Search, Social and Lead Marketing for Business Blog

I have met people who swear that they will never click on the link on the right-hand side of the search results page, because they know those are the sites that pay money for those clicks.

It’s true, Google/Yahoo/Bing and other search engines result pages show paid search listings on a shaded background or on the right-hand side. But statistics data shows that these paid search Ads can be very effective and normally result in a quick and easy way to turn on your lead flow.
Of course, your potential customers are not only searching on their desktop, they are also searching on multiple devices such as tablets and smartphones. In addition, there are other criteria that differentiate searches including the time of day and browser version to name a few. Google is aware of the growing complexity in the ways that your potential customers are searching for your products and services and has recently updated its advertising product, Google AdWords, to reduce the complexities involved in managing multiple campaigns.

How to Integrate PPC with Other Digital Marketing Tactics?

Dana's presentation, "Search, Social, & Mobile Marketing for Business Brokers" fits nicely in with the theme of the CABB Annual Productivity Conference, since past participants value the unique opportunity to network, share information with one another, and re-invigorate.

She's invited to talk on Friday March 22nd at the Embassy Suites in Napa California.  It's a true pleasure for Dana to share with the business community and where better than Napa?

Speaker Bio

Dana Chen Fischer is the president of NetEdge Marketing and is a certified advanced Internet marketing consultant.  In her work as an Internet consultant, Dana's focus is to help small to midsize companies leverage their website to generate sales leads and increase revenues.

Dana frequently speaks to business conferences, companies and organizations such as Silicon Valley SCORE, San Jose State University, Key Point Credit Union, National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and Construction Finance Management Association (CFMA), California Business Broker Association (CABB) on the key benefits of digital marketing.

Every few months, Facebook releases a new feature which users seem to either love or hate. Many of these features are thought to improve the user experience, but few offer ways to improve how businesses interact via Facebook. With Social Media replacing other traditional marketing mediums, it is very important for companies to embrace Facebook and other Social Media networks. Some of the latest feature additions on Facebook include, timeline, better integration with Instagram, and more recently Facebook graph search. If used correctly Facebook's graph search offers a way for digital marketing companies to promote companies in incredible ways.

In early January, Facebook released a new feature called graph search. This new feature allows Facebook users to search through photos, places, people and even very specific interests of members. This allows users to search for things like, “who are my friends in Los Angeles”, or “What are some restaurants that my friends like”. This is an incredibly powerful digital marketing tool which combines the huge benefits of social media with the ease of a search engine. Facebook is looking for users to come to their site for more than just to look at photos and status updates, but to find restaurants and other information which can be very valuable to companies looking to gain new business online.

Internet marketing consulting companies are already starting to take notice of this new feature. Unfortunately, this feature is only in beta now, but Facebook has indicated that it will begin rolling out to all users within the next few months. As people begin to use it more, the data will become much more detailed and useful, hence the graph search name. In digital marketing, it is very important for companies to constantly stay ahead of all of the latest Social Media trends so that these businesses are not left behind as the Internet marketing world is constantly changing. Once this feature is widely used on Facebook, it will allow Internet marketing consulting companies to target these very defined searches to give their clients an easy way to reach highly targeted customers. Imagine if you are a Mexican restaurant in San Jose and could show up in searches for “best Mexican restaurant in San Jose” on Facebook. This could be a way to greatly increase traffic to your web site and ultimately to your restaurant.

While many companies are excited about this new feature, it is important for Facebook users to understand that their privacy settings will not be affected by this new roll out. Facebook has not done the best job of disclosing all of their privacy settings in the past, so they have made sure to give users complete control over how their information appears when other users are performing searches with graph search. All of these privacy settings are configurable in the familiar privacy settings portion of Facebook. Users will have the same level of flexibility when it comes to controlling how much of a Facebook profile is accessible by others when using this new feature.

Facebook's graph search is thought to be one of the most business friendly features to be added to this popular Social Media network in quite some time. If you are looking for a digital marketing company to take your Internet presence to the next level, make sure that they are well versed in Facebook's new graph search technology. With the proper implementation, this new technology can mean increased business for your growing company!

Earn Big Returns with an Effective Web Site Marketing Plan

What does your web site do for your company? If you answered anything other than, “Increases profit,” the web site is a liability. Grab the lion’s share of online customers looking for your products and services--or your competition will. Learn how by answering The Five Questions.

Five Questions You Need to Ask Before Investing in Web Site Marketing

You wouldn’t pay a contractor to build a new office building for your company until you were certain that the construction would more than pay for itself by meeting your current needs and anticipating future growth. In the same way, an investment in web design and development needs a solid plan before construction begins. 

Ask Yourself:

1.    What do we want the web site to do for our organization?
Start your site’s web design and development by analyzing your company’s web site marketing objectives. Do you need to establish your company’s branding and image online? Increase sales? Bring in more leads? Reduce operation costs and improve efficiency? 

2.    Who do we want to attract to the site?
Know who your target customer is and exactly what they’re looking for. Then work with your web site development consultant to implement strategies that capture the prospect’s attention and lead them to your site. 

3.    What do we want the visitor to do when they arrive at our web site?
Contact you for more information? Get a quote? Make a purchase? The web site development and design should appeal to visitors, build your credibility, overcome any hesitations they may have, and entice them to act immediately. 

4.    How will we know what marketing strategies are successful and what need to be improved?
A solid web analytics program gives you detailed information about the success of your internet marketing campaigns--who is visiting, where they’ve come from, what they’re looking for, how they behave on your site, and much more. Most web developers can implement web analytics technology in a web site, but it’s essential that your web analytics strategy includes an expert who knows how to interpret this information, see how it fits with your web site marketing objectives, and make effective recommendations. 

5.    Technology changes rapidly. How do we keep our site current and relevant?
A vital part of an effective web design and development strategy is planning for future growth and changes in technology. Your internet marketing consultant, like other trusted business advisors, should create a web site that anticipates changing technology and easily accommodates it. They should also conduct regular evaluations of your site’s status, and make recommendations to ensure you stay on top of the competition.

 

Do you have more questions about marketing your business online? NetEdge's expertise and dedication to helping our customers achieve their internet marketing objectives sets us apart. 

Know what’s hot for 2012, and prepare your business for these online trends

• It’s the year for Social Media Marketing. In 2012, businesses will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. Every company needs a social media marketing strategy and the right resources to manage it.

• Mobile marketing is on the go. The increase in smart-phone use and relaxed download caps on mobile phone plans has seen mobile marketing gain momentum. Tablet devices should now be a mainstream consideration in your digital marketing strategy. 

• 2012 will see a new era of online video content, re-introducing the human element and changing the nature of communication; making it dynamic, interactive and instant. Video will be used more for mainstream online content and advertising.  

• SEO is going to be complex (if it isn’t enough already!). Competition for Google heats up with Yahoo, Bing, Search.com, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.Getting your business on the first page of search results will become tougher. Mobile search and geo-location will further increase the challenges and surprises for search engine optimizers.

Refresh your online presence for 2013

Google+ has now 400 million registered users (100 million active users in a month) and this figure is expected to get even bigger in the near future. For business owners, this trend means a lot as this provides another yet promising venue to reach prospects, a place to showcase products and services, and, ultimately, to increase return-on-investments. 

To increase your chances for success, you must build high presence in this social network. We have here in this resource some useful tips aimed to give your Google+ visibility a boost.

1. Catchy link. As you can observe, Google+ URL comes in a series of numbers (the Google+ ID) and this, obviously, is not effective for brand awareness. Fortunately, there are third party services available that allow you to customize your URL so that it becomes catchy. Link-shortening tools such as GPlus.to, GoPlus.us, and Plus.ly are some examples you can use to make a more compelling URL.
2. Improve the visual component. Let’s admit it - Google+ lacks the visual elements of Facebook’s Timeline. However, you can still improve its visual components to make it more professional or more ‘corporate’. For your profile, you can add a nice header and profile photos that best reflect you and the business you represent. Creating business profile page is also recommended - you can make it as your default page instead of your personal profile. Also, still part of improving the visual component, uploading more photos of your products or services can help make your page more interesting to your contacts/followers.
3. Use a short, concise, powerful tagline. Because the number of characters for tagline is limited, it makes sense to make it short but concise and powerful. If you try to hover over a link (of a particular account) on Google+, you can see a small preview box that pops up displaying a profile image, tagline, and the option to follow. Notice that only the first five words or so of the tagline appear, so make them count!
4. Take advantage of the Hangouts feature. If Facebook has Wall, Google+ has Hangouts. It is basically a Google+ functionality / feature that allows users to go for video chat – lets multiple people to converse at once. This feature can be used for your business’s more personalized customer service, a venue to initiate Q&As, as well as roundtable discussions.
5. Targeted posts. Every time you post something on your account, make sure it targets the intended audience; one type of content might be relevant to half of your contacts but not to the other half. How can you make your post more targeted? Circles are Google’s way of letting you to organize your contacts and deliver more targeted posts. You can separate your regular customers in one circle from the general public. However, you need to bear in mind that you can only sort your contacts if they have added your page in their circles already.
6. Connect your website to your Google+ profile. Once you have built your Google+ page, it is highly recommended that you link your main website into it. This can be done by adding Google+ badge on your website – it should be placed on a page so that it is more visible to website visitors (usually above the fold). Having a Google+ badge on your website helps build a list of followers, loyal customers.
7. Optimize Google+ profile for search engines. Your Google+ profile is actually index-able in search engines so it is good SEO-wise; it can appear on SERPs for a particular search query and therefore can bring more organic juice for your website, boosting its ranking.

So, we’ve just given you some simple Google+ techniques. There are more things you can do to achieve better social media experience for your business – you just need to be more creative.

Search. Social. Mobile - How these Work Together to Create an Extraordinary Online Presence

The Internet reinvents itself year after year. But unlike designer fashions that are here today and gone tomorrow, the elements of digital marketing continue to stack up. Businesses need to continuously invest in the latest technologies and methodologies to stay relevant online. In fact, businesses that stand out use all the digital marketing elements to leverage their synergies. We will discuss three of the main elements in digital marketing:

• Search. This is still one of the most cost effective means for B2B businesses to create brand awareness and generate sales leads. Studies show that 91% of buyers go to suppliers’ websites before calling.
• Social. Powerful social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have created a space for customers to have discussions about products and services. Savvy businesses use these platforms to establish dialogs with their customers and to establish trusting relationships.
• Mobile. With the rise and adoption of smart phones and other mobile devices, the power of the Internet has left homes and offices and has followed customers into the world.

 

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Even though increasing organic traffic should be part of your blogging strategy, for your blog to succeed and last long, it is more important to write useful, compelling content for human readers. Here are some reminders for effective business blogging:

 

Do’s

• Adding links within your blog posts pointing back to other pages useful to your readers; this also helps for your site’s ranking.
• See to it that all information you post on your business blog is meaningful, beneficial to customers; your blog should also be updated regularly to keep them coming back - this is imperative in digital marketing.
• Interact with your audience and this is usually done by replying to their comments, views, opinions, and queries; spams should be scraped out as well.
• Target niche keywords as this can help, SEO-wise.

Don’ts

• Do not just feed information about your products - in other words, avoid being too sales-focused or sounds so promotional.
• Do not use corporate rhetoric, acronyms and jargon that can only confuse your readers, potential customers.
• Do not put off regular posts and updates as this can negatively affect your online reputation both in the eyes of search engines and your readers expecting for fresh updates.
• Don not try to micro-manage your brand image – in other words, don’t keep customers in the dark by hiding or censoring some of your business details.

There are certain best practices that can help you enhance your online presence and achieve your optimum business potential through blogging; some of these are the following:

It is true that a business blog today can provide an avenue for your company to share news and views but more than that, it is an effective medium that can help get your message across. In other words, it can change the way your customers, employees and associates think about your business. When leadership becomes the prime objective of your blog, more and more audiences start to recognize the distinctive value that your company brings for them.

Undeniable benefits of business blogging