Digital marketing isn't really an option in today's world. If your business can't be found online, your business may as well not exist.
Think that's an exaggeration or a bit of journalistic hype? Think again.
Digital Marketing for Everyone - The New Normal
Consider your own consumer behavior. How do you look for a service or a product? The statistics tell us that you most likely use your mobile phone to search.
When you find a likely prospect, what do you do next? Read reviews? Count how many there are and how well they're rated? Do you take time to check out their competition to see how they compare?
And here's what you most likely don't do:
- Look for a business in your local Yellow Pages
- Jot down an address or phone number you saw on a billboard
- Keep a stack of old business cards from service providers you used before
While some people may still do some of these things, most people in most situations go online. For almost everything. Which means if they can't find your business online easily and quickly, you don't exist as far as they are concerned.
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Topics:
Online Communities,
complimentary Marketing Strategy Session,
Internet Marketing Strategy,
Social Media,
Content Marketing Strategy,
content distribution,
distribution channels,
trust building,
blogging strategy,
short form video
Advertising claims are not what they appear to be. While we tend to look at ads as ineffective, advertisers know better. While people refuse to admit that they are influenced by ads, sales figures show that a well-designed ad campaign has dramatic affects. What become obvious as we study ads is that a lot of what is working is below the radar and people don’t even realize they are big conned.
In the 1970s Jefferty Schrank (attributions listed at the end of the article) presented a new way of looking at ads and some of the legal ways advertisers tell part of the truth and part that is not while most people don’t get it.
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Topics:
Advertising and Marketing,
Online Communities,
Social Media,
Content Marketing Strategy,
content distribution,
distribution channels,
trust building,
blogging strategy,
short form video
Guest Blogger—Ann Mullen
Are all headline swipe files just a bunch of snake oil?
I actually found a recent blog by Yaro Starak, “How To Write Award Winning Blog Headlines” at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/7668/how-to-write-award-winning-blog-headlines/print/ that is an honest introduction to writing headlines you can use as a basis for your swipe file.
Since most people don’t have the time to read the whole article and want the quick fix, I am going to ditch Yaro’s explanations and get to the meat of the matter. You are welcome to read the whole enchilada yourself if you have time. I couldn't cover it all so I stuck to the top six.
A good headline is essential to getting your blog article in front of your audience. Your content, while very important, is not as important as the headline. Yaro admits that he, himself, just writes a headline without looking at a swipe file, but there are things that he has learned that make better headlines than others.
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Topics:
social media strategy,
content marketing,
inbound social media marketing,
Social Media,
social media marketing,
local SEO,
content distribution
How many of you, business people out there, are confused about the difference between lead generation and demand generation? Raise your hands; don’t be shy. There is a distinct difference between these marketing strategies even though some marketing agencies use them both interchangeably or use the wrong one. Here’s a clue: one is focused on changing your clients’ perspective and the one wants to capture their information for you to follow up with.
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Topics:
demand generation,
Online Communities,
lead generation strategy,
Internet Marketing Strategy,
Social Media,
demand generation strategy,
lead generation,
Content Marketing Strategy,
content distribution,
distribution channels,
trust building,
blogging strategy,
short form video
We're approaching the end of another year and will soon be in 2022. Yet, despite the turbulence and shifts of 2021, digital marketing powers on. Will you?
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Topics:
social media strategy,
content marketing,
inbound social media marketing,
Social Media,
social media marketing,
local SEO,
content distribution
Did you know that Marketing has a very specific language and syntax?
The purpose of this language is to get attention, generate interest, arouse desire, and stimulate action.
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Topics:
social media strategy,
content marketing,
inbound social media marketing,
Social Media,
social media marketing,
local SEO,
content distribution
There is more to marketing objectives than simply increasing sales, and the key to achieving your objectives is to have a plan or three!
Achieving your marketing objectives hinges on having a solid strategy and a consistent commitment to follow through with your strategy.
The problem that arises for many marketers, however, is that they tend to start the process backwards. In other words, their tendency is to simply start with their proposed budget and use that to dictate what they can or can't do with marketing.
But this is not only unnecessarily limiting, it is short-sighted and focuses on the wrong parameters.
While it is true that your budget will, in fact, be a real determining factor in what tactics you can afford to employ and what resources you can actually make use of, it should not be the overriding factor. Flexibility, creativity, and agility may be required to "do more with less" when it comes to an affordable and effectivemarketing strategy. But without clear cut goals, or objectives, and a clearly defined plan of action and accountabilities, any money you do have will be poorly spent.
Remember, your marketing efforts are not like a pasta kitchen: you cannot afford to simply "throw spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks." You must plan, allocate, monitor and measure everything. And that requires planning beyond simply setting a budget.
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Topics:
Online Communities,
digital marketing objectives,
Marketing Objectives,
complimentary Marketing Strategy Session,
Internet Marketing Strategy,
Social Media,
Content Marketing Strategy,
content distribution,
distribution channels,
trust building,
blogging strategy,
short form video
What do you get when you link attention with economic value creation? Attentionomics, which Steve Rubelsays is a combination of infinite content options (space) but finite attention (time). Where is Einstein when you need him?
Rubel is EVP/Global Strategy and Insights for Edelman - the world's largest independent public relations firm. He starts by looking at Twitter. They have a staggering 110 million tweets a day and it’s growing. But the problem is that each tweet decays almost as soon as it is released. There are 71% of tweets that get no response. 6% get retweeted and 23% get an @ reply. Some 92% of all retweets and 97% of replies occur within the first 60 minutes, according to Sysomos.
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Topics:
social media strategy,
content marketing,
inbound social media marketing,
Social Media,
social media marketing,
local SEO,
content distribution,
attentionomics
I have been stumbling over the words internal, "inbound" and outbound for the last few weeks and it seemed that no one could explain why. I have finally figured this mystery out.
There are internal, inbound and outbound links" and inbound and outbound marketing. Links and marketing are entirely different things with the some of the same words just made to trip people up.
Here are the tricks: Links refer to sites that are not on the current blog post. Marketing is about how we send out the message that we have a product or service for sale.
Digital Marketing for Everyone - The New Normal
- "Internal links" are links that go from one of your website pages to another of your own website pages. This week I learned that each blog post is a website page and you are more than welcome to link your current blog post to previous ones that are written along the same lines. You can also link to pages that tell about your website, your services, your contact information, in fact anything at all having to do with your website.
- An "internal link" is different from an "inbound link" which Wikipedia says refers to what we have been calling backlinkslinks where someone links to your page, or where you link to someone elses website. According to Wikipedia, Google's description of their PageRank system, for instance, notes that Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. So an inbound link is a vote for your page, whether from another of your pages or from someone else.
- "Outbound links" within your blog are websites that you quote from that are not a part of your website. Yes, this sounds like just what I said for an inbound link that comes from an outside source to you, but in this case you are giving credit within your blog to an outside site, just like I did with Wikepedia. They did not vote for me by leaving a backlink. I used them to give credit from the outside to what I have written to improve the credibility of my blog.
Confused yet?
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Topics:
outbound marketing,
San Francisco Inbound Marketing Agency,
outbound links,
Online Communities,
inbound backlinks,
complimentary Marketing Strategy Session,
Internet Marketing Strategy,
Social Media,
inbound,
Content Marketing Strategy,
content distribution,
distribution channels,
trust building,
blogging strategy,
short form video