Month: February 2014

  • How to Make the Most of Your Website or Blog

    Chances are you’re putting a lot of time, energy, and effort into your blog or website. Are you getting the results that you want? Are you achieving your online business goals? If not, you may not be making the most of your website or blog.

    How to Make the Most of Your Website or Blog

    Test, Test, and Test Some More

    The best way to make the most of your website or blog is to test what works and what doesn’t. There are many different things you can test and ways to test. Test headlines, test calls to action and test different content formats. 

    For example, your audience may respond more energetically to video content than they do to print content. Or maybe they prefer reviews over “how to” articles. Testing is the only way to know what your audience is responding to. Once you know, then you can adapt your strategies and tactics. Split testing is often the easiest method to test.

    Analytics

    Analytics are almost a website or blog essential. They tell you who visits your site, how long they stay there and what pages they navigate to. Analytics can also tell you the organic keywords used, or the link used, to find your website. Google Analytics is a free tool that makes it easy to create an account and then literally cut and paste a piece of code into your site’s code. 

    Just cutting and pasting code isn’t enough, though. You need to also review the analytics and base your strategy and decisions on the information. For example, if you find out that the majority of your visitors come from the south then you might create more content, promotions, and offers that appeal to that region. 

    Facilitate Engagement

    How to Make the Most of Your Website or BlogIf you’re not encouraging participation, comments, and interaction then you’re missing out. Create systems and opportunities to connect and allow conversation. Blog commenting is a start. 

    However, the posts need to ask questions and motivate responses. Even more, you want to reply to comments in a thoughtful manner that motivates more comments and feedback. Plug-ins that create forums, chats, and social media participation are another means to facilitate engagement. 

    To make the most of your website or blog, you want to create a stronger connection with your audience and visitors. By testing, using analytics to track the results, and by creating opportunities for conversation, you’re able to take your site to the next level. It strengthens your relationships with your audience and helps increase traffic, opt-ins, as well as conversions and sales. 

    What have you found to be helpful in developing your web presence? Are you blogging? I have found that sharing my blog posts on my social media platforms works well for my business perhaps it might help you if you haven’t tried it.

    Confused on the best ways to approach your online marketing? We offer one-on-one coaching to help you with navigating the sometimes confusing options of online marketing. Contact us today! https://strategizeyoursuccess.com/coaching-consulting

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  • LinkedIn is a Great Source for Social Networking

    LinkedIn is a specialty social networking site. It’s much more specialized than the others due to the audience it attracts. LinkedIn is specifically for professionals. If you’re looking for a job then it’s a must. However, business owners looking to attract prospects and connect with industry professionals can also utilize LinkedIn in a productive and prosperous way. LinkedIn is a platform that has worked exceptionally well for me to reach my target audience. So let’s take a look at this platform a little closer.

    What Is LinkedIn?

    LinkedIn is a Great Source for Social Networking

    LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with 225 million members in over 200 countries. It’s a social networking site that offers professionals a number of benefits and features. It began in concept in the living room of the owner and was launched in 2003. Ten years later it is a thriving social networking site that can be used in a number of business building ways.

    The Many Features and Benefits of LinkedIn

    Company Pages – The first element of LinkedIn is that it allows business owners to create Company Pages. Unlike Profile Pages, Company Pages comes with analytics as well as an ability to share meaningful content and promote your business. If you have a business and are on LinkedIn I’d advise taking this extra step.

    LinkedIn groups – This feature may be one of the most beneficial because it allows you to join groups that are specific to your audience and your industry. Within a group you can connect with other professionals and prospects to build an audience. Groups support conversations, article posting, polling, and display group icons on your Profile Page to further enhance your connections. If you feel comfortable enough with LinkedIn you can start your own group. 

    Advertising – Like many social networking sites, LinkedIn offers advertising options for members. You can reach a targeted audience with ads that you can test and track for best results. 

    Marketing solutions – LinkedIn offers a professional membership that goes above and beyond the standard membership. You can then utilize features like their Marketing Solutions program that also lets you create specific messages for your audience through targeted content marketing.
    Integration – Finally, LinkedIn is a site that understands you want to make the most of your social networking efforts. You can integrate many social media management sites with your LinkedIn pages. Integration saves time and maximizes your results so you can write and schedule posts, manage comments, and monitor analytics from one place. However, being active in the conversations that occur in groups for instance is key to having success on LinkedIn.

    Creating Content for LinkedIn

    LinkedIn is a Great Source for Social Networking
    It’s important to remember that while you can integrate your social marketing efforts, LinkedIn has a unique audience. It often makes sense to create unique content for LinkedIn followers. They tend to be professionals and their needs may be different than your general audience.  
    People tend to trust the information they find on LinkedIn more than other sites. This simple fact can help you build tremendous authority and credibility in your niche. If you’re not using LinkedIn to grow your business or you’ve let your profile lag, consider giving this top rated social media site the attention it deserves. 

    Looking to create a brand on social media? We can help. Check out our social media products for more information.
    We make it easy.

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  • Tips for Using Social Media Marketing in Your Business

    Tips for Using Social Media Marketing in Your BusinessSocial media marketing is one of the most powerful tools business owners have access to. It allows you to connect with your audience. You can engage and build a community around your business. Business owners can also use it to learn more about their audience so they can better meet their needs.

    So let’s take a look what you should be considering when utilizing social media for your business.

     

    Identify Your Purpose and Goals

     

    Why are you using social media and what do you hope to accomplish? There are many different reasons to use social media. You may use it to sell products, to build your opt-in list, or to drive traffic to your landing page. Do you want to generate new leads or build relationships with your existing prospects and clients? Consider both your long-term and short-term goals.

     

    For example, if you want to build your opt-in list with social media marketing, how much do you want to achieve by the end of this month and what are your goals for the next three years? Setting the right goals for you and your business will help you create a social media marketing strategy that’s effective and productive.

     

    Identify Tactics to Support Your Goals

     

    There are different tactics to consider based on your business goals. For example, if you want to drive people to your opt-in page then you may want to hold a contest or sweepstakes that motivates people to sign up (be sure to check social media platform rules). You may also want to create a content marketing strategy specifically for social media that identifies you as an authority and promotes your opt-in offer. Once you’ve identified a tactic that works for your business, create an action plan and timeline.

     

    Identify Your Brand MessageTips for Using Social Media Marketing in Your Business

     

    What message do you want to convey on your social media page(s) and how do you want to communicate it? Keep in mind that your message and brand should support your other branding efforts. However, your approach can be different on social media.

     

    Finally, assess your resources and leverage technology. Identify the tools and technologies that can help you achieve your social media marketing goals. For example, there are services that automatically publish a link to your blog post on all of your social media accounts. There are also plug-ins that can be added to your website or blog that help visitors connect with you on social media. Take advantage of technology it will help you achieve your social media marketing goals and save you time and money.

    At Strategize Your Success we help our clients reach their goals with technology so that they can build a stronger and more profitable business. Contact us today if you need help with strategic planning, branding or technology. Also, check out our resources page for additional tips.

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  • Advertising and Social Media Marketing

    Advertising on Social Media

    Social media sites have been offering advertising programs for a while now. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide business owners with the means to promote and reach targeted audiences on their sites. The programs are becoming quite popular because of the results they’re able to deliver. Additionally, it’s a new way to reach your audience and may help you extend your advertising strategy beyond Google.

    Why Social Media Advertising Works

    In addition to the fact that millions of people access their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts on a daily basis, they’re also accessing the sites on their mobile phone. That means that as an advertiser on one or more of these sites, you’re getting in front of your audience on a fairly consistent basis and that is what we all want, right?

    Unlike other advertising mediums, it’s new so it grabs their attention. Some types of advertising can begin to lose their potency when users become accustomed to them. Their eyes barely glance at the ad before they move on. Social media advertising is still new and therefore it’s effective for many types of businesses whether it’s for your business or not as to be determined by experimenting with the different platforms. What works on LinkedIn may not work on Facebook or vice versa. So let’s talk about how you can target your ads.

    Targeted AdsAdvertising with Social Media

    One of the great things about social media is that it has the unique ability to market directly to highly targeted prospects. For example, Facebook makes the following statement, “While most online advertising provides about 38% targeting accuracy, Facebook, on average, delivers 89%. On Facebook, you’ll only pay to reach the right people who’ll love your business.”

    This is because Facebook and other social marketing sites allow you to segment your audience. You can create ads based on your prospect’s location, age and gender, interests, and connections. I have found this to be a great way to build our audience and our client’s audiences with the right prospects. For example, you can advertise specifically to people to have them join a Facebook event. In some cases you can also find people who are similar to your best customers and create ads specifically for them. 

    Social media advertising is also generally less expensive than many other advertising opportunities and tactics. You reach more people and get more response from those people. Social media advertising also provides analytics, whereas some advertising methods do not provide this and make advertising efforts a guessing game. 

    Without analytics, you just don’t know if your ad worked or not. With any type of advertising for an internet business, analytics are essential and a clear-cut way to identify which ads are working and how well. You stay in control over your budget and your results.

    If you have an advertising budget and strategy, consider adding social media marketing to that plan. You may be surprised at the results. It could change the way your business approaches advertising. Trying something new or shaking up your current ad campaigns can be a great way to expand your current client base.

    At Strategize Your Success we offer coaching and consulting for those needing help in devising a marketing plan or strategically planning your advertising on social media.
    Contact us today! 
    https://strategizeyoursuccess.com/coaching-consulting

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