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We’ve all had that moment. You’re optimizing the performance of some website, scrutinizing every millisecond it takes for the current page to load. You’ve fired up Google Lighthouse from Chrome’s DevTools because everyone and their uncle uses it to evaluate performance.

After running your 151st report and completing all of the recommended improvements, you experience nirvana: a perfect 100% performance score!

Time to pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Maybe you can use this to get that pay raise you’ve been wanting! Except, don’t — at least not using Google Lighthouse as your sole proof. I know a perfect score produces all kinds of good feelings. That’s what we’re aiming for, after all!

Google Lighthouse is merely one tool in a complete performance toolkit. What it’s not is a complete picture of how your website performs in the real world. Sure, we can glean plenty of insights about a site’s performance and even spot issues that ought to be addressed to speed things up. But again, it’s an incomplete picture.

What Google Lighthouse Is Great At

I hear other developers boasting about perfect Lighthouse scores and see the screenshots published all over socials. Hey, I just did that myself in the introduction of this article!

Lighthouse might be the most widely used web performance reporting tool. I’d wager its ubiquity is due to convenience more than the quality of its reports.

Open DevTools, click the Lighthouse tab, and generate the report! There are even many ways we can configure Lighthouse to measure performance in simulated situations, such as slow internet connection speeds or creating separate reports for mobile and desktop. It’s a very powerful tool for something that comes baked into a free browser. It’s also baked right into Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool!

And it’s fast. Run a report in Lighthouse, and you’ll get something back in about 10-15 seconds. Try running reports with other tools, and you’ll find yourself refilling your coffee, hitting the bathroom, and maybe checking your email (in varying order) while waiting for the results. There’s a good reason for that, but all I want to call out is that Google Lighthouse is lightning fast as far as performance reporting goes.

To recap: Lighthouse is great at many things!

• It’s convenient to access,
• It provides a good deal of configuration for different levels of troubleshooting,
• And it spits out reports in record time.

And what about that bright and lovely animated green score — who doesn’t love that?!

OK, that’s the rosy side of Lighthouse reports. It’s only fair to highlight its limitations as well. This isn’t to dissuade you or anyone else from using Lighthouse, but more of a heads-up that your score may not perfectly reflect reality — or even match the scores you’d get in other tools, including Google’s own PageSpeed Insights.

It Doesn’t Match “Real” Users

Not all data is created equal in capital Web Performance. It’s important to know this because data represents assumptions that reporting tools make when evaluating performance metrics.

The data Lighthouse relies on for its reporting is called simulated data. You might already have a solid guess at what that means: it’s synthetic data. Now, before kicking simulated data in the knees for not being “real” data, know that it’s the reason Lighthouse is super fast.

You know how there’s a setting to “throttle” the internet connection speed? That simulates different conditions that either slow down or speed up the connection speed, something that you configure directly in Lighthouse. By default, Lighthouse collects data on a fast connection, but we can configure it to something slower to gain insights on slow page loads. But beware! Lighthouse then estimates how quickly the page would have loaded on a different connection.

DebugBear founder Matt Zeunert outlines how data runs in a simulated throttling environment, explaining how Lighthouse uses “optimistic” and “pessimistic” averages for making conclusions:

“[Simulated throttling] reduces variability between tests. But if there’s a single slow render-blocking request that shares an origin with several fast responses, then Lighthouse will underestimate page load time.

Lighthouse averages optimistic and pessimistic estimates when it’s unsure exactly which nodes block rendering. In practice, metrics may be closer to either one of these, depending on which dependency graph is more correct.”

And again, the environment is a configuration, not reality. It’s unlikely that your throttled conditions match the connection speeds of an average real user on the website, as they may have a faster network connection or run on a slower CPU. What Lighthouse provides is more like “on-demand” testing that’s immediately available.

That makes simulated data great for running tests quickly and under certain artificially sweetened conditions. However, it sacrifices accuracy by making assumptions about the connection speeds of site visitors and averages things in a way that divorces it from reality.

While simulated throttling is the default in Lighthouse, it also supports more realistic throttling methods. Running those tests will take more time but give you more accurate data. The easiest way to run Lighthouse with more realistic settings is using an online tool like the DebugBear website speed test or WebPageTest.

It Doesn’t Impact Core Web Vitals Scores

These Core Web Vitals everyone talks about are Google’s standard metrics for measuring performance. They go beyond simple “Your page loaded in X seconds” reports by looking at a slew of more pertinent details that are diagnostic of how the page loads, resources that might be blocking other resources, slow user interactions, and how much the page shifts around from loading resources and content. Zeunert has another great post here on Smashing Magazine that discusses each metric in detail.

The main point here is that the simulated data Lighthouse produces may (and often does) differ from performance metrics from other tools. I spent a good deal explaining this in another article. The gist of it is that Lighthouse scores do not impact Core Web Vitals data. The reason for that is Core Web Vitals relies on data about real users pulled from the monthly-updated Chrome User Experience (CrUX) report. While CrUX data may be limited by how recently the data was pulled, it is a more accurate reflection of user behaviors and browsing conditions than the simulated data in Lighthouse.

The ultimate point I’m getting at is that Lighthouse is simply ineffective at measuring Core Web Vitals performance metrics. Here’s how I explain it in my bespoke article:

“[Synthetic] data is fundamentally limited by the fact that it only looks at a single experience in a pre-defined environment. This environment often doesn’t even match the average real user on the website, who may have a faster network connection or a slower CPU.”

I emphasized the important part. In real life, users are likely to have more than one experience on a particular page. It’s not as though you navigate to a site, let it load, sit there, and then close the page; you’re more likely to do something on that page. And for a Core Web Vital metric that looks for slow paint in response to user input — namely, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — there’s no way for Lighthouse to measure that at all!

It’s the same deal for a metric like Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) that measures the “visible stability” of a page layout because layout shifts often happen lower on the page after a user has scrolled down. If Lighthouse relied on CrUX data (which it doesn’t), then it would be able to make assumptions based on real users who interact with the page and can experience CLS. Instead, Lighthouse waits patiently for the full page load and never interacts with parts of the page, thus having no way of knowing anything about CLS.

But It’s Still a “Good Start”

That’s what I want you to walk away with at the end of the day. A Lighthouse report is incredibly good at producing reports quickly, thanks to the simulated data it uses. In that sense, I’d say that Lighthouse is a handy “gut check” and maybe even a first step to identifying opportunities to optimize performance.

But a complete picture, it’s not. For that, what we’d want is a tool that leans on real user data. Tools that integrate CrUX data are pretty good there. But again, that data is pulled every month (28 days to be exact) so it may not reflect the most recent user behaviors and interactions, although it is updated daily on a rolling basis and it is indeed possible to query historical records for larger sample sizes.

Even better is using a tool that monitors users in real-time.

Data pulled directly from the site of origin is truly the gold standard data we want because it comes from the source of truth. That makes tools that integrate with your site the best way to gain insights and diagnose issues because they tell you exactly how your visitors are experiencing your site.

I’ve written about using the Performance API in JavaScript to evaluate custom and Core Web Vitals metrics, so it’s possible to roll that on your own. But there are plenty of existing services out there that do this for you, complete with visualizations, historical records, and true real-time user monitoring (often abbreviated as RUM). What services? Well, DebugBear is a great place to start. I cited Matt Zeunert earlier, and DebugBear is his product.

So, if what you want is a complete picture of your site’s performance, go ahead and start with Lighthouse. But don’t stop there because you’re only seeing part of the picture. You’ll want to augment your findings and diagnose performance with real-user monitoring for the most complete, accurate picture.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to self-promote and build your own personal brand (alongside that of your business brands, of course). And while there are hundreds of ways to do this, blogging is still one of the best.

The Perks of Building Your Own Blog

As an entrepreneur, you have lots of different avenues available to you for building your brand and establishing connections. However, blogging remains one of the best options. Here a few of the top reasons why:

1. Strengthens Your Online Presence

Having a strong online presence is important. And blogging is one of the best ways to increase your visibility and ensure that potential clients, partners, and investors can easily find you. Your blog will allow you to create multiple entry points for people to discover your personal brand and business.

A blog acts as a hub for all your thoughts, ideas, and expertise. It gives people a central place to learn about you and your business, beyond what’s on your social media profiles or website landing pages. Each blog post you publish is another opportunity to attract visitors to your site, showcase your knowledge, and demonstrate your value.

Plus, a blog allows you to maintain control over your narrative. Unlike social media, where algorithms can change and limit your reach, your blog is your space. You decide the content, the message, and how you engage with your audience.

2. Establishes Authority

Regularly blogging about topics related to your industry is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field. 

When you share your knowledge through well-researched, insightful blog posts, you’re not just helping your readers – you’re building credibility. Over time, your audience will start to see you as a go-to resource for industry-related information. This authority can translate into more business opportunities, as people are more likely to trust and engage with someone who demonstrates expertise.

Being seen as an authority in your field also opens doors to speaking engagements, guest appearances on other platforms, and collaborations with other experts in your industry. It can even help you gain media attention, as journalists often look for authoritative sources to quote in articles.

3. Drives Organic Search Traffic

One of the biggest benefits of blogging for entrepreneurs is the opportunity to attract organic search traffic. Every blog post you write is an opportunity to optimize for search engines, helping you rank higher on Google and other search platforms. This is especially important if you’re just starting out and don’t have a huge marketing budget.

By focusing on SEO-rich content  – content that’s optimized with relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and internal/external links – you can naturally bring in readers who are searching for information related to your business or industry. For example, if you’re a fitness entrepreneur, a blog post about “how to stay fit while working from home” could attract people searching for fitness tips, who might then learn more about your products or services.

As you publish more content and your blog starts gaining traction in search results, you’ll notice an increase in organic traffic, which means more eyes on your brand and business without spending extra money on ads.

4. Builds and Fosters a Community

Blogging gives you a unique opportunity to directly engage with your audience and foster a sense of community around your brand. When you write blog posts that resonate with your readers, they’re more likely to interact with your content – whether by leaving comments, sharing your posts on social media, or subscribing to your newsletter.

This type of engagement allows you to build a loyal following of people who not only support your business but also feel connected to you personally. The more you interact with your readers, the stronger that connection becomes. Blogging also opens up the opportunity for valuable feedback. Your readers might leave comments that inspire new blog topics, help you improve your products or services, or give you insights into what your audience is most interested in.

5. Natural Promotion for Your Products

One of the most effective ways to promote your products and services without being too salesy is through blogging. Rather than directly pitching your offerings, you can write informative, helpful content that naturally ties back to what you sell.

For example, if you run an online store that sells eco-friendly products, you could write blog posts about the importance of sustainability, offer tips for reducing waste, and highlight the benefits of using green products. Throughout the post, you can subtly mention your products and link to them as part of the solution.

This approach positions you as someone who cares about educating your audience, rather than just pushing a sale. And when readers see the value in what you offer, they’re more likely to trust your recommendations and make a purchase.

6. Keeps You Relevant and Adaptable

Blogging keeps you relevant in your industry. It gives you a platform to share your thoughts on the latest trends, discuss emerging technologies, and offer insights on current events that affect your niche. By staying active in the conversation, you show that you’re not only knowledgeable but also adaptable.

As your industry evolves, your blog can evolve, too. It’s a flexible tool that can grow with your business and help you stay ahead of the curve. Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into a new market, or simply shifting focus, your blog can reflect those changes and keep your audience informed.

Putting it All Together

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to building your brand as an entrepreneur. However, certain strategies pack more punch than others. Blogging is one of them. By starting a blog, you can enjoy many of the benefits highlighted in this article and give yourself a better chance to be successful in the months and years to come!

Featured Image by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

The post Why Every Entrepreneur Should Start a Blog appeared first on noupe.

If you have a profitable side hustle, you’ve probably considered taking your business full-time. However, before you take the leap and transition to life as a full-time entrepreneur, there are a few things you should do.

Some tasks are simple, like opening a business bank account and setting concrete goals. Others, like building a professional website, investing in growth strategies, and networking, will take more time and consideration.

There’s no doubt the process can be overwhelming, so here are eight specific things you can do to prepare for the transition.

Register Your Business and Open a Bank Account

If you haven’t yet, make sure to register your business. An accountant or business attorney can advise you on the best business formation, such as an LLC. Once you’ve registered your business officially, open a dedicated business bank account.

Many solopreneurs start their businesses without these initial steps. However, if you want to transition to full-time self-employment, it’s essential to treat your business like the professional entity that it is.

Set Concrete Goals

Successful entrepreneurs create clearly defined, easy-to-track business goals. So, before you quit your job and take your business full-time, write down specific benchmarks you want to achieve. Whether it’s a certain number of customers or a revenue goal, sketch out where you’d like to be at the three-month, six-month, and twelve-month mark of being a full-time entrepreneur.

Create a business plan that outlines how you will market your business, how you plan to grow it, and why you expect to stand out in the market. Researching your competitors and seeing what they’re doing right (and wrong) is also important.

Take this information and use your research to help you make a comprehensive plan to follow. That way, you know what to do on your first day of self-employment and beyond.

Secure Funding

Some businesses, particularly online ones, don’t have significant start-up costs. However, others, such as brick-and-mortar businesses or technology start-ups, will require upfront cash. 

There are many different ways you can fund your business start-up costs. You can self-fund it from personal savings, get a personal loan, or apply for a business line of credit. 

The funding route you choose will depend on your business goals, the type of business you have, and whether or not you want to give up equity in exchange for funding. For example, many entrepreneurs choose to pitch venture capital firms but give up equity in the process. Others apply for SBA loans, like the SBA 504 loan.

Create a Website and Social Media Presence

Your website and social media profiles are some of the first things your customers or clients will see. Make sure you have a professional website and that your social media accounts reflect your business values. 

Your business website should explain what you do clearly and have an easy way to contact you, while your social accounts should have a consistent brand presence with similar color schemes and your logo. 

Update your social media accounts regularly and take the time to learn about social media and email marketing as ways to grow your client and customer base.

Build a Strong Client or Customer List

Speaking of clients and customers, it’s vital to have plans to reach them before you make the leap to self-employment. If you have clients that use your services, build a list of several that can provide recurring revenue so you can project your first few months of self-employment income.

If you serve customers, take the time to understand the best ways to acquire new ones. Test multiple marketing strategies and methods until you find a consistent way to keep customers coming back to your business regularly. 

Once you build a strong and consistent client or customer base and you know you can reliably earn income while you’re self-employed, you can begin to make concrete plans to transition into full-time entrepreneurship. 

Set Up Health Insurance and Benefits

While some may enjoy the benefits of insurance coverage from a spouse, many others will need to find their own plan after leaving their day job. For those who’ve never done this before, this can require a bit of research. 

When you work for yourself, you’ll also need to arrange any “benefits,” like retirement plans. It’s a good idea to explore these costs ahead of time to ensure that your business income can cover the cost of your taxes, payroll, and more.

Invest in Growth Strategies

As you’re preparing to take your business full-time, invest in growth strategies. For example, make sure you’re regularly learning new skills and researching business grants. If you know you’ll need to purchase real estate as part of your business plan, find ways that you can buy property affordably or qualify for home buyer rebates.

Learn how to manage your bookkeeping and spend time understanding your cash flow. This information will help you know whether or not you can hire additional team members or invest in other products or services in the future as you grow.

Network and Find Mentors

Mentors who have made the leap from side hustle to full-time job can help you determine whether or not you’re ready to do the same. When you network and learn from others, it can help you avoid mistakes, saving you valuable time and money.

Networking in person is ideal, but it’s also wise to build your connections on LinkedIn to connect with entrepreneurs in similar industries. Connecting online means you’re not limited to business owners in your area, dramatically expanding your reach.

Take the Leap

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you’re likely ready to take the leap, even if you don’t feel completely ready. Many people are worried about their livelihoods, rising costs, and the economy overall, but data from a 2024 economic outlook shows economists don’t believe a recession is imminent. That means it might be a perfect time to break out on your own.

Keep these steps in mind before going full-time, and you’ll put yourself on the path to business success.

Featured Image by Microsoft Edge on Unsplash

The post 8 Things to Do Before Transitioning Your Small Business From a Side Hustle to Full-Time appeared first on noupe.

Any kind of marketing approach that gives you a deeper insight into your customers has the potential to help you make stronger connections with them.

Psychographic segmentation is a perfect example. Unlike demographic or behavioral segmentation, it goes into depth about what makes your customers tick, which means you can better understand how to reach out to them in a way that resonates.

In this article, we’ll look at what psychographic segmentation is, how it works, and how to implement it in your marketing campaigns.

What is Psychographic Segmentation?

Using psychographic segmentation is a way of developing a deeper understanding of your target audiences. Unlike demographic segmentation, which focuses on easily pinned-down facts like age, income level, or location, it involves categorizing your customer base by studying their psychological characteristics.

Delineating customer segments via psychological traits means you can build up a picture of what motivates each group to commit to certain buying decisions. In turn, this can help you develop more effective marketing strategies and increase your conversion rates.

Why Psychographic Segmentation is Important for Engagement

Consumer behavior isn’t monolithic. In other words, not all of your target customers arrive at a purchase decision via the same route. But the one thing they all have in common is that they’re more likely to respond if you tailor your messaging to their personal preferences.

When you develop a deep understanding of the psychological factors underpinning their motivation, you can create appropriate content for different target segments. For instance, rather than simply sending a generic check-in email, you can curate messages that resonate more deeply with your target audience, boosting engagement.

Other Benefits of Using Psychographic Segmentation

As well as boosted engagement, there are a number of other advantages to deploying psychographic segmentation in your marketing. These include:

More effective product development: Building up a full picture of your potential customers’ psychographic characteristics can provide an excellent starting point for developing new products that meet your target audience’s needs.

Improved customer service: The better you understand your customer base, the easier it is to deliver top-tier customer service. This makes it more straightforward to implement first-call resolution best practices in a contact center, for instance, because your agents will be able to use more personalized insights with each customer to help give them what they need.

More accurate targeting: Splitting your target market into psychographic segments enables you to connect with different groups of customers in a much more effective way.

Bear in mind that two customers may have an identical demographic profile but have very different interests and motivations.

For instance, imagine two women in the 25-34 age group who live in the same city, and each have two children under 10 years of age. But one is an avid hiker, while the other prefers to stay home and try out new recipes. Ideally, you’d be tweaking the messaging your brand sends out to each one accordingly to try to encourage deeper engagement from both customers.

With that in mind, let’s consider the most important psychographic segmentation variables to look at.

Psychographic Segmentation Factors

So, what are the main psychographic factors you should be focusing on? There are no hard and fast rules about this, but there are several areas that companies often zero in on to try to create more effective marketing campaigns. These are:

Consumer Personality Traits

You don’t need to go full Myers-Briggs here. It’s not realistic to ask every prospective customer to fill out a detailed personality test, but having a grasp of some of their more obvious personality traits can help you gain valuable insights.

For instance, are they more extroverted or introverted? Who are the more adventurous and open-minded individuals, and who are more reserved? There are ways you can phrase open-ended questions to try to encourage survey respondents to reveal these traits in a non-intrusive way, such as:

• What motivates you to achieve your goals?
• Do you prefer to base decisions on facts or intuition?
• How do you respond to everyday challenges?

You can then build up quite a rich picture of each customer personality, which will give an indication of the types of products they might be interested in and what their general consumer preferences are likely to be.

Core Values

Understanding what’s important to your customers is vital for fine-tuning your brand storytelling. Of course, most brands will want to avoid more potentially divisive areas like direct political statements (unless the brand itself has a specific connection that makes these relevant).

However you can dig into your potential customers’ beliefs in ways that your brand can relate to. For example:

• Which of your customers prioritize family?
• Who is passionate about environmental issues?
• How important are social responsibility initiatives to your customers?

Interests and Hobbies

This one is fairly easy to pick up on because people love talking about their interests. Which customers lead an active lifestyle and participate in outdoor activities? Who are the passionate music fans or sports lovers? Who enjoys creating and crafts?

Researching this aspect of your customers’ daily activities is obviously going to be highly relevant if you sell products that cater to those interests. But even if you don’t, it can be very useful to seek out this information because it helps you create more accurate buyer personas and target customer profiles.

Lifestyle Preferences

On a day-to-day basis, what do your customers get up to? Are they busy professionals who grab a quick coffee each morning on the go? Do they spend their weekends traveling to follow their favorite teams? Are they health-conscious people who go to the gym regularly?

Understanding your customers’ lifestyle preferences gives you insight into their purchasing habits at a deeper level. It’s also an excellent way of identifying which channels to reach out on to best connect with your potential clients.

Common Research Methods for Psychographic Segmentation

So, how do you go about collecting this kind of information? There are a number of routes you can take, and it’s usually best to use a mixture of different approaches. Try to incorporate a few of these:

Online surveys: Sending out psychographic surveys is one of the quickest ways of understanding your customers. It’s also one of the best ways to get broad-based data, since it doesn’t take much time commitment on the part of the customer. Consider sending surveys out to your email list or putting short pop-up surveys on your website. Offering an incentive, such as a discount voucher, can increase response rates.

Social listening: The advantage of social listening is that you can essentially eavesdrop on customers’ candid opinions. Whether they have a problem with your product or service or are particularly loyal customers who love your brand, you’ll find honest criticism on social media. Moreover, social platform analytics are useful for getting insights into your followers’ interests and purchasing habits.

Focus groups: For a more detailed examination of your customers’ opinions and thoughts, you can use focus groups or one-to-one interviews. These can be carried out online or in person, but they require a relatively heavy time investment from the participants. So, again, offer an attractive incentive to encourage people to participate.

Analytics tools: You can collect some psychographic data, like the interests your website visitors have, from standard tools like Google Analytics. In addition, you can glean more in-depth information by tracking online behavior using heatmaps and session recordings.

Existing research: Another option is to explore existing research that’s already in the public domain. Of course, this won’t give you detailed information about your individual customers. Nevertheless, if you have a reasonable grasp of who your customer base is, you can often find reports from sources such as government websites or industry experts that provide consumer insights you’ll be able to use, at least as a starting point.

How to Implement Psychographic Segmentation

Collecting the information is one thing; making it work for your marketing campaigns is quite another. But if you can get it right, it can help support a full-funnel marketing approach that delivers excellent results. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:

1. Collect the psychographic data using your chosen research methods.

2. Analyze the data and use it to place your customers into individual categories of people who share certain key characteristics in common.

3. Devise detailed buyer personas based on these categories.

4. Use these to help create personalized brand messaging and content tailored for each category.

5. Keep collecting data regularly and reviewing your strategy. It will need to be constantly updated to maintain relevance.

Final Thoughts

There are several approaches to customer segmentation you can take, and the ones you choose will depend on your brand goals.

The key thing to remember about psychographic segmentation is that it deals with the “why” questions: why do your customers live their lives the way they do? Why do they make certain product choices over others? Why do they respond to some messages more strongly?

Tapping into those underlying motivations is an excellent way of driving higher engagement because you’ll be able to connect with potential customers on a more fundamental level. And that’s a terrific way of making sure those customers come back time and time again.

Featured image by Adam Wilson on Unsplash

The post What Is Psychographic Segmentation and How Can It Boost Engagement? appeared first on noupe.