Pinterest: How To Use It For Your Business

[By Sarah Faglio]

Pinterest is a new virtual pinboard where people can create and manage theme-based image collections to share with the rest of the community.  The pinboard-styled photo sharing social website has been growing rapidly since its launch in March 2010, with 10 million U.S. monthly users in January 2012.  While Pinterest is typically used socially for people to share photos, recipes etc. that are interesting or intriguing, the site can also be used by companies to network and market themselves. 

Setting up your company page
As of now, Pinterest membership is free but invite only.  That means that you need to request an invite before you are able to set up a company page.  It is important to note that you should use the same e-mail address that you use for your company Twitter account, since you are able to connect the two upon creation of your Pinterest profile.  After requesting an invitation, it takes a few days to receive an e-mail from Pinterest allowing you to set up your account.  Once you receive the e-mail, you will get a link to click to start setting up your account.  After connecting Pinterest with your Twitter account, you are brought to a page to create your Pinterest profile.  Select a username that is unique to your company, as well as an e-mail address (same one used for your Twitter account) and password.  You are then brought to a welcome page where you are prompted to select categories that are of interest to you.  Choose the category that is best suited to your industry, which leads you to follow people who contribute to those categories.  When prompted to create boards, you can start developing topics relative to your industry.   

Editing profile to market your company
In the top right hand corner of the page, click on your username then settings.  The about section should include a description of your company, with inclusion of keywords relevant to your industry.  Upload an image of your company logo as well as your company's website.  You can also link your profile to your Facebook and Twitter accounts by turning on those options.  Also, make sure you have visibility option off so that your profile is indexed by search engines.  The drop down option of pin it button in the about tab  in the top right allows you create Pinterest buttons to share on your website to help visitors find your profile.

Editing boards
Boards are used to organize your pins (images) into categories to make it easier for the community to view what you share.  In the top right hand corner of the page, click on your username then boards. Go to edit board, then create a title, then description with keywords relative to your industry.  Choose Just Me option in who can pin and choose a category most relative to the topic. 

Adding pins
The Add+ option in the top right allows you to start adding pins in your profile.  Click Upload a Pin to choose an image from your computer or Add a Pin to choose an image from your website.  Include a description filled with keywording and choose a board (or create a new board using the drop-down option) to upload the image to.  Click the Twitter square and select Pin It.  Click Edit, add a link to a page on your website where the photo can be found (such as a relative blog article on your site) and choose a board to add it to before clicking Save Pin.  The Create Board option allows you to create a new topic or category for putting additional pins into.


Engaging the Pinterest community
You can gain exposure for your brand and interest in your profile by engaging the Pinterest community without bothering or annoying its members.  Go through what others add to their pinboards and like or comment on their photos with positive feedback and praise for sharing the useful picture.  You can also re-pin someone else's picture onto your own profile by clicking the re-pin option.  These options are available whenever you hoover over a picture with your mouse.  When others start following your pinboards, be sure to follow some of their boards too.

What to share
People in a social community want to view valuable content, not sales pitches.  They are not interested in pictures of your business or workers.  However, this is a great place to put up pictures of your products or people using your services (such as hair and beauty).  If your company is more relative to business management, such as advertising or marketing, then helpful graphs, designs or infographics/data visualizations relative to your industry are great images to share.  Be creative, if it looks interesting or holds valuable information, then share it on your Pinterest profile to others who may be intrigued.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: Book Review (Part 3)

The New Rules of Marketing and PR, written by David Meerman Scott, a Businessweek bestseller, provides people with valuable insight into how to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video and viral marketing to reach buyers directly.  Meerman talks about all the hottest insider tips on the latest tools and techniques so readers could confidently market any product, service or idea.  After reading this book, I have provided an outline of the main ideas that Scott touches upon.  However, I encourage every marketer, company or anyone else looking to learn about the evolving marketing industry and strategies to read this book.  Scott goes through every one of these strategies with details and examples that makes it very easy for anyone, those with or without a marketing background, to understand and implement in their own endeavors.   

This is a continuation of the previous posting.


Pitching to the media
Barraging large groups of journalists with indiscriminate PR materials is not a good strategy to get reports and editors to pay attention to you.  First, pay attention to what individual reporters write about and then write specific and targeted pitches crafted for them that consists of information that is useful to them.  Start a relationship with influential bloggers by commenting on their entries.  Then, develop your own blog, which gives your company a place in the media community, and publish information that generates interest of reporters and bloggers.  Here are some tips on how to pitch to the media:

• Target one reporters at a time.
• Help the journalists understand the big picture.
• Explain how customers use your product or work with your organization.
• Do not send email attachments unless asked.
• Follow up promptly with potential contacts.
• It is a two-way street - journalists need you to pitch to them.

Search engine marketing
Build content for your buyer personas, content that talks about the problems they face, in the words and phrases they actually use.  Search engine marketing consists of appealing to search engine algorithms, such as the URL you use, placement of certain words within your content, tags, metadata, inbound links etc.  It is ineffective to try and reach buyers with broad, general search terms, instead use long-tail keywords.  The best approach is to create separate search engine marketing programs for dozens, hundreds or even tens of thousands of specific search terms that people might actually search on.  Create a unique identity for yourself, your product and your company in order to stand out from the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines.  It is important to build landing pages that have specific content to enlighten and inform the people who just clicked over to your site from the search engine.  To optimize your website for search engine marketing, it is important to keep these landing page guidelines in mind:

• Make the landing page short and the graphics simple.
• Create the page with your company's look, feel and tone.
• Write from the prospect's point of view.
• A landing page is communications not advertising.
• Provide a quote from a happy customer.
• Make the landing page a self-contained unit.
• Make the call-to-action clear and easy to respond to.
• Use multiple calls-to-action.
• Ask only for necessary information.
• Do not forget to follow up. 

Getting started 
Upon getting started with online marketing, implement all these ideas in bits and pieces.  Think about how you might selectively experiment with the ideas in these pages rather than fret about coordinating them all and trying to get everything right on the first go.  To begin your buyer persona research, read the publications that your buyers read, perhaps attend a webinar that they attend, read a few of the blogs in the space and perhaps interview a few buyers.  Add a few pages of targeted thought leadership content for your buyer personas to an already existing website.  Read blogs in your market, begin to comment on them and then start your own blog.  Earn attention online by using the ideas throughout this book, create something interesting and publish it online for free: a YouTube video, blog, research report, series of photos, Twitter stream, e-book, Facebook fan page or other pieces of web content.

It doesn't matter what line of work you're in or what group of buyers you are trying to reach - you can harness the power of the web to reach your target audience directly.  Be like the people that Scott talks about in The New Rules of Marketing and PR and get out there and make it happen!

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: Book Review (Part 2)

[By Sarah Faglio]

The New Rules of Marketing and PR, written by David Meerman Scott, a Businessweek bestseller, provides people with valuable insight into how to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video and viral marketing to reach buyers directly.  Meerman talks about all the hottest insider tips on the latest tools and techniques so readers could confidently market any product, service or idea.  After reading this book, I have provided an outline of the main ideas that Scott touches upon.  However, I encourage every marketer, company or anyone else looking to learn about the evolving marketing industry and strategies to read this book.  Scott goes through every one of these strategies with details and examples that makes it very easy for anyone, those with or without a marketing background, to understand and implement in their own endeavors.   

This is a continuation of the previous posting.

  
Thought Leadership Content 
White papers are written for a business audience, defines a problem, and offers a solution, but does not pitch a particular company or product.  E-books are PDF formatted documents of a little intrigue that solves a problem for your buyer personas.  Podcasts consists of flip videos that allow marketers to be ready to interview customers, employees and industry analysts.  It is also easy to quickly post videos, such as short clips showing how your products are made or used onto your website or blog.  Other examples of leadership content include: e-mail newsletters, webinars, wikis, research and survey reports,  photos, images, graphs, charts, blogs, audio and video.  Gobbledygook consists of overused phrases, industry jargon and overused language that has becoming meaningless.  Instead, it is important to write content for your buyers by providing information to Internet browsers when they need it, which can lead to a long and profitable relationship with your company.  Psychologists have shown that people learn better with different forms of media, therefore it is necessary to have messages in as many formats as possible.

Social Networking Sites
People join Facebook groups because they want to stay informed, but on their own time.  The best way to maintain a Facebook group is to make valuable information available.  People can post information to these group themselves, actively taking a part in the brand, as well as easily recommend the posts to others.  When it comes Twitter, you have to put yourself out there as an interested member of the community.  It takes time to build a following, but the best way to get people to pay attention to you is to participate by following others and responding to them as you would in a blogosphere.  To make the most out of social networking sites for marketing, it is important to keep these suggestions in mind:

• Target a specific audience.
• Be a thought leader.
• Be authentic and transparent.
• Create lots of links.
• Encourage people to contact you.
• Participate.
• Make it easy to find you.
• Experiment.

Blogging Tips

• Easy to use blogging software.
• Custom graphical image as your masthead.
• Turn on comments feature.
• Use captcha to prevent spamming.
• RSS capability.
• About page.
• Participate in online community,
• Do not write excessively about your company and products or services.

Blogging Ethics

• Transparency.  Do not pretend to be someone you aren't.
• Privacy.  Do not blog about something that was disclosed to you.
• Disclosure.  Disclose anything that is a conflict of interest.
• Truthfulness.  Do not lie.
• Credit.  Give credit to other bloggers. 

News Releases
Do not just send news releases when big news is happening, instead find good reasons to send them all the time.  Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers and drive them into the sales process.  Include offers that compel consumers to respond to your release in some way.  Place links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your website.  Optimize news release delivery for search and browsing, such as writing releases that are replete with keyword-rich copy.  Add social media tags for Technorati, Digg and Del.icio.us so your release will be found by users as well. 


News release distribution services make it possible to spread to online news services such as Yahoo!, Google and Bing.  It is important to create content for your buyers by thinking, speaking and writing like your customers do and focus on words and phrases that your buyers use.  As a search engine marketing tool, news releases are only as valuable as the keywords and phrases that are contained in them.  Post releases on your website, since high-quality news release content brands a company or a non-profit as a busy market player, an active expert in the industry and a trusted resource to turn to.   

Online Media Room
News release pages on your website update more often than most other parts of a typical website.  Search engine algorithms tend to rank news release pages among the highest on your website, driving traffic there first.  Newsroom sections are should always be updated with fresh content, not only with stories about your company, but about your industry, customers and the community in which your company does business.  This content should also include videos and photos to enhance the appeal of the news release.  It is important to write for the needs of the buyers and journalists (or bloggers) instead of the needs of those who own the other parts of your organization's website.  Be sure to take bloggers seriously by granting interviews and acquiesce requests made by these strong online influences.  Consider potential users of the online media room and what content will be valuable to them.  Press kits contain background materials about your company, which helps journalists write stories.  Calendar events list the conferences, executive appearances and tradeshow events that your company participates in.  This shows that your company is active in your industry and helps to build your corporate credibility.  RSS subscription pages are used as part of the online media room as a primary way to deliver news release content.  

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: Book Review (Part 1)

[By Sarah Faglio]

The New Rules of Marketing and PR, written by David Meerman Scott, a Businessweek bestseller, provides people with valuable insight into how to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video and viral marketing to reach buyers directly.  Meerman talks about all the hottest insider tips on the latest tools and techniques so readers could confidently market any product, service or idea.  After reading this book, I have provided an outline of the main ideas that Scott touches upon.  However, I encourage every marketer, company or anyone else looking to learn about the evolving marketing industry and strategies to read this book.  Scott goes through every one of these strategies with details and examples that makes it very easy for anyone, those with or without a marketing background, to understand and implement in their own endeavors.

The book starts with an engaging forward by Robert Scoble who commented on his work for Microsoft and how he used some of the strategies mentioned throughout the book.

Websites
Scott begins with examples from TV ads for cars and how websites have shown to be more useful since potential buyers read consumer feedback instead of advertisements.  The Internet allows companies to reach niche buyers with targeted messages at the fraction of the cost.  Instead of being a one-way interruption, the web provides useful content at the precise moment buyers need it.

Press Releases
Press releases shared directly to the company's potential customers or clients, allow them to communicate directly with buyers instead of just focusing on the media (reporters and editors).  Companies need to understand and research the keywords and phrases that their buyers are using to search for their products or services.  After developing a keyword list, micro-campaigns, such as direct-to-consumer news releases, can be used to drive buyers to pages complete with the content that they are seeking.  Optimizing press releases with relevant keywording helps them to appear in search results - reaching buyers directly.  In a web-interconnected world, content drives action and people do their own research online on products or services they are looking to purchase.  Valuable content contributes to the education of the marketplace and press releases have the opportunity to highlight expert ideas and stories. 

Valuable Content
Website visitors want content and valuable content that describes their issues/problems and offers potential solutions.  Companies need to write content such as this while always keeping in mind that they are writing for their target audience and their needs.  Web content directly contributes to an organization's online reputation by showing thought leadership in a marketplace of ideas.  Podcasts, or YouTube videos, for products or services have a visual impact on viewers.  People can also create videos of your products and share them on their own sites - which could help build your brand and exemplify useability of your products.  When marketing a commodity product, creating interesting information can lead to people finding it, sharing your ideas as well as tell your stories.  When marketing a brand, the first thing to do is to be genuine in communicating what the brand is about, which contributes to the overall personality of the brand.  He describes the world wide rave as creating something valuable that people want to share as well as making it easy for them to do so.  When creating content it is important to keep these suggestions in mind when writing:

• No one cares about your product.  You need to share remarkable or interesting content that helps to solve a problem.
• No coercion.
• Lose control.
• Be involved.
• Create triggers that encourage people to share.
• Drive people to your stuff via search engines.
• Make stuff available for free online.

 

Content is king for websites.  Companies achieve productive use of their content by pulling together various buyer markets, media and products into one comprehensive place (their website).  Segment buyers and appeal to them based on their needs, instead of just talking about your product or service.  Basic research on buyers can help you learn a great deal about them, making your marketing more effective by knowing what they read and how to attract their buyer personas.  Effective search engine marketing strategies are created by knowing words and phrases that buyers use, essentially helping to develop a positive relationships with them online.


Internet Forums and Blogging
Companies can contribute to discussions in Internet forums, while making sure to keep sale conversations offline in order to gain trust from active participants.  Bloggers take a role in information dissemination by harnessing millions of conversations online.  These communities make it easier for companies to monitor what people say about you, while also allowing you to participate in conversations by commenting on other blogs.  Companies could also work with bloggers who write about their industry, or shape conversations by creating or writing their own blogs.

Twitter: How To Use It For Your Business

[By Sarah Faglio]

Many view social networking websites as a place to socialize causally with other people.  However, recently, many companies have discovered the value of using social media platforms to increase their online presence, which can lead to new customers and general interest in their company.  Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to share text-based posts of up to 140 characters.  The service is growing at a rapid rate with over 200 million tweets per day and over 300 million users.  Twitter can be very useful for businesses in their online marketing campaigns if used actively and most productively.

Setting up your company page
Signing up for a company Twitter account is fairly straightforward and quick to do.  The name you provide should be the name of the company or owner.  However, the name of the company should be used so that it is easier for users to find you if they do not know the owner's name.  The username (also known as your handle) should also be the name of the company to allow for easy search as well.  The profile picture should be the company's logo, name, or other image that is clearly representative of the company.  The bio section should include a short synopsis of the company so that people know exactly what your industry is and what your company offers in terms of product type or service.  Be sure to use keywords in this bio that allow users to easily search for your company based on their interests or what they are looking for.  The web section should include a link to your company's website or blog.  The location section should include the city and state of your company's headquarters or main location.  When choosing a design for your background, use colors, images or logos that represent your company, as well as contact information.  Avoid making your background too busy, keeping it simple will make your twitter profile easier to view.

Posting updates
To maintain an active Twitter profile, it is important to produce tweets on a consistent basis - about a few times a day.  Tweets are allocated only 140 characters so it is important that your message uses keywords and an encompassing short description that successfully summarizes that main topic of the message.  These messages may include updates on your website such as new information, sales or special offers, new blog postings or press releases.  Tweets should also consist of industry updates, such as news or articles from credible sources (newspapers, industry magazines, study results or new blog posts from respectable writers of the industry).  Many articles found on the Internet have tweet buttons alongside or at the end of their articles, which make it easy for you to share by just clicking the link to share on your own Twitter profile.  This information could be found from tweets of credible sources that you follow as well as online research of those writing valuable content on your industry. 

Tweeting and getting your information shared
Sharing valuable content will get you the attention that your company needs from industry writers, clients, customers and potential customers or clients.  Including keywords, important topic that interest your customer or client base can boost attention and general interest in your tweets.  It is very important that you include hashtags (#topic) in your tweets so that they can show up in search results for that topic.  Hashtags consist of keywords relevant to your topic or main idea of the tweet.  A Twitter widget of your live stream could be connected to your website, so that it is consistently updated with topics shared on your Twitter profile.  Also, your Twitter feed could be connected with your company's Facebook page so that your tweets are circulated to that audience as well.  Tweet buttons can also be added to the conclusion or side of any articles or updates that your company produces - making it easy for others to share on their own Twitter accounts.  Follow buttons make it easier for your website visitors to find your Twitter account and follow your company.

Twitter is a very useful tool in spreading quick news and updates to your followers.  The short messages make it easier for people to engage with and understand the message being shared.  As a reputable company, it is important to be professional in all of your tweets and profile.  This makes followers take you seriously and value the information that you share.  When used efficiently, Twitter has the potential to greatly add to your business's marketing campaigns and reach to your target audience.

Lead Nurturing: The Key to Creating Customers Online

[By Sarah Faglio]

Creating customers is the key to success for any business.  With any buying decision, people need to take time (whether it be minutes or months) to contemplate if they are willing to spend money on a particular product or service.  For those people who need more time to decide on whether or not they want to buy from you, it is important for your company to take the right steps in nurturing them so they wind up becoming customers.  If these people who have shown an interest in your company are ignored, they may decide to not buy from you.  Therefore, it is important to nurture qualified leads to guide them and appreciate them so that they turn into customers.

There are a multitude of ways that people can express general interest in your company and what you have to offer.  These actions include but are not limited to: following the company's social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ et. al.), subscribing to a company's blog via RSS feeds, signing up for a company's newsletter and providing contact information to access a downloadable document (white paper, case study et. al.) or webinar .  These people who have voluntarily provided their contact information or chose to follow company updates are showing that they are interested in the company and what it has to offer.  These people are considered to be qualified leads since they have the potential to be paying customers for a company.

After a qualified lead voluntarily provides their e-mail address, your company has the authority to send informative e-mail messages, since they are interested in receiving them.  These e-mails could be newsletters, tips, follow-up, updates or other education information that is relevant to your company's product or service.  E-mail messages can remind  prospects of your product or service and sales, which can lead them to making a purchase based on familiarity and trust from being sent informative messages from a company of interest to them.  Various parts of the e-mail body should link to a landing page that expands on a particular topic, such as news, industry, sale, special offers or website updates.

Qualified prospects who follow a company's social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and RSS blog feeds) are showing that they are interested in company updates.  Since they willingly choose to follow the company, they are welcoming any updates that the company posts.  This is a quick way to share industry news, helpful information, company news, website updates, sales and special promotions to prospects all at the same time.

Consistent blog entries (2-3 times a week) provide opportunity for companies to develop relationships with potential customers as well as lead them directly to a place where they could provide their information or make a purchase.  Feedback from readers through comments allows companies to speak directly with them, answering questions, giving them advice or provide solutions to their problems (which could possibly be solved through a purchase from their company).  Blog entries could end with or consist of links to various parts of a company's website, such as product or service catalogs or descriptions, free demos or other landing pages that require interested prospects to provide their contact information.

By placing call-to-actions in your landing pages, you are raising your chances of gaining contact information for qualified leads who visit your website, opening the door to an opportunity to nurture these qualified leads into sales.  These call-to-actions can request your website visitors to provide their information in exchange for more information on a product or service, downloadable resources, viewing of a company webinar or speech, access to free samples, demos or discounts, to receive your newsletter or to be contacted by someone in your company.

Research has shown that about 50% of qualified leads are not ready to buy after going to a company's website.  This shows the importance of nurturing these leads to guide them to becoming customers in an effort to avoid losing these potential sales.  By showing these leads the appropriate attention and guidance, you are able to create a sense of trust and loyalty to your brand, since they see you as a subject matter expert that helps them to solve their problem or satisfy their desires by purchasing your product or service.  By treating qualified leads as valued customers, you have the opportunity to gain both their business and respect for your company.

Advertising: History of Psychology Attracting Consumers

[By Sarah Faglio]

I am a big proponent of psychology and how it could be used in developing successful marketing strategies.  The main goal of an advertising campaign is to attract and draw in as much attention as possible from potential buyers.  With the multitude of advertisements that we come across everyday, companies need to develop ways to stand out from not only other ads but particularly their competition.  Marketers have been using psychology methods to help develop their advertising campaigns for many years.  With growing competition, it is important that companies learn new ways to attract attention with psychology. 

In 1895, Harlow Gale was the first psychologist to use theory and scientific methods to study advertising and the process of persuasion.  He was the first to develop advertising surveys and experiments that sought to find the effects of advertising on attention and memory.  He was intrigued by how people processed ads "from the time they see the advertisement until they have purchased the article advertised."  He concluded that "attitude toward the ad" consisted of both affective and cognitive aspects, central and peripheral cues, issue involvement, personal influence and unconscious attitude formation.

 In 1903, Walter Dill Scott wrote The Theory and Practice of Advertising, where he asserted that people were highly suggestible and obedient.  He believed in two advertising techniques, which involved commands and coupons: 1) stating a direct command such as "use such and such product" and 2) asking consumers to complete a coupon and mail it into the company.

Harry Hollingworth was a psychologist who worked to understand what was behind the use of effective advertising.  He believed that advertising needed to accomplish four things in order to be successful: 1) attract a consumer's attention, 2) focus the attention onto the message, 3) make the consumer remember the message and 4) cause the consumer to take the desired action. 

As the psychology of advertising got more popular, other psychologists started conducting experiments that would be the stepping stones for successful advertisements.  Starting in the 1960s, Madison Avenue became the hub of advertising agencies where many companies would make great strides in the advertising world.


Psychology has had a huge impact on the effectiveness of advertisements.  Once people become consciously aware of a particular advertisement, they need to store the message in their memories long enough to provoke a purchase.  The advertisement needs to convince or show a target audience that they need or want the item, which may lead to a potential purchase or impulse buy.  Many studies show the effectiveness of advertisements through the use of psychological factors that affect behavior or buying decisions.  Psychology has a huge impact on the advertising industry by providing new research discoveries of what motivates people to buy.

Blogging: How Your Company Can Benefit

[By Sarah Faglio]

Many companies do not realize the benefits that blogging could have on their online marketing campaigns.  It has the potential to have a significant impact on a company's popularity and subsequently its discovery of potential customers.  Blogging also contributes to a company website's search engine optimization (SEO) value, which affects its search engine result ranking, therefore driving more traffic to your website.  The more traffic to your website, the greater your chance of attracting qualified leads and potential customers.

Companies that blog on their websites have already seen significant benefits to their marketing campaigns.  According to recent data, the average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages.  As you may already assume, the greater the number of visitors to your website, the more popular your pages and subsequently your business.  Inbound links are when other websites reference to your link on their own site, which can direct their visitors to your website.  Indexed pages are how many of your pages are sorted by search engines, which allow them to be found in search results by users. 

In a recent study on ROI, HubSpot found that 69% of businesses attributed their lead generation success to blogging.  Lead generation consists of nurturing qualified leads into paying customers.  Blogging is a great opportunity to provide information to readers that is relative to what your company sells.  This helps to guide them along the path to trusting your company and gain an interest in what you could provide them.  In addition, 57% of businesses claimed to have acquired a customer through their company blog.  Not only are companies seeing more traffic to their website from blogging but also an increase in sales.  Information from blogging content helps readers to find answers to their problems or come across a product or service that they could benefit from.

Top 5 Tips to Creating a Successful Company Blog

1. Remarkable content.  Unique content stands out among the rest of the information on the Internet.  By creating useful, remarkable blog posts, you are attracting an audience that is looking for information that they do not already know.  Repeated information is boring and less likely to garner interest if it is the same as what everyone else is writing about.  Be sure to post information that is related to your industry as opposed to just your company.  You are trying to provide valuable information that helps position yourself as a subject matter expert in your industry.  You want users to come to you for advice and value your blog content information as opposed to feeling they are just being sold to.  Proper blog content consists of information that is of interest to your target audience, such as industry updates, news and important general information related to products or service that your company offers.  The information needs to matter to your audience and not bore nor interest them.  Content links can also direct to call-to-action landing pages, previous blog posts, free demos, newsletter sign up, product or service descriptions etc.
2. Social media.  After posting a new blog entry, it is important to update your other social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with a direct link to the post.  This updates remind your followers, people who are interested in your company or industry, of new entries and drives additional traffic to your blog.  Also, by placing social media share links at the conclusion of your blog post, you are making it easier for readers to share your entry on their own social media accounts, which spreads your post to their followers as well.
3. Comment box.  Leaving the comment box option open allows readers to give feedback on what you wrote.  Many companies are hesitant to leave this option available due to negative feedback that could arise.  However, this gives you the perfect opportunity to speak directly to this person to quell any negatives and offer suggestions.  When people reply back with problems or questions, you are able to reply back with suggestions and advice that may lead them to your product or service to help solve their problems or make an informed decision about a potential purchase. Be sure to reply directly, by addressing them by name, to those who comment to show that you valuable their opinion or feedback.  In the case of unsolicited or inappropriate comment replies, you have the option to moderate comments before they are posted publicly, allowing you to delete if you deem necessary.
4. Keywords.  Posts including proper keywords help your blog entry get found in search engine results by users searching for that topic.  Be sure to develop a list of keywords relevant to your industry, product or service, company or location and try to use those words as often as you could without making the entry seem awkward.  Proper keyword placement and usage attributes to the SEO value of your blog, and subsequently your website.  This helps your website rank higher on search engine results, get found by qualified search users looking for that information and increasing traffic from organic searches, to your website.
5. Updating.  In order for your blog to be successful, it is vital to publish posts about 2-3 times a week.  Stale content does not draw interest to your website or add to your SEO as well as new content does.  By continuously updating your blog, you are showing your audience that you are a subject matter expert who stays keen to updates or alerts in your industry.  Maintaining an active blog allows you to generate a following as well as general interest in your blog.  By allowing readers to subscribe to your blog, by adding the RSS feed option, they are able to receive direct updates of when new content is added so they know to go to your website to view them.

Blogging is very important to a company's website and has a large impact on how it gets found by qualified leads.  A multitude of important factors of a website's SEO value that blogging can attribute to are keyword placement, updated content as well as how valuable its content is to users.  This would help your company's website rank higher in search engine results, therefore driving more traffic to your website.  By looking at the analytics of your blog posts and determining which gain the most views, you will learn which topics are most popular and are of interest to your readers.  This information could help you to determine what you could write about in future posts in an effort to gain more traffic.  More traffic means more interest and subsequently more qualified leads that can turn into valued, paying customers.

Digital Marketing: Would Your Business Benefit?

[By Sarah Faglio]

As technology advances, so does our means of communications with others and the public.  The radio and television were two technological mediums that companies used to advertise to their target audience.  However, since the mid-1990s, the Internet has drastically changed the way we share information.  It has turned into a new way for businesses to market their products or services directly to their target audience.  Online platforms, such as websites and social media, offer a lot to companies such as higher ROI on their marketing campaigns and more business.

Research shows that more than half of all U.S. residents and more that 3/4 of all U.S. adults are online.  A recent survey found that 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Internet, with 59% who do so on a typical day.  Of these daily searches, 46% are for information on products or services.  89% of U.S. Internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is made at a local business.  With an astounding amount of people and potential customers online, it is important for companies to have an online presence so they do not miss out on opportunities and business that could be found on the Internet.

Top 5 Ways to Create Strong Online Presence

1. Website - This allows companies to post valuable information about their company and their products or services.  It is a centralized location where users can learn about what the company has to offer.  60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results.  With correct SEO and keyword placement and number of indexed pages, websites are able to rank on search engine results - helping them get found by users who are searching for topics related to their company. 
2. Blogging - 65% of daily internet users read a blog.  By keeping a frequent blog, 2-3 times a week, you are contributing to your website's SEO and are generating traffic to your site.  B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not.  Businesses that blog at least 20 times a month generate 5 times more traffic and 4 times more leads than those who only blog a few times a month.  Blog posts need to be valuable and remarkable content and need to be of interest to your target audience.  Instead of solely company news, you should write about industry updates or other information that is of value to your target audience.  By continuously updating your blog with industry updates and information you are positioning yourself as a subject matter expert.  Also, by opening up the comment box, you are allowing direct communication between you and your potential customer - a place where you can offer advice and suggestions. 
3. Facebook - 93% of U.S. adult Internet users are on Facebook.  As of date, there are more than 800 million active users on Facebook.  When users "like" company pages get updates made to the business's profile, such as new wall posts (blog and industry news updates), pictures, videos, discussion questions and more.  Facebook allows companies to easily provide updates to followers as well as interact with users via comments.
4. Twitter -  There are 100 million monthly active users on Twitter with over 250 million daily tweets.  Companies with over 1,000 Twitter followers get 6 times more traffic.  70% of U.S. Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.  Twitter accounts allow companies to share quick industry or company news, as well as blog posts to followers.  Since posts are only allowed to be 140 characters, they are read quickly by followers, allowing them to easily decide if the topic is of interest to them.  These updates can link back to your website or blog to drive traffic to updates you have made.  With more than 1/2 of active Twitter users following companies, brands or products, it is important to make sure your company creates a continuously updated page for them to engage with. 
5. LinkedIn - As of date, there are over 135 million professionals on LinkedIn.  Company profiles allow businesses to connect with other professionals and establish themselves in a professional setting.  They are also able to provide status updates on industry or company news as well as blog and Twitter updates to its followers.  It grants companies the opportunity to network with others in their industry as well as become members in groups consisting of other members that may be of interest to them.

Establishing your company on the Internet allows your business to develop its online presence and reach towards potential customers.  Websites provide information to help users make an informed decision about their buying purchases.  Social media platforms keep users updated on the company and industry.  Actually, 71% of Internet users are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals.  By making use of what the Internet can offer your company, you have the opportunity to boost your sales and business.

Direct Mail Marketing: Does It Really Get Past The Front Door?

[By Sarah Faglio]

It seems logical that sending mail directly to someone's doorstep would be an effective means of direct marketing.  However, recent technological advances and the inundation of advertisements sent directly to people's homes has made them ineffective.  Junk mail or advertising mail is often thrown away by its recipients who do not bother to read what service or product the advertisement has to offer.  Also, with the rising costs of postage and cost of printing the advertisement, this direct mailing method is more expensive than its technological alternative. 

Junk mail makes up a large assortment of advertisements sent directly to peoples' home or business.  It consists of advertising circulars, catalogs, postcards, coupons, applications and other promotional items sent to homes or businesses.  However, it costs a company money to print the advertisements, develop address lists, purchase postage and develop the advertisement.

Not only is junk mail costly for marketers, but it is also very unproductive with many of the advertisements not even being read by recipients.  The average American adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 44% of junk mail is throw away without being opened or read.  People have become so inundated with advertising mail that they cannot or care to go through all of the pieces of junk mail that they receive, which leads them to just throw most of it out.

Junk mail recipients have become so annoyed and irritated by unwanted advertisements that laws have been put into place that allow them to opt-out.  In response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Rowan vs. Post Office Department, applicants have the opportunity to obtain a Prohibitory Order issued by the United States Postal Service.  This allows people to stop non-governmental organizations from sending them mail and demands that these organizations remove the consumers' information from their mailing lists.  This order blocks marketers from sending advertising mail directly to peoples' home or business.


Direct mail marketing seems like a practical idea, since you are putting advertisements directly into a recipient's hands by sending it straight to their home or business location.  However, new technology, such as e-mail seems to be more productive than direct mail for many reasons.  These reasons include it being cheaper, analytics that allow you to track if an e-mail is opened or if they click on included links and people who volunteer their e-mail addresses are looking forward to your advertisements and welcome them.  With direct mail, you are unable to measure ROI since you do not know, in most cases, if the recipient bought your product or service because of the advertisement.  Also, with e-mail being free to send and with many people using the Internet to research a product or service, direct mail seems to be an ancient way to get a potential customer's attention.