Category Archives: Marketing

Why YouTube is a Smart Move for Your Business

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YouTube is now the second largest search engine on the planet, and by far the most flexible. You can embed YouTube videos quickly and easily just about anywhere, and multiply your marketing efforts with ease. Moreover, employing YouTube marketing in your business is an incredibly cost-effective way to drive traffic and sales. You’ve heard the stats touting YouTube as the behemoth it is, and the reasons you should use it in your business. Even so, it’s not always clear exactly how to go about that.

Let’s look at 7 ways you can incorporate YouTube into your business quickly and profitably.

  1. Create videos of your products and services – Here’s your opportunity to show your stuff in action. Try to make these videos fun, and not overly technical. Emphasize what benefits they can bring to the buyers.
  2. Drive lots of traffic – Videos can drive LOTS of traffic! Just make sure you properly optimize your YouTube videos, and learn the specifics of what it requires to rank them well. Just so you know, it’s much easier to rank a video compared to a web page. Something to think about.
  3. Create a dedicated YouTube channel for your brand – Making a specific YouTube channel for your business can help in several ways, particularly in Google rankings. YouTube is also a social network, so you would be smart to monitor any comments that pop up on your videos and channel.
  4. Put a face on your business – Letting people meet you and some of your staff via video is a marvelous way to build trust.
  5. Create short videos of valuable tips – Create tip videos that show off your expertise in various areas your audience has an interest in.
  6. Post links to your videos on your social networks – Make sure that you provide links to your videos on your social network sites, as well as in email. This drives traffic to the videos, which in turn feeds the site, ranks higher and grows before your eyes.
  7. Use customer testimonials – A terrific way to showcase both your customers, (who’ll become raving fans!) and provide social proof regarding your products and services.

Attract Visitors with Content Marketing

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Attract Visitors with Content Marketing

Did you know that more than 70 percent of consumers prefer getting to know a company via content marketing rather than ads? Still brands spend more on advertising than on content creation, according to ContentPlus. Is this to do with really trusting the content marketing model, or more a reflection of the need to generate traffic and leads more rapidly? The answer: probably some of both. Content marketing is without question the best vehicle for establishing your authority and brand. The thing is it can be a lot of work. Furthermore, it may take considerably longer to find out whether your content is delivering in terms of leads and sales, as opposed to advertising traffic.

Content marketing is an essential part of the success of your business!

While it can be difficult and time-consuming, if you wish to develop your brand into a long-term success, you have to sell out to making content marketing a significant piece of your online marketing. But how do you make it work for you? With all the new content arriving daily, what can you do to make yours stick out from the herd?

5 Tips for effective content marketing

  1. Give them what they want and need! – Find out what your site readers want to read, and provide it.  You can do this by asking them directly, or using things like your Google Analytics account for clues as to your best performing pages.
  2. Create substantive content – Google search results are dominated by longer, more meaty content. This kind of content is also apt to be shared much more often.
  3. Attempt to answer questions with your content – A surefire way to please your readership is as simple as answering their questions. Here’s how one pool company did it. By making it your mission to be helpful, you can become the go-to source for them.
  4. Employ Google – Making use of the Google authorship feature, as well as the other advantages of Google will help your pages with not just search rankings and traffic, but authority as well.
  5. Encourage sharing – Sharing your content is a terrific source of backlinks and website traffic. All of us want more of those. Another reason to share is because now social signals are integral to Google’s search ranking algorithm.

Getting smart right now about content marketing could minimize the need to have to buy that traffic down the road. Something to think about!

5 Ways to Implement Mobile Marketing in Your Small Business

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The day has passed when it was correct to think that mobile marketing was simply the next big thing. It’s not just here; it’s growing daily. A survey by the Web.com group tells us that 69 percent of small business owners stated that mobile marketing would be important to their small business in the next five years; however, the majority of them had not even started. The same statistics show that 84 percent of those that had a mobile marketing solution reported an increase as a result. It’s clear that we’ve run out of excuses for not employing mobile marketing in our small businesses.

5 Tips on how to implement mobile marketing in your small business

  • Make certain your website and social media are mobile ready! – Take the time required to ensure that your site and major social media pages are mobile ready. There are some significant items that determine whether or not your pages render well on a mobile device, such as font size, spacing and images files. Have these looked at, so you don’t lose your mobile visitors!
  • Claim and optimize your local listings – Make sure that your local listings, such as on Google local, Yelp, FourSquare or other local directories are current when it comes to contact information, directions, and any promotions you’d like to feature.
  • Have you optimized your email for mobile? – eConsultancy reports that 41 percent of email is now viewed on a smartphone or tablet, and of that number, a full 63 percent close or delete emails that aren’t mobile optimized. Make sure you use an email optimized layout, preferably one-column, and a font size of no larger than a 14 for small-screen readers.
  • Use Google Analytics – If you are just guessing about whether or not mobile is working for you, you’re gonna be wasting a lot of time and money. Get hard data you can use with the help of Google Analytics. You will find a mountain of data available, but you can simplify by segmenting smartphone and tablet visitors and analyzing their on-page behavior, enabling you to see how your campaigns are doing.
  • Offer great deals – All of us love a great deal, and there’s no one who is more active in this arena than the mobile user. The best part is that they are very frequently right down the street from you, and ready to buy. Providing awesome offers and coupons might just cause them to pay a visit they otherwise wouldn’t have!