BroadVision Marketing Blog

I am still on a kick about what it really costs to work on your social media marketing. We are assuming right here that you are going to do all the work on your social media yourself rather than have someone in your office or having an external marketing firm do this for you.

We have determined that writing your blog yourself, if you are worth $30 an hour, is going to cost you $720 a month with a time cost of around 24 hours.

Topics: marketing, Pinterest, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, social media marketing, Blogging, Twitter

Have you ever gone fishing and taken several poles?  Business blogging and other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are like having several poles in the water to hook a client into coming to your website and using your products or services. These platforms are not hard sell platforms. People won’t come visit you if all you do is bombard them with why they need your product or service. They want to learn something or be entertained. What you tell them is the bait on your hook.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter, Marketing strategy

A business blog is the anchor to which all your other social media platforms are tied. It’s your blog that goes on your Facebook Fan Page and you tweet about. These in turn get passed around by others who in turn come to your website to read that blog. Furthermore when the search engines are aware of the information in your blog, strangers will search for some keywords and find themselves on your business blog. That’s powerful stuff.

Topics: Google, WordPress, Corporate blog, Business Blogging, blog, Facebook, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

Business blogging is a powerful low-cost marketing tool when you look at all the other marketing tools available. Its power is in the fact that you are writing about what you know. While it takes time, your knowledge is the value added if you have taken the time to learn how to use blogging properly. There is a big caveat here. Do not expect your blog to get you instant clients, customers or even readers. Expect little and you will be surprised when things work out. Expect instant success and you will be disappointed.

Topics: marketing, Web search engine, Business Blogging, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Being Social"] [/caption]

Do you see yourself as Mr. or Ms. Business Blogger, along the same lines as the  “Cherry Ames, Companion Nurse” stories by Helen Wells? Writing a business blog is a good step in the right direction, but if no one reads your blog, you have just wasted a lot of time.

How do you get that great article you wrote out there? Blogging and social networking are both parts of the same strategy. You have to go out and promote your blog by being social. There are many different ways you can use to get your word out. We are just going to look at four.

• Twitter is a quick way to let people know that you are in business and that you have a live website, as opposed to one that is static where nothing new is ever going on. You can tweet about your new post in such a way that people will be interested in reading about it. Remember that no one wants to be sold on social network. They do want to learn things and be entertained. If you are offering information, make that obvious in your tweet. Oh yes, it’s a good idea to put out around 10 tweets on various subjects a day and then spend some time actually on Twitter to show that you are a real person.

Topics: Using Different Media, Google, Corporate blog, Social network, Helen Wells, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Blogging, Twitter

One of the greatest things since sliced bread in the business blogging world is using multimedia. This week you have seen me use some of the ideas that I have written about. Today I have a video for you because words sell and video helps.

[kkytv id="livzJTIWlmY" width="600" height="385"]

 

• Adding video and photos to your website and blogs can have a major impact on your sales.

• Unless you are aiming for an amateur look, create videos that look professional or you can find something like the one I found on YouTube. These will enhance your image.

• Remember that photos are not free. When you search using Google and select images, go to the funny gear looking thing on the upper right. Click on that and go to advanced settings. You will go to a page that at the bottom has a place where you check mark that you want images that are free. Click search and see what is left. Not satisfied? Try Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ using the attribution license and be sure to attribute. Try PublicDomainPictures.net: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/;  or Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/free-results.php?searchby=sandwich+generation&searchtype=free.

• You can also purchase photos and graphics, often for reasonable rates.

What sort of multimedia are you using? How has it worked for you? What would you like to know more about?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

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• WordPress' new version 3.3 gives multimedia and mobile some love (venturebeat.com)


• My Mini-Gallery At Dreamstime (richbystockphoto.wordpress.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Videos, Multimedia, Photos, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

When it comes to business blogging (or any blogging for that matter), content is king of social media. You can save money by writing from your own experience and you can build your business at the same time.

You want to create original content full of your sage advice. You also need to keep your blog fresh with more and more of this original content. Of course, it is always great to have a guest blogger who has a different approach to add to the originality of your site. All these are clues in how to reach your audience.

What you want is to create posts that are not only original, but also give in-depth answers to your clients’ questions. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

• Be sure you use your keywords constantly. If you want clients to find your answers, you have to improve your blog’s search-engine-optimizationability (yes, I just made that up). If you are writing about eye care, be sure you talk about eye care. If you are focusing on homecare services, house cleaning or Rolex watches, you want to use key words as often as possible without sounding silly.

• If you are a local brick and mortar business or if you are a national chain, it is always best to blog to a particular region. Talking about clients or using testimonials with a particular area mentioned is always a good way to tag your community. In doing this, if a person in Fort Worth is looking for a house cleaning service, your site will come up in the search.

• What you don’t want to be is a blogging commercial. People don’t watch television to see nothing but commercials. No one will read your blog if it is one long commercial for you. You don’t want to promote a product, service or your business in every post.  One source I read suggested that you use a mixture of 75% information and 25% promotion.  It’s worth an experiment. You can always tweak your percentages depending on the success of the experiment.

• Along those lines you want to vary your posts. You can embed videos from YouTube or link to cartoons and comics. There are always occasional funny stories or cool illustrations, maybe even with one of your clients as long as you don’t violate privacy. Guest blog posts are a super addition and so are graphics or charts. Info graphics are becoming a popular item.

Blogging is one of those bread-and-butter items of social media that will keep you in front of your clients, prospects and search engine.  Yes, content is king.

What do you think is the most important aspect of business blogging? How are your blogging efforts working for you?

For more information please refer to our new guide: An Introduction to Business Blogging.

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

Related articles

• What is a business blog anyway? (marketing.yell.com)

• What's stopping you writing a business blog? (marketing.yell.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Web search engine, Rolex, User-generated content, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging

All businesses selling products or services are familiar with the term “marketing budget.” This means a plan to organize and allocate future funding of business functions. If you only have money for a mini-compact car, you are not going to go look at limousines. Right?

Let’s say you have a marketing budget of $1,000. If we use this to bring people to a computer site, we would call the same amount we intend to spend a “traffic budget,” since we are working to get the traffic to the site or even to our brick and mortar store using computer advertising.

“Conversion” is not just a religious term. It now means getting the customer to meet the business and to interact with it. Conversion is the mechanism and process of pouring targeted consumers into, through, and out the other side of the marketing funnel. The conversion rate is only going to be a percent of all those who come to the site, the percent who actually buy.

One way to get people to the site and to convert is to encourage them to do something, to become interactive. The best way to do that simply is a “call to action (CTA).”

A call to action has four main parts:

1. The Call: This is the request that a person interact the way you want him to.


2. The Action: On the computer, the simplest action a person can make is to click a button.


3. The Outcome: What happens when the person clicks the button. This should be related to the call. For example, if you ask them to click to get a free coupon, you deliver the coupon when they click the button.


4. The Design: The design will make a difference in how people respond, but there are many different types of designs. You will have to do some experimenting to find the one that works best for you.

Your CTA needs to be on every one of your website pages. If you have a blog site, it should be at the bottom of each blog.

How are you doing with this information? Are you having trouble getting responses?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

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• 6 Lead Nurturing No-No's to Avoid in Your Email Campaigns (hubspot.com)


• 10 Amazing Blogging Insights Your Analytics Can Tell You (hubspot.com)

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, landing page, Conversion rate, Hubspot, Marketing Plan, Facebook, mobile marketing, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, social media marketing, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

You have spent a lot of your marketing budget setting up your website. Your homepage looks real good and reminds you of the old newspaper ads of old. So why aren’t people converting using it?

Conversion about keeping your customer focused. A homepage full of your products is the opposite of focus. Even if you only have one service for sale, your homepage is full of details, again the opposite of focus.

What you need are specific “landing page” that you can manage and optimize in controlled isolation. Technically a landing page is any page on your website that customers arrive at or land on.  It should be created as a stand-alone page, as a promotion specific site.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, landing page, Customer, website, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Blogging

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="203" caption="Image via CrunchBase"] [/caption]

What do you do to see how your website is doing? I have read about Google Analytics, various ROI statistics and Alexa numbers. I don’t remember who suggested using Alexa numbers, but I liked the idea of simplicity. So without too much research I got an Alexa toolbar where the Alexa number of any website shows up and I began collecting data for five websites.

Topics: Alexa Internet, Alexa Toolbar, WWW, Internet Explorer, Google Analytics, Toolbar, website, clients, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Blogging