INTERNET MARKETING Archives - Page 9 of 13 - DBC Digital

Archive for INTERNET MARKETING – Page 9

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June 15, 2012

Inbound Marketing: Writing Website Content

So, you have a website. Good for you! As a small business owner, you probably don’t have a professional creative staff to write copy for it though. You kinda, sorta know what you want to say but you don’t know how to say it in a way that will make sense to the people you want to reach…your prospects!

Many small and medium businesses make the mistake of merely touting the features of their widgets and their services. Your prospects might think that’s all good, but what they really want to know is this:

How is any of this going to help ME?

What you need is content that resonates with the value that your prospects are seeking. Here are a few suggestions:

Establish your target audience. Be specific. If you’re targeting other business owners, say so. If you want to reach stay-at-home dads, let your site’s content express that.

Identify their need. This can be stated through a question or statement, as in “Looking for a reliable roofing company?” When people see that you understand their concern, they will gravitate towards your content.

Get them WHERE they’re hot. Some of your prospects will be ready to buy immediately. All they need is an order form on your site. Others need to be educated. For these, a free “Call-To-Action” offer is often beneficial. It establishes you as a reliable, knowledgeable partner who wants to help your prospect find a solution. If your prospect isn’t quite ready to buy, but is well-educated on the benefits of your products, you’ll want to include contact information so specific needs can be discussed individually. By getting your prospects where they are, you’re building your sales pipeline. You know what to do from there! Sell, sell, sell…

Direct them to your website. Here’s where some education and expertise will come in handy. You need to promote your site every time you have an opportunity. Publish it on your business cards, flyers, phone listings, etc. Make sure your content is rich with keywords and phrases, but not artificially so. Google and other search engines are not kind to businesses that attempt to blatantly manipulate their procedures.

If you’re just beginning to establish an online identity through your website, or perhaps reassessing the one you’ve had for awhile, we hope these tips will help you. What have you found helpful in your website marketing strategy? We welcome your contribution through our Comments section below.

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING, WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Posted by DBC Digital on

June 7, 2012

Social Media Marketing – Part 1

Like traditional marketing, social media marketing in Denver requires that you connect with your potential customers in a way that is meaningful to them.

The first step in creating a foundation for success in any marketing approach is to identify who you want to reach and then tailor your approach and message to that profile.

If you want to maximize your reach with your prospects, social media marketing is one of the most effective methods available. But you do need a strategy. The challenge is that Social media marketing isn’t linear (see chart below). You will need to consider where your prospects are finding and sharing their information and how your prospects are using the various social media platforms. In other words,

What’s the Plan, Stan (or Mary or Phil…)?

Step One

The above chart is only a sampling of the myriad of ways you can connect with your prospects, so Step One is to create a profile (or persona) of your targeted prospects. (Just like an FBI agent. Well, not really like an FBI agent, but you get the idea.)

The easiest way to do this is to research who your best customers have been and create a “persona” for each of these best profiles. In other words, identify your primary audience, what their interests are and how they like or want to be communicated with.

This step will tell you the best Social Media platform to use to build your connections with this group.

Your plan will be specific to your business requirements. In virtually all cases though you will need to:

Establish realistic objectives (be ready to adjust these objectives based on the success of your plan)
Focus on your offer’s content. (What value you offer in exchange for their business.)
Use the most effective social media platform based on the profile you have created
Track your results, adjust, repeat.

The Beauty of Social Media Marketing

Your prospects are going to be so inspired by the power of your message, and by the value that you offer with your brand, that they will want to share their new-found knowledge with friends. Or not. If not, be patient and keep to your schedule and maintain consistency. You will get there.

Perhaps your research was so thorough that you’ve already established a presence in your prospects’ friends’ virtual neighborhoods. If you’re not there yet, don’t worry. Most of the heavy lifting is going to be done for you by your newfound followers as they share and spread the word about your business.

Your new followers and clients will bring you credibility in their circles and give you a foothold to pursue a more engaged presence with them and their connections. You will learn their buying behaviors and you will better understand their motivations and their needs.

Your social media marketing message should be constantly adjusted as you learn more about your targets’ profiles and personas. Be bold, but be consistent in your efforts. While social media marketing doesn’t usually explode overnight, be prepared for a steadily increasing level of success in this new arena.

In our next post, we’ll take a closer look at the mechanics of successful social media marketing. Until then, go ahead and let yourself get a little carried away with the possibilities that social media can bring to your business.

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, STRATEGY

Posted by DBC Digital on

June 6, 2012

Top 5 SEO Tips for Inbound Marketing

While Search Engine Optimization can seem a little intimidating when you are just getting started, even a novice can get a lot closer to the first page of Google’s search results by following these top 5 SEO tips for inbound marketing. It’s simpler than you might imagine.

1. Your Web Page’s “Page Title”

The first thing Google does when it indexes your website is to look for SEO keywords and keyphrases in your webpage titles.

Your primary SEO keyphrases work in conjunction with the SEO keyphrases in your URL and the lead paragraph of your content. As such, it’s critical to the success of your inbound marketing campaigns to be aware of these Google cues.

The title tag has been – and probably will always be – one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.

In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings.

2. Lead (First) paragraph SEO

Begin your article with a statement that repeats the page heading and offers a summary explanation of the content’s title.

By making your opening paragraph as meaningful and as closely related to the page header and keywords as possible, you help Google to rank that page of your website higher in its search results.

3. Image/Photo SEO

Images serve as powerful inbound marketing tools by drawing attention to the visual appeal of your message. But remember, Google can’t actually “see” any pictures or images on your site. You have to help Google by including descriptions or “alt” tags with the image. An alt (alternative) tag tells Google what the image is so it can index the image as part of your website.

4. URL SEO

Your URL of a page or site should tell a lot about the content of the page. The presumption is that if your blog or site is about dogs, you will have “dog”, “dogs”, or “puppy” as part of your page name. Try developing your page’s URL directly from your Page title. That’s a highly effective way to strengthen your ranking while reinforcing the impact of your message.

5. SEO facelifts (Bottom Line…)

Harnessing the potential strength of your inbound marketing SEO is critical to getting your message found by readers and prospects.

However, when all is said and done, Google actually prioritizes the quality of your content over the quantity of your SEO key phrases in determining your rankings.

Just as doing a little cosmetic surgery on a mannequin still won’t give it life, the content on your website and its “share-ability” by those that are interested in your topic will help you improve your search rankings much more than just a bunch of keywords.

Go ahead and write your content (blogs, website text, etc.) as naturally as possible, then go back and judiciously use the SEO tools outlined above.

Providing great content for your readers will encourage them to share your words with others which not only helps your search rankings, but generates more business!

Try these tips out for yourself and let us know how it’s working.

While there are volumes of SEO techniques, there are only a few that truly make a significant difference. What are your essential tips for those just starting down the SEO trail?

Please share your thoughts and suggestions with us. Our readers appreciate your knowledge!

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING, WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Posted by DBC Digital on

June 4, 2012

INBOUND MARKETING IS THE NEW TRADE SHOW

WOW!

Earlier this year, the most visible technology company in the world announced that it would no longer participate in what is the most prominent technology tradeshow in the world. Microsoft has cut its long-standing relationship with the Consumer Electronics Show. Imagine! The CES without Microsoft touting its next whiz-bang thing-a-ma-jig! What do they know?

Hmmmmm…..

Tradeshows have always been an iffy and expensive proposition…travel, shipping, increasingly exorbitant fees, the sales execs on expense accounts in fabulous hotels (ok…or not!). The higher a company’s profile, the more expectation is foisted upon it to be the biggest, the best and the baddest. For what?

It stops making sense to fly a team to far-flung destinations when here in Denver, social media’s immediate access already has the potential to produce several times more revenue than even the snazziest booth, the sexiest spokesmodels and the coolest giveaways.

Here’s what Frank Shaw, head of Microsoft’s corporate communications, had to say:

“Microsoft decided to downsize its role at CES because the company is looking at all the new ways we tell our consumer stories.”

Following Apple’s Lead?

Microsoft is not alone here. In fact, three years ago, always trailblazing Apple terminated its relationship with the major tradeshow dedicated to Apple products, the Macworld Conference & Expo. Incredible! At the time, Apple’s head of marketing Philip Schiller stated,

“Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before” and “trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers”.

Inbound Marketing is for Everyone

Something’s happening here. Let’s make that clear, whether you’re inbound marketing Denver or Kathmandu. Inbound marketing is indeed the new trade show, and successful inbound marketing requires the same strategies that your company would have traditionally employed on the tradeshow circuit: Visual appeal, relevant and original information, timely opportunities to interact – and all at a fraction of the cost!

How does one capitalize on the strengths inherent to social media? Denver’s inbound marketing experts rely on many of the simple fundamentals they’ve already learned in…tradeshows! What’s that you say? You thought this was high-tech wizardry that only geeks trained in esoteric, magically mysterious marketing could produce? No!

Keep it simple in three easy steps:

Step 1: Your New Exhibit Booth – create an attractive website with interesting, informative, educational blog posts that solve your customers’ problems or answers one of their questions

Step 2: Your New Spokesmodel – create an attractive graphic at the end of the blog post that links to your offer

Step 3: Your New Hot Shot Salesperson – create a landing page for the offer with a short explanation of benefits and a short simple form.

That’s it. Try it. Inbound marketing in Denver and everywhere else. It works!

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that Inbound Marketing is the new Tradeshow? What else does Inbound Marketing do better (or worse) than traditional marketing?

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING

Tags : inbound marketing

Posted by DBC Digital on

May 29, 2012

How to Bring Digital Consumers into Your Store

How many times have you filled out a customer survey that asks, “How did you hear about us?” Those surveys typically feature online-related options, sometimes only getting as specific as “The Internet” while other times asking for the referring search engine or website.

Businesses care deeply about where their consumers are coming from, and these imperfect surveys have long been the best measurement of how valuable the Web was to their business. But as technology improves, the connection between online consumerism and in-store conversions is becoming easier to see–and easier to wield. Data analysis, increased Web integration and the rise of mobile technology have all created new channels for driving online consumers straight to a brick-and-mortar store.

Companies have several options for driving and tracking this store traffic, and these tools only get more useful by the minute. Read on to see how digital tools can bring online consumers into your physical store.

Click-to-Call Drives Direct Engagement

One of the shiny new toys of marketers driving in-store traffic is the click-to-call feature available on mobile phones. Since so much online searching and consumer activity is being done on devices equipped with phone call capabilities, the click-to-call function is a natural evolution. Google has rolled out click-to-call in its own mobile search results, and businesses can build this feature into ads displayed on any website.

Consider running a click-to-call campaign and monitoring the results. It’s easy to track which calls are driven through this calling feature, and it can give you a sense of the opportunities available through digital venues–even if you don’t see the Internet as offering much value to your business.

Digital Coupons and Mobile Referrals

Click-to-call is the latest and greatest evolution, but it’s just one of many opportunities created by mobile technology. Businesses should be eager to embrace these new tools, which reach a different audience of consumers and drive traffic in new ways.

Digital couponing is one such tool that offers easy tracking of conversions. When a digital coupon is made available–either through your website, social networks, or through a third party–consumers have to present that coupon when making a purchase. This means companies can easily track the conversions produced from digital coupons. And unlike print, they can reach a wider audience, including a more refined base of digital consumers.

Businesses should also consider other mobile referral strategies that can bring consumers to brick-and-mortar stores. Thanks to smartphone location services, ads can call up directions to the nearest physical store. Mobile ad campaigns also let you show ads to only the consumers in a specific area, so you aren’t wasting ad dollars on consumers that are hundreds of miles away.

AdWords Testing New In-Store Conversion Tracking Technology

Thanks to a few big-time third-party data firms, Google is quietly testing new technology that would show businesses when an online consumer makes a purchase at a physical store. The system manages to do this without violating any privacy concerns, and it works as follows: Consumers build up a wealth of identifying information when using their computers for consumer purposes, and data companies can track the use of credit cards, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses and other information.

Those third parties encrypt that personal info and turn consumers into a number. Then, when consumers use that same information to make an in-store purchase, the information can be handed over to the third party, who can determine if the data matches up with a past online consumer.

If a match is found, the in-store purchase can be counted as a digital-inspired conversion, giving businesses more insight into how the Internet is fattening their bottom-line. If the testing goes well, this service may soon be available to all businesses who use AdWords.

Consumers go back and forth between online shopping an in-store consumption, and there’s no reason a physical store should resist investing in digital strategy. Contact DBC Digital today to find out how your business can drive revenues through online campaigns.

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING

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