Category Archives: content marketing

Three Ways To Make Your Tweets Stand Out From The Rest

content marketing, Copywriting, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, , ,

make your tweets stand outWith so many people on Twitter these days it can be difficult to make your tweets stand out from all the others.  This is particularly true when you have people who are following a lot of people following you.  How can you ensure that they are seeing your tweets and that they even care about what you are writing?  It is not enough to have a Twitter account to promote your business if your tweets are being skipped by your followers.  The following are three ways that you can use to make your tweets stand out from the rest and to generate more interest in your company.

Write a Headline Not a Tweet

One thing you can do is to look at your tweet as more of a headline for a newspaper rather than worrying about staying within the character count.  You want to grab the attention of your readers immediately so it needs to catch their eye.  Think of the days when newspapers ruled the information sector and think about how the writers would use shocking or catchy titles for their stories to engage readers.  This is how you should think about your tweets and if you do this, you will get people to read them.  If the post is too long for Twitter, then you can always add a link that takes your reader to the full story.

Link to Your Products

If you are promoting a product then you have to include a link to the product’s page on your website.  People are typically lazy when it comes to the internet and even if they really want to purchase the product they won’t go through much hassle to get it.  You may find that there are some who will go to your website without the link but they are not the norm.  Make it easy on your customers to find your website because you can bet your competitors are offering links.  Also, there is some legitimacy to a tweet that has a link so your followers won’t think that you are spamming them.

Use Statistics to Make a Point

There is nothing better than reading a tweet that offers a strange or interesting statistic.  These tweets tend to be retweeted more than many other types of tweets.  When you get more retweets then you have a better chance of gaining more followers.  Unless you want to buy them and keep it a secret then you need to find creative ways to get people to follow you.  Again, make sure you provide the link that backs up the statistic you provided or people may think that you are making things up off the top of your head.

It is not enough to have a Twitter account; you also need to provide tweets that get the attention of your followers.  You can think of your tweets like the headline of a news story or use interesting statistics to get the attention of the readers.  Also make sure to link to any pertinent article or to your products website when necessary.

Our guest blogger, Amber Christy has been a power tweeter for four years and has been actively promoting her business on Twitter.

New Advertising Ideas To Help Your Business

Blogging, content marketing, email marketing, guest blogging, interactive ads, Small Business Marketing, , , ,

Innovative Advertising IdeasSavvy business owners are always on the lookout for new forms of advertising, and unique ways to surprise potential customers. In recent years, we have seen the advent of the QR code to engage mobile phone users. Another popular method of advertising in recent years is having a viral sensation, the way the new Old Spice man has been.

Here are some other new advertising ideas that may give you some ideas of your own for your business:

Interactive ads within a magazine

You know about scratch and sniff ads, or the peel-open perfume ads. But that is just the beginning.  Forbes magazine recently made an issue Wi-Fi-enabled, which means that the reader carrying it around could get free Wi-Fi. Microsoft sponsored the ad, along with T-Mobile to provide the technology to make the magazine Wi-Fi-enabled.  Springwise says that “the campaign, created with advertising tech firm Americhip, simultaneously promoted the validity of Microsoft’s cloud-based program and gave Forbes’ readership another reason to carry the publication with them – killing two birds with one stone.”

You may not have Microsoft’s budget, but try to think of some interactive way that you could reach out to readers. Even something as simple as asking potential customers to identify a photo or quote, and directing them to your website to potentially win a prize, could help engage them in what you do.

Marketing to bloggers

A small business with a small budget does not have the money for a big advertising or marketing campaign. But they can easily get some good buzz by marketing to bloggers. Here’s what you can do – reach out to bloggers in your area, or your field. For example, if you market baseball t-shirts related to the New York Mets, a good way to get your product out there is to offer a free t-shirt to any blogger who gives you a plug in the blog.

There are several reasons why doing so can be appealing to you:  bloggers are easier to reach than their counterparts in the mainstream media, they have a fan base and a good number of readers, and they generally are savvy in social media as well. This can help promote your business, and if the bloggers like the product, they will tell their friends, and their friends will tell their friends, and so on and so on.

Email advertising

You may already be doing internet advertising. Email advertising is less well-known, but can provide a terrific bang for the buck. Think about it – whether on a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet computer, people will check their emails on all of the devices. So if you have an ad running in, say, a newspaper’s “Top 10 Articles of the Day” newsletter, the reader will get to read the ad wherever he or she is.

In addition, email ad platforms like LiveIntent will seamlessly update the ads, if need be.  So if you had a Memorial Day sales ad in an email newsletter, but the reader does not actually open the ad until late June, you can switch out the ad dynamically to reflect the new ad in the old email.

That is just the beginning of new marketing and advertising ideas out there. Tell us about what you new ideas you have tried with your business.

Lisa Swan writes for a variety of tech and business sites, including Huffington Post. She lives in New York City.

Landing Page Design: Creating Killer Landing Pages

Blogging, content marketing, Copywriting, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design, ,

Landing Page DesignLanding Page Design: How to Create Killer Landing Pages

If you engage in online advertising to increase traffic to your site and are not utilizing landing pages, you have failed. Landing pages are a critical part of improving conversions, boosting your ROI and increasing leads. Let’s take a closer look:

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a web page designed to capture a visitor’s information through a form on your website. Companies utilizing email, display or social advertising campaigns should always send their traffic to a targeted landing page.

Unfortunately, instead many companies send visitors to the home page and end up wasting valuable marketing dollars. Failure to send a targeted stream of traffic coming to your site to an appropriate landing page results in the loss of revenue and major opportunity.

What differentiates you from the competition?

Your landing pages should always be easy to read, to navigate and above all else should clearly communicate what it is you want the visitor to do and the value you are providing them.

Other Critical Elements to Include:

Value.

Always offer something of value to your audience. Not only does this begin establishing and building a relationship but they need a reason to give you their information – and it needs to be good. Begin by establishing your goals – what do you want them to do – and go from there. If your goal is to collect emails you could come up with a valuable offer, such as a free e-book or exclusive discount, in return for a newsletter signup or simply providing their contact information.

Compelling Headline.

Write clear and concise headlines. When someone arrives on your page it should be consistent with what they expected to see based on the link they clicked on to arrive there.

Web Writing.

Do not ask for unnecessary, personal information – most people will become suspicious or annoyed by a company that is asking for too information. For instance, often times when I am asked to enter my phone number the first thing I think is, “Are they going to call me?” and then I click the back button. Always use an engaging call-to-action as the text for your button. Avoid using words like “submit” but instead use things like “download your free whitepaper” or “register for free”.

Limit Text.

Limit your text by being as concise as possible. Break up text using visual cues like photos or graphs. Split up ideas into subcategories with their own headlines and use bullet point lists.

Limit Navigation.

Eliminate distractions and highlight your primary goal or call-to-action. Limiting navigation helps to avoid a visitor getting sidetracked or clicking on a different offer and leaving the page without completing your goal. Keep the form above the fold or consider including an additional call-to-action placed above the fold so your user doesn’t have to scroll down to convert.

Testing.

Create two almost identical landing pages and test which headlines or images convert better with your target audience. Always continue to test, incorporating the elements from the winner and constantly improving your conversion rates.

Our guest blogger James Larson is a Copywriter for Minneapolis Web Design. When he isn’t dreaming up the next big idea for their clients’ web and content strategy, James is traveling the world with his band and living life to the fullest.

Matt Cutts Speaks Out About Links

Blogging, content marketing, Link Building, SEO, Small Business Marketing, , , ,

Matt Cutts speaks out about links

As the head of Google’s Web Spam team, Matt Cutts knows a thing or two about links. He knows quite a bit about a lot of things actually, but today we’re going to focus on his insights on how Google views and values links, and how this information can be used to strengthen your current SEO strategies.

Video: What is Google’s thinking about links from article marketing, widgets, etc?

Links aren’t so bad after all

For quite some time now there has been a rather intense debate within the SEO community regarding links. Exactly what is their value? What does Google think about link building?
The list of questions goes on, and there are always multiple views on every issue.
Perhaps in an effort to set the record straight (as much as Google can or will) or for some reason unknown to us, Mr. Cutts has shed a little more light on the subject of links and their relativity to web rankings.
According to Mr. Cutts, links are still a viable ranking factor. He did not comment on exactly how much links influenced rankings, but getting this level of information from anyone of his influence in the search field is definitely a big deal.

Link building is okay!

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, Matt Cutts goes on to talk about Google’s stance on link building. As it turns out, link building itself is not the problem, but rather the way many people approach the concept is flawed. The idea is not to focus on getting people to link to you or building links simply for the sake of doing so. Instead, the focus should be on creating the kind of content that people want to link to all on their own. Sure you can include social sharing buttons and other elements to make sharing easier, but the content should be able to stand alone and be awesome with or without incentives or opportunities for easy sharing.
He also spoke about a few content marketing / link building practices that could use a different approach as well:

    • Press releases – Press releases shouldn’t be thought of as link building vehicles first, and information sources last. Instead the focus should be on attracting the attention of media outlets and journalists who might be interested in promoting your story. Though press releases often allow for a link to be included, make sure that any links you make a part of the release are relevant to the information in the release and on the page of your website you’re linking to. Make your press release more about information than purely about SEO.
    • Guest posting – Because it has been identified as a way to build links, guest posting has gotten off track and has promoted the creation of blogs and websites that aren’t all that dissimilar to the bloated low-quality article directories that were hit hard by the Panda algorithm update. Essentially a trend of submitting less than amazing content to blogs of less than stellar reputation just for the sake of gaining a link or two has become common practice, and that isn’t the way things should be. Instead guest posting should be about generating more awareness and exposure for your brand, and reaching out to new audiences while networking with other bloggers and businesses in your industry. There needs to be more focus on quality content and building relationships, leaving link building as a pleasant side benefit, not the main event.

Guest Blogger – Kris Dietz

I love creating something amazing then spreading the word about it!  My mission is to develop and mold SEO into an amazing outlet of sharing valuable resources.   I enjoy networking and meeting like minded individuals.