photo credit: Nathalie Magniez via photopin cc
Over the last few months we have covered some great topics in online marketing, and also provided access to downloads for those who wanted to dig deeper into the individual topics. Having now come to the end of this series, I wanted to take the opportunity to bring everything together in a final post by summarising the highlights. (more…)
Over the past couple of months we have provided overviews, downloads and in-depth information regarding what we believe to be the important areas of online marketing. Now that you have a basic understanding of the topics that fall under this online marketing umbrella, you should start to think about ways to incorporate these into your overall marketing strategy.
Step 1: Understand the unique characteristics of each channel
Each type of online marketing channel comes with a different set of rules, a different audience, different user expectations and different preferences – social media is different to email marketing. Read through our previous posts about these individual channels (see links below) to refresh your understanding of what makes each one unique.
Step 2: Examine your target audience in this context
Understanding the different channels is the first step; however, it's not the tools, but how we use the tools, that makes marketing matter. When you plan your marketing strategy remember: strategy first, delivery second.
In order to formulate the right strategy for engaging your core audiences, research the online demographics of each channel and perform a customer segmentation analysis.
However, in order to participate in the process of segmentation you have to start profiling customers – you need to answer questions about your target customer groups, such as;
1. How often are they online?
2. What social media sites do they frequent?
3. Do they participate in user-generated content?
Step 3: Agree your online marketing goals/objectives
First, start with the nucleus of your business. Why are you in business? Really get to the core of what gets you up every morning and why you go to work every day.
Next, look at your brand. Who are you? What do you do? Whom do you serve? What kind of positioning power do you want to have? This is going to come through in the way you design and produce the content around your communications. Work out if/how you can you align your general marketing objectives with online marketing including social media. For example, do you want to:-
1. Enhance brand reputation and image?
2. Improve organic search rankings?
3. Drive traffic to brand locations, both online and offline?
4. Grow your fan base?
5. Communicate with a small group of brand advocates?
Or
1. Do you just want to generate awareness, drive purchases and provide regular communications? If so then a Blog might be appropriate.
2. Are you after greater brand resonance and want to test new ways to connect with your audience? If so then third-party social networking sites may be appropriate.
3. Do you want to interlink your social sites, communicating with fans on Facebook but asking them to visit your Pinterest page for photos, or YouTube page for videos?
Step 4: Allocate the right amount of budget and resources
Next, think about the people. Not just the people you want to reach with online marketing, but also people within your organisation. Who is going to manage all of these online marketing channels? If you don't have the available resources then you might want to start really small and build as time and resources become more available. See mini plan below regarding: Assess, Optimise & New.
By engaging in online marketing, in particular social media, you are entering a conversation with your prospects and customers. This is an on-going, often daily commitment. If you do it right you will be welcomed into the conversation. Do it even slightly wrong and you will be throwing your money away.
Step 5: Policies
Sometimes you may ask people within your company to say certain things on behalf of your organisation – you may even already have some guidelines in place for your Facebook page; things that people can or cannot post.
Think about what policies work for you, document them, and weave that into your online marketing plan. Establish an operating procedure/policy. Ask questions, such as:
1. What is the policy to manage any negative comments received on the blog?
2. Is a process in place to manage the uploading of inappropriate or copyright-protected material?
3. What other policies must be agreed and put in place?
4. Are all appropriate internal departments briefed/involved?
Step 6: Agree how to measure your online marketing impact
The best results come from listening, understanding, monitoring feedback, participating, and actively managing your online marketing efforts. To do this you must be able to measure how much increased traffic you’re getting to your website and from social media, and really get an idea of what's working for you and what isn’t. It is important that you have a measurement plan in place.
1. Start by looking at your usual measurement options.
2. Review your social media campaign objectives.
3. Map your campaign.
4. Choose the criteria and tools of measurement.
5. Establish a benchmark (KPI).
6. Analyse the outcomes and propose changes.
7. Continue to measure.
Summary
Ultimately, what brings the whole online marketing strategy together is content. Your brand, the people, the metrics, the policies, the game plan, the strategy, all comes through in the content that you're publishing.
And remember, with online marketing you can always start small, and snowball. Little steps can make a big difference. If you prefer a much smaller approach than a formal strategic plan, then the Assess – Optimise – New mini plan may suit smaller businesses and companies who may not have the resources required to develop a full blown online marketing strategy.
Assess – Optimise – New
This helps create an online marketing focus which you can manage.
First things first; assess your situation. Revisit your marketing goals. What do you have to work with? What are you missing? Look critically at where you are at and where you want to go.
Next step; optimise. Fix things that need fixing. Hopefully you have read through the previous online marketing posts and you may have notes of things you are doing which you can tweak and make better. So, before you move on to new marketing channels you should make sure you are working off a solid marketing foundation.
When, and only when the assessment and optimisation phases have been addressed is it time to move on to new channels.
If you ever find yourself overwhelmed with the whole online marketing process then I recommend you come back to the Assess, Optimise and New, mini planning process. This will help you manage the steps that you want to take in a smart and logical order.
This post is part 10 of an 11 part series.
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This month, LinkedIn announced a refresh of its company pages due to roll out very soon, This update is aimed at bringing a better user experience to its members. In this post we will highlight the importance of using LinkedIn as part of an online marketing strategy and provide you with a detailed view of the changes coming up.
LinkedIn represents a valuable resource for business owners. The initial attraction for most users is that they can quickly find contacts within certain companies. However, this is a powerful platform and should be used to develop and grow relationships, rather than as a 21st century rolodex.
With 161 million registered users in over 200 countries, more than two million companies with LinkedIn company pages and professionals signing up at a rate of approximately two new members per second. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social networking platform.
It's also an online environment that contains the career details of over 75 million people that have already created a profile for themselves. So, if you’re looking to connect with industry professionals and generate leads for your business over time, LinkedIn should be an integral part of your online marketing strategy.
Your network of connections are people who you can help, and equally, who will seek help from you in their own particular areas. As with all online marketing activities, LinkedIn should be approached with a strategy. Whatever route you take, it all begins with a user profile.
LinkedIn is a professional social platform, so keep your profile above board. It is appropriate to add depth by sharing your interests, but make sure you have the right balance. Review other profiles from people who are well-established and successful in your field. If you have privacy concerns, you can restrict certain parts of your profile from public viewing, and share these with only your connections by creating a private profile, as well as a public profile
Businesses use LinkedIn effectively to promote awareness of their brands, people, and services, by using Company Pages. You can set up a Company Page that allows you to share details of your business with the LinkedIn community. These details also get indexed and are discoverable via search engines that list the profile. This could be used to build the awareness of your company and its focus areas in several ways.
For marketers: LinkedIn Company Pages provide excellent opportunities to highlight products and Services; tell your company’s story, generate leads, engage with your audience, share career opportunities and drive word of mouth at scale.
For your audience: LinkedIn Company Pages is a place to conduct product and service research and learn about company updates, industry news, job opportunities, and companies of interest.
LinkedIn Company Pages got a nice, refreshing design makeover recently which we will all be seeing very soon. The changes you see will affect only the design of your company page. No new features have been added; just the look, feel, and the way you navigate are a bit different. You still have complete access to your Overview, Careers, Products, and Insights pages, so make sure you’re taking advantage of them!
LinkedIn’s new cover image capability has taken some inspiration from the other big 2 social platforms; Facebook and Google+, by allowing a large cover image to take centre stage. This cover image has replaced the company summary box or the ’About Us’ section.
The About us section has now been moved to the bottom of the the overview page – below the page’s company updates. It is worth noting that users who are trying to learn about your company for the first time will see your cover image first, then your company updates, and will finally have to scroll all the way down to find out more general information.
This focus on the cover image means that it is worth spending time on creating an engaging image. If you already use Facebook pages or Google+ like us, then you will already have gone through this process, so it will be a case of inserting the same image as before.
Company pages can now also be accessed on iPhones, Androids, and iPad apps. This is great news for business owners who are actively engaged in online marketing of their business through LinkedIn. It also reinforces the importance of an updated, optimised company page.
While the new LinkedIn company page design isn’t dramatically different, the design is definitely more customisable, similar to the business pages of Facebook and Google+. This gives businesses a better opportunity to create a more branded, unique-looking LinkedIn page that stands out from other LinkedIn pages.
We hope this post has highlighted the power of LinkedIn in building a solid professional profile and a great company presence, through LinkedIn Company Pages. We recommend reading through the attached free eBooks provided with the original email for step-by-step guide. If you are not already receiving these posts then you can access this and future information by registering your details below.
This post is part 8 of an 11 part series.
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Getting Started
Email is a great channel for building customer relationships affordably, mainly because it's such a familiar part of day-to-day communication, but also because it's so cost effective.
But, in order to get the highest possible return on your email marketing campaigns, you need to understand where to use email in your overall marketing plans. You can use email to educate people about the features and benefits of your products or services, differentiate your business from your competition, and to ask for the sale. You should also use email marketing to help increase customer loyalty and referrals by sending emails that strengthen your customer relationships.
To run successful email campaigns you'll need at least two pieces of software. The first is the authoring technology to create the content of your emails in HTML and the second is a delivery technology that has the ability to deliver and track emails sent to a large email list.
One of the most crucial assets of your email marketing strategy is your email database. When choosing an email delivery partner, make sure you use a company that secures your email database properly and protects the privacy of your email list subscribers.
Types of Email Content
The information you send in an email has to be valuable to the reader on a consistent basis or your readers/subscribers will quickly become un-subscribers. And, while it's great to send promotional offers and incentives to make your emails more valuable, the general content within the email needs to add value as well.
Only a small portion of your prospects and customers are ready to buy when they receive one of your emails. So, if you limit your email content to promotions and offers your emails will be irrelevant to the majority of subscribers.
Examples of general content that can add value of your emails:
• Information about products, services, or about your company in general can be valuable, especially for new prospects or for people who are interested in learning about new products or the latest industry trends
• Tips and advice can be valuable if buying your products and services involve research, expertise, or sound reasoning
• Installation instructions and best practice advice can tell your customers how to get the most out of your products or services, before and after a sale
• Entertaining content can include humour and engaging stories. If you use entertaining content, make sure it has something to do with buying your products and services
Promotional Offers
The first rule regarding email promotional offers is to know your customers. Different groups of people may respond differently to the same offers. For example, some people love to know about a discounted product, because they like to save money. However, some people associate the word discount with discontinued, cheap, or end of line.
Here are some of the best forms of promotional offers for emails, along with some advice for matching the incentive to the type of buyer:
• Vouchers included in an email can be printed out or shown on a mobile device for in-store redemption or linked to an item in an online store. Use vouchers when your prospects or customers want to be rewarded with prices that aren't available to the general public
• Giveaways are free products or services offered in exchange for information or a purchase. Use giveaways in combination with another product purchases when you want to offer more value without discounting the value of the featured product.
• Loss leaders are another form of giveaways. A loss leader is a promotional price that results in negligible profit to the business when the product is purchased. Why would you offer a product in an email at a price that effectively loses money? Because you want to acquire a new customer with an extremely low price, so you can generate profits later on through growing a relationship and hence, repeat sales.
Once you have an offer that gets people to respond, it's time to help them take the next step by suggesting one or more actions via a call-to-action.
A call-to-action is a statement that prompts your readers to take one or more specific actions in favour of your objectives. There are lots of reasons to include a call to action in your email. For example, you can use a call to action to ask people to read your email, by beginning your email with a statement like "Read this email before you order" You can also use a call to action to highlight a specific portion of your email – as in the statement "scroll down for a limited time offer."
Automation is a Good Thing
One of the best features of email marketing is the ability to automate your marketing communications. The first type of email automation is called an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a single email sent automatically in response to a specific event or action. Examples include;
• An email triggered by a specific date such as a policy renewal
• An email triggered by a specific time such as lunchtime
• An email sent a few hours following the delivery of a product
• An email sent in response to filling out an online form
• An email sent in response to a click such as a click on a link to a website page or a video
To set up an autoresponder, you need to create an email with content that will be the same for everyone who triggers the autoresponder email. Once you've created the email, you can use your email marketing software to assign it to one or more triggers or events.
Sometimes it's appropriate to send multiple emails automatically in response to an action or event. An automated series of multiple emails is called a sequence, and is perfect for targeting email content to individuals with different behaviours, interests, or contexts.
For example, when a new prospect joins your email list you may want to set up a sequence that automatically responds with the following four emails:
1) A welcome email thanking the person for joining the email list sent immediately after joining
2) A follow up email with links to specific product information, company information or other helpful resources, sent three days after the welcome email
3) An email newsletter with the best articles and advice sent one week after the follow up email
4) A promotional email detailing their trade discount off the standard list price, as a thank you for joining the email list sent two weeks after the email newsletter
Sequences make your emails more relevant because you can base them on a variety of relevant events and triggers such as clicks, dates, and periods of time since a prior action or event.
Email automation takes a little extra time to set up, but hopefully you can see the potential for making things more productive in the long run.
Now that you're familiar with effective email marketing, it's time to put these strategies into practice. Start by building your email list, you don't have to send all of your emails to every subscriber while you're learning. Try sending a few emails to a portion of your list until you're confident in what works for you and what doesn't.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks post. Due to the recent changes to LinkedIn; next week we will take an in-depth look at using LinkedIn for business.
This post is part 7 of an 11 part series.
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When embarking on a website project for the first time, or even undergoing a re-design, the first decision you will probably make, will be whether to build the site yourself or to hire external help.
There’s no right or wrong answer to this – it really depends on a number of factors, based on individual situations. However, there are 3 important points you can consider to help you decide: time, money, and expertise.
Do you have the time to build your own website? There are more and more people who are responsible for marketing and know enough about the foundations of a website, or have invested in a website platform such as Dreamweaver, to allow them to build a site on their own. However, being able to build a website and having the time to build a website can be two very different things, so be realistic with your availability.
Even if you hire someone to do the website for you, prepare to budget enough time in which to manage the project. This may require writing website copy, reviewing design revisions and gathering website assets that the designer may need, like photos or videos.
The second point is money. Will the budget be able to accommodate outside help? If not, the decision on how to proceed may be determined by your budget alone.
When deciding whether to take on a DIY website project or to hire in help, you also need to consider expertise. If you have the expertise and confidence to go it alone, then great. If you don’t, bringing in external help could get the job done on time and on budget.
Also, if making the right impact for your brand is critical, then maybe going down the DIY route is not an option. If this is the case then it it’s time to get some outside help.
When seeking assistance with your website project. Do your research for suitable web design and web development companies. Ask for examples of work. Remember, not every website designer or website developer is professional in their approach. Being able to do the work is one thing; delivering the project in a professional manner is another. Ask for references from their last 2 clients.
Content Management Systems
The next item to consider when getting your new website up and running, is deciding what platform to build the website on. There are a number of different platforms, like Dreamweaver and Content Management Systems (also called CMS). Some popular CMS are: Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress.
Each Content Management System varies from platform to platform. The consistent theme with a CMS is that you have the ability to make a lot of your own website edits. Some of you may want to make your own site updates, in which case, the CMS platform you choose will be based on the ease of use for adding content.
There are so many additional benefits to having a CMS website. Not only can you add your own content, but most CMS platforms come with blogging facilities built right in – blogging is a must if you want to get found online. Each blog on your website is one extra page. Businesses with 401 to 1,000 web pages have 9 times more traffic and 6 times more leads than those with 51 to 100 pages.
Domain Names
Domain names are important to get a handle on. Whether you already have a live site, or are building one from the ground up, domain names should be selected for the following reasons:
• Brand protection
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Online marketing campaigns
You can buy domain name/website addresses based on your company name. If your company name is a bit long-winded as a domain, you might also want to choose a shorter version. This will be easier for customers to type when e-mailing and can go on business cards. The shorter domain can always redirect to the longer domain URL; it just spares someone a bit of typing time.
Sometimes you may want to secure misspellings of your company name if the name can be commonly misspelled.
Domain names can also be selected to support search engine optimisation. Some companies also choose domains that have descriptive search phrases in them, and then use them to help pull in searches.
And, the length of time you buy a domain name for can impact search engine optimisation. (This is explored more under the topic of Search Engine Optimisation.) If you have a domain name that you know you will keep for a long time, then if you can, buy it for at least 5 to 10 years, versus renewing it annually. This can show your commitment to that URL. Some major search engines factor this in to their search engine result pages.
Keeping Records
With all this new domain name and online log in information, we recommend keeping a central file in your main folder. This should be easily accessible should you need it quickly. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just needs to be a word document or similar.
The document should contain records of the list of domains you own, how long you own them, your domain company logins, your hosting records, FTP access for your websites, email system logins, access to your logo files, blog login and password, social media logins, and even your web analytics login.
You never know when you might need these for online marketing management. The easier they are to find, the less time you'll spend digging around, and the more time you'll spend on actual marketing.
Summary
Some final things to consider when preparing a new website: Remember that websites don’t run themselves. The more you discover about online marketing, the more you will understand that there will be a need for periodic website updates, page additions, optimisations and new technology integration.
Lastly, don’t forget to have website analytics built into your site – add this to your brief… and it’s worth repeating; keep track of all your online logins to make your online marketing management easier!
This post is part 6 of an 11 part series.
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Content marketing is simply defined as content that educates and empowers Web users. Good content will create, connect, and spark conversation, and… those who truly understand the concept will reap the rewards of the New Web.
Whether you’re a start-up business, an established company or even a sole trader; authoring content on a regular basis can elevate your expertise in the eyes of your customers (and potential customers) and raise your online profile in general.
We view content creation as the online marketing glue that brings together the success steps, previously discussed in an earlier post: credibility, usability, visibility, sellability and scalability.
Visitors to your website or followers of your social media streams will get to know and more importantly, like and trust your online content, if they see a value. It’s this combination of the know, like, and trust factors where the future selling power lies.
Content includes everything that’s on your Website, in emails, press releases, on frequently asked questions pages, shared on blogs, videos, posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and can also include expertise shared on article sites.
Obviously the details of content marketing lay within the content itself. We divide our content in to four main areas; Articles, Social Media, Online PR and Website & Email Content.
ARTICLES
Publishing content in the form of articles on your website, or on article sharing sites, can multitask as an awareness, communication, connection, service, and selling tool. Do a search for article marketing sites to see all of the content sharing options out there.
There are loads of article publishing sites on the Web; however it’s also important that you know how to write articles that will engage your target audience. Search ‘writing tips for articles’ on the web and you’ll quickly learn the basics of how to get to grips with articles.
Creating articles is only half the fun. Sharing them is where the real online marketing magic begins. Articles can be shared on your Website, on a dedicated article page, or they can be posted to your blog and article marketing sites. They can also be sent out to your email list on a regular basis.
Another idea for articles is to reach out to Websites that you have a shared, common target market with, and offer to guest write articles for them. This could help you get visibility on other sites, and help to elevate you as a ‘thought leader’ in those circles.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Content marketing has gone to a new level with the onset of social media. For example; once your articles are on the web they can also get socialised, meaning that links to the articles can be shared via social media.
Social media content can also cover things like blog posts, Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn posts, videos, and podcasts. Search engines are quick to pick up social media contents, so the visibility potential is quite significant.
When you leverage content creation through social media, we cannot stress enough the importance of adding value. Your content needs to have value to the reader and should not just be a pushy sales promotion.
And, unlike content within articles and press releases, social media content is more conversational, so it needs to be driven with a human voice – share content in the way that you would talk naturally.
ONLINE PR
It’s important to start thinking about the power of online public relations as part of your overall content marketing strategy. You can educate the media and your prospective customers about your company news, your point of view on current events that relate to your industry, or share new product or service information. Anything that is newsworthy!
It's a great exercise to write your own releases to share the; who, what, when, where, why, how, and ‘who cares’, to get to the real heart of the story.
12 months ago we predicted the rise of content as a key factor to online marketing. In response to this we created a Free Press Release Generator Tool to help content creators format their online press releases. The tool will give you tips on how to write a good press release and will automatically format the content into the standard Press Association layout. You also get the option to publish via social media channels for free or to national news desks. (Our press release tool has published 3,272 press releases to date)
Here are some ideas for online press releases. You can write about company announcements, like new hires, or new projects that you may be working on. Or you might want to do a release about current events and what you’re doing as a company to tie in to support that event. You can share thoughts about new industry initiatives or maybe offer a point of view on newsworthy events which also tie into your industry.
WEBSITE & EMAIL CONTENT
Last but not least, content marketing can be put to work with strategic messaging on your website, or to your email list, and is the soul of a website. Content is comprised of the words or text on a web page along with the graphics and structure of a website.
The most important aspect of website content is related to search engine ranking. Search engines look for content more than anything else and will pick up on quality content. This is quickly becoming one of the key factors search engines value most when ranking a website – makes perfect sense when we stop and think about it.
The job of the search engine is to find the very best and most useful content on the Internet, for any given set of keywords, and present it back to the user. They’ve been getting very good at this lately.
Also having a dynamic website with a built in blog is critical for building up your online website content. This is covered in detail in the blogging post which we created last week.
A quick tip when working on content marketing on your website is to bullet point anything of importance. Web surfers scan more than they read, so when you’re expressing something of importance on your site, try to summarise it into bullet points.
Email marketing is covered in more detail in week 8 of this 14 week series, but start thinking now about how to tie email into your website content marketing.
This is our longest post so far in the series – but it was worth it as I hope you’ll agree. Content Marketing IS important, hence the need to go a little over our target word quota, but as they say, content is king!
This post is part 5 of an 11 part series.
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Video works wonders as an online marketing medium, because the way we take in video messaging is more show me, rather than tell me. Plus, watching and sharing videos is one of the main activities happening online now!
The main reason video works so well as a marketing tool is because of the entertainment factor. We’re not proposing that all videos need to be funny to work; they just need to be enjoyable to watch. This can mean that they are fun, funny, educational, useful, or just thought-provoking.
Enjoyable and engaging videos can act as a communications vehicle in this fast growing marketing channel, and as an overall great way to engage consumers with your business.
The Detail Outside the Video
Most videos designed to support online marketing are short; 15 to 45 seconds in length. If you have videos to share, you can create an account on a video sharing site to share content, and then embed the links to the video into your Web site, blog, or add them to social networking sites, like Facebook or LinkedIn.
YouTube is the number two search engine on the World Wide Web. An added value point to having videos on video sharing sites like YouTube, is that you can potentially help increase search results if you use search rich descriptions when you upload your videos.
Just like Web site pages have meta-titles and descriptions that help tell search engines what each page of the site is about, video titles, descriptions, and tags work in a similar way.
Be sure to use descriptive phrases when you upload videos to reap the additional search visibility benefits of this social media channel.
Sharing videos can be a great online marketing addition if the videos are planned in advance. However, we cannot emphasise enough how important it is to make sure that your videos have good content in them.
DIY or Pro
Some people may be able to produce videos on their own, and some may decide to hire professionals. Either way, just make sure that what you share is on-brand, and on-purpose, meaning that it is edited and produced in a way that does not detract from the value which has been created by your other professional marketing materials such as website, brochures etc.
Overall, videos can be compelling content to support online marketing. Here are 10 great tips on getting more from online video marketing.
Top 10 tips:
1. Make your title count
Just like a headline to a blog post, video titles can pull powerful traffic. There are two main reasons why the title is so important: One; a great title can instantly grab a viewer’s attention and two; When you use the appropriate keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are searching for your topic. And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a connection between video and searching.
2. Provide excellent content
Take some time to think about your ideal viewer. What do you know that they’ll find valuable? What can you teach them? “How-to” videos are extremely successful because not only do they offer great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, thus positioning yourself as an expert. This is key as you continue to grow your brand.
3. Take advantage of video’s branding opportunities
For branding purposes, have your company logo displayed prominently somewhere on the screen. You can do this at all times or during key times in your video
4. Always provide a HTML link
When you post on YouTube, you have the option to write a short description of your video. Always start with the link you want to drive your viewers to so you don’t miss this key opportunity.
5. Go beyond YouTube
Most people post their videos on YouTube. In addition to this, make sure to always embed your video on your own website. This will increase the amount of time people spend on your website and help grow a captive audience.
6. Create a Campaign
In order to get noticed, think beyond stand-alone videos. For greater reach and exposure, create a series of content-rich videos that you publish regularly. Not only will this create a great synergy around your content, but it will also allow you to build upon your brand identity as each video is released.
7. Call to Action
Always Include a Call to Action: Never miss the opportunity to ask your viewers to take some type of action at the end of your video. You can ask them to sign up for your newsletter, go to a specific website, leave a comment about your video or visit your blog. If your video is good, you’ll likely have their full attention; make sure to take advantage of it!
8. Have a Clear Purpose and Structure
Your keywords will help make sure you target your video on the right purpose before you start. Does your video answer the questions your visitors have in their heads when they’re searching for solutions? Make things crystal clear.
9. Write Articles, Forum Posts, Blogs and Emails about Your Video
Write a short article (500-1000 words—like this one) on the same topic as your video. Then create a short blog post that links to your article and/or video.
10. Be transparent and authentic
We recommend being as transparent and authentic as you can be when expressing yourself and your company on video.
This post is part 4 of an 11 part series.
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Blogs, like other social media outlets have become an integral part of life for most people. In this post we’ll explain the value that we believe blogging can bring to your business and provide an insight into exactly what blogs are.
The word Blog is short for web log and begun life as a form of writing journal, where the entries or posts where shared in chronological order to the online masses. It is the collection of thoughts, media, links, etc. shared with others online and is firmly established as a big piece of the social media marketing umbrella.
However, nowadays, Blogs are no longer just online journals; they can become a powerful marketing asset to any company. They have the potential to become the core of social media marketing campaigns, particularly where blog posts can;
1. Show authority
2. Serve customers
3. Build a community
4. Support public relations
Blogs are also very good at increasing search engine results as they have the potential to get shared via links through social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. This is why, when planning your online marketing strategy (particularly social media marketing), blogs should feature as a big piece of this channel.
Content is King
One of the best ways to get people to focus on a brand is keeping them constantly informed. Just like a good book, when a business or company offers up quality content it is going to entice people to read more, learn more and eventually buy more.
If you look at our own Studiowide blog you will see an example of varied content, written in a conversational tone. Our posts average around 500 – 800 words. Any less than 500 words and they have very little value to the readers. On the flip-side, any more that 800 words and you run the risk of taking up too much of your audience’s valuable online time.
What Does it all Mean
Blog posts are a great way of sharing the values of your business, serving as a voice in today's social Web. This will help to boost awareness, distribute information, educate, create connections, serve customers, support sales and help boost search engine visibility.
The more blogs you write, the more content grows and compounds, providing more content to be searched on, boosting visibility and long-term online marketing scalability.
Overall, Blogs are a fantastic online marketing resource with the right strategy in place. This can prove to be an amazing piece of marketing collateral, helping to build brand loyalty and drive long term customer commitments. Benefits aside, blogging is a responsibility; it requires commitment and dedication to customer understanding.
Microblogging
Now that you have an understanding of what blogs are and the benefits they bring, let us look at Microblogging. This stemmed from the concept of the traditional blog, in that it shares content, but unlike a blog that has unlimited typing space, the posts are shorter in length. This allows users to exchange small elements of content, such as short sentences, photos, or video links.
Twitter is the most commonly recognised social media outlet for Microblogging. It then becomes part of the online marketing mix to share information, ignite conversations with like-minded people and it can indirectly boost visibility.
When thinking of Microblogging, remember how we text on mobile phones; the length of messages are short and easy to type. We operate our Studiowide Twitter account by sharing the posting responsibility between all staff. This leads to a more frequent posting schedule and takes the pressure off of having just one person write posts.
When using Twitter, It’s common etiquette to use URL shortners, like bit.ly, or tinyurl.com, to create a shortened URL. Microbloggers love to share links but don’t like wasting characters on lengthy URLs.
Still on the Fence?
It's a fact; the usage of blogging and sharing via social networking sites is growing every day, so it's naturally getting the attention of organisations as a great marketing vehicle – marketers want to be where the people are.
Blogging works wonders for three main reasons: one, they’re an easy communication vehicle; two, the communication community surrounding the distribution of blogs makes networking fast, easy, and global; and three, it's entertaining.
Please note: if you decide to post a company blog on your website or through social networking spaces like Facebook and LinkedIn for marketing reasons, do remember your etiquette. Online communities are a place to communicate, collaborate and enjoy your networking time, not to be salesy through directly pushing products or services.
In the next post we will focus on the use of video as part of an online marketing strategy, and how the use of engaging and informative content can help not only with your communications, but drive interest into different channels which may not have been considered previously.
This post is part 3 of an 11 part series.
View other posts in this online marketing series:
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With only a few seconds to make a meaningful impression – and the competition just a click or two away – connecting with your website visitors is vital. Which is why, in order to create a healthy foundation for future success, all online marketing activity should be approached with a plan.
So what do you put in your online marketing plan and what do you leave out? Our recommendation is to focus on the following five key points:
Credibility - Usability - Visibility - Sellability - Scalability
Credibility: this refers to the impression that your company makes online. Credibility can be gained through your website, including; blogs, content, videos, PR, social media and reviews.
Usability: how well people access, use and manoeuvre through your online content is termed usability. All online marketing collateral needs to be user-friendly. This comes from appropriate and professional design, site architecture, clear navigation, call to actions, e-mails, content and even social media.
Visibility: an absolute must as you build your online marketing plans. You can offer the best products and services, but if nobody knows about them, what's the point? Visibility can come from a number of marketing channels, including; advertising, natural search, social media marketing, online PR or e-mail.
The ideal scenario is to have a variety of visibility options planned into your marketing mix. Having an idea of what future visibility channels will be used is critical. These should be planned up front, as some options may require space on your website or may need to be integrated into the overall design. It’s much better to work these in at the beginning, rather than having to redo your website at a later stage.
Sellability: this is a critical online marketing planning piece. Sellability is about how attractive your company is to do business with. You can achieve this by showing, telling and focusing on the benefits of your products and services. That way your potential customers will understand why your company is worth working with.
You can achieve sellability through video, testimonials, press releases, taglines, and photos. By understanding the ‘sellability’ angle of your business you will ensure that your value proposition is woven into site pages and overall online marketing communications.
Scalability: your online marketing efforts can last a lifetime on the Web, building and growing your digital footprint. Small and consistent investments made over time can grow to support your overall web presence and marketing goals.
When you incorporate all of the above: credibility, usability, visibility, and sellability, then you will benefit from scalability.
Knowing Me Knowing You
The next step in getting ready for online marketing is to understand who your target market is? Who your ideal customer is? What are their needs, wants, problems, and how can you help them?
But remember; you want to attract ‘ideal’ prospects. Far too often business owners get wrapped up in wanting traffic and lots of it. The key is to focus on attracting and connecting with people who really matter, so you don't waste your time, energy, and money with people who are not necessarily the best prospects.
Measuring Success
Online marketing is a creative process. In order to truly succeed, not only do you have to create and then execute your ideas, you must also monitor the process. The create, execute and monitor cycle should be on-going. If done correctly it will help you to decide how to best use your time, energy and budget.
Both qualitative and quantitative success metrics should be used when measuring success. Examples of qualitative metrics could be things like branding, credibility building, supporting future business goals and generating PR interest.
Quantitative success metrics could be things that are mathematically measurable like leads or web enquiries, number of emails signups, site traffic and sales revenues.
When you’re planning your online marketing it’s best to use statistical tools which are built in from the start. One of the great distinctions of online marketing as oppose to offline marketing is that it’s nearly all measurable.
But, you can only measure the results if you have the necessary systems in place. Google analytics is a great start. The free web analytics tool from Google will help you measure traffic volume, referring sources of traffic and quantitative goals like sales, leads, emails signups, conversion rate, and even referring search keywords.
We hope the above will help you on your way to getting ready for online marketing. In our next post we will investigate the topic of Blogging. Whether you’ve just decided to launch a blog for your business or you’ve been blogging for a while, our blogging information can help prevent you from falling victim to some of the most common business blogging mistakes.
This post is part 2 of an 11 part series.
View other posts in this online marketing series:
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Image Courtesy of HubSpot
Over this long Jubilee weekend I discovered that we, as a company, operate in a very peculiar business landscape. On one hand we’re constantly aiming to excel; to ensure that as a service provider we’re at the forefront of our marketing and promotional technology; constantly reviewing and learning the next big app, tool, widget or social media site, which we can then add to our toolbox in order to ‘help’ our clients in their online endeavours.
Then, on the other hand we’ve been faced with the reality for some time that our target market of small to medium sized enterprises in Liverpool and the North West, lag behind many rival cities in the use of the internet for business. Source Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
I guess my post today is as a result of the community spirit which is flowing through the UK at the moment and reminds me WHY we exist as a company: to help small to medium sized businesses in our local areas (first) and wider county boundaries (second) to promote themselves in the best possible way. At the moment, it seems like the best possible way to help our target market is to go back and revisit some basic fundamentals of online marketing.
This post is in essence a reality check. Yes, we CAN bring a whole host of new media tools to the table – and we’re very good at it when we do – but if some businesses are just not ready for it, then are we really helping them or overwhelming them?
So, as of today, we’re making a conscious effort to rewind a little and go back-to-basics to help those businesses who feel overwhelmed by online marketing. For the next 100 days we will be making regular posts as part of a campaign here at Studiowide, to help local businesses promote themselves more effectively online.
Each post will feature a separate sub topic to online marketing, and where relevant will also include links to some great e-books that we’ve come across over the last few months, all of which will help provide further learning for people who want to get stuck in.
[SERIES NOW COMPLETED]
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