Category Archives: Facebook Marketing

What Mobile Marketing Means For You

Facebook Marketing, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Viral marketing, ,

Mobile marketingThe technological world has opened up many doors for advertising via mobile.  Virtually everyone has some sort of mobile device that connects to the internet, be it a phone or one of the numerous tablets available today.  This has opened opportunities for the “old time” internet marketing to go mobile, and many businesses are taking full advantage.

E-mail

A good mobile marketing service will tell you that e-mail is still a killer way to reach your audience and get more business.  The key is to get them to sign up for the e-mails.  How is that done?  Offer them something in return.  Many restaurants offer a free dessert or appetizer in exchange for signing up for their emails.  How do they adapt this to the mobile era?  Make the coupon one that does not have to be printed.  Rather allow the user to simply show their mobile device and have it scanned, and they receive the free item or discount.  This works for other businesses as well and generally it works best if perks come periodically.  This keeps customers opening those emails.

Text Messaging

A great many businesses are offering text promotions similar to email lists.  Customers can test a simple message to a simple number and receive periodic updates from the company.

The technological world has opened up many doors for advertising via mobile marketing. Virtually everyone has some sort of mobile device that connects to the internet, be it a phone or one of the numerous tablets available today. Obviously the Kindle Fire and the iPad are the most popular, but there are also other brands of tablet computers out there these days.

The same hook works here.  Typically a discount or free items is offered at sign up, and then occasionally a text will come that offers an exclusive discount by simply showing the text when making the purchase.  This is another area where a mobile marketing service can help out, as they can handle all of the incoming and outgoing texts for any campaign and relieve the business owner of those duties.

Social Media

Facebook and Twitter campaigns have been popular for a while, but mobile devices now allow customers to participate anytime, anywhere.   And increasing number of businesses are making Facebook promotions available by showing the mobile device as well as printing, meaning it is no longer necessary to find a printer before taking advantage.  These campaigns can grow very rapidly, with Facebook responses and Tweets reaching into the thousands quickly.  A mobile marketing service can focus on all of this, as well as monitor the sites involved; ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

With the world of mobile marketing growing by leaps and bounds, it is wise for business owners to find help when it comes to starting and maintaining a successful mobile marketing campaign.  While in the beginning it may not be a big deal, a mobile marketing service can definitely be beneficial in long term. To learn more about mobile marketing services, click here.

Lisa Swan writes for a variety of computing websites. She lives in New York City.

10 Tips To Help Establish Online Authority In Your Niche

Blogging, content marketing, Facebook Marketing, Reputation, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing,

online authorityAn online business with authority will stay ahead of the competition. Of course, when looking to get to the top, one must work hard. Here are 10 tips to help establish online authority in your niche.

Organic search results: When using a major search engine, a potential customer will place a lot of value on the top results. Remember, a business that ranks highly for the main keywords will have a serious advantage against the competition. Luckily, a website owner with great content and solid links can rank highly in the leading search engines

Guest posting: A well-written guest post will build the authority of an author. To get started, the business owner should contact bloggers to swap posts. With a well-written post, a business owner will see a serious spike in traffic to his or her website.

Advertisements: When searching on Google, one will see ads. When the ads of a company appear at the top of the search results, one will gain more customers. Remember, when a business has more exposure, customers will take notice.

Articles: A business owner should write articles relevant to his or her field. Then, the expert can posts articles all over the Internet. This will help a person establish their authority and gain in the SEO results. Remember, an informative article will help the individual gain authority for the short and long-term.

Social media: Now, customers expect to see a company on Facebook and Twitter. Luckily, one can set up social media accounts in an afternoon.

Website: When making a website, one must keep customers in mind. Ideally, the webmaster should include solid and interesting content on the Web pages. When including useful information, one will have a leg up on establishing a rapport with visitors.

Book: When an author can write an e-book, he or she will gain a loyal following. Fortunately, one can write an electronic book in their spare time. When giving the material away, an entrepreneur will go a long way in marketing his or her idea to thousands of followers.

Questions and answers: There are plenty of question and answer sites on the Internet. An informed individual should sign up for these sites and start answering questions. When doing so, the site owner will gain interested and loyal followers. Using these sites can also help a business owner with their SEO results.

Videos: People love to watch videos on the Internet. When posting an informative and helpful video, an entrepreneur can garner interest in his or her product or service. Remember, with a video, one can highlight their big ideas.

Press release: When writing a press release, a company can create a buzz for a product release. To get started, an individual should research the basics of a press release. Then, the entrepreneur should write the content and release it on news sites. With well-written release, a company should build authority on the Internet quickly.

When following these 10 tips, a company should have no problem establishing online authority in their niche.

Mark Smith is a business developer and technology enthusiest who swears by the Servecorp virtual office.

Why You Should Be A Social CEO

Blogging, content marketing, Copywriting, Facebook Marketing, Pinterest, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, ,

Three-quarters of executives wants their chief executive officer to become the social face of their brand, a new study from KRC Research and Weber Shandwick has revealed.

That’s because eight in 10 executives believe CEO sociability improves company reputation. 630 executives were interviewed and the vast majority wants their CEOs to use social media channels and engage with customers more frequently.

The benefits of a social CEO

The report actually predicts that the number of CEOs participating in social media will increase by 50 per cent in the next five years as people’s need to put a face to a brand and see who’s behind a company grows.

Some companies may be tempted to offload this responsibility on someone other than the CEO, but it should remembered that with a unique position comes a unique ability to influence how people feel about a company.

A social CEO can:

• Humanise the company

• Boost the company’s reputation

• Improve business results

• Show the company is innovative

• Set a social example for employees

Clearly all these duties can be carried out by someone other than a CEO, but it’s very rare for a company to have an employee who is better placed to lead from the front on these matters.

So, it’s time for CEOs to start taking social media seriously and learn how to use it to their businesses’ benefit.

They need to understand that social media takes time and it’s not just about updating the company’s blog or a social account like Facebook or LinkedIn with annoying promotional messages that customers will probably ignore.

CEOs should use social platforms to engage with conversation with existing and potential customers. They also need to understand that their social media activity should revolve around their audience. It’s all about the needs, wants and desires of the people a firm is trying to reach. It shouldn’t be all about the company.

The CEO Blogger

A blog is a great way to introduce a CEO to customers as it provides a solid platform to which other social activities can be anchor.

However, content needs to be well-written and helpful. Try and stay away from dull posts about what you had for breakfast and instead focus on tips and advice that will help people out.

Engaging in conversation and replying to comments will help gain customers’ trust, especially if they come right from the top.

In fact, the report showed that 32 percent of the executives with a socially active CEO believed comments posted by CEOs on social media channels are more credible, compared to 24 percent of executives who deemed CEO comments quoted by news media to be more credible.

The habits of highly social CEOs

Aside from blogging, Weber Shandwick’s report outlines several habits of highly social CEOs. These are:

1. Using a bigger set of social tools

2. Maintaining a presence on the company website

3. Writing their own content

4. Acting spontaneously but not becoming too informal

5. Engaging a wider variety of external stakeholders

Having a social CEO can bring so many benefits to a business so long as the CEO understands what social media is and doesn’t see it as a tool to push the company’s products and services on their customer’s feeds.

Guest post Alex Gavril – part of the 123-reg blog team. The company is the UK’s largest provider of domain names and offers a range of services including web hosting.

3 Questions To Ask Answer Before Designing Your Medical Website

Facebook Marketing, medical website design, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

medical-website-designBefore you spend lots of money designing a flashy new website you are going to want to make sure that it’s not just bells and whistles with no real content to sell your business. Make sure you have a site that helps you capitalize on your potential clientele and effectively market your services. Before you even get started ask yourself these following questions.

Do I make the most of my staff page?

If you want people to know right off the bat what kind of person you are, show them the faces behind the company. Truly take advantage of the opportunity to share information about yourself and your staff. Include photos and brief bios about each of your staff members. You’d be surprised how comforting this can be for people who may be skeptical about your company, perhaps because they are considering leaving a practice they’d come to know and love. They would really benefit from seeing the type of people they’ll meet in your office. It’s always good to put a face to a name and that is especially true when putting a face to your business.

Also don’t be afraid to step outside of the box with your staff bios. Perhaps instead of just listing their name, occupation and credentials, include interesting facts about them. For example customers may find it endearing to know their favorite quotes or most cherished accomplishment.

Does my web design have ‘social proof’?

Social Proof is a “psychology phenomenon where people assume the action of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation…driven by the assumption that the surrounding people have more information than they do.” It is a classic case of monkey see monkey do. You can use social media to make sure your business is being talked about, shared and maintaining a degree of popularity, therefore building your reputation through social proof.

You probably know by now that you need to have your business represented on Facebook, so you have created a Facebook page. You want your page to be active and engaging. Don’t host a page simply for the sake of putting it on your website. Use it as a way to interact with your clients, stay engaged with the online community and show that you are personable and truly involved in your field. Use it to post articles about your field, links to your specials, and to start discussions about the new and inventive procedures your office offers. That is all content and content is important if you want to get noticed.

Facebook has been offering the “Sponsored Story” feature for some time now. It allows advertisers to attain more likes, posts and other activity. By getting their “story” featured, it is seen on the right hand side of your friends Facebook screen and functions as an advertisement of sorts.

In addition to Facebook make sure your social presence is big! If someone tweets something like, “I just got treated for sun damage at “XYZ Dermatology” and my skin has never looked better,” be sure to re-tweet it. Get listed on Yelp, be searchable on Google Business, allow people to check-in on Foursquare, get subscribers to your blog, and post testimonials to your page. Most importantly, make sure it all links back to your website.

Is my site at all persuasive?

Remember that at the end of the day you are selling a service. You can have the prettiest website on the internet and never get a single client if you aren’t persuasive. Incorporate some simple selling strategies to make sure that you are actively marketing and selling your services.

Product Badges—Help your customers during the decision making process by “badging” certain products with qualities such as “best-selling service,” “customer favorite,” “limited time only.”

Customer Reviews—the badges will catch their eye and the reviews will reel them in. You’ve labeled a product as best-selling, so include a review from a particularly happy customer to let people know that you aren’t baselessly boasting about your services.

Suggested sells—Strategies like buy-one get half off is a great way to persuade customers to try new products. Also sharing information about what other clients are buying can be quite persuasive. For example you could have a note under products that complement each other reading something like, “Customers who received the advanced acne treatment also purchased the dark spot removal services.” It suggests that getting both is a logical decision many others have also made and therefore is likely a good investment.

Our Guest Author: Dr. Steven Zimmet is an Austin dermatologist at Zimmet Vein and Dermatology who is dedicated to venous and dermatological advancements. Dr. Zimmet was nominated by his peers for inclusion in the Best Doctors in America Database 2011-2012 and has proudly served the Austin area for several years.