If you are a visual and auditory learner then you might be interested in viewing one of Blue Chip Marketing’s powerful videos. I have put together a handful of terrific videos that teach the basics of SEO, content development, and search engine marketing. Specifically, my five videos (two of them are two-part instructional videos) cover the following topics:
The Three Prongs of Your SEO Fork (Two Part Series)
Content Is King (But Keywords Are Queen)
How To Make Google Fall In Love With Your Site (Two Part Series)
I encourage you to watch these videos. All of them are under 10 minutes in length (one is 10:43) and are packed full of useful information that you can use in your business.
I hope you’ll take a moment to watch this first part of the “Three Prongs Of Your SEO Fork” series and then check out the other videos as well:
People love stories. Always have. That’s why good storytellers are some of the most loved people on the face of the earth. Recently, Brian Bieler wrote a great blog post about why stories are important in marketing and how you can engage your audience through storytelling. Here are some highlights to his very useful blog post:
Brian’s three keys to successful storytelling
Learn the story
Tell the story
Remember the story
A good story is one that captures people’s emotions. People will not always remember what you say, but they will remember how you make them feel. Get them emotionally involved and engage them with a memorable story full of images that create strong reasons to act. But remember that it isn’t the story that is the important thing. Features and benefits are far more important; the story is there to help you show the importance of features and benefits.
Brian’s Secret Storytelling Strategy
1. Use stories to keep ideas in order and show ideas sequentially: First this happened and then that happened
2. Use stories to point out how this happened or that happened
3. Use stories to help others understand why things happen
4. Use stories to share information and to illustrate
5. Use stories to help illustrate principles that can be used in other situations
Stories are powerful memory tools. People will remember what you tell them a lot better if you include a story that engages them emotionally. Good marketers are good storytellers.
Finally, Brian shares his craft of telling a story. Here’s how to do it, he says:
Start with simple, easily recognizable truths
Show people the way out of their problems
Let the customer win
Illustrate how your products and services work better than your competitors’
Provide value in everything you do
Point to scenarios that show how and why things happen
Leave your listeners room to have their own point of view
Have fun and be real
These are great tips. Good sales people are good storytellers. If you can’t engage your audience with a good story then you could lose their interest. It’s one of the most powerful sales tools on the planet and I agree with Brian that with good stories you can close a lot of sales.
Today’s post is a great example of two things that I talk about often:
1. An example of where to find ideas for your blog posts
2. Why it’s crucial that you know what makes your business unique
Where to find blog post ideas
Whenever I talk about blogging, invariably people will ask me, “where do you get the ideas for things to blog about?” One of my favorite ways is by reading articles, newspapers, books - anything basically - that pertain to my blog’s topic and then using content I find within those sources within my blogs. It’s not real often that I read an actual print newspaper (it’s usually online), but I was waiting for an appointment last week and I happened to pick up the Variety section of my local paper. Usually I don’t get blog ideas from the cartoon section of the paper, but today’s post shows that good blog ideas can come from just about anywhere!
Why it’s crucial that you know what makes your business unique
With full credit to Stephan Pastis and his Pearls Before Swine cartoon, I had to share this with you. It makes a great case for understanding what sets your business apart from your competitors - what makes it unique and different. If there are a dozen travel agencies in your town, and you plan to open another one, then you’d better offer something unique and different that those other 12 companies don’t offer - or, offer a similar service in a unique and different way.
Research shows that over 65% of all businesses cannot articulate their unique, competitive point(s) of differentiation. I know from my own experience working with my clients that this is one of the areas they struggle with the most — think of the opportunity you have as a business to set yourself apart from your competitors, just by figuring out how to state what makes you different ! Just by doing that, you will be ahead of 65% of your competitors - especially online where you have just 8 seconds to capture your prospect’s attention when they land on your website and convince them you have what they are looking for.
Marketing has been around a long time. Without it, most businesses would never have survived. Though I’ve met some business owners in some towns who say they’ve never advertised. I guess their service is so good their customers just talk about them. That’s the best kind of advertising there is - and you don’t have to pay for it.
But most of it, even if our service is darn good, still have to pay for some form of marketing.
Traditional marketing works. So why abandon it, right? Internet marketing works. So we should use it, right? Well, it depends on who you talk to.
The key to any kind of marketing, of course, is effectiveness. The bottom line: Will it increase your ROI? Traditional modes of marketing like the yellow pages are being replaced rather quickly by online versions of the same product, except that the online version is much more flexible and versatile and has the power to increase ROIs tremendously more by reaching a broader base of people interested in your core product or service. Other modes of Internet marketing are doing the same thing. But this is no reason to assume that small business owners should abandon traditional marketing streams.
Sure, you can give up on some of those methods. If you find that your reach is declining through certain traditional marketing methods that you used to see gains on then that could be a sign that it’s time to try something different. But there are still traditional marketing practices that work. That’s why I recommend something I call integrated marketing.
Integrated marketing is taking the best of traditional marketing and coupling it with the best strategies from Internet marketing to tailor a marketing strategy that works for your business. We will examine your business model to see what you have done in the past and to evaluate your current marketing blueprint. If something is working for you then we won’t change it. But if it isn’t then we can find something to replace it, something that will increase your ROI.
Today is the day to look at changes to your marketing plan, changes that could propel you into the 21st century and reach more customers with fewer dollars. Find out how now.
David Meerman Scott at Web Ink Now wrote a good post on why online business is important. He says:
If you’re selling camels at the Riyadh camel market, then keep marketing the same old ways.
But if you’re not selling camels in Riyadh, then you need to stop making excuses and implement ways to reach your buyers directly with great online content.
That’s funny, but it’s true. Ironically, David himself missed an opportunity to increase his own brand exposure. I wanted to embed his video here on this blog, but he’s got that feature turned off. He could have included his name and URL in the credits of his blog and allowed others to embed the video on their blogs and websites, giving him greater exposure. Of course, the flip side is by not doing that I have to link to his blog instead. But not everyone will. Some people would prefer to play the video and if they can’t do that then they won’t blog on that topic, or they’ll go find another video to use to make their point.
At any rate, thanks to David for pointing out the importance of doing business online for (almost) everyone.
The headline caught my attention: “Former Blog-Basher Patrick Goldstein is Blogging.” But what does that have to with underwear?
Mediabistro, a website for writers, recommends that he blog in his underwear.
So this got me thinking. Why not? As long as you aren’t video blogging, no one will know, right?
Yes, that’s true. No one may know, but you are writing your business blog so you should maintain a level of professionalism about it. One thing that attracts people to the idea of starting their own business at home is the temptation to work in their underwear. But, if truth be known, you will be much more productive if you don’t. Just because you are working at home doesn’t mean you aren’t working. You will be a lot more motivated to keep your mind on business if you dress for business. But if you must … underwear or not, just blog. It’s good for business and that’s why blog-haters are now changing their minds and joining our ranks.
There are many places online where you can get photos for your blog or website. But do you know where the stock photos to fill those sites come from?
Generally, stock photos are provided by freelance photographers and average people just like you. If you have a digital camera then you can be a contributor. But many of the photos are hard to come by on your own and that’s why it’s important to use stock photo sites. Many of them allow you to use your photos online or in print.
If you have a need, for instance, of a photo of Mount Rushmore and you live in Alaska you’ll have to travel a long way to get your photo. But you can download that photo online from a stock photo website. Usually, a person who lives in the area of Mount Rushmore, or who may have visited the site, uploaded the photo and is paid a commission based on the number of downloads for that photo.
In-text links are very important for business. An in-text link gets clicked on more than any other type of link. And there is a company that sells links to businesses in a pay-per-click fashion so that you can attract targeted traffic through links from other web pages.
Ordinarily, I’d say buying text links are bad. But there are times when you might want to do it. Kontera is a pay-per-click company that makes this easy.
Unlike other pay-per-click options, Kontera isn’t offering display ads, which don’t get clicked on much. Instead, your pay-per-click ads appear within the text of a website that is relevant to yours. In other words, if you sell automotive parts then your in-text links will appear on other automotive sites that have opted to publish Kontera ads. You, the advertiser, have the opportunity to tap into the targeted traffic on other automotive websites.
So is this type of advertising as good as newspaper advertising? It’s better in a number of ways. No. 1, it’s targeted advertising. No. 2, since newspapers are in decline, newspaper advertising is in decline. But Internet advertising is on the upswing, which means the opportunities, the best opportunities for advertising, are online. And the best of the best opportunities are with in-text advertising because those are the most valuable links.
Is there a downside? If there is a downside it is that Google frowns upon paid links. But typically it penalizes the publishers who earn revenue from the links, not the websites to which the links point. So the downside is minimal. The benefits are a lot better.
If you spend very long online learning a little bit about Internet marketing you will hear the phrase, “Content is King.” This is Web marketers’ way of saying that what you put on your website determines whether you are successful or not. Traditionally it has meant the words that you use to sell your products and services. But does it really mean that?
There are different kinds of content. Which type of content is right for your website depends a great deal on your goals and the type of website you are building. For most websites, a mix of content is important. But what are the different types of content available?
Webmasters need to stop thinking about content as merely words on the page. Here is a list of content categories that you should consider when developing your website:
Sales Content - You do want to close sales, don’t you? Well, you’ll need the content that does it. Words. Someone has to write it and the content writer needs to have an understanding of what motivates people to click and pull out their credit cards.
Informational Content - More words. Unlike sales content, information doesn’t necessarily intend to get your reader to hit the “Buy Now” button. It does inform the reader and is useful in the sale process. But it’s more about pre-sales than actual sales.
Graphics - Every website needs graphic enhancements. The graphics on a site are usually not the primary focus, but they are important content that serves to draw attention to the words you use to convey your information and close sales.
Meta Content - Meta tags are still important. Maybe they’re not the most important thing on you website, but it’s still content that you need to give some thought to.
Video Content - Video content can be useful and it’s fast becoming a type of content that almost anyone can benefit from. Videos make your website more interactive and interesting.
Audio Content - Sometimes you just want people to listen. While not quite as active as video content, audio content can still be very powerful.
Links - Yes, links are content too. How you link your web pages together, the anchor text you use, how you go about your link building campaigns, all of that is important and you should think hard about how you want your links to add up.
Advertising Content - If you do any off-site advertising such pay per click or banner advertising on like sites then your ad content is very important.
Other Content - Sometimes, digital information like e-books, .pdf files, RSS feeds, and other technologies can seem like unnecessary distractions, but they’re really not. It is important to think about how all of these content types can work together to make your internet marketing more effective. Even social networking content is a category you should consider when building your website. How will you use the networks, RSS feeds, etc. to drive traffic to your site. Leave no question unasked about content.
