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OKVetWorksMay 2022NewsletterNational Military Appreciation MonthInside:Additional Special Days in MayNeed Traffic?

I know you always hear me talking about upcoming events. I don;t think I will/can stop! We have somuch going on and I think it is important for you to know about all of the opportunities that areavailable to you. There is just so much! So...here are a few things on the horizon:Boots to Suits - May 2, 9, 16, and 23Boots to Business - May 3-4 - Ft.SillBoots to Business - May 9-10 - Tinker AFBPiedmont Area Veterans Association - Business Owner Insight Class - May 12VetFest - May 14Veteran and Military Appreciation Day - East Central University - May 19Camouflage to Corporate - OSU Boathouse - May 26If you would like any additional information on any of these events please let me know. Love to haveyou there! We also cannot forget the Tyler Media is proving 15 Veteran Owned Businesses 1 day of freeadvertising during the month of May. These 15 businesses will be featured on 8 radio stations (15times throughout the day), all of Tyler Medias Social media and web pages and digital billboards. This is at no charge to these 15 businesses. Tyler Media has also said they will do this again inNovember. What an excellent company! I cannot express enough the importance of getting your company "Verified" as an Oklahoma VeteranOwned Business. We are working with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the CentralPurchasing Division in this effort. If you missed this in previous newsletters don't worry...It will be inthis one as well.You will also find information about an upcoming NETWORKING EVENT that I would stronglyencourage you to attend. It will be held at the 45th Infantry Museum. Normally the museum isclosed on Mondays but they will be open for this event. Bring your family along for a great day! Moreinformation later in the newsletter.

Additional SpecialDays in MayMonth of the Military Caregiver The Month of the Military Caregiver is observed in May each year tohonor more than five million caregivers in the United States. Payingtribute to the people who care for more than two million veterans is animportant part of supporting troops and military families. But for some,it’s also about recognizing the work they do that qualifies them ascaregivers even if they don’t think of themselves that way.They are spouses, parents, children, and relatives of the woundedveteran, but many coworkers, neighbors, and friends also take onresponsibilities. They provide care and assistance, promoting fasterrecovery for their loved ones and thus saving our nation millions ofdollars in health care costs.National Military Spouse Appreciation Day On Military Spouse Appreciation Day we honor the contributions andsacrifices made by military spouses. Their commitment and supporthelp to keep our country safe. America’s military spouses are thebackbone of the families who support our troops during mission,deployment, reintegration and reset. Military spouses are silent heroeswho are essential to the strength of the nation, and they serve ourcountry just like their loved ones.In celebration of Military Spouse Appreciation Day, the armed forceshave special events and programs to inform, honor, and recognizemilitary spouses around the world. Events range from spouseappreciation luncheons to educational workshops, and spouseemployment fairs that pay tribute to military spousesChildren Of Fallen Patriots Day May 13th is Children of Fallen Patriots Day. In the past 25 years, morethan 15,000 children have lost parents in military conflict. Children ofFallen Patriots Day was created in order to both honor these childrenand raise awareness of the sacrifices and struggles they must endure inthe wake of their parents death. May 13 was selected as the date ofobservance due to being the day Arlington National Cemetery wasestablished in 1864.Although Children of Fallen Patriots Day is not a nationally recognizedday of remembrance, since 2014, governors from across the nationhave issued proclamations to officially designate May 13th as a day tohonor these children.

Need Traffic? Here's How to GetVisitors to a New Website (Even IfYou Don't Know Where to Begin)“How do I drive more traffic to my online store?” At some point, that thought crosses the mind of every entrepreneur selling online.Maybe you’ve invested time and effort in setting up your store and tweaked everything for launch, only to open upshop and wonder where all the traffic is. Maybe you’ve seen steady growth over the past six months, but hit a plateauon traffic and sales. Or maybe you’ve been successful with one traffic-driving tactic and you’re curious about whattactics you can try next.Whether you’re trying to attract your first customer or your 1,000th customer, generating more traffic to your onlinestore is a crucial part of growing your business. If your site is properly optimized for conversions, getting an increasein web traffic could mean more customers and more sales.What you should know about increasing website trafficFrom a marketing perspective, the good news is the process of getting your first customer versus your one hundredthis the same. But for traffic to successfully result in sales and profit, there are some essential prerequisites to ensurethat traffic converts and the cost is sustainable. You should be asking yourself:Is this a good product? A “good product” means that it’s good enough for your audience and passes theirimplicit cost-benefits analysis.Is there a large target market? A market is a group of people already spending money on something. Arepeople buying the same type of product?Is there an addressable target market? An addressable market is a group of people with visible sharedqualities, already spending money on something. Is there a market segment you can focus on? Is there a great product story and/or compelling copy? You might have a clear “why” for the product incontrast to competitors, but you need to translate that pitch to compelling web copy. Does your product pitchresonate with them enough to purchase?Is there a low-cost way to reach this audience? The goal should be to keep customer acquisition costs low.Are there multiple ways you can reach potential customers?

Which tactic is best for your business?Some of these sources will generate higher quality traffic for your specific business and some will generate lowerquality traffic.For example, let’s say you’re targeting young professionals interested in buying wacky office supplies. LinkedIn mightbe a better option over, say, Pinterest.Traffic acquisition success is found by doubling down on the most relevant traffic you can find. Of course, “the mostrelevant traffic you can find” is incredibly subjective and different for everyone, so let’s break down each tactic youcan use to increase web traffic:Tactic type. Whether the idea is a short-term or long-term traffic generator. Short-term tactics usually seeresults quicker but require more maintenance or reinvestment. Long-term tactics take longer to see results butare more evergreen and require little to no maintenance.Effort. How much time, skill, or experience you’ll need to put into the tactic. Time to return on investment (ROI). Whether you invest time, effort, or money into a traffic-driving tactic, it willtake days, weeks, or months to see that investment increase traffic and sales. Cost. The upfront budget you’ll need to launch the tactic.Traffic potential. The total amount of traffic that could be sent to your store.Engage in conversation on social mediaSocial media engagement is more than simply sharing a link across Facebook, Twitter, etc., to your online store in the hopeit increases website traffic. Social engagement is about encouraging conversations with the right people, respondingthoughtfully, and driving excitement and enthusiasm.

Get friends and family to shareWhen you launch your business, turning to friends and family to get support is a great tactic to generate initialawareness, traffic, or even your first sale (thanks, Mom!). People don’t launch businesses too frequently, so it’ll probablybe quite novel within your circle of friends and family to see you start your own online store. Hopefully they’ll be willing toshare news about your brand new business endeavor.Do you know the site Upworthy? Did you know that its initial momentum was generated by friends and family. It set a goalof getting 1,000 Facebook fans by the end of the day it launched. It worked, and that’s part of what gave it the initialtraction to take off.Reach out in a targeted way to your friends and family. You’ll get away with it without risking irritation. On Facebook, talkabout your store in an update.Are there channels for talking to your extended family? Do they plan reunions on an email list? Send a note and tell themabout your new store.Don’t focus your ask on getting them to buy your products. While you could offer them your products for free or at a bigdiscount—they are your friends and family, after all—instead, ask them to share your store with their networks. These arepeople with whom you have social equity, and you won’t ask for these kinds of favors very often. You’ll have a higher rateof success than reaching out to strangers, and if enough of them share, that may give you sufficient momentum to keep aregular stream of customers.Proactively engage on TwitterYou don’t need to start selling products before you engage with people on Twitter. There are a lot of ways to get onsomeone’s radar as a cool new store.Blackbird Baking Company, a bakery in Toronto that sells fresh bread, built an audience of over 500 engaged,passionate bread lovers on Twitter, ensuring that when it opened the doors of its first bakery, it had a great reception.Five hundred followers isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but gaining new followers is tough when launching a newbusiness and growing a social media account from the ground up. So, how did Blackbird get a few hundred followerspre-launch?First, the bakery followed a disciplined social media marketing strategy. It generated some follow-backs by followingselect people on Twitter it determined may be interested in a new bakery. These include restaurateurs and self-declared bread enthusiasts in Toronto.You can find people with similar or niche interest in your field too. One tool to find relevant users is Followerwonk. Login through Twitter and you can search relevant keywords in bios and profiles.Second, Blackbird has been uploading photos of its breads being baked and delivered to stores around Toronto toInstagram and Facebook. The pictures are mouthwatering and shareable.Third, Blackbird Baking Company engages proactively with people who tweet about the local community. Topicsinclude life in Toronto, great food, and, of course, bread.So when the bakery finally opened, there were lots of interested people waiting to buy bread.How you can engage with a Twitter audience: Use Twitter Advanced Search to look for keywords related to your business in people’s tweets or bios, or try atool like Followerwonk.Once you’ve found an audience, look for chances to help people or add value to their conversations in a way thatlacks a sales pitch.

Get more traffic, get more customersWith these tactics in your marketing toolkit, you should now be able to generate more website traffic for your onlinestore. Increasing traffic starts with picking a tactic and relevant channel and getting started, rather than trying them allat once. Remember a good digital marketing strategy is about layering short-term and long-term tactics so they workin tandem. Once you’ve feel like you’ve mastered one, why not come back here and pick your next traffic-drivingtactic? More traffic to your online store means more opportunities to turn those casual shoppers into paying customers. Onceyou’ve increased your traffic, consider trying out Conversion Rate Optimization as a next step.OKVetWorks now has a link on ourwebpage that will be searchable (bycategory) and will list your businessinformation. This is available to thepublic and will hopefully increasebusiness for each of you. Here is the direct link: https://okvetworks.wixsite.com/buy---oklahoma-veter.

Bring the Family forthis Special Day ofNETWORKING!

THANK YOU!!!