Archive for Marketing
What Is Search Engine Optimization? – Part 2
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Click here to read part one of our series on SEO…
Once your site is search engine optimized, you can expect to get more traffic to your site from the search engines. People who may be interested in your site will find it easier if your website is search engine optimized. Most people use the search engines to find what they are looking for when they go online. By having your website optimized and easy to find in the search engine results pages, you can attract more traffic to your website through the search engines.
There are many internet marketing companies that will help you get your website search engine optimized and keep it that way. Some of the methods that they use to optimize a website include the following:
Article marketing
Blogs
Press Releases
Video ads
Google ads
All of these can be optimized in order to incorporate keywords that will make the website appear in the search engine results pages or, in the case of Google ads, land them on pages where they are most likely to find people who will be interested in your website. The entire purpose of making a website search engine optimized is to make it easier for potential clients or customers to visit your site.
Those who may be interested in your products or services can only take advantage of them if the know about them and where to get them. You have, most likely, gone online in search of something that you wanted to buy at one time or another. Chances are that you put the information into the search engine toolbar to pull up search engine results pages (SERPs). You probably sifted through a few pages before you came up with what you wanted.
This is the basic concept of SEO. Those who understand how to use search engine optimization effectively to make their website more searchable are more likely to come up in the first two pages of the search engine results pages and are more likely to have clients visit their site.
There are probably many sites out there that offer you interesting information as well as products or services. Unfortunately, many of them are buried deep in the search engine results pages. Most people, when searching online for something, will give up after going a few pages into the search engine results pages. In some cases, a search may produce millions of hits. Needless to say, you do not want to go through every one in order to find what you are looking for. Most people have neither the time or the inclination to do this.
This is why it is so important for businesses and others who want to have their website noticed make sure that they use SEO techniques in order to do so. By using SEO, a website will no longer be buried in the middle or at the end of millions of results. It has a better chance of getting to the front of the search engine results pages.
What Is Search Engine Optimization? – Part 1
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is used in all aspects of web marketing. You need to understand as much as you can about how SEO works in order to get the proper marketing of your website online.
When you use SEO in all of your content – both text and visual, you can draw more traffic to your site. In order to understand how to use SEO, you need to know why people use this type of marketing and rely on it so heavily in order to get the desired traffic to their website. SEO is what gets a website noticed in the search engines.
So what exactly is SEO? This sets up your text, photos and videos so that they are easy to find when someone is searching for them using the various search engines online. While it is often said that Google relies more on SEO content than Yahoo, which relies more on link building, the truth of the matter is that in order for a website to be discovered online, it must come up in the search engine.
For example, if you have a website dedicated to a coaching business, you will want to make sure that you structure your site so that others who may be looking for the services and products you sell will be able to find it online. Those who are looking online for what you have to sell may do it in a number of different ways, although the easiest way for someone to find something online is to use the search engines. Most of the traffic to your website will come from search engine optimization.
You need to know which keywords will work for your website. These are the words or phrases that people will put into the search engine bars to receive the search engine results pages. Many people today are putting in longer phrases into the search engines to narrow down their search.
There are tools that the website owner can use to investigate the best keywords for their website, based on what they sell and what words potential customers are likely to plug into the search bars that will lead them to the site. In order to succeed at this, a website owner must not only know the concept of SEO, but also much about the target market, which is those who are most likely to purchase the products on the website.
If you are just starting out your website, or if you have a website up and running already, you need to know how to use search engine optimization in all facets of your marketing. While there are other ways to market your website and products without using SEO, the fact of the matter is that 60 percent of all traffic on websites comes from those who found the website in the search engines. These people are seeking out what you have to offer and are finding you online as long as you are accessible.
Guerilla Marketing for Beginners
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The term “guerrilla marketing” was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984, the same year he released a book with the same title. The term refers to performing marketing and promotional activities on a low budget. The unconventional tactics are designed to provide maximum impact while using the most minimal of resources.
Guerilla marketing can take many forms. You can apply these tactics to promote your business both online and offline. This type of marketing can take the form of things you are already doing and are familiar with, as well as things you may never have thought of or are too uncomfortable to try.
With guerilla marketing, you will want to think outside the box and try new things (that don’t cost a lot of money). For instance, you can print flyers and start hanging them all over town.
Another cost-effective strategy is to create something of value and to give it away in order to attract more customers. Have you ever walked into a restaurant or store that had a box or fishbowl sitting by the register, and people could drop in a piece of paper with their name and phone number in hopes of winning a prize?
Try doing this online by approaching websites that offer a complimentary product or service to yours and asking if you can team up with them on a contest. Offer to give away one of your products or services to a lucky winner from their mailing list. The owners of the complimentary website will email their mailing list about your contest and provide a link to a page on your website that includes a form where people can enter your contest. In exchange, you can offer to give them some type of promotion on your website or through a mailing to your list.
Another topic featured in guerilla marketing is public speaking. This is something that many people do not care for. However, if you can get over that fear you can gain a lot of publicity this way. You can do this online by holding free seminars on whichever topics you have branded yourself as an expert in.
Doing this is very easy. You can search online for companies that offer free access to telephone conference lines or web conference rooms. Once you have the date, place, and time of your seminar set, you will want to start promoting it.
You can start the publicity process by emailing your list, putting a banner up on your website, and including a link to your seminar landing page in all of your signature lines. The trick is to promote the fact that you are giving the seminar. You can freely give out the information of the date and time. However, make people sign up for your list before you give out the phone number to dial into or the link to the conference room.
By using some of the guerilla marketing tactics, you will be able to grow your business without spending too much money.
Facebook and Going Viral
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There are almost 800 million members on Facebook today. With this vast web of interconnectivity, Facebook is fast becoming the leading way for ideas and content to spread on the internet. If you want to go viral, Facebook is one of the main platforms to pay attention to.
Two powerful tools to master on Facebook are Facebook pages and Facebook apps. Both of these are integrated in Facebook’s ecosystem and have access a wide array of tools.
Here’s how to use Facebook’s pages and apps to go viral.
An Idea with a Call to Action
Your idea for a page or for an app needs to have a call to action built into it.
Many of the protests in the Arab Uprising, from Egypt to Libya, were organized on Facebook and/or Twitter. Newly created pages literally got tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of followers in as little as a week or two.
They grew so quickly because there was a call to action. Share the page and let the world know what was going on. Even people in non-Arabic countries got involved, because of this strong call to action.
For a more light-hearted example, take a look at FarmVille, one of the most successful Facebook games in history. One of the reasons it was so successful was because there was a constant call to action. People were always being asked to share the game with their friends.
Your idea needs to not only be great, but have a call to action for sharing built into it.
Reporting
Facebook has one very unique reporting feature: it tells you about the viral aspect of your posts and of your app, as a statistic.
The statistic measures how often people share your content. If you primarily have three different kinds of content, say polls, videos and text, you could measure each post individually and see which one(s) people tend to share.
If you find that people share videos released on your page four times more often than text released on your page, you’ll know exactly where to focus.
While it’s possible to derive this statistic on other media platforms, generally they don’t give it to you in this clear-cut form. Facebook makes tracking and optimizing for virality easy.
Making It Go Viral
Going viral on Facebook is all about having a great core idea, then testing and testing until you reach the maximum viral velocity you can reach.
It means testing different messages, different kinds of outreach and different call to actions. If you find it extremely hard to get traction, it’s likely that your idea just isn’t striking a cord. On the other hand, if your idea is spreading, then your job is to accelerate the pace and make the idea go truly viral.
Credibility Is The Crux of Your Message
Posted by: | CommentsCredibility is the crux of any marketing message. Without credibility, the best content in the world will simply get passed over. On the other hand, an uninspiring speech by a highly credible person will be met with rapt attention and motivation.
For example, if an Olympic athlete was giving advice about how to lose weight, people would probably listen – even if the advice itself was hard to follow. On the other hand, if a homeless person gave great advice, chances are nobody would listen.
What’s the difference? Credibility. The athlete has credibility, while the homeless person doesn’t. Credibility gets people to listen to you. Credibility helps create emotions. Credibility helps create motivation.
Build Credibility In …
There are three things you need to build credibility.
First, you need to build credibility in yourself, the person speaking, presenting or writing. The more credibility can can build in yourself, the more you earn people’s attention.
Second, you need credibility in your company. Is your company a reputable firm? How long have you been in business? Do you have a recognizable logo? Do you have professional design?
Finally, you need to build credibility in your product. Even if you have a great brand and people trust you, that doesn’t necessarily mean they trust your product. When Coca Cola rolled out New Coke, it became quickly apparent that although they had a very strong brand, people simply didn’t want a product change. New Coke had zero credibility and quickly had to be phased out.
How to Build Credibility
There are many different ways you can build credibility in your product. Here are some of the most prevalent ones.
A demonstration – One of the most powerful ways to build credibility is to show people your product in action.
For example, the “Will It Blend” videos were essentially highly entertaining videos demonstrating the Blendtec blender. Blending the iPhone, marbles, lighters and other materials made the videos go viral quickly, which launched a multi-million dollar brand.
Photo proof – If you’re promoting a wealth product, take a picture with you and your Ferrari. If you’re promoting a health product, use before and after photos.
Use photos to show the results of your product. Photos are more real than similar claims with just words.
Testimonials – Don’t say it yourself. Instead, let other people say it for you. That’s much more effective, as others don’t have an incentive to promote your products. The more testimonials the better, especially if they are from authoritative sources.
Word of Mouth – If a friend hears about you or your product through a friend, that carries massive credibility. How do you generate word of mouth? By consistently putting out high quality products and content.
Before you run with any new marketing message, be sure to have a rock solid foundation of credibility in all three areas.
