Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

Successful Business Uses for Facebook and LinkedIn (GF202)

If you’re jumping on the social networking bandwagon, consider LinkedIn and Facebook. Interaction on these popular sites will help your business gain momentum. A good strategy for any social media objective includes:

1. Strategically connecting with people in groups who share common expertise in your industry.
2. Creating unique content that is valuable to your audience.    
3. Enticing your audience to interact with you.

Make connections 

Connections are extremely valuable to the growth of your business. The more like-minded people you establish connections with, the more resourceful your network becomes. Your connections not only create job opportunities, they introduce you to a community of experts willing to share their knowledge with you. When you run into tough questions, tap into the wisdom of your peers to find answers. Be choosy about the connections you make. Focus on building quality connections rather than quantity of connections.

Gain referrals

LinkedIn and Facebook are great places to get business referrals. A connection who’s pleased with your work is likely to refer you to one of their peers. If you run into a project beyond your area of expertise, it’s easy to find helpful vendors through your peer network. Establish a mutual referral system between connection vendors – refer web design work in exchange for copywriting work.      

Stir interest with unique content

Create valuable content on your LinkedIn and Facebook pages. If your content is useful to your target audience, they will follow your work. Promote your social network by posting links to your website or blog from your LinkedIn and Facebook pages.  Post fresh content frequently so you keep your audience engaged. Make your content unique and informative. Resist overusing it as a means of self-promotion. People get turned off when content reads like spam.     

Stimulate interaction

Engage your audience by commenting regularly on their postings. This stimulates interaction and allows opportunity to showcase your knowledge. Encourage interaction further by posing questions on your blogs and responding to public queries.  Your thoughtful responses are a demonstration of your expertise. People will view you as an expert in your field and a go-to person when making referrals.     

Professor: Elyse Tager, Silicon Valley American Marketing Association

I've been reminding clients that trying to use tricks in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is at best a waste of time. Here's one reason why! Google just announced a crackdown on content farms that have a lot of poor or duplicated content.

Image By: warrantedarrest

Sites with meaty, original content are not affected by the changes in Google's algorithm. But, people who have been trying to use SEO tricks to manipulate the search results just lost out!

Google has an army of highly intelligent PhD's who spend all day, every day working to deliver the most relevant information to their customers -- People who are searching the web looking for information or answers to their problems.

I know some SEO companies claim to have secret methods for making a page rank highly on Google. These tricks may work for a little while, but ultimately just waste your time and money.

Simply, there's a better way. It's not as sexy as the tricks are, but will deliver a good ROI over the long term. The answer?  Consistently create relevant content that addresses the needs of your target persona.

Business blogging is a perfect way to regularly create the needed content. Over time, you'll build up a library of relevant, valuable articles that your target customers can find via Google.

Sure, you want to optimize your posts and build links, too. Just do it in the right way -- By adding value for your audience!

If you want to know more, there's plenty of information on the details of Google's change to eliminate low-quality content.

Have you been burned by trying to use SEO tricks? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Lately, I've answered several questions about how to select a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vendor like this one from Ernest on LinkedIn. That's always a good cue to write about the topic.

SEO is a very broad topic, and many companies are better at one aspect than another. Here are the steps I recommend:

1. Define your business goals. I know you want traffic, but why and what kind of traffic? If this isn't clear, you can end up with pages ranked high on Google, but little new revenues. Your SEO suppliers did ask these questions -- Right?
   
   Search Engine Optimization results come over time, and you want to create a long-term relationship with a trusted advisor.
2. Go to WebsiteGrader and run a report on your website and some of your key competitors. It's free and it will make recommendations on where your problems are.
   
   Here's a trick. Run a Website Grader on your SEO vendor candidates to see if they have room for improvement!
3. Do you mostly need to expand your keywords, create more content, optimize existing content, or build inbound links? Are these the strengths of your SEO suppliers?
4. Pick a good framework for your website. This is often missed and it can put a drag on your efforts.
   
   Personally, I use Hubspot because it save me time and helps me get quick results.

And, avoid the tricky SEO guys -- You know the ones who focus on gimmicks and other ways to make pages rank highly. Effective SEO isn't complex, but it takes real work! There are a lot of details to get right.

On LinkedIn,  Simran Gupta asked about strategies to increase conversion rates on a website. Unfortunately, when you ask the question this way, people start thinking about eBooks, opt-in forms, email marketing, and all the other tactics that live in the world of online marketing.

Image By: HikingArtist.com

Serve Your Prospects to Increase Conversion

What I see all the time, is that effective online lead generation isn't about the tactics - Chat panels, inquiry forms, or any of the web widgets you might put on your site.

Instead, focus on your prospects. What are they really looking for? How do they define their problem? Show that you care and are available to help and the opt-ins will flow in.

Steps to Increase Conversion Rates

1. Develop a persona that personalizes and describes your ideal prospect. Give your persona a name and a personality.
2. Research keywords to have a great idea what keywords your target persona would use when searching for a solution.
3. Create valuable web content that educates your target persona, and helps them solve their problems. Blogging is an excellent way to create content and get found on the Internet.
4. Create relevant offers for your visitors - Report downloads, eBooks, etc. The important thing is not the tactic of having a PDF download. What is important is having valuable and relevant information to download.
5. Add relevant Call To Action opt-in buttons to your content so your visitors can provide their email address and learn more.
6. Continue to follow-up to add value and educate.

Takeaways

• Add value and help your prospects and the opt-ins will follow.
• Focus on knowing your prospects and helping them solve their problems.
• Don't worry about the specific technologies

Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment and let me know.

Social Media and Building Community (GF201)

Is your focus about you or your customers?

Does your business revolve around your product, personal goals or yourself? If you answered yes to any of these, you need to reconsider your focus! Your business is not all about you – it’s about your community of customers and their needs. Give your customers what they want! If your product doesn’t address their needs, why should you expect them to buy it? Your customers want to know what you can do for them, not what they can do to bolster your profits. Rather than focus on how to sell people on your products, focus on how your products help people succeed.  

Do you know what your customers need?

Consumers respect businesses that listen to what they have to say. Listen to what your customers are telling you. Their words are like instruction manuals for creating products that sell. Listen and acknowledge them. Acknowledgment demonstrates that you are personable and serious about catering to their needs. Community-building is the best way to hear the voice of your consumer base. Encourage them to express their opinions about your products. Allow them to ask questions and make suggestions. Never presume to know what they want. Ask them instead. Their input will only help your business grow!    

Take action!

Ever heard the saying, “actions speak louder than words?” Well, guess what? It’s true! Take action with the input your customers give you. Don’t allow their feedback to go in one ear and out the other. Acknowledge it and do something constructive with it! When you set their ideas into motion, they’ll realize just how much you value them. If you want your customers coming back for more, give them more of what they’re looking for.          

Go beyond social networking sites

When it comes to social networking, Facebook and LinkedIn are hard to beat. Just don’t limit yourself to them alone! Be active in building a Web community where your customers can interact. Foster a fan base through writing blogs or host a forum on your website where you can interact with people on an intimate level. Praise your customers for their innovative ideas and valuable feedback. People are far more likely to feel good about your company if you treat them like you would your closest friends.  

Professor: Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs

Research shows that images help your blog post attract comments. They also give you another way to get found through search engines. In a previous article, I showed you how to find images on Flickr for your business blog. 

After you find an interesting image, you still need to manage it correctly to maximize the inbound marketing benefits.

To download the image from Flickr and add it to a blog post:

1. Find an image on Flickr as we did before.
2. Still in Flickr, click the Actions button, and select View all sizes.

1. Click the size that fits your situation. I picked Medium - 375 x 500.
2. Click Download the Medium size of this photo and save it somewhere convenient.
3. Rename the image file like this: put-your-keywords-here.jpg. Of course, you'll use your keywords.
4. Upload the image to your blog and insert the image into a post.
5. Make sure to place your keywords in the Alt text for the image. Depending on the look you want float the image to the left, right, or center.

WARNING: Don't try to overstuff your keywords either in the image file name or in the Alt text. Keep it simple; just use the one or two relevant keywords.

Here's a video showing the best ways to upload the image to your Hubspot or other blog for maximum Inbound Marketing benefit.

Do you have other tips on using images in blogs? Leave an idea in the comments!

Make Your Business Blog More Interesting Images make your blog much more interesting. Having Images in your business blog is a best practice both for the entertainment of your readers and to improve your inbound marketing and obtain a better search engine position. Look at this image. Doesn't it add color and interest to this blog post? The right image will be both beautiful and interesting for readers and will help emphasize your message.

Photo By tiarescott

1. Visit the Attributions License search page to find a suitable image. This license means that you can use the image as long as you provide attribution through a link. Thanks to HubSpot, here are some other great sources of free images.
2. Always identify your target keywords first, before writing your post. Then, search for an image that emphasizes the key point of your blog post.
3. I started with a search for "freedom," and ended up with a search for "island sail" before finding an image I liked.
4. Watch the video, and then learn how to add the image to your blog.

What's your best idea for finding images for your blog post?

SEO Crash Course: Get Found to Generate Leads & Sales (GF102)

SEO is the most important marketing strategy to generate leads and conversions. By making your site more search engine friendly, it will rank higher in search results – meaning, better visibility and better results.

Get found through the words you use

Keywords are the words that exist in the minds of your target audience. Which words are they most likely to use when searching for your product or service? Coming up with solid keywords requires getting to know the needs of your audience well. In order to rank high in search results, you need keywords that are relevant – words that best describe what you have to offer. Optimize your content for the keywords you target. Remember, keywords matter…a lot!     

Search engine friendly sites are easy to find

You can’t make it easy for customers to find your products unless your content can be found easily by search engines. Web crawlers index text, so you must use results-driven keywords in your content. Add fresh content regularly to reinforce your keyword vocabulary. Site architecture is also important. Search engines can find you more easily if your site structure is logical and easy to navigate. To drive traffic to your site, you need to demonstrate to search engines that your site receives good search results.   

Links, links, and more links!  

To boost your search engine rankings, you need lots of strong inbound links. A strong link is one that ranks high in search results. One of the most effective ways to attract links is to create remarkable content and promote it on social networks. If people find your content useful, they will link to you. Schmoozing with the big boys pays off – affiliation with reputable links will do wonders for your rankings!       

How does your site perform?

Optimize your site by monitoring its performance over time using analytics. It’s useful to pay attention to several key performance indicators. Some important ones include number of indexed pages, rankings, quality and quantity of inbound links, social media traffic, and conversions. You want to maintain a positive user experience on your site – if visitors run into crawling errors, they’re likely to become frustrated and move on to another site.       

Professor: Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing

Blogging, when done consistently, delivers SEO magic. Google and the other search engines love relevant content. A blog with regular posts will move you up in the search engines and get your company found.

How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101):

• Know your audience, their needs, problems, and pain.
• Develop a persona that represents your audience. More on: How to Create Personas.
• Be the Expert for solving your audience's problems.
• Ask for comments in your blog post & start a conversation.
• Use social networks to listen and see what people want to talk about.

Professors: Ann Handley & Mack Collier, MarketingProfs

Now, I know business isn't exactly the same as dating. Still, there are some interesting comparisons!

According to the video, to be more attractive, you should use:

• Aromatherapy - Well, at least for now, web browsers don't support aroma. That's probably a good thing as some business websites stink!
• Smiles - "We're biologically primed to prefer people who seem to be interested in us." Is your site about your customers and prospects, or all about you?
• Eye Contact - Are you really interested in serving your customers and prospects? They can tell!
• Hand Gestures - Is your content interesting and compelling? Why should anyone care?
• White Teeth - Do you care enough to take care of the small things? Do you have readable text and good grammer?
• Good Posture - Is your site structured so that search engines can find you? Can your visitors easily find information?
• Name Dropping - Are you focused on the needs and questions of your customers and prospects? Do you really know who your customers and prospects are?
• Red Clothes [Optional] - Color and design do matter on the web, but having remarkable content and good readability matters more.

For Lead Conversion, you don't need a pretty website! You just need to be Attractive.

What do you think?