The IT Nerd

Seeing as this weekend is Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share some recent info and tips from GoDaddy. The company’s email marketing experts looked at Canadian data from 2015 and found small businesses can crush their Valentine’s Day email campaigns — even if their business has nothing to do with flowers or chocolate.

Analysis of the 2015 data found that businesses can keep the excitement alive with their email campaigns by keeping these tips in mind:

Make a Good First impression

Your subject line is still critical when it comes to engaging with customers. GoDaddy found that including seasonal words in your subject line may increase click-through rates for email campaigns. In Canada, emails with subject lines that used the word “special,” “crush,” “valentine” and “date” saw higher open rates.

Be Mine…on Wednesday

Friday or Saturday might make the best date night, but according to the data from 2015, Wednesday is the best time to send your Valentine’s Day email message to customers. Open rates on Wednesdays were higher than other days of the week.

Use Content to Charm

While your business might not feel like it’s directly related to Valentine’s Day, there are plenty of ways to make the most of this time of year and share seasonal content with subscribers. GoDaddy determined that emails that incorporated one of the below targets saw higher engagement:

• Ideas for a Valentine’s Day date (dinner specials, dance, live music, etc.
• Craft suggestions and printables
• Jewellery
• Recipes
• Fun projects for kids
• Photography sessions

This is really interesting data that businesses can use to drive sales during this time of year.

GoDaddy Inc. has revealed the results of its national Canadian Small Business survey, which found that the top three challenges faced by small businesses are getting adequate exposure for their company name and offerings (60 per cent); managing cash flow and staying profitable (46 per cent); and generating sales leads (46 per cent).

When it comes to growing their business and sales, respondents said search engine optimization (SEO) — used to increase visibility of a website in search engines’ unpaid search results pages — would be the most useful digital marketing tool (54 per cent), followed by having good website content (50 per cent) and having a social media presence (44 per cent). However, approximately 60 per cent of respondents have not used SEO, and of these respondents, almost 70 per cent said they don’t understand it.

Other significant findings from the survey indicate that content is key as business owners look ahead, and that most are not using their site to sell their products or services online:

• Website content (25%) and SEO (21%) are cited as the major areas respondents would most like to improve when it comes to their online business presence.

• More than 39% of respondents said their websites are not mobile optimized.

• 83% of Canadian small business owners use their websites as a platform to expose their products, while only 19 per cent use it as an e-commerce platform to sell directly to customers.

• 62% of respondents do not have an online store and said they do not require one. The remaining 38% of respondents either have an existing online store or intend to build one in the next 12 months.

The GoDaddy survey was conducted from June 2015 to July 2015, with 407 GoDaddy customers from across Canada. Ninety per cent of respondents had five or fewer employees.

Now, GoDaddy does have some tips to help in this regard:

• Have a plan.Think about the purpose of your site and plan your content before you begin including visuals, product information, and how to contact you.

• Choose a domain name that aligns to your business. You may want to consider choosing a .CA domain extension.

• Keep your website clean and simple. Remember that your website reflects your brand and “less is more” in website design. Keep your site clean and easy to use.

• Be mobile-friendly. Being mobile-friendly means your website is optimized for viewing on mobile devices and your online business will be more accessible to your customers.

• Pay only for what you need. Having a small business means watching your budget. Look for a solution provider that will allow you to customize your solution, with the option for a complete hosting package or picking only the tools that suit your needs.

• Optimize your site for search engines. Once you’re online, you want to help ensure your website ranks high in search engines when people search for businesses in your field. Use tools that can analyze your site and offer guidance on how to optimize your search engine rankings.

Some SEO tips:

• Simple and specific. The more you hone your keywords, the less competition you will have and the higher you will rank. Your keywords represent the essence of what you do, where you do it, and what you offer. Choose them wisely, and choose words that are relevant.
• Be au naturale. Don’t overuse your keywords; it will make your content harder to read for people and search engines alike. Evaluate context in your content, because your search engine will be doing the same thing when it looks at your page.

Download “A Beginner’s Guide to SEO”: https://garage.godaddy.com/smallbusiness/market/download-free-seo-guide/

GoDaddy Inc. has announced three products designed to help accelerate online growth for small businesses in Canada. Personal Domains, Search Engine Visibility (SEV) and Email Marketing provide small businesses with the tools they need to increase their visibility, traffic, customer engagement and sales online.

• Personal Domains: GoDaddy now offers an easy way for small businesses to redirect their domain name to their social media profile. Upon registering a new domain name, GoDaddy customers can easily select the social media platforms they would like to use to connect with their customers. GoDaddy customers who already have a domain name will be able to quickly link it to one of 18 popular Web services, including Facebook, Etsy and YouTube.

• Search Engine Visibility: This will help small businesses improve their search engine ranking through simple, easy-to-follow steps designed for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) beginners. It analyzes a website and helps identify keywords that will optimize or raise the ranking of your website, as well as content updates that may influence search results. Approved changes made through Search Engine Visibility’s easy-to-follow guide are published immediately.

• Email Marketing: This tool is the latest addition to the company’s suite of applications that help small businesses reach their customers more efficiently. Email Marketing is simple to use, allowing small businesses to create email marketing campaigns integrated with other GoDaddy products. It also includes built-in features to make it easy for Canadian customers to be compliant with Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Email Marketing is integrated with Online Store, enabling small business owners to easily stay in touch with current customers, engage prospects and drive more repeat business. Business owners can quickly add product information from their store into their email marketing campaign, collect email addresses from site visitors and buyers, help manage those contacts and create and send email campaigns all in one place. Email Marketing will soon be integrated with Website Builder to offer a seamless experience for GoDaddy customers who want to collect email addresses on a website and use those contacts to help grow their business. Customers will be able to log in and start using the applications together — one integrated service from one provider — immediately. Contact information collected from the signup form flows directly into the contact management feature, and the integrated email marketing service is free for the first 50 emails sent as a Website Builder or Online Store customer.

These new tools are now available on GoDaddy.ca.

GoDaddy which is one of the top 5 hosting providers in the world today announced GoDaddy Pro, improving its advanced products for designers and developers. GoDaddy is counting on improved products and its trained technical support available 24/7 to set it apart with freelancers and pro developers.

GoDaddy Pro eases the processes web professionals go through when building client sites and managing client projects through features making it a one-stop-shop offering:

• Account access – Permits access to clients’ products without sharing passwords.
• Shared shopping carts– Users can send clients shopping carts loaded with recommended products, simplifying the checkout process.
• Site monitoring– Website performance and uptime alerts are automated.
• Client dashboard– View all clients and their products in one place.
• Pro support and training– A direct line to a team of highly trained technical agents and priority in the queue.
• Hosting products – GoDaddy Pro can be coupled with GoDaddy Pro features in hosting products including site staging, automated backups and security features.

The release of GoDaddy Pro is GoDaddy’s second recent major move in support of the web professional community, following GoDaddy’s acquisition of Elto earlier this month. Elto, a San Francisco-based company, helps small business owners connect with qualified developers to create and manage their websites.