The e-commerce landscape is a world of constant change and evolution. One of the most significant changes in recent years has been the proliferation of online reviews. Indeed, reviews have spread all across the internet, and tend to pop-up regardless of whether or not you’re actively encouraging them. In this post, we’ll look at how to put reviews to work in favor of your business.

Seeking out reviews has become a standard part of the buying process for all types of customers, so much so that every online retailer should be thinking about them. Peer reviews can be a powerful selling point for your business; some 70% of customers claim to consult reviews or ratings before making a final purchase. A further 79% say they trust product reviews as much as they do personal recommendations.

One challenge every e-commerce business owner faces is how to increase online sales. Knowing where to start, and how to stand out from countless other e-commerce brands online, can be a daunting task indeed.

The skyrocketing popularity of e-commerce has only served to make it harder for business owners to attract the visitors needed to boost online sales. Social media marketing has become a major turning point for firms just starting out, giving brands the chance to use both unpaid and paid social media marketing tactics to increase online sales and generate awareness.

There are two different schools of thought when it comes to marketing and two corresponding different approaches. Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) marketing are the two most prominent types of marketing relationships. While they share some similarities they require a fresh approach to each side in order to be effective.

Not every business requires both approaches. Depending on a brand’s goals and target demographic, one of these groups of consumers may not apply. For example, a business offering graphic design solutions to marketing agencies would focus primarily on B2B marketing. Conversely, a freelance graphic designer may focus on B2C at first, and perhaps utilizing some B2B efforts later.

The marketing manager is thrilled: all of the top-tier influencers who she reached out to have signed on to promote her brand of fitness equipment! Things are looking great, as these influencers have a lot of pull and engagement with their accounts.

She gives out instructions on what type of content she’d like to see and sends product off to the influencers for use. Now all she needs to do is wait for all of the glorious content promoting her brand to start rolling in.

When a message goes out, is it public relations or advertising? For a lot of folks, these terms are understood interchangeably. However, while there is some overlap, the truth is, each enterprise has a distinct purpose, priority, and metric for success.

Public relations is, essentially, a strategic communication program or process that connects brands or persons with a market or audience in a beneficial way. The key takeaways here are that PR is a process, not a one-and-done scenario. PR is connective, creating goodwill or a bond between the audience and the brand; and PR is supportive of and beneficial to the brand vision and mission.

Its official – cannabis is legal…kind of.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an $867 billion farm bill that removed industrial hemp from a list of federally controlled substances, making the way for cannabis component cannabidoil to become a trendy new ingredient. Cannabidoil, commonly known as CBD, will now have a legal market that could be worth more than $20 billion by 2022, according to research firm Brightfield Group.