
There are scheduling and analytics tools that you can use to research decision-makers and find out what their interests are — this will help create more meaningful relationships.
Landing pages
A great landing page grabs a customer’s attention within seconds. The best way to do that is to personalize your landing page to generate B2B sales leads.
What does a landing page need to include? It has to answer a specific question that your customers are asking.
What we’ve learned from making our landing pages is that you do not want to put too much information on there — that can be overwhelming for a visitor.
Keep it short and sweet — focus on one selling point, not all. That’s why we love the Moz landing page — it clearly states what the brand can do for any customer visiting it.
Can’t fit all your selling points onto one page? Create multiple landing pages, each one optimized to specific keywords and buyer intent.
It sounds like more work but designing more landing pages helps you retain B2B sales leads by creating cohesion between your advertising and landing pages.
For B2B brands — where sales can sometimes involve millions of dollars — a referral from a friend, backed up by strong reviews, can lead to a purchase much more quickly than paid incentives and advertising.
Referrals lead to more loyal customers and better retention rates. They also act as a tool for boosting organic reach because established customers become your company’s ambassadors, like this PioneerSystems case study.
How do you get referrals? Here are a few steps:
Offer rewards such as discounts, free training sessions, and event invitations
Survey multiple customers
Keep your surveys short and precise so customers will be more likely to respond
Send surveys regularly and keep the window between surveys short
Include follow-up questions asking customers to explain their scores
Use the net promoter system to calculate how likely customers will be to recommend you
Ask for a written review or testimonial, or to feature in a testimonial video
Suggest creating a case study
Ask for a quote for a press release
Offer content that customers can share with their friends
Referral marketing is a great way to generate leads, but you do need to incentivize the process so customers participate.
6. Repurpose content
At Venngage, we are huge on repurposing content — we even created an infographic explaining how to do it:
We know how overwhelming it is for marketers to create fresh content to bring in more views and leads. This is why we’ve found ways to repurpose existing content.
Using old content in new ways takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, your marketing team can structure your strategy around it.
Here are a few ways we’ve stretched a single piece of content and generated more B2B sales leads:
Take quotes and stats from a blog post and create data visualizations for social media
Turn a blog post into an infographic — look at these infographic examples for inspiration
Share infographics on social channels and as a newsletter
Divide an infographic into multiple smaller graphics to share on social media
Turn listicles into social media carousel posts
Create email headers from social posts
Turn a blog post into a podcast or webisode
Combine multiple blog posts on a similar subject into a white paper or eBook
Use an eBook as the basis for a webinar
Divide a longer e-seminar into short YouTube videos
Create GIFs out of videos to share on social media
These are the content repurposing methods we’ve used but the possibilities with this method are endless.
7. Varied content channels
Conventional wisdom has been to focus on the channels that you know best, instead of being a jack-of-all-trades and dabbling in multiple channels. But you also need to know what channels your potential B2B sales leads are favoring. If you’re not where your customers are, you are losing leads.
The content market is currently oversaturated — diversifying your content channels helps you reach leads who may not see your content on conventional platforms. Consider starting a podcast for your business. They take some time and investment, but podcasts are easier to run and maintain now. Focus your podcast on thought leadership, industry news, or on sharing behind the scenes tidbits about your business.
Creating a YouTube channel for testimonials, business insights, how-to guides, and troubleshooting videos will bring in leads who don’t have the time to read a blog post.
But videos do take time and effort to create — you need equipment and software to shoot and edit videos. Plus, you can’t create a video and leave it at that — a promotion plan will need to be executed.
Forums
Search for B2B leads on channels like Quora and Reddit. Customers use these platforms to ask questions and you can tailor content around these.
But don’t use these channels to pitch your company. Follow the same etiquette as responding to a blog post comment. Share your own experience and use these channels for research.
There are a variety of channels available to get qualified leads. Don’t stretch yourself too thin as that will impact the quality of your content but don’t restrict yourself either.
8. Create gated content
eBooks, white papers, and webinars make for great gated content. But why should customers sign up for them?
We’ve seen success with our gated B2B content by doing the following:
Address your customers’ pain points early on
Solve their problems with your content
Include calls-to-action for gated content in relevant blog posts
Use more visuals than text in gated content — don’t make customers work hard
Repurpose your content whenever you can
Provide a preview of your content to whet their appetite
Be informative, inspire action, educate, be personable, and then promote
Your gated content should add value to anyone who accesses it, so longer-form content is the best for this lead generation strategy.
Key takeaways: Focus on the people behind B2B sales leads, not the business
The process of generating leads and encouraging them through the buyer journey to become a loyal customer who advocates for your business is a challenging one. It’s important to remember that even in the B2B field, you are engaging with people at the end of the day.
To recap, here are eight unconventional ways to get B2B sales leads:
Tailored content
Email marketing
Hybrid events
Personalize
Referral marketing
Repurposed content
New content channels
Gated content
You can adopt all or a few of these lead gen methods, but remember to test target segments, CTAs, landing page designs, and social media captions.
And finally, while it’s great to get as many leads as possible, ensure your automation software and sales team can handle it.
Nadya is the Chief Growth Officer at Venngage and has been featured in Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, The Next Web, Forbes, Marketing Profs, Social Media Examiner and more. She also has a web-series called Drunk Entrepreneurs where she interviews different entrepreneurs who are finding success.
