February 1st, 2012
The value of content marketing can’t be understated. After all, what is the Internet but a big conglomeration of words?
If you are marketing online, it is important to understand the concept of content marketing. (Or you should have a trusted online marketing company working with you who understands it!)
Content marketing is the technique of creating and distributing content that is relevant and valuable with the purpose of attracting, engaging and acquiring a clearly defined and understood target audience with the goal of generating revenue.
To fully understand the statement above, let’s break it down into its key components:
Key Component 1: “content that is relevant and valuable”
Just because it is called “content marketing” does not mean that the content provided should be a series of sales pitches. Nothing turns off an audience more than a lot of information thrown at them about why they should choose your product or service. No matter how much you attempt to hide your sales pitch, today’s savvy consumers will sniff it out and shun you for it.
Content marketing should be thought of more as education. Consumer’s today want to do proper research before making a purchase. (And, the larger the price, the more research they’ll want to do.) So, give them what they are looking for!
Here’s a question to help you get in the proper frame of mind…
Do consumers need your product or service? If so, why? Hint: It has nothing to do with the fact that you are the best. In fact, it has nothing to do with you at all! Your product or service is fixing a problem they have or serving a purpose that matters to them. Tell them how your product or service will do that.
Key Component 2: “the purpose of attracting, engaging and acquiring”
The crucial words here are “the purpose.” The purpose of content marketing is to create a following of people who are reading your content and engaged with you. In essence, you need to create your own fan base. By doing so, you will be creating a mini-sales force of sorts since your fans will tell their friends about your company – which will create an even bigger fan base.
Notice what the purpose is not. The purpose of content marketing is not to generate revenue. This is the ultimate goal, of course, and we’ll elaborate on the goal in a moment, but the purpose is to create your own group of followers who go to you for the information they need and want. When you understand the true purpose of content marketing; the copy you produce will naturally be more relevant and educational and not sales copy.
Key Component 3: “clearly defined and understood target audience”
Do you have a deep understanding of your target audience? Your target audience is the people who are most likely to be in the market for the product or service you are offering. Here’s a hint for you: your target audience is NOT anyone with a checkbook! Your target audience (or target market) is much more specific than that. No matter what you are selling, there is a way to identify your ideal customer. Factors to consider are gender, socio-economic status, marital status, and age. You might find it helpful to create a fictional person who fits the characteristics of your ideal customer and then think of them when writing your content. The more specific you can be, the more your ideal customers will recognize themselves and understand how your product or service will appeal to them.
Key Component 4: “the goal of generating revenue”
Ah, the fun part! Yes, the goal of content marketing, just like any marketing technique, is to generate revenue. However, the distinction to be made here is that you can’t get directly from “A” (creating content) to “B” (generating revenue). There are some very important steps in between. But when you understand the steps and focus on them, you will find that content marketing is a very profitable technique to incorporate into your overall marketing plan.
Tags: content marketing, email marketing, ezine marketing, social media marketing
Posted in Email Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
January 26th, 2012
Google Adwords has revolutionized the advertising industry, but it seems as if some think Adwords is no longer useful to small business. Since Adwords launched in October of 2000 with 350 customers, there has been many changes and most noticeable is the increasing cost per click for keywords.
Some of the early Adwords adopters can recall $.5 and $.10 clicks and for most markets these prices are long gone and likely never to return. But Google’s pay per click platform still has many advantages over traditional advertising media like radio and television. Business owners, marketers and even Adwords enthusiast should be testing other traffic sources, as it’s never a smart business move to depend on one lead source. However, Google Adwords is still one of the best ways to drive fast targeted traffic and should be considered as one of the first advertising methods you utilize to grow your business online.
Here are three simple reasons why Adwords is still good for business.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »
January 19th, 2012
2012 – This is your year to experience abundance in the ROI of your online marketing efforts. Of course, there are many factors that will contribute to the success or failure of a paid search campaign. This is the first of several upcoming articles that will provide you tools, tips and tricks that will enable you to achieve your 2012 marketing goals. Since incorrect or nonexistent keywords strategies seem to be an overwhelming culprit to failed campaigns, the first series of articles will focus on developing a keywords strategy that will set you up for victory.
The selection of keywords is an intricate process. There could be hundreds or thousands of keywords that relate to your business. Should you use them all? That’s a great question and the answer is “it depends”. Prior to determining what keywords you should use, there are many questions you must consider. Today, we’ll talk about the budget and relevancy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2012 online marketing, keywords, online marketing, pay-per-click marketing, ppc, ppc campaigns, Search Engine Marketing, SEM
Posted in Keywords, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »
January 12th, 2012
 We’ve discussed in the past how we expect social signals to influence search results in the near future. In the middle of 2011 Bing integrated Facebook signals as part of its algorithm. Announced yesterday, Google is now counting Google+ as part of their metrics when the user (person searching) is logged in.
With this in mind, there are some very specific things you’ll want to consider as you begin implementing that well thought out marketing plan for 2012:
It’s All About Content
If this is the first article you’ve read about websites, SEO, or social media, one thing you’ll see over and over is that it’s all about content. You must produce content your audience is going to want and, more importantly, want to share.
This content can come in many forms. Many people think of traditional content on a website. Also a the top of mind is usually the content they’d post on a blog or press releases. Fewer, though, would think of video, Facebook statuses, Tweets, Slideshare presentations, or the like.
The point is there are so many opportunities for developing content you need to ensure you’re not getting pigeonholed into one or but also need to be cautious of casting your net so wide you’re being ineffective. Bottom line: you will not survive Internet Marketing 2012 without content.
You Don’t Need a Profile To Be Social
With Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn, you don’t have to have an active profile in order to start developing the signals you need in order to rank well in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages). What do you need then? Provide a way for users to share your content.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Facebook, Google, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, smm, social media, social media marketing, social search
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media | No Comments »
January 6th, 2012
No matter what industry you are in, generating sales leads is critical. Every business sells something and whether it is a service or a product, you need to constantly generate leads that will transition into clients.
What Is A Sales Lead?
A sales lead is a person who has expressed interest in your product or service. In other words, they have “raised their hand” in some way letting you know that they are beginning their education process which may, or may not, lead to an eventual sale for your company.
In the online world, a lead is often thought of as anyone for whom you have a name and email address. This is not necessarily true. If the person voluntarily gave you their name and email address that essentially lets you know that they are interested, and that is a lead. However, if you have collected business cards at an event or gathered names and email addresses using a list broker, these are not leads; they are simply contacts.
What Is The Real Value Of A Lead?
A sales lead is the result of some marketing effort. A lot of time and effort is spent trying to get leads so it is important to understand the true value of a sales lead. It is also important to understand that without a good follow-up plan, a sales lead is a tremendously wasted opportunity. This is because a person who has voluntarily given you their information is not only letting you know they are interested, often they are asking you to contact them because they would like to continue the education process.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: digital trends, email marketing, internet marketing, localdirective website development, pay-per-click marketing, Search Engine Marketing, search engine marketing terms, social media marketing
Posted in Case Studies, Email Marketing, Local Directive Case Study, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website | No Comments »
December 22nd, 2011
Google is always adding or changing something and for the casual user most of the changes go unnoticed. However, the advertisers, webmasters and business owners are always trying to find a secret tip or magic bullet to give them an advantage over the competition. Google’s advertising program Adwords, has made many changes in 2011, but one change that has went under the radar is extended headlines.
These longer headlines are important to adwords users because the headline is the most critical part of any ad, and a longer headline is going to draw more attention and hopefully more clicks. Increasing the click-through-rate will help improve your quality score and decrease the cost per click. While this is far from a magic bullet, the advertisers that take advantage of this updated feature will definitely have a slight edge on the competition.
What are Adwords Extended Headlines?
In a traditional adwords ad there can only be 25 characters in the headline and 35 characters in each of the two description lines totaling 70 characters. Adwords extended headlines take your first description line and add it to the main headline giving you a much longer and noticeable headline.
These extended headlines look like billboards compared to the traditional adwords ad shown on the right side of the image above.
How can you take advantage of this?
The longer headlines are only awarded to the advertisers in the premium spots or the top 3 positions above the organic search results. This means that you need to have a well-structured campaign with tightly themed ad groups and great ads. This will be the hard part for most advertisers. The good news is once you get your ad to start showing up in the premium spots it’s pretty easy to get the extended headline. You simply need to use a complete sentence in the first description line. In the image above, the third ad is in a premium spot and used proper punctuation. As you can see the headline is longer than the other premium ads and much longer than the traditional ads to the right.
An extended headline is an easy way to stand out and draw attention to your brand and may just give you the edge you need to get the searcher to click on your ad. If you need assistance with improving the rest of your adwords campaign and building a dominating presence online, contact us to get started.
Tags: Adwords, extended headlines, pay-per-click marketing, ppc, Search Engine Marketing
Posted in Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »
December 15th, 2011
Landing pages have been around for over 20 years. Even though the primary purpose of a landing page has not changed over time, the attributes that have turned viewers into converters has changed. This article will provide you with some landing page best practices to keep in mind that will help turn your visitors into converters. First, let’s talk about what a landing does for you.
The most important function of a landing page is to convince a potential customer to convert. Although the most profitable conversion is typically a sale, a conversion could be anything that you deem as valuable such as:
• Requesting additional information
• Making a phone call
• Completing a form
• Registering for an event
• Forwarding the page to someone else
• Donating to a cause
• Watching a video
• Posting a comment or proving feedback
• Completing a form
• Visiting another webpage on the current site or a different website
Have a single goal of in mind.
Now that you know some of the possible goals of your landing page, you need to decide which goal works best for you business needs. Before you begin investing your time and money into designing a landing page, you must have a clear idea of what type of conversion you want the visitor to complete. If you give the visitor too many options, the visit will more than likely leave the page without converting.
Help your visitor make a decision to covert.
Walk your potential customers through a story that convinces them to convert. Let them know you understand their pain. Then, share with them some options that will alleviate their pain. Next, explain to them why you are the best person to provide the solutions that will minimize or eliminate the challenges. Finally, give them a clear call to action, which is covered in the next section.
Tell your visitor what it is you want them to do.
If you want your visitor to register for an event, tell him or so. If you want them to donate money, ask. If your goal is to have the visitor call you, then tell them to pick up the phone and call.
Tags: conversions, customers, digital trends, fund-raiser, Google, high rankings, internet marketing, landing page, localdirective website development, pay-per-click marketing, search engine, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, viewers, website revitilization, website target audience
Posted in Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Uncategorized, Website | No Comments »
December 8th, 2011
 When companies think about Social Media Marketing the things that normally come to mind are viral marketing and how many people have liked, followed, subscribed, or otherwise engaged the company.
While these are all measurements companies will want to keep an eye on, if these are all a company looks at, there is a major benefit of Social Media being missed: Search Engine Optimization.
The Often Forgotten Piece of SEO
While anyone who has done some basic reading and learning on Search Engine Optimization understands the on-page factors of the art, many forget or don’t understand the off-page piece. When we look at off-page optimization, we look at those things not directly on the website that impact placement in search engine results (SERP’s). These factors can include things like linking domains, anchor text, domain authority, and more.
One of the newer pieces of SEO is what’s known as social signals. As we reported in April, social interactions (e.g., Facebook “Likes” and Google “+1’s”) are beginning to influence SERP’s. However, social has much more to offer SEO than these overt social signals.
How Social Impacts SEO
- Direct Social Influence – As we just mentioned the Facebook Likes and Google +1’s are directly impacting SERP’s. This is becoming more important as Search Engines increase personalized results. As users continue increasing their social interaction, we will continue to see this increase in the influence of search results.
- Social Shares – One of the signals Search Engines look at is how many times your content has been shared on social space (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Social Bookmarks, etc). Having a socially ready website and/or blog is the beginning (this means having sharing options like the AddThis toolbar built into your website). It also means you have to be letting users of Social Networks know your content is available, and you have to produce content they’ll want to share. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, smm, social media, social media marketing
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media | No Comments »
December 2nd, 2011
Today, Facebook is one of the very best ways for retail businesses to connect with consumers. However, as with all marketing techniques, there are best practices that will increase the effectiveness. A recent study conducted provides data that can help you develop these best practices and greatly increase your engagement rate. And, a higher engagement rate means higher revenue.
How To Judge Success
In the social networking arena, the yardstick for measuring success is the rate of feedback you receive from consumers, or “engagement rate.” For this study, the engagement rate was determined by combining the number of “Likes” and the number of “comments” as a percentage of fan base. The following findings were determined based on actions that caused the highest engagement rate.
What Day Of The Week Should I Post On Facebook?
Most retailers tend to post on Facebook during the business week and less frequently on the weekend. However, research shows that Wednesday is the best day for retail brands to post on Facebook, with Sunday being the second best day. It turns out that Friday is the worst day to post.
What Time of Day Should I Post On Facebook?
Consumers tend to be busy and unable to access Facebook between the hours of 8am and 7pm. This is also the time when most retail brands post on Facebook. However, posts made between the hours between 8pm and 7am result in a 20% higher engagement rate.
How Many Times Per Day Should I Post?
Retailers often wonder how often they should post on Facebook. The research shows that engagement rates are 40% higher when there are less than 3 posts per day. If you post more than 3 posts per day you will find your engagement rate fall.
How Many Posts Should I Post Per Week?
When it comes to posts, focus on quality, not quantity. The study showed that posting 1 to 4 times per week produces 71% higher user engagement than posting 5 or more times.
How Long Should A Post Be?
Even the length of a post impacts engagement rate. The research showed that posts that are 80 characters or less receive 66% higher engagement rate than longer posts. Posts that are less than 40 characters generate the highest engagement rate.
What Is the Best Method For Generating Comments?
Asking questions is an excellent way to generate consumer feedback. Engagement rate increases when consumers are given the opportunity to participate in a two-way conversation. But an even better way to increase engagement is to provide consumers an offer. Coupons offering “$ off” and “% off” work well, but the research shows that “$ off” receive twice the engagement of “% off.”
What You Can Do With These Findings?
Using the data above, you can easily add techniques into your social media marketing campaign that will increase your engagement rate. By making simple tweaks to your Facebook marketing plan, you will see more activity from consumers which will result in greater consumer loyalty to your brand.
Tags: Facebook, internet marketing, smm, social media, social media marketing
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
November 25th, 2011
YouTube is considered to be the second largest search engine behind Google. While you may not consider YouTube to even be a search engine, your customers do, and are watching reviews, “how to” content, and entertaining videos right now. YouTube reports to receive 800M unique visitors a month. (Yes, that’s an M for million.)
Maybe you have hundreds of videos that you want to use to attract new customers, or you’re wondering how you can leverage YouTube traffic without any video content at all. Whatever the case, YouTube has an affordable advertising solution for your business and in this article we’ll cover 3 easy ways to advertise on YouTube.
YouTube Display Ads
Do you want to advertise on YouTube but don’t have any video content? No Problem, Invideo display ads allow you to advertise on or next to relevant YouTube videos. Display ads are the banners ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen when watching a video. Additionally, advertisers can choose to market next to relevant YouTube videos with companion ads at no additional cost. When a viewer clicks on your ad he is taken directly to your website.
If you already have existing display ads or just want to grow the awareness of a product or service, YouTube display ads can be a very cost effective way to get in front of potential customers.
In Stream Video Ads
InStream video ads are 15 second video clips that appear before or after YouTube videos. This option is great for businesses that already have video assets. The 15 second video should immediately capture the viewer’s attention and should also have a very strong call to action. These ads are similar to TV ads but unlike television commercials InStream ads are clickable, and once clicked will take the user directly to your website.
InStream video ads are a great option for branding and growing awareness for your product or service.
Promoted Videos
Promoted videos are very similar to Adwords search ads on Google as they advertise videos next to relevant search results in YouTube. Promoted videos are usually on top of, or to the right of search results in YouTube. These videos are sometimes highlighted in yellow or light blue to differentiate from the organic YouTube videos.
Promoted video are different than In-Stream video ads and Display ads in that once a viewer clicks on the ad instead of being taken directly to your website, she is taken to your YouTube channel. The YouTube channel will host all of your video content and will also give you an opportunity to engage and interact with potential customers on a regular and frequent basis.
Promoted videos are great for businesses that want to build a community and have valuable content to share on their channel.
Advertise Your Business on YouTube
Display ads, InStream ads, and Promoted videos are all relatively inexpensive when compared to traditional pay per click advertising on Google. YouTube is a great opportunity for any business that has something of value to share with the world, and what better place to do it than YouTube.
Tags: internet marketing, video marketing, YouTube Advertising
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
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