by Scott Meadows | Aug 7, 2014 | Tips
What Happened? As many of you know, Google is working all the time on providing its users the best search engine results. In order to do this, Google makes 500 – 600 algorithm updates each year with one or two major updates included in that. On July 24th, it appears that Google made some changes to its local ranking algorithm. Currently called “Pigeon” by Search Engine Land, this new algorithm update is the largest one since last year’s Humming bird update and is ruffling some feathers per say. What the industry is seeing is that this update is affecting brick and mortar businesses than online retailers via modifying local directory listings. What we’re finding is that search results seem to be more closely related to traditional search rankings. It appears that Google is relying less on its Google Places listings as many business owners are seeing their map rankings lowering in the search engine result pages. There has been some speculation that part of the reason for this change is due to the “Yelp Issue” noticed back in 2012 with the release of Google Places. Many felt that Google was manipulating results to place its Google Places results ahead of other directories such as Yelp. Many are finding with the new Pigeon update that Yelp and other directories are listing higher in the search engine ranks. How Does Google’s Pigeon Update Affect My Business? There are pros and cons with any of Google’s update. If your business has been following Google’s best practices regarding their off page search engine optimization and citation listing creation then this can be a...
by Scott Meadows | May 5, 2014 | Tips
So first, what is Social Media Marketing? Social Media Marketing is defined as using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Google+, etc to build traffic to your website through engaging with customers. This form of marketing is becoming more and more important for small business to implement and take advantage of. Why is Social Media Marketing so important? First lets look at some pretty staggering statistics: Facebook users have 254 friends on average Twitter users have 126 followers on average LinkedIN users have 141 connections on average The numbers above may not seem like a lot of exposure potential. Let’s take a look at what is possible. Say a business is using social media marketing and they have the average number of followers listed above. Your business would be delivering your message to a minimum of 521 people in your immediate network. That isn’t too shabby for a few minutes worth of work – But what if your immediate network also had the average number of followers and your message was so compelling that 10% of them re-posted your message. How many people would that be? Let’s again assume that their immediate network has the average number of followers (521). So 10% of your original followers list post out to their followers, that’s 52.1 (10% of 512) x 521 = 27,144.1 people or potential customers. So you can see how your message can become VIRAL. What about if those potential customers liked the message which was posted by the person they followed, think about if they shared the message as well. In the example above 10% is a...
by Scott Meadows | May 5, 2014 | Tips
Online Marketing – The Top Marketing Tactic Working Today We were reading a great article on NetworkSolutions.com regarding what Marketing Tactics are providing the highest return on investment these days. While the statistics were drawn from polling more than 150 business to business companies (B2B), we think the trends they found weren’t just for B2B companies, but apply to business to customer (B2C) companies as well. We weren’t surprised to see that Online Marketing was at the top of the list. What the data showed from these polls was that the Marketing Tactics which were working best for B2B companies were (in the following order): Online Marketing Email Marketing Trade Shows and Events Public Relations Advertising Direct Mail Telemarketing The article mentioned that four of the top five marketing tactics which B2B companies are using online are centered on Website Development, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). B2B businesses are making the transition to Online Marketing, knowing that their customers are no longer looking to the phone books, newspapers, radio, or TV to find goods and services. They, like us, are going to where that information is plentiful, we’re all going online. Based on these findings, businesses of all types need to focus their attention on Online Marketing if they haven’t already. We’re finding more and more that those companies who are staying connected with their customers, are using Online Marketing (also called Internet Marketing) Customers are looking for a more enriched experience, they want to see pictures or video of your goods or services, they want to get to know you and your staff, and they like to see bios of your...
by Scott Meadows | May 5, 2014 | Tips
Marketing for Small Business Doesn’t have to be Difficult Business Marketing requires a strategy that not only simplifies your effort but saves serious amounts of time and money. There are many ways for you to begin promoting your small business online and offline: guest blogging, social media, networking, speaking, introduction letters, seminars, and workshops. All fantastic and easy to leverage tools for you to get the word out about your business and to build a loyal following You must understand why you use a selected channel. It is not okay to join to Twitter or LinkedIn because all the others has been doing it, you’ll need to set goals that can then determine which marketing channels / activities can get ideal results. Here are 4 steps to assist you in creating an online marketing strategy which produces results The first step: Identify your low hanging fruit You should know who your warm prospects are. Be absolutely clear on who is ready for your services NOW. There isn’t any point pitching to people who aren’t ready to be plucked. The result of not identifying an ideal prospect is a marketing and social network waste of time and will not CONVERT well into profits. It is always easier to use a smaller list and network that converts than a large list and network that’s irrelevant. To recognize your ideal prospects: a. Be clear on who exactly it really is; Who needs you and your service. Are you targeting selling to businesses or are you a business to customer service? What is your ideal customer? If a business, what size of business,...
by Scott Meadows | May 5, 2014 | Tips
Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring Small Business Marketing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. I repeat, you don’t have to break the bank to create your small business marketing plan. BUT…you must do something to get the word out there. Most small business owners are hopeful that when they open their doors, customers will be tripping over themselves to come in and buy their products and/services. They know that their products and services are the best, their prices are reasonable, and that they provide a customer buying experience which is second to none. Given all of these must haves for a business, why shouldn’t they expect the doors to be busting at the seams with new customers? Well the customers won’t come if they don’t know about the business. This is why small business marketing is so important. Opening and operating a business without a small business marketing plan is about as good as opening a business in the middle of a very large cornfield. No one is going to know about it and it will take quite a long time to get a following to sustain the business. Many small business owners believe that it requires a huge investment in order to get the word out to their potential customers when sometimes it just takes a little bit of an investment of time and money. We as business owners need to see marketing as a TOP PRIORITY on our business to-do lists. Effective Small Business Marketing can be done on a shoestring budget and we’re here to show you how to do it. Below we’ve laid out some very effective, low or no cost ways to...
by Scott Meadows | May 5, 2014 | Tips
How Social Signals Are Affecting Search Engine Rankings Over the past few years, the criteria used by search engines to rank websites has been completely revolutionized with most search engine coming up with new, unique and accurate means of ranking web pages. This means that small business marketing companies have to come up with new and effective strategies or else risk having their clients’ websites ranked poorly. How websites are ranked Most search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing not only consider the website’s keyword density but also social signals from popular social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. This means that social signals data is collected regularly and used to rate how popular a given brand or company is. The search engine results are therefore altered depending on the popularity of the brand or the company on social websites. With these developments, entrepreneurs have no option in their small business marketing strategies but to change the way they relate with their clients on social media. Social signals data that is collected by search engines include: Number of followers on twitter Number of tweets that mention the small business Number of retweets of your postings Number of Google + Followers Number of Shares and Plus 1’s on Google + Number of Facebook followers, likes, and shares for your brand Create a strong social media presence One of the best and easiest small business marketing techniques is ensuring that your brands social media postings are read, liked, and shared by as many people as possible. Remember that the higher the number of people subscribed to your webpage commenting...
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