Local Businesses Go Back to School

It's that time of year again…kids are sulking and parents are rejoicing – September means Back to School. Whether or not you have school-aged kids, take classes of your own, or need to make a trip to Staples for high-priced binders in every imaginable color, this nation-wide event is relevant to you. “Back to School” is the second largest shopping season in the country, only behind the enormous holiday season in the upcoming months. According to MarketingTechBlog, “17.2% of the entire year's retail sales happen during back-to-school shopping”. So, how can you take advantage of this? Here are a few ways that small and local businesses can school the competition this Back to School season:

Topical Social Content

This will likely be my first recommendation no matter the occasion. It's easiest to get found by potential new customers online when you're posting, tweeting, and sharing content that is “trending”. Trending, if you aren't familiar with the social-foward lingo, means that platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have noticed that more people are talking about some topics than others. Often this is how people get their news; trending topics and hashtags are displayed on a site's home page so that every user knows right away what's hot at that given time.

If your content is funny, insightful, or totally original, it is way more likely to be shared. If you're lucky, maybe it will even go viral. Photos like the one below (my favorite kind of back to school pics) are easy to recreate. Maybe you sell backpacks that will thrill moms in your town!

Add to their Shopping List

Some things make almost everyone's back-to-school shopping list: new sneakers, new notebooks, cool, new backpack. If you have a retail store or online shop that sells these types of things, now is your time to shine. If you're like the rest of us who don't, you may need to be just a little bit creative. Remind everyone that a fresh haircut is great for the beginning of the school year (maybe offer teachers a discount?). If you handywork or home improvement, tell your customers that now is the perfect time to get some housework done with the kids finally out of the house. Back to School often means fresh starts and new projects. Don't wait until New Year's for a resolution to prompt joining a gym.

Pledge Your Allegiance (#schoolspirit)

You're the boss, you can pick favorites if you want to. Consider a discount for students or alumni of your alma mater or a neighboring school (you can ask to see a school ID for verification). Discounts influence many purchases, especially when consumers are already in a shopping state-of-mind. Promote these discounts online or with traditional advertising – wherever your customers will see it.

College Kids Need the Most Stuff

The Back to School shopping season often forgets the huge college market in the US (unless, of course, you're Bed, Bath & Beyond or Urban Outfitters). Let's not forget how many new things these students need when they're living on their own for the first time. Kitchenware, home decor, cleaning supplies, furniture, the list goes on and on. Millennials may not usually be your target market, but when they're “adulting” for the first time, you may have exactly what they need.

Seasons Change

A lot of things are just different in the summer. Work hours vary, travel spikes, normal things get put on hold. Back to School also means that it's the time of year that routines start to become more regulated than they were during the vacation months. If you have a product or service that can help people get back into this routine, they will likely embrace it.

Separately, now is the time for seasonal products to be put on full display. If you have a storefront, a new, seasonal look could draw in some new passersby or existing customers who were enticed by your new look. As more and more people are walking down the street looking for pumpkin-spiced-everything, it's important to keep your place of business looking current and fresh.

Don't let the kids have all the fun during these exciting first few weeks of the school year. Business is booming! Let us know if you've had any success with Back-to-School promotions, traditional or otherwise.

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Emotional Technology: Key for Understanding Potential Customers

Emotional Technology is a highly advanced, innovative approach to the digital real estate of retail space on the internet. It provides retailers personal data about their potential buyers and customers. It's a way to detect the psychological aspects of a buyer and analyzes what influences a purchase based on mood, feelings and emotional responses.

Color theory, product design, brand packaging, product descriptions and even video content plays an important role on how a product is presented in the marketplace. Potential customers are interested in how a company interacts with customers and how they respond to customer's needs, issues and conflicts which reveals the quality and performance of a product and the overall DNA of a brand.

With the high increase and use of mobile devices, consumers are shopping online in droves. The benefits of online shopping provides a reduction of frustration from waiting in long lines, searching for an store associate for help or wandering throughout the store trying to find out if the product is in stock. With convenience at your fingertips, a consumer can scroll menus in specific categories, search images or read the product description, specs and customer reviews prior to purchasing an item.

The rise of online activity and social media influence provides a wealth of personal information for digital marketers to research the interest and buying habits of consumers. Digital cookies tracks all data from internet activities which assists brands with their marketing campaigns.

The explosion of emojis has been an indication of how we measure and interpret the emotions of others through social and digital media platforms.

Facial recognition software detects facial expressions, such as smiles, frowns or smirks which translates positive or negative emotions through different shapes, textures and patterns. For example, it analyzes such facial features related to the forehead, eyes, mouth or eyebrows in real time movement along with head gestures that analyze facial and body characteristics which identifies moods. There is also a cognitive layer which exposes beliefs and values of its subjects.

There are over 12 billion emotional data points that strings information to computers. Computer vision, machine learning and deep learning are some of the processes used in the progression of study. The computer tracks feature points and reviews patterns of emotional ques, reactions and facial expressions and maps data, algorithms, metrics and classifiers based on the internal layers of emotional behavior which provides a read out of the viewer's emotional journey.

A recent study on the PBS News Hour featured a researcher, Dan McDuff, based in Boston, MA who is implementing emotional technology in marketing, video games and therapy for children diagnosed with autism.

Psychology-based influences rooted in techniques, theories and research in social psychology provides insight on social cognition, attitudes, persuasive communication, conformity, obedience, interpersonal relationships, trust or distrust of information and psychological profiling.

These advancements may possibly intrude on sensitive data, information and the rights of individuals as technology influences society to become more transparent in nature. However, researchers believe that it will become a popular method to conduct business which will allow companies an internal approach on how they conduct their business, measure influence and how they communicate with their potential customers? Time will only tell.

As technology progresses, you may expect to find emotional chips implanted in digital devices that will be similar to GPS technology.

Emotional technology will open doorways on how consumers relates to products and why they prefer certain products compared to others. It's a sneak peek into the emotional influences and behaviors of consumers.

There is a level of truth on the advantages of using emotionally-focused data for brand marketing. Adapting and incorporating emotional psychology techniques into promotional advertisements has been the core or foundation of marketing, in general. With a new perspective, it will prove beneficial for the overall advancement of branding and promotion.

The assessment of emotional technology will be a major breakthrough and provide leads for brand marketers on how to target shoppers. It will also provide leveraging to empower the market on a new level with a unique perspective on economic consumption.

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Is Playing Games a Viable Way to Make Money Online?

Making money online is a dream for many. Working from home, or maybe in a location-independent fashion, sounds like a great career – and it can be, although it has its downsides. There are many options to consider, from freelancing to running your own webshop, but there is one (a bit different, so to say) that keeps popping up in “How to make money online” guides on several websites: playing casino games to make money. Is this indeed a viable option? Let's find out.

Online gambling is a form of entertainment

Online casinos are, first and foremost, entertainment venues. Just like the casinos in Vegas, you can play several types of games at the All Slots Online Casino, wagering real cash. The All Slots gives you the possibility to win, but doesn't guarantee anything – as it shouldn't. Most games at the All Slots Online Casino are games of chance, meaning that winning money depends on luck rather than skill or strategy. Its games are created to be fun to play, not to pay your bills.

Online casino games, just like their real life counterparts, are created to be entertaining and completely fair – meaning that neither the players, nor the operators should have any influence on their outcome. Which makes them a most entertaining pastime, but a highly unreliable source of income.

There are, of course, exceptions

Not all casino games rely exclusively on luck, though. There are some exceptions that, if played right, can be profitable for the player in the long run. Note that there is a “can” there – as usual, there are no guarantees. The theoretical profitability of casino games is expressed percentually by a number called “RTP” (Return to Player). This number shows how much players can expect to win (or lose) in the long run when they are playing a certain game.

Most video slot machines available online and in land-based gaming venues have an RTP between 95 and 97 percent. This means that, at least theoretically, players will lose between 5 and 7 percent of all the money they wager. If you play blackjack at All Slots online casino, you can expect an RTP of about 98%, which can be improved by applying a basic (or a more advanced) strategy. The best players can even grow this number to over 100%, meaning that the game is profitable in the long run. The same goes for some variants of video poker – playing with the right strategy can make the game profitable.

Are these games good long-term moneymakers? Well, they can be – but only if you are really good at them. And, of course, lucky – no matter how good your strategy might be, luck will always have a say in the outcome of any hand. Which makes these games an unreliable source of income – but a ton of fun to play. Or, in short – entertainment.

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New AGS Travel Sets New Industry Standard Building Virtual Travel Agencies Through Best of Travel, Technology and Direct Selling Business Models

AGS Travel opens doors to the public today as first of three divisions to launch of parent company Ascend Global Services [AGS], a new direct selling company founded by serial entrepreneur Craig Jerabeck.

AGS is the fifth in a portfolio of companies Jerabeck has founded from ground floor to multimillion dollar status, representative of billions and trillion dollar industries. In addition to travel, AGS has expansion plans, to be announced at a later date, with a Health and Home division. Today, travel is the company's main focus.

Craig Jerabeck, Founder of AGS Travel

“Since we know people love to travel, there is no better source of true residual income for a direct selling business,” says Jerabeck. “Yet, very few companies compete in our space where travel, technology and direct selling are combined. Utilization of the best of '3 Industries' creates a unique business model that elevates our member agents.”

AGS Travel, as its own entity, is a membership subscription company providing premium travel products at best industry rates through certified travel agent members. At AGS Travel, agent members are positioned to participate in the phenomenal growth of the online travel industry. Nearly 80% of all cruises, vacation packages, destination weddings, honeymoons, and group travel are still made using a travel agent.

AGS Travel allows member agents to expeditiously and at minimum cost garner certified agent credentials. The technology allows agents to seamlessly run their own virtual agency at best operational flow; and direct selling can work for anyone who wants to experience financial growth through multiple income streams without limitations of age, gender or circumstance.

Travel is booked and member agents are trained through an industry proven host agency, enabling member agents to book travel directly with a variety of travel and leisure vendors as well as be accredited by the International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Member agents will also have available an internal travel concierge for one-on-one training and support in booking premium travel, a membership service rare in the direct selling industry.

“Statistics show people are overworked, underpaid, missing out on life, emotionally and physically stressed because of money, frustrated by their job and/or not living their dreams,” adds Jerabeck. “Bottom-line, people want more out of life. AGS Travel answers that call, inspiring the everyday person to experience a traveling lifestyle that pays.”

AGS Travel compensation plan models both the direct selling revenue model and the traditional travel agent commission structure, giving member agents, in essence, '2 Revenue Tracks' to experience income generation and growth. Members are at no obligation to do one or the other, and can capitalize on both.

AGS Travel is powered by XIP4Life, the umbrella company powering the technology and billing operations as well as housing AGS and expansion companies. AGS Travel #844-545-2477 (AGS7).

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Rita's Italian Ice Franchisee Lives Out the American Dream

Rita's Italian Ice franchisee, Gardi Armand, has been living the American Dream. Although born in the U.S., Armand was raised in Haiti and didn't return to live in the States until he attended college. Armand was in pursuit of success and sustainability that he felt the U.S. could bring him; for years, Armand worked hard as an IT specialist in the States, and in 2013, he was able to purchase a Rita's franchise.

Armand was originally attracted to Rita's because the Italian Ice reminded him of a popular Haitian shaved ice dish called fresco. For Armand, serving the sweet summer treat triggers his nostalgia, and he is proud to bring Rita's products to his community.

“It's a pleasure working with Rita's,” says Armand. “They have everything laid out for their franchisees. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, but as the franchisee you still have room to customize your business, which is great.”

Armand has so much enjoyed his experience with Rita's that he is now looking to purchase more Rita's locations and become a multi-unit franchisee. In the next few years Armand hopes to grow the Rita's brand and open new locations in Queens, New York.

Now that warmer months are here, patrons are regularly stopping into their neighborhood Rita's. Rita's is best known for their tasty frozen treats, made fresh on the premises daily. With family favorites like Blendini®, Gelati and Misto Shakes, Rita's is a franchise designed to last.

About Rita's Italian Ice

The popular chain offers many delicious frozen treats that combine their famous Italian Ice and award-winning Old-Fashioned Frozen Custard, including layered Gelati, blended Misto® Shake and a personalized Blendini® which mixes Italian Ice, Frozen Custard and a delicious topping. Other menu items include Milkshakes, Frozen Drinks, Sundaes, Frozen Custard Cakes and Custard Cookie Sandwiches. Since 1984, Rita's has been dedicated to serving up a big dose of happiness with its freshly made, delicious treats in a fun-filled atmosphere, and over thirty years later, it is still spreading “Ice, Custard, Happiness!” For more information about Rita's Italian Ice visit www.ritasice.com.

About Rita's Franchise Company

Ranked #1 in Nation's Restaurant News “Consumer Pick's 2014” for Service and Value in the Frozen Treat category and 14th overall in the Limited-Service category, Rita's Franchise

Company is the largest Italian Ice concept in the world with more than 600 stores in the U.S. The company is aggressively expanding internationally with operating locations in the Philippines, Canada and the Middle East.  Rita's, headquartered in Trevose, Pa., was also named one of the Top 25 Franchise High Performers by the Wall Street Journal's “Startup Journal” and ranks #81 on Entrepreneur Magazine's “2014 Franchise 500” list. For more information about Rita's franchise opportunities, please call 1-800- 677-7482 or visit: www.ownaritas.com.

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SEO is NOT Dead

What better way to attract potential customers for a business than to rank at the top of Google, Bing & Yahoo for their products and services. Ranking Organically in search is the ultimate form of inbound lead generation!

A common lament heard in business circles however is that SEO is Dead, it no longer works or it just cost too much to get results. All three statements couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure, paid ads are a quick way to show up at the top but most savvy searchers bypass the ads at the top and opt to click on the first few organic results.

We even hear many so-called “SEO Experts” giving up on the tried-and-true SEO tactics in favor of other avenues, like Social Media, to direct relevant traffic. While Social Media has its place in an online marketing strategy, nothing truly helps boost lead generation like a strong SEO plan and solid rankings. Every business needs to take advantage of the potential results they may achieve by doing what it takes to compete and start collecting that low-hanging fruit of new customers finding them on the web.

Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of websites are created every single year, making it harder all the time to rank well for the top 10 spots on page one of the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Getting those coveted, top spots on search engines for related searches may seem inaccessible, but there are some strategies that can help. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods have been around since the creation of search engines, but the algorithms that rank websites have changed quite a bit from those days.

Because the original algorithms created to rank websites on SERPs was easily manipulated, constant changes were made to increase the complexity of the algorithms and weed out SPAM websites that delivered little to no value to users. The constant evolution of these algorithms has made it a real necessity for every business to have a serious, ongoing SEO strategy. As business owners, we all know that worthy achievements rarely come without deliberate and concerted efforts.

The good news is that there are some basic on-page SEO tactics that can deliver real results in today's competitive internet landscape:

Focus Keywords

The foundation of ranking well with a website should center around a list of words or phrases that are targeted to rank well for. These keywords should be relevant to the business, brand, or service. It helps to have a specific keyword or phrase in mind for each and every web page that is created. For instance, a small furniture store can have a separate page for products like “sectional sofas”, “sleeper sofas”, or “leather sofas”, focusing the keywords in each page around the specific type of sofa. The keywords or phrases that are targeted will ultimately determine the focus of the content, meta tags, and the architecture of a website.

Long tail keywords should be highly valued, as they give businesses a better chance at reaching customers close to a point-of-purchase. Instead of trying to rank for generic terms like “Fish Market” or “Child Care” which are heavy in competition, using long-tail keyword phrases like “Wholesale Seafood Distributor in Western MA” or “East Orlando Child Care Center” is a better option. Being more specific with keyword phrases will yield less competition and higher results for the pages. Plus, potential customers who use these more specific terms in their search are more likely to convert into a paying customer.

Meta Tags

Meta tags, or meta data, are inserted into the code of a page to help search engines determine what a web page is all about.  Many website CMS's (content management systems) like WordPress have a plugin that can be used to easy fill in, change, or update this meta data all in one location for those business owners who aren't familiar with html coding. There are several types of meta tags that can play a role in how well a site ranks in search engines, including title tags, description tags, alt, and keyword tags to name a few.

Here's a look at each more in depth:

Title Tag – The title tag is the text seen at the top of the browser bar when a web page is displayed. The key to an effective title tag is to use a keyword-specific title that tells both search engines and users what the page is about. Keep this to 60 or less characters and use every word wisely. It is all about matching the words that potential customers use when searching.

Meta Description – This is a brief, 160 character description that includes some keywords and a general idea of what the page content is about. These descriptions are often shown by Search Engines in results link. They also may be modified automatically to match the search query.

Keyword Tag – Fill in the keyword tag with words or short phrases deemed to be relevant to the page being creating. Separate each word or phrase with a comma and add 8 or less keywords or phrases in total. This tag has been devalued, but we still advise including it in the mix and feel that it is still worth completing.

Photo Alt Tags – Each and every photo on a website provides an opportunity to add an “alt tag”. This is a great place to add in specific keywords or targeted locations that can help boost rankings for those search queries. So if a photo is of a “House Painter working on the exterior painting of a home in Farmington CT” – that should be the alt tag.

Heading Tags – These tags should be used throughout the content of every page or blog post to separate long blocks of text and separate headings or subheadings from paragraph text. There are six header tags that can be used – H1 through H6, with H1 tags being given the most weight or importance. At the top of every page, include an H1 tag that will tell search engines what each page is about. Search engines compare the keywords found in the Header Tags with the associated  content looking for relevancy and keyword consistency. These headings also serve to provide an enriched user experience making the content easy to read and follow.

Other SEO strategies like placing internal links (these are links to other relevant pages on the website) throughout the website, creating local citations links, building high-quality organic backlinks from other strong websites, and always keeping the content fresh and up-to-date are of equal value to the actual content on any site. Although the SEO landscape is always changing, many of the tactics we've discussed have stayed tried-and-true year after year.

For more details about how small & medium sized business owners can start utilizing SEO methods and strategies in their online marketing plan give us a call anytime.

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The Billion-Dollar “Hidden Tax” on E-Commerce that Nobody Is Talking About

Online Merchants Are Losing More than $40 Billion Annually to “Chargeback Fraud” – and Honest Consumers Are Ultimately Paying the Price

The United States' e-commerce economy is enormous, totaling $349 billion in online sales in 2016. It's predicted to rise to $523 billion annually within the next five years. Millions of online vendors – and billions of consumers globally – depend on e-commerce for vital goods and services.

But there's a rapidly-growing problem that threatens the stability of America's e-commerce economy. It's a “hidden tax” on online purchases that artificially inflates prices and costs online merchants more than $40 billion annually.

(That's 13-times greater than the $2.7 billion lost to identity fraud.)

The problem is “chargeback fraud” – i.e. unwarranted or illegitimate refunds forced upon merchants through a loophole in the payment industry.

“Chargeback fraud is the fastest-growing problem in e-commerce,” said Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and co-founder of Chargebacks911, the first global company fully dedicated to mitigating chargeback risk and eliminating chargeback fraud. “Online retailers are hit worst of all, and companies can literally go bankrupt as a result.”

The chargeback mechanism was invented by the Fair Credit Billing Act of 1974, to protect consumers and encourage credit card spending (e.g. “zero liability” for cardholders). The chargeback process typically involves a consumer reporting a fraudulent or incorrect charge to their bank to obtain a refund, and the burden-of-proof is almost always on the merchant.

Critics argue that the Fair Credit Billing Act is now 40+ years old, and was not designed for an e-commerce economy that depends on online sales, card-not-present transactions, and long-distance shipping.

Some chargebacks are justified, of course: A consumer should receive a refund when the product he or she ordered online isn't delivered on time, or fails to match its description. But up to 85 percent of all chargebacks may be fraudulently filed, and according to the 2016 LexisNexis “True Cost of Fraud Study,” the merchant loses $2.47 for every $1 in chargebacks, due to processing fines, penalties, product-loss and other expenses.

Worst of all, chargeback fraud has been growing at a rate of 41 percent annually.

“The American legal system is contributing to the explosive growth in chargeback fraud,” said Ms. Eaton-Cardone. “By placing such a heavy burden-of-proof on merchants, our financial policies actually incentivize fraud. Statistically, 40 percent of consumers who've filed a fraudulent chargeback will do so again within 60 days. We're rewarding bad behavior – and honest consumers are ultimately paying the price, because merchants have no choice but to factor-in this additional cost-of-business when setting their prices. Chargeback fraud is a hidden tax on all of us, and the societal costs should not be ignored.”

Founded in 2011, Chargebacks911 processes over 200 million online transactions every month. The company is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, with 350 worldwide employees, and offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Chargebacks911 was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies in 2014 and 2015.

About Chargebacks911: Founded in 2011, Chargebacks911 is the first global company fully dedicated to mitigating chargeback risk and eliminating chargeback fraud.  As industry-leading trailblazers and innovators, Chargebacks911 is credited with developing the most effective strategies for helping online merchants maximize revenue and fight fraud. Accomplishments include:

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