Category Archives: Small Business Marketing

How You Can Use Instagram For Marketing

June 17, 2013Blogging, Instagram marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketinghow to use instagram for marketing, instagram, instagram marketing, Social Media MarketingPeter Marino

It takes more than just having an Instagram account to market products on the site. There’s a lot more to it than just posting a bunch of photos, too. You need to have a full blown strategy that works and that is effective. So before you start blindly posting pictures of your products and taking over your followers’ feeds, make sure that you have a good grasp of what types of photos are the best for marketing purposes. The following are some great ways to use your photos for marketing your company on Instagram.

Think of the Environment of the Photos

Not everyone has a product that works in every photo or that could really be called interesting. If you find that no matter how you shoot the picture you’re just not putting out photos that have that ‘wow factor’, then you need to rethink the photo shoot.

It may be that the item is boring but your background is boring, too. You can really boost a photo by showing an action shot of the item with interesting people using or wearing it. A great location could also be a way to turn out a more interesting photo. If your office is by the beach, try a setting with waves crashing in the background. If you live in the desert, use some cactus with a beautiful sunset to make the photo phenomenal, for example.

Show the End Result

Many people in the service industry, like beautician, car detailers and other industries do a wonderful thing for their customers. If your company is in this type of industry then you should post photos that show what you started with and how it turned out. Post a photo of the hair before you cut and styled it and then after. You can do the same with the nasty dirty car that you made look brand new. This is a great marketing technique that has been used for years and has been very effective. You might also benefit from paying for instagram followers but remember they won’t give you interaction, only a boost to your numbers.

Don’t Forget Geotags

You may not know this but you can actually geotag your photos so your fans can see your location. Even if you have a website, there will be local people who you want to visit your brick and mortar store. This is a great forum to get more people to your store or physical location by offering discounts for those who say they saw your photo contest on Instagram. You could also offer a discount to the first two or three people who show up and says they saw your ad campaign on the site. Geotagging is a great way to get your physical location out to a wide group of people that live in your physical area.

Instagram is a great marketing tool if you use it effectively. Don’t forget to make your photos interesting to all your followers by showing your products in interesting locations or by showing before and after pictures that highlight your service. Don’t forget to geotag your pictures so you can get more people to your physical location.

What other tips would you add?

Our guest blogger info:
Susan Darling loves Instagram and writing tips and hints to help others learn how to get the most from it when using it for business or for pleasure. She posts photos of nature scenes and flowers and also has an IG account for her business.

What is Evergreen Content?

June 7, 2013Blogging, Copywriting, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketingcontent marketing, evergreen content, What is evergreen contentPeter Marino

You know that content is an important factor for SEO. You might also have read about the importance of producing ‘evergreen content’ in order to give your site lasting SEO value and keep visitors coming back to your pages repeatedly. So what is evergreen content? And how can businesses use it to drive web traffic and SEO results? Let’s take a look.

When it comes to content marketing, evergreen content is perhaps the most important staple that you need to have in your copywriting diet.

However, many people do not understand the definition of evergreen content, nor why it is so important. We looked at some of the key principles behind evergreen content creation, and analyzed how it can make such a difference to your website.

Defining Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is a piece of writing that will retain its relevance long into the future, ideally for months, if not years. This means that a piece of evergreen content will attract visitors to your site, even if something has been written six months ago. If you work in an industry that is reasonably stagnant and slow to evolve, then your content could be valuable for years at a time.

While it is true that Google loves original content, if you search a particular keyword, you’re still going to be shown the best piece of writing for your needs, irrespective of when it was produced.

As a result, a piece of evergreen content will still see an initial spike in visitors when it is first uploaded or indexed by Google, but in the time that follows, there will still be regular traffic to the page, rather than a total drop off in visitor numbers.

How to Write Evergreen Content

The best approach to take to evergreen content is to look at it as a resource post. By approaching it in this manner, you will be able to build up your reputation for communicating quality information and quickly earn a regular readership for your site.

Write your content in a way that will be easy to update should anything change within the industry. For example, if you are writing resources for local SEO, you will want to be able to easily amend anything should new citation techniques, for example, become available, or Google implement an algorithm that changes how local businesses can rank.

This is in contrast to a regular blog post, where you might talk about a recent event within the industry or speculation regarding something that might occur. While this might be valuable content, it is likely to lose its relevance quickly, and regular posts of this manner will be needed to maintain traffic.

Your Content Marketing Strategy

Please do not take this as an instruction to stop writing blogs and other spontaneous posts. While evergreen content has the potential to be a long-term SEO benefit, you should remember that a variety of writing is the best approach to bringing in traffic and additional business.

Rather than making evergreen content your only strategy, make it a central part of it, and fill your site with a range of resources, from white papers to ‘How To’ guides, and you’ll quickly find your traffic and site popularity on the rise.

Peter Marino is a digital marketing specialist who works with small and medium sized businesses to develop high-quality website content that helps companies rank higher on search engines.

Create Online & Offline Branding Strategies That Support Each Other

April 30, 2013Copywriting, Reputation, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media MarketingPeter Marino

To keep up with their competitors, companies should be cognizant of the power of offline branding. Even online merchants use offline branding, whether it’s in the form of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns or through word-of-mouth from employees. “Branding strategies are more than just a company’s image; it encompasses the experience you want people to have when interacting with your organization,” says Jody Bivens, art director at UPBrand, a firm that helps companies to hone their brand visibility. “It is important to keep your branding consistent so people â€ªhave the same experience with your company every time. That means the look, feel and tone of your brand’s voice – both digitally and in the physical world – should reflect what you want your company to stand for.” Continue reading for tips on how to build on and manage your company’s brand reputation and align your offline and online advertising.

Types of Offline Brands

Analyze your audience, and determine what offline brand types are most effective for converting new customers, as well as reinforcing relationships with current ones. If your target market is not Internet savvy, consider talk radio ads. Print campaigns, billboards, television commercials, and vehicle wraps may work for businesses with large budgets. Business cards can be modified to fit your brand as well. If your brand prides itself on innovation, you could use plastic cards to convey a unique sensibility. Eco-friendly brands could print business cards on recycled or seed paper.

Other areas of offline branding to show consistency with online branding include stationery, annual reports, brochures, direct mail, and trade show banners. Grassroots advertising and word-of-mouth promotion can also help a company’s brand. Make sure your employees understand your brand’s mission and can effectively convey it to clients and prospects.

Brand Guidelines

Establish your brand’s guidelines and make sure your message is consistent across the board, to ensure continuity in all forms of advertising. Create a brand guideline handbook and send copies to your employees. Dean Marsden, video marketer at Koozai, a digital marketing firm, says this handbook should include the following:

A brand overview.
A logo visual guide with correct and incorrect logo usage example.
Brand colors for all forms of advertising.
A copywriting guide with tone of voice and correct brand name format.
A glossary of terms related to your brand.

If you use an outside ad agency, keep them updated with any changes in this handbook, so they will consistently know what the goal of your brand is. That way advertisements will reflect well on your brand and target the right consumers. Perfecting your brand’s tone of voice in its communication is vital and can only come with consistency.

Think about what makes your company stand out from the competition, and try describing your brand as a consumer, to glean insights, writes MailChimp content strategist Kate Kiefer Lee. She also suggests teams brainstorm, and use emotional responses to guide a brand’s tone.

By Peter Marino, owner of reelWebDesign.com, a complete digital marketing company in NYC.

4 Ways of Funding Your Creative Business

March 20, 2013Crowd Funding, Small Business Marketing, TechnologyPeter Marino

Bringing a creative project to life requires hours of hard work, determination and a little luck. Great art often doesn’t require expensive supplies or resources, but sometimes the only thing holding back your creativity is cold, hard cash. Backing any business is tough, but funding your creative business can be a particular challenge. Oftentimes, creative entrepreneurs don’t have examples of successful businesses that share their models. Convincing an investor, bank or friend to gamble on you isn’t easy and the pressure that follows can stunt creative growth.

Luckily, a new wave of support for creative movements is connecting artists to willing investors. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter.com, local arts coalitions and other artists are putting money down. If you’re working on a creative project, look to creative funding sources.

Crowdfunding

The Internet is pro-entrepreneurship and pro-arts. The two come together at Kickstarter.com, a crowdfunding platform that enables aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas on a profile pages, where users can’t donate to causes. Kickstarter is one of many platforms that facilitates crowdfunding. In exchange for donations, businesses offer incentives — it could be a T-shirt, access to a behind-the-scenes blog or any other desirable perk. Crowdfunding received a vote of confidence in 2011 when congress passed a bill that made it easier for small businesses to raise money through crowdfunding, according to Inc.com.

Hundreds of creative entrepreneurs have already made their pitch on crowdfunding platforms. Put your idea out there and see who jumps on board.

Art Grants

You may be eligible for art grants, either through a local arts coalition or the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Nea.gov lists available grants in a number of disciplines, including visual arts, literature, music and design. Users can apply online for funding opportunities. Local governments often offer stipends for artists. Check with your local City of Commerce to find out about how your government supports the arts.

Credit Cards

Whether you’re opening an ice-cream shop or a dance studio, starting a business is taking a risk. In a perfect world, every entrepreneur would have the capital he or she needs to launch a business. Sometimes, though, businesses can’t scratch together the funds. That’s where credit cards come in. Credits cards can give creative entrepreneurs capital to get businesses off the ground, but it’s not without risk. Fail to pay the bill on time, and not only will you get pinned with high interest fees, your credit will take a nose dive. Credit cards have some perks, however. For example, American Express business credit cards offer cash-back bonuses for early payment, travel discounts and other business perks. Credit cards aren’t ideal, but for last-minute office supplies or client dinners, they’re an option.

Debt Loans

The most popular model for start-up funding, debt loans partner banks with business owners in long-term agreements. The two parties negotiate a loan, repayment schedule and late-payment penalties. Bank loans offer start-ups more time to build up a stable revenue than credit cards, but most banks have strict guidelines for loaning money. If you have strong credit and a practical business model, banks will be more likely to bank your start-up.