Connect with us

MARKETING

Top 10 Most Popular Online Payment Solutions

Published

on

top 10 most popular online payment solutions via juliaemccoy

Today, there’s no better place to make money than online.

Because there are now 4.54 billion internet users, you have access to more than half the population of the globe!

Also, there are tons of ways to earn online.

You can set up an ecommerce store.

You can create a course.

You can offer professional services like content creation, graphic design, or content strategy.

Advertisement

If you already own a business, you can take it online to reach a wider audience.

But no matter how you decide to make money online, you’ll need one thing:

A reliable, safe, user-friendly payment solution.

The good news?

It isn’t hard to find online payment solutions experts love and trust.

Here are 10 of the best online payment solutions you’ll love.

Advertisement

You’ll need a specific online payment solution depending on the kind of business you own.

Take special note of the description below each solution to find out if it’s the one for you.

1. PayPal

PayPal

Source: paypal.com

PayPal is huge, with 305 million active users.

It’s also growing rapidly.

In fact, from Q3 to Q4 of 2019 alone, it gained 9.3 million new users!

Advertisement

PayPal growth 2019But if its size and popularity aren’t enough to convince you to use PayPal, here are other facts to get you excited about it.

  • PayPal is available in 202 countries.
  • As a PayPal user, you can withdraw funds in 56 different currencies.
  • PayPal is free – you don’t have to worry about monthly membership fees, annual maintenance, or even a maintaining balance.
  • A PayPal account can be connected to multiple debit and credit cards.
  • You can purchase items online even if your PayPal balance is zero by connecting it to your current bank account.
  • PayPal is safe. You can purchase items online without giving away your financial information.

2. Stripe

Stripe

Stripe is similar to PayPal because it’s user-friendly, requires no monthly or membership fee, and promises a safe shopping experience.

However, if you’re looking for a customized payment platform, Stripe is the solution for you.

This is because Stripe has special tools and features a developer can use to create a highly personalized payment platform for your company.

These include:

  • An advanced fraud-management tool called Stripe Radar.
  • Virtual and physical cards for employee expenses.
  • Business intelligence based on SQL

If you’re a big company needing custom payment solutions, Stripe is a good choice for you.

3. Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay

By using Amazon Pay, you can quickly and easily reach out to Amazon users.

These customers can pay for your goods or services simply by logging into their Amazon accounts.

Advertisement

Here are five reasons Amazon Pay is an excellent choice.

  • It’s super simple to set up with your site.
  • It’s optimized for both mobile and voice search.
  • With one account, customers can access thousands of sites.
  • You can charge your customers recurring payments like monthly membership fees.
  • You can seamlessly offer refunds.

4. X-Payments

X-Payments

If the financial safety and privacy of your customers is your top priority, choose X-Payments as your payment solution.

X-Payments is PCI DSS certified, meaning it passes the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

This is the highest safety level you can get for your customers and your online store.

With X-Payments, you also enjoy:

  • The safest credit card information storage.
  • Seamless transactions, as customers don’t have to leave your online store to make a payment.
  • Processing of over 40 credit cards.

Pricing stars at $42.46 a month for 10,000 transactions processed per year.

5. Braintree

Braintree

Braintree focuses strategically on mobile users.

Advertisement

Owned by PayPal, it benefits by having access to the millions of people who use the popular payment solution.

So, why should you use Braintree?

  • Braintree is trusted by huge digital companies such as Airbnb and Uber.
  • It has special tools for fraud detection.
  • It can be integrated with Google Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, and major credit and debit cards.

Right now you’re wondering: if Braintree is owned by PayPal, which one should I use?

The answer is it depends on the kind of business you’re running.

Here are three things to consider when deciding between PayPal and Braintree.

  • Although it’s easier to get a PayPal account approved, it’s as easy to have your account flagged and deactivated. It takes longer to set up a Braintree account but once you get one, you’re assured of seamless transactions down the road.
  • It’s easier to send large amounts of money in foreign currencies through Braintree.
  • Braintree and PayPal offer vastly different products and cater to different markets. Study each one and choose the one that most fits your business.

6. Due

Due

Due isn’t only a payment solution.

It’s a complete system which allows you to:

Advertisement
  • Take care of all your invoices in one place.
  • Keep organized with all your payment information in one location.
  • Enjoy lower rates than credit cards.

7. GoCardless

Go Cardless

GoCardless is a wonderful choice if you collect recurring payments from your customers.

For example, you collect monthly subscription fees or offer an online course with monthly payment options.

GoCardless allows you to collect recurring payments automatically.

When you use this platform, it’s also easier for you to track your customers’ payment status.

Standard subscription is free, but you can get a paid subscription if you’re interested in adding your name to your customers’ bank statements or developing your own email notifications and payment pages.

8. SecurePay

Secure Pay

Doing business in Australia?

Advertisement

If you’re looking for a payment solution supported by major Australian banks, SecurePay is the one to choose.

SecurePay offers:

  • Detailed reports on all payments.
  • Easy integration with most shopping carts.
  • Quick online payments.

9. Adyen

Adyen

Adyen is available in 200 countries and supports 250 local payment methods.

It won the Nora Solution Partner Excellence Awards in 2019 for Best Security and Anti-Fraud Solution.

Two huge companies that trust Adyen as their payment solution are Spotify and Microsoft.

10. CyberSource

Cybersource

CyberSource is a top payment solution because of its risk management.

Advertisement

It has more than 300 fraud detectors to ensure your customers and your online store are safe.

CyberSource serves 190 countries and is used by 450,000 businesses across the globe.

How to Choose the Right Payment Solutions for Your Business

The 10 payment solutions mentioned above are the best of the best today.

But how do you choose one to fit your business?

The answer is to dig deep into exactly what you need for your company right now.

For instance, if you’ve just started out and want to test the waters, PayPal is a great option for you.

Advertisement

If you’re a larger company and need a customized platform, you’ll love Stripe’s unique features.

Just as your brand is special, you can find a special payment solution that fits you perfectly.


Image Credits

All screenshots taken by author, March 2020

Searchenginejournal.com

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

MARKETING

How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

Published

on

A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

Advertisement

Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

Advertisement

Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

Advertisement

“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

Advertisement

Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

Advertisement

Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

Published

on

Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

Published

on

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

(more…)

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS