Small Business Inbound Marketing

6 Keys to Content Marketing Many Marketers Still Lose in the Couch

Administrator — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:14:08 +0000

If you want to be on the receiving end when those accolades get passed around, make your content marketing campaign a success by remembering these simple keys.

Content marketing is gaining steam rapidly, and the strategy has now moved far beyond the halls of cutting-edge marketing departments and into the mainstream. That’s not to say it’s past the growing pains though.

There is still plenty to learn by marketers rushing to join the CM party.Mere adoption by an overwhelming majority (70% in a recent Ecoconsultancy survey) doesn’t mean that the adopters have gotten this content marketing thing down pat yet. Mistakes abound as marketers try to flatten out the learning curve.

Here are 6 important keys to content marketing success that many marketers still manage to forget, at least as it applies to their content offerings.

1) Ready, Aim….

Targeting and reaching the proper groups is obviously important. A case could be made that it’s job 1 from a content marketer’s perspective. Unless you have a Texas-sized ego, you’re in this to fill a need in the marketplace and make money doing it. Creating your content so it appeals to precisely those people you’re trying to attract and build credibility with goes a long way. To where, exactly?

Well, toward making your boss think you weren’t off your rocker when you submitted that proposal to spend a chunk of your budget publishing a bunch of stuff that your target market would like, in the hopes it would ultimately drive sales. That kind of talk will still get you thrown out of offices and boardrooms across the land, although most execs are now getting wise to content marketing’s potential.

In the name of keeping the goats away, do your research. Follow it amd make sure your content is aimed at the audience most likely to benefit from it…… and that you’re likely to benefit most from.

2) Multi-Platform Optimization

Dealing with un-optimized sites is enough to make many visitors give up in frustrationa dn head over to your conmpetitors’ content they can consume more easilly.

Unless you’ve been asleep lately, you’ve probably heard… the web is mobile now! It’s not a new trend, and it’s accelerating like that cheetah taped to grandma’s back. According to some projections, by next year more than half of all page views will be mobile. In some locales, it’s doubtlessly higher than that already.

Despite all those wondering eyeballs perusing the web on smart phones, iPADs, little green robots, and the occasional Surface, an amazing proportion of site owners have yet to get the message; visitors hate scrolling and zooming while web surfing.

That goes for everyone, from national brands down to little Johnny trying to make his first buck online as an affiliate marketer. There are organizations of all sizes who haven;t got the message: scrolling back and forth sucks! If user experience matters at all, please, for the love of all that is good in this world have your development team move towards multi-platform optimization.

Easy Mobile Optimization

In many cases it’s easy to make your site look properly when a visitor hits it from their KindleFire. If your site and/or blog is running on WordPress, look for a responsive theme. That means it is supposed to accommodate different sized devices on the fly.

A responsive theme will at least give you a reasonable facsimile of a mobile optimized website. Some themes do a better job of it than others, but any one of them will likely be better than the micro print visitors will find otherwise.

However you do it, make sure the 61% of site visitors one study found that leave non-mobile optimized sites (when viewing them on a mobile device) don’t leave yours. If you just want to let them go, send them this way.

Don’t you for get about your content. Go back and give it another promotion shot every so often. You can take it even further. All that content is just begging to be repurposed. Think of the possibilities!

3) Don’t You Forget About Me

In addition to being the title of a great ’80′s song, it’s what you should do with your content after you publish it. Too many brands publish their content, only to let it ride off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.

Sure, they’ll give it the initial promotional shot in the arm, but after that, it’s let to fend for itself like a stray dog. While some of your content may take off and go viral, the fact is that the majority may get some attention, but will never hit the big time.

That doesn’t mean you should forget the whole thing. On the contrary, unless the piece is extremely time sensitive, revisit it every few months for a year or so. There’s no reason your blog post, webinar, or podcast can’t ultimately taste some success.

In fact, it may get better with age, like that 1994 Harlan Estate Cabernet gathering dust in your wine cabinet. After all, it only takes the right person to share it, then look the hell out! That could happen 2 minutes after you publish it, or it may be 4 months later.

4) Pile It Sky High… or Not!

A recent study indicated that, for B2B marketers at least, producing enough content was one of the most imposing obstacles to creating an effective content marketing campaign.

Yes, it’s true, you do need content for content marketing, but you may not have to lay it on so thick. Targeting, engagement and distribution are just as important. Don’t skimp on the quality, and get what you produce in front of the right people, and be sure they like it enough to tell their friends about it.

When you can do all that, add more, but not before.

5) Drag Your Feet, Lose Your Seat

Sometimes there is a definite first mover advantage to content creation. If your brand can exploit such situations as they arise, your content can do very well. Positioning is paramount. Content creation teams need to be ready to step up and deliver when the bell sounds. While most marketing execs recognize that for social media, it can be just as important for content, too.

Just because you’re moving fast to capitalize on a recent development doesn’t mean planing should fall by the wayside, If your team is aligned n your strategy and goals. That way, when opportunities arise, you’ll be poised to take advantage of them, and maximize your content’s effectiveness.

6) Engaging Doesn’t Mean Getting Down on One Knee

Targeting the right audience is great, but if your content doesn’t reach out and grab them, you’re just pissing in the wind, and wasting your budget. Sure, if it’s informative and has at least a modicum of value, you’re going to benefit from it somewhat, but aren’t you looking for more?

Engaging your prospects and customers, making them dig in and immerse themselves is the key to that more. If the content is informative, make them forget they’re learning.

Wha struggles have you found when implementing a content marketing campaign in your organization? Drop in a comment and let us know, and of course you can always share this (It’s oh, so easy!)

4 Powerful Marketing Trends Your Organization Must Embrace in 2013

Administrator — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:25:08 +0000

Mobile communications is only one of the many marketing trends consumers have embraced that will influence marketing this year.

Sure, some things about business and marketing never change, but in 2013 there are some important changes brewing. You can jump on board with them, or watch from the tracks, as the caboose recedes into the distance, and you’re left limping to the next town.The consumer landscape is changing fast. The way both private and business consumers make purchase decisions is putting ever more power into purchasers’ hands, leaving brands with one choice; crack the new code, or sit helplessly by as business goes to those organizations that cater to the new power elite; consumers.

Here are some moves your organization must make to keep the pipeline full and the C-suite happy going into 2013 and beyond.

1 – Cross Platform Online Content Optimization

Mae sure your organization’s online content is optimized for easy consumption across all platforms. Been under the Geico rock lately?, Well even if you’ve been spending the bulk of your time there, you couldn’t help but notice mobile devices are taking over Internet access. Even widget powered browsing on TVs, BluRay players, ad gaming consoles are scratching out their bit of the web browsing pie.

Guess where that browsing share is coming from? That’s right, the venerable PC, which if you’re under 20 now will be a relic you must explain to your kids when they uncover one in grandma’s attic someday. The upshot is that your content will be showing up on a veritable plethora of devices, in addition to the good, old personal computer of yore.

That being the case, ensuring that people can read, watch and listen to your stuff, no matter what they may be using, is more vital than ever. Your website and blog should be responsive, meaning that it automatically determines what device it’s being viewed with an adjusts sizing, navigation, and layout accordingly.

PTZ… NOT!

You’re liable to be left out in the cold if you insist on forcing those who consume your content to do so by scrolling, panning and zooming. Not a pretty picture, both literally and figuratively. Worse, most recent studies have confirmed that consumers won’t sit still for this kind of nonsense; they’ll just go elsewhere, where they’re not forced to deal with it.

BYOD, anyone?

If your organization has embraced BYOD, employees could be using their smart phones, small tablets, large tablets, or PCs with displays of varying sizes. If they’re going to be using your apps and and company intranet or website, it’s critical that they get the most effective and efficient information presentation possible, or nit will cost you in lost productivity, and possibly sales as well.

2 – Get Your Employees to Toot Your Social Media Horn

Your employes can be your most important evangelists. Oh, and it gets better. Many, or at least a significant percentage, of your employees are probably social media power users.

Employees can boost your organization’s social media effectiveness in several ways. First, get them to share, Tweet, and Stumble your organization’s social media offerings. You’ll increase reach and do so much more quickly this way.

Another powerful technique: Get them involved in a more hands on way. Use our staff’s most powerful social media users as social media consultants. Ask them for help with posts. Look to the for what they share and why, then use the feedback I your social media campaigns. Many of them will have great insight on what will make your social media campaigns most effective. They can help with post content, subject matter, and timing.

3 - Use Gamification to Increase Involvement and Engagement for Employees and Customers

Gamification is simply using gaming techniques to increase engagement and involvement among those you influence. Whether customers or prospects, adding gaming elements to your content mix helps engage, because after all, who doesn’t love a little game playing!

How can you gamify your offerings? It’s everywhere, actually, and you may be doing it already. Offering achievement badges leaderboards, or some kind of visual scoring representation all fall under the gamification classification. In short, give people something to achieve, and a way to show they’ve done so.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare all embrace gamification principles, as have many national brands. Your business can use them for any behavior you’re trying to encourage, either internal or external. Make it fun, use some sort of scoring to reward behavior, and watch things take off.

It’s human nature. People love to increase their score, no matter what the context. Gamification as been used for a couple o years now, but is only now starting to really gain steam. It’s definitely one marketing trend to jump on for 2013.

See this post on MarketingSherpa for more on how to implement gamification in your marketing this year.

4 – Storytelling – Spin One For Me, Baby!

Every brand has a story to tell, Are you telling yours in a way that engages your prospects and customers? Stories can be extremely compelling. Chances are there’s something in your brand that’s just dying to be told, and in such a way that people just can’t put it down.

In fact, there are probably many stories you can tell, and each can do it’s part to grab a piece of your audience and bring them home to you. That’s not to say that every aspect of your company has to be penned by Suzanne Collins, but using story form to explain why your organization is unique and the how that helps prospects is powerful mojo.

Let your passion shine through, and in so doing you’ll discover that people bond with you through your stories. You’ll engage prospects and customers, and communicate your brand’s message more effectively through stories.

If you think about it, just about everything is a story, and at least one of yours is probably just waiting to be told. You have an audience, so tell it, and if you do it well, you’ll find your audience grows and begins to share your passion too. See this article on Business2Community for more on how to tell effective stories in your marketing communications.

In short, there will be many trends to look at for the year ahead, just as there were last year, and the year before, and …. well you get the point. As we get full on into 13 though, these 4 trends are definitely ones for deserving consideration for your organization’s marketing department. They will have a positive impact and cost little to implement, which are the best kind of marketing techniques.

What marketing trends are your organization incorporating into your marketing plan this year? Please let me know, Thanks.

Please help share these, using the cute little icons, Thanks!

Content Marketing That Works in 2013 – It Takes a Village?

Administrator — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:57:35 +0000

Key Sources Say You’ll Need to Revamp Your Organization in 2013 to Meet Content and Social Media Marketing Demands

There is no doubt, as we sail ahead into the uncharted waters that are 2013, content marketing is one of the key marketing strategies we’ll take

Consumers will part with their hard earned greenbacks, but these days, increasingly, they want to be part of the equation. Your key to making that happen is a solid content and social media marketing strategy. More than ever, that takes a team approach, whether that team is staffers, third parties, or both.

with us from 2012. Content marketing is one of the key inbound marketing pieces organizations are finding they can’t live without. As consumers look more to brands for information, entertainment, and clarity, effective content creation and management will become more critical than ever… and you’ll need the right people in place to ensure it comes off without a hitch.

Consumers, They Always Demand More of……

The kind of content consumers will demand in the new year encompass more than just a single mode. You’ll be expected to produce text, audio, video, and graphics, do them well, then promote and distribute them in a variety of ways.

If you want your content to do what it’s tasked with; get your organization noticed, engage consumers, and drive sales, your content creators will be forced to deliver compelling, high value content that does one or more of the following, and does it very well:

Helps solve key problems
Entertains
Enlightens
Reveals

For most organizations, that means one thing; it’s going to require more resources allocated to content creation this year. If your content marketing strategy had been posting to your blog a couple of times per month and hoping for the best, prepare to turn up the heat, because your audience isn’t going to accept that any longer.

Expectations

As consumer expectations grow, they want their content more closely tailored to their specific needs. In addition, different individuals absorb information more effectively in different ways. Some are visual learners, while others are auditory learners.

Also, different content lends itself to different kinds of formats. Instructional material on how to install a new hard drive is probably more effective as video, while conceptual content on cloud computing can be highly effective as text and graphics.

No matter the content mix, your target consumers are hungry for content that presses their buttons like a 12 year old on an XBOX. If your content doesn’t meet their expectations, they’ll go elsewhere in search of some that does.

Remember, it’s not just about attracting new consumers, although that’s certainly something most brands are focused on. It’s engaging them and building long term relationships that really bring home the bacon for your business.

How Do We Know That?

Well, past experience, for one thing, but it doesn’t stop there….

According to Trendwatching.com’s new report, 10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2013 consumers are going to expect brands they follow to proactively engage them and deliver content that helps them do things better, solve problems and help them save their hard earned money. Whether that’s the tail wagging the dog or not, it’s certainly a far cry from the model most marketers are used to.

What’s more, consumers want, well more. Transparent information, especially. They’ll demand revelation and expect no surprises of the negative kind from their favorite brands. Content will be key to ensuring those expectations are met, if not exceeded.

Tweet, Tweet…. and That’s Just the Beginning

Then, of course, you’ve got social media. If there’s one thing that eats content like Godzilla munches ’72 Corollas, it’s social media. As brands realize that they need segmented, optimized social media campaigns to support their various marketing initiatives, adding social media marketers to their staff, or finding trusted third-party providers to handle these tasks only makes sense. Keeping up with the planning, production, and management actually leaves little choice.

Yet Another Indispensable Marketing Staffer…

All that content needs direction. Just throwing it against the wall and hoping something sticks isn’t going to generate the kind of ROI most organizations are looking for. That’s why the Mathew Knell, AOL’s Social Media Director wrote in the Huffington Post today that one position many organizations are scrambling to add to their staffs this year is a dedicated Content Strategist.

As I’ve posted here before, all the content I the world does little good without good strategic planning, and creating such a plan, executing it, and following through is damned hard work. So much in fact, that just relying on someone on your marketing department to do it in their spare time just doesn’t cut it any more.

If you’re starting to get the feeling that you’ll be planning, producing and publishing more content, in more varieties, and managing it more this year, you’re right…. if you want to grow your reach and build your brand.

That means one thing; committing more resources, adding staff or turning to external providers for content creation and management, plus using more tools to keep everything moving ahead on the straight and narrow. Start building now, because as the year moves ahead, your content and social media marketing village is going to become a busy place, indeed.

You know the drll… please share to LinkedIn, FB, and Tweet with the helpful, little icons, Thanks!

Top Social Media Marketing Mistakes You’re Likely to Make in 2013 and How to Avoid Them

Administrator — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:46:36 +0000

Social Media Marketing Mistakes Brands Made in 2012… or What NOT to Do in 2013

Social media can deliver the kind of returnfew other marketing tactics can, if you use it wisely.

As a marketing tool, social media seemingly knows no bounds. Businesses large and small, B2B and B2C, and all manner of brands are flocking to it like monster truck fans to free beer hour. Any time something experiences such rapid growth, be it a technology or a marketing tactic, there are bound to be growing pains, and social media use among marketers is no different.

As we ease our way into 2013, here is a look at some of the top social media marketing mistakes marketers are making now. Recognition is the key to avoidance for your organization this year. Take a look at this social media mistake 6-pack, and plot a course around them to social media marketing success in 2013.

Not Enough Segments…. or Worse, None at All

Failure to segment is a massive fail indeed, yet it one of the most common social media marketing mistakes organizations make. They embrace social media, but their hug grabs everything at once. Better to take a step back and address each market segment individually.

Who Are They?

Identify key market segments, core buyers for each, what their key problems and motivations are. Know the exact kind of content that creates value for them, when to publish / share it, and when to support it with social media. Your social media initiatives should align with each segment and your goals for them.

Example: If you’re an aftermarket auto parts supplier, segment your market and multiple twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, each supporting a segment. There will be some overlap in what you Tweet or share, but that way each will have stronger appeal, be more effective, and give you better feedback you can use to improve your marketing.

Effective segmentation here would include auto manufacturers, so you’d have a different Twitter feed for Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet, and Ford. Most car owners, especially those that purchase aftermarket auto parts, tend to be brand loyal. A Honda guy is loathe to slide behind the wheel of a Chevy or Nissan, for example.

This kind of segmentation lets you deliver promotions, news, and content that will not only appeal more strongly to the recipient, but is more

Segmentation is often te difference between a great campaign and, well, not so much…

likely to be shared, a key goal of your social media marketing. Offer conversion will be higher, consumer engagement better, and you’ll build stronger relationships and customer bonds to keep business strong in the months and years ahead.

B2B works in much the same way. In fact, the auto parts example could well include both B2B and B2C, as an aftermarket auto parts supplier will market both to consumers and to businesses such as auto service centers, dealerships, and auto parts supply stores. For maximum effectiveness, these businesses all require segmentation.

Support each segment with powerful content. Yes, you have to have great content for each segment, but still, few will find it on their own. After a time, your pages and feeds may reach that stage where some viral component takes over, and followers appear as if by magic, but except in very rare occasions, it doesn’t happen by itself, and it probably won’t for you, either. Don’t allocate resources to create a social media presence if you’re not going to follow it up with a solid promotional effort, because basically, if you don’t say anything about them……

Who Knows……

About your social media initiatives? In all too many cases, the answer is: No One! Why? Businesses set up a Facebook page or Twitter account, and then expect their customers to find their way there as if by some divine intervention.

It doesn’t happen that way. If you want your customers to find your social media presence, you have to promote it. That goes beyond social media badges on your website or at your physical locations. Empower your employees to promote your social media. Counter people, CSRs, and others dealing with customers should all encourage them to visit your social media sites.

Going further, it works well to give customers incentive for doing so. Imagine how your Facebook fan base would grow if every cashier in your business told customers about the 10% off coupon they would get for visiting and liking your Facebook page. It’s not enough to just put signage at the front desk, or counter, either, although that is certainly a step in the right direction. Make sure your employees actively promote your social media sites to your customers.

Miss Management for 2013 is…..

Actually mismanagement is nothing exclusive to social media, but not properly managing your company’s social media presence can lead to ineffective efforts at best, and utter disaster at worst. Remember, you’ve got a social media marketing plan in place (You do, don’t you?), and you spent big bucks developing it.

Follow the plan. Make appropriate adjustments, sure, but remember, you’re on a path to a goal. Social media is a strategy, not a willy-nilly journey through the rosebushes. That means active management is a must. It will not only keep you from falling headlong into he kind of mistakes I’m detailing here, it will keep you on track to reach your objectives faster and more cost effectively.

Unfortunately, many brands aren’t really prepared for the kind of resources several actively managed social media campaigns take, leading them to the next big mistake…..

Pass The Buck(s)

Under allocating resources to the social media campaigns is another common error. As much as many organizations are loathe to add additional marketing staffers, a community manager or three are becoming essential personnel.

The demands of conducting properly segmented social media campaigns, with all their attendant follow up mean that adding those duties to an existing employee’s workload just doesn’t get the job done. They can run your campaigns, but you’ll likely not see anywhere near the results you should be.

Between blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and all the different tasks they entail, it’s easy to see how even the most efficient employee using the best social media management tools can soon become overwhelmed if social media and community building is just part of their job function.

Another huge advantage of ponying up for a dedicated community or social media manager, is that you’ll have a real live human that takes ownership of and responsibility for your social media endeavors.

Get That Foot Out of Your Mouth… or Keyboard

The list of gaffes firms make is legendary, yet it happens over and over again. In 2011, Australian airline Quantas launched a huge Twitter campaign just as it’s employees went on strike. Not only couldn’t the company support any new business the campaign generated, they weren’t flying passengers at all, leaving customers more than a bit miffed.

Such mistakes often happen when the marketing department is asleep at the switch, there is a coordination issue between marketing and other departments, or employees (or even execs) don’t think about what they’re posting or Tweeting before they hit send.

We tend to view things through our own prism. It’s pretty tough to get away from that, too, and the tendency has conspired to torpedo more than one exec that should have known better. Just because a Tweet seems eminently reasonable to you, it may not align with your brand’s image or company goals.

Take a minute to examine it, or better yet, run it up the corporate flagpole. Sure, timeliness is of the essence in social media, but if others think your message is all wet, it gives you a chance to shelve it before someone gets hurt.

The problem is the social media amplification effect. The same way a blisteringly perfect post goes viral and gives you more exposure than you could have hoped for, one mistake can be enough to flip that on its head and pillory your brand.

Just ask Kenneth Cole, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons, British Petroleum, or the many others that have firmly inserted a size 12 in their dental area.

Keeping all but key employees from posting on the company account can help avoid fax paux, the likes of which can subject your brand to a sound, online thrashing such as the kind endured by Kitchen Aid earlier this year.

Kitchen Aid learned how not to conduct your social media campaign this year, after a staffer Tweeted out “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president. #nbcpolitics”. In addition to the fact that the Tweeter neglected to add an apostrophe in the President’s name, offending half the company’s potential market was a plain stupid move, especially when perpetrated from the company account.

To it’s credit, the company quickly apologized, but the damage was obviously done.

The Metric(s) System

Finally, there are sure to be those who can’t really tell if their social media campaigns are a success, because they simply don’t measure them, or measure them incorrectly. Knowing if your social media marketing is successful is all about knowing what to measure, and then actually doing it.

After all, in the end, it’s all about ROI. If you’re not generating a positive ROI from your social media efforts, it’s time to reallocate those resources elsewhere. In order to make such a decision however, you’ll have to measure what the heck is going on.

So, What to Measure?

Measure! Measure! Measure!

First, there’s the biggie, the one everyone tends to focus on when he subject of social media metrics rears its head: connections. How many Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and Pinterest friends does your brand have? That’s huge, to be sure, but it goes far deeper than that. It’s not all about quantity, there’s more to see here.

Views, for one…

Because really, it matters not how many you’re connected to if no one ever visits, right? More importantly, what do they do when they get there? Are you engaging them, and they you? That’s where engagement rate comes into play.

Not only do you have to amass followers, fans, and friends, then get them to look at what you have, but they must engage, or it’ all a big waste of time.

When they are engaged, what do they do? To find that, you’ve got to be doing some click tracking using bit.ly or another url shortening service that allows click tracking. If you’re including links in your email marketing, your platform will allow you to track clicks as well.

This post on clikz.com delves much deeper into social media metrics and how they can help you. Suffice it to say too many businesses throw up a social media campaign, but fall short on the measurement aspect necessary to maximize their ROI.

The Mistakes, a Recap

In 2013, these are likely to be some of the most common social media errors business make, because they were big in 2012, and they’re the kind of mistakes that keep popping up over and over again. We’ve seen them in our clients, and others too. Here’s hoping they’ll become less prevalent in the new year:

No, or inadequate segmentation
Not promoting your social media initiatives
Failure to properly manage social media presence
Not Committing Enough Resources to Make it Work
Politically or socially insensitive social media posts
Execs not being active in social media
Execs saying the wrong things in social media
Forgetting Your Metrics

Hopefully you can avoid these social media marketing mistakes in the new year, and turn 13 into a lucky number.

Please share this post using the convenient, little buttons at the top, thanks, and have a great day!

What a 7-yr Old Can Teach Us About Online Marketing, Really!

Administrator — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 21:50:35 +0000

My daughter is 9 years old, and by all accounts, a bit ahead of the curve. Yeah, sure all parents say that, but in this case it’s true. I was unaware just how ahead of the curve she is in so many areas until my sister in law showed me something she scrawled on a piece of paper when she found her cousin would be needing money for her impending college experience.

She’s shown a knack for knowledge in a great many subjects, and exhibited an entrepreneurial bent on other occasions too, but I was unprepared for her depth of knowledge on the marketing front.

As you can see from the accompanying pic, she hit the nail on the head in more than one area.

Can a 7 year old pen a viable marketing plan? It’s surely a few details shy of a load, but does include more details than you’d think a 7 year old would possibly think of.

Get a computer – resources required – necessary business equipment

Products that are easy to sell online, with built in demand:

Toys, sports equipment, or other stuff you do not want

Pokemon cards, Yugion cards, sports cards, Legos

Find a thriving online marketplace

eBay.com

Craigslist

The next two really floored me, remember, she was 7 yrs old when she wrote this.

Make YouTube videos advertising your stuff

Make a link to it

So, what can my 7 (now 9) year old teach us about online marketing?

The basics that sometimes get overlooked, as we focus so much on “new” marketing such as social media, other content driven strategies, and mobile marketing. There is certainly reason to focus on these exciting, new developments, yet at it’s core, marketing is much the same as it’s always been.

Sell products and services with high demand.

Sell them in thriving markets with low expenses.

Use effective advertising and promotional strategies.

Give prospective customers an easy way to get to what you’re selling.

Come to think of it, those are keys for all marketing, online or off.

Maybe she’ll be president of her own business some day, but whether or not business is her true calling or not, she sure showed uncanny intuition in that direction.

Pretty cool, huh?

If you liked this, please share on LinkedIn, G+, or Facebook.

B2B Social Media Marketing – How Do So Many Brands Get it So Wrong?

Administrator — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:21:51 +0000

The Social Window….

If you ran a business and had a veritable window into people’s souls, especially those who you wanted to do business with, would you ignore it?

B2B Marketers – You’ll really feel the love if you go beyond simply marketing on social media and statrt listening to it.

Not if you wanted your business to succeed, yet that’s exactly what appears to be standard operating procedure for many of the country’s execs operating in the B2B space.

The tool? Social media, and according to the 2012 Harris Interactive 2012 Zeno Digital Readiness Survey, that’s precisely how a large minority of B2B decision makers use social media…. or don’t use it, if the survey is an accurate reflection of their behavior.

The survey discovered that while a majority of execs do take social media into account when making their business decisions, it’s a much smaller percentage than the number many people would guess, given the importance social media occupies in society today. Moreover, the percentage that never make a move without consulting their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest oracle is but 21%.

Consider this:

There are over 168 million U.S. Facebook users, equating to over 73% of the Internet-using population, and according to Facebook, they average over 40 minutes a day on the site.
U.S. Twitter users topped 100 million for the first time in 2012, and Twitter using brands report getting twice the number of inbound leads as those that don’t.
53% of B2B companies use Twitter.
55% of B2B buyers use social media to help make purchase decisions.
82% of buyers trust a brand more if its CEO is active on social media, yet midway through 2012, only 30% of CEOs are active on social networks of any stripe. (BusinessInsider)

It seems that using social media as a decision making tool among B2B brands’ decision makers is far less common than one might have thought, even if their companies have a social media presence. While some companies, like eBay, have wholly embraced social media as a powerful decision making tool, even implementing real time listening posts to monitor social traffic and conversations, others have stopped at using social media for marketing only.

The Better Half?

As a marketing company we certainly support social media marketing, however companies that stop there are leaving much on the table. Social media represents the first time that businesses have the ability to not only affect a behavior change, through social media marketing, but also to monitor and correct their efforts in real time.

Brands that don’t do that are missing half the equation. You’re staring an opportunity to monitor your market’s trends, attitudes, and opinions right in the face. As social has grown increasingly mobile recently (According to Hubspot, 49% of smartphone owners use them for social networking) the real time feedback aspect of social media as a way to shape your marketing efforts has grown even more powerful.

Most decision makers are loathe to even take a shower without their mobile device, so this is definitely a trend not to be ignored. According to Techcrunch 22% of LinkedIn’s usres are now mobile, and that number is rising. Given LinkedIn is a B2B marketer’s paradise, how their user base acts definitely bears watching. Since mobile usders get things in near real time, the feedback you’ll get is that much more valuable.

The Social Register…

The bottom line; embrace not just social media marketing, but social media monitoring, too. Watch your blog comments, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn regularly. More to the point, get what they’re telling you, and act on it quickly. Your bottom line will go nowhere but up. Oh, and you C-suiters out there, get your butts using LinkedIn and Twitter, stat!

Please share this using the convenient little buttons… Thank You!

More Sources:

Consumer Insight Group

Ignite Social Media

Statista

How to Maximize Content Distribution So More People See It

Administrator — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:42:59 +0000

There is no question that content marketing is uber-effective. After all, so many successful businesses don’t jump on a marketing strategy and stay with it if it doesn’t work. There’s also no question that one of the main keys to success is maximizing your content distribution. A primary campaign goal is having as many of the right people see your content as possible.

That being said, how do you make that happen? Ah, let me count the ways….

Keys to Maximize Content Distribution

Laser Targeting –

Find what your audience really wants and give it to them, exactly. What are their most pressing issues, and how can you help solve them? Creating such “precise match” content ensures that you content will have the kind of value that gets it shared, and more likely to end up consumed by more of your target audience.

You’ll need to do market research if you aren’t already sure about who they are. Typically, you or your marketing department will have identified campaign targets and what kind of supporting content best meets their needs.

Don’t take it for granted that you know not only who your ideal buyer is, but who the real people are who are out there looking for the solutions you offer. It’s true for both B2B and B2C organizations. That knowledge lets you create killer content that’s exactly what your buyers are looking for.

A Compelling Title -

Great content is only great for you if people see and consume it, and a compelling title is one of the best ways to ensure that happens. Keyword optimization helps it show up in the search engines, but remember, Google bots don’t read, watch, or buy anything. You want real readers to think your title rocks, too.

If you grab their attention and get them to read the first paragraph, your remaining content can take it from there. A killer title is not only one of the best ways to ensure that your content is consumed, but shared, as well.

That title will propagate across Twitter and other social media outlets. If it’s compelling, it is more likely to keep going, and going, and…..

Create Graphics, Audio, and Video -

These days, great content means more than just printed words on a page. People want to be stimulated, and not just by their significant other. Intellectual stimulation often requires multi-modal content for maximum effectiveness. Moreover, different people absorb information most effectively in different modalities. Get people excited, and build perceived value; they’re more likely to share your content

Don’t Keep It All At Home –

Distribute your content widely. Don’t restrict your publishing efforts to your own blog or website. Use document sharing sites like slideshare and docstoc, and syndicate it to other websites and blogs. It’s not all about your reach here, although that never hurts.

It’s a bit chicken/egg here. The broader your distribution, the greater the chance that your content will get picked up and shared by others. You’re but one social media power user share away from virulence.

Promote Sharing and Ask For It

There’s a reason you see those little social sharing icons at the top of virtually every blog and website; they work. People will share your content, but you have to make it as easy as possible. Go further, though. Come right out and ask them to share. People need a call to action, and that holds true for more than just sales letters and landing pages.

Call In The Troops-

Get your employees to share your content on social media and/or email. Ask, cajole, convince, or hell, even bribe them, just get them in the habit of giving your content distribution a jump start. They can be some of your most effective evangelists, and really help get things moving.

You probably have at least a few social media power user hiding on your staff somewhere. Find out who they are, yesterday. A recent study showed that 60% of employees wanted their employers to help them share relevant content…. so do just that.

Timing is Everything -

As in life, so it is in content marketing as well; when the content hits social media makes all the difference whether or not it spreads. Examine your target audience. When do they consume and share the most social media?

There are national averages but in reality, it varies widely for different niches and media outlets. There is plenty of research floating around to help you, but in the end, you’ll want to conduct your own. That’s the best way to ensure that you’re meeting the needs of your exact target market and customers.

Using a social media tool with integrated analytics, such as Hootsuite, can keep you from pulling your hair out here. You’ll discover exactly when and what works best for you from a social media perspective.

Using tools is the easiest way to know when and what subjects and headlines engage your followers best. That way you can give them more of what they want, when they want it. Your response, reach, and follower totals will rise accordingly.

For example, on average Twitter users tend to be most active mid-late in the day, and later in the week. (Not too late, though. A study by bit.ly, the folks who make the url shortner used in Twitter, revealed that posting late in the day is great for increasing viral potential, but only until Friday at 3pm)

NOTE: Hubspot and bit.ly show somewhat conflicting data in their Twitter timing studies, with bit.ly showing better clickthrough results earlier in the day, and Hubspot somewhat later.

Facebookers share things on average about 5 times more on Saturday than any other day, and they tend to do it in the morning. That may or may not best describe your audience, however. That’s why you’ve got to dig deeper for the best results.

No matter where you live, most of the U.S. population is in the central and eastern time zones. If you’re doing business nationally, that’s something to consider.

Experiment, too. Tweet early in the morning, and later in the evening. Use analytics to determine when your followers respond best.

The other side of timing is frequency. It’s not only when you Tweet, post, or share, but how often. If you’re content is right on target, you can post much more often, but that still varies considerably by market. Some are voracious consumers, hanging on every post, share, and Tweet, while others aren’t quite so plugged in.

Speed is Essential -

People hate to wait, so don’t make them. Admit it, you’re right there with them, aren’t you? When the right people do show up for your content, they won’t wait. Make sure your web server is fast enough and everything is configured so that pages load quickly and everything streams smoothly.

Putting audio and video content on the cloud frees up your bandwidth, and ensures minimal bottlenecks. Reducing page load times improves the user experience.

Also, search engines frown on slow sites, so keep them happy. Your rankings will rise accordingly, and you know what happens next…. That’s right, more people see your content, especially those that are actually looking for it.

Get To The Right People –

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net

This may be the most important point of all. Get your content to the thought leaders and influencers in your market. A tall order? Possibly, but if your content really delivers, and follows the above rules, you’re far more likely to hit a home run here.

Want to have even a better shot at such an opportunity?

Identify and build relationships with the right people before hand. Engage them on social media and forums, comment (intelligently) on their blogs, and guest post on blogs they frequent or other influential blogs in your niche.

All that broadens your opportunity to increase reach and maximize distribution. If your content hits the mark, and you’ve started to make a name for yourself with the right people, a little can go a long way.

Hiding in Plain Sight -

In the B2B space, look to synergistic distribution opportunities; vendors, industry leaders, trade publications, and so forth. They’re right in front of you. It’s where I got some of my first freelance opportunities. It helps establish you and your organization as an authority and positions your brand; a primary content marketing goal.

Most industries have a veritable plethora of blogs that focus on them. Keeping up with content demands can be a grueling slog. Many bloggers are always looking for compelling, authoritative content that you’re (of course) all too happy to deliver.

Guest posts can be one of the most powerful strategies you employ, so get out there and try it. You’ll open up your content to a a whole, new world; possibly a very large one.

Group Think (and do) -

Join social sharing groups. These strategic partnerships multiply your social media distribution. In short, it’s an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” relationship. Reciprocity can be a powerful thing.

You can leverage one group into several of these. They’re very powerful when you get in with the right people. I’m in or have been in several of these, and it’s well worth the effort it takes to set them up. It’s not only a big help for social media, but a fantastic networking opportunity as well. You never know who you’re going to meet as your group grows.

Easy Digestion -

People have plenty of content to choose from these days, but still the same, old 24hrs to consume it. Making yours easy to digest will keep people sharing and coming back for more. How to do that? Small bites (short paragraphs), subheads, images, and bullets all make your content quick and easy to digest.

An Internet truism, never more so than today, is that people skim, not read when consuming online. In the new, 140 character, infographic world, they’re becoming conditioned to do little else.

Plan for Success -

It’s not enough to have great content, with a vague notion about how to get it out there. If you want the right people to see it, plan ahead. Develop a formal distribution plan for your major content pieces. Even down to the blog post level, a few minutes planning your distribution is well worth it.

It’s simpler than you think. Use a distribution planning form, with the important distribution points. A form helps ensure maximum content distribution, and makes it easier to avoid missteps and those little omissions that happen to everyone once in a while.

Optimize for Search Engines -

Th fact remains that while search engines are fickle beasts, you still need them. They deliver millions of visitors, who use them to find things every day. Sure, over-reliance on them will kill you, and social media is more powerful than ever, but people still use them to find things, plain and simple.

That means Google,Bing, et al remain one of the best ways to get found by the exact people you want to be found by; those looking for exactly what you have or something closely related to it. No matter where they are in the buying process, that’s gold.

In The End

It’s just common sense, really.

Make good stuff and people will want to see it. They’ll want to tell others about it, too.
Engage those who you want to see you stuff, and contribute value to what they’re doing.
Put it out everywhere. You’ll maximize distribution and viewing opportunities.
Come out and ask people to share.
Make it all easy.
Plan for success.

If you got even a whiff of an idea from this post, hey, please share it around so others can benefit too.

Content Marketing – How Giving Away The Farm Can Increase Your Bottom Line

Administrator — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:39:45 +0000

Quick, name a marketing strategy that’s now being used by 91% of B2B marketers in a recent industry survey……

What’s more, it’s increasing at such a rate that more than half of those businesses using it plan on increasing their commitment to it in the coming year. Give up? It’s content marketing, and businesses are becoming publishers at breakneck speed.

When adoption of a particular marketing tactic is so universal, and those using it report overwhelming success, it means one thing…. it works, and others are sure to follow suit, although there are few businesses left now that are not using CM in some way already.

Content marketing is an integral part of a broad Internet marketing strategy. It is as one that is gaining importance rapidly as B2B and B2C companies alike recognize how immensely powerful this “under the radar” marketing tactic can be.

Just how many have fallen under content marketing’s powerful spell? According to the report Content Marketing Institute report “B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America” 91% of all B2B marketers now count content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy.

You’d think, with adoption rates like that, there’d have to be be a damn good reason, and you’d be right. Hubspot, when compiling their 2013 benchmark report of over 7,000 businesses, discovered powerful correlations between content and both website traffic and leads. In fact, the report showed that businesses with fewer than 100 content pages on their websites are at a huge disadvantage to those that have between 400 and 1,000 pages. Those with the greater number of pages get more inbound leads….. to the tune of more than 300%!

At it’s heart, content marketing is all about doing the one thing any successful business must do to stay viable for the long term; create value for their customers and build relationships. In this case the content’s value is what brings customers in and creates the relationship. It’s this relationship that will eventually generate revenue, and keep it coming in for years to come. In the best case scenario, the relationship spawns a satisfied, lifetime customer, who evangelizes about the company and their experience with them.

How Content Marketing Works for Business Large and Small

Think back to the value proposition. Current and prospective customers are looking for a solution to one or more problems. Content marketing provides them with at least a partial solution, delivering information that helps the customer identify and/or solve their problem. At the very least it reveals more about the nature of the problem and possible solutions to it.

Giving away that content creates a relationship and builds one of the most important things a business can have with their prospective customers; credibility and trust. It builds your brand as a market authority.

All Too Common Content Marketing Mistake: Trying to sell your wares directly from your CM piece. Back off; you’re giving value, informing, and problem solving here, not selling. It’s not a sales letter, it’s an article (or a video, webinar, podcast, etc.)

Due to social media, great content also has significant viral potential. Getting your content shared will multiply it’s effect significantly and increase your brand’s reach far more than you could ever hope to achieve on your own.

Whether the content is strictly online, or a mixture of online and offline, the effect is the same. The business proves to the customer that they are not only qualified to solve the problem in question, but that they are genuinely good people, and can be trusted to form a business relationship with.

The more value the content delivers and the better it puts the customers on the path to solving their problems, the more powerful your content marketing strategy is.

Step One – Create a Content Marketing Plan

Just as with any other kind of marketing campaign, you’ll need a plan. The plan elements are much the same as with any other marketing campaign. You’ll have an objective or set of them, and a road map for achieving your goals.

What to include in your Content Marketing plan?

Goals – What are you hoping to achieve with your content marketing initiative? The more specific goals the better you’ll be able to measure them and correlate your marketing with specific results. You’ll also be better able to determine the next step in the plan….

Content needs – What content do you need to support those goals?

Sourcing – Where will you get it? You can create it in house, out source it, or both.
Schedule – When will you publish it?
Distribution and Promotion – Where will you publish it, and how will you promote it?
Tracking and Testing – To maximize success, you’ll need to tracking metrics, and be able to correlate them to specific content elements and actions.

Content Keys:

Relevancy – The more relevant your content is to your audience and their problems, the more value you deliver, and greater authority you build.
Consistency – Positioning your blog or website as the destination for your market requires timely information, delivered on a consistent basis. It not only gives visitors a reason to o there, it gives them reasons to return…… as a bonus, search engines love frequently updated sites; all the better for attracting new prospects.

How Much Content is Too Much?

That begs the question “How much content to give away?” Can you over-deliver content? After all, if a business gives away everything, what is left for them to sell? Who cares? Let them eat cake! Give ‘em the farm, even the prize chickens.

Actually, that’s when market analysis becomes important. It all depends on what kind of solutions you provide. For example, if you sell physical goods, specialized/professional services, or software, the more supporting content you provide, the better.

On the other hand, if you’re an information provider, giving away all your best secrets isn’t the way to go, but you’ll still want to deliver enough of the good stuff. CM success is all about creating the kind of value that builds value, creates authority, and gets shared.

In the B2B arena especially, businesses want to focus on their core competencies. Even with the knowledge, most successful businesses know at the minimum that there is a steep learning curve, and they do not have the in-house expertise to solve the problem in the most timely and effective way possible.

They want to find a solution, but know that in most cases that solution involves retaining outside companies with the expertise and equipment to do the job right, and promptly. In such cases, your content can deliver a tremendous amount of valuable information. It positions your company as the expert in the field.

Many firms that have effectively used this kind of content marketing strategy. In a sense, they have flown the the face of convention, and published tremendously valuable content. In return for their generosity however, they have established incredible reputations, and positioned themselves as one of the “Go To” solution providers in their industry.

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger is one of the best known proponents of this strategy, and one of those who
many industry insiders watched with incredulity, as he gave away more and more marketing strategies for free each week. He continued to attract a larger audience, who recognized him as an authority figure in his market.

As a result, his company, CopyBlogger Media, has grown into a leader in premium WordPress themes and managed hosting. As WordPress became one of the largest blog/website platforms, Clark’s business was perfectly positioned to take advantage of it.

Another firm that has successfully used content marketing to set themselves apart, and position themselves as a leader is American Express. Using their AMEX Open Forum, the company leveraged valuable content, social media, and leveraged leading websites ad blogs to gain broad distribution for their content.

They hired content producers specifically for their Open Forum effort. Doing so enabled them to create the volume of high quality content necessary to make their content marketing efforts a true success. As a result, they’ve significantly grown their small business client base.

How to Create Great Marketing Content

The best content to create for content marketing purposes follows much the same rules as for any other content you create.

The overwhelming goals however, are to make it compelling, informative, and value driven. The better you inform, the more you engage your prospect, and the closer you get them to a solution for their problem, the more successful your campaign will be.

Make your content engaging, ask questions, and tickle people’s fancies. Be controversial, on occasion, and speak with a real, human voice. Show your human side and have content people can relate to. Tell stories, because people love them, especially if they can picture themselves in there somewhere.

You may be able to create this content yourself, or have a staff member do it. In many cases, outsourcing is a viable option, that can help you reach your goals faster.

If you do elect to outsource content, check the provider’s experience, especially if they have direct experience in your market or a closely related one. Ask for samples of past work. For written content, it is also good practice to restrict your search to native English speakers. The U.S. Canada, England and Australia have a plethora of excellent writing talent.

It is not enough that they can write well, though. Remember, you’re writing for an objective. You have a plan, right? A writer should be able to not only write excellent, engaging content, but ensure it drives the reader toward your objective, whether that’s building a relationship, getting them to sign up for your newsletter, or pre-selling them on your company solution.

There also the matter of weaving your target keywords so the search engines bring new visitors to your site, hungry for info on what your company offers. While simply including keywords is no big deal, doing so in such a fashion that it attract search engines while remaining compelling for human visitors (remember, search engines don;t buy anything, you need real humans for that) is vital for your success.

That is a powerful reason to use experienced web content creators, who understand the intricacies of such things. These may be on your staff, or outsourced, but ensure they know how to make the content pull in both real eyeballs and electronic ones.

What Are the Elements of a Successful Content Marketing Strategy?

The following should all be included in your content marketing plan:

Targeting – Who are you aiming for? As with any marketing campaign, hitting your goals requires aiming at the right target. In this case, the target is that consumer group who will best enable your company to accomplish their goals.
Focus – Who is the content for (see above), and what exactly is each specific piece of content going to do to help you achieve your goals?
How to Create Value – Value is common theme here, and with good reason. Not only does high value content lead to the kind of relationship you’re looking for with your customers and prospects, it delivers something else; one of the most powerful aspects of a great content marketing campaign.

Ask – What is your content’s value proposition?

Consistent Branding – One of the things we’ve seen often during our experience helping companies with their marketing, both content and other forms of marketing, is brand inconsistency. Having your band project a consistent image across all your marketing platforms, throughout your physical locations, vehicles, and communications is paramount.

Consumers love consistency, and your company’s branding should reflect that. Everywhere they go, there you are, and looking the same. Make sure your logo looks professional, reflects the image you’re trying to portray. This should extend to your content marketing campaign. Make sure all your branding for the campaign is consistent with the rest of your business.

Collaboration – If you’re a marketing agency developing a content marketing campaign for a client, don’t go at it alone. Work closely with the client through the entire process to develop content. That ensures it works and meets the organization’s goals.

Another key to success is publisher collaboration. Work closely with publishers to meet your goals and theirs. That way, your client’s content receives the kind of treatment that makes you both look great.

One more collaboration aspect that many CM practitioners have found success with is using multiple providers for a single publication, blog, or website. Leveraging multiple content creation resources allows you to publish the content volumes recent research has shown is most effective.

Businesses get many times more website visitors and inbound leads when they publish daily, and have a large number of website and/or blog pages. Collaboration allows this to happen much more rapidly, and get your CM efforts contributing to your bottom line, as they should be.

Distribution – How are you going to distribute so that the right people see it? After all, if your target market never sees your content, it doesn’t matter how fantastic the content creation team was, or how valuable it is.

Increasingly, there is one favored distribution avenue.

What’s that? Social sharing, of course. Getting your content shared to many other interested parties on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn is the marketing pot of gold you’re looking for. It’s one of the two most sought after objectives in any content marketing campaign. Number one is to build a relationship with a foundation of trust and credibility. Number two is to get your message spread far and wide.

Next Post: How To Maximize Content Distribution So The Right People See It

After all, it doesn’t matter if you’ve created (or outsourced) world’s most compelling content, if just sits happily on your server for all eternity, right? Your marketing department isn’t going to get that big, quarterly bonus that way, is it? Success means not only producing and publishing effective content, but ensuring the right people see it. We’ll talk more about that next time.

Get your copy of the 46-page white paper “What Big Business Discovered About Content Marketing and How You Can Use it to Grow Your Business (Large or Small) Today” Just fill out the form to receive your copy now.

If you learned anything at all or think someone else might, you know the drill…. please like on FB, Tweet, and share it on LinkedIn, thanks!

Facebook and Small Business: What Makes a Great Facebook Small Business Page?

Administrator — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:57:18 +0000

: There’s no doubt about it; a well done Facebook page can help grow your business….. but what are the keys to success for your business Facebook page? Read on….

There is no escaping it…… and many have tried; if you want to maximize customer and prospect engagement for your business, you need a great Facebook page. That naturally begs the question: What makes a great Facebook small business page, anyway?”

Beyond our own experience working with small businesses to maximize their online exposure, there are several resources that point to common traits of effective small business Facebook pages. I’ll get to exactly what those are in a minute.

While you don’t need a grasp of how to use Facebook that would put Bob Marley’s grip on his favorite smoking appliance to shame, knowing the common threads that effective pages share is a great starting point.

1) Great Header Graphics – They’re the first thing that your visitor sees, emblazoned at the top, as they are with Facebook’s new design. Use that to your advantage, to let visitors know where the heck they are. Your brand, or something very significant to it, should be prominently displayed there. Branding is key to your business and Facebook gives you a great opportunity to grab some more high profile exposure, and boost your brand image.

2) Visitor Engagement – That’s what you’re after, so go for it! Give fans not only plenty of opportunity to engage, but compelling reasons to want to. Update these frequently to keep them involved and coming back. Answer your posts promptly, as on your blog, but even more so with Facebook, it’s one of the best ways to engage your fans.

3) Frequent Updates – Post relevant info frequently, not only does that help you improve your page, it gives people reasons to return. As with almost everything that you do to breed success, it adds value. In fact, in many cases relevant info that people are looking for adds the most value.

As with many things in life, and especially in business timing is everything, so posting your content at the most advantageous moment can give you a significant boost. How do you when exactly that is? Excellent question, that. Thankfully minds greater than mine have heard your cries, and created tools to help you know when that is.

Edgerank is one such tool. They check a variety of metrics that will help you get a handle on when to post what. It will help boost your visitor engagement and get your page more likes.

You can also port your blog to your Facebook page. T hat will not only put more great content on your Facebook page more often, it will help publicize your blog.

4) Use Apps – Most of the best Facebook pages make great use of apps, and with good reason, it adds value for the visitor, and in the end, that’s what your business is all about, adding value. There’s no reason that shouldn’t hold true on your Facebook page as well. Using an app service is a great idea. Unless your business is to the point where you can have a dedicated social media staffer or two, it makes things much easier and more efficient.

5) Ask for Likes – Never forget the strong call to action! It’s the way to get the sale in your business, and it’s also the way to get more likes on Facebook. Of course if your content sucks…. but in any case, give them every reason to like your page, then come right out and ask them to do it. Put a prominent “Like Us On Facebook” button on your website to make it falling-off-a-log simple for fans to both like and find your company’s business page. Remember, make easy that behavior which you want to encourage.

6) Use Powerful Images Throughout – Yes, not everyone is visual, but it is still one of the best ways to create a memorable Facebook experience. Add new ones frequently, so there is always more to love and more reasons to return. Great images are also an excellent way to get the coveted “like” from your visitors.

7) Add video – Why stop at static images? Videos are proven to increase engagement and shareability, so use them. Embed YuoTube or Vimeo images on your page. You can make great video shorts using online apps such as Animoto for dirt cheap. Yo can also create your own using affordable software. We use Pinnacle Studio 16 for video creation and editiing. They are the leaders in this and the software is affordable, powerful and easy to use. Try Camtasia Studio from Techsmith for screen capture videos, such as those you make from powerpoint presentations. It is th most used software for this kind of application, and with good reason. You can get a free trial here.

8) Favorite Pages – Use the “Favorite Pages” option that Facebook offers. Yes, it is a link off your page to others’ pages, but if you’re strategic about ho you do this, it can be mutually beneficial. If there are other businesses you work with, such as suppliers, distributors, or subcontractors, link to their pages. In return, have them reciprocate. You’ll share beneficial traffic and expand your brand footprint. You may have to ask the other business to add you as well, but they should be happy to do so.

9) Specifically Oriented Pages - Create brand or product line pages. Yes, most small businesses will be too small to take advantage of this, but not always, and you may well be growing from a small to a medium sized business. On of the main keys to success here is to make sure you target your key demographics.

Facebook gives you the ability to do this, so grab it by the horns and run with it! You often pay big money for this kind of targeted marketing, so don’t let this opportunity pass you by. For example, if you run a camera store, have different pages for still and video. If you are a small clothing company, with lines aimed at different demographics, that screams for different pages, so build them.

A great resource is to check out Social Media Examiners’ Facebook Business Page content winners here. You can see in action some of the elements I’ve discussed.

So….. Building a strong Facebook business page is a proven way to bring in new customers and increase engagement with existing ones. Does your business have a Facebook page? If you do, submit it using the contact form and tell us why you think it’s worthy. We’ll choose one business to feature each month on our site from the entries we receive.

Please leave me a comment and let us know what you think, and if you found this article useful, please share it using Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ ( Oh, the irony!), and of course, Facebook! Thanks!

6 Inbound Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make

Administrator — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:35:26 +0000

: Inbound marketing for attorneys can be the key to unlocking a flood of new clients, if the campaign is properly planned and executed. Here are some inbound ( and other) marketing mistakes for law firms to avoid.

Lawyers need good marketing just like everyone else. The old cliche “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply anymore and hasn’t for quite some time now. If you’re a lawyer, part of your job is obviously handling legal cases for clients. The other half of your job is marketing (or effectively managing a marketing team) to ensure you always have a case backlog. It matters not how excellent an attorney you are if you don’t enough of a case load to pay the bills.

Here are some of the most common marketing mistakes you might be making right now:

No White Paper

Most lawyers advertise in the yellow pages or online in a local directory. However, they assume that clients automatically understand what they do. Most of the time, clients don’t know why they should choose you over someone else. Give them a reason.

A white paper explains your business and why you’re different from every lawyer out there. “Faster service,” “we care,” and other generic slogans aren’t a point of differentiation. Find a real unique selling proposition. In a world of lawyers that are too busy to return client phone calls, does your firm call clients back within 24 hours, guaranteed? If not, can you make this a point of differentiation?

Explain your profession in simple terms in the white paper, and include case studies of how you’ve helped other clients. On it’s own, a white paper is not strictly an inbound marketing function, however it can be used as part of an inbound marketing campaign in conjunction with distribution methods that position it to send visitors your way.

No Email List or Followup

Most lawyers don’t have the time or expertise to build an autoresponder series or even learn how to use one. Hire a marketing firm to do this for you if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, but get a systematic email followup system in place. Then, market to your email list. Set up a questionnaire or quiz to see if your services might be beneficial to them.

Next, offer them the answer via email, along with a detailed review of their case for free if they give you their email. Once you have their email, periodically follow up with them. You can send example case studies similar to their case, or you can send client testimonials or your own personal stories that are relevant to what your client is going through right now. This allows you to connect with your clients on an emotional level.

Once you’ve earned their trust, ask for the sale. Many businesses have discovered email marketing is one of their most valuable marketing initiatives. Attorneys are no different in this regard. E-mail marketing is very powerful and not to be ignored if new client acquisition is important to a practice.

No Answering System

Lawyers need an answering system that allows serious clients to get through while blocking clients that are a waste of time. Automated systems work well, and they can’t be persuaded or tricked like a real human being can. If you’re a small firm, an automated system also gives you the appearance of being more professional when you can’t afford to hire a lot of staff to answer phones.

Again, on it’s own an answering system is not inbound marketing. It does however, receive the results from some of your inbound marketing efforts, so it’s an important part of the process.

User Unfriendly Website

Inbound marketing is all about getting people to contact you. That won’t happen if you don’t have a user-friendly website. Prospective clients will just leave in frustration, and go to a competitor’s site. Your site should be intuitive and simple in its design. The visitor should instantly know what you do.

The navigation should make sense, so visitors can easily find what they’re after. As an attorney, you should have the kind of information a visitor is likely looking for, such as your qualifications, specialties, professional associations you’re a member of, and any certifications and awards you have received.

Hire a designer than understands minimalistic design as well as direct response marketing. That distinction is key, because there are many who have mastered design and can make attractive sites, but far fewer who have also mastered the intricacies of marketing and copywriting.

Conversion is key to success with your website. It can win design awards, but if your site doesn’t convert visitors to contacts or clients, it flat isn’t doing it’s job.

Your online marketing company should not only understand what makes a website look good, but what makes it work well, too. The fact is, if it isn’t converting, it isn’t working, and your provider should know how to determine your site’s conversion rate. They should also be able to explain what metrics they’ll test during the conversion analysis process.

No System For Handling Customers

Many lawyers don’t have a system for sorting customers. A good customer relationship management system solves this problem. Set up a CRM to handle initial inbound callers that respond to direct mail or classified advertisements. As potential clients call in, sort clients into “A clients,” “B clients,” and “C clients.” This way, you can focus more on high-quality clients and spend less time on clients that ultimately won’t help you build your practice.

Omitting SEO

Is your firm found when prospective clients search on the Internet for what you do? Inbound marketing is all about having prospective clients find you online, rather than you going after them. Search engines are a key component of this. Recent studies show that when people are looking for product and service providers, attorneys included, they overwhelmingly look online to find them. One only needs to look at their own habits and those of their friends and associates to know that’s true.

Your marketing company needs to know how to ensure that your firm is found when people search for what you do. It is also vital that they understand what terms people search for which are the most advantageous to rank for, and how to deliver the best ROI for your budget in a search marketing campaign.

They should be able to explain this to you, show you which keywords will be most beneficial to you to be ranked for, and give you a realistic estimate on what it will take to reach first page rankings. If they tell you they can do it in a few weeks, that is usually unrealistic.

Attorney related keywords are typically highly competitive in most markets. It can take 4 – 6 months for an SEO campaign to bear fruit, depending on the keywords targeted.

SEO is one of the most powerful parts of an inbound marketing campaign. After all, inbound marketing relies on people coming to you, and they should be able to find you when they look.

Client Value – If Your Don’t Know it, You’re Losing, Plain and Simple

As a lawyer, you should know the approximate value of a new client. Only then can you determine whether your marketing campaign is profitable for you, and how much to budget for different aspects of it, such as SEO. After all, if you don’t know how much a new client is worth, how can you determine how much to spend in per client acquisition costs?

A Word On Advertising

Advertising is a crucially important marketing component. However, it’s also usually pretty hard to pull off yourself. Many lawyers don’t understand what makes a marketing and advertising campaign work. “Getting your name out there” is often a haphazard and low-value activity. Instead, hire a marketing firm who specializes in marketing and direct response.

They must understand how online marketing differs from the marketing they may have been doing in the past. While there are similarities, online marketing is a different animal, and any firm you hire should understand this.

If they aren’t talking to you in terms of “acquisition cost” and “cost per customer” as well as “conversion rates,” find another marketing company to handle your ads. Good marketing will make the difference between having a successful and thriving practice and having a firm that flounders.

Author Bio:

Alison Mackenzie contributed this guest post on behalf of HCA Compensation Lawyers Melbourne. Alison is a freelance writer with an extensive background as an attorney. She enjoys contributing to various online legal publications.