While the quality of service is paramount, pricing plays a significant role in the decision-making process. In this article, we will dive deep into DreamHost’s pricing and plans to help you unlock savings while ensuring you get the hosting package that best suits your needs.

The DreamHost Philosophy
Before delving into the nitty-gritty of DreamHost’s pricing and plans, it’s essential to understand the company’s philosophy. DreamHost has always been an advocate for open source technologies and the democratization of the internet. They have a strong commitment to offering reliable and affordable hosting solutions to a wide range of users, from beginners to experienced developers.

DreamHost takes pride in its independently-owned infrastructure, which gives them greater control over their services and allows them to maintain high-quality standards. This approach often translates into competitive pricing, making it an attractive option for those seeking value for their money.

Shared Hosting Plans
Shared hosting is a popular choice for individuals and small businesses starting their online journey. DreamHost offers two shared hosting plans: the Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited plans.

Shared Starter Plan: Priced at $2.59 per month (when billed for three years), the Shared Starter plan is an excellent choice for beginners. It includes a free domain name for the first year, fast SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. You can host one website on this plan, making it ideal for personal blogs or small portfolios.

Shared Unlimited Plan: Priced at $4.95 per month (when billed for three years), the Shared Unlimited plan is a step up from the Starter plan. It offers unlimited websites, email accounts, and traffic. This plan also includes a free domain for the first year, making it suitable for small businesses or multiple personal projects.

The Shared Unlimited plan is a cost-effective option if you plan to host multiple websites or expect substantial traffic growth. With both plans, you get access to DreamHost’s user-friendly control panel, free SSL certificates, and a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is one of the longest in the industry.

WordPress Hosting Plans
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system, and DreamHost offers specialized WordPress hosting to cater to the specific needs of WordPress users.

DreamPress Plan: The DreamPress plan is designed for WordPress enthusiasts and starts at $16.95 per month (when billed for three years). It offers managed WordPress hosting with features like automatic updates, daily backups, and enhanced performance. With this plan, you’ll experience faster loading times, making it ideal for blogs, e-commerce sites, and other content-heavy websites.

DreamPress Plus and Pro: For users with higher demands, DreamHost offers the DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro plans at $24.95 and $71.95 per month (when billed for three years), respectively. These plans provide additional resources and premium features such as unlimited CDN usage and on-demand backups, making them suitable for high-traffic websites and businesses.

DreamHost’s WordPress hosting ensures that your website runs smoothly, allowing you to focus on creating content or growing your online presence. They also provide a 30-day money-back guarantee for these plans, giving you a risk-free opportunity to try them out.

VPS Hosting Plans
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are a great choice for users who require more control, resources, and scalability than shared hosting can offer. DreamHost offers four VPS hosting plans to cater to a wide range of needs.

VPS Basic: Starting at $13.75 per month (when billed for one year), the VPS Basic plan includes 1GB RAM, 30GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. It’s suitable for small to medium-sized websites or development projects.

VPS Business: Priced at $27.50 per month (when billed for one year), the VPS Business plan offers 2GB RAM, 60GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. It’s ideal for growing websites and businesses with moderate traffic.

VPS Professional: The VPS Professional plan starts at $55.00 per month (when billed for one year) and provides 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. This plan is well-suited for larger websites, e-commerce stores, and resource-intensive applications.

VPS Enterprise: For users with high-performance demands, the VPS Enterprise plan is available at $110.00 per month (when billed for one year). It includes 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth, making it a top choice for large e-commerce businesses and resource-heavy applications.

DreamHost’s VPS hosting plans offer the flexibility and control needed to manage complex websites and applications. They come with full root access, solid-state drives for faster performance, and the ability to scale resources as your website grows.

Dedicated Hosting Plans
If you require the ultimate in performance, security, and control, DreamHost’s dedicated hosting plans are worth considering.

Standard Dedicated Server: Starting at $149.00 per month (when billed for one year), the Standard Dedicated Server plan includes an Intel Xeon 4-Core 8-Thread processor, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. It’s suitable for websites or applications that demand consistent high performance.

Enhanced Dedicated Server: Priced at $279.00 per month (when billed for one year), the Enhanced Dedicated Server plan offers an Intel Xeon 12-Core 24-Thread processor, 16GB RAM, 2TB HDD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. This plan is ideal for resource-intensive applications and e-commerce websites.

Managed WordPress Dedicated Server: For those who want the power of a dedicated server with WordPress optimization, the Managed WordPress Dedicated Server plan starts at $299.00 per month (when billed for one year). It comes with an Intel Xeon 4-Core 8-Thread processor, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD storage, and unlimited bandwidth, along with managed WordPress services.

DreamHost’s dedicated hosting plans are perfect for businesses with heavy traffic or complex web applications. They provide complete control over the server environment, ensuring maximum performance and security.

Additional Services and Features
In addition to their hosting plans, DreamHost offers various additional services and features to enhance your hosting experience:

Domain Registration: DreamHost provides domain registration services with competitive pricing. You can easily manage your domains through their user-friendly control panel.

Free SSL Certificates: All hosting plans come with free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, ensuring the security and trustworthiness of your website.

Website Builder: DreamHost offers a website builder that simplifies the process of creating a professional-looking website, even for those with minimal technical knowledge.

Email Hosting: You can set up professional email addresses using your domain name with DreamHost’s email hosting services.

Cloud Storage: DreamHost offers cloud storage services powered by Ceph, providing

Shopify: A Robust E-commerce Powerhouse —Start free trial
Shopify is one of the most renowned e-commerce platforms globally, trusted by over a million businesses. It’s known for its robust set of features and tools designed to make online selling a breeze.

1. Ease of Use
   Shopify prides itself on its user-friendly interface. Even if you have minimal technical knowledge, you can create and manage your online store with ease. The platform offers a drag-and-drop website builder, making it simple to design your site and customize its look and feel.
2. Features
   Shopify comes packed with a wide range of features, including:

Payment Processing: Shopify offers its payment gateway, Shopify Payments, along with support for numerous third-party payment providers.

Inventory Management: Easily manage your products, track stock levels, and set up automatic alerts for low inventory.

Marketing Tools: Shopify offers various marketing features like email marketing, SEO optimization, and the ability to create discount codes.

App Store: You can extend your store’s functionality with thousands of apps available on the Shopify App Store.

3. Customization
   While Shopify provides many customization options, it may not be as flexible as some other platforms. However, if you’re not a tech-savvy person and want a straightforward solution, Shopify’s themes and customization options should suffice.
4. Pricing
   Shopify offers various pricing plans to suit different business needs. The most popular options include Shopify Basic, Shopify, and Shopify Advanced. Prices range from $29/month to $299/month, with additional fees for using external payment gateways.
5. Scalability
   Shopify is an excellent choice if you plan to grow your business. It can handle a high volume of sales and traffic without significant performance issues.

Wix: The All-in-One Website Builder
Wix is another popular website builder that offers e-commerce capabilities. It’s known for its simplicity and versatility, making it a great choice for beginners.

1. Ease of Use
   Wix excels in terms of ease of use. Its drag-and-drop website builder is incredibly intuitive, allowing you to create a visually appealing online store without any coding skills.
2. Features
   Wix provides a decent set of e-commerce features, including:

Payment Options: Wix supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal and credit card payments.

Templates: Wix offers a wide variety of templates, catering to various industries.

App Market: Similar to Shopify, Wix has an app market where you can find additional features and functionalities.

3. Customization
   Wix offers a high level of customization, allowing you to create a unique online store. You can freely position elements on your site and choose from various design options.
4. Pricing
   Wix has a range of pricing plans, including a free plan with limited e-commerce capabilities. Paid plans for e-commerce start at $14/month and go up to $49/month.
5. Scalability
   Wix is suitable for smaller e-commerce businesses. While it can handle moderate traffic and sales volumes, it may not be the best choice for large-scale enterprises.

Which One Should You Choose?
Choosing between Shopify and Wix ultimately depends on your specific business needs and preferences:

Choose Shopify If:

You need a robust e-commerce platform with advanced features.
You plan to scale your business significantly.
You’re willing to invest in a slightly higher-priced solution for greater functionality.

Choose Wix If:

You’re a beginner or want a straightforward, user-friendly platform.
You have a smaller e-commerce business with moderate traffic and sales.
You prefer a more budget-friendly option.

In conclusion, both Shopify and Wix have their merits and are suitable for different types of businesses. Carefully assess your requirements, budget, and long-term goals before making your decision. Regardless of which platform you choose, a well-designed online store can be a powerful asset for your business in the digital marketplace.

Positive points
Easy to use: No programming knowledge required, much more user-friendly than a free content management system (CMS) such as Joomla or WordPress.

All-in-one: Everything is included – hosting, the authoring software used to build your website, blog or online store, and automatic updates.

Low price: It is very rare that an online website editor is more expensive than what a hosting package with the same amount of web space would cost you. There are often free packages where only certain additional features, such as a domain name, are charged.

Anyone can use it: creating a website is almost as easy as creating a Facebook or LinkedIn profile.

Many features: A good provider is constantly developing its online editor. Updates are performed automatically.

Security updates: Your provider also installs security updates, avoiding the serious problems that have plagued some free CMS (notably WordPress). When using an online editor, all you have to do is choose a secure password.

No unavailability in case of traffic peaks: If you host your site yourself, be aware that a significant increase in traffic can make your site unavailable (this can happen if a very famous site publishes a link to yours, for example). This will not happen if you trust one of the online editors we recommend. This is because these tools can handle a lot of traffic, as their hosting infrastructure allows for load balancing on the server.

Drag and Drop Integration: Widgets, such as video and audio player integration, Google AdSense, PayPal, forms, etc. – almost anything can be added.

Support: Technical support is provided via email, chat or forums, depending on the provider.

Negative points
Limited flexibility: This is the ultimate question to ask yourself. How much flexibility are you willing to give up? For example, if you need to use a very specific design, you may find that an online editor is too limited. The only way to find out is to try.

Depend on one provider: It is important that the provider you choose is financially sound, because if they go out of business, you could lose your website. Therefore, as a general rule, it is recommended to choose a well-established provider.

Data control: Your data is stored off-site. Some providers may be based in your country, others in Europe or elsewhere in the world.

Server-side installation: This is not something programmers will like! In an online site editor, no access to PHP, Java and SQL. But anyway, if you use these programming languages, it is unlikely that you will use an online editor. On the other hand, there are far fewer add-ons than in open source systems.

Large web projects: These systems are simply not suitable for large or complex web projects.

Use of databases: It is impossible to use a database with a search function (like on a real estate website, for example). For this, a solution like WordPress would be much more appropriate.

The steps are considerably simplified. However, the experience can quickly become complicated if you do not use a quality web editor. So we have put together a top 3 list of the best website builders so that you can find the one that meets your needs and fits your budget.

1. Wix 

Wix has become the reference in website creation. Since its inception in 2006, Wix has gathered more than 150 million users worldwide. This success is explained by its powerful solution and its very interesting prices

Wix offers a website management service with an integrated web builder. The hosting is included in the solution, it is not up to you to find one. The reservation of a domain name can also be done directly from Wix.

As we have seen in our Wix review, it is possible to create a multitude of sites including blogs, storefronts or online stores starting from a template. With more than 500 different templates, Wix offers the largest catalog, especially since they are all free. Wix differentiates itself with responsive templates designed by design experts. The result is very aesthetic and minimalist.

If Wix is ranked first in this comparison of the best website builders, it’s mainly because its integrated web editing tool leaves room for great creative freedom. Good SEO options are offered as well as analytics tools to track your performance and traffic. There is even the possibility to add an online booking system and a multilingual site. The Wix App Market allows you to install additional applications to customize your site and optimize its management. This is a plus that is not found in all providers.

The other non-design aspects of your site can be found in your dashboard. Despite the many features available, the tool is still easy to use.

2. Zyro

Zyro is a website creation platform launched in 2019. In a short period of time, the brand has managed to develop a high-quality service. Zyro is a very accessible solution – whether it’s in terms of price with plans offered from €2.61 per month or the simplicity of its site editor designed for beginners.

With Zyro, you can create a website, a blog and even an online store without coding knowledge. Web hosting is provided by the highly reputable Hostinger (parent company), so you don’t have to do anything.

Its templates are modern and well designed. Its complete editing tool allows you to obtain a quality site in less than an hour. To customize the template and get a site to your image, nothing could be easier. Its site editor works on the drag and drop principle. It is very easy to find your way around because the interface is intuitive. You will also have access to a design grid to easily align the elements of your page. And this aspect can sometimes be missing in other providers.

If this provider is so high in the ranking it is also because it integrates many free additional tools: logo creator, text generator, tool to resize images and improve their quality or the heatmap.

Zyro also supports its users by offering powerful marketing tools (ad campaign creation, detailed performance reports…) and advanced SEO options to improve the ranking. All of these elements allow you to optimize the construction of your site and make it attractive to your visitors.

Zyro stands out once again by offering an efficient and easily reachable customer support through a live chat. The teams even make the effort to answer in French which is particularly appreciable.

3. Jimdo

This ranking of the best website creation software continues with Jimdo. The company was founded in 2007 in Germany. Today, no less than 25 million sites have been created via Jimdo.

The Jimdo service costs between 9€ and 39€ / month depending on the package chosen, which is still very reasonable. As with its competitor Wix, Jimdo also offers a free version with basic functions. Jimdo is aimed at individuals, small businesses and e-merchants who want to create a website in a simple and guided way.

With its new artificial intelligence tool, the creation of a website can be done in less than five minutes using a series of questions that will help identify your preferences. The site proposals will be adapted to your project and you will only have to select the model that you like the most. It is also possible to directly select a template from the 100 available and customize it later.

In any case, you will see that the integrated web builder software is very intuitive. You can easily add and remove sections with the drag and drop function and the sample layouts. Unlike WordPress and Wix hosting, Jimdo does not offer extensions in its system. Rest assured, there is plenty to do with the available features. You probably won’t need any additional applications.

Jimdo provides an automated SEO option to help you get your site listed on search engines. The Jimdo tool is well thought out and perfectly suited for beginners. In case of problems, users can contact Jimdo support by leaving a message in the chat window or the contact form. The advisors are usually quite responsive.

A growth marketing strategy requires a prior analysis. It relies on data to launch targeted, personalized and more efficient campaigns, which is why growth marketing generally follows growth hacking.

How to do growth marketing? Presentation of the AARRR framework
AARRR is the acronym for : Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Recommendation and Revenue. We talked to you about these 5 major steps previously.

The AARRR framework is an essential tool to understand your customers, and it highlights the buying journey and helps you optimize your sales funnel.

Each step must be treated and measured separately to optimize your conversion rate.

Let’s take a look at the 5 stages that make up your sales funnel!

Acquisition: attracting customers
This is the stage where the customer discovers your site or brand. It’s important to consider the acquisition part holistically.

This means not only analyzing the volume of visitors to the site, but also understanding how they land on your site and what their behavior is afterwards.

Regarding acquisition, you need to ask yourself three fundamental questions:

Which channel generates the most traffic?
Which channel generates the most qualified traffic, the one that gets the best results in terms of conversion?
Which channel has the lowest customer acquisition cost?
The objective is then to focus your acquisition efforts on the best performing channels and/or to improve those that are not performing as well as you would like.

Activation: the first user/customer experience
Activation is about your customer’s first experience with your offer. The objective: to prevent them from stopping using your product or service after the conversion.

At this stage, growth marketing consists of helping the customer in his use. They must immediately understand the real value of your product. What you can do? Send tutorials, tips and demonstration videos via email.

Depending on the complexity of your product or service, you can also offer training sessions or face-to-face demonstrations.

Retention: the loyalty stage
Retention means that visitors come back regularly to use your service or to buy your products again. For example, for an e-commerce, it is about making a consumer come back to buy complementary items to his first purchase.

In the context of a service, retention consists in encouraging the renewal of a subscription, or even in making the user upgrade to the next offer.

Several marketing techniques can be used here, such as emailing (personalized, based on the customer’s purchase history) or retargeting campaigns conducted on social networks.

In the context of a mobile application, you can also send push notifications with promotional offers.

Referral: turning customers into brand ambassadors
The absolute way to drive growth for your business is through referrals. According to a Nielsen study, 83% of satisfied consumers are willing to recommend a product or company. However, only 29% actually do so.

Moreover, a lead that comes from a recommendation is 4 times more likely to convert.

Needless to say, you understand the importance of encouraging your customers to become influencers! To do so, you have several strategies at your disposal:

Set up a referral program: if your customers can earn gifts or discounts by referring you, they won’t hesitate.
Use influencer marketing: if influencers speak publicly about your company, consumers will be encouraged to do the same.
Send reminder emails after a purchase that encourage them to talk about you on their social networks (and to follow you on those networks as well).

Income: How can you increase your income?
If you optimize the previous four AARR metrics, your revenue will most likely increase naturally. However, there is a way to optimize your profits: increase the customer lifetime value (CLV), while decreasing the customer acquisition cost (CAC).

CLV is the amount of revenue you get from a consumer over their lifetime as a customer of your company.

The CAC is the budget spent to acquire a customer. This includes the cost of marketing, sales, prospecting meetings, or whatever is necessary to get your customer to convert.

Now that you have a clearer picture of your customer journey, you can see areas of spend to reduce, including dropping or reducing underperforming channels. On the other hand, now is the time to increase the value of CLV by pushing your long-time consumers to up-sell, for example!

Growth marketing is the key to your company’s survival. It allows you to ensure the sustainability of your brand by retaining your customers on the one hand, and by regularly generating new prospects on the other. If you want to be successful in your market, in the long term, this is the strategy to adopt!

In such a competitive environment, it is essential to have a creative and convincing marketing strategy. A strategy that not only acquires customers, but also provides a breeding ground for virality, word-of-mouth and organic growth.

This new and powerful way to build a loyal user base has a name: growth marketing! What principles are behind this strategy? How is it related to growth hacking? But above all: how to use it wisely in your digital strategy?

Growth Marketing: a strategy focused on the customer journey
Growth marketing is about looking at the entire customer lifecycle to drive your strategic decisions. Its goal is to create campaigns with highly qualified prospects at each stage of the funnel.

Rather than focusing on the beginning of the buying journey, growth marketing considers the entire experience. It’s a true multi-channel strategy that can be deployed via your blog, social networks, emailings or paid ads.

Growth marketing pays special attention to the unique motivations and preferences of customers. Instead of offering content focused on conversions and revenue, it prefers to “feed” users with information to help them make a purchase.

It’s a long-term strategy in which authenticity and engagement create a sense of ownership to increase customer longevity.

A growth marketing strategy typically affects customer acquisition rates, conversion rates, retention rates and, as we just said, buyer lifetime value.

The Customer Lifecycle: The Pillar of a Successful Growth Marketing Strategy
The customer lifecycle refers to the journey that buyers take as soon as they express a need. This journey goes from the search engine query to the final transaction, through product/service comparison and interaction with companies.

However, the lifecycle doesn’t stop at conversion, it also continues beyond, when it comes to customer loyalty.

In summary, growth marketing divides its action into 5 major steps:

Acquisition
Action
Retention
Recommendation
Revenue
Each step contributes to the customer experience and requires the implementation of specific campaigns. We’ll talk about them in more detail at the end of this article.

Growth Marketing Vs Growth Hacking: the differences
Growth hacking and growth marketing are two trendy words in the digital sphere. In fact, you may have already heard of growth hacking? Note that they are two different approaches, although complementary.

Growth hacking intervenes to bridge the gap between your product and the market. It is a multi-channel approach whose goal is to promote rapid growth of the company. Its objective is to acquire as many users or customers as possible, with a reduced budget.

It is usually used by start-ups, needing massive growth in a short period of time. Then, growth hacking turns into long-term strategic plans, aimed at keeping the company going. This is where growth marketing comes in.

The 3 main differences between growth hacking and growth marketing are:

1 – Brand design
The most fundamental difference between growth hacking and growth marketing comes down to their vision about branding.

Growth hackers want quick results and usually have ingenious (and sometimes simple!) ideas for growing the business.

Let’s take Dropbox as an example. In its early days, the cloud storage tool offered to “unlock” extra space by sharing a tweet or a post on Facebook. The goal was to get users to promote Dropbox in exchange for a gift.

Today, the application has over 500 million users, including 11 million paying subscribers!

Growth marketing is more about building a community of loyal consumers and brand ambassadors. Its goal is not to have high growth at all costs, but to refine lasting relationships that promote retention and repurchase.

The goal is to sustain the business, while growth hacking focuses on profitability.

One example is Front, a messaging tool for B2B companies. To make itself known, the application first offered to test its service to well-known start-ups. This resulted in 200 registrations. Then Front republished its free trial offer on target communities, such as Betali.st and Product Hunt. These sites are visited by professionals and freelancers looking for tools to improve their productivity.

2 – The growth rate

When a growth hacker needs to increase sales or conversions, he often relies on paid acquisition channels such as Google, LinkedIn and Facebook ad networks. He also finds roundabout strategies, via automation in particular, to acquire and contact new prospects quickly.

His goal is above all to generate immediate sales, without worrying about future sales.

The growth marketing specialist, on the other hand, runs organic campaigns to reach his target. He analyzes and studies customers to develop strategies that will work more slowly, but in a sustainable way.

Their goal is to win AND keep customers.

E-commerce has been growing steadily over the years. In France, the turnover achieved by the e-commerce economy reached 112 billion euros in 2020. This represents an increase of 8.5% compared to 2019.

Easy to use website builder 50% discount

In just one year, 17,000 new e-commerce sites have been created. The competition is increasingly tough and it is crucial to be visible to buyers.

You will have understood: the success of your e-commerce store depends directly on its referencing in search engines.

So how can you do it? How can you improve the natural referencing (SEO) of your e-commerce store? Here are 5 tips to follow!

1 – Make sure your e-commerce site is fast and responsive
To optimize the user experience (often called UX for User eXperience) on your e-commerce site, you must respect two crucial points:

First, make sure that your pages load as fast as possible.

The longer it takes for the page to load, the more visitors and potential customers you will lose. They will not take the time to wait for the content to load completely and will leave your online store.

To check the page load speed of your e-commerce site, you can use free tools like GTmetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insight.

Next, you need to make sure your site is responsive. This term means that it will automatically adapt to the resolution and type of device used to view your pages. This is especially important for smartphones, which have very different screen sizes than computers, and which are mostly used in portrait format for web browsing.

Contrary to what happened for years, Google’s algorithm now refers websites based mainly on mobile versions and not their desktop version.

The robots now crawl web pages by simulating a navigation on smartphone. They will check if the site is mobile-friendly by assigning scores on its mobile accessibility. Buttons or links that are too close to each other, elements that are too heavy (photos, videos, animations…) or content that is too small or displays poorly will all be negative signals that impact the SEO of your e-commerce site.

The technical quality and therefore the SEO of your site also depends on the way it has been designed. The choice of CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal…) will influence the technologies and features that you can integrate or not on your site as well as its scalability.

It is important to study in advance the different solutions available to you, their advantages and disadvantages. Especially when it comes to e-commerce sites for which the question of the payment management platform is obviously crucial. Some platforms like IONOS even offer to take care of all these aspects to facilitate the creation of your online store.

2 – Streamline the navigation of your e-commerce site
The navigation on your site is a crucial point and not only for the natural referencing. The quality of the navigation will directly affect your sales.

You have probably been regularly confronted with shopping cart abandonment? To limit the number of shopping cart abandonments on your e-commerce site, you must offer your visitors a simple, fluid and user-friendly navigation. Don’t forget: every click that separates your customer from the order validation reduces your chances to close the sale.

For the good referencing of a website, the architecture is a central element. Your pages must be well connected and well organized. It is a good practice that each page of a website should not be more than 3 clicks away from the home page.

By ensuring that your navigation is optimal, you will give an excellent signal to Google regarding your SEO!

3 – Go link hunting
A well-referenced e-commerce site is first and foremost a popular e-commerce site. For Google, the popularity of a website is mainly measured from the number and quality of links pointing to this site.

To get links to your e-commerce store, you can contact bloggers/influencers in your field of activity to ask them to write an article about your store directly on their website.

You can also establish partnerships with websites in your field of activity or complementary e-commerce stores. Finally, within the limits of reason and taking care to check the quality beforehand, you can register your e-commerce store in directories.

These links will not only allow you to improve the natural referencing of your e-commerce store but also to attract more qualified traffic and thus develop your sales. We give you more tips to work on your netlinking on this dedicated article!

4 – Create (good) content
The key to good SEO of an e-commerce site is the quality of its content. You will have to create a maximum of content to position a maximum of pages of your e-commerce site in search engines.

Attention, it is not about creating low-end content simply to place your keywords. You must write content with high added value.

A content with high added value is a content that brings something to your consumers and prospects. To do this, make sure that the content you create for your site fulfills at least one of these purposes: inform, educate, solve, entertain.

In addition, remember to optimize the content of your product sheets. Especially avoid copying and pasting descriptions and images provided by your supplier!

Google and search engines hate duplicated content, which is not relevant enough. If you copy word for word the descriptions provided by your supplier to fill the pages of your e-commerce site, you can be sure that you will have the same content as dozens or even hundreds of other platforms that sell similar products!

Finally, if you publish very high quality content, you have a great chance to see it quoted on other websites and therefore to gain new links essential to good SEO, as seen in the previous point.

5 – Analyze your traffic and the behavior of your visitors
Improving your referencing is not done in one go. It is a continuous work. That’s why you need data to make decisions and implement effective actions.

For this, use Google Analytics and Google Search Console, two free tools that will provide you with enough data to optimize your website’s SEO.

Google Analytics will provide you with information about your visitors’ behavior: number of visitors, time spent on the site, number of pages viewed, most visited product sheets, bounce rate, acquisition channels…

With Google Search Console, you will have data about your performance in search engines, and therefore a visibility on your referencing. You will find the keywords that bring you the most traffic, the search volume of the queries on which you are positioned and the number of visits they bring you.

Thanks to this, you will be able to detect opportunities of queries really typed by users on which you position yourself thanks to quality content. You will also identify the keywords on which your e-commerce site is not well enough referenced and will be able to set up actions to improve your referencing.

Do not forget that the referencing of an e-commerce site is a long term work.

You will not see your number of visits explode overnight nor immediate results on your turnover. However, you can be sure that all the SEO actions taken today will have a considerable impact on your business in the long run!

From the top to the bottom of the sales funnel, influencer marketing helps you attract qualified leads, keep them engaged and convert them. So how does the influencer marketing funnel work? What strategy should you adopt at each stage? How do you measure your success? This article gives you all the answers!

Top of the funnel (TOFU): reaching new audiences
The top of your funnel represents the first contact with your company. In B2B, the potential customer takes the time to inform and surround himself before choosing a provider. At this stage, your goal is to increase awareness of your company.

In IMH’s 2020 Influencer Marketing Report, 40% of companies indicate that awareness is the primary goal of influencer campaigns.

Why use influencers at the top of the funnel?
So why are influencers so effective at building awareness?

They give brands access to a loyal and acquired audience: not only are these audiences often large, but they are also made up of groups that share common characteristics or interests with your buyers personae. This qualifies them for your sales funnel.

Influencers take your company’s identity and spread it to your audience. They know how to communicate with their community to enhance your services with authentic and relevant messages.

Influencers master storytelling. From introducing your company to demonstrating the results of your services, their storytelling and presentation skills are perfect for your marketing strategy.

What influencer marketing strategy to adopt at the top of the funnel?
At the top of the sales funnel, the leading content is :

Sponsored posts
Blog posts or guest blogging
Contests (if possible, because in B2B, it’s not always easy!)
Tip lists
What kind of influencers are in the top funnel?
The influencers you can rely on are mainly :

Press journalists (general and specialized)
Bloggers specialized in your field of activity
These platforms already have an established audience, your prospects regularly consult your articles and are attentive to the solutions that meet their needs.

Example of a successful campaign
Northwestern Mutual used storytelling in its latest influencer marketing campaign. The company reached out to business leaders impacted by the Covid crisis to tell their stories. The goal was to highlight the need for support and guidance for these entrepreneurs.

Northwestern Mutual then positioned itself as a partner to these struggling executives, humanizing its business and making itself known to other professionals. The company relied on social networks and traditional advertising to spread its campaign.

Metrics to analyze at the top of the funnel

How do you know if your influencer marketing campaign is effective right from the beginning of the funnel? Measure the engagement generated by your ambassadors via indicators such as

The number of likes on social media publications
The number of comments on publications (social media or blog)
Traffic to your website and landing pages
The growth of the number of subscribers on the company’s social networks
Growth in the number of subscribers to your newsletter
Middle of the funnel (MOFU): inform and educate the audience
The middle of the funnel refers to the consideration phase. It refers to repeated exposure to a product, brand, concept or event. Influencers are particularly useful for this phase!

Why use influencers in the funnel environment?
One of the main benefits of influencer marketing is its ability to drive customer engagement.

In the middle of the funnel, influencer content helps build relationships with prospects who already know your business. However, they need a push to trust you… and get known!

Here, action is your primary goal. You’re not just trying to build trust with potential buyers: you’re empowering them to make an intelligent buying decision.

What influencer marketing strategy to adopt for the funnel medium?
As mentioned, the goal at this stage is to drive engagement and action. You need to get prospects into a lead nurturing strategy by distributing – via influencers – high value-added content.

Your campaigns should encourage actions such as: subscribing to a trial offer, requesting an appointment or a quote, downloading a white paper, registering for an event…

To do this, you need to organize one-off campaigns, comprising a series of content over a given period. By introducing a product or service to a customer more than once, they are much more likely to remember it when making a purchase decision.

Fortunately, influencers know exactly what to do to facilitate both industry knowledge and that emotional connection.

Engaging content to introduce in the middle of the funnel includes:

Product or service reviews
Trial offers
Live sessions co-hosted with an influencer
Interventions in webinars or podcasts

What kind of influencers for the mid-funnel?
To achieve your mid-funnel goals, you can rely on:

Your satisfied customers: especially if they have an efficient presence on social networks, with an active community
Bloggers who are experts in your industry
Journalists working in specialized media
B2B influencers with a profile similar to your buyers personae
Another tip: at this stage, it is advisable to diversify your influencers to better hammer home your message and expose it to as many people as possible. In order to increase repetition, which is essential to stay in the minds of buyers, it’s better to spread your influencer marketing budget among several micro-influencers (between 10,000 and 100,000 followers), rather than investing in a single “star” influencer.

Example of a successful campaign
Content planning tool DivvyHQ was looking to improve its brand awareness and reputation. The solution? Use 30 marketing influencers to run a strong campaign.

These influencers wrote articles and participated in video interviews on the theme of “Back to the Future. The objective was to express themselves on the future of content marketing by talking about a research report published by DivvyHQ. A report used to generate leads.

Results: Each campaign increased the number of downloads of the research report by 300% and conversions by 140% in the week following its publication.

Why use influencers at the bottom of the funnel?
71% of buyers are more likely to contact a company based on recommendations. During their consideration, B2B prospects check the e-reputation of companies that can meet their needs and rely on the recommendations of recognized experts.

Which influencer marketing strategy to adopt for the bottom of the funnel?
Depending on your product or service, conversion goals may include direct purchases, trial sign-ups and/or subscriptions.

When planning your conversion campaign, you should clearly indicate to your ambassador which call-to-actions to integrate in their publications. Ideally, they will send prospects to a landing page where they can sign up (for a special discount or trial offer, for example).

As for the content to put in place at this stage, you can choose between :

Product reviews
Video content about the experience of using your products/services
User guides for your services
White papers or co-published reports
You can also integrate influencer content on your website. For example, reference an ambassador who has already used your products or services on your landing pages or in your blog posts. You can even add one of their quotes to your calls to action.

What kind of influencers for the bottom of the funnel?
Micro and nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) are particularly good at driving sales. Their audience is small, highly engaged and composed of professionals who do the same job as the target. They are usually the colleagues of your potential customers.

Your current customers and employees are also excellent ambassadors at this level.

However, all types of influencers can generate sales. By maintaining long-term relationships with them, you can identify the best performers at this stage, regardless of the size of their community.

Example of a successful campaign
Cisco’s ambassador program, called the Cisco Champions program, is a great example of bottom-of-funnel influencer marketing. Here, influencers (who are customers of the company) are invited to share their expertise on Cisco products on YouTube, during company events, on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Cisco’s B2B influencer marketing program also allows these “champions” to enhance their skills and knowledge by connecting with other professionals. The company also offers them exclusive invitations to events, access to its products and recognition as incentives.

To improve your visibility on YouTube and acquire leads, posting content is not enough. It’s a good foundation, but with limited reach.

Our advice: invest in YouTube Ads. Video ads are the first way customers discover a business or service.

But how to make a YouTube Ads campaign that really works and brings you qualified leads? Answers in the article!

6 reasons to get started with YouTube Ads

Let’s talk numbers! YouTube is :

The second most visited site in the world.
Over 1 billion hours of video viewed every day.
2 billion monthly users.
70% of users who say they have already made a purchase from a company seen on YouTube.
So, before we get into how to run a campaign, let’s start with the “why”! Why use YouTube Ads in your marketing strategy?

1 – YouTube influences purchases

YouTube influences 64% of buyers at the time of purchase. This figure is higher than other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.

In fact, YouTube is increasingly used as a search engine to find product reviews, how-to’s, additional tips, comparisons or demonstrations.

2 – An option to target specific keywords

Since YouTube is owned by Google, you have the power to run targeted and profitable campaigns. By the way, if you need more information about the search engine’s advertising network, I invite you to read the article “How to generate leads with Google Ads in B2B?”

Thanks to its algorithm, Google analyzes the search terms related to your business or industry, to target them on YouTube as well.

This contextual keyword targeting allows you to reach users who watch videos containing your terms in their metadata, descriptions or titles.

3 – A precise geographical targeting

Local, national or international business? YouTube has options that range from targeting by zip code to an entire country.

For example, if you have a local reach, you can display ads within a 50km radius of your office. Conversely, if you practice (or deliver) anywhere in France, you can target the entire country.

The geographical targeting of YouTube Ads also allows you to adapt your ads by region. Useful if your rates or services differ according to the cities.

4 – Ad formats that promote conversion and engagement

Bumper Ads, Lead Form Ads, overlay ads… YouTube offers several formats depending on your objectives.

For example, if you want to encourage impulse, you can choose the overlay with CTAs or banners to encourage conversion.

To manage your image or promote an offer, Bumper Ads are particularly effective, because they are hard to miss!

Finally, YouTube’s Lead Form Ads are particularly recommended in the B2B sector. As their name suggests, they help collect leads directly from the mobile application, thanks to an integrated form.

5 – Powerful analytical tools

YouTube Ads offers detailed statistics about the performance of your campaigns. You can get data about your “viewers” (reach, frequency of display…) and their behavior towards your ads (viewing time, clicks, engagements…).

This information will help you optimize your ads and their ROI.

6 – YouTube Ads offer a better return on investment

A study by Google shows that YouTube ads generate a better ROI than television.

The reasons? A young and connected audience, more apt to receive personalized ads, but also this very personalization! It’s easier to target channels or content that gather your buyers persona.

Facebook has more than 2 billion users, 74% of whom connect to it for business purposes. 48.5% of B2B decision makers use Facebook to search for information and partners.

So how can you take advantage of this audience to gain subscribers on your business page?

1 – Optimize the “About” section
Many users will refer to the “About” section of Facebook to learn more about your business. These same users may never visit the “About” page on your website, so you might as well bring them all the information they need on the social network.

Make sure this section contains everything a prospect needs to know:

Your contact information: email, phone number, headquarters address…
Your business hours
Your website
The way(s) to make an appointment
The description of the company and its products/services
Its history

2 – Pin interesting information
Optimize your page’s welcome by putting useful content on the front page such as infographics, tips, how-to videos, tutorials, product demos, customer testimonials or behind-the-scenes information about your company.

The idea is that the visitor will immediately find added value by visiting your Facebook page, which will encourage him to subscribe.

3 – Use Facebook Ads
Facebook offers the possibility to boost your publications to reach new audiences. Your best performing content deserves to be sponsored to reach potential prospects and encourage them to like your page.

And just like LinkedIn, Facebook offers a dedicated subscriber recruitment format. You can use it to generate new “likes” on your page every day.

4 – Promote your page on other channels
Everyone is on Facebook! Therefore, don’t hesitate to promote your page on as many channels as possible to boost subscriptions: in your newsletter, in your email signature, via a pop-up on your website, in your lead nurturing campaigns, etc.

How to get more subscribers on TikTok?
You thought TikTok was only for teenagers? If they are the majority on the platform, there are still 37% of adults:

16% of users are between 30 and 39 years old
14% are between 40 and 49 years old
7% are over 50 years old
So, what if you launched with relevant, fun and entertaining videos that show your business in a different light? And to recruit your first subscribers, here are some best practices to follow:

1 – Demystify your industry with humor
All activities suffer from preconceived ideas, clichés or myths. TikTok gives you a unique opportunity to debunk them in a creative way to educate your audience. This technique helps you gain subscribers who are interested in your activity but still in the thinking phase.

A good example is Morningbrew, which uses TikTok to explain the mysteries of finance to its subscribers.

2 – Deliver hacks on your products/services
Do your products/services contain underused or ignored features? Highlight them on TikTok in a playful way through short and funny videos.

However, the tips must be unique and relevant so that they encourage the user who sees the video to subscribe.

3 – Launch hashtags challenge
Challenge hashtags are a simple and effective way to get more subscribers on TikTok.

Launch a challenge to your subscribers, without forgetting to sponsor the hashtag to get a maximum of participation and subscribers!