Category: Marketing

Is Your Home Internet Business Eye-Catching?

According to some recent marketing surveys, consumers are 60% more likely to visit a business website when an image appears along with the search results. 67% of surveyed consumers stated that product images are the most valuable information they use when deciding whether to buy something online. Finally, online articles that contain images are viewed 94% more than straight text articles. Having imagery in your home Internet business marketing not only makes good sense, it’s obvious that without it, you’d be missing out on some big traffic numbers.

What Kind of Imagery Should You Use?

When it comes to images for your home Internet business, you have a lot of choices, and it matters greatly which ones you choose. Your choice should be influenced by the kind of business that you run, what you are trying to sell, and who your target customer is.

What Sorts of Images Are There?

There are different kinds of images that all qualify as imagery that will capture your site visitors’ attention. They are:

Infographics – Infographics are essentially information boxes that communicate a lot of information in a little space. They are usually very effective at taking a complex idea and breaking it down into simple steps that your customers can easily grasp. One perfect example of an infographics is this one, which explains the phrase, one trillion photos in 2015.

Illustrations – Illustrations are drawings of people or things that communicate an idea. Illustrations can be simple or complex, in the form of realistic drawings, or in the form of cartoonish characters.

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Now’s the Time to Rejuvenate Your Text Marketing Campaigns

Has your text marketing campaign taken a nosedive? Though it may seem like an SMS campaign should run itself automatically, it does require a little personal touch every now and again. Here are signs that your text marketing campaign needs a shot of adrenaline and some ways to rejuvenate it.

Your Subscribers Are Dwindling

If you started out like gangbusters with so many thousands of subscribers that you had to hire an SMS management company, and now you’re looking at what might add up to a few hundred, you’ve definitely got a problem. Dwindling subscriber numbers are a sure sign that your SMS campaign has run its course, and it’s time to put it out to pasture.

No One Responds Anymore

Do you still have a respectable number of subscribers, but no one seems to be responding anymore? Do your links go unclicked? Do your sales announcements and contests fall flat because of so little public interest? If this describes your text marketing campaign, it’s time to deconstruct the whole thing and start again from scratch. Somewhere along the line you or your marketer messed up and to continue down the same road would be folly.

Has Your Audience Changed?

If your subscriber numbers are shrinking or no one seems to care what texts you send, it could be that your audience has changed. Are you absolutely certain that you’re marketing to the right crowd? In the article, “Tips for Rejuvenating a Tired Text Marketing Campaign,” it’s suggested that a revisit of your target audience should be done every now and then. Often, people subscribe to receive text marketing messages without giving it too much thought. Only after they start receiving irrelevant texts do they realize they signed up for something in which they aren’t interested. If you haven’t already, write up some customer profiles, and match them as best you can to your subscribers. Chances are, you’ll find you’re preaching to the wrong crowd.

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Are You Hungry When it Comes to Marketing Your Brand?

Food blogs are popular with both cooks and non-cooks. Even those who don’t know how to cook up a feast, and have no desire to do so, often enjoy reading food blogs. As such, food blogs are a way for restaurants to gain more customers. To use a food blog in order to gain restaurant customers, try these ideas.

Write to Your Audience

Be sure you have a firm idea of who your target audience is. It doesn’t do any good to be trendy if your audience isn’t into food trends. For example, many restaurants in South Florida cater to the thousands upon thousands of South Florida residents who are of retirement age. These elderly residents are mostly on fixed incomes, and they seek inexpensive restaurant fare. They also eat earlier in the day than most of the rest of the population of the country. So a restaurant in Florida that wants to attract more seniors should write blog posts about afternoon buffets, all-you-can-eat early bird suppers, and bargain menu items.

Post Often

Internet readers have short-term memories when it comes to blogs of any kind. The best way to stay in the forefront of your readers’ memories is to post often. A minimum of one post every two weeks is recommended. The post doesn’t have to be super long, but it shouldn’t be too far away from your previous post.

Include a Newsletter Sign-Up

If you have a food blog, you should have a newsletter sign-up somewhere on your site. The sign-up form allows you to gather an email list that will let you market to your readers. One of the best ways to get site visitors to your food blog to sign up for your newsletter is to install a pop-up window on your site. A pop-up window forces your site visitors to sign up before they can view the content on your blog.

Use the Newsletter to Bring Back Visitors

Now that you have a proper email list from the names that signed up for your newsletter, you can use that newsletter to get some return traffic. In this expert interview with James Lindsey on food blogs, you can learn more about the importance of food blog traffic. In each newsletter, include some links back to your blog. People will click more out of curiosity than anything else, but every click will help to push your food blog website further up the Google page rank index.

Indulge in Some Guest Blog Posting

If you can procure some guest blog posting gigs, you will be able to include one link back to your site. Look for similar food blogs, and click on the contact page. Express your interest in a guest blog posting, and include your URL in your message. If the site owner is interested, they’ll contact you will details and guidelines for your guest blog post. This is a great way to garner more interest from a broader audience.

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Give Podcasts a Shot in Promoting Your Brand

In recent studies, it was determined that a whopping one third of all Americans have listened to a podcast at least once. The number of podcasts being created has doubled since 2012. The public’s awareness of podcasts has certainly increased, and will only grow in the future. One indisputable factor that will lead to even more people listening to podcasts is the influence of available technology.

All automobiles produced from 2015 and on will have smartphone connectivity or online capabilities. That will make it easier for drivers to access podcasts from their vehicles.

The sweeping wave of cloud content also makes it effortless to access podcasts on every device. Whether the user accesses podcasts from a tablet, iOS or Android phone, laptop, smart TV or computer, their podcast choices will be universally shared and managed at the touch of a button.

There has never been a better time to introduce podcasting to your array of marketing tools.

Branding

Marketers know that strategic branding encompasses a broad assortment of methods of getting your business brand recognized and noticed. With podcasting, there is an additional way to get consumers to see you and your brand as an authority in your industry.

Each podcast that you create for your business can include your company logo as part of the icon. Every time your listeners view their podcast list, they will see your logo and it will be better imprinted in their mind.

In addition, each podcast you create can include the name of your brand as much as makes sense in a natural way. When you’re sharing good information, your listeners won’t mind being reminded of the brand that is providing the podcast.

Authority

With every podcast that you create for your home Internet business, you have the opportunity to establish your authority within your industry. Consumers buy from sellers they trust that know what they are doing. When you offer helpful podcasts that deliver valuable information that your consumers will appreciate, you are helping to build a platform of authority beneath you.

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Be Sure to Market for Success from Day One

Starting from day one of setting up your marketing program, you need to be set up for future growth and success. Forging ahead without giving some time and attention to what can possibly go wrong will yield only chaos and setbacks. Think of your marketing program as the core infrastru
cture upon which every future sale of you business will originate. When your infrastructure is sturdy and well constructed, you’ll be able to support and manage all future challenges that come your way.

Provide a Collaborative Platform

Technology has enabled businesses to provide collaborative platforms where team members can refer back to one another and to supervisors for guidance, support, and project completion goals. An online collaborative platform is similar to what we used to call an intranet. It’s a central place for communication and source materials. Third party providers of collaborative platforms abound, and most of them offer redundant levels of privacy protection, international access via any WiFi connection, special administrative privileges and control, and more. Is your marketing program set up for measurable success? It soon will be. Once you have your collaborative platform set up, you will enjoy dashboard-like control over the entirety of your marketing program, including at-a-glance data and analysis tools.

Define Terms

Before you begin, it’s essential to define the terms so that your entire sales force and marketing team are on the same page. The term “qualified lead” may mean one thing to one person and something entirely different to someone else on your team. Construct a glossary of terms that defines things your marketing team needs to be agreed upon. Remember that the glossary pertains to your individual business, so it doesn’t necessarily have to reflect common definitions by the general public. The glossary can be uploaded onto your collaborative platform as reference material.

 

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Track Your Data for Better Text Message Marketing

A text message marketing campaign is only as good as your ability to monitor and track its affects on your text message recipients. This will enable you to figure out what methodologies are working, and which ones don’t. In the end, your being able to see the results of your text message campaign will boost your marketing efficiency and overall results. Monitoring and measuring your text message campaign’s results will also help you proactively manage any negative results before they become a larger problem.

You are missing out on valuable customer behavior data if you’re not actively monitoring your text message campaign. This valuable information can be used for future campaigns that aren’t even necessarily related to the text messaging marketing environment.

Map Your Target

It’s true in life and in marketing that you need to have your target mapped out before you have any chance of reaching it. Define your clear and final objective in order to obtain the best results of your text message campaign. Common targets and goals include: increasing website traffic, enriching page ranking, improving sales figures, increasing brand awareness, managing reputation dents, edging out the competition, and more. Inversely, having too many goals all at once can cause your text message campaign to lose focus. If you have multiple goals, you’ll achieve faster results if you prioritize them and focus on just one at a time.

Keep Track of Your Results

After you have a crystal clear objective to achieve with your text message campaign, it will be obvious which metrics you’ll need to track. Already you can see the beginnings of a route on your map to text message marketing success. The next step is laid out before you. For example, if you have decided to focus on increasing website traffic, then you’ll want to pay close attention to the click through rates from your text messages. The importance of data tracking in text message marketing cannot be overrated. When you begin to track data, you’ll see the power that a data tracking system can bring to any marketing campaign.

 

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Are You Up for a Content Audit?

Your website is the front door to your virtual store. The content you offer on your site is akin to the fixtures, services and products that you would have in a brick and mortar store. Just as you would want to make sure your customers have a positive experience inside your store, you should make sure your customers enjoy visiting your website content.

Website content consists of anything and everything on your website. That includes the written word, pictures, infographics and navigation menus. Making sure that all of your website content is optimized is critical to the success of your business.

One way to ensure that your website is working the way you want it to is to have a content audit. A content audit is a third party, objective review of your site’s content. When you subscribe to a content audit, you will receive a detailed, thorough report of all the things that are wrong—or right—about your website content.

Visitors are Fickle

If you’re wondering why you should invest in a content audit, consider this. Recent studies report that most site visitors give your website no longer than 15 seconds before deciding if they are going to leave or if they are going to stay. That’s only a quarter of a minute. If you wondered why your website needs a content audit, that should firmly answer your question.

The Type of Content Matters

Some things that a content audit will uncover include problems with the content itself. Google’s constant updates require more and better written content. Those site owners who think they are pulling one over on the panda by regurgitating old website copy are penalized with low page rankings. Unique, engaging written content will get your website up front and in front of the competition.

The Effect of Images on Your Site

Another aspect of your site that a content audit will uncover is if you have too many or too few images on your site. For better or worse, many people who browse the Internet need images to help retain their interest. Without pictures, many visitors will feel overwhelmed with content that appears boring or bland. Images help break up content, but at the same time, there can be too many images and not enough of the written word. That’s where the content auditor comes in. Through experience and analysis, a content auditor can arrive at the exact number of images your site should have in relation to the number of pages on the site, and the rest of the content.

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Zero In On Social Media Marketing for Better Business

According to a recent study conducted by LinkedIn, 94% of businesses use social media to market their business. Of those, 75% report that they’ve successfully gained new customers through social media outlets. With such impressive statistics, it’s impossible to ignore social media marketing for your small business concerns. To zero in on social media marketing for better business, try these helpful hints.

Be Focused

There are many social media outlets that may claim your company attention when it comes to marketing. But only one or two can really drive paying customers to your door. Evaluate the social media outlets as compared to the kind of business you run, and the type of customer you want to attract. There is lots of data available regarding what demographic visits which social media outlets. For example, a simple keyword search for Pinterest demographics will yield lots of data about their site visitors. Once you’ve found a match between a certain social media’s visitors and your target customer, you can begin to focus your efforts on that site. That’s not to say that you should ignore the other outlets; only that you should focus your primary efforts on that one site.

Be Engaged

Many business make the mistake of failing to engage with their followers on social media. Don’t let this be you. When you post something and receive comments, make sure you comment back every once in a while to let them know you’re reading their comments. Better yet, post things that ask a question or require involvement with your company website. These types of postings will bring people in and get them involved, especially if they’re fun postings like quizzes, contests, or things that ask their opinion on topics related to your business.

Integrate Text Messages With Social

Text messaging is increasingly popular among users of mobile devices. If you can start to integrate text messages with your social media marketing campaign, you’ll be riding the train of innovation. The 5 benefits of integrating your text message and social media marketing are that you can reach more people, bring in bigger crowds for events, have attendees check in, engage invitees at the even itself, and grow your overall subscriber list. That’s pretty powerful stuff for an application that started out with such humble beginnings.

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Picture Better Internal Marketing and Branding

As any company owner knows, employee meetings are key to disseminating information, implementing new projects, and bringing everybody up to speed on ongoing projects. Meetings are also necessary for public companies that need to open the company to shareholders, companies of all kinds that have a board of directors, and much more. Even with the proliferation of collaborative software that make it easier for workers in the field to team up with colleagues online, in-person meetings will never lose their place in the corporate environment.

 

Maximize Meeting Value With Film

One of the best ways to get the most from your meetings is to film them. This may be an unusual concept if your company has never considered filming meetings before. But there are many benefits to filming company meetings. Filming corporate meetings for internal marketing and branding makes a lot of sense. Following are just some of the ways that video can enhance the value of your company meetings.

Gain Transparency With Film

When your company films company meetings, you gain corporate transparency. Anyone who’s interested, or who you grant access to, can view the film and see behind the closed doors of your company culture. This is a powerful tool in this era of transparency. Imagine how your company can gain customers’ trust when you publish one or more of your company meetings on your business social media pages.

Film as a Legal Tool

Company meetings tools can serve as an effective legal tool in the case of litigation against your company. Though this isn’t a good reason to film company meetings, the film being in existence could still serve as proof against possible prosecution, if the need ever arose. For example, you could prove where an idea for a product originated, that an employee was not abusive (or was), and as general proof of the overall company culture.

Film as a Sharing Tool

Video of company meetings could be used as a way to share information to those who were unable to attend the meeting in person. If an employee was out of town during the meeting, they could still either stream it or download the file for viewing at a later date. This would allow them to stay in the loop with more information than any meeting notes could convey.

Film as a Training Tool

Filmed company meetings could be included as part of a training package for new employees. Trainees could get a better sense of projects that the company is currently working on, who the players are, and how meetings are traditionally run at your company.

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Take Technology to New Heights for Employee Productivity

According to a recent study conducted by Rypple, a human resources research firm, employees spend part of their workdays wasting time in four ways: trying to contact leads or fellow employees, seeking needed information about the company or next steps, repeating communications, and trying to organize meetings. Following are some answers that technology offers to combat these most common obstacles to employee productivity.

Trying to Contact Leads or Fellow Employees

Imagine if you had a giant list of people that you needed to contact each workday. You knew that your entire livelihood depended on getting in touch with those people. You also knew that if you failed, your paycheck would reflect that failure. Now imagine that every time you try to reach one of those people, you end up nowhere. You leave messages, but no one calls you back. You’re not even sure if you’re calling the right number or emailing the right address. You have no way of knowing if the other person is even getting your messages.

You would feel frustrated, right? You would feel like you’re spinning your wheels at work and getting no where. Eventually, you might feel that you’re not contributing to the company where you work, and that you’re not valuable. Your morale would suffer.

That’s what your employees can end up feeling when you offer them no way to manage communication with leads or colleagues. If you are serious about wanting to help your employees be more productive, read “Want to Help End Users Increase Employee Productivity? Unified Communications is the Solution!” There, you will find a comprehensive solution to the problem of employee non-productivity.

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