promotingmedia-blog - Tumblr blog

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Tips to creating an effective Facebook ad campaign

New Post has been published on http://promotingmedia.com/tips-creating-effective-facebook-ad-campaign/

Tips to creating an effective Facebook ad campaign

Everyone that is anyone is on Facebook. Or so it appears to be. You can’t scroll your newsfeed without seeing advertisements. But how they advertise is strategic. Let’s say you search Google for coin collecting. Once you log onto Facebook, what do you see? Ads on coin collecting. Try it; it’s quite a bit creepy how they know your searches and track shopping habits. But this is what makes an effective ad.

If you want to advertise on Facebook, there are certain factors you must use. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way.

Who’s your audience? If you are selling a service to proofread a book, who is your audience? Look beyond the obvious. Your audience could be anyone aged 15-65+, but that is far too broad. Narrow your audience by targeting writers. Then, narrow it by region and interest. If you’re a business writer, only target those individuals who are interested in business. You want to keep narrowing your audience until you have around 5k to 10k viewers. This is going to give you a better chance of conversions (people that click on your ad) that create leads (customers that are interested in your product/service) and ultimately lead to sales (money in your bank account).

Pinterest Supercharge your social media presence

What’s your campaign objective? Is your ad meant to create brand awareness or do you want web traffic? Do you want app installs or do you want more views on your videos? Think carefully about your objective, for this is going to affect how people perceive your advertisement. What your objective depends on the action that the viewer takes with your advertisement. If you decide you want brand awareness, for instance, it will lead people to your website. If you want more installs of your app in the Apple store, it will create an install button.

Use a striking image. In Facebook ads, your image is your hook. This is what draws buyers into your content and generates a lead. Visual content has the ability to be persuasive and deliver messages, should you use it carefully. Instead of using a stock photo, for instance, take a captivating photo of your product. Show it being used in its most common way. If it’s a book you’re selling, have someone curled up reading your book, while your book cover appears within the image. You could also the book cover with quotes from the book behind it. Your image is real estate in your advertisement. It has to grab your attention. Hire a designer if you must, but don’t overlook it.

Website Maintenance and Regular Updates

You must have a budget. If you advertise your 7 days on Facebook and Instagram, this is $35. The lifetime budget to advertise on Facebook and Instagram is $350. Keep in mind, the lifetime budget is only for one month. But it runs your ad more frequently and you reach the heck of a more people. What kind of budget do you have? If you’re just starting out, your budget may be small. Yet, if you’re more established in your website, your budget may be more expensive. Work with what you have, but always work within your means. Try to run ads on Google and every single social network. This is going to make your brand go viral. You want to reach as many users as possible. Don’t make a splash, but make a ripple.

You must send customers to a landing page. A landing page is an informative page that tells customers about your products and/or services. There is no pressure to buy. At this point, you’re still encouraging them. But, it would be helpful if you had a buy now button under each product you offer. If you offer a service for installing backyard ponds, for instance, buyers can click buy now after arriving at a landing page from the advertisement. They are more informed of your service at this point. You had more of an opportunity to persuade them and more time for them to trust you. This is your opportunity to turn those conversions into sales, so don’t miss out on it.

Advertising on Facebook is often a challenge, but with these techniques, you’re going to bypass your competitor to the finish line. Win those customers and drive those sales. That’s what being an online business is all about these days.

#Facebook #facebook ad #Facebook marketing strategies

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

How to use social media to market your business

New Post has been published on http://promotingmedia.com/use-social-media-market-business/

How to use social media to market your business

It’s often tough being an online business. You must have a strategic marketing plan in order to stay on top of your competitor. You must market on a consistent basis and be in every social space of the internet. But, if you’re able to do it, your business is going to be successful. You’re going to sell products and services in ways you never imagined. Here are some helpful ways to advertise your business via social media.

First, hire a social media manager (or a whole team of them). To market your business well, you’re going to want social accounts on each social network. The top 6 social networks are Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. If your business focuses on video, add in Periscope, Busker, and Youtube. Having a wide social presence is going to make it easy for your customers to find you. Have your social media team engage with your followers: answering questions, sending back messages, and updating your account with promotions or company information. Have them post behind-the-scenes photos and express their creativity. Encourage them to post frequently about products and related topics to your brand. This is going to keep followers interested.

Bing Ads strengthens Keyword Advisor

Ask conversation-starter questions. Get your customers interested in your products while gaining insight. If you sell pools, for instance, ask your customers: What’s your favorite poolside activity? How do you kick off summer? This gives you insight into product creation. It could also give the customer an entry to a giveaway or contest. Maybe they get entered to win a series of swim lessons, for instance, or they get a coupon for a pool product at your store. Make it fun and engaging. Your customers will be more willing to interact if they think there is an incentive. We live in a bargain world, so give the customer something and they’ll give you what you want.

You also have to know where your customers are hanging out. If your customers aren’t on Facebook or Twitter, they may be on LinkedIn or Pinterest. Track the analytics of each post across the board. Did your last post perform better on Google+ than it did on LinkedIn? Your audience is probably on Google+. But by no means delete the rest of your social pages. You want the presence of your products. If you go dark on every social network but Google+, how will customers know you exist? It just means that may have to run a few advertisements. You may have to be more strategic about how you create content. You can win on every social network if you play the game right.

And let’s not forget to import your online store directly in Facebook. If you don’t have a business page, get one. You’re missing out on the business features that could drive home sales and customers. This is a perfect way to promote your products and events. Why wouldn’t you want people to buy your books or services directly from social media? I find lately that people have less of an attention span. If they have to go searching for your products, they’re going to go searching for your competitor or something else to do. Keep them on your business page and make a sale.

Search Engine Marketing Explained

Finally, don’t forget to place your items in the Pinterest Showcase. This is a virtual storefront on Pinterest. These are themed boards that showcase your products. Users click on the pins and it takes them directly to the page on your website. You may choose to take them to a landing page first, however, so they can be informed about their purchase. The choice is up to you. Either way, using a captivating photo is going to help sell your product. Be creative and draw in the customer.

Marketing on social media isn’t that hard at all. You just have to have persuasion and advertising techniques in your back pocket. So with all these strategies in hand, you’re going to be good to go. Let social media drive home those sales!

#Social #social media #social media advertising #social media influencers #social media marketing

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

5 Types of social media analysis

New Post has been published on http://promotingmedia.com/5-types-social-media-analysis/

5 Types of social media analysis

Digital marketing trends are changing how we purchase items. It used to be industry standard to publish advertisements in newspapers or print publications, as well as broadcast them over radio or television. But then came the birth of the internet. Social media analysis and e-mail analysis soon followed. And now we have a firestorm that is digital advertising—a method of advertising that allows brands to survey the internet like the Wild West and publish advertisements anywhere they can find their audience. But today we’ll scale it down and just focus on social media analysis.

For social media analysis, you need to break it down into bits. We can’t look at the big picture, but rather we have to look at it in sections. Let’s look first at our audience. Unless you utilize paid advertisements, your audience will grow at a steady rate. Paid advertisements give you the opportunity to target your audience by demographic, age and geographic region. It also targets your audience by their occupation or interest. This is super helpful because it informs you of who exactly is looking at your content.

SEO Skills you need to apply for the best results

You also want to analyze how much of your audience is engaging with your content. This is considered reach and engagement. While your content is reaching your audience, it either doesn’t relate to their needs or they are not your target audience. In each audience, there’s a handful of different people. Once you learn to recognize these types of people, it’s going to help you post better content and your social media analysis much better.

The first audience member is known as a lurker—a person that monitors content but does not interact in any way. This will be most of your audience unless you post something so outstanding that it causes the lurkers to take action. The next type of person is influencers. These individuals have extremely large audiences which they influence well with each post they share. And, the third type of person in your audience is an engager. This person likes and/or comments on your posts. Sooner or later you’re going to recognize these names.

Effective Advertising Centers Around Story-Telling

You also have to analyze your social media content. This is going to be very different for each social network; however, the main types are text, video, and picture. Text content can be an update, information about giveaways or just sending your audience well wishes for the weekend or holiday. Video may be behind-the-scenes footage of your company or how a product is made. It may even be a tour of your company. Photos may be quotes, behind-the-scenes of the company, products and so forth. Try to have a good mixture of content. If you’re getting engagement on the content, make sure you engage with that person. They are your target audience and acknowledging their presence is going to give you points in the win column.

On another note, do what’s known as a sentiment analysis. This is where you analyze any mention of your product or company. These may be positive or negative reviews, but using analysis tools can help you view there is a problem with your product. Take the negative reviews to heart. This means that you have an unhappy customer and that your product or service needs improvement. After you have made the improvement, contact the customer and try to win them back. Social media analysis gives companies more leverage in improving customer service; take advantage of it.

Finally, analyze one-on-one conversations. This means that you have stepped out from behind your logo and connected with your audience. Once you do this, people realize that you are humanistic and approachable. If they are happy (or unhappy) with a product or service, they know they can come directly to you. As a company, you want to drive customer service. Customers drive your sales and, without the sales, you would not have a business. These are not the only tools you can use to analyze your social media but they’re a good start. Once you start analyzing your social media, you’ll soon catch up with your competitors and be on your A-game.

#social media #social media advertising #social media analisys #social media influencers #social media marketing

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Top businesses social media tools

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/top-businesses-social-media-tools/

Top businesses social media tools

Websites and businesses have gone social media. Customers are voting with their credit cards and purchasing more online, putting brick-and-mortar businesses at risk. But this wouldn’t be happening if social media wasn’t effective. The tools listed below help businesses excel in sales and customer service. They’re winning at marketing and product production. If you haven’t used them, give them a try. They might just be a game changer.

First and foremost, Buffer is a tool any business can’t be without. Who has time to create content each day? I don’t. Who has time to individually post to each social network, write an engaging description and use the proper hashtags? (I don’t.) And, I gather you don’t have that have that much free time either. The buffer is here to save the day. It’s going to automatically post your content across the board on all your social networks. Likewise, it’s going to help you schedule out your posts and lets you decide where you want to post it. This makes social sharing worry-free and relaxing. You can enjoy your day and not worry if your customers are getting the latest promotional updates.

Pinterest Supercharge your social presence

If you have a product line, you realize how important an e-mail newsletter is for business. Whereas physical businesses gather addresses and send out catalogs, this is the website owner’s way of effectively selling their products. E-mail addresses are collected through a service called Mailchimp. You can send content, place Google Adsense ads, and send promotions to your subscribers. It’s a way to meet your customers in their social space. Try to send valuable content that gets opened and does not land in the trash folder. And, try to only send one or two e-mails a week. Any more and it may appear spammy.

Similarly, VerticalResponse lets you take your e-mail newsletter to the next level. Through this web application, you can use amazingly colorful templates. They have tools to effectively build your e-mail subscribers, such as having a pop-up ad when a visitor lands on your site. You could have something similar on your social media pages. Your newsletter, too, will be responsive if you use this application. It’s going to look the same on a 27-inch monitor as it would a 5-inch phone. And, they make the process of doing this quick and easy. Give them a try and let them impress you!

Transforming Facebook Dynamic Advertising function.

Hootsuite is another popular social media tool. This allows you to effectively post content while marketing your business. It supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram. The application informs you of character links and provides you the option to shorten links. Likewise, it gives you the option to schedule posts and attach photos. This is a paid social media tool, but if you’re serious about social media, it’s one that you should look into purchasing. Hootsuite also provides you with analytics of your content and lets you keep track of assignments that you give your team.

And finally—if you’re super busy like me, then I suggest Sendible. This web application allows you to compose and schedule website content directly in the browser. You can monitor your social media networks while getting in-depth analytics. This web application, too, is going to help you generate leads and conversions for your business. It’s going to help you market your RSS feed, your products and get more people interested in your e-mail newsletter. On another note, it’s an effective way to keep track of team members. All team member assignments can be tracked within Sendible, making it easier to stay in touch with each other. Workflows and tasks are going to be more coordinated, whether the team is all in the office or spread around the world.

#SEO techniques #social media #social media influencers #social media marketing

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Google AdWords Keyword Planner Changes

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/google-adwords-keyword-planner-changes/

Google AdWords Keyword Planner Changes

For years Google AdWords has provided a tool that helps the marketer find useful keywords to use in their own campaigns. Found below the Tools tab in the Google AdWords interface, the Keyword Planner allows the user to find related search terms in order to make sure their ads show for as many searches by potential customers as possible. Other useful information the Keyword Planner gives to their users are the average monthly searches per month and suggested bid price for every search term. In case you combine this information with all the ability to geographically target a certain area, the marketer is able to figure out which kind of volume a product or service will generate for the customer and at roughly what price per click.

Inside the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool, there are two different sections that show search terms based on keywords the user types in a search bar. Until recently, the top section would show only search terms that matched the keywords that were searched exactly, as well as the bottom section, would show search terms that Google AdWords felt were closely related. The user is able to check off terms they want to add to a downloadable plan that they’ll use to help build their campaigns. As a result of this new variation Google has added, the marketer now needs to take the time to go through the very best section and ensure each search term is what they want in their campaign before adding it to their downloadable plan.

Though it’ll take a little extra time for the marketer to make sure Google is suggesting the proper search terms, the extra terms provided on average will provide more relevant keywords and clicks for each customer. Moving forward, Google will likely continue to make changes to their Keyword Planner in addition to other tools. As long as we continue to be open to change, we will be able to get more out of each tool Google has to offer.

#content marketing #google #Google AdWords #keywords #marketing strategy #Search engine optimization techniques #SEO #SEO techniques

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Onsite SEO techniques versus Offsite SEO

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/onsite-seo-versus-offsite-seo/

Onsite SEO techniques versus Offsite SEO

How well do you know onsite search engine optimization (onsite SEO), as opposed to offsite SEO? Onsite SEO reflects your website structure. The website owner has to ensure the website’s pages, titles and tags all have relevant keywords. Off-hand SEO, in opposition, tracks the inbound links that are attached to external websites.

Before we get started with onsite SEO, let’s first go to your website. Take a brief sampling of your site, around 5-10 posts. Read your posts as a viewer. What keywords stand out? Compile these into a list and then, in a different browser tab, open Google Keyword Planner. Type in each word and see how competitive it is. This tool also gives you a wealth of other keywords you can use on your website. It gives you the search volume for each keyword and helps you target your content by using more specific keywords. This, over time, is going to improve your search ranking.

Once you have those 5-10 posts done, move onto the next batch and repeat the process. Once are you done inputting more specific keywords, sit back. Make a cup of coffee and enjoy a newspaper. Go for a jog, or go on a vacation. It’s time to wait for Google and Bing to crawl your site. They will index your site and make it easier for users to find it. This could take months, so don’t expect quick results. But, to ensure that Google or Bing stay crawling your site, adopt this process with all future content. Google Keyword Planner is free so use it to your advantage.

Off page, SEO is a bit harder. Search engines are looking for sites that link back to your site. This shows Google or Bing that you have extraordinary content. It makes your website more credible and more trustworthy. If many sites are linking back to you, this tells the search engines that you must have worthy content. As a result, they are going to reward you with higher search rankings.

But in order to do this, it requires effort on your part. You have to market yourself and get yourself out there. Writing press releases and having a solid social media presence is an excellent way to do this. Your website would appear on all this content. Send your press release through an electronic wire. It’s going to reach reporters all throughout the world. This is an awesome way to generate buzz about your new product or service.

Another way is to guest blog. Seek out blogs that are within your niche. Many of these blogs will let you blog on any topic. At the same time, many of them have specific guidelines. They want a certain format, the document send to e-mail or directly through the website, or they may prefer you query a topic beforehand. Follow their guidelines to the letter. If they want the document in Georgia font, and you submit it in Arial, you may have just lost out on your chance to be published. It may seem like something small, but guidelines are there for a reason. While some blogs pay, others do not. Don’t use this as a deciding factor. The exposure to your blog is what you’re after, not necessarily increasing your bank account. And, ask if you can have a bio after the blog post or feature an excerpt of the post on your own site. Most website owners will say yes to both of these. They know that it’s double the web traffic. They send web traffic to your site, and you send it back to them.

Search engine optimization isn’t all that easy, is it? It’s really not hard. Keep on top on it. Get yourself out there and in front of more viewers. If you’re a small business owner, you’re going to reap the sales as a benefit.

#Local SEO #Local SEO tips for busy entrepreneurs #off page seo #off site seo #on site seo #on-page seo #SEO #SEO techniques #Successful local SEO tips for businesses

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Ways to improve your SEO rankings

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/improve-website-seo-rankings/

Ways to improve your SEO rankings

SEO rankings is a key player on the internet. If you have a successful blog (or a small business), you know how crucial it is to have relevant keywords. But perfecting SEO rankings is a bit like playing on the see-saw at the playground. When you’re high in the rankings and reflect high volumes of visitors, you’re on top of the see-saw. You’re doing most (if not) all things correctly. But, if you’re in the lower part of the SEO rankings—or people can’t find you at all, you’re on the bottom part of the sea-saw. This article is meant for these folks that need improvement of their website. It’s easy to do once you have your to-do list.

First and foremost in SEO rankings, check for your content for any grammatical error. Hire a proofreader or use the line-by-line approach, reading every line slowly for compression. Grammatical errors can push you down in the rankings. If you have too many of them, Google or Bing will stop crawling your site altogether. They believe that the content isn’t useful or relevant to the reader. This may be what readers think, too, when they land on your site. Don’t spell check your document. Spellchecking a document is only going to check to words spelled correctly. It’s not going to check for word usage, such as there, their or they’re.

You also want to provide difference types of content on your site to increase your SEO rankings. Don’t only provide blog posts or only provide videos. Rather, spice it up. Mix it in the blogs and videos, but add in slideshows and polls. Speaking of blog posts, there are several types that draw in readers. You can write reviews or interviews, for instance, or write on an interesting topic within your niche. Have a captivating photo with each blog post that makes it easier to share on Pinterest. If you provide a quote with each blog, make sure it’s relevant to the topic at hand.

Likewise, fix any broken links. When crawling your website, this is something that Google checks out. But if you have too many broken links, Google thinks that you have abandoned ship. Google believes that you have stepped out on your responsibility as a website owner. And, believe me, I get it. You get busy and forget to post content. But to find all the broken links, do a website audit to increase your SEO rankings. If you have a couple links in each post, and you have 620 blogs, that’s 1240 links on your site. An audit will tell you which links to leave alone and which links need the most attention. Focus more on those and your rankings should improve.

Page layout is also important. Typography is not thought about much by website owners but it should be. If you can’t read it, more than likely neither can your readers. Make your font size between 12 and 13 and choose a font that is easy to read to improve SEO rankings. Experts say that serif fonts are more easy to read (such as Georgia) because they have the serifs on the end of letters. These make the letters stand out and more legible. Sans serif, on the other hand, does not have these and are much trickier to read—especially when I and L are lowercase next to each other.

Likewise, it’s important that you have a responsive layout. This means your website looks the same on a device that’s four inches or 27 inches. If readers have to scroll left to right to read your content, your bounce rate (the rate at which people leave your site) is going to skyrocket. Your goal is to keep people on your site instead of making them leave. Make everything on your site easy to locate, such as your contact form, FAQ or your blog archive. If they have to go searching, they will go searching for another blog to read.

Finally for SEO rankings, who are you? What’s the history of your company? Why should I buy your products or services? All of these questions should be answered in your About Us page. When people land on your website, they want to know who you are and how they can relate to you. Having this About Us page increases trust and authority within your business. The customer knows you’re not working out of your mom’s basement, but instead in a beautiful office building overlooking Manhattan. They can expect great quality and great service because you have the background and experience to prove it. But, without this About Us page, you’re leaving the customer in the dark. I hope these have helped you get started on your SEO improvements. Your rankings will improve if you make all these changes.

#on-page seo #Ranking Score #Search engine optimization techniques #SEO #SEO techniques #Ways to improve your SEO rankings

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Top ways to dominate Google rankings

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/dominate-google-rankings/

Top ways to dominate Google rankings

Do you want to dominate Google rankings? Silly question, I know! Of course, we all have this goal in mind! What if I told you that you could? All it takes is some tweaks to your SEO. It takes some edits here and there to parts of your website. You can rise to the top of Google within your niche and here’s how to do it.

First and foremost, watch that grammar and punctuation. Watch that sentence structure and watch those comma splices. If you use the passive voice, instead of active voice, it’s going to discourage readers to keep reading your content. Google is smart enough to tell if the content is 100% grammatically correct or if it crying out for a proofreader. In the first case, your Google rankings are going to soar. Your content is easy to read and Google finds the content useful to others. But, in the case of the second scenario, Google may skip over your site or not index it at all. In fact, your Google rankings slide faster than a water slide.

You also have to keep posting relevant content. Your relationship with Google starts once you hit publish on your first post. You have to keep posting. Each time you post content, Google scrolls your website and indexes it in the search engine. This is going to boost your ranking and increase the likelihood that you’ll have web traffic. But what if you stop writing content altogether? Google assumes that you have abandoned your post. It believes you have given up on your website. This sinks your ranks and all your hard work would have been for nothing.

Likewise, you have to market your content. This is where a social media presence comes in. Connect your blog to LinkedIn. Pin your blog posts on Pinterest and post them on Google+. Share your content via your Facebook page, or live stream a topic that is relevant to your blog. Share! Share! Share! You have to keep your content in front of the eyes of your audience. If you don’t. they don’t know to look for it. You could publish a course or webinar and not receive the outpouring of which you had hoped. If you didn’t market this service or product, this is the main factor in your lack of traction.

You may also want to check your page speed. Do you have an abundance of widgets, videos or pictures? Does anything autoplay on your website when the reader loads it? If your website is slow, customers are not likely to stay on it. Rather, they will leave within seconds and head straight into the arms of your competitor. A way to check this is by doing a website audit. It’s going to show you what’s slowing down your site. Fix all the errors and it should speed up your site. You don’t want customers to leave your site. You want them to stay and engage with all your content. Make this happen and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Finally, you have to really focus down on your keywords. Sample your web site by selecting 5 articles. Read these articles as if you’re a visitor to your website. What keywords come to mind? Now, head over to Google Keyword Planner and turn your generalized keywords into more specific keywords. Instead of just gardening, a keyword may be organic gardening. Instead of music, a keyword may be instrumental music. This is going to help you move up in the Google rankings because you’re matching the searcher’s terms much more precisely. Take all these tips and drive them home. They’re going to help you improve your site and improve your Google rankings. Good luck!

#google #google ranking #Top ways to dominate Google rankings

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Successful local SEO tips for businesses

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/successful-businesses-local-seo-tips/

Successful local SEO tips for businesses

Those that own a website know the importance of local search engine optimization (local SEO). But, if you have a website and a commercial property used for business, you may want to localize your local SEO. More than ever it’s vital that you optimize local SEO techniques to get your business front-and-center to your customers. So what’s the best way to do this? Well, I’m glad you asked.

First and foremost, take advantage of online directories for local SEO. These are apps and websites such as Yelp! or Yellow Pages. If you’re in a new town, where do you go to look up a new restaurant, a new attraction or the closest movie theater? The answer for most is Yelp!. This is a free app and website that allows users to rate your business. Is your customer service stellar or really lousy? Do you have a private parking lot or just street parking? As a business, you can put contact information on the website (phone/address/website) as well as your e-mail. This is going to drive sales and bring in people that may be new to your company.

You also must have a larger than life social presence for local SEO. Be visual on every social network, posting updates and coupons. Post behind-the-scene photos of your company and pictures of your products. Have a social media strategy where you know what you’re going to post on each social network and when it will appear. In most of these posts, be sure to include a call-to-action. Come out Friday night for half off karaoke and $1.99 margaritas! A call-to-act makes your customer act. There has to be an incentive for them, otherwise, it’s useless.

Likewise, toot your own horn with local media for local SEO. Be on a first name basis with reporters at television studios, newspapers and radio stations. If you’re running a promotion, they should be the first to know about it. They are going to help get the word out and be able to get people to the event. Have a sales team member on your staff who can write ad copy and press releases. Send these to anyone within a 5-10 radius of your geographical area. You want to get your brand out there. You want customers to purchase your products. And the media is going to help you do it.

Don’t forget to do a website audit. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your website? Fix any broken links and make a clean sweep of any duplicate content. Rid your site of any spelling or punctuation error. If you have struggled with sentence structure, hire a reputable proofreader that can polish your writing. All of these, should they go unfixed, could sink your ratings in Google. But also research your keywords. Are they as strong as your competitors? If not, scratch them and really put specific keywords into your content. You want traffic to your content and generalized keywords will not get you there.

Finally, encourage reviews for local SEO. A lot of authors give away free autographed copies of their books in exchange for an honest review on their book. You could do something similar for your product or service. Testimonials speak volumes about a company. Whether they are written or video testimonials don’t matter but get something that shows how remarkable and outstanding your company is. Over time this is going to help draw in more traffic. Your SEO is going to speak for itself and you’re going to rise above your competitor. Being a local business isn’t easy, but you have to know how to play the game. Use these techniques and you’ll always shine brightly on your website.

#Advertising #Search engine optimization techniques #SEO #SEO techniques #Successful local SEO tips for businesses

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Common SEO mistakes made every day

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/common-seo-mistakes-made-every-day/

Common SEO mistakes made every day

Search engine optimization (SEO) can affect how readers find your website. It can mean all the difference in being at the top of page 1 in Google or the bottom of page 25. While SEO may be a big factor, it’s a difficult concept for some to grasp. They have a hard time rising above their competitors in internet land. But I’m here to tell you that it’s not that hard. You have to have perseverance, patience and be willing to work hard every day.

Website owners don’t optimize their content. This is a big SEO problem. We’re either not using enough keywords or not using the correct keywords. It’s so hard! This is why there are fantastic tools like Google Keyword Planner. Simply type in a word and it brings up competitive keywords that will get you back in the game. Let’s say your blog post is about gardening. You could use any of these keywords: vegetable garden, garden design, botanical garden, home garden, or indoor garden. This is just a sample, of course, but you get the idea. A blog post with the keyword indoor garden is going to get more traction than simply one with the keyword garden.

You don’t have authentic meta tags or title tags. I’ve worked nearly five years on newspapers and graduated journalism school—guess what? I struggle with writing headlines. It’s not an easy task but headlines don’t have to be award-winning. Take the pressure off yourself. They just have to be captivating. Why would I, as a reader, want to read your content? Make the title informative, catchy or persuasive. If headlines aren’t your thing, have a colleague or friend read your article. I’m sure they could give you some pointers. These are tags that are going to be shared throughout social media. Make them stand out.

Meta tags are also important. This describes the content to your reader. This is another area in which I really struggle. Most search engines give you 160 characters, a bit more than Twitter. Persuade the reader to read your content. It’s what fiction writers call the hook. You have captured the reader’s attention and draw them into your website. Otherwise, you’re giving the searcher good reason to keep scrolling onto your competitor. Make them stop. Make them think: Hmm; maybe this is useful information. And then they click. You got ‘em.

You have poorly written content. The more you write, then the better writer you will become. I’m a website owner and I know most of you are as well. While I write my own content, I realize a good majority of you may hire writers. I respect that. But hold your writers to a standard. Don’t accept any content that is poorly written. If there are errors in spelling or punctuation, have the writer fix it. If there are sentence structure errors, don’t pay the writer until they do an above average job. You have an image to uphold as the website owner. The poor writing of that writer reflects on you. Don’t accept anything less than the absolute best.

Broken links. Posting links on your site make your site credible and trustworthy. However, every so often, you have to check all your links. Should you have any broken links, Google sinks your search engine ranking. This absolutely sucks. A way to keep on top of this is by stellar customer service. Have a live customer service chat, an e-mail and a contact form where readers can report these inoperable links. Another method is to do a thorough website audit. It should tell you exactly which links are broken. Fix your links and watch your ratings soar once again.

Duplicate content. This could mean one of two scenarios. The first scenario is that you have your original content on your site with two or more links. This is called duplicate content. On the flip side, you could have plagiarized content from another site and placed it on your own—in which I hope you do get caught. You’re taking the hard work of someone else and using it to your benefit. Either case with sink your ratings with Google and other search engines. Honest website owners will not encounter this problem, but those that have this problem should remove the content and write unique content that is original to their niche.

Expecting fast results. And finally, website owners should realize that SEO is going to take time. You’re not going to jump to the top of Google’s page 1 overnight. You’re not going to wake up to thousands of viewers looking at your content. It takes hard work and dedication to get to that stage. Algorithms are constantly changing as the web crawlers view content on your website. Just focus on creating great content and you’re going to reap the rewards.

#Common SEO mistakes made every day #Crucial tips for URL optimization #Link Score #SEO #SEO techniques #The S.W.O.T. Method of Competitor Analysis

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

A brief overview of Google Adwords

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/brief-overview-google-adwords/

A brief overview of Google Adwords

There are many ways to generate revenue on your website. One of the more prominent ways is Google Adwords, but what is it? Google Adwords is a way to target your audience by their interests or demographics. The brand has specific keywords in mind which assist them in doing this. Likewise, they use a call-to-action to persuade the customer in order to click on their advertisement. What incentive does the customer have to click on your advertisement? Here are some great tips for walking you through the basics of Adwords.

First and foremost, the ideal advertisement starts with a product (or service) and targeted keywords. Start by writing a list of keywords and then research keywords of your competitors using Google Keyword Search. When designing a Google Ad, however, Google ranks your advertisement on the CPC bid and the quality score. The CPC score is the price you pay for each keyword within Google Keyword Tool, and the quality score is how useful the advertisement is to those that view it. You want to have a high-quality score. This means that people find your advertisement informative, persuasive or it meets their needs. If you meet these criteria, more than likely they’ll go to your landing page and follow through with your call-to-action.

It’s also important that you have a unique selling proposition. This makes your business stand out, as your customers get to know your brand and your brand’s values. The USP tells the customer that the brand stands for something specific, such as landscaping or being a life coach. The customer knows that you have exceptional products. They see your reviews on your website and your social pages. All these reviews make you more credible and give you more authority within your brand. The customer is more likely to take a chance on you because they know you have experience. Likewise, this USP is going to improve how many people click on your advertisement. More people are willing to engage with your advertisement if they know the service will be done right.

Geo-targeting is also important if you have Google Adwords. This is where you target an ad to a specific audience within a specific location. Let’s say you’re a well-established dentist in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You wouldn’t target your advertisement to people that lived in San Diego, New York City or Miami. Geo-targeting is an excellent way to narrow your audience. It’s going to get more eyes on your advertisement and it’s going to get more clicks to your landing page. Customers that need your product (or service) are likely to buy from someone from which they have experience. Other ways of geo-targeting are by the purchases customers previously make. If they just had a baby, for instance, retailers that sell baby clothes or baby furniture in their geographical region could target them with Google Ad Words.

On another note, let’s not forget to track conversions. Ideally, a conversion is a person that has not yet committed to a sale. But what keyword got them to that point? Once they do make the sale, keep track of that specific keyword. If you’re selling a bicycle, for instance, did they make the conversion by using mountain bikes or kids bikes? If so, don’t let that keyword go! This keyword is going to be a winner for your business. But, if you used the keyword hybrid bike and have had zero conversions, you may want to send that keyword to the wastebasket.

You may also want to use negative keywords. These are keywords that are excluded from your Google campaign. In a sense, these keywords are excluded because these customers were never going to buy from you in the first place. (No offense.) Let’s say you used the keyword two-seat bicycles, but the customers of which this advertisement is shown has no interest in it. You have made zero sales. This is a negative keyword; therefore, it can be omitted.

Finally, don’t forget to optimize your advertisement. You’ve done this with every type of content on your website and social pages. It means that you’re adding sharp keywords and phrases. How are people going to find it? How are you going to persuade them to click on it? Don’t forget the call-to-action in which they do something. Your landing page should be set up before your advertisement. This is where your customer is going to go, after all, so it has to informative and clean. Google Adwords can drive traffic and sales to your website. You just have to know how to work it. It’s easy once you get the hang of it.

#A brief overview of Google Adwords #google #Marketing online and offline strategies #SEO

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

What are Google algorithms and how to understand it?

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/google-algorithms/

What are Google algorithms and how to understand it?

Each day, millions of users type keywords into Google algorithms. Within seconds we have thousands (if not more) results at our fingertips. What you don’t see behind-the-scenes is Google algorithms. These are robots that scan the internet for the most relevant sites related to your keyword. But what are these algorithms and how do they work?

First, there is Panda. This algorithm was introduced in 2011 to assist in filtering high-quality sites. It’s meant to distinguish these sites from websites that may be lower quality. Lower quality may have broken links or misspelled words, for instance, which would push them down in search results. This is the algorithm that crawls your website. It looks at your keywords, whether you have duplicate content, or if you have star-quality search engine optimization. If the page does not offer value to readers, or simply not enough information, the search engine algorithm may choose not to index your site altogether.

Penguin, a Google algorithm that was introduced in 2012, examines all the links within your site. Google checks your broken links, checks to see if you have any back links and checks to see if you’re using links in any unethical way. If you can get authoritative and credible sites to link to your site, this is going to boost your search rankings with Google algorithms. This tells Google algorithms that you are using trustworthy and reliable information. But, if you skip over this, your rankings will plummet to the bottom of page 25. Nobody wants to be there.

Along came Hummingbird in 2013. While Hummingbird utilizes some aspects of Panda and Penguin, it has changed how Google indexes websites. Google algorithms now place more emphasis on the website owner using SEO and keywords in order to improve their website ranking. It places more accountability towards the website owner, which is how it should have been all along. Content with specific keywords is more likely to soar in the rankings, as opposed to that content that has generalized keywords—or, no keywords at all.

So how do you find favor in Google algorithms and soar to the top of page 1? You have to play to win, and you have to play hard. Keywords are important. Research keywords for each piece of content you place on your site. You can’t simply throw words out there. Researching keywords are going to give you an idea of what searchers want and give you more of a chance at getting web traffic. Also, research your competitors. Play by their rules and you may have an opportunity to overtake them in the search engines.

Your website in general, too, is important. Is your website mobile-friendly? These days people are on devices of all sizes. A phone, tablet or computer could be anywhere from four to twenty-seven inches. You have to make sure your website is going to look sharp and perfect on each of them. You also want to make sure your site is clean-cut. Don’t make your readers search for your blog, products page or contact form. Have all these located in one area? And finally, test your site speed. Too many ads, photos or videos will slow it down.

Google algorithms are tricky but they are easy to figure out. Have a user-friendly site, proofread your content and fix all your links. Your rankings are sure to improve over time.

#boosting content #google #How to perform a website audit #What are Google algorithms?

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Cheat sheet to key social media competitor

New Post has been published on http://promotingmedia.com/cheat-sheet-key-social-media-competitor/

Cheat sheet to key social media competitor

Social media is a game changer. This is the 20th year of the internet. A few years after the internet went public, social networks started to arise. People suddenly felt a strong need to be connected around the clock. They had to know what their friends/family were doing, where they were at, and be in on the aspect of each other’s lives. At that time, buying local was still a major player. But times have changed and the tables have turned. Now, around 80-90 of purchases are through social media or the internet. You have to get on board with this (if you’re lacking). And, if you just need new ideas, this a good idea to find them.

I believe there are six major players in social networks. These are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+. To get ahead of your competitor, you have to dominate one or more of these networks. Through this cheat sheet, I’ll give you an overview of how you can do just that.

Throughout this guide I’ll talk about the following subjects, in relation to all the social networks:

Engagement

Marketing

Best time to post

Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Engagement

If you’re a website owner, you may spend hours or days creating content. Blog posts, videos, podcasts or images—you try new ways to reach your audience. But they don’t comment, like, tweet, share and so forth. What is holding them back? What is keeping them from engaging in your brand? This answer lies in the algorithm of each social network.

Recently I’ve discovered that not many people are engaging with my Facebook author page. It turns out that Facebook does not show your content to all that subscribe to your site. Rather, you have to pay to boost your content up so more people see it. It starts at $5 and goes up from there, dependent on the type of audience you want to reach. Here are other ways to engage your audience that work on all the social networks:

Create social media shareable content. Your audience needs to stop and take notice. Many on social networks scroll through their news feeds with their thumb, but what you have should be that pause. Make them care about what you have posted. It could be a quote or breaking news. The content could relate to your book launch or a giveaway. You have to make it interesting. They are only going to stop if they feel there is an incentive. What’s in it for them? What’s the value of your content to everyone they connect to via that social network? Only then will they click share.

Include a call-to-action. A call-to-action is asking your customers to do something:

Read this blog post to get a 50% off coupon to our paid membership site.

Retweet our webinar to get a free coaching session.

Mix up your content. Don’t always post blog posts. Don’t always post videos or podcasts. Mix it up. Post a poll or engage your audience in a photographic contest. While it’s all right to post blog posts, videos or podcast files—mix them up in topics. Have guests posters come onto your blog and offer their expertise. This livens up your blog and extends your audience. Now, not only do you have your web traffic, but you have web traffic from that site in which the guest poster has authority. Having guest posters, too, gives you credibility and authority within your niche.

Use live chat. Your audience wants to connect with you. Take the time to get on Facebook Live and live stream Instagram. This is an excellent way to step out from behind your brand. It gives you an opportunity to connect with customers on a one-by-one basis. Answer their questions and communicate with them through the video. Give them credible information that they can take away from your video. Don’t just Google a topic before you hit record. Focus on a topic that’s within your niche. If you have a background in a topic of which you’re speaking, you’re going to look better on camera speaking on it.

Marketing

Let’s move onto marketing. For this section, I’m going to give a brief overview of each social network and it’s marketing techniques.

Facebook. Facebook has a wide-range of social media marketing opportunities. There are free and paid:

Facebook Pages. Do you own a business page? Take advantage of this by marketing your brand on it. Make sure you have a professional headshot photo (or your brand’s logo). You should also have a cover image that is brand-oriented. This could be a photo that illustrates your line of products, for example or a photo that has your web address. You also want to have an about section. Who are you and what is your business? Make it as specific as possible. This is where you want to stand out from your competitor. This is a free advertising option so use it.

Facebook groups. Within every niche, there are promotional groups to sell products. I probably belong to 10+ groups just to sell books. Take advantage of this free advertising. If you have a new product, seek out these groups and promote your product! Nobody will know your product is there unless you toot your own horn. You’re going to have to repost your product’s advertisement at least twice a week to keep sales up. So save the advertisement in Notes or another program. Then, put it on your calendar as a task. It’s free advertisement so why not?

Facebook ads. These start at $5/day. You can pay more if you want to reach more people, but don’t overpay if you’re just a newbie. These ads let you target people by demographics, interests, occupation and how they surf the internet. You can target by Apple or Android, whether they use Safari or Chrome and much more. But I’m going to give it to you straight. Using Facebook social media ads has a learning curve. If you don’t see a high conversion rate the first time, don’t give up. Change up your keywords and try again. It could be your audience was too big, not targeted right or so many other reasons.

Twitter. Twitter—the land of 140 characters. If you want to market here, you creatives have to be…well, creative.

Twitter chat. If you want to actively gain new followers, Twitter chat is the way to go. Look for businesses that fall within your niche or industry. This is an ideal place for you to stand out from your competitors as you showcase your company, its values, and its products. You have the opportunity to create a special image, rather than just tweeting out a text. This captures the attention of your audience and draws them into your content. Likewise, it opens the door to more replies, retweets, and mentions. If you get people talking about your company, you may have already won.

Direct messages. Once you have followers, you can use the direct message approach. This is where a company directly communicates with their customer. Many companies use this approach to survey their customers. What types of products do they want? Do they find the current products useful? They many send copies of books to review and so forth. Use this method to communicate with customers that are dissatisfied with your products and to send coupons. There are many creative ways in which it can move your business forward.

Twitter lists. These are lists on Twitter in which you can add 500 Twitter accounts. Use these lists to spy on your competitors. Add their accounts to the lists that you want to watch. I’m more than certain they have your Twitter account on one of their lists and are spying on you, so why not do it as well? Check out what type of content they are posting, how engaged their followers are and when they post. Learn from all these techniques and your business is going to take off.

Top social tools for businesses

Google+. Google+ has millions of social media users. Are you using it? If not, you may not want to miss out on it.

Google+ Events. Does your business go to trade shows? Are you an author that does regular book tours or book signings? You have to sign up for Google+! Google+ Events allows you sent out invitations to anyone that is signed up for the network. It doesn’t matter whether they are on your friend’s list. This is a wonderful way to advertise and get exposure to your brand. It could be a game changer for your business. You could send out invitations to webinars, work functions, and parties. Wouldn’t you want your target audience to know you launched a product or service? I sure would!

Advertise your Google+ page. You should have a solid social media presence. If you have a page on Google+ (or anywhere)—this should be on every other social page. This includes your website. Having your social pages advertised this much gives your audience the opportunity to find you. If they prefer one social network over another, it means they don’t have to be on Facebook or Twitter all the time. They can interact and engage with your brand directly on Google+. This is going to drive sales and customer service. It’s going to seal your authority as a business and make you more credible.

Take advantage of Google+ Hangouts. This is what sets Google+ apart from the other social media networks. It’s the company directly communicating with the customer. Everything done here is unscripted. Have your CEO or a salesperson get in front of the camera and give the customer a behind-the-scenes, tour, for instance. Or, bring on an expert that would sway the customer to purchasing one of your products. Make the person that speaks to the camera likable and relatable. This is how you’re going to get people attracted to the content.

LinkedIn. LinkedIn is all about networking and making connections. These connections may be customers or other businesses. Your profile should professional and testify to the authenticity of your brand. Here are some of the best ways to market your product:

Paid ad campaigns: Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn gives businesses the opportunity to promote their content. LinkedIn takes targeting demographics a step further, however. Whereas Facebook allows you market gender, occupation, interests and so forth—LinkedIn allows you to target employer, industry and even a person’s aptitude or skills. LinkedIn gives you the option of running your advertisement CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-impression). The second option costs an average of $2/ad, which is a bit less expensive than Facebook.

Don’t overlook your profile. As I said, LinkedIn is about connections. Customers want to know who you are, where you come from and how credible you may be. Fill out your profile accurately and honestly. Recommendations are something that makes LinkedIn stand out. These may as well be shout outs. These are customers praising your company for your strengths and accomplishments. Try to get as many as you can. These speak volumes to a newbie that is on the fence when it comes to buying your products. Also, don’t forget contact information: phone, address (if applicable), e-mail and web address are the basics. Include this information for everyone in your company or just the main people but make sure it’s there.

Share content. Does your website have a blog? Share your blog posts on your LinkedIn social media profile. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of this? It’s one more site that’s going to drive web traffic to your content. A reader may not encounter your brand or Twitter or Facebook, but they land on your ad via LinkedIn. Suddenly they are intrigued and look up your company page. They see you have a blog and have completely filled out your profile. This is a wonderful way to turn a lead into a conversion—which, as we all know, turns into a sale!

Instagram. Marketing is easy when you market on Instagram. Facebook owns the social network so, when you create an ad, it appears on both sites. How lucky are you! Here are some other helpful tips.

Create a business account. If you are a business, portray yourself as a business. Make sure all your content is professional. You may consider sticking to a theme, such as quotes or behind-the-scene photos of your company. But, at the same time, this can lead followers astray from your brand. So mix up your content. Have a good mixture of photos and video. Use both these content types when you do promotions or launches for products. While you can upload a stock photo, I wouldn’t recommend it unless it as text. On a final point, toot your horn about your business and your other social media accounts. Your customers have to know where to find you.

Don’t forget to cross-promote! Do you really enjoy a company? Give them a shout out on Instagram! It’s popular on Instagram to promote products of other companies. And here’s the bonus. Not only will your followers see the post, but so will the followers of the company you promoted. You should also be on the lookout for similar companies to your own. If you sell lawn chairs, for instance, look for companies that sell lawn chairs. Connect with them. Ask them if they can promote your products and you will promote theirs. This is called being a social media influencer and it gets your name out there!

Don’t forget the call to action. Remember, you’re a business. What do businesses do? They make money! How are you going to make money when you don’t move the customer to do anything? Persuade them to click the picture and sign up for your e-mail newsletter, get into a free giveaway for your book or to sign up for your webinar. Drive them to your landing page to order your services. Tell them why they should be interested and they are more than likely to do it.

Pinterest. This brings us to the last social media network in this section-Pinterest. It’s fairly new, but completive all the same. Here’s how to market on it.

Create boards focused on keywords. If you’re new to Pinterest (or never been on it), a board is where you share links. Each link you bookmark is referred to as a pin. When you organize your pins into keyword-focused boards, it helps those on Pinterest locate what your brand is about. Each company does this differently. Some only pin their content, while other companies pin their content in addition to content that may be relevant. Find what balance works for you and stick to it.

Share your Pinterest RSS feed. What’s that? Yes, Pinterest does have an option to share what you pin through your social media page. Share this link everywhere. Post it on every social page that you own. Advertise your RSS feed to your readers. They could put this web address into apps like Feedly and automatically get notified when you upload a pin. If you have a WordPress site, download a widget that allows you to showcase your Pinterest pins directly on your website. This is going to help you increase your followers and build your brand.

The Pinterest Shop. The best part of Pinterest is the Pinterest shop. Are you selling a book or a product? Advertise it in the Pinterest shop. You can list the item’s description and its price. This new feature hasn’t been around long but it’s genius! People click on your link and they are taken to whoever is selling your product. But the presence of your book (or product) is key. Think about this way: If it wasn’t on Pinterest, would they find it?

Best Time To Post

Finally, this wraps up where we started: engagement. Knowing when to post is half the battle.

Facebook.

Best: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Worst: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Twitter.

Best: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Worst: 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Google+.

Best: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Worst: 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

LinkedIn.

Best: 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.; 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Worst: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Instagram.

Best: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Worst: Midnight to 8 a.m.

Pinterest.

Best: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.; 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Worst: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

#A cheat sheet to becoming a key social media competitor #social media #social media advertising #social media analisys #social media competitor #social media influencers

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

A cheat sheet to becoming a key social media network competitor

New Post has been published on https://www.promotingmedia.com/cheat-sheet-social-media-network/

A cheat sheet to becoming a key social media network competitor

Social media network is a game changer. This is the 20th year of the internet. A few years after the internet went public, social networks started to arise. People suddenly felt a strong need to be connected around the clock. They had to know what their friends/family were doing, where they were at, and be in on the aspect of each other’s lives. At that time, buying local was still a major player. But times have changed and the tables have turned. Now, around 80-90 of purchases are through social media network or the internet. You have to get on board with this (if you’re lacking). And, if you just need new ideas, this a good idea to find them.

I believe there are six major players in social media network. These are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+. To get ahead of your competitor, you have to dominate one or more of these networks. Through this cheat sheet, I’ll give you an overview of how you can do just that.

Throughout this guide I’ll talk about the following subjects, in relation to all the social media network:

Engagement

Marketing

Best time to post

Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Engagement

Create shareable content. Your audience needs to stop and take notice. Many on social media network scroll through their news feeds with their thumb, but what you have should be that pause. Make them care about what you have posted. It could be a quote or breaking news. The content could relate to your book launch or a giveaway. You have to make it interesting. They are only going to stop if they feel there is an incentive. What’s in it for them? What’s the value of your content to everyone they connect to via that social media network? Only then will they click share.

Include a call-to-action. A call-to-action is asking your customers to do something:

Read this blog post to get a 50% off coupon to our paid membership site.

Retweet our webinar to get a free coaching session.

Marketing

Let’s move onto marketing. For this section, I’m going to give a brief overview of each social media network and it’s marketing techniques.

Facebook. Facebook has a wide-range of marketing opportunities. There are free and paid:

Facebook ads. These start at $5/day. You can pay more if you want to reach more people, but don’t overpay if you’re just a newbie. These ads let you target people by demographics, interests, occupation and how they surf the internet. You can target by Apple or Android, whether they use Safari or Chrome and much more. But I’m going to give it to you straight. Using Facebook ads has a learning curve. If you don’t see a high conversion rate the first time, don’t give up. Change up your keywords and try again. It could be your audience was too big, not targeted right or so many other reasons.

Twitter. Twitter—the land of 140 characters. If you want to market here, you creatives have to be…well, creative.

Google+. Google+ has millions of users. Are you using it? If not, you may not want to miss out on it.

Advertise your Google+ page. You should have a solid social presence. If you have a page on Google+ (or anywhere)—this should be on every other social page. This includes your website. Having your social pages advertised this much gives your audience the opportunity to find you. If they prefer one social media network media network over another, it means they don’t have to be on Facebook or Twitter all the time. They can interact and engage with your brand directly on Google+. This is going to drive sales and customer service. It’s going to seal your authority as a business and make you more credible.

Take advantage of Google+ Hangouts. This is what sets Google+ apart from the other social media network. It’s the company directly communicating with the customer. Everything done here is unscripted. Have your CEO or a salesperson get in front of the camera and give the customer a behind-the-scenes, tour, for instance. Or, bring on an expert that would sway the customer to purchasing one of your products. Make the person that speaks to the camera likable and relatable. This is how you’re going to get people attracted to the content.

Don’t overlook your profile. As I said, LinkedIn is about connections. Customers want to know who you are, where you come from and how credible you may be. Fill out your profile accurately and honestly. Recommendations are something that makes LinkedIn stand out. These may as well be shutouts. These are customers praising your company for your strengths and accomplishments. Try to get as many as you can. These speak volumes to a newbie that is on the fence when it comes to buying your products. Also, don’t forget contact information: phone, address (if applicable), e-mail and web address are the basics. Include this information for everyone in your company or just the main people but make sure it’s there.

Share content. Does your website have a blog? Share your blog posts on your LinkedIn profile. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of this? It’s one more site that’s going to drive web traffic to your content. A reader may not encounter your brand or Twitter or Facebook, but they land on your ad via LinkedIn. Suddenly they are intrigued and look up your company page. They see you have a blog and have completely filled out your profile. This is a wonderful way to turn a lead into a conversion—which, as we all know, turns into a sale!

Instagram. Marketing is easy when you market on Instagram. Facebook owns the social media network so, when you create an ad, it appears on both sites. How lucky are you! Here are some other helpful tips.

Create a business account. If you are a business, portray yourself as a business. Make sure all your content is professional. You may consider sticking to a theme, such as quotes or behind-the-scene photos of your company. But, at the same time, this can lead followers astray from your brand. So mix up your content. Have a good mixture of photos and video. Use both these content types when you do promotions or launches for products. While you can upload a stock photo, I wouldn’t recommend it unless it as text. On a final point, toot your horn about your business and your other social media network accounts. Your customers have to know where to find you.

Pinterest. This brings us to the last social media network in this section-Pinterest. It’s fairly new, but completive all the same. Here’s how to market on it.

Share your Pinterest RSS feed. What’s that? Yes, Pinterest does have an option to share what you pin through your social media page. Share this link everywhere. Post it on every social media network page that you own. Advertise your RSS feed to your readers. They could put this web address into apps like Feedly and automatically get notified when you upload a pin. If you have a WordPress site, download a widget that allows you to showcase your Pinterest pins directly on your website. This is going to help you increase your followers and build your brand.

Best Time To Post

Finally, this wraps up where we started: engagement. Knowing when to post is half the battle.

Facebook.

Best: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Worst: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Twitter.

Best: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Worst: 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Google+.

Best: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Worst: 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

LinkedIn.

Best: 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.; 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Worst: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Instagram.

Best: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Worst: Midnight to 8 a.m.

Pinterest.

Best: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.; 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Worst: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

#A cheat sheet to becoming a key social media competitor #Facebook #Facebook marketing strategies #keywords #Link Score #LinkedIn #promoting #Top ways to use video promotion #Twitter

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

A cheat sheet to keyword research

New Post has been published on https://www.promotingmedia.com/cheat-sheet-keyword-research/

A cheat sheet to keyword research

Each site has keyword research and phrases research that are invaluable to its niche. These are important words that search engines and your t target audience use to find your content. But, if for any reason that is below average (or absent altogether), your website may be so far down the rankings that are it’s impossible to find. If you have found search engine optimization (SEO) to be a struggle for your website, you’re in good company. Many have this burden but this guide will show you how to overcome it.

You must know your niche.

Is your niche parenting…earth science…small business? This is the category that your blog fits in the most. It’s vital you know where you belong on the internet. This not only helps you SEO but also in advertising. You have a more overall view of who you’re targeting to read your content. Keywords aren’t that much different.

In order to find successful keywords, log onto Google Keyword Planner. Through this keyword research tool, you’re going to be able to compare keyword trends. What are searchers looking for within your niche? Let’s say you have a music education blog. Are your searchers searching for music theory, instruments, or music education lesson plans? If so (and you have this content on your site), then add these keywords to your content. Google Keyword Planner gives is going to indicate how many thousands of people search that keyword and its competition. Piano theory for beginners, for instance, has roughly 100 searchers to 1,000 searchers.

Make a list. Then make a spreadsheet.

With all these keywords in hand, we have to keep track of them. But not so fast. I want you first to go to your website. Take a sample of your content—let’s say five blog posts—and write down keywords or phrases. What comes to mind? Write these keyword research in a list form. Your list may be 5 lines long or 5 pages long (Good golly!) but it doesn’t matter at this point.

The next step is to open Microsoft Excel, Numbers (if you have a Mac), or another program. Type these words into a spreadsheet, arranging them in an order that you will understand. Then, go to an SEO tool like Google Keyword Planner. Type in each word. How does it rank? Even if you type in parenting—it’s going to come back with parenting styles, parenting skills, single parenting, positive parenting and so forth.

At this stage in the game, type in the word on your sheet. Study if it gets 100 searches or a thousand searches. You can always put additional keywords into your spreadsheet but put them off to the side. Note, too, in your spreadsheet what the competition is for that particular keyword. Is it low, medium or high? If you decide you want a keyword research, go ahead and add it to your plan. Since you’re in Google Adwords it’s going to show you a bid for the keyword and how many clicks you can expect from it. If you find that keyword research is not the right fit, delete it and start another.

Substitute in synonyms.

Synonyms play a key role across the board in all types of writing. Whether you’re writing an essay, a novel or simply a poem, synonyms come in handy. The same can be said about keywords. These types of words keep your keywords and phrases fresh. They don’t sound redundant or wordy. As a professional freelance proofreader and editor, I see this practically every day.

So what does it mean to substitute synonyms? Simply this: Go to a site such as thesaurus.com. Type in your keyword research. I typed in business, for example, and came up with these: occupation, employment, trade, work, vocation, and livelihood. If music is one of your keywords, here are synonyms: classical, opera, melody, ragtime, instrumental or bebop. These synonyms are going to help make your content more specific. If you’re in a narrow niche, they’re going to help your content become narrower. This is particularly important if you’re running an ad campaign on social media or Google Adwords. You don’t want a broad audience where millions of people may see your content. The reality is that very few of those people will actually see it. Instead, use these synonyms to narrow your audience to a few thousand. You now have a better chance of interaction with your content or advertisement.

Spy on your competitors.

This is a necessary strategy if you want the best keyword research. Whether you’re a large or small website, somewhere out in internet land is your competitor. I guarantee they spy on your website, so why not spy on them? There are several ways you can do this:

Monitor their backlinks. Go to moonsearch.com. Here you will find a free service that crawls billions of websites each day. Simply type in a website and it will tell you the backlinks which that website has used. Likewise, it’s going to specifically indicate what type of site has been referenced. It may be a work-at-home site, for example, or a site about a community college. Either way, look to these sites as potential sources for your own site. But it goes much deeper than that. This website will give you specifics on who owns the site and their rankings throughout various search engines. It also shows you where the domain is located in the world.

Discover profitable keywords. A good tool for this is spyfu.com. Simply enter your competitor’s web address. You will be brought to a screen that gives you statistics indicating organic keyword research and how long their site has been indexed. In addition, you’ll be able to see how many paid keywords they are using from Adwords to generate traffic to their website. Further down the page, you’ll be able to see their lead competitors, as well as keywords they share with competitors. Then, you’re going to be able to see their organic keywords and how much traffic they receive as a result each month. It’s important to note that the results you see are part of the free version. They have three paid plans in which you can sign up either monthly or pay an annual fee. The basic plan is $33/month (annually) or $39/month; the professional plan is $58/ month (annually) or $79/month; and the team plan is $199/month (annually) or $299/month.

See how your competitor ranks. Check out woorank.com. Type in your competitor’s web address and be prepared to look at statistics. It’s going to show their strong and weak keywords. It first lists keywords in a keyword research cloud, listing how many times they appear on their website. Then, the website lists keywords by their consistency. Here each keyword is ranked one to three stars. Use this to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It’s meant to give you leverage and get ahead of your competitor. If their keyword is weak, that is a chance for you to sneak past them and breeze past their ranking in Google or Bing.

Know the differences of keywords.

Transactional keywords. These keywords sell products.

Buy mystery novels

mystery novel reviews

mystery novel giveaways

Informative keywords. These keywords are mostly used to generate advertisement revenue for the website.

Mystery novel villains

Mystery novel plot structure

Mystery novel authors

Long tail keywords. These are keyword phrases that generally are 3-5 words. They are competitive throughout a niche and dramatically narrow a search within Google.

Music theory and classical music

Single parenting and toddlers

Chocolate chip cookie recipes

Short tail keywords. These keywords are easy to rank, but they may not be as competitive. As a result, you may (or may not) get the results you are seeking.

Golden retrievers

Education

Vacation

It’s all about timing…and a budget.

And finally, keywords are all about timing and a budget. Choose a keyword research and let it marinate for a couple of weeks. If your web traffic slows or you don’t get any traffic at all, then part ways with that keyword. Choose a stronger word that’s going to fit your content better. This is particularly important if you’re paying for keywords and/or your advertisements. You don’t want to keep paying for a service that’s not going to generate leads or conversions in the end. I hope this cheat sheet has cleared up your keyword research questions.

#A cheat sheet to keyword research #How to effectively research your website’s keywords #keywords

0 notes

promotingmedia-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Why you should study your competitor online presence

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/study-competitor-online-presence/

Why you should study your competitor online presence

I’m going to let you on a secret: I’m your competitor. All right, maybe not me—but someone out there is your competitor. They’re outwitting and outsmarting you at every turn. Why are you letting them stand you up and outshine you? Your business is awesome and it has the ability to glow brighter than the design on your competitor’s fancy logo. This is all the more reason to study your competitor’s presence.

Let’s start with Google Alerts and Google Trends. Google Alerts is going to help us spy on our competitors. We can enter their name and get notifications each time they are mentioned on the internet. This is going to help us learn strategy over time. It’s going to show us where our company is weak and where we can become strong. Google Trends, on the other hand, is going to provide you a list of statistics. It’s going to show you how many people are interested in the brand, as well as which regions. It’s also going to show you what products the company has out on the market, which is particularly useful.

Also, browse social media across the board. Type your competitor into the search bar and read down the search results. What are people saying about them? What do people most like (and can’t stand) about your competitor? Take notes. It may also be useful to do this for your own brand. Again, it shows us where we are weak and can be strong. If one of our customers says our customer service is below par—and our competitor’s customer service is outstanding—you have some work to do. Take in all criticism and learn from it. It’s only going to help you grow and evolve as a business.

Similarly, ask your customers. Which company did they use before they discovered your brand? Research the company they give you. How does that company relate to yours in terms of products, customer service, and social media? Ask your customer why they decided to make the switch. This is vital because you don’t want to make the same critical error. For instance, let’s say you’re a mechanic. The customer may say your competitor forgot to fasten their tire securely. This is a big deal that could have big consequences. Don’t make that mistake or you may lose the customer as well.

You may also want to attend conferences. As a business, you have to interact with others within your industry. Attend trade shows and join any industry associations that are out there. These are going to prove invaluable. The networking value alone is going to be priceless. If you attend a conference, attend courses with your competitors. Have them show you their social media pages and explain their strategy. You can glean a lot of knowledge just from this conversation. You may go as far to befriend your competitor, each agreeing to become a social media influencer for the other’s products. Many companies to do this if their products are similar.

Finally, send a survey out to your competitors. Ask about their products and services. Where do they advertise and how often? What are social networks they on and who works for them? Having this knowledge is useful if you want to get closer to your competitor’s playground. Survey them about their audience and what types of products they buy the most. Then, analyze this information with your team and use it to your advantage. How can you use it to advance your own products and services? Spying on your competitors can be fun, but you have to put in work. You have to be willing to advance your company. It’s the only way you’re going to get ahead.

#competitor online #content marketing #Marketing #Marketing online and offline strategies #on-page seo #Search engine optimization techniques #strategies of content marketing

0 notes