via searchenginewatch.com The landscape at Google is in a massive state of flux with lots of improvements really. Google is making a highly concerted effort to reflect the macro shifts in internet usage across the globe. It’s very exciting when you know what these macro shifts are and can have your business and your personal [...]
And the fact is, you can get Affordable SEO Services that fit your budget and which can help you get the ball rolling in the right direction. You might need to start off with $150-200 per month. With that kind of budget, we still get our clients tangible, measurable results. Sure, if you can invest $1000 per month for 6-12 months, we can get you there faster and with more keywords, but the reality is that a lot of business owners just don’t have that right now in this economy.
Let’s face it, if you spend just about any time online these days, you’re at risk of your privacy being invaded and your identity and personal information may be unsecured. You need to be pro-active and arm yourself with a few good tools. I’m alarmed at how few people have basic anti-virus, anti-spyware and proper [...]
Your “likes” on Facebook, comments on Facebook and other areas that you would normally consider private, are up for grabs again. Anyone that has been on Facebook for any period of time should be used to FB’s ever evolving changes in privacy and terms of service policies. The real problem is many people do not know of these changes before it’s too late.
One thing I really, really get excited about is efficiency opportunity. You know, those cool times when you see a real, bona fide opportunity to increase your efficiency in business and life. I’m going to share one of these opportunities with you… it’s simple, go check out www.posterous.com – love it.
It’s coming… well, it’s already here but the revolution is growing and if you’re business doesn’t get on board you’ll be left in the dust. By all indications, major brands are jumping on the QR Code bandwagon. Earlier this year it was Calvin Klein, now FOX Network has announced that viewers can gain instant access [...]
Article by Art Ruiz Jr – Internet Marketing Expert In Denver
Internet Marketing Denver Is A Necessity. The days of fingers walking through the yellow pages are over. People no longer pull out the phone book when looking for products or services they need to buy. Today people turn on their computer and do a quick internet search. People look at the first page of search results and call or visit the first three companies that are listed in their search.
The business that wants to survive in the twenty first century has to have a web presence in order to attract new customers. Hire an internet marketing Denver company to handle the internet promotion or have someone in the company learn the skills needed to build a company’s internet presence.
The company without a website is losing prospective customers each day because it has no on line presence. The best way to build a web presence and a web advertising campaign is to hire a promotional company that specializes in internet promotion. A company that has a marketing budget can hire a company to do all the work that will build sales and profits.
Locate the right company to work with by doing what all customers do these days, perform a computerized search. When consulting with a potential marketing partner ask the company representative about their various package deals. Ask if the company specializes in SEO, email marketing, and modern website development.
Websites of today are lean, concise, and even to navigate. Compare this to the sits of the nineties which were filled with bells and whistles that have no place in today’s modern World Wide Web. The developer should build a website that has a professional appearance and has the right amount of interactive capability. Internet Marketing Denver can help you succeed. When putting together an internet marketing strategy you should also include search engine marketing, social media & search engine optimization
Art Ruiz Jr is an internet marketing expert in Denver & works for ReachLocal Denver. We create internet marketing strategies using search engine marketing, social media & search engine optimization. Want Results? Call me today at (303) 498-9324.
Disclaimer: The postings of opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of ReachLocal, Inc., its management, employees, clients or publishers.
A few years ago I had a job working out of an office in the city. There were a number of coffee shops within close proximity to where I worked, each vying for the passing trade. I remember one little coffee shop in particular, because a number of us from the office used to pass three other coffee places to get to this one.
What was it that attracted us, and the hundreds of other customers that also patronized that business? Was it the coffee? Well, the coffee was great, just the way I like it, but not being a true connoisseur of coffee that wasn’t the reason. Was it the price? No, in fact the prices were on the higher end of the scale, compared with the other coffee places around about. And no, the young women behind the counter didn’t wear tight miniskirts or short, short hot pants.
The reason why that particular coffee shop was so popular was because the owner knew all his regular customers by their first name, what sort of coffee they drank, and was able to enquire, with specific questions about how things were in the customer’s life. It was like a dear friend had invited you over and offered you a cup of coffee! In fact, the only time Dave did any work, as far as serving customers and the like was when one of the baristas was on a break and there was a sudden influx of customers.
Dave had learned, and practiced with a great deal of skill the art of relationship marketing. New people were constantly drawn in to the true friendship this man offered. And that’s what it was like, a true friendship. So, using Dave’s relationship to his customers, I’d like to offer 4 things that friends do for each other and make a few observations by way of comparison with what often happens on the Internet.
1. Friends maintain contact. Friends keep in touch with one another. If a customer had not been into the shop for a while, next time Dave saw them he would enquire about them, whether things were okay. Sometimes it was just a break from work, maybe a bit of sickness, but then there were times when something dramatic happened. Dave would listen to the customer’s story and express his best wishes in keeping with whatever the customer was experiencing. But he knew what was going on in the lives of his customers. Not in any intrusive way, but out of genuine concern.
Compare that with the common practice of Internet Marketers. There was a time not so long ago when the information you received from marketers was informative, even useful. Now, it seems each time a marketer contacts you is to promote the latest must have product or service. About the only other time you hear from them is after your “trial period” has expired and you have chosen not to subscribe to their product or service. Then, I presume they consider they have nothing to lose, they take the gloves and really start getting aggressive, telling you in no uncertain terms what an absolute loser you are showing yourself to be because you haven’t signed up for their ‘truly incredible, one of a kind, product’.
2. Friends enquire as to your wellbeing. They show genuine care and concern. In Dave’s case, it was not much more than an enquiry about whatever a customer had shared with him the last time they spoke, but it meant a great deal to know someone else cared enough to ask.
Compare that with the common practice of Internet Marketers. In many instances, although I admit things are on the improve, they only thing they care about is how much money they can make from having you ‘on their list’. The very expression “the money is in the list” betrays a mindset which cares little for what is happening in the lives of the people on that list other than what sort of “irresistible offer’ can be made, based on the customer’s previous buying patterns.
3. Friends share in the joys and sorrows of life. There were little things Dave would pick up from the demeanour of certain customers that would give him a clue that things were not as good as they could be, alternatively it was time for celebration. A comment as innocent as “you’re looking very glamorous today” might bring the response, “Oh, it’s my birthday” or “yes we announced our engagement over the weekend” which would be cause for celebration, and even, perhaps, a free coffee. On the other hand, a considerate, “you’re looking a bit down today” would many times bring out something that had been brewing for a while. Dave never really offered advice, but he was a very good listener, which is often all that is needed.
Compare that with the common practice of Internet Marketers. Not one of those with whom I have had dealings over the years has bothered to enquire about my situation at all. They have no idea as to what has been going on in my life. And, it would seem, they don’t really care. A large part of the reason for that is because most Internet Marketers have their business on auto-pilot, while they go off to exotic locations and talk to each other about new and different strategies to make more money.
4. Friends remember significant dates. On more than one occasion during the time I had contact with Dave I saw the surprised look on people’s faces as Dave would wish them a happy birthday or wedding anniversary. I can only assume he had a calendar of some sort where he kept note of those special events so he could offer his best wishes to the customers when they came in on that day. If the special day happened on the weekend, when the shop was closed, Dave would be sure to say something on the Monday morning after.
About the only dates I ever hear Internet Marketers refer to is the launch day of their new super version of the product you bought six months earlier and how the special “pre-launch” offer because you are such a valued customer means you can get the new product with all its added benefits for half of what everyone else will pay.
Now, I know I sound cynical about Internet Marketers, but compared with Dave and his approach, most Internet Marketers today don’t have a clue how to get a higher level of positive response that comes from being in some type of relationship with their customers. They seem to be more interested in the numbers. The larger the list, the greater the profits. Well, I for one have had enough, and my response to that approach is the same as I give to telemarketers when they interrupt my dinner. ” No thanks, not interested”, but they never seem to follow me up, so I never really get a chance to say it, except maybe by unsubscribing from their email list.
So, how might you get that sort of information from your customers? You simply do what Dave does. Initially you ask for basic information, (like name) then you engage in conversation with the customer. That might be by email (good choice) skype (better choice) or even conferencing with a small group of customers. The key is to communicate often and keep some sort of record on the information you receive just in the natural flow of conversation.
To bombard your customers with a list of twenty questions the first time you communicate with them would be a real turn off. Don’t do it. Simply allow the various topics to come up in general conversation…
“We were out celebrating my birthday last week…”
“Oh, really? When’s your birthday?”
“July 25th…any way, I bumped into….”
and the customer thinks nothing more of it until…next year, on their birthday they get an e-card from you wishing them well.
How often does that happen with other Internet Marketers? Not often enough. Which is good for you, if you choose to follow that part of The R. Suppedz Marketing Strategy through.
Is your customer going to remember that? You bet your sweet bippy (sorry, little “Laugh In” nostalgia there. Only a fellow Baby Boomer would understand)
Are they going to tell their friends and work colleagues? More than likely.
Will it mean more business for you? Quite possibly.
And what’s it cost you? A little thought and organisation.
End result. If they tell just one person who follows up with you, you could double your customer base every year!!! Think you could handle that?
Written by obidee
In all the low-cost internet market techniques, email marketing has its place at the top. The major reason for the effectiveness of email marketing is that it can be used to keep close contact with your prospects or clients. There is no better way to relate to your online clients other than communicating directly to their emails. It is usually more effective because such clients or prospects willingly gave you their email addresses and as such were prepared for the messages you will be sending. You don’t have to abuse this privilege, so there is need for you to ensure that you constantly provide very useful contents in the mails you send out.
If you are using email marketing as an internet marketing option, you have to realize that your mails are meant for your prospects, so you have to ensure that you tell them the same things you will tell any customer or prospects that physically show up in your office. For points of clarity, you are advised to write the mails as if you know them and make sure that they have enough reasons to be anticipating your mails. You can do better in your email marketing efforts by taking note of the simple tips below.
A link building and internet marketing company like ours can offer you highly professional services to meet all your SEO and website related needs. Get your FREE link building and SEO analysis by calling Think Big Enterprises today! Save money and get results.
Watch the short video below for more tips!
There are many sources you can find for internet marketing help. Internet marketing is the area where many small online business owners struggle and this never has to be the case for your business. If you make marketing a priority from the beginning, you will be able to discover many ways to reach people and the more you get your name out there, the better your business will be and this is how you can become completely independent financially.
It is very simple to create a blog and this can help you get the internet marketing help that you need. You can use your blog as a place to talk to others and this can create a really neat place you will be able to gain information. You may meet many new and exciting people and this can give you a new perspective on marketing that you may not have had and this can help to refresh your business.
Looking at your current customers is a great idea rather then solely looking at a new customer base. Some of the best internet marketing help can come from focusing on your customers. You will want to take a closer look at all of your customers and find out what type of people they are and where they come from and this can help you to find out where to advertise. This can seem very simple, but this may provide you with a great way to find more customers and still market to existing customers.
Social marketing is something that has become very popular and you can use many of the social networking sites to reach people. This is often a free way to use internet marketing help and this is great for someone in the starting phase of an online business. You will be able to reach a large number of customers within a very short time frame and this can help you to get your business out there very quickly. You may want to sign up for more then one social site and this will help you reach even more people.
Internet marketing help is out there and there are many ways you can make friends and get the valuable advice you need. Everyone has to start somewhere and the more help you receive the better your odds will be at finding financial freedom in a very short time frame.
Let’s face it, if you spend just about any time online these days, you’re at risk of your privacy being invaded and your identity and personal information may be unsecured. You need to be pro-active and arm yourself with a few good tools. I’m alarmed at how few people have basic anti-virus, anti-spyware and proper cookie settings so their online traffic isn’t watched (yes literally) by tracking cookies or spyware.
More importantly to me is the fact that just about anybody with some know how can track your online browsing history and get information from that. Sure there are some devious reasons that someone might want to block their online browsing history but for me, I don’t want anyone knowing what sites I go to or worse, getting personal information off of my web traffic. It’s just the principle of the idea that my business is only my business and no one else’s.
If you share this concern, there are solutions. I’ve included a great video to intro the idea to you. I highly suggest you check out www.torproject.org and download the “TOR Browser Bundle” – for Windows or Mac depending on what type of computer you use.
TOR essentially sets up a tunnel of your internet traffic and relays the request all over the world (literally) so that someone trying to watch your traffic wouldn’t know that request for a certain site came from your computer. I’ve tested it and it works – fantastically. The first time I setup a connection to the TOR network and opened the TOR browser (which is basically a customized version of Firefox), Yahoo thought I was located in Germany based on the IP address that was requesting the Yahoo page from my browser.
If you want anonymity online and you want to keep any and all prying eyes off your online traffic, TOR is the best way to go right now.
by Dietrich
Facebook Ads – New Insiders Secret For Big Companies and Marketers …
Your “likes” on Facebook, comments on Facebook and other areas that you would normally consider private, are up for grabs again. Anyone that has been on Facebook for any period of time should be used to FB’s ever evolving changes in privacy and terms of service policies. The real problem is many people do not know of these changes before it’s too late.
The new Facebook privacy setting is called “Instant Personalization” and it is being rolled out right now!
It’s obvious that Facebook has made these changes to bolster their ad revenue and capitalize on additional methods to make more money. These new changes are a dream for big companies and marketers alike. Now being a marketer myself, I think this is great, but many of you may not share my enthusiasm.
Think about this…
Facebook Pages that you “like”, comments that you make and even your picture can be used in company ads and promotion without your knowledge! So before anyone gets all up in arms I’m going to show you how you can shut the door on this privacy loophole.
CLICK HERE to go to the full post by my friend Dietrich where he shares how to shut the door on this loophole…
It’s coming… well, it’s already here but the revolution is growing and if you’re business doesn’t get on board you’ll be left in the dust.
By all indications, major brands are jumping on the QR Code bandwagon. Earlier this year it was Calvin Klein, now FOX Network has announced that viewers can gain instant access to content for FOX shows via FOX CODES (custom QR codes for Fox). Just last week I saw Gap use QR code in stores for user generated apparel recommendations. Both Best Buy and AT&T have released mobile apps with QR code readers too. Soon you’ll see QR Codes at Best Buy locations… QR codes stand for Quick Response as in Mobile phone users can get a Quick Response on your business if you give them your QR Code. Get on the bus folks… if you need help doing this, well, this is what we do at Think Big Enterprises… just call us!
Now, for some tips on some of the best QR Readers for Smartphones. I personally like RedLaser because it’s free and I can also use it to scan UPC Codes on just about any product in a store and instantly have info and pricing comparisons on that product. Just a FREE TIP!
Why Facebook? It’s quite simple… they have the most traffic! More than Google if you didn’t already know.
n this post I’m not going to write a lot because I’m attaching a lot of the content for you to download. Cheat sheets and everything you need to know to get going. Of course, call me if you have any challenges or want to outsource this. That’s what we do!
P.S. I have a lot more instructional information I am willing to send you, just give me a call or email me if you get through all of what’s attached and are ready for more!
The landscape at Google is in a massive state of flux with lots of improvements really. Google is making a highly concerted effort to reflect the macro shifts in internet usage across the globe.
It’s very exciting when you know what these macro shifts are and can have your business and your personal profile tracking with all these changes at Google. Because those who change with Google will be highly rewarded in page and author ranks!!
This is a great article that talks about more of the recent changes in the “Places” landscape. You need to know what’s happening… must read. Enjoy!
92% of potential clients contact a business immediately after searching, and most of them make a purchase. Maps Optimization puts your business right under the noses of customers looking to buy. It gives your contact info to local searchers, because they’re ready to buy, and they’ll buy from you if they can find you.
When buyers look for services on Google, the 3—7 most relevant local businesses are displayed on a map with the company and phone number. We can get you into these displayed spots.Your first step is to create a business listing. The Think Big team will then look at search data and current trends related to your services and revise the content of your listing to maximize its relevancy to local and mobile searchers.
Each month, our team will build citations to your contact information on other sites and directories. Citations help your business rank higher in local search maps results, boosting you into the top listings, and attracting customers.
Let Us Help Your Business Rank Higher in Google Maps
We have a deep understanding of how the Maps algorithm works and the factors used to determine rankings of local business listings. As well we have a few tricks up our sleeves that can help give your a competitive advantage. We can help give your business a boost in the Maps rankings and guide you on how best to solidify your rankings over time.
Citations are defined as “mentions” of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website. An example of a citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed, but not linked to. It can also be a local chamber of commerce, or a local business association where your business information can be found, even if they are not linking at all to your website . You may also see the term “web references” used on other websites—a synonym for “citations”.
Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms of the major search engines. Other factors being equal, businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations.
Citations from well-established and well-indexed portals (like Superpages.com for example) help increase the degree of certainty the search engines have about your business’s contact information and categorization. To paraphrase former Arizona Cardinals’ coach Dennis Green, citations help search engines confirm that businesses “are who we thought they were!”
Citations are particularly important in less-competitive niches (like plumbing or electrical) where many service providers don’t have websites themselves. Without much other information, the search engines rely heavily on whatever information they can find!
Citations also validate that a business is part of a community. It’s hard for someone to fake membership in a chamber of commerce or a city or county business index, or to be written about in a local online newspaper or popular blog. Citations (and links) from these kinds of websites can dramatically improve your Local search engine rankings.
Currently, the ‘More About This Business’ section of your Google Place Page is the most complete list of your citations, though Google probably doesn’t show every single one it knows about.
WATCH THIS VIDEO FIRST! THEN READ BELOW!!
We help a business get listed and completely optimized in their first month with our “Local SEO” business search package -- after that, it’s about staying optimized and getting your business listed in hundreds of different internet directories -- which we also do. That said, you can do it for FREE if you want so I’ll give you as much extra advice as I can in a short post and if you decide you want somebody to do this for you, I guarantee you’ll get a lot more in return than the dollars you spend with us. There are some insider secrets on how we do this that I don’t give away -- after all, that’s why people hire me instead of doing it themselves. But if you like doing things yourself, this will get you started!
The WORLD WIDE WEB is going LOCAL in many respects. Google is Local. In case you haven’t noticed already, when you perform a Google Search on most search terms, you get a Google Map in the upper right corner of the screen and middle of page displays Google Local Search Results. Don’t believe me, just go to www.google.com and type in restaurant or dentist or attorney or homes for rent. Google will almost always get your location correct to the closest large city. That’s how they know what local results to display for the local user searching and especially for MOBILE customers. Google is also going MOBILE guys…
In fact, your business is likely already on Google’s local search. If not, I know exactly why. You’re not in any of the major business directories. Your business info may be outdated, may have moved, whatever. If you have not claimed your listing with Google yet, you risk having your business info deleted -- if they already have it. If you need or want help you can hire me to do all this for you.
Google Places registration is FREE folks. If you do the right things, you’ll get your business in the top 3-5 places for local search results (ie. ON THE FIRST PAGE OF RESULTS) and that translates in to business my friends -- well it should. Why do I say that? Well, there’s lots of data to back it up. But it’s also just as logical. Chances are you have a smartphone… if you don’t, you will in 5 years or less. Why? Phone manufacturers are going Smartphone exclusively -- in different shapes and sizes… I can pull out my iPhone and click on my Google Maps app, type in “dentist” and the closest businesses matching the dentist category appear on my phone screen. I tap on any one of them and the business phone number, address, website, etc. displays on my screen. From there I can add that business to my contacts with one click of my finger; OR, I can click on “Directions to Here” and get turn by turn directions right to that business’ front door; OR, I can click on the phone number and my phone will dial the number. All in all it takes me about 15 seconds.
In many countries today, the only way people in that country access the internet is through their phone. They have faster internet on their phone than they do at home, if they have it home at all.
I’m telling you, business is going Local (not loco) and Mobile. Get on it and use the FREE tools out there to do it!
HERE’S A QUICK VIDEO TUTORIAL ON HOW TO UNDERSTAND THIS AND GETTING YOUR FREE GOOGLE PLACES LISTING! Watch this and then implement the secrets listed after the video!
A couple more secret tips once you have your listing claimed and verified:
And hey, if you need a little help, call me. I’m pretty good at this stuff… you’ll get on the first page of Google! That’s not so bad, is it?
One thing I really, really get excited about is efficiency opportunity. You know, those cool times when you see a real, bona fide opportunity to increase your efficiency in business and life. I’m going to share one of these opportunities with you… it’s simple, go check out www.posterous.com -- love it. I input my facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube account info ahead of time, add a post of any kind (blog, text, video, audio) to posterous account and posterous automatically sends same to all my social accounts. One to many efficiency. Very nice. My posterous site: lanehouk.posterous.com -- Have fun with it!
Oh and by the way, Posterous makes it so easy to add a new blog post… all you have to do is email your new post to post@posterous.com and Posterous knows it’s you by your email address so they automatically create the new post for you, publish it on your Posterous page and submit the same post to all of your Social Network sites! That is awesome. Best of all, it’s FREE folks.
By the way… I found one video on YouTube that was short and shows how you can use Posterous to be more efficient!
Editors Note: As always and as will always be… great content is the key to everything. Users, viewers and readers still search for and long for great content. You just cannot ever get away from that if you want to have success online or in Twitter-world for that matter. Twitter is a great platform to get short snippets out to your audience to catch their attention so make sure you focus on the exact wording of your hashtag and title!
Article by Ron Schott – SearchEngineWatch.com
Twitter now has 100 million active users generating some 200 million tweets and 1.6 billion search queries every day. Despite the promise of reaching such a massive, highly-engaged audience, many advertisers have struggled to find the best way to connect with Twitter users.
Brands have had success using Twitter to distribute coupons and special offers – gaining followers on the lookout for deals – but have stumbled when it comes to building brand reach and engagement on the network.
Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or to spark engagement among their existing followers – and they are an effective way to use Twitter for brand marketing.
All Promoted Tweets are first displayed as regular Tweets to the people following an account, but advertisers can then promote these Tweets to spark additional conversation – paying for them to show up at the top of relevant search results pages, in users’ timelines the Promoted Tweet is relevant to that user, in Promoted Trend search results, and other places. Though these tweets are clearly labeled as “promoted”, in every other respect, these Tweets are just like all the other 200 million tweets generated every day on Twitter; they can be retweeted, replied to, forwarded, and more.
Getting Promoted Tweets right takes a bit of finesse. Twitter users are a savvy bunch, and they will ignore Promoted Tweets if they are too salesy, pushy, or out of sync with their interests. Here are six proven tips to use Promoted Tweets to boost your brand’s visibility among Twitters millions of users.
1. Promote Great Content
Make sure the content you’re promoting is engaging and interesting; think informational or inspirational, not salesy. Remember, a Promoted Tweet is only the beginning of a long engagement conversation. You’ll need to continue tweeting great, shareable content via both regular and Promoted Tweets, so your followers continue to get frequent updates on your messages and promotions.
One great thing about Twitter is you can use your 140 characters to promote longer-form content via links. Why not offer your followers – and the wider Twitter community via Promoted Tweets – access to free white papers, blog posts, webinars, exclusive video content, games, contests, deals, and more.
2. Keep Watch
Check in on your Promoted Tweets regularly. As your Promoted Tweet campaigns are running, make sure to analyze the impact in real-time using Twitter’s campaign tools.
Marketers shouldn’t just set the Promoted Tweet and forget about it; instead, shift the main messages of your Promoted Tweets on the fly, as you see in real-time what’s working and what’s not to generate clicks and traffic. Run A/B tests to see exactly how you should tweak copy or update landing pages.
3. One is Good, Six is Better
Twitter recommends using up to six tweets in a rotation for your Promoted Tweet campaigns – all aimed at one specific landing page. Having six different tweets to play with means you can tweak messaging and give additional info about your campaign or offering when you can’t it all into just 140 characters.
Having multiple tweets also enables you to craft an ongoing story over the course of the campaign – adding new messages every few hours or each day. Don’t forget to test the copy of these tweets.
4. Own the Hashtag
Promoted Tweets are a great way to introduce a new hashtag you intend to use either for an event, new product, or new brand campaign. Introduce and use the new hashtag in all your Promoted Tweets. Remember, creative and interesting content is what gets shared – but an added bonus is your new hashtag will get shared along with this pass-along.
5. Study Up
Before you blast out a Promoted Tweet campaign, make sure you understand the basics of Twitter. Use it for awhile before paying for Promoted Tweets, learn Twitter etiquette, and see what type of content resonates with your followers.
After you have the lay of the land on Twitter, you can then experiment with Promoted Tweets at the right times and with the right messages. For example, if you launch Promoted Tweets during a time where traffic levels and conversation are at extremely high volumes – such as right after a huge news story – your Promoted Tweets will get lost in the shuffle.
Research upcoming events that could impact traffic to Twitter in your area of influence. You can ride the wave of certain conversations, but you can also create a bigger impact when overall activity is muted.
6. Think Twice Before Jumping on a Topic
While jumping onto memes and hot topics can be an easy way to get attention for your Tweets, think twice before jumping on these bandwagons. A conversation storm can easily take a turn for the worst – and your brand would then be in the middle of the fallout.
There’s a fine line between being clever and being a headline (not the good kind). Make sure you’re on the right side of that line by carefully considering all the potential consequences of jumping onto a trending topic.
Summary
Twitter is a unique universe where instant conversation fuels millions of large and small chatterstorms among millions of users every day. By carefully using Promoted Tweets, marketers can be a part of the Twitter conversation and spark deeper engagement with their brands. But before you rush out and buy tons of Promoted Tweets, make sure you know Twitter 101 and have mastered the simple tips above.
Think Big Enterprises, LLC http://blog.affordableinternetmarketing.org/6-tips-for-using-promoted-tweets-to-boost-you
Article by Balakrishna Narasimhan who leads solution marketing for Appirio, a cloud solution provider that helps enterprises adopt, connect and extend cloud platforms such as salesforce.com, Google and Workday. Follow him on Twitter: @bnara75
Last Thursday, Google announced that Google+ will be available for Google Apps users. This means that the millions of people using Google Apps for their businesses will now have access to the Google+ social collaboration platform.
With Google+’s unique features for search, selective sharing and rich communication, it offers consumers a very different user experience than the established social networks. For individuals, Google+ has quickly become a great place to build your interest graph — that is, find the latest content and people related to topics you’re interested in.
SEE ALSO: Google+: The Complete Guide
With its seamless integration with Google Apps, Google+ promises a very different type of social enterprise experience. In fact, Google+ has five unique advantages over other social business platforms.
1. Smart Integration With Existing Google Apps
Google+ is fully integrated with Google Apps. As a user, you don’t need a new login — it’s just another tab like mail, calendar, docs or video. Most business users spend their day in mail or calendar, so a tool that’s easily accessible from the daily workflow has advantages over third-party software.
Thinking a bit ahead of where the product is, the possibilities that are opened up by the integration with Google Apps are pretty exciting. You can imagine “+1” buttons and rich collaboration across sites, docs, spreadsheets, presentations, blogs, videos, photos and more. Or imagine working within a doc and starting a hangout with collaborators while sharing your screen. For companies using Google Apps, taking advantage of these features would require no additional software, logins or changes in behavior.
2. Google+ Already Knows a Lot About You
Because of its tight integration with Google Apps, Google+ could take advantage of what it already knows about each business user, including whom they email, how often and how recently, as well as the topics they write about and search for. Google+ is in a position to help an enterprise user not only quickly build out his internal circles, but also discover those outside the company who are talking about the same topics or industry. If Google chooses to pursue this, it would make a great tool to help each user build out broad interest-based professional networks.
3. Google+ Is Uniquely Positioned to Help You Find and Share Interesting Content
Nobody has a better index of what’s on the web than Google. So nobody is better positioned to help you find interesting content and people from both inside and outside your company. Google+ Sparks let you follow the latest from the web on topics you’re interested in, and one can imagine something similar within your domain. Internal Sparks could let you quickly find content and experts within your company on work-related topics you’re most interested in.
4. Google+ Integrates Public and Private Sharing
Unlike other social enterprise platforms, which keep most shared content behind company walls, Google+ integrates public and private sharing. When I’m using Google+, I can decide for each post whether I want to share it with my colleagues, my clients, or certain subsets of either category. Also, because a number of websites have already embedded +1 buttons, it’s easy to “like” content from across the web and share it with targeted groups.
5. Android Phones Sync Easily With the Entire Apps Suite
Finally, an Android mobile phone brings this complete integration to users on the go. Activating Android handsets with your company’s Google Apps account brings all this productive and social functionality to the palm of your employees’ hands. And the wide variety of devices and carriers means greater flexibility.
Google has finally unveiled Google+, the company’s ultra top secret social overlay that turns the entire Google search engine platform into one giant social network! Pretty cool…
Google+, which began rolling out in a very limited fashion yesterday (Tuesday, June 28th), is the culmination of a year-long project led by Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of social. The project has been delayed several times but is now finally being unveiled is Google’s answer to Facebook.
The search giant’s new social project will be omnipresent on its platform, thanks to a complete redesign of the navigation bar. The familiar gray strip at the top of every Google page will turn black, and come with several new options for accessing your Google+ profile, viewing notifications and instantly sharing content. The notification system is similar to how Facebook handles notifications, complete with a red number that increases with each additional notice.
To learn more, see videos of the various components of the Google+ Project, go here.
Seems like everyone these days at least knows what “SEO” stands for… I teach a workshop once a month to area businesses and professionals and the moment I say “SEO” heads start nodding and invariably some says, “yeah, that stands for Search Engine Optimization.”
Yes it does and it’s great if you know what it stands for but, let’s get down to the real question… which isn’t “do you know what SEO stands for?”
The real question is “how is your website doing in its search engine ranking?” And does it rank for keywords which are really helping you bring in new business? A lot of business owners I talk to seem to truly understand that they need to do a much better job of getting their website to rank on the first page of the search engines like Google for this keyword or that long tail keyword phrase and so on. But in talking to these business owners, most of them have also failed to employ a SEO campaign because of the sticker shock they get when getting a quote from most companies who perform SEO.
Getting quotes for $12,000 to $15,000 for one year is quite a common occurrence. Worse and I think where both the Internet Marketing company and the business owner go wrong is in failing to really sit down and crunch the numbers to see what the business needs to achieve to get a healthy ROI on whatever dollars they are looking to invest in an SEO campaign. How many new customers do you need to get to make this a worthwhile endeavor? What is the Lifetime Value of a Customer to your business? If you do your job right as a business owner, how many other customers will one new customer refer to you over the next 1, 5 and 10 years?
And the fact is, you can get Affordable SEO Services that fit your budget and which can help you get the ball rolling in the right direction. You might need to start off with $150-200 per month. With that kind of budget, we still get our clients tangible, measurable results. Sure, if you can invest $1000 per month for 6-12 months, we can get you there faster and with more keywords, but the reality is that a lot of business owners just don’t have that right now in this economy.
So, if you know you need to get your website cleaned up and ranking better but you’re also looking for affordable internet marketing solutions including affordable SEO services, give us a call and let’s chat about how we can help you achieve your goals without breaking the bank!
In a nice break from Google‘s slick-but-cute explanatory videos and ads, someone at Microsoft has unleashed a rather vicious attack video targeting Gmail.
The video shows Gmail Man, a delivery guy who has the creepy habit of scanning your mail for keywords and then showing you a related ad. You may be fine with that when you’re online, but when dramatized in real life, it might make you question the practice. If nothing else, the attack video makes a compelling case for going with Office 365 instead.
Creatively, Gmail Man falls into a burgeoning category of videos that dramatize Internet activity IRL, like a recent ad for English National Operas showing a man trying to friend and follow people on the street and another from T-Mobile dramatizing Angry Birds played out in a park somewhere.
Maybe Google had it coming, particularly after its own recent snarky video offering a Gmail Intervention.
Get lots of great internet marketing strategies on my Affordable Internet Marketing blog
The landscape at Google is in a massive state of flux with lots of improvements really. Google is making a highly concerted effort to reflect the macro shifts in internet usage across the globe.
It’s very exciting when you know what these macro shifts are and can have your business and your personal profile tracking with all these changes at Google. Because those who change with Google will be highly rewarded in page and author ranks!!
This is a great article that talks about more of the recent changes in the “Places” landscape. You need to know what’s happening… must read. Enjoy!
by Dietrich
Facebook Ads – New Insiders Secret For Big Companies and Marketers …
Your “likes” on Facebook, comments on Facebook and other areas that you would normally consider private, are up for grabs again. Anyone that has been on Facebook for any period of time should be used to FB’s ever evolving changes in privacy and terms of service policies. The real problem is many people do not know of these changes before it’s too late.
The new Facebook privacy setting is called “Instant Personalization” and it is being rolled out right now!
It’s obvious that Facebook has made these changes to bolster their ad revenue and capitalize on additional methods to make more money. These new changes are a dream for big companies and marketers alike. Now being a marketer myself, I think this is great, but many of you may not share my enthusiasm.
Think about this…
Facebook Pages that you “like”, comments that you make and even your picture can be used in company ads and promotion without your knowledge! So before anyone gets all up in arms I’m going to show you how you can shut the door on this privacy loophole.
CLICK HERE to go to the full post by my friend Dietrich where he shares how to shut the door on this loophole…
Article by Balakrishna Narasimhan who leads solution marketing for Appirio, a cloud solution provider that helps enterprises adopt, connect and extend cloud platforms such as salesforce.com, Google and Workday. Follow him on Twitter: @bnara75
Last Thursday, Google announced that Google+ will be available for Google Apps users. This means that the millions of people using Google Apps for their businesses will now have access to the Google+ social collaboration platform.
With Google+’s unique features for search, selective sharing and rich communication, it offers consumers a very different user experience than the established social networks. For individuals, Google+ has quickly become a great place to build your interest graph — that is, find the latest content and people related to topics you’re interested in.
SEE ALSO: Google+: The Complete Guide
With its seamless integration with Google Apps, Google+ promises a very different type of social enterprise experience. In fact, Google+ has five unique advantages over other social business platforms.
1. Smart Integration With Existing Google Apps
Google+ is fully integrated with Google Apps. As a user, you don’t need a new login — it’s just another tab like mail, calendar, docs or video. Most business users spend their day in mail or calendar, so a tool that’s easily accessible from the daily workflow has advantages over third-party software.
Thinking a bit ahead of where the product is, the possibilities that are opened up by the integration with Google Apps are pretty exciting. You can imagine “+1” buttons and rich collaboration across sites, docs, spreadsheets, presentations, blogs, videos, photos and more. Or imagine working within a doc and starting a hangout with collaborators while sharing your screen. For companies using Google Apps, taking advantage of these features would require no additional software, logins or changes in behavior.
2. Google+ Already Knows a Lot About You
Because of its tight integration with Google Apps, Google+ could take advantage of what it already knows about each business user, including whom they email, how often and how recently, as well as the topics they write about and search for. Google+ is in a position to help an enterprise user not only quickly build out his internal circles, but also discover those outside the company who are talking about the same topics or industry. If Google chooses to pursue this, it would make a great tool to help each user build out broad interest-based professional networks.
3. Google+ Is Uniquely Positioned to Help You Find and Share Interesting Content
Nobody has a better index of what’s on the web than Google. So nobody is better positioned to help you find interesting content and people from both inside and outside your company. Google+ Sparks let you follow the latest from the web on topics you’re interested in, and one can imagine something similar within your domain. Internal Sparks could let you quickly find content and experts within your company on work-related topics you’re most interested in.
4. Google+ Integrates Public and Private Sharing
Unlike other social enterprise platforms, which keep most shared content behind company walls, Google+ integrates public and private sharing. When I’m using Google+, I can decide for each post whether I want to share it with my colleagues, my clients, or certain subsets of either category. Also, because a number of websites have already embedded +1 buttons, it’s easy to “like” content from across the web and share it with targeted groups.
5. Android Phones Sync Easily With the Entire Apps Suite
Finally, an Android mobile phone brings this complete integration to users on the go. Activating Android handsets with your company’s Google Apps account brings all this productive and social functionality to the palm of your employees’ hands. And the wide variety of devices and carriers means greater flexibility.
Today I offer you no leadership lesson, and no specific action plan.
Instead, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who read my blog, and especially to those of you who add your thoughts and comments. My hope is that it adds value to you in your business and your life. I just want you to know that I am grateful for you!
Happy Thanksgiving,
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I am afraid of heights. I get uneasy when looking over the edge of a cliff or a tall bridge. This fear has not been debilitating, and I can generally work and play through it. But I do notice an increase in my breathing, my heart rate, and sometimes even muscle tremors.
I find I can push through the feeling by looking at the situation and answering logical questions that help me to see that my fear is irrational. When both of my feet are planted firmly on the sidewalk, I usually don’t fall over for no reason, right? So there is no reason to think I will topple over when I’m standing on a balcony 300 feet above that sidewalk.
Fear can keep us from doing many of the things in our life and business that we know we need to do or would truly enjoy. Where are you being held back by fear and limiting beliefs?
It could be you are not leading as confidently as you could. Perhaps you aren’t calling on high-end prospects, launching that new product or service, speaking more transparently with your spouse, or engaging in conversations with your teen.
If you are holding back, then you need to push through.
Ask yourself logical questions to determine if your fears are rational. Practice “Worst Case Thinking.” Monitor your physical response to make sure you aren’t sabotaging your own efforts with low Emotional Intelligence.
This year I had the opportunity to go zip lining in South Africa with my family. I also did a ropes course in Canada with one of my sons. Both experiences were mentally challenging for me, but I was glad I didn’t let the fear hold me back.
Little victories like these can fuel confidence and improved results in other areas of your life and career.
What fears do you allow yourself to be victim of? Where are you holding back? Where do you need to push through in the year ahead?
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In my last few months of coaching sessions and in my learning from great business leaders, a common topic is surfacing. This topic is that of thinking.
I see leaders who are not placing a high value on the discipline of thinking. Team members who don’t spend enough time thinking through a proposal or a possible strategy. Managers who are not taking time to think about the ramifications of a new launch or how to improve an old product or service.
Leading today is more challenging than in years past. There is more coming at us each and every second. We must be excellent at setting boundaries for ourselves or we can get sucked into the email or social networking vacuum.
For some of you, this may not be your issue. You might find yourself being sucked into more TV time with the viewing ease of TiVo. No matter what it is, I believe what I heard Jack Welch say last month at the World Business Forum — today’s successful companies have figured out how to do more with less. But in this climate, many leaders see designated time to think as a “used to do” instead of a “must always do.”
I have been polling business leaders on this for the past few months and I have heard the same response in all industries: “Who has time to think?” We all do. The question is how much value are we placing on the discipline of assessing, pondering, questioning, modifying and creating?
If you are not setting aside at least 4 hours a week, you have an opportunity.
Our ability to lead and perform depends on this. As you map out your calendar for 2011, make sure that your weekly schedule includes this high pay-off discipline of thinking.
You don’t have time not to!
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A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with two wonderful clients when the topic of meetings came up. These two individuals work together, and they shared some concern with how their organization conducts meetings.
Their meetings usually begin with such full agendas that there isn’t time for team members to press in, get feedback and to truly understand what others are working on. As a result, they lose the opportunity to sharpen, fine tune, and challenge initiatives that are most important to the organization’s success.
After further discussion, we came to realize that their meetings can only be improved if the leadership changes the purpose and perception of meetings. Is the purpose to give quick updates and move on? Or is it to harness the talents and insights from the team to ensure they have the highest probability of executing with success?
I believe there are times for both. There is value in having the check-in meetings, so everyone gains a high level understanding of what we are working on. But many organizations are holding overly lengthy check-in meetings and neglecting the opportunity to use meetings for sharpening, collaboration and growth.
My challenge for you is to examine how your organization meets.
Take a look at your calendar for the next quarter, make a list of all your meetings, and see how many of each type you have. If you find you are not allowing enough time for collaborative discussion, then take your next meeting agenda and reduce it by half.
I think we would all benefit by having less on our meeting agendas so we have the appropriate amount of time needed to really dive into our Defining Objectives. My client and friend Patrick Lencioni explains this further in his book Silos, Politics and Turf Wars — which is a great read for anyone wanting to improve in this area. You can also download the Thematic Goal Model and Roadmap from his site for your use today.
Execute well!
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As an executive coach, I have seen clients spend countless hours building impressive plans, only to throw them out the window when the first big challenge or opportunity hits. What a waste!
Don’t waste your time putting together an annual Business Plan if you don’t also have a plan to review it, assess your progress, and make adjustments. Don’t waste your time creating a plan for next year if you don’t end it with clear objectives for each quarter.
At times, I have failed in this way with my own company, Building Champions.
Our team invested time in meetings to build a strong plan…and then I woke up 8 months later and realized that we had not taken a good look at the plan as a team since the day we rolled it out! I used the plan in some of my one-on-ones with individual team members, but failed to really drive home the plan on a quarterly basis with the team.
Right now, you have hopefully begun the planning process for next year. Make sure you also build in an accountability plan, with clear direction for how and when you and your team will review it. Reviews should happen on at least a monthly basis.
Also, make sure everyone involved is crystal clear on what needs to get done by the end of the first quarter. By running your company in 90 day cycles, you will build greater momentum which will lead to greater success at the year’s end.
Let’s stop wasting time in meetings creating plans and budgets that will never get used. The best Business Plan is one that is used to guide our decisions and actions throughout the year. Build your plan, have clarity on what success looks like every 90 days, and review your progress with your team.
Spend your time wisely!
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Last Monday, Coach Steve Scanlon and I had breakfast in a New York café and were discussing our schedules for the upcoming week. We both had on-site coaching sessions with either an individual CEO or with their teams, we had the World Business Forum coming up, and then Steve was off to work with another group in Oklahoma.
While we were eating, Steve mentioned that he is seeing an increase in the number of professionals that are struggling to keep their minds out of the doom and gloom. He wanted to address this with the group he was going to speak to later in the week.
I think everyone would agree that the challenges of the last few years have increased the number of those who are losing the battle to keep perspective. Steve and I came up with some ways to help fight living in this dark space.
Here are our 9 Steps to Fight the Gloom:
1. Read your vision every morning. If you don’t stay connected to your vision, you will get stuck reacting to the demands of the present. The best leaders have Bi-Focal Vision – they keep one eye up on the future and one eye down facing reality.
2. Update your Life Plan. If it is not helping you to gain perspective in the areas of your life that matter most, you may need to modify it to make it more real and compelling.
3. Build your Worst Case File. Create the contingency plan now that states what you will do if the worst does in fact happen, without the emotion and stress that could surface in a more stressful time. Chances are, you will never need to execute that plan, but it will settle your mind to know you have a plan in place.
4. Now, put the Worst Case File away. Once you have mapped out your plan, don’t pull it out again unless it is needed. Free your mind to work on the actions that will bring you success in both professional and personal arenas.
5. Surround yourself with clear thinkers. During challenging times, you need to be intentional about spending time with people who see opportunity and potential. If you keep company with those who only see the glass half full, they will pull you down with them.
6. Take care of yourself. Proper nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate sleep must be a priority. Don’t compromise here, or you will soon feel the pain.
7. Make time for silence. For me this is prayer time. For others it may be meditation. Force yourself to create some silent space daily. This is oxygen for your mind, and will lift the gloom.
8. Don’t compare yourself or your circumstances. How others would deal with your situation or what others are doing right now is not your concern. You will never know their whole story, so comparing can be very destructive.
9. Embrace the seasons of life. Don’t run from the challenge or the fear. Walk into it, embrace it, learn from it, give it the proper attention, and realize it will not last. As they say, “This too shall pass.”
If you are feeling weight, pressure, and gloom…don’t give in and never give up. Try a few of the above and let me know if this helps.
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Numerous studies have shown us that many young adults are struggling as they make their first pilgrimages into the workforce, marriage, and parenting. One major cause of this, according to researchers, is that they are not equipped with the real life skills required to navigate successfully through these significant changes.
This is a parenting issue.
Just a few weeks ago, my wife Sheri and I had the privilege of leading a parenting workshop at the Building Champions Experience. We called the presentation, “Are you Raising Kids or Growing Adults?” I think the question is worth pondering.
We began the session by letting all of our attendees know that we are NOT trained parenting experts. We do, however, have some years of experiences and observations. We are two people who really enjoy being parents and have been blessed with four great kids ranging in age from 7 to 20. Not only are we parents, but we have taught Sunday School classes for years and have intentionally made our home a gathering place for kids of all ages in our community.
The session was filled with some great Q & A. We also shared our Guiding Principles for growing adults.
1. Train them up in the way they should go.
2. Keep a long term perspective. Have a target for them.
3. If you are married, make your marriage your priority and make it rock!
4. Be consistent and unified as a couple.
5. Be present and engaged. They can read your heart.
6. Respect is theirs to lose — let them see and know this.
7. Allow consequences to teach, don’t handicap them.
8. Don’t delegate training them up. You must own this.
9. Talk to your teens as if they were adults, and more importantly, listen to them.
10. Your kids are not your report card. Don’t worry about what the “Joneses” think.
11. Think before you respond to avoid the little battles and maintain a healthy relationship.
12. They are watching you. Your actions will teach them more than your words.
13. Love them no matter what!
Sheri and I unpacked each of the above points during our session. My hope is that they are clear enough to add value just as they are, but I would love to hear your thoughts or to answer any questions you might have.
For me, being a dad has been one of the greatest highlights in my life. Parenting has truly become more enjoyable each and every year. I’ve learned that we don’t need to fear the seasons ahead, but instead we should be intentional in our parenting with a clear target in sight.
My challenge for you business professionals who are mothers and fathers is to improve your skills. Spend at least 25% of the time you spend developing your professional skills in developing yourself as a parent. The ROI will be immeasurable!
To Growing Adults,
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Does marketing feel to difficult? Implement these three things and get the results you’ve always wanted.
We often find small businesses trying to market themselves very part-time, and rotating their outbound messaging too often. At Up N’ Automated we focus on three primary principals that guide us in everything we do: clarity, simplicity and automation. These are the keys that unlock the door to new clients.
Without them, marketing is often times impossible or feels overwhelming. Most small businesses are busy enough without adding marketing to their plates. However, if you can do these three things, marketing can be a breeze and yes…even fun.
1. Maintain a clear and consistent message
2. Simplify the number of strategies you deploy
3. Automate everything so that you can focus on your customer relationships
Influence your database deeply enough and they’ll grow it themselves.
Ok, so we told a fib about closing the sale… We said that influencing the money was the deepest influence you could have. In reality, the deepest influence you can have over any member of your database is the influence over their database. When they open their address book for you, not just their pocket book, you know you have great influence over them.
Here are some tips to remember when generating for referrals:
Don’t ask for referrals. That’s right, don’t ask, tell. Tell your closest relationships who you need to meet. If you’ve influenced them deeply enough, they’ll volunteer to help.
Be specific.
Do not ask for “small business owners” or “young married couples.” Ask for a specific person. Our minds need concrete examples in order to recall a possible match. If you’re too broad, you’ll end up getting less referrals than if you’re too narrow.
Understand that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Or, to put it in Influence of Marketing™ terms: influence by giving referrals. Gain more influence over your database by opening up your database to them when needed.
If your database marketing plan is successful, you won’t just be well-known, your sales will increase. Sounds great, but how?
If the goal of Drip Marketing is to deepen your marketing influence, the deepest you could go would be to influence buying behavior. Influencing a prospect’s money is the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, even the most successful marketers fail at the most fundamental level of closing sales.
Tips to remember when closing the sale:
Give them something they can say “yes” to. Far too often, proposals and pitches talk about what one “can do,” not what one will do. When they’re ready to buy, give them something they can buy.
Follow Up.
Every day there is a new book or cd-series on a sales methodology. The real secret, however, is not in which one you pick, it’s in having one. Have a system for follow up. Be reminded to call people back, and don’t let sales fall through the cracks.
You’ve warmed them up long enough. Finally, someone’s hot enough to buy. How can you be sure, and what do you do next?
As we mentioned about Drip Marketing, your goal is not just to be seen, but to get a response. So, how can you do that? And, once they respond, how do you know they’re ready to buy?
In the Influence of Marketing™ methodology, we call this emerging prospects. Here are some tips to remember when getting prospects to emerge:
Have a mechanism to help them emerge. Whether it’s a contact form on your website, an RFQ process, or a “contact me please” button in your emails—make sure it is abundantly clear how they can contact you.
Use your conversion techniques for emersion as well. If you’re running a new contest, offering more content, or giving something new away as a means to get strangers to convert to leads, don’t forget that these same methods can also succeed at getting a contact in your existing database to emerge as a prospect by the exact same means.
Once a prospect has emerged and is potentially ready to buy, be the pace-setter. Have a set process by which you sell, and let the customer know the plan. This way, they know how to proceed and what to expect as you move along. Buying is an uncomfortable experience for many people, so calm their fears with a clearly outlined plan. They’ll appreciate it.
Your contact database is probably not full of hot prospects… yet. Why not warm them up?
Once a stranger converts to a lead and they’re in our database, there’s a chance they’re ready to buy today. If so, great! But what if they’re not? What if it’s going to take months or years to warm this contact up into a prospect? Most importantly: do you know how to do that?
In the Influence of Marketing™ methodology, we call this increasing depth of influence. Here are some tips to remember when increasing depth of influence:
First off, differentiate yourself before dripping. Even after a lead converts, there is still a constant noise level (so-to-speak) of advertising in our world. Signs, radio ads, tv ads, spam, junk mail—all together make a constant hum of marketing messages. You need to shout a little to get above the noise. Differentiate yourself, then drip.
Next, be sure to segment your market and target your message. Not every lead has the same demographic, the same buying habits, or the same need. Collect some vital information about the contact first, then use that information to target different drip campaigns to different audiences appropriately.
All drip marketing campaigns must have a clear strategy to help a prospect emerge as a sales opportunity. It’s not enough simply to “be seen” or “gain exposure” for exposure’s sake alone. Ask yourself, as my contacts continue getting this message, once they’re ready to buy, what will prompt them to give me the opportunity to sell.
Need to Convert Leads from Total Strangers?
The first step in marketing to a database is building that database—lead conversion.
Before you can start a drip marketing campaign, and long before you’re ready to sell, you need to build a database. In the Influence of Marketing™ methodology, we call this increasing your breadth of influence. Your breadth of influence usually begins with the typical friends and family list, but eventually, you will need to create an effective strategy for converting strangers into leads.
Tips to remember when increasing breadth of influence:
Media Advertising is a “leased” or “borrowed” breadth. The distribution of a given magazine, tv station, or website where you advertise is not your breadth. You pay to advertise, paying for access to their breadth.
The goal of advertising (or any mass-communication) is conversion to a lead, not conversion to a customer. You are indeed selling something, but not your product/service. You need to sell the prospect something of value—content, ideas, contests, give-aways—at the cost of their contact information.
All mass-communication must have a strategy for conversion. It’s not enough simply to “be seen” or “gain exposure” for exposure’s sake alone. Ask yourself, when the strangers hear this message, what will prompt them to give me their contact information in return.
Despite of the existence of several definitions, there are still hundreds to thousands of aspiring Internet marketers who are still searching for the exact definition of Internet marketing. They do not want to get in a situation wherein they do not have any idea of what they are into.
To determine the exact definition of Internet marketing, let us examine the following scenarios. Ask some 100 individuals about the definition of Internet marketing and 99 percent of them will point you to a single direction—the search engine. You will go to your favorite search engine, type the words “define Internet marketing” and click the “search icon”.
The result is….
The top pages of search results will display the marketing veterans who have established themselves to be the pioneers of Internet marketing, thus they really deserve a spot to provide the definition by themselves. However, if you will take a look on the placement ads on search result pages, there seems to be another story to tell.
You will notice that most of the ads associated with Internet marketing are intended to aid websites to get more traffic or hits. Yes, Internet traffic is the lifeblood of a website, but it is just the start of Internet traffic. Combining this concept with the traditional conduct of marketing and the Internet as the marketing medium, you will be able to arrive on the following conclusion:
“Internet marketing is an income-generating opportunity dependent on the utilization of interactive technology (via the Internet) to build a dialog with potential clients by connecting with them through quality content about your product and/or service offerings”.
The fulfillment of Internet marketing is dependent on the utilization of interactive technology, which the definition specified as the “Internet”. The utilization of the Internet involves the existence of different Internet marketing services. Without these services, the Internet will not be able to perform on its specific task as the marketing medium between Internet marketers and their clients.
Every online entrepreneur must be familiar with Internet marketing services to keep their online business alive. Such services are very vital in the development of their online business as well as the success of their Internet marketing career.
Here are some of the basic Internet marketing services that you should know and be familiar with:
• Search engine optimization- search engines are powerful tools in locating websites and other useful information on the Web. Most Internet users make use of search engines to find the information that they need. Thus, your site must appear on the top pages of a search engine page result. Through optimizing your website (reengineering its contents), you will be able to achieve better search engine placement.
• Indexing- it involves the procedure of submitting your web pages for search engine registration and other Internet-based directories.
• Keyword research- it is the identification of highly-searched keywords and key phrases that are relevant to your online business.
• SEO consultation- it is recommended for novice Internet marketers to invest with an SEO (search engine optimization) consultant who will help you in planning the methods of marketing your website successfully.
• Use net- it is a worldwide bulletin board system wherein it contains more than 14,000 forums. Use net is considered to be one of the fast and efficient methods of generating targeted traffic for a website. It covers every interest group and commonly used by millions of individuals around the world everyday.
• E-mail marketing- it is one of the popular advertising methods used on Internet marketing. It makes use of electronic mail that is sent to a list of subscribers who want to receive updates about your products and/or services.
• Press releases- this services is used to announce any site launches, special product offerings, and other useful information relevant to your online business. These press releases are drafted carefully to attract more people towards your website.
There are other Internet marketing services available, but the aforementioned services are the most basic and essential ones. You will not succeed on your Internet marketing business if you will not incorporate any of the services discussed. Make sure that you will integrate them in your online business and expect the best results out of it.
Written by etherealpainting
This is an extremely difficult question to answer because there are so many complex factors involved. Specifically they techniques you employ in your Internet marketing campaign as well as the execution of these techniques can determine whether or not Internet marketing will work for your business. Additionally, the likelihood of your target audience using the Internet and responding to your marketing efforts should also be considered into the equation. This article will outline the potential for success in an Internet marketing campaign.
Before making the decision to embark on an Internet marketing campaign you should carefully consider your target audience. The Internet is used widely around the world but whether or not members of your target audience are likely to utilize the Internet to research or purchase the products or services you sell is not guaranteed. This is significant because investing a great deal of time, effort and money into Internet marketing when your target audience is not likely to respond to these efforts is not worthwhile.
Conducting market research can do a great deal to help you determine whether or not you should invest in an Internet marketing campaign for your business. This step is very important because it will give you a good indication of whether or not you should even begin marketing your business on the Internet. Hiring a firm specializing in market research is recommended because they can conduct this research quickly and efficiently and will likely gain a great deal of valuable information as a result of their research efforts. If they determine your business can benefit from an Internet marketing campaign, it is time to start thinking about how you want to advertise your business online.
Again, seeking the help of professionals can be an extremely worthwhile investment. If you are not well versed in the industry of Internet marketing, hiring a firm with a great deal of expertise in this industry can be very helpful. They can assist you by consulting with you to determine which marketing strategies will be most effective, designing advertisements for your campaign, helping you to orchestrate your Internet marketing campaign and evaluating the results of marketing efforts to determine which strategies are working and which are not.
The potential for success with an Internet marketing campaign is virtually limitless. The success you enjoy is only limited by your ability to promote your products and services and execute effective marketing strategies. Some of the marketing strategies you may wish to employ may include optimizing your website for relevant search terms, placing links to your website judiciously on the Internet, writing and publishing e-newsletters and utilizing affiliates to promote your website.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of any Internet marketing campaign. SEO is so important because it dictates the ranking of your website on popular search engines. Internet users value these results and are not likely to seek out websites which do not rank well with search engines. Conversely, high ranking websites can enjoy a great deal of increased website traffic as a result of these rankings.
Inbound links to your website are also important in Internet marketing. Inbound links are links on other websites which direct users to your website. These links are important in an Internet marketing campaign. First of all many search engines factor inbound links into their ranking algorithms which means inbound links can result in higher search engines rankings. Also, these links can be used directly by website users to access your website. This means you can gain traffic directly from these links.
Another way to enjoy a successful Internet marketing campaign is to orchestrate an affiliate marketing campaign. Affiliates are essentially website owners who place a banner ad on their website to direct traffic to your website. Typically, affiliates are only compensated when the advertisement on their website produces a desired effect such as enticing the users to click through the advertisement, resulting in a sale or resulting in another action such as filling out a survey or registering with your website. Affiliate marketing can not only be highly effective but it is also cost effective because you only pay the affiliates when they produce results.
Written by Ahtesham Chaudhary
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