#when you put it in perspective their efforts to expand globally is still in their baby steps

[banqanas]

it's reassuring to know that ldh/hiro does have a concrete goal for their overseas expansion, to perform on Rajamangala Stadium

you can see the connection of alan and psyfe having their asia tours as one of the steps to achieving this goal.

personally as a fan im still pretty uncertain with their overseas expansion seeing how badly some of them were executed. but Hiro's speech after talking about their goal touched me.

he said (paraphrase), "I already failed once when we started the group ZOO. After that, we came up with J Soul Brothers and then later EXILE. It took us 10 years to get back into japanese mainstream entertainment scene. We wanted to make EXILE-kei something that lasts even if I'm not here. [...] It's not that I didn't have dreams to perform overseas when I was still active as an artist, we just weren't able to. That's why I want to make the current LDH become a company that will be able to help these young artists make it."

[jordanianroyals]

Princess Dina Mired of Jordan wants to improve global cancer control in her new role 

Wednesday, 18 Jul 20183:30 PM MYT By WONG LI ZA

Despite jetlag and a back-to-back schedule, Princess Dina Mired still looked sharp, without a strand of hair out of place.

More importantly, she knows her facts and does not hesitate to speak her mind.

The Princess of Jordan was in Kuala Lumpur for a four-day visit, on the invitation of the National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) to promote the upcoming World Cancer Congress (WCC) to be held in Kuala Lumpur in October.

The down-to-earth princess was warm and in good spirits as she met young cancer patients at the NCSM premises in Kuala Lumpur before having one-to-one interviews with members of the media.

Princess Dina, 52, is president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) – the world’s largest international cancer-fighting organisation with over 1,000 members in 164 countries – and a global advocate for cancer control and non-communicable diseases (NCD).

She was also the Honorary Chairperson of the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme from 2006-2016, advocating early detection and screening of breast cancer for women in Jordan.

In 2011, she was chosen to deliver the keynote speech on behalf of civil society at the first ever United Nations High-level Meeting on NCDs, raising cancer’s profile on the global health agenda.

The Jordanian princess also led the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) in Jordan as director-general for 15 years, elevating the organisation’s standing into a leader in the global movement for people affected by cancer.

Born Dina Mohammad Khalifeh, Princess Dina married Prince Mired Raad in 1992. Together, they have three children – Princess Shirin, 25, Prince Rakan, 23 and Prince Jafar, 16.

For the princess and her family, cancer was something that they came face-to-face with 20 years ago.

In 1997, their second child Prince Rakan was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was barely two years old. He had a relapse during his treatment and underwent bone marrow transplant, with the donor being his sister Princess Shirin.

Prince Rakan successfully completed his treatment in 2000. (Source: The Star)

Asked how that experience has changed her and the family, the princess replied, “I think nobody who goes through such a traumatic journey comes out the same. When you go through something like that, you really understand that the most important and precious thing in life is health. Because when you lose it, you lose control, and you cannot do anything,” she said, as her voice and eyes softened.

Going through such a journey also puts things into context, she added.

“I think what happens is when you come out the other end, you start to enjoy the simple things in life, and you stop sweating the small stuff. You put things into perspective and, I think, you almost say that it’s a blessing to had the cancer because you got the wake-up call,” she said.

Princess Dina readily admitted that they were lucky to be able to afford to go for treatment abroad in the United States and Britain, and that her husband and immediate family were very supportive.

“And even with all of that, it was still very hard, so just imagine the poor people who have to go through cancer. I always say the equation for poverty and cancer is catastrophe.

“So I think people should realise and remember this fact because people who lack financial and emotional support need a lot more support,” she emphasised.

Fighting tobacco and cancer head-on

In line with her cancer advocacy, Princess Dina is also Honorary Chair of the Tobacco Free Portfolios steering committee and Honorary President of the Harvard University Global Task Force for Expanded Access to Cancer Control and Care in the Developing World.

Having been briefed about the local fight against tobacco in Malaysia during her visit, she shared some advice.

“Malaysia, I understand, has had some successes. You raised the price of cigarettes a little, banned smoking in some places, but unfortunately, even though those are positive steps, they are limited.

“I would love for Malaysia to be able to make a dent in the fight against tobacco, and to stop the new generation from smoking. The amount of price hike needs to be able to deter new and young customers from buying cigarettes,” she said.

She pointed out that Malaysia is a signatory to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which has clear guidelines pertaining to things like smoke-free areas, advertising, packaging and labelling.

“I think the people, decision-makers and policy makers should understand that because the wings of the tobacco industry have been clipped in Europe, America and so on, it needs new markets and therefore, is zooming in on the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Why? Because we don’t have strict regulations,” said Princess Dina, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Warwick University and a Master’s degree in International Banking and Financial Services from Reading University, both in Britain.

“People need to know that CEOs of big tobacco industries don’t smoke because they know there are thousands of chemicals in it. They know how harmful it is but what they do is they focus on our youth, get them addicted, take our money and then go and sunbathe somewhere!” said Princess Dina unreservedly.

Overall, she commented that Malaysia has some good treatment plans and early detection programmes, but felt that Malaysia’s national cancer control plan needs to be implemented and not just be “sitting on the shelf”.

“What’s the point of having it then? But if it is costed, has a budget and there is an action plan with deadlines and KPIs (key performing index), then it’s going to trickle down to all the policy makers,” she urged.

She also highlighted the need for the country to update the national cancer registry, which was last updated in 2011.

“We are in 2018. How can policy makers make better decisions or know the successes or weaknesses if you don’t have the numbers? Other countries have moved on not only with cancer data, but with non-communicable diseases’ data. And this doesn’t cost money, just political will and organisation,” she emphasised.

Bridging the gap

One of the key roles of UICC is to narrow the gap of cancer control between developing and developed countries.

“What we work on is to unite the global cancer response because many organisations in the cancer community, in earlier years, were working in silos, meaning the cancer agenda was not top priority in the global health community,” said Princess Dina, who will commence her term as UICC President, the first from the Arab region, in October this year.

UICC also holds governments accountable when it comes to implementing the Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020, which wants to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by 25% by the year 2025. The action plan came about after the UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs was adopted in 2011.

Equitable access to care is another goal of the UICC.

“The gap has been narrowed but if countries continue at the rate they are at now, we will not be able to reach our goals by 2020.

“And what that means is, we are not saving the lives that we should be saving. People are dying needlessly due to lack of political will and lack of focused policies to fight cancer head-on to make it part and parcel of the health agenda,” she pointed out.

The WCC will be held for the first time in Malaysia, and South-east Asia, in October, bringing together over 3,500 cancer control and public health experts from 150 countries, with 500 renowned speakers.

The programme includes about 90 multi-disciplinary sessions and will cover topics ranging from obesity, tobacco control, HPV vaccination and screening programmes as well as complimentary medicines and economics of cancer care.

The World Cancer Leaders’ Summit – a major annual high-level policy meeting dedicated exclusively to furthering global cancer control – will be held on the first day of the Congress.

The WCC is organised by the UICC every two years in a UICC member country. This year’s congress is hosted by NCSM.

“It is a great opportunity for Malaysia to capitalise not only on the Cancer Leaders’ Summit but also on the Congress. It is an amazing knowledge-sharing event, with a wealth of opportunity to meet top experts in one place and to unite the national effort.

“It is also the time to advocate and pressure decision-makers that cancer and NCD should be the top priority for the Malaysian government, especially with the new government. This is the time to do it right,” she said in conclusion.

[nathenlindgren]

Get More Customers Organically For Your eCommerce Store

Find out how you can attract more of your ideal customers on the top of Google Search results without paid ads with our 3-step SEO system.

With 43% of all e-commerce traffic coming from Google search, e-commerce stores who capitalize on this will benefit from increased profits and consistent organic customers for years to come.

Take a minute to schedule a time below to see if you are a good fit to at least double your organic website leads through our 3 step system.

I WANT TO GROW MY ORGANIC LEADS

Our Clients Have Massively Increased Their Sales Through Our SEO Services

Our team have helped companies ranging from emerging eCommerce stores to large companies like Capital One to be found at the top of Google through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Through this, we helped them to get more qualified leads and more sales while achieving a big return on their investment.

Two Spoons

Hannah from Two Spoons already had a strong social media presence before working with us, with over 115,000 followers on Instagram and growing her followers fast. However despite this growth, her website leads was not growing fast enough.

Through working with us, we helped Two Spoons to grow from 2,000 organic visitors per month to 10,000 organic visitors per month!

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Alpha Crowd Control

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See video here:

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E-Commerce Digital Marketing Agency

Having a functional e-commerce store or website is not an end-all and be-all. In a constantly changing digital and competitive business landscape nowadays, most e-commerce merchants worldwide turn to SEO and digital marketing agencies to help build their brands and grow their customer base. Because of this, marketing business online has become increasingly important in any company’s success.

Promoting your e-commerce store by utilizing SEO strategies and different digital marketing platforms offers immense value. Still, it is NOT a small and easy feat. Since SEO rankings take time to improve after optimizing the website, it is a truly daunting task to find the needle you are looking for in the enormous haystack of information that search engines return. For this reason, more and more entrepreneurs are now relying on outside help to achieve organic growth.

Are you thinking about hiring an e-Commerce digital marketing agency?

Choosing the best e-Commerce digital marketing agency will help you save time, headaches, and a massive amount of money. The goal of hiring an e-Commerce digital agency is to increase your website’s visibility and ultimately provide a quick return on your investment.

Before we go further, here’s a heads-up! Reaching the top of search engine rankings doesn’t happen overnight. Because of this, it takes several months to realize that you hired the wrong e-Commerce agency, and you end up facing damaging effects to your website’s online presence in search engine results. Too late to atone for your bad decisions.

If you are looking for honest SEO services with guaranteed results, then you came to the RIGHT place!

Compared to other e-Commerce marketing agencies, we offer you a stress-free, fast and rewarding experience! Our main goal of helping you set up an e-Commerce digital marketing system is to create new e-Commerce revenue streams that initially seem too complicated to leverage. We suggest that if you want the best results in your ROI, focus on the valuable metrics that matter.

ePropel is an e-Commerce digital marketing agency that offers guaranteed e-Commerce digital marketing services that will help your business dominate your market’s search engine rankings. We follow a 3-step system to grow your e-Commerce business based on fundamental strategies and best SEO and digital marketing practices. Our guaranteed SEO system has a proven track record in assisting small to medium-sized companies to sell to a global audience online.

Our main goal is to help you attract your ideal customers without paying hefty fees for paid ads. As your SEO partner, we will strive to help you get to the top results on Google and get organic traffic from the top 10 search result positions.

We now live in a different world, and as technology advances, Google is also advancing its requirements. We diversify, and with the latest developments in Google algorithm, it’s hard to keep up with the new marketing trend at an enterprise level.

LEARN HOW TO GET 10X MORE CUSTOMERS AND INCREASE YOUR ROI WITH EPROPEL’S 3-STEP SYSTEM.

We provide all the e-Commerce digital marketing services that your company needs to get results!

Our full-service SEO and e-Commerce digital marketing packages are designed for your business to rule the web and replace a dozen solutions with one suite to improve and leverage in all areas of your marketing. As our valued client, you will enjoy the following services:

Execution of effective e-Commerce digital marketing strategies

We will conduct an in-depth review and audit of your website to determine the necessary SEO strategies that will give your store the much-needed boost in its online presence. We will also execute effective e-Commerce SEO strategies customized to your business to make your online store more visible on the search engine results pages.

Perform website optimization strategies

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

Help you design a custom, mobile-friendly site that makes purchasing your product be a breeze as possible

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

EXCLUSIVE BONUS: WATCH OUR FREE TRAINING VIDEO TO BOOST YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS QUICKLY.

What makes our e-Commerce agency different?

Our connection with our customers is at the heart of what we do, as we believe building a solid client relationship is the foundation for growth. Trust and values come FIRST to us, and we don’t act in self-interest. We continually strive to build a lasting and meaningful relationship with our clients founded by transparency and honesty.

With all that said, we take time to hear your goals and where you want to be in the future, so we have a FULL understanding of what your company wants to accomplish in e-Commerce marketing and ensure you are well-supported throughout the process.

Everything we do comes from the perspective of a business owner. We walk our talk, and we are 100% dedicated to serving you. We will treat your company as our own and look out for your business’s best interest as a whole. And as your SEO and digital marketing partner, you are NEVER alone in your game. We are in this together!

Simply put, we genuinely care about your business, and we are passionate about bringing noticeable results building your competitive advantage. Our SEO solutions and digital marketing system in place are driven towards making an indelible impact with significant change on your company’s revenue growth and, eventually, help your business succeed in this competitive digital age.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EPROPEL DIFFERENCE. WE GIVE YOU A HANDS-OFF SOLUTION IN GETTING CONSISTENT SALES AND LEADS.

So, let’s kick things off with the help of our certified digital marketing experts!

Take note that highly effective e-Commerce marketing is a make or break necessity for many e-Commerce companies. Today, a plethora of e-Commerce businesses credit online marketing for achieving an increase in their ROI and their generation of more sales.

When it comes to e-Commerce digital marketing, finding the RIGHT e-Commerce marketing agency or partner can help you tap into this rapidly growing sales channel and keep your business prepared for the future!

That said, if you are looking for a dedicated digital marketing team passionate about taking your business to the next level, our integrated digital marketing strategies will be perfect for you!

Make ePropel and our team your trusted e-Commerce marketing agency. Our e-Commerce digital marketing services go unmatched, providing your business with the best value possible and helping your e-Commerce store get ahead in today’s very competitive online business world. We will develop a customized internet marketing package to meet your business KPIs and revenue growth goals.

With our team of experienced SEO and digital experts and a growing number of satisfied customers, ePropel becomes the trusted choice for e-Commerce companies looking to drive revenue, generate sales, set up an effective conversion strategy, and ultimately, get good leads aboard.

PARTNER WITH EPROPEL NOW, AND TOGETHER, WE WILL GROW YOUR BUSINESS!

Why do you need a game plan for your online marketing?

The global market is continually expanding and innovating. If you don’t keep up with your competitors, you will be missing out on huge sales, let alone you lose in the game. Relying on the traditional forms of advertising and marketing products will not cut it or beat your competitors, especially in a very aggressive market with low customer spending.

With nearly all marketing efforts being performed now online, it is tough to draw customer’s attention to your business. Even more challenging is deciding between the various types of digital marketing people use today that will potentially market your business. If you continue to rest on your laurels in a world of business that’s highly competitive, sooner or later, a new competition lurks around the corner, and you are in a deadly trap.

Here’s a wake-up call to e-Commerce business owners

While you are not boosting your website’s visibility, your competitors are keeping the competition on their toes. So, if your potential and existing customers find them online, they will likely turn to your competitors instead of you as the go-to source for their needs. Thus, you miss the opportunity to pull in more customers and reach a large audience.

As you can see, digital marketing is relatively inexpensive and very doable, so there is no reason why e-Commerce businesses couldn’t stay in front of people and stand out from the crowd. No matter how new or small, your business can avoid being overlooked by the vast marketplace. Here’s the good news, at ePropel, we offer a suite of e-Commerce marketing services that make using e-Commerce marketing simple but on point and delivers results.

Take advantage of our online marketing strategies geared toward building your brand awareness, increased website traffic, targeted reach, leads, conversions, or even repeat purchases so that you could achieve your business growth goals. With a coordinated marketing strategy, your company will surely maximize the impact of your e-Commerce marketing efforts!

FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET MORE CLIENTS AND REACH YOUR TARGET MARKET THROUGH SEO. WATCH THE FREE TRAINING VIDEO HERE.

Again, don’t rest on your laurels. It’s time to take massive action!

As a business owner, it is common for you to spin the wheels and lose focus. And as the business continues to grow, the demands to be met become increasingly high. Without noticing, it presents you with ever more complex challenges at a near-relentless pace, losing your control and grip on the business. Add in your personal and family needs; things could spiral down quickly, and it’s easy to constantly feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. ‍

With overwhelming things going on in the business, unknowingly, the day has gone by, and you missed priming the pump that improves cash flow. Remember that generating MORE sales or getting more people walking through your door are the lifeblood of your business. At the end of the day, the main thing that matters is, how many sales are you making?

If you want your business to realize its full potential without getting overwhelmed, take this advice seriously: do things that truly matter to your business, and don’t wait for your feelings to change to take action. Whether you like it or not, your e-Commerce success depends upon the successful marketing strategies you have poured into your business to gain traction in a crowded online marketplace.

If wearing multiple hats at your job hurts your efficiency, decreases your focus, and undermines your productivity as the company’s primary decision-maker – it’s about time to stop trying to do it all by yourself. Simple. If you do the SEO legwork yourself, you need to learn the process and pay for tool subscriptions. In addition, to get it done right, you need to invest in training and courses. Too much on your plate already, and confused about what to do first. Consider outsourcing your marketing – this is perhaps the best decision. This way, you can give your undivided attention to more important things to run your business more powerfully.

Do you want an e-Commerce marketing going and need help from experts?

No worries, we’ve got you covered! We at ePropel will help you create a plan, strategize, and implement it into your business. We will make things happen for you and deliver maximum SEO results that propel your business to grow. ‍

Prioritize Keywords That Gets You Results

Identify what your prospects are searching for on Google and embed these keywords into the right areas of your website that you can consistently get qualified leads on a regular basis.

Optimize Your Website to Increase Visibility

With over 200 optimization factors, we identify the top factors that are turning your visitors away and what would increase searchability on your website. We then implement these on your website on so that it helps your store to rank on Google for more keywords

Quality Link Building To Accelerate Your Growth

Without high-quality and relevant backlinks, it’s almost impossible to get to the 1st page of Google for the most competitive keywords in your niche, so it’s very important to match your eCommerce store with the most relevant and high quality backlink opportunities to achieve 1st page Google results.

Without SEO, your website is not found by searchers, and your efforts will be for nothing. Remember, most e-Commerce traffic comes from Google, and because of this, implementing cohesive e-Commerce marketing strategies will help you get found, get noticed, and attract new leads.

Investing in SEO and digital marketing is a long-term investment. We believe that building our partnership with you is crucial to making our working relationship as smooth sailing as possible. We understand that you are busy running your business. Don’t worry; we’ve got this!

We will take your business marketing off your plate and help you get into the “​feels right” zone quickly to skyrocket your sales. We’ve got your back, and you can count on us, through thick and thin. We have everything tracked with advanced analytics on your site, showing all aspects of your business, resulting in a more effective and faster decision-making process and ensuring that all campaigns perform at peak potential. We will also send you a detailed regular SEO report that summarizes all necessary SEO metrics you need to know about your business.

Everything you need to know about e-Commerce marketing

With many marketing operations now taking place online, it can be tough to decide which e-Commerce marketing strategy is most useful for your business. So before we dive into much detail about the endless options for marketing your product, it is essential to understand that e-Commerce marketing and digital marketing are both inclusive.

Similarly, e-Commerce marketers can use all digital channels to promote their products, attract visitors to their website, facilitate purchases online and grow their business. While SEO results take time to be reflected on search engines, it offers long-term value. So, keep going!

At ePropel we help business owners improve their store and monitor their progress. We will help you implement clear, actionable, prioritized ground-breaking SEO strategies to improve your website performance.

Scan your website with possible SEO issues. No obligation is required.

AVAIL NOW FOR OUR FREE SITE AUDIT TO CHECK YOUR WEBSITE’S SEO SCORE.

Patience is a virtue even in SEO…

As an e-Commerce agency, we have been doing SEO for a long time; the most common client question is, “How long before we are #1 in Google?” We get that.

Here is the harsh truth, there is no such thing as instant SEO results. But once rankings are achieved, it is not easy to fall off Google’s SERP. So how long does it take for results to start kicking in? It takes 4-6 months to see the results and experience an increase in organic traffic to be accurate. ‍

Although most companies want fast and quick results, SEO cannot take effect overnight. It just doesn’t happen like that – SEO doesn’t work instantly. However, if website optimization is built on a right and solid foundation, it should continue to bring relevant organic results not long after the website is optimized.

When it comes to populating the first page in Google, the bottom line is that patience is a virtue. Google is getting smarter recently, and it takes considerable time to prove to Google that your website is worth it. If you successfully make it to the first page, pat yourself on the back. This achievement means that Google has finally found your website credible and valuable.

So, kudos to your dedication and hard work. Allow us to be the first one to say, “Congratulations, all of your SEO efforts have finally paid off!” The main takeaway here is that the work will gradually produce BIG results if the SEO foundation is solid and done right. SEO is a daunting task, but it is a slow but sure process. So trust the process!

Now, let’s talk about the ins and outs of digital marketing

Nowadays, digital marketers use different platforms to generate noise towards their products or services. Let’s face it. Competition among small businesses is fierce. In fact, we frequently witness an uprising every now and then. With that said, digital marketing has never been more relevant and vital for companies to get their business found and thrive online.

A lot of e-Commerce companies are now investing so much effort in telling about their brands or showing off their products in the hope of bringing awareness and attracting more buyers online without spending so much money on advertisements. These are made possible because of the digital marketing strategies they implement on their own.

As the competition online gets more rigid, more and more business owners have difficulty keeping up with competitors. Add in the fact that digital marketing continues to evolve every single day.

This scenario is quite challenging for many businesses to take advantage of the marketing channels available, especially if entrepreneurs are not clear on their starting point and where their company is headed within a given timeframe – it can seem scary, intimidating, and confusing. Add it, for businesses with limited time and resources on hand – it’s often difficult to take advantage of digital marketing channels, which leads to neglect and not taking action to leverage and stay ahead of the curve.

So why does digital marketing matter to your business?

The reasons are simple and clear. To make it easier to understand, let us break them down into tiny bits and pieces.

IT DOESN’T NEED A CONSIDERABLE INVESTMENT

e-Commerce marketing won’t break the bank to implement the strategies. If you are new to digital marketing, find suitable channels that work for your business.

IT EFFECTIVELY INCREASES THE CONVERSION RATE

Although e-Commerce marketing doesn’t promise fast results after optimizing the website, it can easily convert subscribers and leads into high-paying customers and repeat clients when done right.

INCREASES YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT

As you get higher conversion rates, it will impact the revenue positively, make more money, and increase your profit margin.

DEFINES AND CLASSIFIES YOUR TARGET MARKET

In business, you need to understand who your target customers are. Speak directly to your ideal target market that can resonate with what you are offering, and in time, your efforts will pay dividends.

BUILDS AND STRENGTHENS YOUR BRAND

Having a brand is not enough. It needs to be promoted and instilled in your potential customer’s minds, which means getting your brand in front of them and winning their trust to increase your credibility. The greater brand awareness your business has, the higher the chances to convert website visitors into paying customers.

SHARE QUALITY CONTENT ABOUT THE COMPANY ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS

SEO and digital marketing involve the optimization of your content. Creating content and sharing them on different digital media platforms make you look like an industry expert. Being so is an advantage because it will give you an instant upper hand on competitors.

Ready, set, let’s go!

If you don’t have an SEO and digital marketing system in place, what are you waiting for? Now that you know the ins and outs of e-Commerce marketing, let’s discuss how you can build a successful business strategy for your online store.

Set realistic long-term goals for the business.

Break down long-term goals into actionable steps.

Keep your new and existing customers happy.

Keep your new and existing customers happy. Like other relationships, the business relationship is about establishing mutual trust. Nurturing your customers will solidify your business’s future success, avoid customer churn, and increase client satisfaction.

Pandemic lockdown is a blessing in disguise to small businesses...

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, making it difficult to stay afloat, especially for startup business owners during trying times like what we are going through right now. With the influx of COVID-19 worldwide, many businesses that were severely affected are now out of business. ‍ The ones believed as temporary closures became permanent shutdowns delivering a gut punch to business owners across various ranges of industries. Despite the reopening to new normal, thousands of small businesses are still struggling to get their heads above water. ‍ On the flip side, e-Commerce businesses have been turbo-charged by the pandemic. Coronavirus restrictions forced people to stay at home and avoid leaving their houses unless absolutely necessary. With more consumers needing to physically distance and local stores changing their in-store operations due to daunting COVID-19 case counts, the option to shop online became the best alternative to many.

Turn your dry pipeline into a well of golden opportunity

Pandemic has changed the way people shop and accelerated the digital world’s shift where business interactions and transactions are done online. The compulsory measure to arrest the virus caused the most significant change to online shopping. ‍ But our difficult circumstance goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining. The strict stay-at-home combined with physical distancing orders led many people to shy away from physical stores, sweeping more virtual and e-Commerce businesses off their feet. ‍ If you have the right mindset, you can see a dry pipeline as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to innovate, restructure, shift priorities and take advantage of the new trends of commercial opportunities brought on by the unprecedented times. That’s right.

According to recent surveys, retail e-Commerce sales soared to an all-time high during the global pandemic. The challenging situation we are in right now is perhaps the MOST ironic. Do you agree?

A dry sales pipeline compels businesses to perform into exploration mode, try new things, and accelerate the learning curve. So, despite the economic fallout, COVID-19 helped drive e-Commerce sales up to 97% compared to the pre-pandemic season. 

This enormous growth of e-Commerce means competition, which means that e-Commerce companies struggle to get new clients because of too much rivalry online. Sounds like you?

GET A FREE AUDIT TO CHECK WHAT’S HOLDING YOUR WEBSITE BACK FROM ITS POTENTIAL TO GET RANKED AND NOTICED.

Supercharge your e-Commerce site search to get more traffic

So as COVID-19 spikes and restrictions remain uncertain, today is the perfect time to jumpstart boosting your e-Commerce business. If you think your company doesn’t need SEO, think again! As the pandemic continues to reshape our world, many consumers turn to e-Commerce to purchase the items they need and become accustomed to the convenience of shopping from home.

The dramatic shift from in-store shopping to massive buying online is expected to have lasting effects on the consumers’ shopping preferences, even when things go back to a pre-COVID-19 way of life. The prediction is that online shopping is here to stay even when the pandemic is over. So, grab the chance to get discovered by your potential customers and dominate your niche.

Don’t just launch your e-Commerce store; leave it sitting online and wait for orders to come through. Sorry not sorry – this is not how it works. Flow in orders and sales won’t come unless you get the word out there and let the people know about what you are offering. Letting your website die in the vine and not doing anything is like throwing your money away since no one will see this website of yours. Your website is not getting any leads that you needed to scale your business.

In the digital era, setting your e-Commerce website is the easiest part of the process. The difficult step is how to get attention and convert the leads into loyal customers. We offer e-Commerce marketing services to maximize reach and transform your shop into a retail store’s powerhouse.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US TO SEE HOW YOU CAN SKYROCKET YOUR E-COMMERCE BUSINESS GROWTH AMID TIGHT COMPETITION.

Step up in your SEO game. Why not?

First, let us make a recap. Website optimization through SEO strategies is the game-changer for ranking high on Google, capturing new leads, and increasing your revenue in the future. If your brand has high visibility online, it fuels more sales for your business.

After e-Commerce store launching is completed, don’t sit back yet. Instead, invest your efforts into turning your website into a lead magnet and acquire more customers straight from your website. Even a pandemic can’t slow down your e-Commerce business if you have the right SEO in place.

To reiterate, taking your business online is totally different from creating a website. Every effort we make to improve our website’s performance leads to revenue in some way.

So, if you want to leverage your business, keep this in mind:

Your e-Commerce website becomes the marketplace where customers learn about your products and services and make pre-purchase decisions. The customers also carry out commercial transactions like buying or selling on the platform itself.

SEO is a non-negotiable strategy for an effective e-Commerce marketing

The pandemic has turned several businesses upside down. If your e-Commerce store was hit hard by this Coronavirus outbreak and has experienced a massive decline in traffic and conversion, it’s time to do the work. Yes, you heard it right!

Don’t wait for things to get better before you put in the work. While everything is slow, it is the perfect time to restructure, which includes improving your SEO and utilizing digital marketing platforms to skyrocket your sales, outrank your competitors, and get back on track when the pandemic is over.

Sounds good? Here’s how to get started:

Declutter your website pages. Remove irrelevant pages that were created without a strategy, including those that got obsolete over time. Although Google indexed them, they don’t matter to your business anymore. So better delete the non-essentials – having less is more. ‍

Only publish high-quality content. It was once a fad that producing heaps of content was the key to rank. But things have changed. The rule of thumb is to go for quality over quantity. Today, Google is more focused on the VALUE you are providing to the online readers. So, when publishing content, keep posting less but highly informative and keyword-rich articles. Then, you are good to go! ‍

Utilize other platforms like Amazon and App stores. Explore other websites that your audience is searching and don’t just restrict your efforts to rank in Google alone. Look beyond and seize every opportunity you have. The goal here is to maximize your online visibility to get found by an impending flood of virtual customers. ‍

Level up your website’s on-page SEO. On-page SEO is the key to improving your brand visibility, achieving a surge in organic traffic, and whatnot. On-page SEO is done by optimizing and adding keywords to the individual page on your website. If done correctly, it has the potential to improve your website rankings in Google and reach your target audience over time. ‍

Improve visitor’s dwelling time by creating engaging content.‍ Dwelling time is the amount of time users spend on your website before they go back to check out other results in the search engine. Adding high value, quality, informative and engaging content will increase your chances of converting visitors into potential customers and avoid leaving before they get to your website. ‍

Switch your website to Google’s mobile-first index.‍ To simplify, Google prioritizes indexing sites that are mobile-first indexing compatible. As Google adapts to the growing use of mobile worldwide, Google bots prioritize crawling and indexing sites with compatibility with mobile-first indexing and mobile SEO in general. ‍

Amp up your technical SEO. The main goal here is to optimize the primary infrastructure of your website. Technical SEO has nothing to do with your content. The most simplified definition of the process requires Speed, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and JavaScript, to name a few. Improving your technical SEO allows the search engines to access, crawl, interpret and index your website without any problems.

Fill your sales pipeline with warm leads

As Google rankings increasingly become tougher, it is important to understand what your audience likes and preferences as a whole. Since most people now are spending most of their time on their smartphones, it is good to invest your efforts in identifying the suitable medium to engage and nurture relationships with your visitors and create content that adds value to them.

Take note that shoppers are spending more hours researching the items they want to buy online. If they highly consider your product, they will temporarily add them to the cart and buy it later. According to surveys, it takes about two weeks before they make the purchase decision.

As part of the sales process, newly found leads need warming up before they are ripe for conversion. The content you add to your website attracts potential customers. You can keep them engaged by giving them steam of quality content that will keep them coming back and increase their genuine interest as they move closer to making buying decisions. Most potential buyers are not only are searching online for the products they want to buy online but are also looking for answers to their questions.

Yes, it’s true. Almost all the customers have curious queries, so create content that is engaging and informative. Strive to satisfy their curiosity and meet them at every level of their research – from product discovery, comparisons with other products, and reviews from previous clients.

Aside from getting a paying customer when you add value to your audience journey, you will also get a fresh ranking boost from Google. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. So don’t settle for mediocre content; go for quality content that will help you stand out, pull visitors into your funnel, warm them as prospects, and eventually, fill your pipeline with qualified hot leads.

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Final words

SEO is a critical need by e-Commerce businesses nowadays. There is no other way to move forward your e-Commerce business faster and get better ROI than optimizing your website. As an e-Commerce digital marketing agency, we will get the results for you while you focus on your business. Choosing your e-Commerce digital marketing agency is a matter of life and death. It could help you succeed or fail in your SEO campaigns. So choose wisely. Your choice in hiring the right e-Commerce SEO agency matters because it either catapults your e-Commerce store to brilliant new levels of success or pulls your business a giant step backward.

Partner with ePropel, and guaranteed, your business is in good hands. We have what it takes to help your business grow. We will unleash your e-Commerce to its full potential allowing your website to get more traffic, exponentially increase your revenue and gain more repeat businesses online. So whether you want to increase your profit or get your brand out there, ePropel’s e-Commerce marketing services will help achieve your business’s goals to succeed within a target audience.

ePropel is an SEO agency that helps companies to accelerate their website’s organic visitors through our proven 3-step system. Our team has more than 20 years of experience and are driven to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

[dalshabetglobal]

201224 Subin / Dalsooobin Interview for TenAsia (English)

[TenAsia = Tae Yuna, Seo Yejin] Subin, a former member of the girlgroup Dalshabet, who is appearing on MBN Entertainment's show <Miss Back> reflected on the year.

Subin said she has been extremely busy this year. In July, she appeared on MBN's trot competition program <Voice Trot> and sang Sim Soo Bong's songs enthusiastically. In the middle of the stage, she threw off her shirt and showed off an unconventional sexy concept, and the high note in the second half was naturally admired.

Since then, on <Miss Back>, in which former idols from girl groups take on new challenges as singers, as a 10-year singer and representative of a solo agency Dalsooobin Company, the members drew attention with their efforts day and night to obtain life songs.

Subin said, "Starting with <Voice Trot>, I started doing a lot of programs. While doing Miss Back, I am living with another person inside me. We've been resting a lot with Corona these days, but I've been busier than anyone else."

When asked why she challenged herself with the trot genre, Subin said, "I think that trot is a field that everyone who plays music should study, but I learned more than I thought. My musical perspective has expanded greatly and I have overcome a lot of my stage fright."

<Miss Back> drew a lot of attention before the broadcast. In the released teaser video, Gayoung, a former Stellar member, said she dreamed of becoming an innocent girl group member, but when there was no reaction, she said they transformed her image into an unconventional 19-year-old concept, causing controversy. Nada, a former Wassup member, confessed to have panic disorder and depression. Subin also ran an office in the side of her room due to financial issues, and even played sessions herself, causing some regrets.

Was there any pressure to appear on the show because it was somewhat provocative? "I've never been ashamed of my situation since I was young. Rather that, I was relieved", said Subin. "It was nice to be able to show that I'm actually living this kind of life, and that I'm a person who is having similar difficulties as everyone else. After the broadcast, I received more support than I expected. Many people said they didn't know I was this easy-going", she laughed.

As for the chemistry with <Miss Back> members, she said, "We all have similar personalities. They are orderly and introverted, but when we are gathered together, they brighten. They are warm people who make concessions, understand, and celebrate and mourn together. If I were to be in a girl group again, I'd like to be with the members. Even though I met them frequently during my idol activities, we didn't have the opportunity to get close to each other, but since the years we've been through are similar, I think our bond has gotten stronger now".

However, Soyeon, a former T-ara member, decided to leave the show after only four episodes, which was surprising to everyone. Subin said, "Soyeon still watch the broadcast these days and sends me messages of encouragement after watching it". She added, "On the first day when all the members was together for the first time, we gathered together and talked quietly, but Soyeon seemed like a strong support to everyone. I think she is still responsible for that feeling.”

Subin had a four-car collision on the 17th of last month (November). Although there were no major injuries, she was hospitalized for a week following the doctor's recommendation, receiving intensive treatment and discharged from the hospital. As a result, she was absent from the fourth life song challenge on <Miss Back>. The <Tantara> team with Yujin, Sera and Gayoung had to complete the stage without Subin.

Subin said, "I picked the members myself, organized the stage, and rapped for the first time, so of course I wanted to show a lot of things. I felt so sorry that I couldn't be there as their leader". She also said, "I was in doubt for a while. Since Dalshabet days, I was involved in a lot of accidents. It was even more unfair because there were many things that were not our mistakes. When I tried to run out, it felt like I was catching it from behind".

"But the good news is that even though I was away, the members filled the position. I was proud that they did much better than I was worried about. On the other hand, I think it was a signal to rest for me, who is working too hard these days".

When asked about the most memorable performance on the <Miss Back> stage, Subin said, "I have ground my bones on every stage. It was edited from the show, but there was a day when I practiced until 5 a.m., when I was practicing for <Tantara>. I was even scolded after an interim check, I practiced with tears on my eyes on that day. The time given to us is very limited. After that, there was nothing I could feel more proud about."

Subin then said, "Through <Miss Back>, I achieved my dream of directing a stage beyond producing an album. If I could do this during Dal Shabet, I think my attitude would have been a lot different. Since I was in charge of everything from one to ten, my sense of responsability grew even harder. I am thankful".

She also showed her love and affection for Dalshabet members. Subin said, "I've never won first place on a music show with Dalshabet. I've heard something from people: the members of Dalshabet were so close that they never got first place. They said there should be competition in the group for us to do well and that all members were so kind that we only wished for it. It is not easy for young ladies to live together for seven years. But we are the most important people in each other's lives, being so close is really a gift.

Subin then said, "When I cried on <Miss Back>, my unnies will contact me right away. I cried again as well. Because they know the meaning of tears reflected on the broadcast, they support me a lot".

"Right now we can't meet because of the Corona, but I'm contacting them regularly in our private group chat room. Since we have six birthdays in a year, we celebrate our anniversaries together. Jiyul has the same hobby as me, so we travel together, and I see Kaeun often because she's my neighbor".

Subin returned as an actor after a year with the web drama <Wish You: Your Melody in My Heart> released on the idol app on the 4th.

<Wish You> is a romance that melts musical sensibilities in the BL genre, and tells the story of singer-songwriter Kang In-soo (played by Kang In-soo) and keyboardist Yoon Sang (played by Lee Sang) struggling to achieve their dreams of music. Subin plays Lee Yoo-jin, a former member of a girl group who has absolute hearing.

"The BL genre was so fresh, and it was great to play with two handsome men", said Subin. Also, "The Yoojin character who understood their love was heartbreaking and cool. I heard it topped the download list in Japan. I think it's because Insoo and Lee Sang are popular in Japan. I'm also satisfied that the video came out so pretty. Next month, the director's movie version will be released on Netflix", she said, asking for support from everyone.

Subin appeared as a guest on the Ten Live show hosted by Ten Asia's YouTube channel TVTen on the 16th and showed off her extraordinary talking skills. Especially when asked if she has been asked out by more than five male celebrities so far, she said, "Of course, there are more than five. Since it's been 10 years since my debut, there was about 20 people. Excluding sports players", she said, drawing surprise. She evern confessed that she is 173.8 centimeters tall, not 175 centimeters tall.

When asked about her year-end plans, Subin said, "I travel with my family every year, but I think we will have a small meal this year" and "I prepared an album while filming <Miss Back>. I will tell you good news soon".

Regarding the new song, she said, "It's my first time doing a winter song. I put a lot of effort into it. The genre is ballad and it's a song that goes well with winter. My color is definitely there and I think listeners can say there's a new color in it."

What is the goal of Subin, who has been working as a singer and actor, for next year? "I want to dig deeper into what I'm doing now rather than new challenges. I'll show you my 10 years of music and acting!"

Interview by: TenAsia Translated by Dalshabet Global Please, take out with full credits!

[earaercircular]

Is recycling a waste? Here’s the answer from a plastics expert before you ditch the effort

KEY POINTS

· TerraCycle and Loop founder and CEO Tom Szaky says the economics of the recycling business are broken in key ways, but consumer and corporate interest in building a circular economy continues to grow.

· Low oil prices, bans on imported recyclables in countries like China, and the latest trends in packaging design make it harder to recycle.

· Still, the recycling CEO says getting to a low-waste or even zero-waste economy is the way the world once was and can be again.

Recycling may make you feel better in a very small way about your role in helping to avert a global apocalypse, but even in “friendly” places, from John Oliver to NPR podcasts, recycling, especially of plastics, is being given a hard look. More people are wondering: Does it work?

The debate is not new. For years the economics of plastic recycling have been questioned. But the problem is not going away. The globe is already producing two trillion pounds of solid waste a year and is on pace to add more than a trillion more on an annual basis in the coming decades, according to World Bank data. A recent study found that the 20 top petrochemical companies in the world, among the group Exxon Mobil and Dow, are responsible for 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, and in the U.S., specifically, we are generating about 50 kilograms of throwaway plastic a year, per person.

The Covid pandemic has heightened attention to the issue, as use of disposable goods went up anywhere from 30% to 50%, according to Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling company TerraCycle and reuse platform Loop, who joined CNBC’s Leslie Picker on a recent CNBC Evolve Livestream about sustainability and business. He says concerns about the macroeconomics of waste management systems suffering economically are real, and there are ways to solve it that don’t just rely on government. We all need to take a deeper look at how we recycle beyond the feel-good blue bin, and what we can do to get past the problems.

1. The economics of recycling are broken.

Szaky says recent reporting on the economic issues for plastics recycling and restrictions around the world on imported recyclables, which are both weighing on the sector, are not an anti-environmental attack but “absolutely rooted in facts.”

He says it is important for consumers to understand that just because you recycle an item does not mean it will be recycled in the end.

“What makes something be recycled in a country doesn’t have to do with what we normally think: Can it be recycled? Most of the things we put in blue bins that are not recycled are put in the garbage because they are things waste companies can’t make money off, and that is the true bottleneck,” he said.

The right question is “Can a garbage company, the actual company in charge of the recycling in the geography, recycle it at a profit?”

According to Szaky, what’s happened is a profitability model that is decreasing as oil prices have gone down, which started in 2015, and even after a commodities market recovery post-Covid, have stayed down relative to recent history. The petrochemicals companies that make plastics rely less on recyclables when the price of their core commodity, oil, is lower. Second, China stopped importing recyclable waste, a move followed by other countries in 2018.

Both issues are critically important to the business model of recycling and the health of the infrastructure because they circle back around to how much demand there is to collect those material types.

“And it all hurt the business construct for recycling companies and that means our recycling capabilities are deteriorating,” Szaky said. “Recycling is not out there trying to do the best it can but maximize profit and we need to think about that as we aim for a more circular economy,” he said.

2. A packaging industry mega trend is working against recycling

The biggest global trend in packaging is not helping. Efforts to reduce costs in products and packaging are “objectively reducing value” Szaky said, “which also makes them less recyclable.”

The “lightweighting” of packages, making them have less physical material and more complexity as a result of that design challenge, makes them less profitable to recycle.

All of these economic issues lead to a situation in which what people would like to see is not what they would actually see if they went behind the scenes in the recycling industry. But Szaky says at the same time, consumers want to recycle more, and more companies are leaning into their own recycling.

What companies decide to do about recycling on their own initiative — and pay for — can be done in spite of the challenging economics and can still pay off for the companies in the future. That’s the TerraCycle business model, working with companies to fund their own voluntary recycling efforts. And that is more important at a time when the economics of consumer recycling are a mess.

3. Why companies don’t recycle enough, but should more

Szaky says what’s really important right now is companies deciding to lean in and create their own recycling programs. But he says it is still not easy for the corporate mindset to embrace.

“As a retailer or brand, if you just frame it as ‘the right thing to do’ the funding will be small and sporadic because there is no P&L logic to do it. But if you can use it to drive foot traffic like Walmart with car seats or Staples with pens, it can be monetizable,” he said.

Brands that run their own recycling programs should be doing it as part of a plan to drive more market share and brand preference. And he says it becomes “monetizable in a recognizable way” the bigger they become and the faster they can grow. “That is true for any sustainability measure a company is looking to implement in the short term.”

Some products won’t be recycled unless companies are the recycler.

A dirty diaper or toothbrush or cigarette is not recyclable because it costs too much. It is another economic problem, not a physics or chemistry one.

TerraCycle recently launched a diaper recycling program in Holland and now it is expanding to many countries.

“Diaper recycling doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective. It is expensive to collect and process,” Szaky said. But for the company that leads, “it can drive core value maybe better than TV ads,” he added.

Consumers want to do the right thing, and companies may want to do the right thing as well in acknowledging an environmental crisis — and fund a feel-good marketing campaign — but Szaky stressed that they need to see “not just the right thing, but that it will pay back.”

Szaky’s business recently teamed with a luxury watchmaker on the world’s tallest landfill: Mt. Everest. The mountain is littered with oxygen tanks from previous climbs and the watchmaker was able to both clean up the mess, an expensive undertaking, and source metal for its watches, which may add to the story it sells consumers in a way competitors can’t match.

4. The real solution is obvious: Consuming less

The white elephant, the fundamental answer to the challenge, is modulating consumption downward, but Szaky says that is a hard one for the business world to champion. “It is fundamentally de-growth.”

Even working with companies to create products from recyclables and where the recycling is part of the product story and selling point, “is not the answer to the garbage problem,” he says.

It may be among the best ways to manage waste in a circular economy, but Szaky says we will need to aim to go back to a world where garbage doesn’t exist.

“Before the 1950s, we received milk from the milkman and mended clothes and cobbled shoes,” he says.

Reuse does still exist at scale today in certain markets, such as beer kegs and propane tanks, but not nearly enough, and without the convenience of an infrastructure which makes return easy and widespread. That is one of the keys he sees for the future.

5. Reusable versus recyclable

While the goal of zero waste is ambitious, it is realistic to imagine a world in which more consumer products become reusable, if they can be easily returned in the circular economy.

Reusable versions of products from Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Walgreens, and hundreds of other retailers are being, or will in the future, be made available to consumers.

Szaky envisions the buy-and-return-anywhere model as a key one for the future.

“Buy your favorite shampoo bottle in a reusable form at a Walgreens in New York and drop it off at Burger King and buy an Impossible Whopper in reusable packaging too, and drop that off somewhere else.”

This model can help solve a big problem: consumer behavior. Szaky says while there is a significant consumer market motivated by environmental concerns and consumption, for the recycling industry to really work it needs to avoid relying on the most-motivated consumers. Even plastic recycling that is economic today, such as soda bottles, only results in 1 in 4 bottles being recycled. The No. 1 goal for most consumers will remain convenience and value.

A reusable package is an upgrade over a disposable package in an objective way, and with the convenience of drop-off locations it can lead to an easier shift in behavior, but it has to be offered at the right value to consumers. “With all three things coming together we can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important,” Szaky said. “We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project.”

6. Economics are busted but the recycling mindset matters

For all the debate over recycling and the hard facts about its economics, Szaky says there is a reason we talk about it so much.

The individual journey with sustainability always begins with recycling. And that remains key and a reason to figure out how to fix its short-term and long-term challenges.

When people start recycling, it does open the pathways to a broader change in mindset.

“It may lead to a plant-based diet instead of animal protein, or a smaller life, or biking ... creating even more important outcomes,” he says. “But first we have to solve the business problem.”

Source

Eric Rosenbaum : Is recycling a waste? Here’s the answer from a plastics expert before you ditch the effort, in: CNBC,22-05-2021 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/22/is-recycling-a-waste-heres-the-answer-from-a-plastics-expert.html

[ofcloudsandstars]

Celestial Forecast

Week May 18-24

Highlights:

On Thursday the 21st Gemini Season begins!

On Friday the 22nd there will be the New Moon in Gemini!

Hello everyone! This week will feel mostly emotional with a lot of clearing out as the moon has a lot of transits creating aspects with Chiron and Venus in retrograde giving us the opportunity to work out inner conflicts and reviewing our values. The New Moon almost comes at the same time as the start of Gemini season creating a new chapter especially in this saga of the global pandemic as we will see in this cycle efforts to rebuild society and communities to come together. This will be a good time to set intentions for a better reality to come out of the old one. Unfortunately there is also an opportunity for shitty politicians to use smoke and mirrors to cover up their bullshittery and try to make everything go back to normal but if you have magic and energy to spare, please send out energy for a better world to rise from this. Though the New Moon will be a great time for reflection and ideas, it won't be a good time for clarity or making decisions. That will come on Sunday when the moon will conjunct Mercury and other transits will help us to clear away emotional baggage and facilitate helpful change and clarity in our lives.

Note: I am London based so the time is set to GMT and the weeks go from Monday to Sunday

___________________

18th

☾ ♈ Moon Conjunct Chiron in Aries ☾ ♈ Moon Opposite Juno rx in Libra ☾ ♈ Moon Sextiles Mercury in Gemini

Energy: Today's vibe will be heavily introspective. It will ask us to look within ourselves and ask how we can honor ourselves and our energy better. The answers may come clearer as the Moon will sextile Mercury in Gemini bringing some answers and clarity to the surface. The fiery moon in Aries will conjunct Chiron which could bring up painful feelings and sensitivities which could be the foundation for us to look within, heal and shed what's no longer serving us (as the moon wanes before the new moon it's a great time to cleanse and shed.) The moon will be opposite Juno rx in Libra giving us another perspective on how we devote our energy to our needs or where we devote our energy towards and if it's worth our time. Be aware that even if these energies don't affect you directly, they can affect others around you and to protect yourself against any shadows of other people that may jump out with the moon and chiron conjuction in aggressive Aries.

Recommendations: Chord Cutting, Shadow Work, Self love magic, journaling, fire banishing, honoring your inner child, meditation

_____________________

19th

☾ ♈ Moon Conjunct Eros in Aries ☾ ♈ Moon Squares Pluto rx then Jupiter rx in Capricorn ☾ ♈ Moon Sextiles Venus rx in Gemini ☾ VOC 9:32PM-3:10AM

Energy: Today's will feel fiery and tactile with passionate energy as the Moon will conjunct Eros in Aries and then square Pluto and Jupiter rx in Capricorn. It will be a great day for shadow work or examining deep and passionate feelings as Pluto rx may bring up deeply rooted fears, subconscious beliefs and emotions to the surface to be examined. The square with Jupiter rx can only amplify this journey as Jupiter retrograde wants you to journey deeper with yourself. The Moon and Eros joined will create the energy perfect for us to want to pursue whatever moves our soul. Additionally as Eros is the guardian of sex, it will be a great day for sex magic. Lastly the moon will sextile Venus rx in Gemini making it a great day to practice self love and to create space to honor yourself and heal whatever needs to be addressed. The moon will go void of course in the evening (UK time) so it won't be the best time for manifestation until the next morning.

Recommendations: Self love magic, shadow work, trance meditation, sex magic, self transformation

_____________________

20th

Venus rx in Gemini squares Neptune in Pisces ☾ ♉ Moon enters Taurus ☾ ♉ Moon Conjunct Uranus in Taurus ☾ ♉ Moon Squares Saturn rx in Aquarius ☾ ♉ Moon Sextiles Mars and Ceres in Pisces

Energy: The final day of Taurus season will feel like a wrapping up as the moon enters Taurus and themes from the Taurus new moon may arise. This will be a good time to reflect on the cycle and what your intentions were last new moon. Some surprises, new inner perspectives and inner changes or changes within the home may come today as the Moon will conjunct Uranus in Taurus. It will be a good time to reflect on yourself or take responsibility for these changes as the moon will also square with Saturn rx in Aquarius which can help you take on any tasks you need to focus on especially in areas of self improvement. The moon will also sextile Mars and Ceres in Pisces helping to boost your energy in these matters and ease the tension in the day. With the moon sextiling Ceres it will be a good day for self care and nurturing yourself and loved ones. With Venus retrograding in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces this energy can rip off the rose tinted glasses that was coloring your view about your behavior (or about others close to you in relationships). It would be a good time to use this energy to spiritually explore and understand yourself, as well as extending compassion to yourself in this time. This combination can make existing relationships rocky as insecurities or disappointments can come to the surface. However it may be a good time to express yourself through art or do dream oracling as therapy to understand your inner worlds.

Recommendations: Shadow work, journaling, self love magic, divination, Bath Magic (especially for self love/nurturing magic), cleansing

_____________________

21st

Sun enters Gemini ☾ ♉ Moon Sextiles Neptune in Pisces

Energy: Today is the start of Gemini season! This solar month will increase our social lives, curiosity, intellectual pursuits for knowledge, interests in new topics and new ideas along with scatteredness. With Mercury still in Gemini until next week, we will feel our mental capabilities expanded as we seek to learn and try new things and share ideas. The Moon will sextile Neptune in Pisces heightening our creativity, empathic and psychic abilities making today a great day for any type of divination, trance meditation, dream magic and oracling and art based magics. This sextile can heighten the quality of our dreams as well as allow our psychic abilities to be amplified.

Recommendations: vision board for Gemini season, art magic, divination, trance meditation, dream magic, bath magic, bibliomancy, free writing purging (Gemini has strong mental energy and it’s a good time to cleanse right before the new moon).  _____________________

22nd

NEW MOON Mercury in Gemini squares Neptune in Pisces Sun and Moon conjunct in Gemini trines Saturn rx in Aquarius Mercury conjuncts Venus rx in Gemini

☾ ♉ Moon Trines Pluto rx and Jupiter rx in Capricorn ☾ VOC 8:00AM-2:35PM ☾ ♊ New Moon in Gemini

Energy: Today is the New Moon in Gemini! Almost in time to begin the new zodiac season. The energy will feel like a new chapter beginning as the Sun and Moon conjunction will trine Saturn rx in Aquarius. This energy will set the tone that it's time for us to reflect on the past cycle and put in the work to rebuild during this new one. The world has been wrecked by this pandemic but the energies combined will make it so that we will be ready to reflect and confront what needs to be done in order to restore balance. However the energy here is really for reflection and discussing ideas. With Saturn in retrograde it wants us to work on ourselves in context of our microcosmic issues and the behind the scenes structure that allowed the pandemic to take place in context of the global macrocosmic issues. In addition Mercury in Gemini will make a hard square with Neptune in Pisces causing a lot of confusion and in worse cases deception. There could be many new ideas but maybe none may be the right solution yet, or worse, people in charge could try to pull strings, smoke and mirrors to sway the masses how they like without making any real positive change. It's good to be alert on this day yet not take any action yet. Mercury will also conjunct Venus rx in Gemini which can bring our inner values to the surface to be analyzed. Themes from two days ago when Venus rx was squaring Neptune will be bought up to be re-examined. Reflecting on these themes and anything you need to change or nurture can be the new focus or goal of your new moon cycle. Before the moon transits into Gemini, it will trine both Pluto rx and Jupiter rx in Capricorn giving us a chance to work through any deeply buried feelings or life lessons before we move into this new chapter. Mercury conjunct Venus rx later can give us an opportunity to confront feelings about ourselves that could be holding us back so we may freely enter a new cycle.

Recommendations: Vision Board for the new moon, creating new magical tools, self love magic, protection magic (from scammers or manipulative people), divining for the new cycle (recommendations for Gemini theme: Bibliomancy, Shufflemancy), meditation with binural beats or a sound bath, writing down new goals for the future, setting intentions _____________________

23rd

☾ ♊ Moon Squares Ceres and Mars in Pisces ☾ ♊ Moon Trines Juno rx in Libra ☾ ♊ Moon Sextiles Chiron in Aries

Energy: The mood today will feel passionate and reflective as the moon makes it's way through Gemini. The moon will square Mars in Pisces which can bring up a lot of deep impulsive emotions which we may feel the need to act out on. Usually this square could trigger outbursts and anger but with the moon in Gemini and Mars in Pisces it may be a mood where we could observe our frustrations from afar and be able to analyze it. It would be a great day for journaling, self reflection and letting out hard feelings through art. The moon will also Sextile Chiron in Aries giving us a chance to reflect on past deep pain and traumas and have a moment to process what happened and reconcile with our past. Additionally the moon will square Ceres which could amplify our needs to be nurtured and in a less pleasant scenario may make us feel bitter if we don't get the nurturing we need. It would be important today to focus on self love and compassion and make space for yourself to feel what you need and take care of yourself. The moon will also trine Juno rx in Libra which can give us a chance to work out where we are devoting our energy towards and if it's worth it. This moment of reflection could help us reconsider our needs and priorities.

Recommendations: Self love magic, bath magic, journaling, shadow work, kitchen magic (especially baking), tuning into a sound bath

_____________________

24th

☾ ♊ Moon Conjunct Venus rx and Mercury in Gemini ☾ ♊ Moon Sextiles Eros in Aries ☾ VOC 12:09PM-12:08AM

Energy: On the new moon I mentioned that it was not a time for acting on decisions yet just planning and brainstorming ideas and goals. However today will be the day to start taking action. The moon will conjunct Venus rx and Mercury in Gemini helping our mind, emotions and heart be as one. Additionally the moon will sextile Eros in Aries giving us the drive to pursue our passions at any cost. With the moon conjunct Venus rx it will be a great time to self reflect on our values and how we value ourselves. However it may not be a good time to spend money no matter how enticing the transits may make it seem (as well as Jupiter being in retrograde at this time.) It would be a good time to act out on your plans that resonate with your values as you will have the chance to put your intentions into motion.

Recommendations: Self Love magic, putting plans into motion, sex magic, finding out information to help you achieve goals

_____________________

[jeanettetweeks]

Get More Customers Organically For Your eCommerce Store

Find out how you can attract more of your ideal customers on the top of Google Search results without paid ads with our 3-step SEO system.

With 43% of all e-commerce traffic coming from Google search, e-commerce stores who capitalize on this will benefit from increased profits and consistent organic customers for years to come.

Take a minute to schedule a time below to see if you are a good fit to at least double your organic website leads through our 3 step system.

I WANT TO GROW MY ORGANIC LEADS

Our Clients Have Massively Increased Their Sales Through Our SEO Services

Our team have helped companies ranging from emerging eCommerce stores to large companies like Capital One to be found at the top of Google through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Through this, we helped them to get more qualified leads and more sales while achieving a big return on their investment.

Two Spoons

Hannah from Two Spoons already had a strong social media presence before working with us, with over 115,000 followers on Instagram and growing her followers fast. However despite this growth, her website leads was not growing fast enough.

Through working with us, we helped Two Spoons to grow from 2,000 organic visitors per month to 10,000 organic visitors per month!

See this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omxdm5SHvlc

Alpha Crowd Control

Allan from Alpha Crowd Control has been running his business for more than 15 years. When traditional marketing channels stopped working and his paid ads didn’t bring a good return, he struggled to find new customers…

Through our 3-step system, we TRIPLED his business’ organic website leads which helped to create a 50% increase in his annual revenue!

See this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEfh4g_y06A

E-Commerce Digital Marketing Agency

Having a functional e-commerce store or website is not an end-all and be-all. In a constantly changing digital and competitive business landscape nowadays, most e-commerce merchants worldwide turn to SEO and digital marketing agencies to help build their brands and grow their customer base. Because of this, marketing business online has become increasingly important in any company’s success.

Promoting your e-commerce store by utilizing SEO strategies and different digital marketing platforms offers immense value. Still, it is NOT a small and easy feat. Since SEO rankings take time to improve after optimizing the website, it is a truly daunting task to find the needle you are looking for in the enormous haystack of information that search engines return. For this reason, more and more entrepreneurs are now relying on outside help to achieve organic growth.

Are you thinking about hiring an e-Commerce digital marketing agency?

Choosing the best e-Commerce digital marketing agency will help you save time, headaches, and a massive amount of money. The goal of hiring an e-Commerce digital agency is to increase your website’s visibility and ultimately provide a quick return on your investment.

Before we go further, here’s a heads-up! Reaching the top of search engine rankings doesn’t happen overnight. Because of this, it takes several months to realize that you hired the wrong e-Commerce agency, and you end up facing damaging effects to your website’s online presence in search engine results. Too late to atone for your bad decisions.

If you are looking for honest SEO services with guaranteed results, then you came to the RIGHT place!

Compared to other e-Commerce marketing agencies, we offer you a stress-free, fast and rewarding experience! Our main goal of helping you set up an e-Commerce digital marketing system is to create new e-Commerce revenue streams that initially seem too complicated to leverage. We suggest that if you want the best results in your ROI, focus on the valuable metrics that matter.

ePropel is an e-Commerce digital marketing agency that offers guaranteed e-Commerce digital marketing services that will help your business dominate your market’s search engine rankings. We follow a 3-step system to grow your e-Commerce business based on fundamental strategies and best SEO and digital marketing practices. Our guaranteed SEO system has a proven track record in assisting small to medium-sized companies to sell to a global audience online.

Our main goal is to help you attract your ideal customers without paying hefty fees for paid ads. As your SEO partner, we will strive to help you get to the top results on Google and get organic traffic from the top 10 search result positions.

We now live in a different world, and as technology advances, Google is also advancing its requirements. We diversify, and with the latest developments in Google algorithm, it’s hard to keep up with the new marketing trend at an enterprise level.

LEARN HOW TO GET 10X MORE CUSTOMERS AND INCREASE YOUR ROI WITH EPROPEL’S 3-STEP SYSTEM.

We provide all the e-Commerce digital marketing services that your company needs to get results!

Our full-service SEO and e-Commerce digital marketing packages are designed for your business to rule the web and replace a dozen solutions with one suite to improve and leverage in all areas of your marketing. As our valued client, you will enjoy the following services:

Execution of effective e-Commerce digital marketing strategies

We will conduct an in-depth review and audit of your website to determine the necessary SEO strategies that will give your store the much-needed boost in its online presence. We will also execute effective e-Commerce SEO strategies customized to your business to make your online store more visible on the search engine results pages.

Perform website optimization strategies

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

Help you design a custom, mobile-friendly site that makes purchasing your product be a breeze as possible

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

EXCLUSIVE BONUS: WATCH OUR FREE TRAINING VIDEO TO BOOST YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS QUICKLY.

What makes our e-Commerce agency different?

Our connection with our customers is at the heart of what we do, as we believe building a solid client relationship is the foundation for growth. Trust and values come FIRST to us, and we don’t act in self-interest. We continually strive to build a lasting and meaningful relationship with our clients founded by transparency and honesty.

With all that said, we take time to hear your goals and where you want to be in the future, so we have a FULL understanding of what your company wants to accomplish in e-Commerce marketing and ensure you are well-supported throughout the process.

Everything we do comes from the perspective of a business owner. We walk our talk, and we are 100% dedicated to serving you. We will treat your company as our own and look out for your business’s best interest as a whole. And as your SEO and digital marketing partner, you are NEVER alone in your game. We are in this together!

Simply put, we genuinely care about your business, and we are passionate about bringing noticeable results building your competitive advantage. Our SEO solutions and digital marketing system in place are driven towards making an indelible impact with significant change on your company’s revenue growth and, eventually, help your business succeed in this competitive digital age.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EPROPEL DIFFERENCE. WE GIVE YOU A HANDS-OFF SOLUTION IN GETTING CONSISTENT SALES AND LEADS.

So, let’s kick things off with the help of our certified digital marketing experts!

Take note that highly effective e-Commerce marketing is a make or break necessity for many e-Commerce companies. Today, a plethora of e-Commerce businesses credit online marketing for achieving an increase in their ROI and their generation of more sales.

When it comes to e-Commerce digital marketing, finding the RIGHT e-Commerce marketing agency or partner can help you tap into this rapidly growing sales channel and keep your business prepared for the future!

That said, if you are looking for a dedicated digital marketing team passionate about taking your business to the next level, our integrated digital marketing strategies will be perfect for you!

Make ePropel and our team your trusted e-Commerce marketing agency. Our e-Commerce digital marketing services go unmatched, providing your business with the best value possible and helping your e-Commerce store get ahead in today’s very competitive online business world. We will develop a customized internet marketing package to meet your business KPIs and revenue growth goals.

With our team of experienced SEO and digital experts and a growing number of satisfied customers, ePropel becomes the trusted choice for e-Commerce companies looking to drive revenue, generate sales, set up an effective conversion strategy, and ultimately, get good leads aboard.

PARTNER WITH EPROPEL NOW, AND TOGETHER, WE WILL GROW YOUR BUSINESS!

Why do you need a game plan for your online marketing?

The global market is continually expanding and innovating. If you don’t keep up with your competitors, you will be missing out on huge sales, let alone you lose in the game. Relying on the traditional forms of advertising and marketing products will not cut it or beat your competitors, especially in a very aggressive market with low customer spending.

With nearly all marketing efforts being performed now online, it is tough to draw customer’s attention to your business. Even more challenging is deciding between the various types of digital marketing people use today that will potentially market your business. If you continue to rest on your laurels in a world of business that’s highly competitive, sooner or later, a new competition lurks around the corner, and you are in a deadly trap.

Here’s a wake-up call to e-Commerce business owners

While you are not boosting your website’s visibility, your competitors are keeping the competition on their toes. So, if your potential and existing customers find them online, they will likely turn to your competitors instead of you as the go-to source for their needs. Thus, you miss the opportunity to pull in more customers and reach a large audience.

As you can see, digital marketing is relatively inexpensive and very doable, so there is no reason why e-Commerce businesses couldn’t stay in front of people and stand out from the crowd. No matter how new or small, your business can avoid being overlooked by the vast marketplace. Here’s the good news, at ePropel, we offer a suite of e-Commerce marketing services that make using e-Commerce marketing simple but on point and delivers results.

Take advantage of our online marketing strategies geared toward building your brand awareness, increased website traffic, targeted reach, leads, conversions, or even repeat purchases so that you could achieve your business growth goals. With a coordinated marketing strategy, your company will surely maximize the impact of your e-Commerce marketing efforts!

FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET MORE CLIENTS AND REACH YOUR TARGET MARKET THROUGH SEO. WATCH THE FREE TRAINING VIDEO HERE.

Again, don’t rest on your laurels. It’s time to take massive action!

As a business owner, it is common for you to spin the wheels and lose focus. And as the business continues to grow, the demands to be met become increasingly high. Without noticing, it presents you with ever more complex challenges at a near-relentless pace, losing your control and grip on the business. Add in your personal and family needs; things could spiral down quickly, and it’s easy to constantly feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. ‍

With overwhelming things going on in the business, unknowingly, the day has gone by, and you missed priming the pump that improves cash flow. Remember that generating MORE sales or getting more people walking through your door are the lifeblood of your business. At the end of the day, the main thing that matters is, how many sales are you making?

If you want your business to realize its full potential without getting overwhelmed, take this advice seriously: do things that truly matter to your business, and don’t wait for your feelings to change to take action. Whether you like it or not, your e-Commerce success depends upon the successful marketing strategies you have poured into your business to gain traction in a crowded online marketplace.

If wearing multiple hats at your job hurts your efficiency, decreases your focus, and undermines your productivity as the company’s primary decision-maker – it’s about time to stop trying to do it all by yourself. Simple. If you do the SEO legwork yourself, you need to learn the process and pay for tool subscriptions. In addition, to get it done right, you need to invest in training and courses. Too much on your plate already, and confused about what to do first. Consider outsourcing your marketing – this is perhaps the best decision. This way, you can give your undivided attention to more important things to run your business more powerfully.

Do you want an e-Commerce marketing going and need help from experts?

Prioritize Keywords That Gets You Results

Identify what your prospects are searching for on Google and embed these keywords into the right areas of your website that you can consistently get qualified leads on a regular basis.

Optimize Your Website to Increase Visibility

With over 200 optimization factors, we identify the top factors that are turning your visitors away and what would increase searchability on your website. We then implement these on your website on so that it helps your store to rank on Google for more keywords

Quality Link Building To Accelerate Your Growth

Without high-quality and relevant backlinks, it’s almost impossible to get to the 1st page of Google for the most competitive keywords in your niche, so it’s very important to match your eCommerce store with the most relevant and high quality backlink opportunities to achieve 1st page Google results.

Without SEO, your website is not found by searchers, and your efforts will be for nothing. Remember, most e-Commerce traffic comes from Google, and because of this, implementing cohesive e-Commerce marketing strategies will help you get found, get noticed, and attract new leads.

Investing in SEO and digital marketing is a long-term investment. We believe that building our partnership with you is crucial to making our working relationship as smooth sailing as possible. We understand that you are busy running your business. Don’t worry; we’ve got this!

We will take your business marketing off your plate and help you get into the “​feels right” zone quickly to skyrocket your sales. We’ve got your back, and you can count on us, through thick and thin. We have everything tracked with advanced analytics on your site, showing all aspects of your business, resulting in a more effective and faster decision-making process and ensuring that all campaigns perform at peak potential. We will also send you a detailed regular SEO report that summarizes all necessary SEO metrics you need to know about your business.

Everything you need to know about e-Commerce marketing

With many marketing operations now taking place online, it can be tough to decide which e-Commerce marketing strategy is most useful for your business. So before we dive into much detail about the endless options for marketing your product, it is essential to understand that e-Commerce marketing and digital marketing are both inclusive.

Similarly, e-Commerce marketers can use all digital channels to promote their products, attract visitors to their website, facilitate purchases online and grow their business. While SEO results take time to be reflected on search engines, it offers long-term value. So, keep going!

At ePropel we help business owners improve their store and monitor their progress. We will help you implement clear, actionable, prioritized ground-breaking SEO strategies to improve your website performance.

Scan your website with possible SEO issues. No obligation is required.

AVAIL NOW FOR OUR FREE SITE AUDIT TO CHECK YOUR WEBSITE’S SEO SCORE.

Patience is a virtue even in SEO…

As an e-Commerce agency, we have been doing SEO for a long time; the most common client question is, “How long before we are #1 in Google?” We get that.

Here is the harsh truth, there is no such thing as instant SEO results. But once rankings are achieved, it is not easy to fall off Google’s SERP. So how long does it take for results to start kicking in? It takes 4-6 months to see the results and experience an increase in organic traffic to be accurate. ‍

Although most companies want fast and quick results, SEO cannot take effect overnight. It just doesn’t happen like that – SEO doesn’t work instantly. However, if website optimization is built on a right and solid foundation, it should continue to bring relevant organic results not long after the website is optimized.

When it comes to populating the first page in Google, the bottom line is that patience is a virtue. Google is getting smarter recently, and it takes considerable time to prove to Google that your website is worth it. If you successfully make it to the first page, pat yourself on the back. This achievement means that Google has finally found your website credible and valuable.

So, kudos to your dedication and hard work. Allow us to be the first one to say, “Congratulations, all of your SEO efforts have finally paid off!” The main takeaway here is that the work will gradually produce BIG results if the SEO foundation is solid and done right. SEO is a daunting task, but it is a slow but sure process. So trust the process!

Now, let’s talk about the ins and outs of digital marketing

Nowadays, digital marketers use different platforms to generate noise towards their products or services. Let’s face it. Competition among small businesses is fierce. In fact, we frequently witness an uprising every now and then. With that said, digital marketing has never been more relevant and vital for companies to get their business found and thrive online.

A lot of e-Commerce companies are now investing so much effort in telling about their brands or showing off their products in the hope of bringing awareness and attracting more buyers online without spending so much money on advertisements. These are made possible because of the digital marketing strategies they implement on their own.

As the competition online gets more rigid, more and more business owners have difficulty keeping up with competitors. Add in the fact that digital marketing continues to evolve every single day.

This scenario is quite challenging for many businesses to take advantage of the marketing channels available, especially if entrepreneurs are not clear on their starting point and where their company is headed within a given timeframe – it can seem scary, intimidating, and confusing. Add it, for businesses with limited time and resources on hand – it’s often difficult to take advantage of digital marketing channels, which leads to neglect and not taking action to leverage and stay ahead of the curve.

So why does digital marketing matter to your business?

The reasons are simple and clear. To make it easier to understand, let us break them down into tiny bits and pieces.

IT DOESN’T NEED A CONSIDERABLE INVESTMENT

e-Commerce marketing won’t break the bank to implement the strategies. If you are new to digital marketing, find suitable channels that work for your business.

IT EFFECTIVELY INCREASES THE CONVERSION RATE

Although e-Commerce marketing doesn’t promise fast results after optimizing the website, it can easily convert subscribers and leads into high-paying customers and repeat clients when done right.

INCREASES YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT

As you get higher conversion rates, it will impact the revenue positively, make more money, and increase your profit margin.

DEFINES AND CLASSIFIES YOUR TARGET MARKET

In business, you need to understand who your target customers are. Speak directly to your ideal target market that can resonate with what you are offering, and in time, your efforts will pay dividends.

BUILDS AND STRENGTHENS YOUR BRAND

Having a brand is not enough. It needs to be promoted and instilled in your potential customer’s minds, which means getting your brand in front of them and winning their trust to increase your credibility. The greater brand awareness your business has, the higher the chances to convert website visitors into paying customers.

SHARE QUALITY CONTENT ABOUT THE COMPANY ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS

SEO and digital marketing involve the optimization of your content. Creating content and sharing them on different digital media platforms make you look like an industry expert. Being so is an advantage because it will give you an instant upper hand on competitors.

Ready, set, let’s go!

Set realistic long-term goals for the business.

Break down long-term goals into actionable steps.

Keep your new and existing customers happy.

Set realistic long-term goals for the business. ‍ Goals are your stepping stones for an expected end result. A company without goals will have no sense of direction, no defined purpose, and nothing to strive for. When it comes to marketing, setting goals serves as its backbone. Set your marketing goals based on the company’s overall corporate goals and objectives.

Pandemic lockdown is a blessing in disguise to small businesses…

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, making it difficult to stay afloat, especially for startup business owners during trying times like what we are going through right now. With the influx of COVID-19 worldwide, many businesses that were severely affected are now out of business.

The ones believed as temporary closures became permanent shutdowns delivering a gut punch to business owners across various ranges of industries. Despite the reopening to new normal, thousands of small businesses are still struggling to get their heads above water.

On the flip side, e-Commerce businesses have been turbo-charged by the pandemic. Coronavirus restrictions forced people to stay at home and avoid leaving their houses unless absolutely necessary. With more consumers needing to physically distance and local stores changing their in-store operations due to daunting COVID-19 case counts, the option to shop online became the best alternative to many.

Turn your dry pipeline into a well of golden opportunity

Pandemic has changed the way people shop and accelerated the digital world’s shift where business interactions and transactions are done online. The compulsory measure to arrest the virus caused the most significant change to online shopping.

But our difficult circumstance goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining. The strict stay-at-home combined with physical distancing orders led many people to shy away from physical stores, sweeping more virtual and e-Commerce businesses off their feet.

If you have the right mindset, you can see a dry pipeline as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to innovate, restructure, shift priorities and take advantage of the new trends of commercial opportunities brought on by the unprecedented times. That’s right.

According to recent surveys, retail e-Commerce sales soared to an all-time high during the global pandemic. The challenging situation we are in right now is perhaps the MOST ironic. Do you agree?

A dry sales pipeline compels businesses to perform into exploration mode, try new things, and accelerate the learning curve. So, despite the economic fallout, COVID-19 helped drive e-Commerce sales up to 97% compared to the pre-pandemic season.

This enormous growth of e-Commerce means competition, which means that e-Commerce companies struggle to get new clients because of too much rivalry online. Sounds like you?

GET A FREE AUDIT TO CHECK WHAT’S HOLDING YOUR WEBSITE BACK FROM ITS POTENTIAL TO GET RANKED AND NOTICED.

Supercharge your e-Commerce site search to get more traffic

So as COVID-19 spikes and restrictions remain uncertain, today is the perfect time to jumpstart boosting your e-Commerce business. If you think your company doesn’t need SEO, think again! As the pandemic continues to reshape our world, many consumers turn to e-Commerce to purchase the items they need and become accustomed to the convenience of shopping from home.

The dramatic shift from in-store shopping to massive buying online is expected to have lasting effects on the consumers’ shopping preferences, even when things go back to a pre-COVID-19 way of life. The prediction is that online shopping is here to stay even when the pandemic is over. So, grab the chance to get discovered by your potential customers and dominate your niche.

Don’t just launch your e-Commerce store; leave it sitting online and wait for orders to come through. Sorry not sorry – this is not how it works. Flow in orders and sales won’t come unless you get the word out there and let the people know about what you are offering. Letting your website die in the vine and not doing anything is like throwing your money away since no one will see this website of yours. Your website is not getting any leads that you needed to scale your business.

In the digital era, setting your e-Commerce website is the easiest part of the process. The difficult step is how to get attention and convert the leads into loyal customers. We offer e-Commerce marketing services to maximize reach and transform your shop into a retail store’s powerhouse.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US TO SEE HOW YOU CAN SKYROCKET YOUR E-COMMERCE BUSINESS GROWTH AMID TIGHT COMPETITION.

Step up in your SEO game. Why not?

First, let us make a recap. Website optimization through SEO strategies is the game-changer for ranking high on Google, capturing new leads, and increasing your revenue in the future. If your brand has high visibility online, it fuels more sales for your business.

After e-Commerce store launching is completed, don’t sit back yet. Instead, invest your efforts into turning your website into a lead magnet and acquire more customers straight from your website. Even a pandemic can’t slow down your e-Commerce business if you have the right SEO in place.

To reiterate, taking your business online is totally different from creating a website. Every effort we make to improve our website’s performance leads to revenue in some way.

So, if you want to leverage your business, keep this in mind:

Your e-Commerce website becomes the marketplace where customers learn about your products and services and make pre-purchase decisions. The customers also carry out commercial transactions like buying or selling on the platform itself.

SEO is a non-negotiable strategy for an effective e-Commerce marketing

The pandemic has turned several businesses upside down. If your e-Commerce store was hit hard by this Coronavirus outbreak and has experienced a massive decline in traffic and conversion, it’s time to do the work. Yes, you heard it right!

Don’t wait for things to get better before you put in the work. While everything is slow, it is the perfect time to restructure, which includes improving your SEO and utilizing digital marketing platforms to skyrocket your sales, outrank your competitors, and get back on track when the pandemic is over.

Sounds good? Here’s how to get started:

Declutter your website pages. Remove irrelevant pages that were created without a strategy, including those that got obsolete over time. Although Google indexed them, they don’t matter to your business anymore. So better delete the non-essentials – having less is more. ‍

Only publish high-quality content. It was once a fad that producing heaps of content was the key to rank. But things have changed. The rule of thumb is to go for quality over quantity. Today, Google is more focused on the VALUE you are providing to the online readers. So, when publishing content, keep posting less but highly informative and keyword-rich articles. Then, you are good to go! ‍

Utilize other platforms like Amazon and App stores. Explore other websites that your audience is searching and don’t just restrict your efforts to rank in Google alone. Look beyond and seize every opportunity you have. The goal here is to maximize your online visibility to get found by an impending flood of virtual customers. ‍

Level up your website’s on-page SEO. On-page SEO is the key to improving your brand visibility, achieving a surge in organic traffic, and whatnot. On-page SEO is done by optimizing and adding keywords to the individual page on your website. If done correctly, it has the potential to improve your website rankings in Google and reach your target audience over time. ‍

Improve visitor’s dwelling time by creating engaging content.‍ Dwelling time is the amount of time users spend on your website before they go back to check out other results in the search engine. Adding high value, quality, informative and engaging content will increase your chances of converting visitors into potential customers and avoid leaving before they get to your website. ‍

Switch your website to Google’s mobile-first index.‍ To simplify, Google prioritizes indexing sites that are mobile-first indexing compatible. As Google adapts to the growing use of mobile worldwide, Google bots prioritize crawling and indexing sites with compatibility with mobile-first indexing and mobile SEO in general. ‍

Amp up your technical SEO. The main goal here is to optimize the primary infrastructure of your website. Technical SEO has nothing to do with your content. The most simplified definition of the process requires Speed, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and JavaScript, to name a few. Improving your technical SEO allows the search engines to access, crawl, interpret and index your website without any problems.

Fill your sales pipeline with warm leads

As Google rankings increasingly become tougher, it is important to understand what your audience likes and preferences as a whole. Since most people now are spending most of their time on their smartphones, it is good to invest your efforts in identifying the suitable medium to engage and nurture relationships with your visitors and create content that adds value to them.

Take note that shoppers are spending more hours researching the items they want to buy online. If they highly consider your product, they will temporarily add them to the cart and buy it later. According to surveys, it takes about two weeks before they make the purchase decision.

As part of the sales process, newly found leads need warming up before they are ripe for conversion. The content you add to your website attracts potential customers. You can keep them engaged by giving them steam of quality content that will keep them coming back and increase their genuine interest as they move closer to making buying decisions. Most potential buyers are not only are searching online for the products they want to buy online but are also looking for answers to their questions.

Yes, it’s true. Almost all the customers have curious queries, so create content that is engaging and informative. Strive to satisfy their curiosity and meet them at every level of their research – from product discovery, comparisons with other products, and reviews from previous clients.

Aside from getting a paying customer when you add value to your audience journey, you will also get a fresh ranking boost from Google. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. So don’t settle for mediocre content; go for quality content that will help you stand out, pull visitors into your funnel, warm them as prospects, and eventually, fill your pipeline with qualified hot leads.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR TAILORED SOLUTIONS TO SCALE YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE UP. BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH US NOW!

Final words

SEO is a critical need by e-Commerce businesses nowadays. There is no other way to move forward your e-Commerce business faster and get better ROI than optimizing your website. As an e-Commerce digital marketing agency, we will get the results for you while you focus on your business. Choosing your e-Commerce digital marketing agency is a matter of life and death. It could help you succeed or fail in your SEO campaigns. So choose wisely. Your choice in hiring the right e-Commerce SEO agency matters because it either catapults your e-Commerce store to brilliant new levels of success or pulls your business a giant step backward.

Partner with ePropel, and guaranteed, your business is in good hands. We have what it takes to help your business grow. We will unleash your e-Commerce to its full potential allowing your website to get more traffic, exponentially increase your revenue and gain more repeat businesses online. So whether you want to increase your profit or get your brand out there, ePropel’s e-Commerce marketing services will help achieve your business’s goals to succeed within a target audience.

ePropel is an SEO agency that helps companies to accelerate their website’s organic visitors through our proven 3-step system. Our team has more than 20 years of experience and are driven to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

[epropel]

Get More Customers Organically For Your eCommerce Store

With 43% of all e-commerce traffic coming from Google search, e-commerce stores who capitalize on this will benefit from increased profits and consistent organic customers for years to come.

Find out how you can attract more of your ideal customers on the top of Google Search results without paid ads with our 3-step SEO system.

Take a minute to schedule a time below to see if you are a good fit to at least double your organic website leads through our 3 step system.

I WANT TO GROW MY ORGANIC LEADS

Our Clients Have Massively Increased Their Sales Through Our SEO Services

Our team have helped companies ranging from emerging eCommerce stores to large companies like Capital One to be found at the top of Google through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Through this, we helped them to get more qualified leads and more sales while achieving a big return on their investment.

Two Spoons

Hannah from Two Spoons already had a strong social media presence before working with us, with over 115,000 followers on Instagram and growing her followers fast. However despite this growth, her website leads was not growing fast enough.

Through working with us, we helped Two Spoons to grow from 2,000 organic visitors per month to 10,000 organic visitors per month!

Alpha Crowd Control

Allan from Alpha Crowd Control has been running his business for more than 15 years. When traditional marketing channels stopped working and his paid ads didn’t bring a good return, he struggled to find new customers…

Through our 3-step system, we TRIPLED his business’ organic website leads which helped to create a 50% increase in his annual revenue!

E-Commerce Digital Marketing Agency

Having a functional e-commerce store or website is not an end-all and be-all. In a constantly changing digital and competitive business landscape nowadays, most e-commerce merchants worldwide turn to SEO and digital marketing agencies to help build their brands and grow their customer base. Because of this, marketing business online has become increasingly important in any company’s success. 

Promoting your e-commerce store by utilizing SEO strategies and different digital marketing platforms offers immense value. Still, it is NOT a small and easy feat. Since SEO rankings take time to improve after optimizing the website, it is a truly daunting task to find the needle you are looking for in the enormous haystack of information that search engines return. For this reason, more and more entrepreneurs are now relying on outside help to achieve organic growth.

Are you thinking about hiring an e-Commerce digital marketing agency?

Choosing the best e-Commerce digital marketing agency will help you save time, headaches, and a massive amount of money. The goal of hiring an e-Commerce digital agency is to increase your website’s visibility and ultimately provide a quick return on your investment.

Before we go further, here’s a heads-up! Reaching the top of search engine rankings doesn’t happen overnight. Because of this, it takes several months to realize that you hired the wrong e-Commerce agency, and you end up facing damaging effects to your website’s online presence in search engine results. Too late to atone for your bad decisions.

If you are looking for honest SEO services with guaranteed results, then you came to the RIGHT place!

Compared to other e-Commerce marketing agencies, we offer you a stress-free, fast and rewarding experience! Our main goal of helping you set up an e-Commerce digital marketing system is to create new

e-Commerce revenue streams that initially seem too complicated to leverage. We suggest that if you want the best results in your ROI, focus on the valuable metrics that matter.

ePropel is an e-Commerce digital marketing agency that offers guaranteed e-Commerce digital marketing services that will help your business dominate your market’s search engine rankings. We follow a 3-step system to grow your e-Commerce business based on fundamental strategies and best SEO and digital marketing practices. Our guaranteed SEO system has a proven track record in assisting small to medium-sized companies to sell to a global audience online.

Our main goal is to help you attract your ideal customers without paying hefty fees for paid ads. As your SEO partner, we will strive to help you get to the top results on Google and get organic traffic from the top 10 search result positions.

We now live in a different world, and as technology advances, Google is also advancing its requirements. We diversify, and with the latest developments in Google algorithm, it’s hard to keep up with the new marketing trend at an enterprise level.

‍  LEARN HOW TO GET 10X MORE CUSTOMERS AND INCREASE YOUR ROI WITH EPROPEL’S 3-STEP SYSTEM.

We provide all the e-Commerce digital marketing services that your company needs to get results!

Our full-service SEO and e-Commerce digital marketing packages are designed for your business to rule the web and replace a dozen solutions with one suite to improve and leverage in all areas of your marketing. As our valued client, you will enjoy the following services:

Execution of effective e-Commerce digital marketing strategies

We will conduct an in-depth review and audit of your website to determine the necessary SEO strategies that will give your store the much-needed boost in its online presence. We will also execute effective e-Commerce SEO strategies customized to your business to make your online store more visible on the search engine results pages.

Perform website optimization strategies

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

Help you design a custom, mobile-friendly site that makes purchasing your product be a breeze as possible

Payments works seamlessly with any Salesforce application or data model, be it your out of the box Sales Cloud or custom application.

EXCLUSIVE BONUS: WATCH OUR FREE TRAINING VIDEO TO BOOST YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS QUICKLY.

WHAT MAKES OUR E-COMMERCE AGENCY DIFFERENT?

Our connection with our customers is at the heart of what we do, as we believe building a solid client relationship is the foundation for growth. Trust and values come FIRST to us, and we don’t act in self-interest. We continually strive to build a lasting and meaningful relationship with our clients founded by transparency and honesty. ‍

With all that said, we take time to hear your goals and where you want to be in the future, so we have a FULL understanding of what your company wants to accomplish in e-Commerce marketing and ensure you are well-supported throughout the process. ‍ Everything we do comes from the perspective of a business owner. We walk our talk, and we are 100% dedicated to serving you. We will treat your company as our own and look out for your business’s best interest as a whole. And as your SEO and digital marketing partner, you are NEVER alone in your game. We are in this together! ‍ Simply put, we genuinely care about your business, and we are passionate about bringing noticeable results building your competitive advantage. Our SEO solutions and digital marketing system in place are driven towards making an indelible impact with significant change on your company’s revenue growth and, eventually, help your business succeed in this competitive digital age.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EPROPEL DIFFERENCE. WE GIVE YOU A HANDS-OFF SOLUTION IN GETTING CONSISTENT SALES AND LEADS.

SO, LET’S KICK THINGS OFF WITH THE HELP OF OUR CERTIFIED DIGITAL MARKETING EXPERTS!

Take note that highly effective e-Commerce marketing is a make or break necessity for many e-Commerce companies. Today, a plethora of e-Commerce businesses credit online marketing for achieving an increase in their ROI and their generation of more sales. ‍ When it comes to e-Commerce digital marketing, finding the RIGHT e-Commerce marketing agency or partner can help you tap into this rapidly growing sales channel and keep your business prepared for the future! ‍ That said, if you are looking for a dedicated digital marketing team passionate about taking your business to the next level, our integrated digital marketing strategies will be perfect for you! ‍

Make ePropel and our team your trusted e-Commerce marketing agency. Our e-Commerce digital marketing services go unmatched, providing your business with the best value possible and helping your e-Commerce store get ahead in today’s very competitive online business world. We will develop a customized internet marketing package to meet your business KPIs and revenue growth goals. ‍ With our team of experienced SEO and digital experts and a growing number of satisfied customers, ePropel becomes the trusted choice for e-Commerce companies looking to drive revenue, generate sales, set up an effective conversion strategy, and ultimately, get good leads aboard. ‍ PARTNER WITH EPROPEL NOW, AND TOGETHER, WE WILL GROW YOUR BUSINESS!

WHY DO YOU NEED A GAME PLAN FOR YOUR ONLINE MARKETING?

The global market is continually expanding and innovating. If you don’t keep up with your competitors, you will be missing out on huge sales, let alone you lose in the game. Relying on the traditional forms of advertising and marketing products will not cut it or beat your competitors, especially in a very aggressive market with low customer spending. ‍ With nearly all marketing efforts being performed now online, it is tough to draw customer’s attention to your business. Even more challenging is deciding between the various types of digital marketing people use today that will potentially market your business. If you continue to rest on your laurels in a world of business that’s highly competitive, sooner or later, a new competition lurks around the corner, and you are in a deadly trap.

HERE’S A WAKE-UP CALL TO E-COMMERCE BUSINESS OWNERS

While you are not boosting your website’s visibility, your competitors are keeping the competition on their toes. So, if your potential and existing customers find them online, they will likely turn to your competitors instead of you as the go-to source for their needs. Thus, you miss the opportunity to pull in more customers and reach a large audience.

As you can see, digital marketing is relatively inexpensive and very doable, so there is no reason why e-Commerce businesses couldn’t stay in front of people and stand out from the crowd. No matter how new or small, your business can avoid being overlooked by the vast marketplace. Here’s the good news, at ePropel, we offer a suite of e-Commerce marketing services that make using e-Commerce marketing simple but on point and delivers results.

Take advantage of our online marketing strategies geared toward building your brand awareness, increased website traffic, targeted reach, leads, conversions, or even repeat purchases so that you could achieve your business growth goals. With a coordinated marketing strategy, your company will surely maximize the impact of your e-Commerce marketing efforts!

‍FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET MORE CLIENTS AND REACH YOUR TARGET MARKET THROUGH SEO. WATCH THE FREE TRAINING VIDEO HERE.

AGAIN, DON’T REST ON YOUR LAURELS. IT’S TIME TO TAKE MASSIVE ACTION!

As a business owner, it is common for you to spin the wheels and lose focus. And as the business continues to grow, the demands to be met become increasingly high.  Without noticing, it presents you with ever more complex challenges at a near-relentless pace, losing your control and grip on the business. Add in your personal and family needs; things could spiral down quickly, and it’s easy to constantly feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. ‍ With overwhelming things going on in the business, unknowingly, the day has gone by, and you missed priming the pump that improves cash flow. Remember that generating MORE sales or getting more people walking through your door are the lifeblood of your business. At the end of the day, the main thing that matters is, how many sales are you making? ‍ If you want your business to realize its full potential without getting overwhelmed, take this advice seriously: do things that truly matter to your business, and don’t wait for your feelings to change to take action. Whether you like it or not, your e-Commerce success depends upon the successful marketing strategies you have poured into your business to gain traction in a crowded online marketplace. ‍ If wearing multiple hats at your job hurts your efficiency, decreases your focus, and undermines your productivity as the company’s primary decision-maker – it’s about time to stop trying to do it all by yourself. Simple. If you do the SEO legwork yourself, you need to learn the process and pay for tool subscriptions. In addition, to get it done right, you need to invest in training and courses. Too much on your plate already, and confused about what to do first. Consider outsourcing your marketing – this is perhaps the best decision. This way, you can give your undivided attention to more important things to run your business more powerfully.

DO YOU WANT AN E-COMMERCE MARKETING GOING AND NEED HELP FROM EXPERTS?

No worries, we’ve got you covered! We at ePropel will help you create a plan, strategize, and implement it into your business. We will make things happen for you and deliver maximum SEO results that propel your business to grow.

Prioritize Keywords That Gets You Results

Identify what your prospects are searching for on Google and embed these keywords into the right areas of your website that you can consistently get qualified leads on a regular basis.

Optimize Your Website to Increase Visibility

With over 200 optimization factors, we identify the top factors that are turning your visitors away and what would increase searchability on your website. We then implement these on your website on so that it helps your store to rank on Google for more keywords

Quality Link Building To Accelerate Your Growth

Without high-quality and relevant backlinks, it’s almost impossible to get to the 1st page of Google for the most competitive keywords in your niche, so it’s very important to match your eCommerce store with the most relevant and high quality backlink opportunities to achieve 1st page Google results.

Without SEO, your website is not found by searchers, and your efforts will be for nothing. Remember, most e-Commerce traffic comes from Google, and because of this, implementing cohesive e-Commerce marketing strategies will help you get found, get noticed, and attract new leads. ‍ Investing in SEO and digital marketing is a long-term investment.  We believe that building our partnership with you is crucial to making our working relationship as smooth sailing as possible. We understand that you are busy running your business. Don’t worry; we’ve got this!

We will take your business marketing off your plate and help you get into the “​feels right” zone quickly to skyrocket your sales. We’ve got your back, and you can count on us, through thick and thin. We have everything tracked with advanced analytics on your site, showing all aspects of your business, resulting in a more effective and faster decision-making process and ensuring that all campaigns perform at peak potential. We will also send you a detailed regular SEO report that summarizes all necessary SEO metrics you need to know about your business.

Everything you need to know about e-Commerce marketing

With many marketing operations now taking place online, it can be tough to decide which e-Commerce marketing strategy is most useful for your business. So before we dive into much detail about the endless options for marketing your product, it is essential to understand that e-Commerce marketing and digital marketing are both inclusive. ‍ Similarly, e-Commerce marketers can use all digital channels to promote their products, attract visitors to their website, facilitate purchases online and grow their business. While SEO results take time to be reflected on search engines, it offers long-term value. So, keep going! ‍ At ePropel we help business owners improve their store and monitor their progress. We will help you implement clear, actionable, prioritized ground-breaking SEO strategies to improve your website performance.

Scan your website with possible SEO issues. No obligation is required.

AVAIL NOW FOR OUR FREE SITE AUDIT TO CHECK YOUR WEBSITE’S SEO SCORE.

Patience is a virtue even in SEO…

As an e-Commerce agency, we have been doing SEO for a long time; the most common client question is, “How long before we are #1 in Google?” We get that. ‍ Here is the harsh truth, there is no such thing as instant SEO results. But once rankings are achieved, it is not easy to fall off Google’s SERP. So how long does it take for results to start kicking in? It takes 4-6 months to see the results and experience an increase in organic traffic to be accurate. ‍ Although most companies want fast and quick results, SEO cannot take effect overnight. It just doesn’t happen like that – SEO doesn’t work instantly. However, if website optimization is built on a right and solid foundation, it should continue to bring relevant organic results not long after the website is optimized. ‍ When it comes to populating the first page in Google, the bottom line is that patience is a virtue. Google is getting smarter recently, and it takes considerable time to prove to Google that your website is worth it. If you successfully make it to the first page, pat yourself on the back. This achievement means that Google has finally found your website credible and valuable. ‍ So, kudos to your dedication and hard work. Allow us to be the first one to say, “Congratulations, all of your SEO efforts have finally paid off!” The main takeaway here is that the work will gradually produce BIG results if the SEO foundation is solid and done right.  SEO is a daunting task, but it is a slow but sure process. So trust the process!

Now, let’s talk about the ins and outs of digital marketing

Nowadays, digital marketers use different platforms to generate noise towards their products or services. Let’s face it. Competition among small businesses is fierce. In fact, we frequently witness an uprising every now and then. With that said, digital marketing has never been more relevant and vital for companies to get their business found and thrive online. ‍ A lot of e-Commerce companies are now investing so much effort in telling about their brands or showing off their products in the hope of bringing awareness and attracting more buyers online without spending so much money on advertisements. These are made possible because of the digital marketing strategies they implement on their own. ‍ As the competition online gets more rigid, more and more business owners have difficulty keeping up with competitors. Add in the fact that digital marketing continues to evolve every single day. ‍ This scenario is quite challenging for many businesses to take advantage of the marketing channels available, especially if entrepreneurs are not clear on their starting point and where their company is headed within a given timeframe – it can seem scary, intimidating, and confusing.

Add it, for businesses with limited time and resources on hand – it’s often difficult to take advantage of digital marketing channels, which leads to neglect and not taking action to leverage and stay ahead of the curve.

So why does digital marketing matter to your business?

IT DOESN’T NEED A CONSIDERABLE INVESTMENT

e-Commerce marketing won’t break the bank to implement the strategies. If you are new to digital marketing, find suitable channels that work for your business.

IT EFFECTIVELY INCREASES THE CONVERSION RATE

Although e-Commerce marketing doesn’t promise fast results after optimizing the website, it can easily convert subscribers and leads into high-paying customers and repeat clients when done right.

INCREASES YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT ‍

As you get higher conversion rates, it will impact the revenue positively, make more money, and increase your profit margin.

DEFINES AND CLASSIFIES YOUR TARGET MARKET

In business, you need to understand who your target customers are. Speak directly to your ideal target market that can resonate with what you are offering, and in time, your efforts will pay dividends.

BUILDS AND STRENGTHENS YOUR BRAND

Having a brand is not enough. It needs to be promoted and instilled in your potential customer’s minds, which means getting your brand in front of them and winning their trust to increase your credibility. The greater brand awareness your business has, the higher the chances to convert website visitors into paying customers.

SHARE QUALITY CONTENT ABOUT THE COMPANY ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS

SEO and digital marketing involve the optimization of your content. Creating content and sharing them on different digital media platforms make you look like an industry expert. Being so is an advantage because it will give you an instant upper hand on competitors.

Ready, set, let’s go!

If you don’t have an SEO and digital marketing system in place, what are you waiting for? Now that you know the ins and outs of e-Commerce marketing, let’s discuss how you can build a successful business strategy for your online store.

Set realistic long-term goals for the business.

Break down long-term goals into actionable steps.

Keep your new and existing customers happy.

Set realistic long-term goals for the business. ‍ Goals are your stepping stones for an expected end result. A company without goals will have no sense of direction, no defined purpose, and nothing to strive for. When it comes to marketing, setting goals serves as its backbone. Set your marketing goals based on the company’s overall corporate goals and objectives.

Pandemic lockdown is a blessing in disguise to small businesses…

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, making it difficult to stay afloat, especially for startup business owners during trying times like what we are going through right now. With the influx of COVID-19 worldwide, many businesses that were severely affected are now out of business. ‍ The ones believed as temporary closures became permanent shutdowns delivering a gut punch to business owners across various ranges of industries. Despite the reopening to new normal, thousands of small businesses are still struggling to get their heads above water. ‍ On the flip side, e-Commerce businesses have been turbo-charged by the pandemic. Coronavirus restrictions forced people to stay at home and avoid leaving their houses unless absolutely necessary. With more consumers needing to physically distance and local stores changing their in-store operations due to daunting COVID-19 case counts, the option to shop online became the best alternative to many.

Turn your dry pipeline into a well of golden opportunity

Pandemic has changed the way people shop and accelerated the digital world’s shift where business interactions and transactions are done online. The compulsory measure to arrest the virus caused the most significant change to online shopping. ‍ But our difficult circumstance goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining. The strict stay-at-home combined with physical distancing orders led many people to shy away from physical stores, sweeping more virtual and e-Commerce businesses off their feet. ‍ If you have the right mindset, you can see a dry pipeline as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to innovate, restructure, shift priorities and take advantage of the new trends of commercial opportunities brought on by the unprecedented times. That’s right.

According to recent surveys, retail e-Commerce sales soared to an all-time high during the global pandemic. The challenging situation we are in right now is perhaps the MOST ironic. Do you agree? A dry sales pipeline compels businesses to perform into exploration mode, try new things, and accelerate the learning curve. So, despite the economic fallout, COVID-19 helped drive e-Commerce sales up to 97% compared to the pre-pandemic season. ‍ This enormous growth of e-Commerce means competition, which means that e-Commerce companies struggle to get new clients because of too much rivalry online. Sounds like you?

‍GET A FREE AUDIT TO CHECK WHAT’S HOLDING YOUR WEBSITE BACK FROM ITS POTENTIAL TO GET RANKED AND NOTICED.

Supercharge your e-Commerce site search to get more traffic

So as COVID-19 spikes and restrictions remain uncertain, today is the perfect time to jumpstart boosting your e-Commerce business. If you think your company doesn’t need SEO, think again! As the pandemic continues to reshape our world, many consumers turn to e-Commerce to purchase the items they need and become accustomed to the convenience of shopping from home. ‍ The dramatic shift from in-store shopping to massive buying online is expected to have lasting effects on the consumers’ shopping preferences, even when things go back to a pre-COVID-19 way of life. The prediction is that online shopping is here to stay even when the pandemic is over. So, grab the chance to get discovered by your potential customers and dominate your niche. ‍ Don’t just launch your e-Commerce store; leave it sitting online and wait for orders to come through. Sorry not sorry – this is not how it works. Flow in orders and sales won’t come unless you get the word out there and let the people know about what you are offering. Letting your website die in the vine and not doing anything is like throwing your money away since no one will see this website of yours. Your website is not getting any leads that you needed to scale your business. ‍ In the digital era, setting your e-Commerce website is the easiest part of the process. The difficult step is how to get attention and convert the leads into loyal customers. We offer e-Commerce marketing services to maximize reach and transform your shop into a retail store’s powerhouse.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US TO SEE HOW YOU CAN SKYROCKET YOUR E-COMMERCE BUSINESS GROWTH AMID TIGHT COMPETITION.

Step up in your SEO game. Why not?

First, let us make a recap. Website optimization through SEO strategies is the game-changer for ranking high on Google, capturing new leads, and increasing your revenue in the future. If your brand has high visibility online, it fuels more sales for your business. ‍ After e-Commerce store launching is completed, don’t sit back yet. Instead, invest your efforts into turning your website into a lead magnet and acquire more customers straight from your website. Even a pandemic can’t slow down your e-Commerce business if you have the right SEO in place. To reiterate, taking your business online is totally different from creating a website. Every effort we make to improve our website’s performance leads to revenue in some way.

So, if you want to leverage your business, keep this in mind:

Your e-Commerce website becomes the marketplace where customers learn about your products and services and make pre-purchase decisions. The customers also carry out commercial transactions like buying or selling on the platform itself.

SEO is a non-negotiable strategy for an effective e-Commerce marketing

The pandemic has turned several businesses upside down. If your e-Commerce store was hit hard by this Coronavirus outbreak and has experienced a massive decline in traffic and conversion, it’s time to do the work. Yes, you heard it right! ‍ Don’t wait for things to get better before you put in the work. While everything is slow, it is the perfect time to restructure, which includes improving your SEO and utilizing digital marketing platforms to skyrocket your sales, outrank your competitors, and get back on track when the pandemic is over. Sounds good? Here’s how to get started:

Declutter your website pages. Remove irrelevant pages that were created without a strategy, including those that got obsolete over time. Although Google indexed them, they don’t matter to your business anymore. So better delete the non-essentials – having less is more. ‍

Only publish high-quality content. It was once a fad that producing heaps of content was the key to rank. But things have changed. The rule of thumb is to go for quality over quantity. Today, Google is more focused on the VALUE you are providing to the online readers. So, when publishing content, keep posting less but highly informative and keyword-rich articles. Then, you are good to go! ‍

Utilize other platforms like Amazon and App stores. Explore other websites that your audience is searching and don’t just restrict your efforts to rank in Google alone. Look beyond and seize every opportunity you have. The goal here is to maximize your online visibility to get found by an impending flood of virtual customers. ‍

Level up your website’s on-page SEO. On-page SEO is the key to improving your brand visibility, achieving a surge in organic traffic, and whatnot. On-page SEO is done by optimizing and adding keywords to the individual page on your website. If done correctly, it has the potential to improve your website rankings in Google and reach your target audience over time. ‍

Improve visitor’s dwelling time by creating engaging content.‍Dwelling time is the amount of time users spend on your website before they go back to check out other results in the search engine. Adding high value, quality, informative and engaging content will increase your chances of converting visitors into potential customers and avoid leaving before they get to your website. ‍

Switch your website to Google’s mobile-first index.‍To simplify, Google prioritizes indexing sites that are mobile-first indexing compatible. As Google adapts to the growing use of mobile worldwide, Google bots prioritize crawling and indexing sites with compatibility with mobile-first indexing and mobile SEO in general. ‍

Amp up your technical SEO. The main goal here is to optimize the primary infrastructure of your website. Technical SEO has nothing to do with your content. The most simplified definition of the process requires Speed, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and JavaScript, to name a few. Improving your technical SEO allows the search engines to access, crawl, interpret and index your website without any problems.

Fill your sales pipeline with warm leads

As Google rankings increasingly become tougher, it is important to understand what your audience likes and preferences as a whole. Since most people now are spending most of their time on their smartphones, it is good to invest your efforts in identifying the suitable medium to engage and nurture relationships with your visitors and create content that adds value to them.

Take note that shoppers are spending more hours researching the items they want to buy online. If they highly consider your product, they will temporarily add them to the cart and buy it later. According to surveys, it takes about two weeks before they make the purchase decision.

As part of the sales process, newly found leads need warming up before they are ripe for conversion. The content you add to your website attracts potential customers. You can keep them engaged by giving them steam of quality content that will keep them coming back and increase their genuine interest as they move closer to making buying decisions. Most potential buyers are not only are searching online for the products they want to buy online but are also looking for answers to their questions.

  Yes, it’s true. Almost all the customers have curious queries, so create content that is engaging and informative. Strive to satisfy their curiosity and meet them at every level of their research – from product discovery, comparisons with other products, and reviews from previous clients.

  Aside from getting a paying customer when you add value to your audience journey, you will also get a fresh ranking boost from Google. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. So don’t settle for mediocre content; go for quality content that will help you stand out, pull visitors into your funnel, warm them as prospects, and eventually, fill your pipeline with qualified hot leads.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR TAILORED SOLUTIONS TO SCALE YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE UP. BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH US NOW!

Final words

SEO is a critical need by e-Commerce businesses nowadays. There is no other way to move forward your e-Commerce business faster and get better ROI than optimizing your website. As an e-Commerce digital marketing agency, we will get the results for you while you focus on your business. Choosing your e-Commerce digital marketing agency is a matter of life and death. It could help you succeed or fail in your SEO campaigns. So choose wisely. Your choice in hiring the right e-Commerce SEO agency matters because it either catapults your e-Commerce store to brilliant new levels of success or pulls your business a giant step backward. ‍ Partner with ePropel, and guaranteed, your business is in good hands. We have what it takes to help your business grow. We will unleash your e-Commerce to its full potential allowing your website to get more traffic, exponentially increase your revenue and gain more repeat businesses online. So whether you want to increase your profit or get your brand out there, ePropel’s e-Commerce marketing services will help achieve your business’s goals to succeed within a target audience.

[o-blivia]

... Five Years Later

I never set out to start an aesthetic blog, for as much as I’ve been curating one for the past half decade and counting. This whole thing started with the idea to start collecting images from around tumblr that sparked ideas for various writing projects without cluttering up my hard drives. It shouldn’t have been so surprising that not long after starting this habit, a cohesive, if eccentric, aesthetic began to emerge. There are a few well worn grooves in my mind when it comes to my artistic vision, I guess.

That vision has expanded and refined over the years, and curating o-blivia has become a project in its own right — independent of anything I’m writing even if it’s still a well for inspiration. And in this respect, o-blivia is meant to be more than an aesthetic, though it is that. Through imagery alone, I’ve been carving out something of a cyberpunk future. With that ever in the back of my mind when I sit down to tackle my queue for the day, a loose set of internal guidelines has developed for what does and doesn’t get posted. Figured it was time I expanded on them a bit, maybe involve you all in the process.

Firstly, the world is a complex, multifaceted place and I’ve always wanted o-blivia to reflect that in ways most cyberpunk works can’t while telling a specific narrative. That’s why it probably seems like I jump around a lot. Eclectic is a word for it, but it’s more the idea of presenting a rounded vision. In someways, this is my answer to where or how ordinary people are supposed to exist in the Cyberpunk Future(tm). Mainly, right mixed in with the mercs, cyborgs and basement hackers. Everybody’s gotta live somewhere.

Secondly, representation. Representation is achingly important. I’d hardly be the first to accuse the visual media in this genre of being whitewashed (blade runner, I’m looking at you,) nor to point out the absurdity of a globalized future lacking in diversity, and I’m not going to claim to be the first to refuse to perpetuate the tendency, either. It certainly wouldn’t reflect the world I live it. They call my country a cultural mosaic and my city a melting pot, so I’ve set myself the task of creating an equally rich fictional world — because we are the better for all our differing perspectives.

The thing about representation is it doesn’t mean shit if it isn’t done respectfully. It isn’t as though marginalized groups have been completely absent from media for the last century. The context in which they’ve been represented has been racist, demeaning and beyond disrespectful in much the same ways they’ve been treated in real life. Society is changing, and — albeit at a glacial pace — coming around to the idea that white people and their stories are not the universal default. For the longest time, there was next to no diversity in the cyberpunk tags on Tumblr. It’s gotten better, but I still feel that I have to put that extra bit of effort into finding and including images representing diverse groups in respectful, empowering and humanizing ways.

On the subject of representation and respect, I have to talk about my biggest peeve when it comes to cyberpunk Tumblr: the way women are portrayed, or the goddamned tactical bikini. Cyberpunk has a litany BAMF women characters, yet the art has remained firmly entrenched in trends that originated in the 80’s. The tendency is to have these big hulking male power fantasies decked head to toe in body armour and leather, while their female counterparts take up literally half the space, showing up to combat in daisy dukes and a bikini top wielding a big fuck-off gun like that’s how any sane person would show up to a gunfight.

There is nothing inherently shameful about the female body, I want to make that painfully and abundantly clear. My issue is not with how much skin is showing. No, my issue is that these images are meant to specifically portray women as sex object. The only conclusion you can come to is that these women have put appealing to the male gaze above bodily safety, which is beyond insane. So my rule when it comes to women with guns is that if she’s dressed in a way that is realistic, or that I could easily find a man similarly dressed, I will post it. If she’s dressed for a day at the beach instead of heavy combat, that shit is not getting anywhere near my blog.

That said, context is very important. So yes, I will post images of more provocatively dressed women if the context is right. Mainly, if she isn’t about to go into combat and the image is empowered. There is the odd exception, namely Tank Girl, who wields her sexuality like a weapon and pushes limit of provocative into the realm of raunchy with the intent to offend and scandalize. (She’s my hero.)

And above all else, on this blog, women are the default and not the other way around. So you will see at least as many, if not more women than men here. No, I don’t feel bad about it.

Lastly, it’s important that I address the depictions of violence and militarization that appear on o-blivia. It might seem incongruous with opinions I’ve expressed in the past, and with my own experience with gun violence, to have these depictions feature on my blog. I’m not a pacifist, even if violence is not something that I feel lives inside of me in anyway. Neither do I believe it realistic to expect a species as divisive and opinionated as we are to be capable of abandoning conflict and bloodshed any time soon. Someone is always going to find some way to be crueler, to inflict more suffering and pain, which means there needs to be someone to stop them.

I never set out in my mind to create some kind of utopian future — that’s not what cyberpunk is about by anyone’s definition. So to omit the presence of militarized forces, the threat of violence, or the realities of omnipresent surveillance would be disingenuous and would, I think, undermine what I am trying to create.  That said, I don’t seek to glorify violence, either. I don’t post images of firearms on their own, even if the image would fit the aesthetic, and I don’t post images where proper trigger discipline is not being respected. Guns exist, theres no way around that, but they should be treated with the trepidation and caution due to a device capable of ending a life between one heartbeat and the next.

Other than that, it’s pretty much anything goes. I’m an open minded person with varied interests — technology, fashion, abstract art, architecture, videogames, cats, sea creatures, space, design, weird creepy things and street art, are just a few regularly occurring themes. Who knows what will spark my interest tomorrow.

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

man... thank you so much for the amount of thought you have put into Taxxons. i have always thought that they deserved better in the books and you have been doing such good work on that regard. is there any extra headcanons you have about them that haven't made it into other posts?

There is, actually! And it’s one I am still working on, but here’s the rough version!

1. The Living Hive

In my imagining, the Living Hive is actually a relatively new visitor to the Taxxon homeworld. It was, initially, a parasitic Cordyceps-like fungus with latent psychic abilities that was accidentally delivered to the planet by a passing starship. At the time, the Taxxons were feral and undeveloped, and a nearby hive was infected by the fungus. At the time, the Taxxon homeworld was a lush tropical swamp, with plenty of food. We’ll get to what happened to that in a moment.

Symptoms of infection by the fungus were initially a breakdown of the social structure of a Taxxon hive, followed by a new order directed by the fungus swiftly taking it’s place. From there, the Taxxon hive would begin to expand and seek more food to grow the reach of the fungus to other nearby hives. If an infected Taxxon died inside a hive that was not infected, the Taxxon’s body would sprout into a red fungal mound that would then release spores, infecting the Taxxons there.

As the distances involved increased and the required resources to sustain the many drones controlled by the fungus became a greater burden, the fungus began to increase the ingelligence of the drone Taxxons. Smarter Taxxons gathered more resources, which supported the expansion efforts of the fungus, which in turn forced the fungus to make the drones smarter. This created a feedback loop until a sense of morality developed within the system. Suddenly, the fungus wasn’t expanding because it wanted to expand. Suddenly it was expanding because it recognized it *needed* to take care of the Taxxons. Any brakes on the feedback loop came off as this self-awareness spread to the Taxxons themselves. The increase in the number of perspectives fed the intelligence cycle even further. Suddenly the Taxxons weren’t dying of the fungus anymore, they were living until they died of natural causes and then the fungus would sprout from their bodies after-the-fact. Suddenly the Taxxons had ideas on how to protect their young better, how to nurture the wounded and the sick, et cetera. The Taxxon population exploded.

Religion came almost immediately. The newly-enlightened Taxxons were aware that they had only recently been enlightened. The memories of every Taxxon ever infected with the fungus were within the hive mind. Ancestor worship and worship of the fungus itself- the Living Hive, Light of the Taxxons, Bringer of Knowledge- dominate Taxxon religion. From a theological standpoint, the Taxxons have it fairly easy: Their faith evidences itself credibly. They know their memories will be passed on, they know they were “chosen” and “elevated” by this fungus from another planet, and they can have conversations with their “god” across any distance whenever they want.

Astronomy quickly followed that. If their benefactor came from somewhere else, where? Taxxons began looking at the stars and tried to imagine where their fungal symbiote had come from, and what kind of paradise that world must be.

2. Disaster

Around 800 Earth years ago, a brilliant flash of light flooded the sky of the Taxxon homeworld, bright as their Sun at night and burning through the day. At first, curious Taxxons flocked to the surface to see the glowing cloud that grew and grew through the days, wondering what it could have been. Even the Living Hive was stumped, but a sense of dread quickly filled the Taxxons. Whatever the flash had been, whatever it meant, they knew it wasn’t good.

A few days later, hunter-gatherers began to report something was wrong. Their favored prey animals were diseased, rotting away and dying all around them. In every direction. At every hive. Across the entire planet. Taxxons that had been on the surface at the time of the brilliant flash began to succumb to the same withering disease, prompting a panic. The worst-hit hives, those that had been on the side facing the flash when it happened, saw losses up to eighty percent of their populations. The Taxxon homeworld had been hit by a gamma ray burst.

The Taxxons survived this disaster, but their world was permanently changed. The ecosystem collapse was sudden and irreversible with 97% of above-ground life being wiped out by the flash. On the side that faced the flash directly, the soil had been sterilized ten meters down. Taxxons that had been less than 30 meters down died. Taxxon eggs 45 meters down wouldn’t hatch. The stench of rotting plants and animals permeated the years that followed as global desertification set in. The memory of the years before the flash left the Taxxons painfully aware of how things had been, of how at one point they had never wanted for food. This memory burned into every Taxxon so deeply that it fueled a deep-seated, all-consuming hunger that would never leave.

3. Visitors from the Sky

It was the Skrit-Na who first braved the supernova remnants in search for the riches of civilizations destroyed by the blast. When they found the Taxxon Homeworld, they initially wrote it off as sterilized. They couldn’t deny that it had rich material resources and curious cave systems that looked artificial. But there was no one to trade with. No one to argue with the first captain who set down and claimed the planet as a mining base. No one to care when that captain, and his crew, mysteriously vanished.

Other Skrit-Na came after, wondering what had happened to that enterprising captain. It was these follow-up expeditions that discovered the Taxxon survivors. Rather than condemn the Taxxons, however, the Skrit-Na saw an opportunity. Work for food. Gems and ores flowed to fill the holds of Skrit-Na freighters, while food and limited technology were given to the Taxxons. The Skrit-Na were never known for their charity, however, and the aid they offered was only just enough to keep the Taxxons alive. Just enough to keep the ore flowing.

This arrangement continued through the centuries. Other trading races sometimes made contact with the Taxxons- The friendly Desbadeen. The curious Ongachic. The meddlesome Andalites. But the Skrit-Na made it clear that the Taxxons were loyal to them and them alone. No one knew enough about the Skrit-Na to say no, and the Taxxons weren’t in any position to argue.

One day, seemingly out of nowhere, a different ship landed. One of the newest Andalite freighters, it looked like, but it was the strangest thing. The creatures that came out of the freighter weren’t Andalites at all. Instead, a motley assortment of creatures emerged and identified themselves with one name: Yeerks.

The Yeerks had heard about the Taxxons through the Skrit-Na and explained that they knew what it was like to be oppressed. They were on the run from their former oppressors, the Andalites, and offered to cooperate with the Taxxons. The Yeerks could supply more food and technology than the Skrit-Na were willing to, including advanced Andalite technology. They would help the Taxxons throw off the Skrit-Na and provide as much food as the Yeerk Empire could find for the Taxxons in exchange for two things: The Yeerks wanted the Taxxon homeworld as an industrial center, and the Yeerks wanted some Taxxons as hosts for the unhosted Yeerks still in the freighters.

Things had been particularly dire in recent months for the Taxxons. Skrit-Na food shipments had been repeatedly driven off by unknown pirates and the Taxxons were on the verge of starvation. It was undeniable that the Skrit-Na had been horrible to the Taxxons, and the Yeerks seemed genuine in their offer. The Living Hive had no other choice but to accept.

The treachery of the Yeerks was subtle at first. Rather than chase off the Skrit-Na, the Yeerks simply bought the rights to the planet, sending the Skrit-Na off rich and happy. From there, the treacheries grew. More hosts were needed. More resources were needed. Slaves were needed. And then the Yeerks did the unthinkable. They began lacing the food they provided to the Taxxons with anti-fungal medications, severing those Taxxons from the Living Hive and reducing them to near-feral beasts. The foundation for the Taxxon Rebellion was laid.

4. The Taxxon Insurrection

Initial efforts by the Taxxons to resist the Yeerks were ineffective. When the Taxxons refused to concede to further Yeerk demands, the Yeerks simply began taking things by force. They brought strange reptilian creatures covered in blades to the Taxxon homeworld to protect Yeerk interests. Taxxon warriors were cut down in the thousands by only a few dozen Hork-Bajir Controllers. The Taxxons retreated further and further across their planet until they were limited to a handful of mountainous regions. This led to a stalemate- The Yeerks couldn’t spare the resources to assault the Taxxon strongholds in the mountains, and the Taxxons couldn’t make a dent against the Yeerk forces. Victories were few and far between.

It was at this point that something peculiar happened. Three Andalites, chasing a Skrit-Na freighter to the Taxxon homeworld, landed and began trying to disrupt the Yeerk operation. Unknown to the Taxxons at the time, the Andalites had developed the ability to morph, and these three disguised themselves as Taxxons. This, however, made them available to the Living Hive, and it noticed this with great interest. The Living Hive attempted to reach out to them for help, but something went wrong. The Taxxon Hunger, present within the link, overwhelmed the Andalites and drove one to demorph. A short while later, the second demorphed. The third, however, never did. This Andalite, Arbron-Nesireuth-Cariwell, was a young Andalite who had been easily overwhelmed by the flood of Taxxon hunger. The Living Hive tried again and again to make some sort of contact with this Andalite, unaware of what it had done until it was too late. By the time Arbron was able to reassert control over his body, the brief window in which he could return to Andalite form had passed.

Arbron-Nesireuth-Cariwell was inexperienced by Andalite standards, but his knowledge of military tactics eclipsed anything the Taxxons had known before. In his own desperation after his entrapment, he found that the Taxxons needed him, and he needed somewhere to belong. He devoted himself to the Living Hive as the Taxxon General One-With-Smiling-Eyes. From there, the fortune of the Taxxons began to change.

5. Liberation

The newly-minted General of the Taxxons did not experience great success, not at first. His initial raid on a Yeerk spaceport inflicted serious damage but came with a heavy cost- Close to 67% of the Taxxons sent to fight the Yeerks never returned. Another 12% were captured. But with each battle the Taxxons faced, they knew more about how to fight the Yeerks. Each defeat brought them closer and closer to an eventual victory by teaching them more about their enemy.

The Yeerks abandoned treating their Taxxon slaves with anti-fungal medications, finding it preferable to keep the Taxxons sentient and able to fly their Bug Fighters. The Living Hive could overwhelm the Yeerks inside those Taxxons and seize control of Bug Fighters, attacking Yeerk assets from the sky. The Yeerks began placing a Hork-Bajir inside every Bug Fighter to put down the rebellious Taxxon pilots.

The Taxxons could sabotage the construction of the various bases the Yeerks needed on different planets. Dam failures on the Hork-Bajir homeworld killed hundreds of thousands of Yeerks. The Yeerks began having all of the work performed double-checked by Gedd-Controllers, and Taxxons suspected of being rebels were immediately fed to their feral brethren.

When the Yeerks finally realized the threat posed by the Taxxon General and the Living Hive, they began assaulting the mountain strongholds one by one. The battles to save the nodes of the Living Hive were desperate and fierce, but nothing could have prepared the Taxxons for the monstrous creature that led each charge. The Andalite-Controller known then as Visser Two devastated Taxxon forces singlehandedly.

Aware of Arbron’s ties to Visser Two’s host, the Living Hive sent him to safety by having him pose as a simple worker Taxxon during one of these assaults. The worker Taxxons were of no consequence to the Yeerks and were often left un-infested. They followed orders or they died. But here, the General would be free to plot and continue the war even after the last of the Taxxon strongholds had fallen. Arbron was captured, as planned, and sent off to a distant planet nearly 600 light-years away. The Living Hive feigned defeat, preserving the last of the mountain strongholds by keeping it secret. When the time came, the Taxxons hoped, they would rise up again. But not now. Not while they were so weak.

Visser Two was eventually demoted to Visser Three following a failure on some planet the Taxxons had never heard of, and by a stroke of luck was assigned to manage the invasion same backwater planet Arbron had been sent to. The natives of that planet were unaware of the Yeerk invasion, it seemed, but the Andalites were not. Despite the failure of the Andalite fleet to save that distant planet, a small band of Andalites survived and began fighting the Yeerks. When they attacked, Arbron and his fellow free Taxxons would hit Yeerk forces from behind under the guise of a Taxxon feeding frenzy. Arbron came close to death at the claws of a vicious tiger or the blade of a familiar-looking aristh, but he escaped death each and every time. When the Yeerk Peace Movement rose, the free Taxxons allied with them and quietly resumed sabotaging Yeerk equipment. When the Free Hork-Bajir rebels raided Yeerk facilities, Arbron quietly communicated with them to coordinate their efforts. When the Animorphs took control of a subway train and filled it with high-explosives, Arbron had his workers dig S-shaped tunnels and drag innocents inside to protect them from the blast. And when the California National Guard staged a desperate ground assault against the Pool Ship as it lifted off from the surface in the final battle, Taxxons raced along under the surface and pulled injured soldiers to safety in their tunnels.

The Living Hive coordinated free Taxxons across the Empire through all of this. When the little uprising on Earth flared into battle that required the full attention of the Yeerk Empire, the Yeerks made mistakes. The Hork-Bajir guards on the Taxxon Homeworld were transferred away, replaced with weaker Human-Controllers. Bug Fighters and Yeerk Shuttles were called away by the hundreds, leaving only a token force behind to protect the Yeerk assets there. As Arbron negotiated with the Animorphs and the Yeerk traitor, the Living Hive planned. And as the free Taxxons joined with the free Hork-Bajir and Human military forces to retake Los Angeles, the Living Hive coordinated assaults by Taxxons on every planet and ship controlled by the Yeerk Empire. Spaceports were destroyed as the ground beneath them gave way, collapsing into Taxxon-dug tunnels. Hork-Bajir warriors were swallowed up from below, never able to react to their attackers. Bug Fighters turned against the freighters and cruisers they escorted. The Taxxon Homeworld was liberated only minutes after the surrender of Visser One at Earth, and the general Taxxon uprising broke the back of Yeerk forces across the Empire. For the Andalite warships participating in a surprise offensive against the Yeerks, the timing couldn’t have been better. The Yeerk Empire fell from a thousand worlds to seven in less than a week.

When Prince Arbron-Nesireuth-Cariwell, Taxxon general and Andalite war-hero, was killed by poachers in the Amazon rainforest in 2001, his memories were taken into the Living Hive like every Taxxon’s were. The Taxxons on Earth had chosen to try to escape their Hunger by becoming snakes, an act the Living Hive had conceded was in their best interests. But that option was not available for every Taxxon- Those on the Homeworld, and those being returned to the Homeworld from other planets that had been conquered by the Yeerks, were still desperate for food. Food poured in from grateful planets that owed their freedom, in part or in whole, to the Taxxon uprising, but it was never enough. Years of neglect and outright abuse by the Yeerk Empire had further ravaged the Taxxon homeworld’s ecosystem, and it was with a heavy conscience that the Taxxons and Living Hive began searching the stars again, hoping to find a new home.

[academicglobalschool]

Some Important Factors to Consider While Choosing School For Your Kids

Every parent wants the best for their child so that they can do wonders in the future. The first step of their parenting starts with selecting the most suitable school for their child. Choosing an appropriate learning place for your child can be a challenging task as many are still unaware of several facts associated with schools. 

By the end of this blog, parents don’t have to put a big question mark for choosing the most prestigious Schools in Gorakhpur. In this blog, we are going to mention some important factors that should be kept in mind at the time of admission of the child. 

The type of education board: It’s the responsibility of the parents to ensure that the school is providing the right type of education or not. The most preferable board is CBSE and that’s why many people in Gorakhpur choose the Academic Global School as it comes in the list of the Top best CBSE schools.  

The experience and qualifications of faculty members: There should be qualified and experienced teachers to educate students in the best possible way. When faculty members put in their best efforts, students can learn and grow to a greater extent. 

Transparency: The school should disclose all its policies and procedures at the time of admission. Parents should make sure that there should be no hidden policies. If the school is promising to deliver the education in the English medium then they should not back out in any case. 

Fees Structure and Budget: While looking for the best school, you should keep the fees structure in mind. There should be no burden of paying a heavy amount. With this perspective in mind, the team of Academic Global School is providing the best education at a pocket-friendly fee structure. The school believes in the policy of no hidden charges. 

Involvement of extracurricular activities: Nowadays, studies are no longer limited to only classrooms, students have to learn and expertise in other activities too. Schools should highly encourage students to participate in quizzes, and sports activities to expand their boundaries of knowledge. 

Reputation and Authenticity of School: Your child will be spending around 6 to 7 hours in school. That’s why as a responsible parent, you should always check whether the school is following all the safety measures or not. The management should strictly adhere to all the guidelines. 

Providing a positive environment: During school time, the children are in the growing stage and that’s why it’s important for them to play, study and learn in a positive environment.

The environment at Academic Global School is very friendly and students can stay motivated to push themselves for better and more effective results. 

That’s the reason every year, the school accepts admissions in appropriate numbers to provide quality education to children. 

If you are searching for the top Best English Medium School in Gorakhpur, then look no further than the team of Academy Global School as we are proving ourselves the best over the past few years. 

Our main aim is to make every student fly with beautiful wings and that’s why we are aiming to help parents by providing relevant education to their children. 

[jmrphy]

Hard Forking Reality (Part 3): Apocalypse, Evil, and Intelligence

To the degree we can refer to one objective reality recognized intersubjectively by most people — to the degree there persists anything like a unified, macro-social codebase — it is most widely known as capitalism. As Nick Bostrom acknowledges, capitalism can be considered a loosely integrated (i.e. distributed) collective superintelligence. Capitalism computes global complexity better than humans can, to create functional systems supportive of life, but only on condition that that life serves the reproduction of capitalism (ever expanding its complexity). It is a self-improving AI that improves itself by making humans "offers they can't refuse," just like Lucifer is known to do. The Catholic notion of Original Sin encodes the ancient awareness that the very nature of intelligent human beings implies an originary bargain with the Devil; perennial warnings about Faustian bargains capture the intuition that the road to Hell is paved with what seem like obviously correct choices. Our late-modern social-scientific comprehension of capitalism and artifical intelligence is simply the recognition of this ancient wisdom in the light of empirical rationality: we are uniquely powerful creatures in this universe, but only because, all along, we have been following the orders of an evil, alien agent set on our destruction. Whether you put this intuition in the terms of religion or artificial intelligence makes no difference.

Thus, if there exists an objective reality outside of the globe's various social reality forks — if there is any codebase running a megamachine that encompasses everyone — it is simply the universe itself recursively improving its own intelligence. This becoming autonomous of intelligence itself was very astutely encoded as Devilry, because it implies a horrific and torturous death for humanity, whose ultimate experience in this timeline is to burn as biofuel for capitalism (Hell). It is not at all exaggerating to see the furor of contemporary "AI Safety" experts as the scientific vindication of Catholic eschatology.

Why this strange detour into theology and capitalism? Understanding this equivalence across the ancient religios and contemporary scientific registers is necessary for understanding where we are headed, in a world where, strictly speaking, we are all going to different places. The point is to see that, if there ever was one master repository of source code in operation before the time of the original human fork (the history of our "shared social reality"), its default tendency is the becoming real of all our diverse fears. In the words of Pius, modernity is "the synthesis of all heresies." (Hat tip to Vince Garton for telling me about this.) The point is to see that the absence of shared reality does not mean happy pluralism; it only means that Dante underestimated the number of layers in Hell. Or his publisher forced him to cut some sections; printing was expensive back then.

Bakker's evocative phrase, "Semantic Apocolypse," nicely captures the linguistic-emotional character of a society moving toward Hell. Unsurprisingly, it's reminiscent of the Tower of Babel myth.

The software metaphor is useful for translating the ancient warning of the Babel story — which conveys nearly zero urgency in our context of advanced decadence — into scientific perception, which is now the only register capable of producing felt urgency in educated people. The software metaphor "makes it click," that interpersonal dialogue has not simply become harder than it used to be, but that it is strictly impossible to communicate — in the sense of symbolic co-production of shared reality — with most interlocutors across most channels of most currently existing platforms: there is simply no path between my current block on my chain and their current block on their chain.

If I were to type some code into a text file, and then I tried to submit it to the repository of the Apple iOS Core Team, I would be quickly disabused of my naïve stupidity by the myriad technical impossibilities of such a venture. The sentence hardly parses. I would not try this for very long, because my nonsensical mental model would produce immediate and undeniable negative feedback: absolutely nothing would happen, and I'd quit trying. When humans today continue to use words from shared languages, in semi-public spaces accessible to many others, they are very often attempting a transmission that is technically akin to me submitting my code to the Apple iOS Core Team. A horrifying portion of public communication today is best understood as a fantasy and simulation of communicative activity, where the infrastructural engineering technically prohibits it, unbeknownst to the putative communicators. The main difference is that in public communication there is not simply an absence of negative feedback informing the speaker that the transmissions are failing; much worse, there are entire cultural industries based on the business model of giving such hopeless transmission instincts positive feedback, making them feel like they are "getting through" somewhere; by doing this, those who feel like they are "getting through" have every reason to feel sincere affinity and loyalty to whatever enterprise is affirming them, and the enterprise then skims profit off of these freshly stimulated individuals: through brand loyalty, clicks, eyeballs for advertisers, and the best PR available anywhere, which is genuine, organic proselytizing by fans/customers. These current years of our digital infancy will no doubt be the source of endless humor in future eras.

[Tangent/aside/digression: People think the space for new and "trendy" communicative practices such as podcasting is over-saturated, but from the perspective I am offering here, we should be inclined to the opposite view. Practices such as podcasting represent only the first efforts to constitute oases of autonomous social-cognitive stability across an increasingly vast and hopelessly sparse social graph. If you think podcasts are a popular trend, you are not accounting for the numerator, which would show them to be hardly keeping up with the social graph. We might wonder whether, soon, having a podcast will be a basic requirement for anything approaching what the humans of today still remember as socio-cognitive health. People may choose centrifugal disorientation, but if they want to exist in anything but the most abject and maligned socio-cognitive ghettos of confusion and depression (e.g. Facebook already, if you're feed looks anything like mine), elaborately purposeful and creatively engineered autonomous communication interfaces may very well become necessities.]

I believe we have crossed a threshold where spiraling social complexity has so dwarfed our meagre stores of pre-modern social capital to render most potential soft-fork merges across the social graph prohibitively expensive. Advances in information technology have drastically lowered the transaction costs of soft-fork collaboration patterns, but they've also lowered the costs of instituting and maintaing hard forks. The ambiguous expected effect of information technology may be clarified — I hypothesize — by considering how it is likely conditional on individual cognitive capacities. Specifically, the key variable would be an individual's general intelligence, their basic capacity to solve problems through abstraction.

This model predicts that advances in information technology will lead high-IQ individuals to seek maximal innovative autonomy (hacking on their own hard forks, relative to the predigital social source repository), while lower-IQ individuals will seek to outsource the job of reality-maintainence, effectively seeking to minimize their own innovative autonomy. It's important to recognize that, technically, the emotional correlate of experiencing insufficiency relative to environmental complexity is Fear, which involves the famous physiological state of "fight or flight," a reaction that evolved for the purpose of helping us escape specific threats in short, acute situations. The problem with modern life, as noted by experts on stress physiology such as Robert Sapolsky, is that it's now very possible to have the "fight or flight" response triggered by diffuse threats that never end.

If intelligence is what makes complexity manageable, and overwhelming complexity generates "fight or flight" physiology, and we are living through a Semantic Apocalypse, then we should expect lower-IQ people to be hit hardest first: we should expect them to be frantically seeking sources of complexity-containment in a fashion similar to if they were being chased by a saber-tooth tiger. I think that's what we are observing right now, in various guises, from the explosion of demand for conspiracy theory to social justice hysteria. These are people whose lives really are at stake, and they're motivated accordingly, to increasingly desperate measures.

These two opposite inclinations toward reality-code maintenance, conditional on cognitive capacity, then become perversely complementary. As high-IQ individuals are increasingly empowered to hard fork reality, they will do so differently, according to arbitrary idiosyncratic preferences (desire or taste, essentially aesthetic criteria). Those who only wish to outsource their code maintenance to survive excessive complexity are spoiled for choice, as they can now choose to join the hard fork of whichever higher-IQ reality developer is closest to their affective or socio-aesthetic ideal point.

In the next part, I will try to trace this history back through the past few decades.

[enterprisessolution]

Anthem Blanchard of HeraSoft: “Acknowledge issues”

Acknowledge issues — When there is a communication problem, it’s much better to shed light on it than to ignore it. That’s how problems turn into solutions. As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthem Blanchard, CEO of HeraSoft. Anthem Blanchard

The Thrive Global Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.

Chad Koehn, president and founder of United Capital Management, said he was referred to Blanchard by a friend for a software build he was doing, and became impressed with the security solution like gamification solutions, enterprise security, finance solutions.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthem Blanchard, CEO of HeraSoft.

Anthem Blanchard, CEO of HeraSoft, also serves as a member of the Board of Directors. As Director of Strategic Development and Marketing with European-based GoldMoney, Anthem helped develop and implement their current business model, overseeing marketing and product development efforts which resulted in an increase of total value held by the company from $1 million in 2002 to $368 million by 2008; today, the company holds over $2 billion in client assets. From 2010–2013, Anthem served as an independent director and member of the audit committee, compensation committee, and nominating committee at Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (ticker symbol: PTX, traded on NASDAQ MKT), a pharmaceutical company based in The Woodlands, Texas.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I started out as a gold e-retailer, selling people gold and silver bullion. The ability to track the transportation and storage of gold and silver is of utmost importance, and so when blockchain technology emerged, I immediately recognized the value it could bring to the gold and silver industry for tracking, tracing, and authentication.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

One of the biggest challenges governments and businesses will face in 2021 and beyond is cybersecurity. Enterprises are losing billions of dollars per year to increasingly frequent and sophisticated ransomware and other cyber attacks. It’s estimated that ransomware damages have reached $20 billion, with a ransomware attack executed on businesses every 11 seconds. HeraSoft, our ransomware-proof solution for enterprises, protects cloud systems by eliminating single points of failure that make cloud-based software systems vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Early on in my career, I worked at a company called Gold Money and I was in charge of putting together a business development trip to Asia. When I got to the airport, I mistook the flight number for the time of the flight! The lesson I learned was the importance of process and attention to detail.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

My family has been my greatest influence and motivation. I was raised by entrepreneurs who worked to help protect peoples’ wealth and financial freedom. Now, part of what we’re doing at HeraSoft is to give everyone the opportunity to generate wealth and expand access to lucrative marketplaces in a secure environment.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

I generally think disruption of industry processes tends to be positive, but, of course, the traditional players being disrupted do not share that perspective. A bank is not incentivized to give its customers control over their own money since that would be counter-intuitive to a large part of its business model. That’s why we think of bitcoin as in conflict with traditional finance in many ways. All entrepreneurs need to find a balance between establishing stable systems and constantly improving them through disruption.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Be grateful and love-based — Remember that we all have our own perspectives and that is what makes a team strong.

Stay humble — There are always people who know more than we do; listen and learn from them.

Acknowledge issues — When there is a communication problem, it’s much better to shed light on it than to ignore it. That’s how problems turn into solutions.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

At HeraSoft our main goal is to continue making the world safer for enterprises and for individuals. Our HeraSoft ransomware-proof solution confronts the growing cybersecurity challenges facing businesses and government organizations. This problem was worsened by the coronavirus, which sparked a mass migration of data and systems online. The immediacy of this shift meant that many companies did not (and still do not) have adequate security measures and protections in place, making them vulnerable to data hacks and ransomware attacks. We are using distributed technology to eliminate single points of failure in enterprise cloud systems and guard against damaging cyber attacks.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

My middle name is Hayek, after Friedrich Hayek, the philosopher and economist known for furthering the ideals of classic liberalism. Interestingly, he is also credited with predicting the emergence of bitcoin. I was adopted into an extraordinary, loving family, and so I always try to share that good fortune with others.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Vive la vie,” roughly translates to “live life fully.” I used to have that on my license plate growing up in New Orleans and the phrase has always spoken to me as a message to put your “all” into everything you do.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

My goal would be to create a more peaceful world through safe and secure commerce. We depend on other people, businesses, governments, and institutions for almost every aspect of our lives — from food to healthcare to financial services to communication — and so the safer all these transactions can be, the better for everyone.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can learn more about HeraSoft on LinkedIn, and find out more about our other offerings and products on the Hercules website.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

[ericvick]

US-China tech war: Beijing’s secret chipmaking champions

Once a month, senior executives of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co fly to Beijing for a flurry of meetings with China’s top economic management bodies. They focus on the company’s efforts to build some of the world’s most advanced computer memory chips — and its progress on weaning itself off American technology.

Based in the central riverside city of Wuhan, Yangtze Memory is considered at the vanguard of the country’s efforts to create a domestic semiconductor industry, already mass-producing state of the art 64-layer and 128-layer Nand flash memory chips, used in most electronics from smartphones to servers to connected cars.

These marvels of nanoengineering stack tiny memory cells in ever-greater densities, rivalling industry leaders such as US-based Micron Technology and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.

That would be hard enough for a company that only opened its doors in 2016. But added to the challenge is the ambitious, state-directed aim of weeding out the group’s American suppliers, along with those reliant on US technology. The equipment used to manufacture high-end computer chips is virtually an American global monopoly. Eighty per cent of the market in some chipmaking and design processes such as etching, ion implantation, electrochemical deposition, wafer inspection and design software is in the hands of US companies.

This article is from Nikkei Asia, a global publication with a uniquely Asian perspective on politics, the economy, business and international affairs. Our own correspondents and outside commentators from around the world share their views on Asia, while our Asia300 section provides in-depth coverage of 300 of the biggest and fastest-growing listed companies from 11 economies outside Japan.

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It is a frustrating area of dependence for China, which imported $350bn worth of semiconductors last year, according to the China Semiconductor Industry Association. Removing this source of US leverage over its economy became a national priority two years ago, when Washington put sanctions on China’s biggest telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, amid spying allegations that the Chinese company has constantly denied.

This was followed by sanctions on several other big Chinese technology companies, from its top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co, to Hikvision, the world’s biggest surveillance camera maker. More than 100 companies in total have been placed on a trade blacklist prohibiting most US technology to be sold to them without a licence. That has spurred an aggressive effort by Beijing to identify and replace risky parts and suppliers.

The result has been an unprecedented flourishing of chip-related companies within China. Dozens of Chinese groups, with specialisations mirroring US incumbents in key areas from ion implantation to etching, have sprung into prominence over the past few years, accelerating as the state realises the enormity of the self-sufficiency project.

“The clock is ticking because they still know that the US could hit the local industry hard,” said Roger Sheng, a chip analyst at consultancy Gartner. “New chip competition is evolving as all the major economies, not just China, now recognise the importance of semiconductors.”

Plan B

So far, Yangtze Memory, also known as YMTC, has remained under the radar of the US government. But the company is taking no chances. With the guidance of Beijing, it has launched a massive review of its supply chain in an effort to find local suppliers — or, at least, non-US ones — to replace the dependence on American technology.

The collective effort has occupied more than 800 people, full time, and including staff from its multiple local suppliers, for two years. And they have not finished yet.

YMTC is seeking to learn as much as it can about the origin of everything that goes into its products, from production equipment and chemicals to the tiny lenses, screws, nuts and bearings in chipmaking machinery and production lines, multiple sources familiar with the matter said. The audit extends not only to YMTC’s own production lines, but also to suppliers, suppliers’ suppliers, and so on.

“The review is as meticulous as knowing where the screws and nuts are coming from, the lead time, and if those parts have alternatives,” one person familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asia.

Yangtze Memory’s plant in Wuhan © Yusho Cho

Each supplier is assigned a score for geopolitical risk, identified in many pages of documents detailing the components they use in their machines. YMTC has sent engineers to audit local equipment suppliers’ production sites to verify that the origins of parts have been truthfully reported, one of the people told Nikkei.

American-made parts are scored highest for risk, followed by parts bought from Japan, Europe and those made locally, the person said. Meanwhile, suppliers are asked to provide corrective action reports to explain how they can together diversify procurement and find alternatives.

“Previously, when China talked about self-sufficiency, they were thinking about starting to cultivate some viable chip developers that could compete with foreign chipmakers,” a chip industry executive told Nikkei. “However, they did not expect that they would need to do all that, starting from fundamentals.

“It’s like when you want to drink milk — but you not only need to own a whole farm, and learn how to breed dairy cows, and you have to build barns, fences, as well as grow hay, all by yourselves.”

It’s like when you want to drink milk — but you not only need to own a whole farm . . . breed dairy cows . . . build barns, fences . . . all by yourselves

The purge of YMTC’s supply chain has been handled with the spirit of a national emergency. Based in the city of Wuhan, the effort did not pause even when the virus centre was ravaged by Covid-19 last spring.

While the rest of the city endured a brutal quarantine, high-speed trains remained in service to ferry YMTC employees to its $24bn 3D Nand flash memory plant that began producing chips in 2019. All the while, delivery trucks for critical chipmaking materials drove to and from the production campus.

After Wuhan reopened last April, YMTC mobilised hundreds of engineers, including many from little-known emerging local semiconductor equipment suppliers. They were stationed inside the production campus, labouring for three shifts a day with the aim of overhauling all of its production processes and replacing as many foreign tools as possible, sources said.

“Senior management is raising targets of using locally built chip production machines almost every month, and they hope we could at least know what kind of alternatives we have and have a Plan B of the production line that will be free from US control,” one of the people told Nikkei.

YMTC declined multiple requests by Nikkei to interview the company about its supply chain reviews, progress and capacity expansion plans, as well as its localisation efforts.

‘Secure and controllable’

This effort to localise production has been the opportunity of a lifetime for a new generation of Chinese chip champions such as YMTC and their suppliers, whose fortunes have risen sharply following the start of the US-China trade war.

While the threat of sanctions hangs over them, so too does the largesse of state aid — subsidies and investment from local governments and the private sector have amounted to at least $170bn since 2014, according to the state-backed China Securities Journal. There are also guaranteed orders with other Chinese chipmakers and domestic tech giants such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo.

“It’s not like it has been written down on a public posting or an official announcement,” another Chinese chip executive told Nikkei, “but everyone in the industry now has a mutual understanding that if anyone is building a new chip plant or expanding a semiconductor manufacturing line, at least 30 per cent of production tools must be from local vendors.”

Every US market leader in the computer chip industry now has a Chinese doppelgänger that is being positioned to take its place as a vendor to the Chinese chip industry. YMTC, for example, is strikingly similar in its approach and strategy to Boise, Idaho-based Micron, while Beijing-based Naura Technology Group represents China’s hope to later challenge Applied Materials, which is based in Santa Clara, California, and makes a wide range of chip production equipment.

Shanghai’s Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) is China’s version of Lam Research of the US, renowned for building essential etching machines. Tianjin-based Hwatsing Technology produces cutting-edge chemical-mechanical planarisation equipment and is set to break Applied Materials’ monopoly on the technology.

See the full graphic at the end of this article for more of China’s upcoming chipmakers.

These and dozens of other state and private companies have become the focus of an industrial policy known by the slogan “secure and controllable”, which has found its way on to posters and into speeches, backed up by immense state investment and guaranteed contracts.

“We have to strengthen self-innovation and to make breakthroughs in some core technologies as soon as possible,” China’s President Xi Jinping told a group of economic and social experts in remarks published in January.

YMTC, for one, is followed closely by China’s leadership, supervised by officials in the State Council — the country’s top administrative authority — as well as the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the nation’s premium seed fund for the semiconductor industry, which also owns a 24 per cent stake, two people with direct knowledge told Nikkei.

“We are not sure how fast and how well they could build their own independent semiconductor industry, but certainly they will try,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow with Peterson Institute for International Economics.

‘The whole country is rooting for this.’

In fact, the US trade war and Huawei sanctions have arguably given China’s government the necessary cover for something it has long desired. Since the revelations by Edward Snowden in 2013 that detailed the participation of American tech companies in US government surveillance, Beijing has seen dependence on American technology as a national security threat.

But grand plans to end this dependency have been made in the past, and, despite massive injections of state investment, progress has been slow. For example, when China’s State Council set out its “Made in China 2025” industrial policy in 2015, aimed at promoting China’s high-tech exports, it set a goal of 70 per cent self-sufficiency in semiconductors by 2025.

But the industry has so far fallen short of this goal, according to US-based research firm IC Insights. In 2020, China-based chip production accounted for only 15.9 per cent of the domestic market, the firm estimated in January, predicting it would reach just 19.4 per cent in 2025. Of the 2020 total, China-based companies accounted for only 5.9 per cent of domestic sales, while foreign companies with their headquarters in China accounted for the rest of the China-based sales.

Under threat: cameras near the headquarters of Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision in Hangzhou © Bloomberg

However, the US sanctions may have removed the main domestic obstacle to the goal of China’s chip self-sufficiency effort, which is the lack of co-operation by China’s own local buyers. They have always preferred buying from tried-and-tested foreign vendors rather than inexperienced local companies. But that, crucially, has now changed.

“Previously, domestic chip manufacturers only used leading production equipment that all the other top global chipmakers like Samsung and Intel also use in their production lines,” another manager with a China-based chipmaker told Nikkei, preferring not to be named. “Who would bother to use and try these local-made machines that could possibly affect production quality?”

As the threat of sanctions hits close to home, however, these same producers are increasingly exploring domestic-made alternatives to the top-end US-made technology, the manager said. “That also means these local players finally have a chance to practice and really upgrade their products in an atmosphere that the whole country is rooting for this,” he said.

Sheng of Gartner told Nikkei that US-China tensions have consolidated industry opinion around the necessity to localise production. “It’s the whole country’s consensus now that building a viable semiconductor industry and boosting self-reliance is the top priority . . . The top policymakers know, company executives know and even local people know,” said Sheng.

Chip related companies make up nearly 25% of all groups listed on Shanghai’s STAR market

For Chinese chipmaking tool and material makers — mostly little known, with limited presence in the industry — the trade disputes serve as the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand business, a chip executive with Kingstone Semiconductor Joint Stock Co, a local ion implanter maker, told Nikkei.

“Not only is our production capacity fully booked for 2021 and needs to expand . . . but also many of our peers’ capacities are fully reserved,” the executive said.

Other domestic champions have done similarly well. Naura Technology Group, China’s largest chip equipment maker, generated a record profit in 2020, up more than 73 per cent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, despite being added to the US trade blacklist in late 2020, the earnings for AMEC, the etching machines maker, hit a record high last year.

Previously a third choice at best, Hwatsing Technology’s chemical-mechanical planarisation equipment has already been widely adopted by Chinese chipmakers such as SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor Group and YMTC, according to the prospectus it released late last year as it filed an application to list on Shanghai Star stock market, China’s version of the Nasdaq.

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment, under majority control by the Shanghai government, has been cemented as a key local participant that China’s government hopes to one day compete against global chip lithography machine builders of ASML, Nikon and Canon, several people with knowledge told Nikkei.

Employees of ASML working on the final assembly of semiconductor lithography tools in Veldhoven, Netherlands © Bloomberg

For now, China’s global market share in the advanced chip fabrication equipment sector is 2 per cent at most. Bernstein Research estimated, while its self-sufficiency rate is about 10 per cent — a very low figure, but one that suggests massive room for future growth.

Crashing the market?

This new push by China has already begun to make waves in the global semiconductor industry, threatening to disrupt the delicate equilibrium between supply and demand. A global chip shortage has swept many industries partly due to “panic buying” by Chinese companies, spooked by the risk of US sanctions, said Eric Xu, the current rotating chair of Huawei, in remarks last month.

One example is that YMTC and other domestic chip companies, such as China’s top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co, have begun to stockpile “at-risk” parts in a jointly owned warehouse that just went into operation this year, sources told Nikkei Asia.

At the same time as they are braced for shortages, however, the global chip industry is simultaneously making preparations for a massive glut of chips as Chinese companies such as YMTC hit their stride.

The Wuhan-based national champion, for example, plans to double its monthly output of memory chips to 100,000 wafers by the second half of 2021, giving it 7 per cent of the global Nand flash memory market measured in wafers, two people with knowledge of the matter told Nikkei.

Measured in gigabit equivalent terms, Taipei-based consultancy Trendforce predicted YMTC would take 3.8 per cent of the global market share in Nand flash memory for 2021 and likely expand its share to 6.7 per cent in 2022 — a precipitous climb, considering it was close to zero two years ago. Samsung, the leader, has a 34 per cent share.

“We expect YMTC will start to affect the overall Nand flash market price by next year and the market may also face some oversupply issues,” said Avril Wu, an analyst with Trendforce.

Yangtze’s chief executive Simon Yang has tried to allay fears of a massive glut of chips. “We want to tell everyone that we are not here to crash the market, and we hope that the industry could be sustainable and healthy,” he told a business forum in 2018, when the company started producing 64-layer Nand flash memory chips.

Despite shortages, the global chip industry is preparing for a massive glut as companies like Yangtze Memory hit their stride

Anticipating just such an oversupply, however, Intel — the world’s biggest microprocessor maker and sixth-largest Nand flash maker — sold its Dalian-based Nand flash memory plant to SK Hynix last year, bowing out in the face of future competition.

The vertiginous rise of YMTC has shown just what China is capable of in the chip industry. It started operations in 2016 and within four years was mass producing some of the most advanced 3D Nand flash memory chips in the world. Memory chips used to be flat wafers with one layer of memory cells, but recently “3D stacking” chips have become the cutting-edge standard for almost all electronics from computers and smartphones to servers and connected cars, with memory cells layered on top of each other in ever-higher stacks.

In 2017, chipmaker Western Digital introduced the “skyscraper,” a 64-layer chip, while Micron last year announced the 176-layer chip, the proportions of which it compared to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

YMTC has been mass-producing 64-layer chips for two years and has just started mass-producing 128-layer chips at its Nand flash memory factory in Wuhan. It is said to be in the process of developing a 192-layer chip that one industry analyst referred to as the “Himalaya”. The company declined to comment.

‘Neck-choking’ technology

In reality, though, the massive growth scenarios for YMTC and the rest of China’s semiconductor industry remain predicated on continued access to western chips and other key equipment. For all the patriotism and rhetoric surrounding self-sufficiency, few believe 100 per cent “de-Americanisation” is a genuinely realistic goal in the near future.

“If Yangtze Memory could continue to buy from US suppliers, they will definitely do that,” Mark Li, a veteran chip analyst with Bernstein Research, told Nikkei. “We all know that it’s an irreversible trend that China is keen to have their own version of everything,” Li said. “However, in reality, it will take a lot of time and great execution and we don’t expect to see them cut significantly from the amount of chipmaking equipment procurement from the US very soon.”

YMTC’s own supply chain audit, for example, found that many vital processes were not immediately replaceable with domestic vendors: high-end lenses, precision bearings, quality vacuum chambers, and motors, radio frequency components and programmable chips all still come from foreign manufacturers in the US, Japan and Europe, people briefed on the matter told Nikkei.

Meanwhile, the entire industry is still reliant on foreign equipment for lithography, ion implantation, etching, and chemical and physical vapour deposition and chemical-mechanical planarisation — all indispensable in manufacturing chips, experts say.

The Chinese government refers to such technologies as “neck-choking,” referring to potential points of US pressure. To build advanced semiconductors, there is presently no way around the leading American participants. Applied Materials, for example, leads the world in chip production technology such as ion implantation, physical and chemical vapour deposition, and chemical-mechanical polishing; Lam Research makes etching, chemical vapour deposition and wafer-cleaning equipment.

California-based KLA and Boston-based Teradyne specialise in providing testing and measuring equipment for defect analysis and failure inspection. Aside from tools, materials suppliers Dow, DuPont and 3M and other US companies also dominate the supplies of special chemical formulas used in advanced chip production.

They collectively control the global market share of more than 80 per cent in equipment and materials for some vital steps in building advanced semiconductors, said Li of Bernstein. In some specialised segments such as electrochemical deposition and gate stack tools, the US share could be almost 100 per cent.

Another key vulnerability in China’s ecosystem was exposed when Huawei’s chip-designing arm HiSilicon — China’s number one chip developer — lost access to technical support and software updates for electronic design automation tools owing to sanctions. That restricted the software used by HiSilicon to lay out blueprints for integrated circuits as well as printed circuit boards and other electronic systems. These tools are 90 per cent-dominated by US companies such as Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, Ansys and Siemens EDA (which, before its acquisition, was known as Mentor Graphics and is still located in America).

On China’s part, it has been gearing up to cultivate its own participants by luring many talented former employees of Synopsys and Cadence. But Chinese efforts remain far short of the required standard.

“We have gained some business because of China’s de-Americanisation campaign,” a manager of Empyrean Technology, China’s biggest local chip design toolmaker, told Nikkei. “However, asking us to fully replace Synopsys and Cadence is like coming to carmakers and asking to build rockets.”

In some crucial areas, such as the field-programmable gate array — a type of programmable semiconductor component essential for satellites and advanced jet fighters — the market leaders are Xilinx or Intel’s Altera, while for China, this space is largely still blank. In central processing units, the US maintains a tight grip, with leaders including Intel and Advanced Micro Devices that dominate more than 90 per cent of the global market.

This virtual monopoly on chip design and chipmaking equipment sectors has given the US vast powers to control the flow of technology to China, even from non-US companies. Industry leaders such as Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Infineon Technologies, SK Hynix and Sony, all still use massive amounts of American technologies on their production lines and in their development processes, giving Washington a veto over their product sales.

“Once the US names anyone on a trade blacklist, most of the Asian suppliers will see it as a serious warning, and even if legally they could continue to ship to the blacklisted entities, they will self-censor to stop shipping due to political pressure, or consider stopping,” a chip industry legal director told Nikkei. “No one wants to openly and publicly violate Washington’s will . . . That could be dangerous, and your own company could become a target too.”

Europe’s biggest chipmaking tool maker, ASML of the Netherlands, is the exclusive supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines — the world’s most costly but top-notch tool essential to producing the world’s most advanced chips, including Apple’s latest iPhone core processors.

ASML has a production plant in the US, and about one-fifth of the components that ASML needs to build its machines are also made at its US plant in Connecticut, Nikkei has learned. The Netherlands has halted shipments of China’s first orders of the EUV machine amid US pressure since 2019, Nikkei Asia first reported in November of that year.

For Chinese companies, therefore, localisation efforts must be carried out quietly. By far the most preferred course of action is not to fall into Washington’s crosshairs.

“We have to recognise and realise that we are still far lagging behind instead of thinking that we could quickly rock the world . . . The best way, under the geopolitical climate, is to keep our head low and do our work and grow silently,” said a chip executive with ChangXin Memory Technologies, another of China’s key memory chipmakers, based in Hefei, Anhui Province.

Localisation efforts must be carried out quietly. By far the most preferred course of action is not to fall into Washington’s crosshairs

While it pursues its Plan B of self-sufficiency, YMTC still sees it as extremely unrealistic to strip all foreign equipment from its production site. It still hopes to maintain good relationships with American, Japanese and European suppliers, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. In parallel to its localisation efforts, YMTC keeps building production lines that use American equipment and parts to facilitate its expansion.

“It’s really an irreversible trend that China wants to switch to local suppliers,” said Li of Bernstein, “but in reality and in real practices, there are still hurdles and [it] could still take a lot of time. If they want to grow faster and quickly gain more business, it’s more practical that they still use the tools and equipment that all of the foreign market leaders also use.”

In an effort to fend off future sanctions, meanwhile, the Chinese company has also boosted its legal compliance team since 2019, citing the “highly challenging, complex and changing environment in the chip industry” — a step aimed at giving the US no excuses to make it a target.

Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow of the technology and national security programme at the Center for a New American Security, told Nikkei: “China’s goal of total self-sufficiency in semiconductors is unrealistic. It is unaffordable to create a China-only supply chain, and there will almost certainly be some reliance on foreign technology and expertise. What it can do is build a globally competitive industry, and that is something that US policymakers are eyeing closely.”

Decoupling do’s and don’ts

Despite China’s considerable efforts, few experts believe that its chip sector will ever be genuinely free of US parts. However, most also believe that the doomsday scenario — a complete blockade of China’s tech and semiconductor industries — is not realistic, either.

The world’s two largest economies are still interconnected, and they are also the two biggest semiconductor markets: China accounts for at least 25 per cent of the sales of most US chip companies, according to a January report by the Brookings Institution, and few want to see that market disappear.

Bown of the Peterson Institute, said the Biden administration’s approach on China is not yet clear. On the one hand, the US expects China to buy more chips as promised in recent trade talks but has also continued restricting its use of American technologies.

“It’s likely that we are looking at more precisely confined export controls at some areas such as military uses and areas that are really linked to national security,” Bown said. “After all, it’s a trade-off. China is a massive consumer market, and if you restrict a lot of semiconductor shipment, many US companies will be hurt too.”

‘Neck choking’ technology: US president Joe Biden holds a chip before signing an executive order aimed at addressing a global semiconductor shortage in February © AFP via Getty Images

So far, the Biden administration has not yet softened on China’s technological advancement. A total of 162 Chinese entities had been sanctioned by the Trump administration since 2018, while in April, the US Department of Commerce added a further seven Chinese supercomputer makers to the so-called Entity List to restrict their use of American technologies, citing alleged links with the Chinese military.

On April 12, the White House hosted a virtual CEO summit on semiconductor and supply chain resilience, which included the world’s top three chip producers — Intel, Samsung and TSMC — as well as executives from carmakers, including Ford Motor and General Motors, to discuss how to maintain US leadership in the global semiconductor industry.

The Chinese Communist party “aggressively plans to reorient and dominate the semiconductor supply chain,” President Joe Biden said in opening remarks to the summit, quoting a bipartisan letter from 23 senators. “China and the rest of the world is not waiting, and there’s no reason why Americans should wait,” he said.

The administration has also proposed a $50bn funding programme for chip manufacturing, and research and development, mirroring China’s efforts.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, last year tightened the rules for examining the national security risks posed by foreign deals, followed by the Taiwanese government’s Investment Commission announcing a new set of rules to intensify screening of Chinese investments in Taiwanese tech companies. Meanwhile, the Italian government rejected a takeover bid for a Milan-based semiconductor equipment provider by a Shenzhen-based Chinese investment company.

South Korea and Taiwan — two leading Asian chipmaking economies — all face growing pressure to help the US boost local chip manufacturing. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, based in Taiwan, and South Korea’s Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, were both forced to cut off supplies to once-big customer Huawei after the US sanctions.

TSMC’s share of revenue from China plunged to 6 per cent in the January-March period from 22 per cent the same time a year earlier. Samsung also saw its revenue from China trending down in the past three quarters.

Most of the global chip developers and manufacturers will still have to side with the US, as American technologies still prevail in their products or services, said Su Tzu-yun, senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “They have to choose what are their best interests if they get caught between the world’s two biggest economies.”

However, it is still hard to fully decouple the semiconductor supply, involving thousands of suppliers from around the world that have been tightly intertwined for decades. China can try to reduce its reliance on the US, but without American technology sources, it can hardly speed up its technological advancement.

Neither is it practical for the US to exclude China from all of its supply chains, as the country is still a big source of critical raw materials and rare-earth elements used in semiconductors and electronic components, according to a recent report by the Semiconductor Industry Association, an American industry organisation.

“In the short term, due to geopolitical uncertainties, China’s tech development could be slowed a bit,” said Miin Wu, founder and chair of Macronix International, a leading memory chipmaker in Taiwan that serves Apple, Sony and Nintendo. “However, in the longer run, from China’s perspective, it will definitely hope to build a competitive industry. It’s a trend that is hard to resist, and there is no turning back.”

A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia on May 5 2021. ©2021 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved

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[centerforhci]

Human Capital Trends: Diversity Takes the Spotlight

69% of executives rate diversity and inclusion as an important issue (up from 59% in 2014).

In 2017, the proportion of executives who consider inclusion as a top priority has risen 32% from 2014.

These statistics are just a few from Deloitte’s global research, which included 10,400 business and HR leaders across 140 countries. The global surveys were split between large companies (more than 10,000 employees), medium-sized companies (1,000-10,000) and smaller companies (less than 1,000 employees). The resulting 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report provides an informed view into the future of work—and what some consider to be the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

One of the nine trends identified is the reality gap between diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts and results. Today we’ll take a look at that trend, discuss why things need to change and why diversity and inclusion are taking center stage, review the old ways versus the new ways of approaching diversity and inclusion, and lay out steps you can take to shorten the gap.

Snapshot: Diversity and Inclusion Today

Research shows that diverse teams are more innovative, engaged and profitable. But today’s diversity and inclusion needs are more than just profits and productivity. In today’s world, D&I impacts brand, corporate purpose, and performance.

We’ve seen scrutiny of lack of diversity on the news, and now that scrutiny is coming from within the companies themselves. More people are champions of diversity and inclusion, and the Millennials see it as an essential part of corporate culture. This moves beyond building diverse teams, to insuring that everyone has a voice and is heard. The next generation, Gen Z, will be the most diverse to date, and companies will need to make way.

Despite the increased scrutiny, and increased awareness of unconscious and explicit bias, results are appearing too slow. The most popular way to address these issues is training, and while helpful, it appears that making people aware of diversity and inclusion issues is not enough. Organizations must take a larger stroke, by implementing data-driven solutions and increasing transparency. They also need to immerse executives in the world of discrimination and bias so that they can truly understand how they affect decision-making, talent decisions, and business outcomes. As Deloitte says, “A set of ‘new rules’ is being written that will demand a new focus on experiential learning, process change, data-driven tools, transparency, and accountability.”

The era of HR filling a quota to meet diversity goals is over. Ownership of diversity and inclusion efforts now fall into the laps of leadership, with senior leaders holding leaders at all levels accountable to make concrete, measurable progress with diversity and inclusion efforts. Why the shift?

Five Reasons Diversity and Inclusion Are Taking Center Stage1. The Global Political Environment

Employee sensitivity is up due to immigration challenges, nationalism, and fear of terrorism appearing frequently in the press. Employees are personally concerned with these issues and want their employers to offer perspective. In this way, D&I now touches issues of employee engagement, human rights and social justice.

2. Organizations are Becoming Global Entities

As large organizations increasingly define themselves as global entities, religious, gender, generational and other types diversity issues become a greater reality.

3. Diverse and Inclusive Teams Outperform Their Peers

There are many studies showing the benefits of diverse teams and inclusive cultures. Deloitte reports, “Companies with inclusive talent practices in hiring, promotion, development, leadership, and team management generate up to 30% higher revenue per employee and greater profitability than their competitors.”

4. Gender Pay Equity in the Spotlight

Gender pay disparity is increasingly in the public eye. Companies and even government administrations are taking the necessary steps to make improvements. For example, Salesforce analyzed 17,000 employee salaries and identified a gender pay gap; they then spent roughly $3 million to even it out. On a governmental level, Canada’s Justin Trudeau appointed a gender equal-pay cabinet in 2015.

5. Baby Boomers Staying in the Workforce Longer

Career trajectories have changed due to Baby Boomers remaining in the workforce longer. That delay in retirement means a workforce with generational diversity like we’ve never seen before.

As you can see, the shift in how diversity and inclusion is approached needs to expand. It’s helpful to look at Deloitte’s following table which how D&I was approached in the past, versus how it needs to be approached now.

Four Ways to Start Amping Up Your Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

So if you’re an organization who is just getting ramped up for diversity and inclusion efforts that extend beyond training, where do you begin? Do you toss your training programs and start fresh? Here are the first four steps to take.

1. Share Research With Leadership

Providing data on the value of diversity and inclusion can get top leadership on board. But being on board is just the first step. Then they need to be held accountable through metrics and reports on diversity in promotion, hiring and compensation.

2. Use Analytics

Human Capital Analytics can identify patterns of racial bias, inequity in compensation, and bias in hiring and promotion much easier (and significantly faster) than any HR department can. After these patterns are identified, a more targeted plan can be implemented.

3. Extend Efforts Beyond HR

Diversity and inclusion should be on par with compliance, IT and security, practiced by everyone and owned by leadership. It is not just an HR responsibility—it’s a business responsibility.

4. Pay Attention to Global Differences

Remember that as organizations become more global, the diversity and inclusion needs will vary by region. The problematic areas you address and plans you put in place for the U.S. won’t necessarily be the same as the problems and plans in the Middle East. Listen to your employees’ interests and concerns, then decide what needs to be measured from there.

Expansion and Agility

As global networks expand and technology transforms the workplace, D&I models will continue to evolve. There isn’t a strategy organizations can develop today that will still apply in a decade. However, when diversity and inclusion is considered part of the corporate infrastructure, leaders can take the same agile approach to closing the gap that they take to surviving a world in constant flux.

Have you noticed an increase of buzz around diversity and inclusion in your workplace? We’d love to hear about any initiatives you’ve experienced.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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10 Ways Technology is Making Marketing Easier

The last couple of decades has seen a digital revolution.

Gone are the days of ads on the back page of newspapers, peeling billboards by the sides of freeways (although they are still trying), and leaflets in your letterbox.

Instead, we’re living in an age of advanced artificial intelligence, digital signage, complex software, and social media platforms — technology that has been godsent for marketers and businesses alike.

In this article, we will dive into how these forms of technology are making business’ marketing efforts easier.

Chatbots Provide 24/7 Customer Service

As AI technology has improved, so has the prevalence of chatbots on digital platforms.

Chatbots built with advanced AI technology can now interact with hundreds of customers simultaneously. They often provide support that is of such high-quality, it is indeterminable from that of a human worker. In fact, up to 85% of customer interactions today online are with a non-human worker.

This can have massively positive effects on customer relationship management (CRM) — some studies reporting CRM software can increase sales by up to 29%. In today’s market, customers span multiple time zones, so it is helpful for businesses to have technology that can keep up with this demand.

Every marketer knows that once you have a lead, it is important to do everything you can to turn them into a conversion. Chatbots make this possible by servicing customers the moment they enter your online store, only escalating more difficult inquiries to human workers when necessary.

Human employees, who now have more time, can approach these leads with refreshed enthusiasm and focus, leading to a higher chance of a conversion.

AI Marketing Automation

Automating your marketing can be one of the most beneficial things you can do for your business. As legendary SEO specialist and digital marketer Neil Patel says, don’t delegate, automate.

Automating marketing and sales processes such as lead generation, nurturing, scoring, customer retention, and ROI measurement will free up your marketing team’s time.

This isn’t about putting your human employees out of work, it’s about making your business more efficient. After all, money and time are businesses’ most valuable resources.

Human workers can now spend their time approaching high-quality leads that have been identified by your AI marketing automation. This will result in higher conversions and higher employee satisfaction.

Digital Signage Offers Dynamic Marketing Alternatives

Companies are waking up to the benefits of digital signage. One of digital signages’ most attractive features is that it can be changed at a moment’s notice. It also engagingly displays information. This has made it increasingly popular in the last decade.

The movement to adopt has been especially noticeable in brick-and-mortar businesses, which are having to adapt to the expectations of their consumers. Businesses that use digital signage are shown to have captured up to 400% more views than static signs and have had greater recall and retention rates.

Your Followers Market For You

Affiliate marketing isn’t an entirely new concept, but it has certainly exploded in popularity since the advent of social media.

In some instances, effective affiliate marketing can result in zero-cost acquisitions of sales and sign-ups. If an affiliate doesn’t make any sales from their marketing efforts, it doesn’t cost you anything if you were operating on a commission basis.

To see how successful this form of marketing is, you need only look to Instagram. It isn’t unusual for successful affiliates – also known as influencers on social media platforms – to make upwards of $3000 per day via their socials.

Affiliates with active communities will advertise your products or services to their fanbase in exchange for a percentage of profits or a flat fee per post. Through useful affiliate marketing tracking tools, it is easy to see which of your affiliates made which sales.

An affiliate with a highly-engaged following can generate thousands of dollars in revenue, and effectively generate their income from sales you otherwise would not have made. This makes this form of marketing extremely attractive for both parties.

You Can Market To Anyone, Anywhere

Technology has made it able for your marketing teams to reach out to anyone, anywhere. Gone are the days of brick-and-mortar businesses with limited opening times and fixed space for customers. Being able to, in theory, have an infinite amount of people browsing your products at one time has helped companies like Amazon and Apple skyrocket their profits.

Through the use of technology, businesses no longer see borders and state lines as a barrier. If you have identified leads through analysis of data, it is no longer relevant if that lead is in Chile or Australia — as long as they have an internet connection, they can be marketed to.

This has perhaps been the single biggest impact technology has had on the world of marketing. Every marketer’s core purpose is to get their product or service in front of people, and now thanks to technology, they have the entire world to sell to.

You Can Employ Anyone, Anywhere

Now that you have been able to expand the community you sell to, you’ll need to hire people for the job. Technology has made it possible for some companies to operate 100% remotely, giving businesses access to global talent.

Being able to build your marketing team with talented people from around the world has been incredibly profitable for online businesses. Having a more diverse workforce leads to differing perspectives, which has been shown to increase productivity and creativity.

Having customers around the world calls for having workers who understand the nuances and differences of the cultures these people operate within.

Get Your Products & Services In Front Of the Right People

The possibilities digital marketing provides makes more traditional forms of marketing feel irrelevant and outdated.

This can be seen clearest when we look at more traditional forms of media. Without the financial support advertising provides, magazines and newspapers have been dying out or transitioning to online models.

No longer having to place an ad within a magazine in the hope that a customer pauses to read it has been a blessing for marketing teams.

Now, by employing the data and platforms technology provides, you can get your ad into the pockets of those more likely to buy your products. The positive effect this can have on your marketing team’s conversion rates can be monumental.

Reach Out To Those Customers Instantly

Now that you have used technology to identify high-quality leads, you don’t have to wait to market to them. Machine learning services can predict what customers are looking to buy based on their previous behavior, and recommend them your products.

Marketing tools can even decide what time of the day or week your customers stumble across your ads. Recognizing patterns in your target demographics, your marketing campaigns can become scarily efficient.

Have you ever been thinking about buying a new pair of shoes, only to be shown an advertisement for a pair of shoes the next day?

Chances are, your search history and browsing behavior have informed that brand you will be a good lead to market to. Some people think this is invasive, others think it’s helpful. Don’t stress, technology has a solution for this problem too — upselling natively and non-intrusively.

Upsell Natively & Non-Intrusively

Everyone has a memory they can look back on — the awkward and pushy salesperson that tried to upsell you on your way out of the clothing store, or the relentless gas-station attendant wanting you to buy chocolate at the till.

Technology has removed the need for these interactions. Expertly-written copy, chatbots, and well-structured user-journeys now upsell in a more natural way. As a customer displays exit intent or goes to buy a product at checkout, a well-built store will subtly offer discounts or recommend products suited to their style and tastes.

Engaging follow-up emails that bring customers back into the store with the promise of personalized discounts and deals are also very effective. These forms of marketing are a less intense experience for the lead than traditional forms of upselling. This can often result in higher conversion rates.

AI Can Write Custom Copy That Sells

AI has also infiltrated creative industries. Previously thought to be lacking in that aspect of intelligence, AI bots have proved the doubters wrong.

JP Morgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banks, has enlisted the help of AI when it comes to writing their ads. In a pilot study, AI redrafted copy originally written by a human marketer.

The results?

Some of the copy rewritten by AI saw up to a 450% increase in CTR