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Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Search engine optimization has changed a lot over the years. There are still some companies trying to do it like it’s 2005. That is, their main aim is to acquire as many links as possible. I don’t think that’s the best approach in 2013.
For starters, if you don’t see SEO as an intrinsic part of your overall marketing efforts, then there is a disconnect somewhere. The goal of marketing is to increase your bottom line. That is, you want to make new customers. And you want your old customers to buy new products. That’s why you have a marketing strategy. That should also be why you have an SEO strategy.
If you approach SEO correctly, you’ll start to see every page of content you create as a part of your overall marketing initiatives.
Instead of creating content for the sake of creating content, if you focus your efforts on making each piece of content you do create tell a part of your overall story and connect with your audience, then you’ll get a lot further. Links will only get ignored – if all you do is acquire links for the sake of acquiring links. They may even hurt your rankings.
Marketing and SEO go hand in hand. It’s a complete online marketing strategy. If you don’t count your SEO as a piece of your marketing, then maybe you need to rethink it.
Tags: content, link building, marketing, online marketing, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2012
Have you set your New Year’s resolutions for 2013 yet? Do they include marketing goals? Better yet, do they include your plans and goals for online marketing in 2013?
It’s important for small business owners to think about what they can do for the new year to take their businesses to the next level. That means more than thinking about how many sales you want to make, or how much profit you want to generate. It also includes how many new marketing initiatives you want to try and whether or not you want to pursue a particular revenue channel.
When you sit down to establish your 2013 goals, if you haven’t already, think about which online marketing strategies you want to try this year and how much time, effort, and money you want to put into them. Do you plan to do these things yourself, hire an in-house person to handle them for you, or outsource these strategies to a marketing firm? There are pros and cons to all of these options.
I hope that 2013 is the year for you and your business. But don’t leave it to chance or hope that the year takes care of itself. Take the initiative and set a plan. It’s the way that successful people take themselves higher, and I know you can do it.
Tags: marketing, new year, online marketing, planning
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
Budgets aside, there is such a thing as not doing enough to promote your business. You could always be doing more. If you find yourself wondering why you aren’t getting more results for your efforts, there are a few reasons why that might be the case. For instance,
- Maybe you’re spending too much time doing all the wrong things. Perhaps you should redirect your efforts into other channels.
- Or you could be not doing enough of all the right things. Maybe you should write to your blog more often, or spend a little more time on social media.
- It could be that you aren’t talking to the right people. Are the people you talking to not interested in your product or services? Are they the right market for what you have to offer?
- Perhaps your message is slightly off kilter. You could be mis-communicating something, or not communicating powerfully enough.
Sometimes all it takes a little tweak here and there to get your marketing message on track. Other times, you might have to overhaul the entire campaign.
Whether you are seeking to promote your business through traditional marketing channels or online marketing channels, it wouldn’t hurt to evaluate your practices to see where you can make improvements. That often takes a third eye – someone not associated with your business who can see things more objectively. Why not ask a trained small business consultant to look at your business and see where you can make the right adjustments?
Tags: marketing, online marketing, small business, small business marketing, traditional marketing
Posted in Traditional Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 8th, 2012
Facebook is gaining in popularity, and I don’t just mean in terms of usage. I mean in terms of marketing.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced last month that Facebook has reached a new milestone in usage. There are now 1 billion users on the world’s largest social network. That’s a lot of people when you consider there are 7 billion people residing on this planet. And the good news is the social network is still growing.
Beyond the usage numbers, however, more people are starting to catch on to the idea of using brand pages for marketing. The reason for that is because the 1 billion people using Facebook actually like following their favorite brands on Facebook. In fact, many of them say they’d rather follow the brand’s Facebook page than to spend time on the brand’s website. That’s pretty startling news.
Of course, it could have something to do with Facebook being as much a creative outlet as a marketing tool. With your Facebook brand page, you can interact with your customers in a unique way. Instead of throwing marketing slogans at them, enter into a conversation with them.
Conversational marketing is the new paradigm and Facebook fits into that paradigm perfectly. Your brand page can be a graphic representation of that paradigm and offer your fans a powerful new way to connect with your company. And it’s only going to get better.
Tags: brand pages, facebook, marketing, online marketing, social networking
Posted in Social Media | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
One marketing concept that has caught on and become very popular in the last couple of years is the idea of content curation. There are several content curation platforms online that make this easy for the average small business owner to accomplish. You’ve likely heard of sites like paper.li and scoop.it. These are online curation platforms that you can join and start curating, but is it worth it?
I personally think that online content curation is somewhat overrated. Most curation platforms allow publishers the ability to select content published on a variety of websites for distilling into one product. That product – a “magazine”, if you will – is then tweeted, shared on Facebook, or distributed through RSS or other means. Many curation platforms allow publishers to include text-based content, videos, images, and social media content. But for many of them it involves an expense for the business owner to get the most useful features of the service.
I’m not saying that content curation doesn’t have its benefits. I don’t think it’s the future of marketing, but you could say that it is a pretty powerful present.
I believe online publishing is going to improve, and when it does content curation will either go by way of other Internet dinosaurs or evolve with the rest of the Web. Someday, you may see interactive magazines that do for online content what print magazines have done for traditional marketing for the past 50 years. Until then, online content curation is a useful marketing concept.
Tags: content curation, marketing, online marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Monday, July 9th, 2012
As a marketer, and as a social media consultant, I get a little defensive whenever someone says anything negative about my profession. But Shel Israel recently had a thoughtful post on marketing and social media at Forbes. One thing he said in particular threw me for a loop.
Organizations are back to measuring social media programs in terms of ROI, which makes as little sense as determining the ROI of wearing clothing to a business meeting. There are just some things that have obvious value, but are very hard to measure in dollar value.
If you think about it, this makes sense. Who measures the ROI of their wardrobe?
Now I’m not against measuring ROI, but marketers should realize that there are weaknesses to any system or operational tool that promises to give you a dollar value to every social media interaction. It just isn’t possible. Some things have inherent value without a monetary unit attached to it.
That said, when you devise your next social media campaign, try to make it conversational. Don’t approach every tweet, Facebook message, or action in terms of what you can get out of it. Try connecting with your audience. I mean, really connecting.
If you can’t connect with your audience in social media and have a conversation with the people who buy your products, then you will likely start being ignored. And you can measure that.
Tags: marketing, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments »
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Does your website promote every service that you offer? It may seem like a good idea, yet that very concept could be harming your business. Peter Lawlor has an article on Copyblogger that discusses this issue, and much of what he says makes sense. If you do cover a wide area in your niche, it can be hard to adequately cover them all properly on webpage. I know many would argue that a website can cover a virtually infinite number of business areas, and they are right, a website can, however, a single page cannot.
Your front page is the dress window of your business. If you provide a service across a dozen or more areas, can your front page effectively promote them all without looking overcrowded. Worse yet, does it make it look like your a desperate trying to cover that large range – in effect, a jack of all trades and master of none?
I wrote last week about having a single website to cover your entire business, and this article by Peter Lawlor does follow up nicely on that topic. There’s a fine balance that needs to be found when running a broad based business. You don’t necessarily need a dozen websites to cover your business, in fact, a single site for just one area of your business could have the opposite effect, make you look too narrow.
What is needed is a careful balance that gives you a professional edge. You can link sites in a number of ways – a blog can make a good tool for pooled resources. There’s also no harm in bridging some areas of your business over two websites. For many, the website is their business. What that front page says to a potential customer will determine whether or not they stay and do business with you. If that front page doesn’t exude confidence and ability, then you’re going to lose custom, and that’s the danger you face if you try to sell to much of yourself on that one page. Sometimes, small business internet marketing starts with the decisions you make about your website structure.
Tags: marketing, website structure
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Having an online business, or a bricks and mortar business with an online presence, doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing. Most of the offline marketing techniques used still hold true to an online business. Segmenting your market, promoting in places where your potential customers hangout are just two good examples.
I recently read a report that suggested businesses could increase their sales by using one single technique – removing the dollar sign. There does appear to be a big difference in consumer habits when it comes to prices. How do you respond to $7 compared to 7 dollars compared just 7.00? It seems sales went up when businesses removed that dollar reference.
This is nothing new. Many years ago, marketers cottoned on to the idea of reducing prices by one or five cents. We are now driven mad with $9.95 or $9.99 type price tags – we know that nine registers rather than ten, and that ten dollars is often a price barrier (or multiples, ie, $20, $30, $100 etc). These are all bricks and mortar tactics that work, and that continue to work, even in an online world. Smart marketers are now applying these techniques to postage and packaging charges with great effect.
Traditional marketing works, even in an online environment. Those traditional marketing tactics have earned their stripes the hard way, being put to the test each and every day. Proof of this may well be seen over time with Facebook’s new timeline, and the large image you can use. Get that image right, and it will be very similar to a roadside billboard, or businesses shopfront. It’s just a case of transferring that bricks and mortar mindset to an online world. Are you using traditional marketing for small business techniques?
Tags: marketing, Social Media
Posted in Traditional Marketing for Small Business | 6 Comments »
Friday, March 16th, 2012
Like it or hate it, Facebook’s Timeline is here to stay, at least, until they decide to make another change. You can leave your page as it is, or you can make use of some of the new components, and some of them could be fairly handy. If you don’t make use of them, you could be wasting a good opportunity to promote your business.
Some of the new components that businesses need to be aware off include:
- Popular content – you may need to be careful about the type of content you publish, and how you promote that content. Popular content will rise to the top, so the most popular content will sit at the very top. Popular is measure by way of comments and likes, so a negative review could sit at the top for everyone to see. Because it’s on top, it could generate new comments and likes, so keeping it on top. Ideally, you want positive content at the top in order to boost your businesses reputation – so heavily promote positive content.
- Images are important – the Facebook Timeline is heavy on images. Your top banner should be 851 x 315 – that’s a decent sized image, and one that can be used to great effect. You will need to review the Facebook terms and conditions, since there are several things that are strictly forbidden, for example, prices or ‘buy now’ statements.You can also use images to effect
- About Us – Your ‘About Us’ content will sit just below your Timeline image. Make sure that content counts, however, keep it brief and too the point.
- Pinning - A feature that many businesses could use to effect is ‘pinning’. You can pin a post to the top of your content and it will stay there for seven days (unless you remove it earlier). Like your top image and About Us section, this is one of the first areas that users see when they arrive on your Facebook page. Use it to your advantage and make a positive connection with your visitors.
Facebook Timelines are here to stay and they do have components that make branding and marketing a business much easier. Don’t waste your Facebook opportunities, put them to good use, especially since they only take minutes to set up.
Tags: Branding, facebook, Facebook's Timeline, marketing, Reputation Management
Posted in Social Media | 14 Comments »
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Everywhere I look I see stories about a site called Pinterest. We discussed this site several weeks ago in a post titled Pinterest – A Social Media Site Worth Consideration. Since then, everyone seems to have an opinion about the site, and they all appear to be positive. One wonders how a site that is still in beta and is invitation only could generate such interest; that in itself should have marketers sitting up and taking notice. Of course, Pinterest could be just another fad that will rise quickly and fall just as quickly.
There is something about Pinterest that does capture the eye. It could be the ease of use, or perhaps its central philosophy – we all love lists, and Pinterest is really based on that list philosophy, the only difference being that these lists are generally image and video related. There are some notable differences between Pinterest and many other sites. To begin with, it’s already monetized. Don’t be surprised to see some of your content bearing links – that’s how they make their money. Fortunately, it’s not overdone.
Another area that marketers will like is that you can add prices – in effect, using content to advertize what you are selling, price and all. The site is not setup up to be a marketer’s paradise, but with the right approach, it could be very effective. There are reports that Pinterest is delivering more traffic than Twitter and Google+ combined – and I repeat, it’s still in beta.
With all the talk centering around this site, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Pinterest open up completely fairly soon. The owners will most likely want to capitalize on free publicity that is currently being generated – it’s priceless, and with so many reviews positive, it is bound to rival Twitter in terms of user numbers very quickly. If you can get an invite, grab one, and start setting up your pin boards now. You have little to lose, and perhaps a lot to gain when it comes to marketing your small business.
Tags: marketing, Pinterest
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 10 Comments »
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