5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an eCommerce Consultant

January 20, 2018 by admin

5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an eCommerce Consultant

Questions to Ask Before Hiring an eCommerce Consultant

Are you looking to hire an eCommerce consultant for your business, but not sure how to choose one? Read this article to learn how to find the right match.

E-commerce is projected to grow by the billions every year from 2014-2021. With all this growth comes new competition and new technology.

An ecommerce consultant can give your business that competitive edge it needs to keep up with this growth. But the hiring process can seem like uncharted territory. Especially if you’ve never had experience with consulting before.

That’s why we’ve decided to help you out in the process! Read on for 5 questions to ask before hiring one for your business:

How Professional Is The Ecommerce Consultant?

A consultant will help develop your online presence and increase business’ traffic. When looking for an ecommerce consultant make sure they can do that for themselves as well.

We recommend looking at the consultant’s website and ranking in search engine results. Use this as examples of their work. Ask for a portfolio of their previous work as well.

What Is Their Reputation?

Look up the consultant’s reviews online to see if they can deliver on what they promise. If the consultant can provide a list of former clients contact them to find out how their work was.

Talk with other people in your industry. Ask them for their recommendations for an ecommerce consultant. When you finally find one ask for references to contact that can confirm their skills.

What Are Your Problems?

There are many services that a consultant can use to help make your business more effective. Try to come to the table with a list of goals for your company or specific problems to be dealt with.

This will help the consultant provide results on exactly what you’re looking for. Here are some common e-commerce problems:

Web Page Development Or Design
Website Security
Search Engine Optimization
Product Pages

Ask a consultant to troubleshoot your business if you don’t know where to start.

What Is Your Budget?

Decide on a budget you are likely to spend on the services you need. This can help you chose the kind of consultant you will work with.

Freelance

We find that sometimes freelancers are cheaper than firms. When deciding on working with one know that they are known for juggling multiple clients at once. And remember that this is one person who will be handling your company’s request.

Firm

Firms are usually more expensive to work with. But understand that you are getting a lot for your money. If your company has complex goals a firm likely has the technology and expertise to solve them.

How Involved Do You Want To Be?

Think about how often you want to meet to talk to your consultant during the duration of projects. Okay with giving the ecommerce consultant total control over the projects? Explain that.

If you will need weekly meetings to talk through progress then tell candidates that. They will then determine if they have that time. Set the expectation for communication during the hiring process.

Contact Us

Now that we have armed you with the tools you need. Looking for e-commerce help should be a breeze!

But if you still have questions don’t worry! That just means you’re trying to make educated decisions. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more help.

5 Twitter Marketing Tools That Will Save Loads of Time

January 16, 2018 by admin

5 Twitter Marketing Tools That Will Save You Loads of Time

Want to take your Twitter engagement to the next level? These handy Twitter marketing tools make it easy to boost your likes, retweets, and comments.

With more than 300 million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms out there.

If you’re not using Twitter as part of your business’s marketing plan, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of your target market.

Many companies are really active on social media around launch time, but then they get overwhelmed and their posts start to dwindle.

There are lots of Twitter marketing tools out there that make it easier to manage your posts and engage with your followers. Read on to learn about our five favorites.

1. Followerwonk

Follwerwonk is a tool created by Moz that makes it easy for you to sort your Twitter followers and analyze their behavior.

It also lets you compare your Twitter account with your competitors to help you figure out who you should be following.

There are several different pricing options available for Followerwonk. There is a free option that allows you to connect one Twitter profile to your account.

Many businesses take advantage of the Target plan, though. It costs just $29 per month and allows you to connect up to three Twitter profiles to your account.

2. Buffer

Most businesses are familiar with Buffer and its ability to schedule social media posts across a number of platforms.

However, not everyone is taking advantage of all the other benefits that Buffer has to offer.

Buffer offers users a variety of detailed analytics on their tweets. This makes it easy for you to figure out what your audience does and doesn’t enjoy seeing. You can also get a better idea of the ideal time for getting the greatest amount of engagement on your posts.

Like Followerwonk, Buffer offers a free version of its services.

With this version, you can connect multiple social media accounts, but you’re limited to one account per platform. For example, you can only have one Twitter account and one Facebook account linked.

After the free version, prices range from $10 to $399 per month, depending on the number of accounts you want to link and the number of posts you want to schedule.

3. Twitter Unfollower Notification Service

Twitter Unfollower Notification Service, also known as TUNS, does exactly what its name suggests — lets you know when people unfollow your account.

This tool helps you see trends in follower losses. Once you can identify these trends, you can figure out why you’re losing followers and adjust your strategy to mitigate these losses.

Of course, you don’t want to bug the people who are no longer following you. But, staying on top of trends can help you keep your engagement up and ensure you continue to give your followers what they want to see.

TUNS if free to use, but they do accept donations.

4. Buzzsumo

For people who want to use Twitter as a tool for bringing traffic back to their website, Buzzsumo is the perfect tool.

Buzzsumo helps you figure out which kinds of content are being shared the most on Twitter and other social media platforms. All you have to do is type in a keyword or a competitor’s website, and Buzzsumo will show you what’s being tweeted most frequently.

This helps you get an idea of what kind of content you should be creating for your own website.

Buzzsumo starts at $79 a month, so it’s one of the more expensive Twitter marketing tools out there. But, it can be totally worth the cost if you’re struggling with content creation.

5. RiteTag

Almost everyone knows what hashtags are. But, not everyone knows which ones they should be using.

Ritetag eliminates the guesswork from the process by giving you instant feedback on the hashtags you’re thinking about using.

The tool also lets you know if new hashtags related to the topics you post about are starting to trend, and it’ll give you ideas for hashtags based on your keywords.

RiteTag is a product offered by RiteKit, and it’s free to use.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive service, there are several other social media management packages available, starting at just $12 per month.

Need More Marketing Advice?

You know more about the best Twitter marketing tools out there, but you might still be in need of more social media guidance. That’s where we come in!

Whether you’re looking for more social media marketing tips or want to totally revamp your website, we’re here to help.

How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform For Small Business

November 15, 2017 by admin

What is the Best Ecommerce Platform For Small Business?

When choosing the best eCommerce platform for small business needs, there are a couple factors to consider.

Will you need a platform that can support image-heavy content? Will you want to run a very robust blog? How large do you expect your catalog of goods to be?

These are just a few of the questions you’ll be asking yourself as you gear up for some exciting web design.

Let’s see what each of the leading platforms offer and decide which one is right for you.

1. Shopify: Ease of Use

Shopify offers the best eCommerce platform for small business needs. It’s very easy to use and offers a wide range of templates to choose from.

Those templates are easy to install and require very little technical knowledge.

Shopify is so popular, it offers one of the widest range of third-party apps that are a cinch to install.

If you’re looking for a platform that doesn’t make you feel like you need an IT degree, Shopify will help get your business up and running in no time at all.

2. BigCommerce: Large Catalogs

Coming in second with that wide range of third-party apps is BigCommerce. They, too, offer a stylish, easy to navigate platform.

One of the features of BigCommerce that’s frequently touted is its shopping cart which scales well with large catalogs.

So, if you imagine your catalog growing in the coming years, BigCommerce might set you up nicely for such a feat.

3. SquareSpace: Image-rich Content

If your intention is to post image-heavy content, SquareSpace is the one for you. In fact, if you run something like a gorgeous little coffee shop, you might consider SquareSpace.

It allows for some of the most engaging, image-rich websites, providing a clean and simplified look.

If, perhaps, all you’re looking to do is illustrate why your coffee shop is a sanctuary worth visiting or offer pre-order options, SquareSpace will work very well for you.

4. Ecwid: Content-Rich Blogs

Like SquareSpace is focused on image-heavy sites, Ecwid is focused on sites that’ll include a robust blog.

If you already have an existing website or blog, Ecwid will seamlessly integrate that with your new online store.

Ecwid ties into WordPress nicely, unleashing beautiful blog posts, video content, customer forums, as well as a fully integrated eCommerce platform.

5. Shopio: Small to Medium-sized Businesses

Shopio works well for small-scale eCommerce sites, but if you envision full-scale growth anytime soon, you might want to consider Shopio.

Similar to WordPress, known for their exceptional customer service thanks to their “Happiness Engineers”, Shopio is known for its first-class customer service support.

Like Shopify, if you’re new to the game and would like the assurance of knowing someone is just a call or click away, Shopio might be right for you.

We’ll Help You Set Up the Best eCommerce Platform for Small Business

Utopian Kreations was created to help you with all your eCommerce, WordPress, Social Media, Organic SEO, Web Development, and various API Integration needs.

That sounds like a lot, right? That’s because we love helping eCommerce businesses build the finest websites to showcase their goods and services.

Check out some of the samples in our portfolio. Our love of web design will all but pop out of your screen.

Feel free to contact us today. We’d love to turn all your eCommerce dreams into reality.