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Social Media Has Changed Everything in Marketing

Doug Williams @ 4:17 am

This blog entry was posted on August 31, 2009.

Use social media to build your brand and your reputation, not to sell products. Brand yourself as a leader. Your brand is what you represent, what you care about and your connection to others. You want to be the unique and persuasive voice in your market. Your goal is to create a cultural following.

Success will happen because of effort. Successful social media marketing takes many hours each day and takes engaging your market at every turn. Social media marketing is about being where the conversations are happening and then interacting in these conversations.

It creates opportunity. The power is in brand development and brand perception. Success with using social media is not a sprint, it’s running the marathon. Success is built by building honest relationships. Authenticity must be real.

Today we live in a world where you can’t hide. The world will become more transparent… not less. There is no more lurking in the shadows. Social media shines a light on everything and everybody.

The online marketing landscape has changed tremendously in just the past 5 years. It is getting increasingly chaotic. The old style of controlling your market is dead. It is about interacting and conversing with your market at a grassroots level.

Information itself should have no price and all content should be offered free. Social media marketing is about giving out this information in exchange for building your brand and your reputation as the authority. Your goal is to make a difference and to make your market better.

Your business can make money by packaging the information in a way that has value. This can be in the form of courses, books, seminars and personal consulting. Spending time with clients and giving advice and planning has a high value.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing



A Clear Call to Action Get’s the “Yes”

Doug Williams @ 5:43 am

This blog entry was posted on August 29, 2009.

The most important thing in any offer is that it be clear and concise. There is an old marketing maxim is that “a confused mind always says no.” Too many choices or a weak call to action and your website visitor will say that’s interesting and simply move on.

Remember that most people on the Internet don’t read everything on the page, they scan. Attention spans are short. You need to capture the attention of your visitor, get them interested and then follow through with a clear and compelling offer.

Most of your competition may have an interesting ad, present good information, some benefits but they don’t ask for a direct and instant response. They may get the reader interested, but they don’t follow through with the 1-2 punch to close the deal.

People are not looking to buy your products or services. They buy the solution to their problem. They are after results. They are thinking “what’s in it for me?”

The 3-step sales process for a web page:

  1. Headline: Grab their attention a with compelling and benefits driven statement. Don’t be afraid to make it entertaining. Give them the promise of something good to come. Hook your readers with the promise and then close the deal with your content.
  2. Content: Readers are there to solve a specific need or problem that they have. Give them the information they want and avoid unsubstantiated marketing hype. Format it for scanning with bold, italicized or bulleted text. Use strong action verbs and a confident tone. They need reassurance that your solution will work for them.
  3. Call-to-action: This is the most important aspect of your page. Tell your visitor what you want them to do: buy, register, call or sign-up. Don’t make them hunt for your call to action! Make it clearly visible, preferably above the fold. Never give more than 3 choices or options or they will not make a decision.

Remember, “A confused mind always says no.”

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Pay per Click



8 Popular Social Media Myths

Doug Williams @ 2:30 am

This blog entry was posted on August 27, 2009.

Many believe that social media is fast, cheap and easy. Social Media Marketing is the new frontier that businesses want to be a part of. With new frontiers comes misunderstandings and theories… many of which are just plain wrong.

Myth #1 Social media is free or at least cheap. Although the tools are free to use it is expensive to integrate these tools into an effective corporate Internet marketing campaign that gets real results. An effective campaign requires a team of professionals with skill and experience.

Myth #2 Social Media Marketing is easy. No, it takes lots of time and commitment. It takes a strategic plan to be successful. It takes work each day to make slow gains on many different social media platforms. Results need to be tracked and measured.

Myth #3 Content should all be charged for. No, the goal of social media marketing is to brand you as the expert, the go-to company when someone needs something done right. In the social media arena, “The more you give, the more you get.” It is about building your reputation and your brand as the authority.

Myth #4 Social media is for young people. No, young people may have been the original early adopters, but now social media is being used by all ages. Each Social media website develops its own community and its own demographic profile. A good tool for looking up these demographics is quantcast.com.

Myth #5 Blogging and social media are too risky. Many companies are afraid to blog or participate in social media for fear of a negative reaction or messing up. Online conversations will take place about your company or your brand with or without you. It is more risky to not be a part of this social media world.

Myth #6 Social Media Marketing is placing ads on Facebook. No, this is paid advertising. Social Media Marketing is interacting and engaging with your audience. Placing banner ads does not do this. The goal in social media is to inspire trust and show your business is credible and trustworthy.

Myth #7 Social Media Marketing gives nothing measurable. Although it may be tough to measure the intangibles such as reputation and brand awareness, social media is very effective in improving search engine optimization. Better organic search results bring more traffic, more leads and more sales.

Myth #8 There are no measurable statistics for Social Media. There are many good monitoring tools and methods to measure the impact of your campaign. This includes the number of mentions for your company name, comments on blog posts, number of friends or fans, followers on Twitter, trackbacks or the number of visitors to your website referred from social media sites.

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Filed under: Myth Busters,Social Media Marketing



How to Maximize Your PPC Campaign

Doug Williams @ 2:49 am

This blog entry was posted on August 25, 2009.

Pay-per-click marketing is a way to quickly get your offer in front of millions of people. PPC can get great results fast or cause you to burn through a lot of money and get no results. The difference is in the planning and execution of your campaign. Here are some tips to maximize your PPC marketing efforts.

  1. Keywords: Choose your keywords carefully. They should be highly relevant to your product or service. Don’t just select popular phrases. Longer phrases are better for getting PPC results. Research shows that people just starting to learn about a subject will search using 1-2 word phrases. People ready to purchase or take action will search using specific 3-5 word phrases.
  2. Ad copy: Your ad is your initial entry to your landing page. It should include the specific keyword phrase the searcher used to find your ad. This means having a different ad for each keyword phrase (or group of keyword phrases) will increase your conversion rate.
  3. Use landing pages: Never send PPC traffic to the home page of your website. A landing page is a simplified web page with limited or no navigation links and is focused on getting your visitor to take a specific action. To maximize conversion, the keyword phrase used in the original search, should be used in the ad, in the landing page name and headline of the landing page.
  4. Landing page headlines: The landing page headline should be located in the top left portion of the page just below a small company logo. It should include your keyword phrase and clearly state a compelling benefit or how you solve your visitor’s problem.
  5. Call to action: Make it easy for your visitor to take action on your landing page. Locate your embedded form or action link where it is clearly visible and above the fold.

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Filed under: Pay per Click



How to Build Trust with People on Your Mailing List

Doug Williams @ 5:13 am

This blog entry was posted on August 23, 2009.

Online consumers today simply don’t trust email marketers. Effective email marketing means building trust with the people on your list. Violate that trust with spam or breach common email etiquette and members on your email list will evaporate.

You will want your message received with a positive impression. This will mean the difference between having your email read or just deleted without a second thought. Building trust is an ongoing process that you have to work on with every communication and every interaction with your prospective customer.

  1. Targeting: Your original offer should appeal to your ideal target audience. This way your emails will be about topics your prospect will be most interested in and will be eager to read.
  2. Sign-up bonus: When someone signs up for your mailing list, offer a free report, software or some online tool as a reward.
  3. Double Opt -in/ Easy Opt-out: All mailing list sign-ups should send an email that has the requestor confirm they want to be on your list (double opt-in). Every email you send should also include a simple opt-out link.
  4. Keep commitments: Always follow through and send information that was asked for. Set up auto responders to automatically send reports or commentaries that are requested.
  5. Don’t spam: Once someone signs up to your list, don’t inundate them with promotional offers. When someone signs up, let them know what to expect such as a monthly or weekly newsletters.
  6. Provide value: The topics of your emails need to be tangible and helpful. Provide tips, news, how-to advice, commentaries and cost saving ideas.
  7. Allow Interaction: Get opinions and input from your mailing list using survey tools. You can get ideas for topics, specials and even offers that your readers want to see.
  8. Keep it simple: Avoid complex emails that include Flash, sound, videos etc. Use HTML wisely and keep the focus on your message.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



8 Popular Pay-Per-Click Myths

Doug Williams @ 4:26 am

This blog entry was posted on August 21, 2009.

PPC or Pay per Click is an important method of search engine marketing (SEM). This paid advertising method is its own science to first attract a visitor to click on an ad and then designing a landing page that will convert this visitor into a lead or a sale.

Myth #1: You will see instant results when you launch PPC. You can’t just start PPC and then forget about it. You can get very poor results or burn through a lot of cash. PPC takes careful planning, keyword selection and development of landing pages to get proper results.

Myth #2: PPC will help your organic search engine rankings. PPC has no direct impact on your SEO rankings. You can spend as much as you want on PPC and it won’t change a thing in your organic results. Google does not apply bonus points to your organic rankings if you spend money on PPC. PPC ads use JavaScript and these ads do not count as anchor text links back to your website.

Myth #3: I don’t need paid listings if I have a top 10 result on organic listings. Having your listings in both the paid listings and natural search results will give you more credibility and website traffic. The two listings seem to reinforce your brand and the traffic volume multiplies.

Myth #4 PPC is the least expensive form of search marketing. No, PPC can easily be the most expensive form of search engine marketing. It is important to optimize a PPC campaign with keyword selection, the wording of ads and landing page design to maximize conversion rates and to lower the cost per conversion.

Myth #5 In PPC, the most expensive keywords are costly because they provide better returns. No, the pricing is based on the popularity and competition for a given phrase. PPC is a pure auction environment where higher demand creates higher pricing and has no relationship to your potential return on investment.

Myth #6: Google is the only search engine that matters in PPC. No, Google does have the highest traffic volume, but other search engines such as Bing/MSN can often yield better ROI. It is a good idea to diversify your advertising onto multiple search engines.

Myth #7 You need to be #1 to get good results. No, #2 and #3 will often cost much less per click and give a better ROI. Number one will get more traffic, but the cost per click is frequently much more expensive. Frequently a lower position will be your “best” most cost efficient solution.

Myth #8 PPC Geo targeting does not work. Local or regional businesses require local visitors for their PPC. Geo targeting in PPC is based on the user IP address. Some Internet providers have IP’s that inaccurately show the users location. It is much better to use location modified keyword phrases such as “denver dry cleaner” or “portland auto repair”.

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Filed under: Myth Busters,Pay per Click



Twitter Tweets are over 40 Percent Pointless Babble

Doug Williams @ 5:24 pm

This blog entry was posted on August 18, 2009.

Twitter is arguably one of the most powerful forces in social media today. Twitter is the real time communication tool that many millions of people use to share news, insights and conversations. But is that true? Are they “meaningful conversations or senseless babble”? How do people use Twitter?

Pear Research recently released a study that sought to answer that question. Their study released in August 2009 looked at 2000 tweets spread over a 10 day period. They categorized the tweets into six possible categories:

1. News (mainstream news topics)
2. Spam (Junk tweets)
3. Self Promotion (Promoting products or company)
4. Pointless Babble (I’m now eating a …)
5. Conversational (back and forth tweets)
6. Pass-Along Value (Re-Tweets)

Pear Research Results:

  1. Pointless Babble: 40.55%
  2. Conversational: 37.55%
  3. Pass-Along Value: 8.70%
  4. Self Promotion: 5.85%
  5. Spam: 3.75%
  6. News: 3.60%

The top category was “pointless babble” followed closely “conversational” tweets. The news category was dead last. “Spam” and “Pointless Babble” seemed to have their highest rates at about 3PM. Tweets with Pass-Along Value seem to occur more in the morning.

The study also noted that Twitter has put a new face on their website. They are moving away from “What are you doing now?” to “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”.

How will Twitter use continue to evolve? Pear Analytics intends to repeat its study every quarter to track trends in Twitter usage.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing



8 Popular Website Traffic Myths

Doug Williams @ 5:00 am

This blog entry was posted on August 17, 2009.

There is a lot of  misinformation om ways of getting visitor traffic to your website. Many people are searching for the magic pill to achieve their traffic goals. Remember, SEO is a never ending practice with many facets and methods.

Myth #1: SEO is a collection of tricks designed to fool search engines. SEO done correctly brings targeted traffic to your website that is searching for what you offer. The object is not to fool the search engines, it is to communicate exactly what your web page and your site is about.

Myth #2: SEO just means putting keywords in the META tags. Almost every website owner has heard of META tags. They used an important part of SEO, but no longer. Of all the META tags, only the Title tag is given any importance by Google. The focus today is on selecting the correct keyword phrases and using these in the visible text on the web page and in the inbound links from other websites.

Myth #3: Do SEO once and you will get great results forever? In the “old days” of SEO, circa 2000, you used to be able to optimize a website and leave it alone. Even though the basics remain the same of using the keywords in the visible text, search engines are constantly changing and evolving what it takes to be in a top search position.

Myth #4: SEO requires 400-600 words of text on a web page. Although search engines use the text on the page to determine what a page is about, there is no magic number of how much text is required to be optimized. A web page needs enough text to communicate your marketing message, whether it is 250 words or 600 words.

Myth #5: Flash on your website hurts your search rankings. It is the absence of text that will hurt your rankings. Having Flash within your website does not hurt. Think of Flash much like any other graphic image; there is no text in Flash for the search engines to read.

Myth #6: Multiple copies of your website help rankings. Search engines reward original writings and discount duplicate content. Making multiple copies of your website will not help your rankings.

Myth #7: Blogs get preferential rankings on search engines. Including a blog in your website won’t magically give you a top ranking on Google. Blogs are a powerful SEO tool because they regularly add keyword rich content to your website, broadcast your message via RSS and attract links.

Myth #8: You need to optimize for the long tail. No, you optimize for the more competitive keyword phrases. This includes plenty of keyword rich content and attracting links from other websites. Long tail phrases will “optimize naturally” and your website will be found for many of these low-volume long-tail phrases as a byproduct of optimization.

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Filed under: Myth Busters,SEO Strategies



Using Craigslist to Market Your Business

Doug Williams @ 5:47 am

This blog entry was posted on August 15, 2009.

Service oriented businesses like contractors, landscapers, house cleaners, sales professionals and more are constantly looking for new avenues of advertising their business. Advertising in other classifieds to generate leads or sales can be quite expensive. A free alternative is Craigslist. You will want to become familiar with their posting guidelines to avoid having your ads removed.

Craigslist is a US based classified advertising website that is ranked in the top 25 websites in the world. They have local classifieds in over in approximately 570 cities in 50 countries. The majority of posts on Craigslist are available free of charge with the exception of job listings in the major metropolitan areas. The site serves over twenty billion page views per month. Almost 77% of the website visitors come from the US.

Promoting your business on Craigslist is very effective if you are on a tight budget or have no budget at all. Craigslist provides nearly everything you could want to find in any specific area. It is highly categorized by products and services. There are excellent search capabilities making it very easy to locate specific products or services.

Craigslist was created by Craig Newmark in 1995 to serve the San Francisco Bay area as a free classified ad service. By the year 2000 it had grown to nine cities. By 2009 it had grown to approximately 570 cities.

Commercial posts are only accepted by craigslist under the “Services” section. Here it is OK to advertise as a company that provides services.

Product sales can be advertised in the “For Sale” section. Businesses can place an advertisement for an individual piece if they don’t make it sound commercial. Get the customer to call you. Be sure to categorize your advertisement correctly to reach your intended audience. Use specific descriptions, make, model, etc. so your product can be found in a search.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing



Setting Your Annual Advertising Budget

Doug Williams @ 7:05 am

This blog entry was posted on August 13, 2009.

How should a business owner decide on how much money to spend on advertising? What is considered normal? Advertising costs are a completely controllable expense but they should create a return on your investment. How much advertising is enough?.

Each industry will tend to spend a different amount of their sales revenue on advertising. To stay competitive, you tend to follow what is typical for your industry. Companies with higher profit margins will tend to spend more. New start-up companies will need to spend more to get noticed.

The three common methods for advertising budget setting:

  1. Percent of sales based on industry averages
  2. Percent of sales based on gross profits
  3. Based on last year’s advertising expense

Industry Averages: Find out what is typical for your industry. Schoenfeld & Associates consultants of Lincolnwood, Illinois published their study on typical advertising spent by industry. Numbers are a percent of sales revenue.

  • 1.3 %    Grocery stores
  • 4.0 %    Lawn/garden
  • 5.0 %    Education
  • 5.1 %    Computers
  • 5.3 %    TV, radio, electronics
  • 5.7 %    Catalog, mail order
  • 5.8 %    Retail stores
  • 8.6 %    Investment advice
  • 10.4 %  Cosmetics
  • 11.0 %  Memberships
  • 14.2 %  Toys
  • 14.5 %  Cleaning supplies

Gross Profit Margin: Many businesses will allocate their advertising budget based on their gross profit. The following are typical retail store spending on advertising (% of sales) vs. gross profits.

  • 1.5%  21% gross profit
  • 3%     30% gross profit
  • 5%     41% gross profit
  • 7%     50% gross profit

Last Years Budget: Established companies tend to estimate next years advertising budget based on what happened last year and what they need to change for the coming year. If you have new products to launch, factor in expenses for these campaigns. You can also shift your marketing mix from traditional media to more cost effective Internet marketing.

To battle rising advertising costs, many companies are shifting their marketing efforts over to the Internet. According to a Forrester Research study 60% of marketers surveyed will increase their Internet advertising budgets by shifting funds from traditional media. Direct mail was cited by 40% of marketers as being one being cut, outranking newspapers (35%), magazines (28%) and television (12%).

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Filed under: Business Consulting,Internet Marketing



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