While some people get too wrapped up in monitoring web analytics data such as toolbar PageRank, top 30 rankings and number of daily visitors, there are some crucial metrics to follow and act on in order to improve your website and your search engine rankings.

To get a real sense for how your website is performing, spend your time monitoring things that illustrate successes and failure, such as conversion rates, how many backlinks you've collected and how engaged you visitors are. Here's a look at the three online marketing metrics you'll want to pay close attention to:

Read more »

In a world where social media gives businesses more immediate ways to connect with customers, is e-mail marketing still relevant? I think so. In fact, the volume of e-mail marketing messages remained at record-setting levels in June, according to Chad White, research director at marketing company Responsys, and retail e-mail volume will grow about 20 percent this year (vs. more than 16 percent in 2011), thanks to a shift away from old-school direct mail and print.

 

That makes for a more crowded party. Your e-mails are competing with (literally!) millions of others, which means you must be intentional in your efforts to create messages that truly engage your customers. Here's how.

Read more »

So you want to create a video that everyone'll talk about. You want it to be shared globally and earn views, retweets and "likes." In other words, you want it to go viral, like Dollar Shave Club's hilarious video, which earned the company a whopping 12,000 new customers in the first two days it hit the internet.

How do you make that happen? There is no surefire formula. You can't conjure up viral; you can't force it. But here's the thing: If you are looking to market your business, you don't necessarily need a viral hit--you just need to attract enough attention to draw customers. Here's how.

Focus on the story. Before trying to be clever, consider the message. Why are you producing the video? What problems does your company tackle, and in what unique ways does it do so?

Read more »

Unless you’ve been under a rock like the guy in the Geico commercial, then you have probably noticed that a lot of changes have been happening on Facebook, particularly to the fan pages. Here is a look at how you can take advantage of these changes and use them to market to your targeted audience.

1. Using Facebook as a Fan Page

This is by far one of the most powerful changes, in my opinion, to fan page functionality. Why? Before this change, there were only a few ways to share your fan page with people who are not a fan of your brand on Facebook. The first was by sharing the page directly with your personal profile’s contacts. The second was by hoping that your page’s fans would share it with their contacts. And the third was by spending money with Facebook advertising. 

Now, with the option to use Facebook as your page, you can do something that reaches out to Facebook users in your targeted audience for free. Here are easy steps on how to get your brand in front of a larger Facebook audience.

How to Use Facebook as Your Page

You must be an admin of the page you want to market before going any further – if you aren’t, then become a fan of the page and ask another admin of the page to add you as administrator. 

Step 1. When logged into your personal profile, go under the Account menu and select Use Facebook as Page.

Read more »

Content marketing is a simple phrase. It involves just two key elements.

“Content” which can be articles, videos and images in all their various multi-media formats.

“Marketing” which means taking that content and letting the online world knows it exists. In essence it is implementing strategies and tactics of making your ideas spread.

Marketing your content though is a challenge in a world where there are over 2 billion internet users who are bombarded with emails, streams of tweets and banner ads.

Read more »

To best market your non-profit, learn about your constituents and converse with them through the appropriate media.

communication service image by Julia Britvich from Fotolia.com

It may seem that marketing a non-profit is counter-intuitive, but company owners must concede that no matter what your business, you are always competing for support. To make your non-profit successful you need to develop sound promotional strategies. According to branding expert Laura Reis, the more powerful a non-profit brand is, the more money it will raise and the more volunteers it attracts.

Read more »

With over 135 million users, 59% of which are located outside of the United States and with 75 of the Fortune 100 companies using the network for marketing and recruiting purposes, LinkedIn has become a critical platform for building, connecting with, and growing your personal and professional networks.

As the leading business social network, LinkedIn offers the chance to connect with professionals all around the world and from all industry backgrounds. But how do you convert networks into customers, and ‘likes’ into sales?

1. Learn from your peers

Successful marketing is all about listening to what your market needs. The LinkedIn Groups feature provides a space where you can discuss issues with others in your industry and learn from their advice. You can bounce ideas off industry experts and stay informed on new developments. You also have an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in a certain industry/area allowing you to build relationships with current and prospective customers in a more organic and credible fashion.

Read more »

While every event is different, online event registration company EventBrite has been tracking how people register for events using its technology for several years now. After crunching some data, Tamara Mendelsohn, the company’s vice president of marketing, shared a few interesting insights at the Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress, held in late July in St. Louis.

Read more »

It’s one thing to create beautiful art, it’s another thing to produce art that is selling in the marketplace. Selling, marketing and P.R. all need to be in place before you finish that large artwork or body of work.

Take control of your future art sales, by following these 6 simple tips for marketing and selling your art.

1. Create a Press Release

Press releases are an effective way to build your public relations and search out new collectors. You don’t need to wait for a major event,  to send a press release—any news is news worth sharing”. The fact that you “are creating new work” is news. Get started today on writing and sending your release, because it could take months before you capture the attention of an editor.

Read more »

Ever increasingly your customers, everyone’s customers are spending more and more of their time online, and on the mobile net. As has always been the case, the job of every marketer is to reach into the places where potential customers are, in particular towards local. In a digital world where “local” means Facebook, Twitter, g+ and others, communities of potential buyers now hover around content and digital communities. Soon mobile will mirror and integrate for a new kind of marketing synergy.

Here are some figures and facts that may help you get up to speed on the next phases of small business success. (even large business for the matter)

Read more »

This popular smartphone app barely makes two years since its launch from October 2010, but it is definitely on a hot run with an impressive growth, reaching more than 100 million users worldwide.

SimplyMeasured study shows that more than half of the top 100 brands from Interbrand are now using Instagram.

Have you considered using Instagram for marketing?

Here are 8 tips to get started:

1. Communicate a lifestyle.

Red Bull for instance is using visual storytelling to share attractive fun and action-theme photos but also uses user generated content from their fan and follower base. 

Read more »

 1 comments, 0 called-out

Comment Now

Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments

Email marketing is a great way to reach your customers where they are without spending a lot of money. But it’s a big responsibility, too—people don’t give their email addresses to just anyone. Thinking about starting a company newsletter? Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Make it easy to subscribe. Post a signup form on your homepage, blog, Facebook page, and wherever else your customers and fans are already active. You might want to collect names and birthdays (for a special offer or gift) or invite readers to join groups, but don’t go crazy with the required fields. A too-long subscribe form might scare people off.

Tell subscribers what to expect. Whether you plan to send company updates, letters from the president, e-commerce sales, daily deals, or weekly tips, it’s important to tell your readers what to expect and how often to expect it. Give them as much information as possible on your signup form, so they can decide whether they want to be on the list or not.

Read more »

1. Have an app worth talking about

This point cannot be stressed enough. If your app doesn’t have a clear use case or doesn’t get people excited about using it you might as well stop here. You’ll be fighting an uphill battle. Sure, some good marketing could get you some sales, but it isn’t worth the effort. Go back and invest a lot of time and energy into creating a great product and then revisit these steps.

2. Learn to communicate the value

Mike Lee talks about the idea of creating the marketing video for your app first, before you even start developing it. The reason he gives is that if you can’t clearly communicate the value of your application in 45 seconds, should you even be making the application?

Read more »

If you think that publishing is going through an evolution then photography is experiencing a revolution. 

There are happy snappers everywhere. The smart phone with the inbuilt high definition camera is turning everyone into a photgrapher. Add some software technology with Instagram filters and an ordinary photo is becoming a piece of art.

Sites such as Pinterest are also allowing us to share this visual art form in glorious color, creativity and ease just by pinning images from the screen with a couple of clicks.

Competitors such as The Fancy.com are  taking these concepts of visual pinning even further into the realm of social commerce and have announced that they have reached a whopping one million users already.

The Rise of Social Mobile Commerce

The Fancy has introduced a few new features into its mobile app offering, most notably the ability to buy products (they are reportedly making an average of $50,000 each week from users snapping up the products they fancy). Up until now users could only collect images they fancied, but now you can buy them with one-click purchasing directly from your iPhone or iPad.

This revolution is changing the way businesses perform commerce online.  Online vendors are realizing that the habits and practices of  buyers online are changing rapidly and that tablet and smartphone users are much more likely to impulse buy with the convenience of one click shopping.

Pinterest has the Numbers

When it is all said and done, Pinterest still has the mind share and the numbers (currently at over 20 million users) but it certainly needs to keep developing its platform rapidly.

Online boutiques such as Boticca have turned their product categories into boards on Pinterest and are generating up to 10% of their sales from clicks from Pinterest.

So how do you use Pinterest to market your business?

10 Tips for Marketing on Pinterest

As with all marketing you need to start with a plan to win and Pinterest is no different.

1. Plan for Pinning Success

When setting up your account make sure it is set up properly and branded with your logo. Create boards that suit your target customers and your industry niche. Also make sure that you have integrated your Pinterest platform with your other social media platforms.

2. Remember Copyright

I was attending an online retailer conference recently and ShopNBC pointed out that it is important to ensure that you are not pinning images that have copyright.   Also remember to attribute your source.

3. Pin Straegically

The mantra is Pin, Repin and follow. Build up a  loyal tribe and they will reward you with significant sharing. Remember when anyone repins the link still points back to your site. Think of Pinterest as a friendly virus.

4. Be a Social Pinner

Don’t forget to comment , like other pins and @tag other pinners by name. Also remember your manners and say thanks when you are repinned.

5. Produce Pinnable Content

The rise of a much more visual web requires you to create and share high quality images. Also remember that you can also pin video as well. For B2B businesses that work in knowledge industries you can also pin images that point to your presentations on Slideshare.

6. Create and Curate

Don’t just post your images curate other quality images and photos from others. Remember to share the love. The power of reciprocation is alive and well and if you share others content they will feel obliged to share yours.

7. Be a Creative Pinner

A lot of business have great images offline that could be placed online to add to your content. Run competitions and include call to action in your pins.

8. Keep Search Engines in Mind

Google notices fresh content and also social signals. So optimize your pins with hashtags, links, categories and keywords. It is very important to pin images and content from your website. Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to your website if you do this correctly with compelling and contagious photos and images. Infographics work very well on Pinterest.

9. Don’t Forget your Tools

The most essential tool is the “Pin It” button on your browser. Also download the Pinterest app for your mobile devices.

10. Monitor and Measure your Traffic

This will assist you in finding out what works and what doesn’t. Do more of what works. Also monitor what your competitors and other brands are doing and you will be surprised by what you will learn.

Source: Donna Moritz of Socially Sorted on the AmyPorterfield Blog

In their book No B.S. Guide to Marketing to Leading-Edge Boomers and Seniors, marketing experts Dan S. Kennedy and Chip Kessler offer small-business owners a handy guide to targeting the leading-edge boomer and senior market. In this edited excerpt, the authors describe seven ways you can differentiate yourself from the competition.

Most small businesses are missing an opportunity to become the only or preferred source of their offering to leading-edge boomers and seniors (LEB/S) simply because they've assumed that differentiation can't be done. The reality is that virtually all offerings can be made different in a way that matters to LEB/S.

Read more »