Categories
Uncategorized

8 Top Chrome Extensions for WordPress Users

WordPress is fairly easy to use.  However, sometimes it becomes a time-drain when you have to do everything in the actual wordpress platform.  Lately, I have been utilizing a lot of Chrome Extensions.

If you haven’t ever used a chrome extension – I highly recommend you try them out.  They can dramatically increase your productivity!

 

Expresscurate

A content curation tool for WordPress bloggers. You need to configure it by –

1. Installing free ExpressCurate WordPress plugin

2. Installing ExpressCurate Chrome extension

3. Finally, Restarting your Chrome browser and start curating

Features include:

  • Content discovery – ExpressCurate will analyze web pages as you browse through them and suggest articles to curate — based on your predefined keywords (you can define them within ExpressCurate).
  • Curate-as-you-read – You can also curate as you come across an interesting article by clicking on the ExpressCurate button in Chrome toolbar.
  • Curation template and tools – ExpressCurate provides a pop up window with predefined fields and tools for you to select a quote from the original article, add a headline, add your annotation, select images, and more.
  • SEO Optimization – In the same pop-up window, ExpressCurate enables you to add the essential SEO attributes, such as meta keywords, descriptions, pick categories, and more.
  • Publishing – Once done with working in the curation window, click on “Curate Now” and ExpressCurate will generate a post draft in your WordPress blog.

 

MultiPress

With “Press This” function you can publish on your own blog about anything you found online, This extension helps you to move contents to your own site.

 

WP-Write

It allows users to publish new posts directly from the Chrome. Supports WordPress.com blogs and self-hosted WordPress sites, uses XML-RPC API.

 

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts

Gives a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for WordPress. Keyboard shortcut includes Visual Editor shortcuts, Comment moderation shortcuts and Advance shortcuts.

 

PicMonkey > WordPress

This extension let’s you submit screenshots to PicMonkey and then Auto-saves the edited image to wordpress.

A word of caution for this extension: it’s probably the most confusing plug-in to set-up.  The set-up involves synching your wordpress account with your PicMonkey account using API keys.  However, there is a very useful explainer video on the extension page to walk you through the set-up.

 

WordPress Admin Bar Control

Instead of having the admin panel take-up valuable screen space you can use this chrome extension for admin duties.  This is especially helpful when editing on smaller devices.  It follows your chrome installs so you don’t have to install a plugin on each site.

 

WordXPress

If you post a lot on your site, I highly recommend this extension.  It makes it dead simple to post a lot of content on your site.

One major downside with this extension is that you cannot save to drafts.  You also cannot upload multiple images at a time.

 

Tiny Best Image Optimization

This plugin is not wordpress specific, but I had to include it because it’s so awesome!

If you are constantly resizing images for posts I highly recommend this plugin.

 

Summary

 

Hopefully these chrome extensions will help you become more productive with managing your wordpress site.  If you would like to talk about your wordpress site and different ways you can increase traffic and conversions on your site, contact us at the following:

INFO@SPECTRUSS.COM

or

423-800-8633

Did I leave your favorite extension out?  Let me know on facebook.

 

 

Categories
Events

Spectrum 2016 Gala and Live Auction

The Spectrum 2016 Gala and Live Auction was held last Saturday, November 12, 2016. It was set under a grand tent on the Hunter Museum’s beautiful river terrace. Housing over 500 guests, the black-tie dinner has been another successful night celebrating art at this premier arts gala and most important fundraiser of the year for the museum.

Following the silent auction from Thursday evening, which showcased 61 works of art, an additional 28 featured pieces were set for the gala’s live auction. Art was carefully selected to fit the Spectrum collector’s taste from galleries in Asheville, Chattanooga, Dallas, Santa Fe and New York.

Our team at Spectruss have been very thrilled and overjoyed to provide sponsorship for this prestigious and prominent event in our city. We’re glad to have shared the evening with our friends, colleagues and all the guests in attendance, enjoying delectable food, drinks and the beautiful art.

We now look forward to providing our professional service in design and technology for the Hunter Museum of American Art and continue to support our museum.

Enjoy a few of our photos below and checkout the photos from the red carpet on our Facebook Page!

 

Spectrum 2016 Gala & Live Auction: Red Carpet

 

Categories
Marketing

SEO for the Holiday Season: Exactly What You Need To Do To Double Your Traffic

The last two months of the year can be a great time to sit-back, relax and enjoy the holiday season.

However, if you own a web-business and are focused on increasing leads and revenue from your site, it’s a great time to work on search engine optimization.

Here is the Step-By-Step Guide to SEO for The Holiday Season

 

1. Build Content For Popular Holiday Search Trends

 

The first thing to do to find popular holiday search trends is use Google’s Keyword Planner.

If you have a hard time brainstorming ideas, it’s always a good idea to check out Google Trends.

 

2. Optimize for Mobile Search

 

As you can see in the chart above, mobile traffic (specifically from smartphones) is where the vast majority of growth is.  It would be highly ignorant to ignore this traffic source during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year.

According to Google, 3 out of 4 consumers are more likely to visit a store if their local search results were helpful.

Source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/how-digital-connects-shoppers-to-local-stores.html

Here are some action steps to help you get started with mobile SEO

 

3. Improve Site Speed

load time for seo

If you only have time to do one-thing for SEO, I would highly recommend you focus on site load times.  Bounce-rate is a HUGE factor in search-engine optimization.

Google has indicated site speed (and as a result, page speed) is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages. In addition, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget, and this could negatively affect your indexation.

Page speed is also important to user experience. Pages with a longer load time tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page. Longer load times have also been shown to negatively affect conversions.

You can analyze your site’s speed using Google’s Page Speed Tester.

 

Most websites stand to shave a few milliseconds off load time by implementing some quick fixes:

  • Minifying scripts
  • Optimizing images
  • Gzip compression
  • Cache optimization

 

4. Improve The Copywriting On Your Site

 

SEO copywriting is all about creating useful, compelling, and valuable content, which targets specific keywords so that other people will gladly promote it on social media platforms.

This increases the authority and relevance of your content and improves its ranking in Google for the selected keywords.

One of the most helpful things you can do to attract people to your content is create an engaging headline.  Use the tool below to generate some ideas.

http://www.inboundnow.com/apps/kill-writers-block/

If you need actual writing help for SEO I highly recommend the CopyBlogger’s blog.  It’s an extensive blog that is full of exhaustive resources on copywriting.

 

Ask

My wife and I love olive oil – yea, I know it’s a little wierd.  A local olive oil store asked us for advice on how he could get his current customers to buy more.

I told him to solely focus on getting his customers on his email list so he could be communicating with his customers about any exciting new products and announcement he had.

My wife told him to start keeping track of all the interesting recipe’s he was using for olive oil and to give recipe recommendations with all the olive oils.

The absolute crazy thing is this guy actually implemented both ideas and sold his store for millions of dollars!  The point is, ask your customers (people who are already spending money with you) what they want and give it to them!

You might be wondering what this has to do with SEO.  Actually a lot.  Did you know that the Frequently Asked Questions section is one of the highest ranking pages on a lot of websites?  This is because people post millions of questions to google everyday.  If your site answers these questions you will rank higher.

Measure

Here are some reports you should be looking for to stay on-track of your SEO duties and the results of this work:

  • A report on the three top-performing keywords, including search volume, target pages, and dwell time.
  • A report on the top-performing holiday-specific keywords.
  • A report on the percentage of mobile traffic vs. desktop traffic for the year-to-date.
  • A report on the top-performing content pages for their closest competitor.

A report on traffic increases since July.

 

Summary

Instead of just coasting into the holiday season with eggnog and in-laws, accelerate your business.  At Spectruss, we provide a lot of the services listed above for all of our customers.

If you need help implementing any of these ideas let us know!  We would be glad to help.

 

 

Categories
Marketing

Rank Fast on Search Engines With These Quick Tips

Are you finding it tough to rank for any kind of keyword in google?

Search engine algorithms are constantly being updated and more companies are building out their online presence.  This means that it’s going to continue to get harder to rank.

However, at Spectruss we have found some basic SEO tactics can cover about 80% of the heavy lifting when it comes to SEO strategy.

spectruss-chattanooga-seo-resources

Here are some quick strategies to rank fast on search engines:

Research User Intent

The best general strategy is to go after long-tail ranking terms.

For instance, at Spectruss we are not a general web agency.

We are a full-service web-design agency based in Chattanooga, TN with the sole-focus of accelerating our customer’s business.

You have to be extremely specific about who your target customer is before you even start optimizing your site for search engines.

The first thing I like to do when researching keywords is to use Google’s keyword planner.

Note, that when it says competition is “High” that just means there is a lot of demand for people buying those ads.

Don’t just write for things you think are interesting.  You need to produce content that people are actively searching for in your business.

For instance, if you owned an outdoor apparel store you wouldn’t want to just rank for ski equipment or gloves.

The terms—”ski equipment” and “gloves”—aren’t very descriptive. You might not be able to get a focused understanding of what the user is searching for.

But the long-tail keywords are valuable. Someone searching for “men’s red Burton Gore-Tex ski gloves” is looking for a specific product.

With a few additional variables, you can create and deliver precisely the kind of content the user is seeking:

  • Buy men’s red Burton ski gloves
  • Compare men’s red Burton ski gloves
  • Research men’s red Burton ski gloves
  • men’s red Burton ski gloves features
  • men’s red Burton ski gloves accessories

If you can figure out the long-tail intent—and it’s not that difficult—you can masterfully craft content that will match that intent. As a result, your content will quickly rise to the first page.

 

Craft A Unique Headline

According to The Science Post, 90% of people don’t read past the headline.

This means you need to really nail the headline so you can grab attention

There are tons of good copywriting books on just writing headlines.

However, I have two strategies for writing copy that have never let me down.

 

Strategy 1: Use Google Ads

Major companies invest millions of dollars in google ads constantly testing different headlines and which ones get the most clicks.  You can benefit from this research and simply copy the headlines they are using in their ads.

I always do this when writing for e-commerce companies and the results have never let me down.  Direct-response copywriting is a time-tested technique that is extremely compelling to website owners wanting to make a positive ROI without a significant investment.

Strategy 2: Steal from Amazon

One of my weird hobbies is reading Amazon reviews.  It’s truly fascinating for several reasons.  However, for writing headlines and creating content it’s a gold-mine that very few people utilize.

In Amazon reviews you see EXACTLY what the buyer was wanting IN THEIR OWN WORDS.  If they are disappointed they tell you exactly why they were disappointed IN THEIR OWN WORDS.  It’s really a copywriters dream.

The most significant thing you can steal is the most up-voted reviews.

Strategy 3: Use Formulas

I also like using formulas which always seem to do well.

The most basic formula I use is this:

[End result they want] + [Time period] + [Address the objections]

Examples:

  • [How to make amazing sushi] + [In 10 minutes] + [For under 5 bucks]
  • [Make a website] + [By tonight] + [With zero experience]
  • [Grow your email list] + [This month] + [Without paying for advertising]

You can also reverse these around and be more direct with this formula:

[Take this action] + [Specific Time Period] + [End Result]

Examples:

  • [Consult with me] + [For 1 hour] + [And I’ll improve your SEO Ranking]
  • [Talk to just 3 of your customers] + [For 5 minutes] + [To laser-target your sales pitch]
  • [Put this liquid in your cast iron skillet] + [Wait 1 hour] + [And you’ll never have to clean it again]

 

Produce A lot of Content

Produce, Produce, Produce

Articles that rank high in Google typically have over 2,000 words and have internal and external links as well as pictures and videos.

If you want to consistently rank high in Google you have to be dedicated to produce very high-quality content on a consistent basis.

 

Summary

I’m obviously not going to tell you that you will rank number 1 in Google for a term like “credit cards.”  However, I can tell you that you can rank for very specific terms that your customers care about.

If you want a more in-depth analysis of your site and how you can ultimately get more traffic to your site contact us at Spectruss by phone or email.

423-800-8633

info@spectruss.com

 

Categories
Marketing

The Ultimate Content Marketing Plan

You have an important message.  You have a website for people to see the message and take action.

The only problem: Nobody goes to your site to actually see the message.

You could advertise.  However, that has it’s own set-of challenges.

This is why you need a comprehensive content marketing plan!

What exactly is content marketing?

According to The Content Marketing Institute:

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

 

Content Marketing Plan

The important part about content marketing is that you want to create something of value for your ideal customer.  This piece of content cannot be just some ebook or blog post using generic content.  This content needs to be so amazing that it get’s shared within the audience that you are trying to attract.

Examples of Amazing Content Marketing:

  1. Lego Club Magazine by Lego
  2. Food & Family Magazine by Kraft Food
  3. Lauren Luke makeup videos by Lauren Luke (eBay seller)
  4. Health Hub Magazine by Cleveland Clinic
  5. The Furrow Magazine by John Deere agricultural machinery (began 1895!)

Aside from being a time-tested way to attract customers, millenials are especially attracted to content marketing.

After you develop content for your site, you now need a marketing plan to promote the content.  Use the checklists below to get some ideas on how to promote your content.

Content Marketing Plan

Once you have organized your content for sharing and optimized your headline to grab attention, you need to focus on marketing your content.

Here are some questions to ask:

Are you going to promote this content to your email list?

Are you going to syndicate this content to other sites?

Can you submit this content to any online forums?

Does the content mention other individuals and companies so they can promote the content?

Have you used social media meta tags?

Can you make slides outlining the content and put on SlideShare?

When do you plan on publishing the content?

What is a “content upgrade” you can offer so people can give you their email and get something of value?

Are you talking and promoting other people’s content?

 

Social Promotion

Social media is extremely important in sharing your content.

You want to produce content that not only gets viewed but also gets shared across social media.  It will take time to figure out exactly what type of content will get shared on the different types of social media platforms

 

Here are a few questions to consider.

Are you connecting on Twitter with your audience?

Are you using sub-reddits to add value and build a following?

Are you active in Facebook Groups that are relative to your company?

Are you active in LinkedIn Groups that are relative to your company?

Do you mention other experts when sharing on social media?

Are you scheduling your social media posts to when your audience is online? (Hint: this is REALLY important)

 

Promotional Tools

If you really want to leverage content marketing and are not prepared to work full-time, you need to leverage tools so you can be productive and efficient with promoting your content.

Here are a few resources you can use:

Use a tool like Buzzsumo to see what type of content is getting shared the most on social media that is relative to your subject matter.

Use a sharing tool like Snip.ly to add traffic back to your site no matter whose content you are sharing.

Use a tool like Paper.li if you are interested in curating an internet style newspaper that is relative to your audience.

Use Click to Tweet so your audience can easily share your content on twitter.

Use Buffer to schedule your content promotion on social media sites.

Outreach

The best part about content marketing is you control who talks about your brand.  Well, you at least control the start of the conversation.

Below are some action points after you publish your content?

Remarket to past visitors.

Reach-out to traditional journalist who publish content within your niche.

Curate content from other and republish on your domain.

Send direct messages to influencers on LinkedIn.

Reach out to people who share content similar to yours.

 

Summary

 

Hopefully these checklists will help you produce more engaging content with your audience.  Content marketing can easily become overwhelming.  The most important thing to remember is to take action.

Don’t try and implement everything at once.  If you attempt this nothing will actually get done.  Just focus on implementing one thing on the checklist.

If you need help creating content or want to talk about different ways you can attract more customers to your business, contact us at Spectruss by phone or email.

423-800-8633

info@spectruss.com

Have a great day!

Categories
Events

Hutton and Smith Brewery Wins Bronze at GABF!

Spectruss is pleased to announce that Hutton and Smith Brewery won Bronze for their German-Style Altbier at the Great American Beer Festival last weekend. Hutton and Smith Brewery has only been opened for a little over a year and they have already produced over 24 different beers, including the award winning On-Sight Alt. Some amazing things to come from this brewery in the near future! Stay tuned for some big news!

Check out the complete winners list here: https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/

 

Also check out our case study for Hutton and Smith Brewery: https://spectruss.com/portfolio/hutton-smith/

Categories
Marketing

5 Strategies To Get More Leads From Linked-In

It’s easy to get inundated with social media and after 4 hours lie to yourself that you have actually been working.

This is why I prefer to spend my time on LinkedIn.

Instead of getting sucked into other “social” networks, Linked-In was built for business.

The best part is that B2B marketers all report significantly higher conversion rates with Linked-In versus other social networks.

Linked-In Conversions

 

Here are the Steps To Get More Leads from Linked-In:

 

1. Set-Up Your Company Page To Be A Lead Generation Page

 

ApploeOne is doing a lot of great things with their Linked-In profile.

 

They have invested in the design and copyrighting so the image and content tells the reader what the company does in a very short time-period.  If your employees are connected on LinkedIn you will generate a significant amount of traffic if they are active on the platform.

 

2. Use Advanced Search

The key here is to get as targeted as you can.  Most salespeople have geographic parameters.  However, there are other parameters that can help.

For instance, I am active in a Commercial Bankers Group.

I wanted to know who in this group specializes in Commercial Real Estate and is based in the United States.

You can see that there are 5,240 people who are involved in commercial real estate and also in this group.  LinkedIn allows you to save three advanced searches before they want you to pay to be a premium member.

 

3. Start A Linked-In Group

I am a moderator in several Linked-In Groups which also gives me a big advantage when contacting prospects.

From my experience most people set-up Linked-In Groups wrong.  For instance, let’s say you sell automation technology for manufacturing companies in the Mid-West.  Most salespeople and marketers would set-up a Linked-In Group Titled: Automation Technologies Group.

I would set-up a group called:

MidWest Manufacturing Association Group

or

Midwest Manufacturing CEO Group

I would be highly selective in who I let in the group.  I would also send out a mass email and mass physical letter head announcing the group.

After a couple of months of filling the group with valuable information would I start to selectively prospect to members of the group.

The best part about groups and your actual connections is you can export this list to an excel file and get the names, company data and emails from the members of the people in this group.  This is great when you need to do an email blast or do a mass mailing.

You can also do email blast to members of your group from LinkedIn which has some very obvious advantages to you as a marketer and salesperson.

 

4. Publish Content

You can’t just sign-up for LinkedIn and expect money to fall from the sky.  You also have to publish updates and even write articles to increase engagement.

Michaela Alexis is the prototypical LinkedIn Connector.  She wrote a detailed story on how she landed her dream job in 2 weeks using Linked-In.  This story has been read by over 140K people and been shared over 1,000 times!

She started off like most people with no significant following.  However, by publishing interesting content she now has over 27K followers!

This proves you can create a brand here on Linked-In!

 

5. Connect and Follow Influencers

Like any social network you need to see what is getting shared by the most popular people.  This shows what types of content people are interested in.

Below are some influencers to follow if you are interested in there areas of expertise.

If you are interested in Content Production and Social Media Marketing

Michaela Alexis

We mentioned her background in the section above so I want repeat her background.  I’m very impressed with how she routinely produces amazing content.

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/michaelaalexis

If you are interested in Entrepreneurship

James Altucher is about as unconventional as LinkedIn Influencer’s come. He’s a successful entrepreneur, chess master, venture capitalist, and author of many books including, The Power of No. Altucher looks for the most painful and embarrassing situations in his life, then writes about them.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesaltucher

If you are interested in Happiness

Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, but she’s best known for her New York Times bestselling book, The Happiness Project. She’s emerged as one of the most influential speakers and writers on the topics of habits and happiness. In addition, she’s a prolific writer on LinkedIn, publishing several Pulse articles a week. If you’re striving to feel better at work or home, Rubin is a must-follow.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchenrubin

I highly recommend you start engaging on Linked-In to build a following and leads for your company.  If you have any questions feel free to call or email us.

You can follow Spectruss on Linked-In here

 

Categories
Marketing

Marketing To Millennials – Why This Is The Next Big Thing

There are 80 million millennials in the United States with annual buying power of $200 million.  Millennials purchasing power will only increase in the next decade and this is why advertisers are obsessed with targeting this group.  For perspective, Demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and use the mid-1990s to the early 2000s as final birth years for the Millennial Generation.

The only problems with this is the fact that Millennials are repulsed by advertising.  This is why they gladly pay for Netflix, Spotify and Tivo so they don’t have to deal with the interruptions.

New Media vs Traditional Media

33% of millennials rely mostly on blogs before they make a purchase, compared to fewer than 3% for TV news, magazines and books.

Social media

62% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer. They expect brands to not only be on social networks, but to engage them. This obviously takes more labor from companies to be able to maintain social networking feeds, but it’s worth it if you want to reach millennials.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/#5658bd5f28a8

 

Print

 

With this powerful demographic data you would think small business owners would be focused on selling to this market.  However, a study by Manta found only 15% of small business owners are actually marketing to millennials.

Source: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/millennials-the-next-big-thing-in-small-business-2032182.htm

Interruption Marketing vs Inbound Marketing

Interupting behavior with advertising and product/service listing sites are completely inauthentic and millennials give these sources zero credibility.  ,

Millennials want e-books, blog posts, videos, and other how-to information – and that’s inbound marketing. This demographic wants authentic content generated by the company versus generic advertising targeting the mass market.  Think Dollar Shave Club versus Bic Razors.

Millennials are 44% more likely to trust experts(who happen to be strangers); they are 247% more likely to be influenced by blogs or social networking sites.

Content Marketing is the Winner Take-All

Content marketing is currently the buzz word for marketers.  However, its important to point out that content marketing has been around (and very successful) for several years:

1895: John Deere introduces The Furrow, a free publication with tons of farming tips and techniques to help farmers become more profitable. Today, it’s available in more than 40 countries and in 12 different languages.

 

1900: Michelin Tires released a 400-page auto maintenance guide with everyday drivers in mind, and also included travel tips. 35,000 copies were distributed free of charge before the company started selling the manual for a profit.

 

1904: Jell-O circulated free copies of its own cookbook, highlighting creative ways to use the unique product. In 2 years, the company saw sales increase to over $1 million annually.

 

1966: Nike released a 19-page booklet titled Jogging. It was filled with advice on enjoying running as a recreational activity, including posture and striking tips. This brought running, as a sport, to America, and it never once mentioned a Nike shoe.

Source: HubSpot

millennial marketing facts

 

Summary

We think marketing to millennials is the next big thing to change shopping habits and we think now is the time to start implementing these ideas.

Want help implementing these ideas?

Book your 30-minute free consultation (and get personalized advice on how to implement the ideas from the guide)

If you have any questions, please call or email me.

423-800-8633

info@spectruss.com

 

Categories
Uncategorized

How To Make Your WordPress Site Unhackable

At Spectruss website security isn’t just important, it’s paramount.

 

The problem with security on the internet is that it’s unlimited with how much money you can spend and of-course nothing is guaranteed to work.

However, we have found a very low-cost and reliable system (after a lot of work) and I want to share it.

The system is based on our favorite wordpress security plugin: CLEF

The Clef mobile app provides two-factor authentication without you having to keep track of a password.  You download the plugin-in from WordPress and you download the CLEF app onto your phone.  Sync your phone with the Clef Wave to log in.

Aside from not having to remember passwords and two-factor authentication, it’s also free!

Jessica Riley who is in-charge of CLEF’s marketing had this to say when I asked her about CLEF and website security:

Clef provides businesses with fraud protection right where they need it most but control the least; user accounts. As more of our lives move online, Clef has provided a solution that empowers regular folks to act in their own best interest regarding their online security, which in turn fills the security gap that user accounts, and bad passwords, have created for online businesses. Most hacks happen through access provided through user accounts, often due to poor passwords or duplicated passwords across the web. Clef’s mobile cryptography bypasses passwords, removes a frustration point for people, and seals a major vulnerability for online business.

This plugin and app combo allows you to replace usernames and passwords on your WordPress site with your smartphone.

This is how it works:

Download the app directly from the Apple iTunes or Google Play stores.

Then download, install and activate the CLEF plugin from the WordPress Plugin Repository.

When you set up the smartphone app for the first time you create a profile on your phone. Clef uses that profile to generate a new digital signature each time you want to login to your site. Rather than login with a password, your login screen will be replaced with the “Clef Wave,” which you will need to sync with another Clef Wave on your phone.

The smartphone app will then grant you an hour-long session to use your site unless you increase the session time on your phone.  You can increase the time to “infinite” which obviously makes it a little less secure.

 

After you download the plugin in the WordPress directory you will see this:

 

Once you set-up CLEF you will see this:

Once you download onto your smartphone you create a PIN:

 

Now that you have CLEF downloaded to your wordpress dashboard and your phone you hold your phone over your wordpress site:

 

After you log-in and are set-up your phone will display the time you have remaining.  A benefit I have found is that it forces you to stay focused on writing.  This is why I don’t have the infinite time marked on my CLEF app.

Here is a great CLEF Explainer Video:

 

Clef from Clef on Vimeo.

 

Summary

We highly recommend you use both WordPress and CLEF for extra security for your website.  If you have any security questions about your website or just want to talk about your website – call or email us at Spectruss.

Categories
Business

How To Skyrocket Your Return On Investment For Your Business

einstein quote on email

When company’s want to increase sales, the vast majority just start blindly spending money on advertising.  The irony is that advertising has one of the worst returns on investment for marketing dollars spent.

MarketingProfs.com did an extensive study on marketing spending returns on investment.

The design team at Spectruss took the data and made the image below.

 

Email ROI - Return On Investment

As you can see, email marketing dominates with SEO being a distant second.  Banner Ads are literally in last place for a return on investment.

Most people get intimidated with email marketing – however it’s exceptionally easy to get started.

Here are some places to collect email addresses to quickly build your list.

 

Facebook Messages

Recently a friend sent me a message asking for my email address.

I instantly gave it to him.

It turns out he is opening up a restaurant and wanted to invite me to the launch party.

Twitter

Twitter has a very low response rate with just getting customers from this platform.  However, they let you set-up “cards” where someone can opt-in to your email list with just one click.

If you are already active on twitter I recommend this strategy.  You can create a twitter card and use it for free.  We will post an in-depth guide to this in the future.

Checkout Receipt

This should be very easy to do with your check-out system especially if you are online.

What’s more important however is that actual customer’s email is exponentially more valuable than an email from a non-customer.  Ramit Sethi from iwillteachyoutoberich.com provided the following statistics:

You can see that it’s extremely valuable to get the email from people who have already trusted you with their money.

Giveaway

Giveaways are a great strategy to build a large email list in a short amount of time.  The key here is to make your giveaway relevant to your core customer.  For instance, if you owned a children’s boutique you don’t want to have a giveaway for a set-of tools.

Landing Page

This is an obvious one that Groupon.com made extremely popular.  The key with a landing page is enticing someone with something VERY valuable.  A limited-time discount code is a great giveaway as well as a free report or checklist.

Don’t overthink what you need to giveaway as an email opt-in.  A lot of people prefer short resource guides compared to large eBooks.

 

All Spectruss sites are fully integrated with the email service provider Mailchimp.

Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

  1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
  2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
  3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
  4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
  5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
  6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
  7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

Source: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business