Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
A ghostwriter is any writer who creates content for a project that will be presented under another name. As you are traveling in a bookstore, you might marvel at the sheer volume of works certain names such as Tom Clancy put out. In many cases, these books weren't written by a single writer but rather many and then published under the big name. This arrangement is a good one for many writers, as it allows them to get work and valuable writing experience, while also benefiting the larger name by allowing more work under their aegis to get out.
Your blog might just benefit from hiring a ghostwriter for the same reasons. Every blog needs a writer to direct it, and blogs do best when guided by one or two voices in a consistent direction. Sometimes, however, the originator of a business or idea isn't the one who can best capture that direction, and that's when you should turn to a ghostwriter.
In no particular order, here are five reasons that many blogs choose to hire a ghostwriter for their content.
Reason #1 - They Can't Write Appropriately
This isn't referring to whether their content is polite or not, it simply refers to whether the "idea man" behind a project can generate content that fits the aim of the blog. Suppose, for example, you have someone who knows all about the world of competitive cooking as seen in Iron Chef. He knows the competitors' ranks and accomplishments and wants to use the blog to promote interest in competitive cooking - even, perhaps, in his own cooking school.
The problem is, he can't write in a way that catches the eye. His writing might be too technical, or rely on obscure factoids that don't really do much to inspire the reader's imagination. A ghostwriter, on the other hand, is all about the writing, and one of the best talents a writer can have is the ability to take someone else's ideas and rephrase them in exciting, evocative language.
Reason #2 - Lack of Time
Many of the big blogs seen on the web weren't startup ventures, but rather grew out of a company that already existed. Many companies have seen the success of blogs in other ventures, and have chosen to add one to their own site, much the same way they chose to add a website to their business when the web first got popular. This is a natural evolution and response to a changing market, and is not a bad idea. On the other hand, the owner is usually concerned with other issues and does not have time to devote to writing a blog.
In such cases, the natural step is to hire a ghostwriter. You want the articles to continue to go out in your company's name, since the idea of the blog is to promote the company, but don't have time to do it yourself because you are justifiably busy. A ghostwriter can build a solid blog post in about an hour of work, and then move on to their other projects.
Reason #3 - Intermediate Perspective
There is a great deal to be said for being familiar with your product and your brand. You get to know subtleties and rhythms of the business that no outsider could appreciate. The problem is, your perspective is entirely different from that of your customers. They can't get into the nitty gritty of your brand in a way you can.
In cases like these, the value of a ghostwriter lies in linking the outside views of your audience with the inside views of the company. You can communicate your passions directly to this writer, who can marry them to a perspective of those on the other side of the glass. Their intermediate presence crucially bridges the gap between brand and audience.
Reason #4 - Brand Protection
Writers are a notoriously prideful lot. Some of the fiercest legal battles are over intellectual property rights, and justly so. Creating a written body of work is a tremendous effort, and having it stolen or infringed upon is a terrible offense. On the other hand, a branded blog is not about the individual writer, it's about the brand and what the brand represents.
By definition, a ghostwriter doesn't take credit for their work. The work is put out in the name of the brand, or the site's owner, as a means of projecting the brand forward. The ghostwriter is willing to take their pay without putting their own creative name on the work, which will benefit your brand because there isn't an intermediate step. If you let one ghostwriter go, either because they move on to new things or you decide you need a new creative direction, there isn't necessarily an indication of this to the outside world, and the brand's voice continues.
Reason #5 - Flexibility and Freshness
Ghostwriters in the plural sense can do a blog good, too. If you maintain more than one at a time, you can ease the wear and tear that is associated with writing on the same general subject. Writers are like horses; you don't want to ride them to death on the way there if you expect to get home. And since writing can be done anywhere, by anyone, anytime, you can cast your net far and wide in search of the two or three writers you need to best communicate your message.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Online Brand Marketing - 4 Ways to Use Social Media in Promotions
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Social media marketing has earned its place as one of the fastest-growing, most competitive marketing fields in the history of advertising. People are gathering online in record numbers, finding and socializing in groups that cater to their interests; often, these interests neatly intersect with marketing and branding opportunities. The best social media tools combine simplicity with an extensive reach, allowing messages to target thousands of people in seconds, thus serving as an outstanding tool of brand promotion.
Briefly, here are a few of the more interesting and simple ways you can use social media to arrange a short-term promotion for your brand.
#1 - Flash Mob
A flash mob is an impromptu gathering of people arranged by SMS. Originally popular on message boards, the advent of texting and SMS powerhouses like Twitter has made flash mobs even easier to arrange. In the simplest terms, the originator of the mob sends a message to his audience, arranging a time, place and theme for a quick meeting and/or performance. Famous mobs have included zombie walks, unannounced pillow fights at major business centers and other assorted fun events.
As an example of using a flash mob for a brand, consider the following scenario: You own a café with a respectable Twitter following. You tweet out a time and place - say 2 p.m. in the park - and a short promotion code like ParkFrap. When everyone arrives, you're waiting with a selection of your newest frappe drinks, and everyone who can give you a copy of the code gets a drink and a coupon for the next time they drop by the café.
This kind of arrangement takes a bit of preparation, of course, but the idea creates instant buzz, sticks out in people's minds and can be an enjoyable time for everyone.
#2 - Couponing
People like to save money, and businesses like to make it. If your brand is tied into a business that offers product, you've probably already considered how to go about offering coupons to people. Social media offer many avenues to getting coupons out to people. Again, Twitter is an excellent tool here; in fact, there are several sites out there that are tailored to helping use Twitter for couponing. For example, http://twtqpon.com allows you to combine a short tweet and an image into a coupon for your customers.
However, Facebook is also a good tool for distributing coupons. If your brand has a Facebook group associated with it - and if it doesn't, why not? - you can leverage the service as both a coupon and a promotional tool. For example, post a message with a new coupon that's only valid if a follower brings a friend along. In this one step, you get two people into the store, sell some product and have a chance to sign up a new follower on Facebook.
#3 - Cross Promote
Sometimes you don't necessarily have a large following of your own. This is obviously the case in brands that are just developing their online identity. They've signed up for the various social media services, but haven't really gotten a big splash together.
This is where research and legwork come in. Let's continue with the coffee shop analogy, since cafés seem to be a defining feature of the modern set. You could look up a group that tends to associate with cafés, such as writers. If you find a local writing group on Facebook for your area, consider posting a friendly message on their board, inviting them to come in for a weekly "writer's day" in which members of your newly-formed writing club get a discount.
Remember, of course, the key rules of social media: be polite and respectful. These are people you're talking to, people with their own agendas and desires, and they can sense insincerity like a shark smells blood in the water. Your offers must be interesting and credible.
#4 - Picture Perfect
Images are powerful things. A well-done image can excite the imagination and catch peoples' attention in a way that text sometimes fails to grasp. Consider sending images designed to give people an association with your brand.
Returning a final time to our café example, consider taking a picture of some fresh cinnamon rolls that just came out of the oven and quickly uploading them to your preferred social media service. This requires a bit of work to make sure the picture looks appetizing and appealing, but isn't too difficult. Post that picture up along with a message about how they come with a free cup of coffee between 10 a.m. and noon, and you just might have a rush on your hands.
Even if you don't have mouth-wateringly delicious pastries to offer, any brand benefits from visual associations. When you go to make a post in your blog or SMS, include a link to a relevant picture as often as you can. This will help people associate your brand with colorful thinking, with interesting things to look at, and the like. Text can appear awfully drab, so do what you can to brighten it up a bit.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Social media marketing has earned its place as one of the fastest-growing, most competitive marketing fields in the history of advertising. People are gathering online in record numbers, finding and socializing in groups that cater to their interests; often, these interests neatly intersect with marketing and branding opportunities. The best social media tools combine simplicity with an extensive reach, allowing messages to target thousands of people in seconds, thus serving as an outstanding tool of brand promotion.
Briefly, here are a few of the more interesting and simple ways you can use social media to arrange a short-term promotion for your brand.
#1 - Flash Mob
A flash mob is an impromptu gathering of people arranged by SMS. Originally popular on message boards, the advent of texting and SMS powerhouses like Twitter has made flash mobs even easier to arrange. In the simplest terms, the originator of the mob sends a message to his audience, arranging a time, place and theme for a quick meeting and/or performance. Famous mobs have included zombie walks, unannounced pillow fights at major business centers and other assorted fun events.
As an example of using a flash mob for a brand, consider the following scenario: You own a café with a respectable Twitter following. You tweet out a time and place - say 2 p.m. in the park - and a short promotion code like ParkFrap. When everyone arrives, you're waiting with a selection of your newest frappe drinks, and everyone who can give you a copy of the code gets a drink and a coupon for the next time they drop by the café.
This kind of arrangement takes a bit of preparation, of course, but the idea creates instant buzz, sticks out in people's minds and can be an enjoyable time for everyone.
#2 - Couponing
People like to save money, and businesses like to make it. If your brand is tied into a business that offers product, you've probably already considered how to go about offering coupons to people. Social media offer many avenues to getting coupons out to people. Again, Twitter is an excellent tool here; in fact, there are several sites out there that are tailored to helping use Twitter for couponing. For example, http://twtqpon.com allows you to combine a short tweet and an image into a coupon for your customers.
However, Facebook is also a good tool for distributing coupons. If your brand has a Facebook group associated with it - and if it doesn't, why not? - you can leverage the service as both a coupon and a promotional tool. For example, post a message with a new coupon that's only valid if a follower brings a friend along. In this one step, you get two people into the store, sell some product and have a chance to sign up a new follower on Facebook.
#3 - Cross Promote
Sometimes you don't necessarily have a large following of your own. This is obviously the case in brands that are just developing their online identity. They've signed up for the various social media services, but haven't really gotten a big splash together.
This is where research and legwork come in. Let's continue with the coffee shop analogy, since cafés seem to be a defining feature of the modern set. You could look up a group that tends to associate with cafés, such as writers. If you find a local writing group on Facebook for your area, consider posting a friendly message on their board, inviting them to come in for a weekly "writer's day" in which members of your newly-formed writing club get a discount.
Remember, of course, the key rules of social media: be polite and respectful. These are people you're talking to, people with their own agendas and desires, and they can sense insincerity like a shark smells blood in the water. Your offers must be interesting and credible.
#4 - Picture Perfect
Images are powerful things. A well-done image can excite the imagination and catch peoples' attention in a way that text sometimes fails to grasp. Consider sending images designed to give people an association with your brand.
Returning a final time to our café example, consider taking a picture of some fresh cinnamon rolls that just came out of the oven and quickly uploading them to your preferred social media service. This requires a bit of work to make sure the picture looks appetizing and appealing, but isn't too difficult. Post that picture up along with a message about how they come with a free cup of coffee between 10 a.m. and noon, and you just might have a rush on your hands.
Even if you don't have mouth-wateringly delicious pastries to offer, any brand benefits from visual associations. When you go to make a post in your blog or SMS, include a link to a relevant picture as often as you can. This will help people associate your brand with colorful thinking, with interesting things to look at, and the like. Text can appear awfully drab, so do what you can to brighten it up a bit.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Creative Conjuring for Your Writing Team
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Let us suppose for a moment that you have made the decision to hire a permanent, in-house writing team as opposed to seeking out writers on a more per-contract basis. The advantages of this decision are numerous, of course — for one, you get to grow a team with a focus on your business so they grow more and more aware of it as time goes on, benefiting from long-term exposure to what you have them writing about.
However, now that you've got them, what's the best way to maximize their creativity? Having a dedicated writing staff is a fine thing, to be sure — but in order to get the most out of the investment, you need them to produce solid, creative and reliable content. It doesn't matter if they produce entire reams of articles if the material produced isn't worth reading.
This is something broadly known as a meta-concern. Meta means "alongside" or even "outside." A meta-concern is a matter that isn't immediately related to your primary purpose, but can have significant implications all the same. Time spent helping your writers be creative is time you aren't spending on direct branding efforts. However, it can pay off in solid support and respect for your brand in the long term. To that end, have a look at a handful of techniques that have been demonstrated to help spur productivity and creativity in your writers.
Let them Own the Project
Group brainstorming is creative asphyxiation. Yes, it will result in a quick sampling of several different ideas, but none of them will be particularly well developed. Creativity is an odd little thing. When it's highly personal, as in a project one or two people own to work on specifically, more effort gets invested into it out of a sense of pride and desire. When control (and therefore responsibility) of the matter is spread around, however, there's a sense of disconnect.
The latter comes as a result of two phenomena. First, there's the lack of privacy it causes. Some of the ideas creative types put forward are very personal, representing the best of their own minds. Exposing their best to others is intensely difficult at times, so a group setting can hinder them out of modesty or shame. Second is the shared laziness of a group. In short, when the work is spread around to many people, no one person pulls quite as hard on their share. The work will get done anyway, after all, so what's the point of putting forth more effort?
Instead of forcing intellectual exhibitionism through group sessions, share your particulars with small teams or, even better, with individuals if possible. Give them the parameters, ask them for their input and let them put their effort into the task. Let them own the project, and you will be more likely to get their best work.
Work Individually, Edit Collectively
Very few writers can edit or revise their own work. The best ones can, but there are few who couldn't benefit from a bit of critical advice from another source. When the article or project is done, hand it off to an editor not directly involved with it. Let them help refine what the team has put down. The creative portion being complete, this technical portion allows for more dispassionate, cooperative analysis that can really make a project shine.
Bring in New Blood
There are two ways to go about making sure your team stays fresh creatively, both along the lines of "new blood."
The first is exposure to new ideas. Your writing team is hopefully very widely read. People who study and read in more diverse circles are more likely to come up with the clever and creative ideas you most need from them. Part of this will come from reading their coworkers' projects in the editing process, but make sure they're spending part of their time reading materials and articles of many sorts, be they literary or factual.
The next is exposure to new people. Sometimes a writing team needs an outright boost from a new party. Even if you've hired your permanent, on-staff writing team, consider hiring the occasional project out to freelancers of a certain level of experience. This can have the effect of taking the workload off your standard workers, exposing them to new ideas or serving as an impromptu job interview.
Listen to Them
Writers are a notoriously picky lot. Yes, there is a benefit in making them stick to the grind and show some initiative, but there's also a great value to catering to some of their needs. Make sure to listen when a writer mentions a concern they have. Your input might make all the difference between an acceptable article and an outstanding one.
If you're going to go to the trouble of having a writing team on-staff, you have to make the effort to bring them into the staff proper. The rest of the team might not understand why some people are being paid to just tap keys, and you need to foster the relationship between them so that the crew knows these writers are giving them good press. Connect; listen, network and you'll have the team you need.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Let us suppose for a moment that you have made the decision to hire a permanent, in-house writing team as opposed to seeking out writers on a more per-contract basis. The advantages of this decision are numerous, of course — for one, you get to grow a team with a focus on your business so they grow more and more aware of it as time goes on, benefiting from long-term exposure to what you have them writing about.
However, now that you've got them, what's the best way to maximize their creativity? Having a dedicated writing staff is a fine thing, to be sure — but in order to get the most out of the investment, you need them to produce solid, creative and reliable content. It doesn't matter if they produce entire reams of articles if the material produced isn't worth reading.
This is something broadly known as a meta-concern. Meta means "alongside" or even "outside." A meta-concern is a matter that isn't immediately related to your primary purpose, but can have significant implications all the same. Time spent helping your writers be creative is time you aren't spending on direct branding efforts. However, it can pay off in solid support and respect for your brand in the long term. To that end, have a look at a handful of techniques that have been demonstrated to help spur productivity and creativity in your writers.
Let them Own the Project
Group brainstorming is creative asphyxiation. Yes, it will result in a quick sampling of several different ideas, but none of them will be particularly well developed. Creativity is an odd little thing. When it's highly personal, as in a project one or two people own to work on specifically, more effort gets invested into it out of a sense of pride and desire. When control (and therefore responsibility) of the matter is spread around, however, there's a sense of disconnect.
The latter comes as a result of two phenomena. First, there's the lack of privacy it causes. Some of the ideas creative types put forward are very personal, representing the best of their own minds. Exposing their best to others is intensely difficult at times, so a group setting can hinder them out of modesty or shame. Second is the shared laziness of a group. In short, when the work is spread around to many people, no one person pulls quite as hard on their share. The work will get done anyway, after all, so what's the point of putting forth more effort?
Instead of forcing intellectual exhibitionism through group sessions, share your particulars with small teams or, even better, with individuals if possible. Give them the parameters, ask them for their input and let them put their effort into the task. Let them own the project, and you will be more likely to get their best work.
Work Individually, Edit Collectively
Very few writers can edit or revise their own work. The best ones can, but there are few who couldn't benefit from a bit of critical advice from another source. When the article or project is done, hand it off to an editor not directly involved with it. Let them help refine what the team has put down. The creative portion being complete, this technical portion allows for more dispassionate, cooperative analysis that can really make a project shine.
Bring in New Blood
There are two ways to go about making sure your team stays fresh creatively, both along the lines of "new blood."
The first is exposure to new ideas. Your writing team is hopefully very widely read. People who study and read in more diverse circles are more likely to come up with the clever and creative ideas you most need from them. Part of this will come from reading their coworkers' projects in the editing process, but make sure they're spending part of their time reading materials and articles of many sorts, be they literary or factual.
The next is exposure to new people. Sometimes a writing team needs an outright boost from a new party. Even if you've hired your permanent, on-staff writing team, consider hiring the occasional project out to freelancers of a certain level of experience. This can have the effect of taking the workload off your standard workers, exposing them to new ideas or serving as an impromptu job interview.
Listen to Them
Writers are a notoriously picky lot. Yes, there is a benefit in making them stick to the grind and show some initiative, but there's also a great value to catering to some of their needs. Make sure to listen when a writer mentions a concern they have. Your input might make all the difference between an acceptable article and an outstanding one.
If you're going to go to the trouble of having a writing team on-staff, you have to make the effort to bring them into the staff proper. The rest of the team might not understand why some people are being paid to just tap keys, and you need to foster the relationship between them so that the crew knows these writers are giving them good press. Connect; listen, network and you'll have the team you need.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Building Brand Identity - Tag, You're It
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Taglines are difficult things to pin down. Some taglines have a certain force, a certain efficacy that makes us remember them years or even half a century later. The best ones even stick in our minds long after everyone has forgotten what they were originally for. "Reach out and touch someone" remains a well-known expression today, despite the fact that it originated as a slogan for AT&T back in 1979.
However, it's also all too easy to put out a tagline that ends up being derided as cliché. People cheerfully mock slogan-oriented culture and buzzwords with fervor, and they do have a point. This is a content-conscious society, and people are skeptical about outrageous claims or comments that they've seen a thousand times before. A good tagline must be both memorable and honest, focused on the brand and the truth about that brand. Remember the phrase "tag, you're it," with the stress on the you. Make the tagline about your brand, and nothing else.
Tag Tip #1 - Be Truthful
If you have to make up or exaggerate claims about your brand, then you have no confidence in it and people will be able to tell. Your brand must be able to stand on its own merits, period. Any other assumption is ridiculous, and while deception might profit in the short term, the damage done to reputations through falsifications lingers.
To that end, avoid making patently outrageous or unrealistic claims in your tagline. Don't claim, "It will change your life" if there's really no expectation it will. Take the example of a kitchen appliance brand range. Perhaps it will make life a little easier, or maybe more efficient for the purchaser. It is unlikely it's going to change their life as a whole.
Instead, focus on what your brand can do.
Tag Tip #2 - Be Bold
When developing a tagline, make a claim that illustrates your brand's capacity. Consider the Timex tagline back from 1956: "Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking." Simple, direct and honest. Timex watches were built well, and thus could take a fair degree of abuse while still functioning. The statement was completely honest and compelling in its own choice of words. As an added bonus, this is another saying that's moved into the common vernacular as an expression for anything that's durable and reliable under duress.
Tag Tip #3 - Imply
Being honest and bold doesn't necessarily require being simple. There are strong, direct slogans such as the aforementioned Timex tagline, but this is by no means the only step to take. Taglines can imply. After all... "got milk?" That powerful slogan from the early 1990s still elicits a strong, positive response today. Notice that there's no direct claim in that tagline. It doesn't outright say that milk is good, or even that not having milk is bad. It just asks if you have any. It leaves the work of the matter up to you to answer yes or no. From there, you begin to think if you'd like milk... and with two little words, the tagline has gotten you to do most of the work. In terms of branding power, it's sublime.
Tag Tip #4 - Know Your Place
Don LaFontaine is legendary in the movie industry. He did the voiceovers for hundreds, if not thousands, of trailers in his lifetime. Sadly, he is no longer with us. He gave us the wonderful, iconic tagline, "in a world..."
You are not Don LaFontaine. If you're trying to brand a movie with an opening tagline, do not use his line. It's disrespectful of his memory, and disrespectful of your own brand, which deserves an original, creative effort.
This is an extreme example, but an important one. It can be tempting to refer to your product as "the next..." and fill in the noun. Or make a tagline that consciously apes another tagline. The problem is, unless you're going for satire, people will recognize the disingenuous nature of the effort and respond poorly. Draw inspiration from prior ideas, by all means, but make sure that what finally comes out is a new line, reflective of your brand in its own right.
Tag Tip #5 - Embrace Brevity
Keep the tagline short. The second part of tagline is "line," after all. It's not motto, creed, paragraph, mission statement, article of faith or essay. If you can't say the whole tagline in less than five seconds, it's not a tagline.
For example, consider these: "We make money the old fashioned way - we earn it." "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard." Both are fairly long by tagline standards, but they can still be said in three seconds without sounding rushed. They go on as long as needed to do the job, and no longer.
Tag Tip #6 - Be Flexible
Sometimes a tagline just does not work out. This is alright; it's neither a disaster nor the end of your reputation. Sometimes you'll put together some words that sound great to you, but that everyone else just finds humorous. Consider the case of Iain Duncan Smith, an English politician known for his soft voice. He tried to brand himself with the phrase, "Don't underestimate the resolve of a quiet man." This was a great line in and of itself; however, due to the quirks of British politics, it led to people teasing him with shushing noises. He accepted this, and moved on.
If your tagline doesn't work, move on to one that will. Just make sure you aren't simply jumping from one bad ship to the other. Treat every misstep as a learning opportunity, and try to refine instead of making the same mistake twice.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Taglines are difficult things to pin down. Some taglines have a certain force, a certain efficacy that makes us remember them years or even half a century later. The best ones even stick in our minds long after everyone has forgotten what they were originally for. "Reach out and touch someone" remains a well-known expression today, despite the fact that it originated as a slogan for AT&T back in 1979.
However, it's also all too easy to put out a tagline that ends up being derided as cliché. People cheerfully mock slogan-oriented culture and buzzwords with fervor, and they do have a point. This is a content-conscious society, and people are skeptical about outrageous claims or comments that they've seen a thousand times before. A good tagline must be both memorable and honest, focused on the brand and the truth about that brand. Remember the phrase "tag, you're it," with the stress on the you. Make the tagline about your brand, and nothing else.
Tag Tip #1 - Be Truthful
If you have to make up or exaggerate claims about your brand, then you have no confidence in it and people will be able to tell. Your brand must be able to stand on its own merits, period. Any other assumption is ridiculous, and while deception might profit in the short term, the damage done to reputations through falsifications lingers.
To that end, avoid making patently outrageous or unrealistic claims in your tagline. Don't claim, "It will change your life" if there's really no expectation it will. Take the example of a kitchen appliance brand range. Perhaps it will make life a little easier, or maybe more efficient for the purchaser. It is unlikely it's going to change their life as a whole.
Instead, focus on what your brand can do.
Tag Tip #2 - Be Bold
When developing a tagline, make a claim that illustrates your brand's capacity. Consider the Timex tagline back from 1956: "Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking." Simple, direct and honest. Timex watches were built well, and thus could take a fair degree of abuse while still functioning. The statement was completely honest and compelling in its own choice of words. As an added bonus, this is another saying that's moved into the common vernacular as an expression for anything that's durable and reliable under duress.
Tag Tip #3 - Imply
Being honest and bold doesn't necessarily require being simple. There are strong, direct slogans such as the aforementioned Timex tagline, but this is by no means the only step to take. Taglines can imply. After all... "got milk?" That powerful slogan from the early 1990s still elicits a strong, positive response today. Notice that there's no direct claim in that tagline. It doesn't outright say that milk is good, or even that not having milk is bad. It just asks if you have any. It leaves the work of the matter up to you to answer yes or no. From there, you begin to think if you'd like milk... and with two little words, the tagline has gotten you to do most of the work. In terms of branding power, it's sublime.
Tag Tip #4 - Know Your Place
Don LaFontaine is legendary in the movie industry. He did the voiceovers for hundreds, if not thousands, of trailers in his lifetime. Sadly, he is no longer with us. He gave us the wonderful, iconic tagline, "in a world..."
You are not Don LaFontaine. If you're trying to brand a movie with an opening tagline, do not use his line. It's disrespectful of his memory, and disrespectful of your own brand, which deserves an original, creative effort.
This is an extreme example, but an important one. It can be tempting to refer to your product as "the next..." and fill in the noun. Or make a tagline that consciously apes another tagline. The problem is, unless you're going for satire, people will recognize the disingenuous nature of the effort and respond poorly. Draw inspiration from prior ideas, by all means, but make sure that what finally comes out is a new line, reflective of your brand in its own right.
Tag Tip #5 - Embrace Brevity
Keep the tagline short. The second part of tagline is "line," after all. It's not motto, creed, paragraph, mission statement, article of faith or essay. If you can't say the whole tagline in less than five seconds, it's not a tagline.
For example, consider these: "We make money the old fashioned way - we earn it." "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard." Both are fairly long by tagline standards, but they can still be said in three seconds without sounding rushed. They go on as long as needed to do the job, and no longer.
Tag Tip #6 - Be Flexible
Sometimes a tagline just does not work out. This is alright; it's neither a disaster nor the end of your reputation. Sometimes you'll put together some words that sound great to you, but that everyone else just finds humorous. Consider the case of Iain Duncan Smith, an English politician known for his soft voice. He tried to brand himself with the phrase, "Don't underestimate the resolve of a quiet man." This was a great line in and of itself; however, due to the quirks of British politics, it led to people teasing him with shushing noises. He accepted this, and moved on.
If your tagline doesn't work, move on to one that will. Just make sure you aren't simply jumping from one bad ship to the other. Treat every misstep as a learning opportunity, and try to refine instead of making the same mistake twice.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
In or Out - Choosing the Content Service for Your Brand
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
It's only a bit of an exaggeration to describe the debate over in-house writers vs. an outside content service as "raging." For any organization dedicated to producing written content as part of its brand, it is an important matter that eventually will need to be addressed. Each method, of course, has its advantages and disadvantages; there are no quick answers. But here are some considerations that should make the decision a little easier:
In-house - Also Known As "One Big Family"
There is a theory of economic activity known as the vertical consolidation model. It derives from something practiced by Andrew Carnegie back in the early industrial age. In short, this steel baron made sure that his company had a hand in every part of the steel manufacture process. He owned and operated mines, processing factories, refineries, mills and stores, all in his name. He never had to go outside his own business for any part of the process, and could directly affect - and make money from - each part of the business for maximum effect.
Maintaining an in-house writing team duplicates the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
The element of direct control and involvement is one such advantage. The writing team is drawing its paycheck from your organization, and is an integrated part of the team. The writers' success depends on the success of the entire venture, broadly speaking, so they have a certain vested interest. Similarly, their time spent on the matter allows them a deep familiarity with the different aspects of the company requiring their writing talents. This allows them to discover and use subtleties in their writing that cater directly to the needs of the company.
On the other hand, familiarity does breed a certain degree of contempt. No organization is immune to office politics or the overexposure effect. Being part of the day-in, day-out routine of the brand might limit your writers' talents, leading them to miss vital cues. The in-house approach requires very specific management to ensure all levels of the group are functioning together and in harmony.
There's also the danger of missing the forest for the trees. Writers produce a lot of content in ideal circumstances. Some are very good at what they do, and can belt off a solid article in short order. It's not uncommon, then, for teams to take their writers for granted, or for writers to feel unappreciated for their effort. Make sure that if you integrate, you do so in full measure and that they feel like an integral part of the whole.
Hiring Contractors - Also Known As Let the Barbarians Have Rome
There are a lot of people with very good ideas, and as much as you might like to, you won't ever have them all under your employ. This is where expert, externally-hired writing teams come in handy. On the other hand, some organizations just don't have the ability or the need for a full-time writing staff, and turn to outsiders for help and good ideas.
In either case, a fresh perspective is often the most immediate benefit. Someone looking at your material from outside the group can see it in a brand new way, bringing it all together. Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telegraph or the phonograph; rather, he looked at the two of them and saw a potential others hadn't. Thus, we have the telephone (and the cell phone... and the Internet...). Take advantage of a fresh perspective to get ahold of some new ideas.
Additionally, there is the advantage of flexibility in hiring an outside team on a writing contract. If you hire on an in-house team, you have more obligations to them. An external team can be evaluated on more of a trial basis, or for a specific project on which you need their expertise. It leaves you room to make decisions without commitments, and can be a strong benefit.
However, a team outside the organization might lack the necessary commitment to its goals, which is natural. They're around to do a job, not to specifically meet your mission statement. More effort is required to get them on board with what you need done than might be the case with someone drawing a paycheck from human resources.
Other Concerns - Entertain the Absurd
The biggest key to success in modern branding and online business is flexibility. Times change rapidly, demanding adaptability and a readiness to change with them. Be aware of additional opportunities that may or may not be readily evident when you first make your decision, and don't let one decision lock you in entirely.
Consider a team of outside writing experts that you hire for a few projects. They do a good job, and you keep bringing them in for future opportunities, expanding their role and the money you pay them over time. If the relationship is continuing to grow, and you expect it to continue... change your mind. Make an offer to keep them on as full-time writing staff, since they're so successful.
Alternatively, maximizing the effect of outside perspectives remains a good idea, so make sure each project employs at least one new writer every time they can. This will keep the content fresh and prevent the kind of stagnant writing that gets organizations into a rut.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
It's only a bit of an exaggeration to describe the debate over in-house writers vs. an outside content service as "raging." For any organization dedicated to producing written content as part of its brand, it is an important matter that eventually will need to be addressed. Each method, of course, has its advantages and disadvantages; there are no quick answers. But here are some considerations that should make the decision a little easier:
In-house - Also Known As "One Big Family"
There is a theory of economic activity known as the vertical consolidation model. It derives from something practiced by Andrew Carnegie back in the early industrial age. In short, this steel baron made sure that his company had a hand in every part of the steel manufacture process. He owned and operated mines, processing factories, refineries, mills and stores, all in his name. He never had to go outside his own business for any part of the process, and could directly affect - and make money from - each part of the business for maximum effect.
Maintaining an in-house writing team duplicates the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
The element of direct control and involvement is one such advantage. The writing team is drawing its paycheck from your organization, and is an integrated part of the team. The writers' success depends on the success of the entire venture, broadly speaking, so they have a certain vested interest. Similarly, their time spent on the matter allows them a deep familiarity with the different aspects of the company requiring their writing talents. This allows them to discover and use subtleties in their writing that cater directly to the needs of the company.
On the other hand, familiarity does breed a certain degree of contempt. No organization is immune to office politics or the overexposure effect. Being part of the day-in, day-out routine of the brand might limit your writers' talents, leading them to miss vital cues. The in-house approach requires very specific management to ensure all levels of the group are functioning together and in harmony.
There's also the danger of missing the forest for the trees. Writers produce a lot of content in ideal circumstances. Some are very good at what they do, and can belt off a solid article in short order. It's not uncommon, then, for teams to take their writers for granted, or for writers to feel unappreciated for their effort. Make sure that if you integrate, you do so in full measure and that they feel like an integral part of the whole.
Hiring Contractors - Also Known As Let the Barbarians Have Rome
There are a lot of people with very good ideas, and as much as you might like to, you won't ever have them all under your employ. This is where expert, externally-hired writing teams come in handy. On the other hand, some organizations just don't have the ability or the need for a full-time writing staff, and turn to outsiders for help and good ideas.
In either case, a fresh perspective is often the most immediate benefit. Someone looking at your material from outside the group can see it in a brand new way, bringing it all together. Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telegraph or the phonograph; rather, he looked at the two of them and saw a potential others hadn't. Thus, we have the telephone (and the cell phone... and the Internet...). Take advantage of a fresh perspective to get ahold of some new ideas.
Additionally, there is the advantage of flexibility in hiring an outside team on a writing contract. If you hire on an in-house team, you have more obligations to them. An external team can be evaluated on more of a trial basis, or for a specific project on which you need their expertise. It leaves you room to make decisions without commitments, and can be a strong benefit.
However, a team outside the organization might lack the necessary commitment to its goals, which is natural. They're around to do a job, not to specifically meet your mission statement. More effort is required to get them on board with what you need done than might be the case with someone drawing a paycheck from human resources.
Other Concerns - Entertain the Absurd
The biggest key to success in modern branding and online business is flexibility. Times change rapidly, demanding adaptability and a readiness to change with them. Be aware of additional opportunities that may or may not be readily evident when you first make your decision, and don't let one decision lock you in entirely.
Consider a team of outside writing experts that you hire for a few projects. They do a good job, and you keep bringing them in for future opportunities, expanding their role and the money you pay them over time. If the relationship is continuing to grow, and you expect it to continue... change your mind. Make an offer to keep them on as full-time writing staff, since they're so successful.
Alternatively, maximizing the effect of outside perspectives remains a good idea, so make sure each project employs at least one new writer every time they can. This will keep the content fresh and prevent the kind of stagnant writing that gets organizations into a rut.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Marketing Tip: Buying Leads And Lead Generation Is Tough
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
There are a lot of industries where business people rely upon buying leads to drive new business for them... For example: colleges and other schools, insurance agents, real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, and network marketers are constantly buying leads to find new prospects...
Leads are nothing more than people who have already shown an interest in purchasing what you sell... Leads can be purchased for as little as one dollar each and as much as $100 each, depending on many factors, but more importantly on the industry for which the leads have been collected...
The factors that can influence the cost of a lead includes:
Industry;
Source of lead;
Quality of lead;
Age of lead; and
Number of times that lead has been sold.
The first person to buy the lead will always pay the highest price for the lead...
I was reviewing one company that specialized in generating leads for the auto insurance industry... The first person to buy that lead was charged $25 for the lead... The person buying the lead was only guaranteed the first contact for a period of three days...
The second person to buy that same lead received no guarantee of second contact... The second through the eighth person to buy the lead paid approximately $12 for the lead... This set of business people were only assured that the lead was less than seven days old...
During the second week, after the lead was generated, the lead generation company would discount the lead by another 50% and offer it to another seven insurance agents for another week...
The dirty little secret of buying leads is that by the time you get those leads that cost under $10 to purchase, chances are very good that your lead has already made a purchase or a purchase decision...
If you count yourself lucky to have found leads for only a couple dollars each, be advised that those leads are likely at least 30 days old and the person has already been contacted dozens of times...
Quality Of Lead
You will hear many people, who are in the business of buying leads, talk about the perceived quality of the leads they buy...
Business people are accustomed to being told no, but when it takes 20 or 30 phone calls to get a sale, the lead is perceived to be very low quality...
The age of a lead and the number of times that the lead has been sold will be a really good indicator of the quality of the lead that is being purchased... That should be pretty obvious to everyone involved...
But, there is another factor that should be measured into the quality of a lead that is far less understood...
How did the lead generation company acquire the lead?
These days, a lot of companies utilize the Internet to develop new leads that they can sell... Other companies use television advertising to generate the leads they sell...
If you watch any television at all, you will have seen the commercials for companies that develop leads to sell to other companies...
For example:
There is the girl in her pajamas and fuzzy slippers, who talks about how she can go to college from the comfort of her home and in her pajamas... That advertisement is for a company that specializes in selling leads to various schools and colleges...
Without giving free advertising to any specific company, there is another company that advertises the availability of work-at-home opportunities that promise people that they can work part-time at home and generate an income of $3-$5000 per month...
Now that you have read this article and seen these examples, the next time you see those commercials, your eyes will be opened...
Lead generation companies have a real challenge to overcome...
Not only do they need to reach the right people and to reach them in volume, they also have to target their lead generation precisely for a specific industry...
Real estate leads is perhaps one of the easiest ways to make this distinction... Say for example an individual indicates an interest to move from New York to Texas... Texas is an awful big state... If the prospect indicated an interest to move to Corsicana Texas, connecting that person to a real estate agent in Dallas Texas is probably a bad idea... Sure, it is only an hours' drive away, but if you have ever been there, the two locations are as different as night and day...
Corsicana Texas is a small town of approximately 25,000 residents, located 55 miles south of Dallas Texas on Interstate 45... It sits just outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Area, which has an estimated 6.5 million residents...
The average real estate agent in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Area will be unprepared to find homes and to show homes in the Corsicana Texas area...
The point is that the quality of the lead will often be determined by the precision used to define the lead...
Buying Leads Versus Lead Generation
If you should choose to do your own lead generation, the quality of the leads that you generate will often be light years ahead of the quality of the leads that you can buy...
However, generating your own leads can be time-consuming and expensive... The problem most business people face when trying to generate their own leads is bringing enough traffic to a website to justify the cost of doing so...
Depending on the industry and the lifetime value of a customer, your capacity to generate leads may not require a lot of volume...
If you are able to develop an effective lead generation system for your business, you may only need to generate an additional 5 to 10 leads per month in order to keep your business profitable...
If you choose to go the route of developing your own lead generation website and system, it would serve you well to learn the traffic generation techniques that professional online marketers use everyday...
There are many places online where you can go to learn about developing targeted traffic to your website, traffic that is pre-qualified for your offer, thereby increasing the quality of the leads that you are able to generate for yourself...
If you choose to develop your own lead generation funnel, the best investment you will make towards the success of your business will be the education that you give yourself about how to drive traffic to your website and market your business online...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Read more of Marty Bradfield's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
There are a lot of industries where business people rely upon buying leads to drive new business for them... For example: colleges and other schools, insurance agents, real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, and network marketers are constantly buying leads to find new prospects...
Leads are nothing more than people who have already shown an interest in purchasing what you sell... Leads can be purchased for as little as one dollar each and as much as $100 each, depending on many factors, but more importantly on the industry for which the leads have been collected...
The factors that can influence the cost of a lead includes:
The first person to buy the lead will always pay the highest price for the lead...
I was reviewing one company that specialized in generating leads for the auto insurance industry... The first person to buy that lead was charged $25 for the lead... The person buying the lead was only guaranteed the first contact for a period of three days...
The second person to buy that same lead received no guarantee of second contact... The second through the eighth person to buy the lead paid approximately $12 for the lead... This set of business people were only assured that the lead was less than seven days old...
During the second week, after the lead was generated, the lead generation company would discount the lead by another 50% and offer it to another seven insurance agents for another week...
The dirty little secret of buying leads is that by the time you get those leads that cost under $10 to purchase, chances are very good that your lead has already made a purchase or a purchase decision...
If you count yourself lucky to have found leads for only a couple dollars each, be advised that those leads are likely at least 30 days old and the person has already been contacted dozens of times...
Quality Of Lead
You will hear many people, who are in the business of buying leads, talk about the perceived quality of the leads they buy...
Business people are accustomed to being told no, but when it takes 20 or 30 phone calls to get a sale, the lead is perceived to be very low quality...
The age of a lead and the number of times that the lead has been sold will be a really good indicator of the quality of the lead that is being purchased... That should be pretty obvious to everyone involved...
But, there is another factor that should be measured into the quality of a lead that is far less understood...
How did the lead generation company acquire the lead?
These days, a lot of companies utilize the Internet to develop new leads that they can sell... Other companies use television advertising to generate the leads they sell...
If you watch any television at all, you will have seen the commercials for companies that develop leads to sell to other companies...
For example:
Now that you have read this article and seen these examples, the next time you see those commercials, your eyes will be opened...
Lead generation companies have a real challenge to overcome...
Not only do they need to reach the right people and to reach them in volume, they also have to target their lead generation precisely for a specific industry...
Real estate leads is perhaps one of the easiest ways to make this distinction... Say for example an individual indicates an interest to move from New York to Texas... Texas is an awful big state... If the prospect indicated an interest to move to Corsicana Texas, connecting that person to a real estate agent in Dallas Texas is probably a bad idea... Sure, it is only an hours' drive away, but if you have ever been there, the two locations are as different as night and day...
Corsicana Texas is a small town of approximately 25,000 residents, located 55 miles south of Dallas Texas on Interstate 45... It sits just outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Area, which has an estimated 6.5 million residents...
The average real estate agent in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Area will be unprepared to find homes and to show homes in the Corsicana Texas area...
The point is that the quality of the lead will often be determined by the precision used to define the lead...
Buying Leads Versus Lead Generation
If you should choose to do your own lead generation, the quality of the leads that you generate will often be light years ahead of the quality of the leads that you can buy...
However, generating your own leads can be time-consuming and expensive... The problem most business people face when trying to generate their own leads is bringing enough traffic to a website to justify the cost of doing so...
Depending on the industry and the lifetime value of a customer, your capacity to generate leads may not require a lot of volume...
If you are able to develop an effective lead generation system for your business, you may only need to generate an additional 5 to 10 leads per month in order to keep your business profitable...
If you choose to go the route of developing your own lead generation website and system, it would serve you well to learn the traffic generation techniques that professional online marketers use everyday...
There are many places online where you can go to learn about developing targeted traffic to your website, traffic that is pre-qualified for your offer, thereby increasing the quality of the leads that you are able to generate for yourself...
If you choose to develop your own lead generation funnel, the best investment you will make towards the success of your business will be the education that you give yourself about how to drive traffic to your website and market your business online...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Read more of Marty Bradfield's articles.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Cracking The Article Marketing Puzzle
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Bill Platt
Article marketing is one of those topics that always seems to generate a lot of conversation in forums and marketing discussions... Online marketers are generally split into three camps, when it comes to arguing the effectiveness of article marketing as a promotional method...
Camp One swears by article marketing, as an integral and essential part of their online marketing activities... They suggest that the benefits of article marketing are twofold: direct click-through (CTR) traffic from the article that may deliver immediate sales; and improved search rankings that will drive additional search traffic...
Camp Two insists that the only real value of article marketing is for building links and creating link popularity for a website, enabling the website to rank well in Google and other search engines...
Camp Three accuses the first two camps of telling stories and selling a sham...
I am in the first camp... I have made a lot of money online, in the last 10 years, because I use article marketing to promote ALL of my websites...
Some people insist that I have only made money online, because I sell article marketing services... But, the truth is that I have made a lot of money in a variety of niches that are "not related" to online marketing... And, I have made that money in those niches, because I have used article marketing as the primary promotion method for all of my niche websites too...
Measuring The Success Of An Article Marketing Campaign
Those folks in Camp Two measure the success of their article marketing campaigns by the number of back links and Google page one search results that they can achieve...
Those of us, who are in camp One, measure our success by the dollar value of the sales that an individual article can deliver to our businesses... We count our search engine traffic to be only a BONUS benefit of article marketing...
There are four reasons why Camp One should make more sense...
1. Direct click-through traffic from articles is often from people who are pre-qualified to purchase what we are selling... In turn, this ensures a better conversion-rate on the traffic that we do receive directly from an article...
2. While search engine traffic is good, the people finding our websites in the search engines are not always as strongly targeted, nor pre-qualified to purchase what we are selling...
3. There can only be 10 websites on page one of Google and the other search engines... Depending on how competitive a niche may be, it could take weeks or years to reach page one of Google for your targeted keywords... It could take a single article, with its links to your website, or it could take 500 articles to get your website to page one...
4. If you can get direct click-through traffic to your websites, from your articles, you stand a good chance of generating sales at your website -- NOW, instead of later...
In Camp One, we utilize article marketing to generate actual sales, rather than search engine rankings...
We understand that "a bird in hand is more valuable than two in the bush", and in other words, "a dollar in hand is more valuable than a page-one listing in Google..."
The beauty of putting sales ahead of search engine rankings is that we can make money today, rather than to have to pray for good search engine rankings, so that we might be able to make money tomorrow...
Where Do You Want Your Articles To Take You?
The success that you will achieve with your articles will be determined before you put your very first word into your favorite word processing software...
What are you trying to achieve with your articles?
This is very important, because your goals will determine your outcome...
Article marketers in Camp One seek to write articles that will appeal to their target audience... Every word that they put into an article is designed to appeal to its human audience...
Article marketers in Camp Two are only interested in getting back links...
It really is that simple...
Are you writing your articles for a human audience, or are you writing your articles for the search engines?
If you are only concerned with getting the back link, then that is all you will receive...
However, if you are concerned with getting the attention of the people most likely to buy your products and services, then that is what you will more likely receive, and you may even discover that you are getting attention from the search engines as well...
Sharing A Secret
I am going to share a secret with you right here and now...
Search engines value articles that have managed to attract their own inbound links...
In other words, the articles of yours that are published on third-party websites that will send real link popularity to your website are those articles that other people have deemed valuable enough to link from their own websites...
People do not link to junk, unless they are paid to do so...
If people do not link to your articles on third-party websites, you should not be surprised if Google and the other search engines do not value the links that you have pointing to your website from your articles...
So, if you want your articles to pass real link popularity to your website, then you need to write your articles in such a way that other people will find value in them and want to link to them...
This is the primary reason why so many people fail with article marketing... They write crap, then get mad when they get crap results...
People who leave Camp One for Camp Two, then leap to Camp Three are people who have never attempted to follow any of the article marketing principles, described in this article...
Opening The Door To Article Marketing Success
There are many online publishers who will share your target audience with you...
When your articles focus on the wants and needs of people in your target audience, it will also appeal to the publisher who has an audience you want to reach...
There are five essential steps to creating articles that will produce good results for your business...
Step One: Write an article that people in your target audience will want to read...
Step Two: Make sure that your article carries a title that will get your article opened... No matter how good your article is, publishers and readers make the decision to read your article, in less than 10 seconds, using your article title to determine if your article might be worth the time they will sacrifice to read it...
Step Three: Make sure that the article is good enough to keep the attention of your reader to its conclusion, so they will see your Authors' Resource Box at the end of the article...
Step Four: Construct your Authors' Resource Box with the goal of getting the reader to your website, where you can make a comprehensive case for your offer...
Step Five: Distribute articles to the online publishers, who are most likely to publish them...
There is an art and a science to developing articles that will produce the desired results for your business...
The science is understanding what is required to make your articles attractive to readers and publishers...
The art of article marketing is being able to put an article together in such a way that people actually want to read it and are thankful for having read it...
Final Thoughts...
It may be easier to write articles only for the search engines... Impressing the search engines can be as easy as impressing my three-year-old... "I'm gonna eat your ear..."
But if you are willing to invest a few more minutes to make sure your article will appeal to publishers and readers too, you might just find that article marketing has a value beyond the search engines... And in my book, that spells M-o-r-e R-e-v-e-n-u-e...
p.s. If you liked this article, please give it value by linking to it...
About the Author:
We do not utilize a cookie-cutter approach for our article distribution service. Instead, we strive to deliver the articles we distribute directly to the publishers who are most likely to publish them... Let us distribute your good-quality articles to our publishers, who already have access to the audiences you want to reach... Get started today at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/ Written by Bill Platt. Also get Bill's free article marketing ebook.
Read more of Bill Platt's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Bill Platt
Article marketing is one of those topics that always seems to generate a lot of conversation in forums and marketing discussions... Online marketers are generally split into three camps, when it comes to arguing the effectiveness of article marketing as a promotional method...
Camp One swears by article marketing, as an integral and essential part of their online marketing activities... They suggest that the benefits of article marketing are twofold: direct click-through (CTR) traffic from the article that may deliver immediate sales; and improved search rankings that will drive additional search traffic...
Camp Two insists that the only real value of article marketing is for building links and creating link popularity for a website, enabling the website to rank well in Google and other search engines...
Camp Three accuses the first two camps of telling stories and selling a sham...
I am in the first camp... I have made a lot of money online, in the last 10 years, because I use article marketing to promote ALL of my websites...
Some people insist that I have only made money online, because I sell article marketing services... But, the truth is that I have made a lot of money in a variety of niches that are "not related" to online marketing... And, I have made that money in those niches, because I have used article marketing as the primary promotion method for all of my niche websites too...
Measuring The Success Of An Article Marketing Campaign
Those folks in Camp Two measure the success of their article marketing campaigns by the number of back links and Google page one search results that they can achieve...
Those of us, who are in camp One, measure our success by the dollar value of the sales that an individual article can deliver to our businesses... We count our search engine traffic to be only a BONUS benefit of article marketing...
There are four reasons why Camp One should make more sense...
1. Direct click-through traffic from articles is often from people who are pre-qualified to purchase what we are selling... In turn, this ensures a better conversion-rate on the traffic that we do receive directly from an article...
2. While search engine traffic is good, the people finding our websites in the search engines are not always as strongly targeted, nor pre-qualified to purchase what we are selling...
3. There can only be 10 websites on page one of Google and the other search engines... Depending on how competitive a niche may be, it could take weeks or years to reach page one of Google for your targeted keywords... It could take a single article, with its links to your website, or it could take 500 articles to get your website to page one...
4. If you can get direct click-through traffic to your websites, from your articles, you stand a good chance of generating sales at your website -- NOW, instead of later...
In Camp One, we utilize article marketing to generate actual sales, rather than search engine rankings...
We understand that "a bird in hand is more valuable than two in the bush", and in other words, "a dollar in hand is more valuable than a page-one listing in Google..."
The beauty of putting sales ahead of search engine rankings is that we can make money today, rather than to have to pray for good search engine rankings, so that we might be able to make money tomorrow...
Where Do You Want Your Articles To Take You?
The success that you will achieve with your articles will be determined before you put your very first word into your favorite word processing software...
What are you trying to achieve with your articles?
This is very important, because your goals will determine your outcome...
Article marketers in Camp One seek to write articles that will appeal to their target audience... Every word that they put into an article is designed to appeal to its human audience...
Article marketers in Camp Two are only interested in getting back links...
It really is that simple...
Are you writing your articles for a human audience, or are you writing your articles for the search engines?
If you are only concerned with getting the back link, then that is all you will receive...
However, if you are concerned with getting the attention of the people most likely to buy your products and services, then that is what you will more likely receive, and you may even discover that you are getting attention from the search engines as well...
Sharing A Secret
I am going to share a secret with you right here and now...
Search engines value articles that have managed to attract their own inbound links...
In other words, the articles of yours that are published on third-party websites that will send real link popularity to your website are those articles that other people have deemed valuable enough to link from their own websites...
People do not link to junk, unless they are paid to do so...
If people do not link to your articles on third-party websites, you should not be surprised if Google and the other search engines do not value the links that you have pointing to your website from your articles...
So, if you want your articles to pass real link popularity to your website, then you need to write your articles in such a way that other people will find value in them and want to link to them...
This is the primary reason why so many people fail with article marketing... They write crap, then get mad when they get crap results...
People who leave Camp One for Camp Two, then leap to Camp Three are people who have never attempted to follow any of the article marketing principles, described in this article...
Opening The Door To Article Marketing Success
There are many online publishers who will share your target audience with you...
When your articles focus on the wants and needs of people in your target audience, it will also appeal to the publisher who has an audience you want to reach...
There are five essential steps to creating articles that will produce good results for your business...
Step One: Write an article that people in your target audience will want to read...
Step Two: Make sure that your article carries a title that will get your article opened... No matter how good your article is, publishers and readers make the decision to read your article, in less than 10 seconds, using your article title to determine if your article might be worth the time they will sacrifice to read it...
Step Three: Make sure that the article is good enough to keep the attention of your reader to its conclusion, so they will see your Authors' Resource Box at the end of the article...
Step Four: Construct your Authors' Resource Box with the goal of getting the reader to your website, where you can make a comprehensive case for your offer...
Step Five: Distribute articles to the online publishers, who are most likely to publish them...
There is an art and a science to developing articles that will produce the desired results for your business...
The science is understanding what is required to make your articles attractive to readers and publishers...
The art of article marketing is being able to put an article together in such a way that people actually want to read it and are thankful for having read it...
Final Thoughts...
It may be easier to write articles only for the search engines... Impressing the search engines can be as easy as impressing my three-year-old... "I'm gonna eat your ear..."
But if you are willing to invest a few more minutes to make sure your article will appeal to publishers and readers too, you might just find that article marketing has a value beyond the search engines... And in my book, that spells M-o-r-e R-e-v-e-n-u-e...
p.s. If you liked this article, please give it value by linking to it...
About the Author:
We do not utilize a cookie-cutter approach for our article distribution service. Instead, we strive to deliver the articles we distribute directly to the publishers who are most likely to publish them... Let us distribute your good-quality articles to our publishers, who already have access to the audiences you want to reach... Get started today at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/ Written by Bill Platt. Also get Bill's free article marketing ebook.
Read more of Bill Platt's articles.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Marketing Tip: There Is A Time For Selling And A Time For Closing The Sale
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Most commercial webmasters enter the online sales process at a great disadvantage... The disadvantage is that they have never worked in sales, nor have they studied the fine art of copy writing...
Many webmasters spend a considerable amount of time second-guessing themselves about when and where to ask for the sale...
Amazingly, many websites you visit will make a great case for its products or services, and still fail to ask for the sale... This happens primarily because the person writing the copy fears coming across as just another used car salesman...
But, it should be noted that if a prospect takes the time to read your sales copy, then you as a copywriter will be doing a great disservice to your prospect by not giving the prospect an obvious and easy way to buy your products or services...
If you're not going to ask for the sale in a clear and obvious manner, then you should save everyone the time and trouble of having to read your sales copy in the first place...
There is nothing worse than visiting a website, taking the time to read the copy, and not been able to find the link that will allow you to make a purchase...
Knowing When To Ask For The Sale
I have heard a lot of discussion concerning when to ask for the sale... Many webmasters, including myself for my first five years online, get into the mindset that they have to describe their product or service offerings in full, before asking for the sale...
However, not every person who visits your website is unaware of your offer... In fact, a certain percentage of those people visiting your website decided to visit your website, because they are ready to buy NOW...
As a result, you should provide your visitors the opportunity to buy your products or services, as soon as they land on your website...
A buddy of mine, who writes sales copy for a living, suggested that any sales page should provide at least four "calls to action", enabling prospects at all levels to make the purchase, when they are ready to make the purchase...
The four levels of prospects that you should take consideration for, include:
1. Repeat buyers, who know exactly what they are buying;
2. New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling;
3. New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy; and
4. New buyers, who need to learn everything there is to learn about a particular product or service offer, before they make that decision to buy.
For repeat buyers, when they land on your website, the only thing they want to know is where to go to buy your product or service NOW...
New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling, are people who may have learned about your offering from somebody else or through a another website... These folks want to see a quick summary of your offer, so that they know they are in the right place... After they have seen your quick summary, they want your buy button...
New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy are the kinds of people who do not like to read... They want to get a general overview and a few details from you, before they make their decision... Once they have made the decision to buy, they want quick access to the buy button...
The fourth set of buyers will read your long copy, word for word, and probably even read it two or three times... These people will probably even browse every page of your website to determine if you have more information to share with them about the product or service that you are selling... These folks will suck in every available piece of information that you are willing to give them, before they reach for the buy button...
The lesson to be learned from the four types of buyers is that you should present a "call to action" or a "buy button" at every opportunity, frequently and obviously...
When To Sell, And When Not To Sell
If you include your purchase page on a page separate from your sales page, it should be noted that you should leave the sales copy off of your purchase page...
The reason is because most people who have clicked the button to go to your purchase page are already sold on your offer... If you attempt to resell somebody on your purchase page, you risk talking the person out of the sale...
If you have set up systems that will enable you to pre-qualify and pre-sell your product or service, then it is best to send those people directly to your purchase page, as opposed to sending them to your sales page... When you have pre-qualified and pre-sold your product or service, you do not want to talk your prospect out of completing the process...
Many professional online marketers will construct several sales pages to enable them to make their offers in a variety of different ways, usually writing each sales page to address a variety of prospects, with different needs...
Driving Traffic To Your Website
The hardest part and easiest part of any website is driving targeted traffic to it...
Depending on your skill set and your budget, delivering a targeted audience to your website may be the most difficult thing you have ever done...
For others, getting traffic is the easy part... Those professional online marketers who have honed their skills and their sales message will eventually buy traffic from a number of online sources...
If your sales copy is good and sales conversions are reliable, buying traffic is as easy as falling off a log... There are literally thousands of traffic sources online from which you can buy traffic...
The trick to buying traffic is to make sure that you are able to make a profit on the traffic you buy... Those people who can consistently afford to buy traffic are those who track their results and learn how many people they need to put on their page to get a sale...
Once you begin to understand the effectiveness of your sales copy, then you can easily put traffic through your website... And more importantly, do so reliably at a profit...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new online businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Read more Articles written by Marty Bradfield.
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Most commercial webmasters enter the online sales process at a great disadvantage... The disadvantage is that they have never worked in sales, nor have they studied the fine art of copy writing...
Many webmasters spend a considerable amount of time second-guessing themselves about when and where to ask for the sale...
Amazingly, many websites you visit will make a great case for its products or services, and still fail to ask for the sale... This happens primarily because the person writing the copy fears coming across as just another used car salesman...
But, it should be noted that if a prospect takes the time to read your sales copy, then you as a copywriter will be doing a great disservice to your prospect by not giving the prospect an obvious and easy way to buy your products or services...
If you're not going to ask for the sale in a clear and obvious manner, then you should save everyone the time and trouble of having to read your sales copy in the first place...
There is nothing worse than visiting a website, taking the time to read the copy, and not been able to find the link that will allow you to make a purchase...
Knowing When To Ask For The Sale
I have heard a lot of discussion concerning when to ask for the sale... Many webmasters, including myself for my first five years online, get into the mindset that they have to describe their product or service offerings in full, before asking for the sale...
However, not every person who visits your website is unaware of your offer... In fact, a certain percentage of those people visiting your website decided to visit your website, because they are ready to buy NOW...
As a result, you should provide your visitors the opportunity to buy your products or services, as soon as they land on your website...
A buddy of mine, who writes sales copy for a living, suggested that any sales page should provide at least four "calls to action", enabling prospects at all levels to make the purchase, when they are ready to make the purchase...
The four levels of prospects that you should take consideration for, include:
1. Repeat buyers, who know exactly what they are buying;
2. New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling;
3. New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy; and
4. New buyers, who need to learn everything there is to learn about a particular product or service offer, before they make that decision to buy.
For repeat buyers, when they land on your website, the only thing they want to know is where to go to buy your product or service NOW...
New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling, are people who may have learned about your offering from somebody else or through a another website... These folks want to see a quick summary of your offer, so that they know they are in the right place... After they have seen your quick summary, they want your buy button...
New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy are the kinds of people who do not like to read... They want to get a general overview and a few details from you, before they make their decision... Once they have made the decision to buy, they want quick access to the buy button...
The fourth set of buyers will read your long copy, word for word, and probably even read it two or three times... These people will probably even browse every page of your website to determine if you have more information to share with them about the product or service that you are selling... These folks will suck in every available piece of information that you are willing to give them, before they reach for the buy button...
The lesson to be learned from the four types of buyers is that you should present a "call to action" or a "buy button" at every opportunity, frequently and obviously...
When To Sell, And When Not To Sell
If you include your purchase page on a page separate from your sales page, it should be noted that you should leave the sales copy off of your purchase page...
The reason is because most people who have clicked the button to go to your purchase page are already sold on your offer... If you attempt to resell somebody on your purchase page, you risk talking the person out of the sale...
If you have set up systems that will enable you to pre-qualify and pre-sell your product or service, then it is best to send those people directly to your purchase page, as opposed to sending them to your sales page... When you have pre-qualified and pre-sold your product or service, you do not want to talk your prospect out of completing the process...
Many professional online marketers will construct several sales pages to enable them to make their offers in a variety of different ways, usually writing each sales page to address a variety of prospects, with different needs...
Driving Traffic To Your Website
The hardest part and easiest part of any website is driving targeted traffic to it...
Depending on your skill set and your budget, delivering a targeted audience to your website may be the most difficult thing you have ever done...
For others, getting traffic is the easy part... Those professional online marketers who have honed their skills and their sales message will eventually buy traffic from a number of online sources...
If your sales copy is good and sales conversions are reliable, buying traffic is as easy as falling off a log... There are literally thousands of traffic sources online from which you can buy traffic...
The trick to buying traffic is to make sure that you are able to make a profit on the traffic you buy... Those people who can consistently afford to buy traffic are those who track their results and learn how many people they need to put on their page to get a sale...
Once you begin to understand the effectiveness of your sales copy, then you can easily put traffic through your website... And more importantly, do so reliably at a profit...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new online businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Read more Articles written by Marty Bradfield.
How To Out-Socialize The Gurus On Twitter And Other Social Media
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Social media has long been touted as the latest and greatest Internet marketing tool that will bring new people to any online business seeking new customers...
For most online marketers, the social media environment appears over-hyped and ineffective... Between Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and Delicious, online marketers waste plenty of time trying to tap revenue from these social platforms...
Why Auto-Following Will Always Fail
John Reese is one of those people who has become famous for his online marketing prowess, with a variety of product launches... Even with his genius for online marketing, John Reese failed to make the Twitter platform work for his business... In June of 2008, Reese realized that the auto-follow strategy of gaining Twitter followers was not working...
The auto-follow Twitter marketing strategy is doomed to failure... I actually lost a little bit of respect for John Reese, because he had to learn the hard way that the Twitter auto-follow strategy would not work... A man with his genius should have known before he started that the technique was doomed to fail miserably...
It will fail because it works in the same manner as a safe list or traffic exchange system, where a bunch of people will gather together to send advertising to each other... The problem is that people only agree to join such systems so that they can send their advertising to others, not so that they can read a ton of advertising from other people...
People do not join safe lists because they want 10,000 people to send them advertising in their email... They only agree to let 10,000 people send them commercial e-mail, because they want to send their commercial e-mail to 10,000 people... Everyone involved is so caught up in the hope that someone will read their advertising and buy what they are selling, without giving much concern or thought to the idea that even they are not reading the email that other people send to them...
In June of 2008, John Reese gave up on the auto-follow strategy for gaining Twitter followers... He un-followed everybody in a single day and started again from scratch...
Is Twitter Dead?
Nearly 2 years later, in March of 2010, John Reese declared in an e-mail to his mailing list that he had deleted his twitter account... He cited the same reasons that he did 21 months previously -- too much noise...
John Reese is not the only online guru to abandon the Twitter platform... Frank Kern, and a few of Reese's other online associates, also bid Twitter farewell... Kern said that Twitter was a "time suck" that was eating into his productivity...
Please don't get the idea that my reporting on the marketing gurus leaving Twitter like rats from a sinking ship is a signal to you that you should do the same...
In fact, I am not leaving Twitter and I see no reason that you should either...
By mentioning Reese and Kern leaving Twitter behind, I am only pointing out that some of the sharpest minds involved in online marketing have yet to understand the true art and science of social media marketing...
Both of these guys are smart... Few people will argue against that... But, both have failed to understand how to turn a profit from the Twitter social media platform...
Social Media Marketing Is Not Mass Marketing
If you were to ask me... These two guys, smart as they are, missed the most elemental foundation of social media marketing... say, after me, S-O-C-I-A-L... SOCIAL media marketing...
John Reese and Frank Kern are masters of mass marketing... Mass marketing does not work on social media websites...
Social media is described as such, because it invites individuals to socialize with one another... Those individuals who have mastered the social media platform are those who have understood how to create relationships, develop relationships, and maintain relationships... They have understood that social media websites are there to help you nurture social relationships with other people...
The mass marketer is focused on himself, above and beyond all other people... The social marketer is focused on building relationships with the people with whom they would like to do business...
If you understand how to attract people and maintain personal relationships with those people, then you may master social media marketing in a way that John Reese and Frank Kern were unable to do...
Stumbling In The Dark
The first step to mastering social media marketing is to learn how to attract people... Auto-follow will never work towards that end... In order to attract people who want to follow you, you must inspire them to want to follow you...
It is funny when I watch the people who are trying to market themselves on Twitter...
Some of those people will send out an endless supply of quotes, trying to convince you of their value, because they have said something clever through the words of another person...
Others will send out sales message after sales message hoping to attract your business...
Still others will try to win your support by focusing on key words... They want to treat Twitter as if it were search engine driving traffic to their website...
Some Twitter users will make certain to include a link with every tweet... The smarter of the lot will only link to information... The more shallow of the group will only link to sales pages...
And finally, there are those who are probably smarter than all of us put together... They are the ones who provide a mix of content... Sometimes, they will give us a link to information... Sometimes, they will link us to the sales page... At other times, they will share quotes and news headlines... And in all cases, they will socialize with their followers, asking about things important to their followers and sharing their personal lives with those who ask...
The Lesson To Take From This Article
Social media marketing works best, when the marketer who is attempting to use it, remembers that first and foremost it is a platform to socialize with other people...
Why do people follow YOU on Twitter?
They follow you, because there is something about you and what you say that appeals to them at a very human level...
If you want to win in the Social Media element, be human and don't be afraid to socialize with your friends and acquaintances...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Social media has long been touted as the latest and greatest Internet marketing tool that will bring new people to any online business seeking new customers...
For most online marketers, the social media environment appears over-hyped and ineffective... Between Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and Delicious, online marketers waste plenty of time trying to tap revenue from these social platforms...
Why Auto-Following Will Always Fail
John Reese is one of those people who has become famous for his online marketing prowess, with a variety of product launches... Even with his genius for online marketing, John Reese failed to make the Twitter platform work for his business... In June of 2008, Reese realized that the auto-follow strategy of gaining Twitter followers was not working...
The auto-follow Twitter marketing strategy is doomed to failure... I actually lost a little bit of respect for John Reese, because he had to learn the hard way that the Twitter auto-follow strategy would not work... A man with his genius should have known before he started that the technique was doomed to fail miserably...
It will fail because it works in the same manner as a safe list or traffic exchange system, where a bunch of people will gather together to send advertising to each other... The problem is that people only agree to join such systems so that they can send their advertising to others, not so that they can read a ton of advertising from other people...
People do not join safe lists because they want 10,000 people to send them advertising in their email... They only agree to let 10,000 people send them commercial e-mail, because they want to send their commercial e-mail to 10,000 people... Everyone involved is so caught up in the hope that someone will read their advertising and buy what they are selling, without giving much concern or thought to the idea that even they are not reading the email that other people send to them...
In June of 2008, John Reese gave up on the auto-follow strategy for gaining Twitter followers... He un-followed everybody in a single day and started again from scratch...
Is Twitter Dead?
Nearly 2 years later, in March of 2010, John Reese declared in an e-mail to his mailing list that he had deleted his twitter account... He cited the same reasons that he did 21 months previously -- too much noise...
John Reese is not the only online guru to abandon the Twitter platform... Frank Kern, and a few of Reese's other online associates, also bid Twitter farewell... Kern said that Twitter was a "time suck" that was eating into his productivity...
Please don't get the idea that my reporting on the marketing gurus leaving Twitter like rats from a sinking ship is a signal to you that you should do the same...
In fact, I am not leaving Twitter and I see no reason that you should either...
By mentioning Reese and Kern leaving Twitter behind, I am only pointing out that some of the sharpest minds involved in online marketing have yet to understand the true art and science of social media marketing...
Both of these guys are smart... Few people will argue against that... But, both have failed to understand how to turn a profit from the Twitter social media platform...
Social Media Marketing Is Not Mass Marketing
If you were to ask me... These two guys, smart as they are, missed the most elemental foundation of social media marketing... say, after me, S-O-C-I-A-L... SOCIAL media marketing...
John Reese and Frank Kern are masters of mass marketing... Mass marketing does not work on social media websites...
Social media is described as such, because it invites individuals to socialize with one another... Those individuals who have mastered the social media platform are those who have understood how to create relationships, develop relationships, and maintain relationships... They have understood that social media websites are there to help you nurture social relationships with other people...
The mass marketer is focused on himself, above and beyond all other people... The social marketer is focused on building relationships with the people with whom they would like to do business...
If you understand how to attract people and maintain personal relationships with those people, then you may master social media marketing in a way that John Reese and Frank Kern were unable to do...
Stumbling In The Dark
The first step to mastering social media marketing is to learn how to attract people... Auto-follow will never work towards that end... In order to attract people who want to follow you, you must inspire them to want to follow you...
It is funny when I watch the people who are trying to market themselves on Twitter...
Some of those people will send out an endless supply of quotes, trying to convince you of their value, because they have said something clever through the words of another person...
Others will send out sales message after sales message hoping to attract your business...
Still others will try to win your support by focusing on key words... They want to treat Twitter as if it were search engine driving traffic to their website...
Some Twitter users will make certain to include a link with every tweet... The smarter of the lot will only link to information... The more shallow of the group will only link to sales pages...
And finally, there are those who are probably smarter than all of us put together... They are the ones who provide a mix of content... Sometimes, they will give us a link to information... Sometimes, they will link us to the sales page... At other times, they will share quotes and news headlines... And in all cases, they will socialize with their followers, asking about things important to their followers and sharing their personal lives with those who ask...
The Lesson To Take From This Article
Social media marketing works best, when the marketer who is attempting to use it, remembers that first and foremost it is a platform to socialize with other people...
Why do people follow YOU on Twitter?
They follow you, because there is something about you and what you say that appeals to them at a very human level...
If you want to win in the Social Media element, be human and don't be afraid to socialize with your friends and acquaintances...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Why Ker-chunk Needs to Proceed Ker-ching
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Judy Murdoch
This morning I was working with a client who was feeling some frustration around defining the niche for their business:
it started as "small business coaching"...
got a little more specific as "small 'green' business coaching"...
took a 180-degree turn to non-profit organization coaching...
and turn another 180-degrees back to "small business coaching
"Why is picking a niche so hard?" my client wanted to know.
============================================
Choosing a Niche for Your Business Can Be Really Hard
============================================
My client isn't alone. In fact she has excellent company: like me.
Yes, even marketing "experts" like yours truly can struggle with saying who they help.
In my case, selecting a niche has been an 8-year process and in all honesty I still squirm a little when I have to tell people who I work with.
For a long time I told people I was a "small business marketing coach." More often then not this would get a response like "So what is it that you do?"
And I'd babble on and on about developing marketing messages and setting up marketing systems and revenue streams and so on.
If the other person was polite they'd try to figure out whether what I was talking about would be helpful to them in some way. If the other person was not so polite, they were already getting a drink at the bar.
Being a marketing person you'd think I'd know better. You'd think I would know that the first step for effective marketing is to choose a niche.
But I just couldn't do it even as I told my clients that's what they needed to do.
============================================
What Enabled Me to Finally Step Forward
============================================
A couple years ago, I was attending a business seminar to learn about how to put the pieces in place needed to create a sustainably profitable business.
We were doing a role play in which we were have a challenging conversation with another person. The idea was to use what we had learned about ourselves and our business as a foundation to deal with difficult situations.
My dreaded situation was when someone would ask "So what is it exactly that you do?" And my partner looked me in the eye and asked me "So Judy, what exactly is it that you do."
I paused for a second and listened to my heart and blurted out, "I love you and your business so that your customers can know about you and love you too."
Inelegant, not your typical 60-second elevator pitch but my partner smiled at me and said, "Wow, I really felt that. I wouldn't hesitate to hire you."
That was when things went "Ker-chunk" for me and for prospective clients.
Because the truth of the matter is, for me, marketing is about love. More specifically, marketing is about communicating what you love to do and how you love to help people because when your ideal customers feel that sincerity in their hearts --- it's easy to say "yes."
Customers saying, "yes" is the Ker-ching.
============================================
Keys for Getting to Ker-chunk
============================================
Knowing how tricky it is to name your niche, here are some keys to make the process easier.
#1. Manage the Risk
One thing we forget is that no one is carving your niche definition in stone.
There's no rule saying Thou shalt not change thy niche.
You can change your niche.
But I'm going to qualify this by saying, you must make some kind of commitment around how long you'll work in your niche. A commitment of six months to a year.
Again, not carved in stone. But it's a long enough time to know whether it feels like the right place for your business.
#2. Make Sure Your Heart Has a Say in Selecting Your Niche
For all of us, myself included, we tend to approach business decisions very logically. There are programs and spreadsheets where you can put in the pros and cons and get a recommendation for what to do.
I'm going to suggest you use your reasoning abilities as one source of information and let your heart make the final vote.
Why? Because I have made many, many business decisions in my career. When I based my decision purely on rational factors and my heart was waving a red flag that read, "Something about this doesn't feel right" I nearly always regretted my decision.
Listen to your heart and your intuition. Take a break if you need to and quiet your thoughts. And then ask your heart, "is this true to my highest intentions?"
Then listen and be willing to be surprised.
#3. Your Niche Definition Has to Be Specific Enough for Customers to Know You're Talking to Them
Another thing that makes business owners nervous is around specificity: how specific does their definition need to be?
It feels like every qualifier you add: age, gender, attitudes, and so on is yet another obstacle to finding customers.
My teacher, Mark Silver, has a great way to address this. He says, "your definition only needs to be specific enough so that your ideal customers recognize themselves when you tell people who you work with.
I love Mark's definition of who he works with: "small business owners who want to make a difference and need to make a profit."
It's simple and yet anyone who is an ideal customer for Mark immediately feels like he's talking to them.
============================================
Bottom Line
============================================
Being specific is scary because it means taking a stand for what you do. And when you take a stand, sometimes people push back; they don't like your decision for whatever reason.
But when you do articulate who you help and do so in a heart-felt way you allow customers to connect from a place of trust. You create a space for their hearts to settle into and to receive your support. Ker-chunk!
And when the "ker-chunk" happens, prospective customers can open up and say, "Hey, I'm feeling like you can really help me with this problem. I'd like to hire you."
Ker-ching!
About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.
Copyright © 2010 Judy Murdoch
This morning I was working with a client who was feeling some frustration around defining the niche for their business:
"Why is picking a niche so hard?" my client wanted to know.
============================================
Choosing a Niche for Your Business Can Be Really Hard
============================================
My client isn't alone. In fact she has excellent company: like me.
Yes, even marketing "experts" like yours truly can struggle with saying who they help.
In my case, selecting a niche has been an 8-year process and in all honesty I still squirm a little when I have to tell people who I work with.
For a long time I told people I was a "small business marketing coach." More often then not this would get a response like "So what is it that you do?"
And I'd babble on and on about developing marketing messages and setting up marketing systems and revenue streams and so on.
If the other person was polite they'd try to figure out whether what I was talking about would be helpful to them in some way. If the other person was not so polite, they were already getting a drink at the bar.
Being a marketing person you'd think I'd know better. You'd think I would know that the first step for effective marketing is to choose a niche.
But I just couldn't do it even as I told my clients that's what they needed to do.
============================================
What Enabled Me to Finally Step Forward
============================================
A couple years ago, I was attending a business seminar to learn about how to put the pieces in place needed to create a sustainably profitable business.
We were doing a role play in which we were have a challenging conversation with another person. The idea was to use what we had learned about ourselves and our business as a foundation to deal with difficult situations.
My dreaded situation was when someone would ask "So what is it exactly that you do?" And my partner looked me in the eye and asked me "So Judy, what exactly is it that you do."
I paused for a second and listened to my heart and blurted out, "I love you and your business so that your customers can know about you and love you too."
Inelegant, not your typical 60-second elevator pitch but my partner smiled at me and said, "Wow, I really felt that. I wouldn't hesitate to hire you."
That was when things went "Ker-chunk" for me and for prospective clients.
Because the truth of the matter is, for me, marketing is about love. More specifically, marketing is about communicating what you love to do and how you love to help people because when your ideal customers feel that sincerity in their hearts --- it's easy to say "yes."
Customers saying, "yes" is the Ker-ching.
============================================
Keys for Getting to Ker-chunk
============================================
Knowing how tricky it is to name your niche, here are some keys to make the process easier.
#1. Manage the Risk
One thing we forget is that no one is carving your niche definition in stone.
There's no rule saying Thou shalt not change thy niche.
You can change your niche.
But I'm going to qualify this by saying, you must make some kind of commitment around how long you'll work in your niche. A commitment of six months to a year.
Again, not carved in stone. But it's a long enough time to know whether it feels like the right place for your business.
#2. Make Sure Your Heart Has a Say in Selecting Your Niche
For all of us, myself included, we tend to approach business decisions very logically. There are programs and spreadsheets where you can put in the pros and cons and get a recommendation for what to do.
I'm going to suggest you use your reasoning abilities as one source of information and let your heart make the final vote.
Why? Because I have made many, many business decisions in my career. When I based my decision purely on rational factors and my heart was waving a red flag that read, "Something about this doesn't feel right" I nearly always regretted my decision.
Listen to your heart and your intuition. Take a break if you need to and quiet your thoughts. And then ask your heart, "is this true to my highest intentions?"
Then listen and be willing to be surprised.
#3. Your Niche Definition Has to Be Specific Enough for Customers to Know You're Talking to Them
Another thing that makes business owners nervous is around specificity: how specific does their definition need to be?
It feels like every qualifier you add: age, gender, attitudes, and so on is yet another obstacle to finding customers.
My teacher, Mark Silver, has a great way to address this. He says, "your definition only needs to be specific enough so that your ideal customers recognize themselves when you tell people who you work with.
I love Mark's definition of who he works with: "small business owners who want to make a difference and need to make a profit."
It's simple and yet anyone who is an ideal customer for Mark immediately feels like he's talking to them.
============================================
Bottom Line
============================================
Being specific is scary because it means taking a stand for what you do. And when you take a stand, sometimes people push back; they don't like your decision for whatever reason.
But when you do articulate who you help and do so in a heart-felt way you allow customers to connect from a place of trust. You create a space for their hearts to settle into and to receive your support. Ker-chunk!
And when the "ker-chunk" happens, prospective customers can open up and say, "Hey, I'm feeling like you can really help me with this problem. I'd like to hire you."
Ker-ching!
About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Which Is Better, Affiliate Marketing Or Network Marketing?
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Network marketing is often treated as the redheaded stepchild of the "make money online" community... You may be surprised at the number of online publishers and forum communities that prohibit the discussion of MLM and network marketing opportunities...
There are two primary reasons why mainstream online marketers do not want to talk about either one...
1. Many people still believe MLM systems to be illegal; and
2. A low success rate for participating members.
In this article, we are going to look at both of these arguments... With an eye towards the truth...
Is Network Marketing An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
Since the 1970s, many people have believed that all MLM opportunities meet the legal description of a Ponzi Scheme, also known as an illegal pyramid scheme... For at least two decades, Amway wrestled with the incorrect public perception that its company was an illegal pyramid scheme...
The Ponzi Scheme derived its name from Charles Ponzi in 1920... Ponzi did not invent the fraudulent activity that bears his name... The first public description of the investing scheme was actually made in a Charles Dickens book, written in 1857, titled "Little Dorrit"...
A Ponzi scheme is a "fraudulent investment system that actually pays supposed returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned from the investment."
Ponzi did not create this system, but he did make it famous... It is suspected that he raked in millions in his scheme, in 1920 dollars... Ponzi promised his investors a 50% return on their money in 45 days... People were lining up to give him their life savings so that he could invest it for them... At one point, Ponzi was taking in $250,000 per day...
When it all came tumbling down, people began to realize that they had lost everything...
The difference between an illegal pyramid and a legitimate MLM or network marketing system is defined by how the money is earned...
If the MLM or network marketing company pays their membership for recruiting new members, then the system is at risk of being an illegal business model... (I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be one on the Internet. If in doubt, please consult with an attorney.)
However, if the business pays commissions on the sale of products only, the business model is within the legal guidelines for operating a business in the United States...
If you compare the Amway compensation plan to the previous paragraph, you will quickly realize that Amway is NOT an illegal pyramid scheme...
A Low Perceived Success Rate
The second reason why mainstream online marketers do not like to talk about MLM or network marketing opportunities is because they have a notoriously low success rate...
But, if all online companies had to publish their number of registered affiliates next to the number of affiliates who actually make money online, affiliate marketing companies may have a lower success rate than network marketing companies...
According to network marketing industry statistics, only 3% of all network marketers ever make money with network marketing companies... That means that 97% of all network marketers will never make money with network marketing...
Since we do not know any numbers for affiliate marketing companies, we can only speculate as to their success rates...
Recently, I had seen an article that suggested that the ClickBank affiliate network generates a success rate for its members at a rate that is at least 100 times worse than network marketing... But I was only able to locate one source for those numbers, so I don't feel confident in sharing this information as fact...
But, if true, network marketing participants are more likely to make money online than ClickBank affiliates...
Those Who Make Money Online Are Those Who Decide To Do So...
We have all heard the old adage that says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink..."
The truth is that if we are talking about making money online, the more accurate adage would be, "You cannot make a donkey go anywhere he doesn't want to go..." LOL
Or a real adage, "You cannot push a rope..."
Whether we are talking about Affiliate Marketing or Network Marketing, most people simply choose to never try, rather than to risk failure or success...
Most people signup to these programs, with the expectation that they will never actually need to do much of anything to make money... If they ever start doing anything that will lead to success, they typically "try it out" for a week, then quit...
p.s. If the sales copy says that you do not have to work to make money, someone is lying to you... And if you believed them, you were lying to yourself...
For the person who makes a commitment to his or her success, success is much more likely, although not guaranteed...
Even Obama will only guarantee you an income for a few months, before you will have to go get another job and go back to work... WINK
Common Reasons Why People Fail With Network Marketing and Online Marketing
1. Not starting;
2. Not trying very hard;
3. Giving up after one week to try something else -- an unwillingness to make a real commitment;
4. Not making a commitment to Get Educated about how to successfully market the business;
5. Not investing any time or money into their business, to ensure its success;
6. Giving up too soon...
7. More interested in finding someone else to blame for failure, rather than to do what is required to be successful...
If you have ever signed up to participate in a making money online opportunity and quit before making any money with it, and if you are honest with yourself, you likely failed for one or more of the above stated reasons...
I am not better than you... I failed for the same reasons for my first 3-1/2 years online...
After failing for several years, I decided to get educated... Once I attained my education, I started making a few dollars here and there...
Then I increased my education, and I began to make consistent money...
I continued to invest in my own education... As I write this, I have made my entire living online for more than five years...
So do you think that you might want to consider getting a real marketing education?
Or are you happy keeping your job until you retire?
About the Author:
If you are struggling to make money online, or you are looking to take your network marketing or online business to the next level, you may find our Online Marketing Bootcamp to be one of the best investments of your time and money this year. We start with the basics and work our way up to the Cutting Edge Tactics used by professional online marketers. Learn more about our Online Marketing Bootcamp at: http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Written by: Marty Bradfield
Read more Articles written by Marty Bradfield.
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
Network marketing is often treated as the redheaded stepchild of the "make money online" community... You may be surprised at the number of online publishers and forum communities that prohibit the discussion of MLM and network marketing opportunities...
There are two primary reasons why mainstream online marketers do not want to talk about either one...
1. Many people still believe MLM systems to be illegal; and
2. A low success rate for participating members.
In this article, we are going to look at both of these arguments... With an eye towards the truth...
Is Network Marketing An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
Since the 1970s, many people have believed that all MLM opportunities meet the legal description of a Ponzi Scheme, also known as an illegal pyramid scheme... For at least two decades, Amway wrestled with the incorrect public perception that its company was an illegal pyramid scheme...
The Ponzi Scheme derived its name from Charles Ponzi in 1920... Ponzi did not invent the fraudulent activity that bears his name... The first public description of the investing scheme was actually made in a Charles Dickens book, written in 1857, titled "Little Dorrit"...
A Ponzi scheme is a "fraudulent investment system that actually pays supposed returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned from the investment."
Ponzi did not create this system, but he did make it famous... It is suspected that he raked in millions in his scheme, in 1920 dollars... Ponzi promised his investors a 50% return on their money in 45 days... People were lining up to give him their life savings so that he could invest it for them... At one point, Ponzi was taking in $250,000 per day...
When it all came tumbling down, people began to realize that they had lost everything...
The difference between an illegal pyramid and a legitimate MLM or network marketing system is defined by how the money is earned...
If the MLM or network marketing company pays their membership for recruiting new members, then the system is at risk of being an illegal business model... (I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be one on the Internet. If in doubt, please consult with an attorney.)
However, if the business pays commissions on the sale of products only, the business model is within the legal guidelines for operating a business in the United States...
If you compare the Amway compensation plan to the previous paragraph, you will quickly realize that Amway is NOT an illegal pyramid scheme...
A Low Perceived Success Rate
The second reason why mainstream online marketers do not like to talk about MLM or network marketing opportunities is because they have a notoriously low success rate...
But, if all online companies had to publish their number of registered affiliates next to the number of affiliates who actually make money online, affiliate marketing companies may have a lower success rate than network marketing companies...
According to network marketing industry statistics, only 3% of all network marketers ever make money with network marketing companies... That means that 97% of all network marketers will never make money with network marketing...
Since we do not know any numbers for affiliate marketing companies, we can only speculate as to their success rates...
Recently, I had seen an article that suggested that the ClickBank affiliate network generates a success rate for its members at a rate that is at least 100 times worse than network marketing... But I was only able to locate one source for those numbers, so I don't feel confident in sharing this information as fact...
But, if true, network marketing participants are more likely to make money online than ClickBank affiliates...
Those Who Make Money Online Are Those Who Decide To Do So...
We have all heard the old adage that says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink..."
The truth is that if we are talking about making money online, the more accurate adage would be, "You cannot make a donkey go anywhere he doesn't want to go..." LOL
Or a real adage, "You cannot push a rope..."
Whether we are talking about Affiliate Marketing or Network Marketing, most people simply choose to never try, rather than to risk failure or success...
Most people signup to these programs, with the expectation that they will never actually need to do much of anything to make money... If they ever start doing anything that will lead to success, they typically "try it out" for a week, then quit...
p.s. If the sales copy says that you do not have to work to make money, someone is lying to you... And if you believed them, you were lying to yourself...
For the person who makes a commitment to his or her success, success is much more likely, although not guaranteed...
Even Obama will only guarantee you an income for a few months, before you will have to go get another job and go back to work... WINK
Common Reasons Why People Fail With Network Marketing and Online Marketing
1. Not starting;
2. Not trying very hard;
3. Giving up after one week to try something else -- an unwillingness to make a real commitment;
4. Not making a commitment to Get Educated about how to successfully market the business;
5. Not investing any time or money into their business, to ensure its success;
6. Giving up too soon...
7. More interested in finding someone else to blame for failure, rather than to do what is required to be successful...
If you have ever signed up to participate in a making money online opportunity and quit before making any money with it, and if you are honest with yourself, you likely failed for one or more of the above stated reasons...
I am not better than you... I failed for the same reasons for my first 3-1/2 years online...
After failing for several years, I decided to get educated... Once I attained my education, I started making a few dollars here and there...
Then I increased my education, and I began to make consistent money...
I continued to invest in my own education... As I write this, I have made my entire living online for more than five years...
So do you think that you might want to consider getting a real marketing education?
Or are you happy keeping your job until you retire?
About the Author:
If you are struggling to make money online, or you are looking to take your network marketing or online business to the next level, you may find our Online Marketing Bootcamp to be one of the best investments of your time and money this year. We start with the basics and work our way up to the Cutting Edge Tactics used by professional online marketers. Learn more about our Online Marketing Bootcamp at: http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Written by: Marty Bradfield
Read more Articles written by Marty Bradfield.
How Much Is Too Much To Pay For SEO?
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Kurt D. Lynn
How much is too much to pay for SEO? (...or should you try to do it yourself first?)
Yes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be an excellent way of getting leads.
Yes, good SEO can level the playing field between you and competitors.
Yes, you should do some level of SEO.
...but how much is too much?
Too much? Good question.
You'll find that everybody that uses the word "Internet" is going to suggest that you engage in SEO and many will make you an offer to do it for you. There's nothing wrong with that as far it goes. But what you have to decide is how much you should pay for having it done.
Some Perspectives On Paying For SEO
Here are a few important tips to help you decide the answer to that question:
(1) First, make sure you really do need outside assistance. If you're looking for better SEO placement for relatively unique or so-called "long tail" key words (e.g. "pine street rental condominiums") it might be worth trying it yourself before you involve an SEO consultant or SEO firm.
(2) SEO is not rocket-science. Mostly it's monotonous drudgery. So what you pay should not be about hiring "expertise". The SEO effort is more like 90% drudgery, 8% experience, and 2% expertise and you should compensate accordingly.
(3) The value of SEO boils down to "clicks" - preferably clicks that result in a sale conversion. SEO should be measured on the same cost-per-click basis any search-engine-marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC) campaign would be - i.e. the basis of ROI. If you don't know how many clicks or orders you want, do not engage SEO until you do.
(4) SEO is not static and optimization is competitive. You may be on the first page today but your competitors aren't necessarily going to sit still forever. You could be bumped at any time. So if you're not prepared to maintain an ongoing and strategic SEO effort - no matter what the competition does - then save your money.
(5) Search engine "secrets" are just that - secret. The search engines aren't telling them and anybody that claims to know the secrets is just guessing. It doesn't mean they can't help but it's not as if they have some special advantage. Impossible.
(6) Frankly, from the search engine point-of-view, if your site doesn't have enough useful and relevant content to be on the first page, ethical SEO notwithstanding, eventually it won't be. This is the objective of the search engines and there's little likelihood that the SEO "expert" pitching you is going to out-think Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others in the long run.
Is Doing SEO Yourself An Option?
It's almost always worth taking a first crack at SEO yourself. Often only a little effort can make a significant difference. If you do want to make the effort, invest a few dollars in a do-it-yourself SEO guide and try to adhere to the following minimum suggestions:
(1) focus on keywords that are realistic. You're not likely to get a good placement with a keyword like "real estate" but you might get first page with a keyword like "Hill street real estate";
(2) make sure your keyword is mentioned in the link to your page. Instead of saying "click HERE" make sure the text for the link says something like "for more information about HILL STREET REAL ESTATE";
(3) Make sure your keyword is mentioned in your page title, your keyword list, your page content, bolded page content;
(4) For every keyword you're interested in, make sure you have an appropriate page to focus on it (and that it complies with #1, #2, and #3 above)
(5) Register with search engine webmaster accounts so that you can submit your site to them quickly and efficiently (search for "google webmaster", "bing webmaster", or "yahoo webmaster" to find the details).
Don't Forget Links
Lastly, if you going to make an initial stab yourself, understand that quality links to your site are a vital factor in your ultimate placement. The more the merrier. To get a headstart on building links to your site, do the following:
(1) enroll in all relevant local or regional directories - (search "free directories" to find lists of these); many will be free, some will want nominal fees or backlinks. You decide.
(2) Ensure that any press releases and announcements you make refer to your site and specific pages within it.
(3) Post pages of your site to delicious.com or to digg.com and to similar bookmarking sites.
(4) Ask local friends and business acquaintances if they will exchange links with you.
(5) On the other hand, DO NOT sign up for paid links without the guidance of someone experienced in Internet marketing.
Do these things sound particularly difficult? No.
And well worth taking a stab at by yourself. From there you can decide whether to pay for SEO services from a 3rd-party is desirable or worth the cost.
No Matter What You Do...
You need to think in terms of what kind of return you are going to get on your investment. The calculation is simple: Divide the total SEO cost (yours or a 3rd-party's) by the number of orders/sales you've received as a result of the effort. Then compare that cost-per-sale against your margin-per-sale. If you have margin left over, you're in the right territory. If you don't, you've got a problem.
The bottom line is that when you talk with any SEO service provider, you must think in terms of ROI. Not in terms of "secrets" or first pages or top spots, but ROI. (Note: it is theoretically possible to be on the 3rd page and still get a positive ROI - not likely, but possible) If the ROI doesn't work, then search engine optimization may not be for you and other Internet marketing methods might yield better results and a better ROI.
About the Author:
Kurt D. Lynn offers business consulting services for growing businesses in the U.S. and Canada. For more information or more articles, check out his blog at http://www.klynnbusinessconsulting.com/blog
Copyright © 2010 Kurt D. Lynn
How much is too much to pay for SEO? (...or should you try to do it yourself first?)
Yes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be an excellent way of getting leads.
Yes, good SEO can level the playing field between you and competitors.
Yes, you should do some level of SEO.
...but how much is too much?
Too much? Good question.
You'll find that everybody that uses the word "Internet" is going to suggest that you engage in SEO and many will make you an offer to do it for you. There's nothing wrong with that as far it goes. But what you have to decide is how much you should pay for having it done.
Some Perspectives On Paying For SEO
Here are a few important tips to help you decide the answer to that question:
(1) First, make sure you really do need outside assistance. If you're looking for better SEO placement for relatively unique or so-called "long tail" key words (e.g. "pine street rental condominiums") it might be worth trying it yourself before you involve an SEO consultant or SEO firm.
(2) SEO is not rocket-science. Mostly it's monotonous drudgery. So what you pay should not be about hiring "expertise". The SEO effort is more like 90% drudgery, 8% experience, and 2% expertise and you should compensate accordingly.
(3) The value of SEO boils down to "clicks" - preferably clicks that result in a sale conversion. SEO should be measured on the same cost-per-click basis any search-engine-marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC) campaign would be - i.e. the basis of ROI. If you don't know how many clicks or orders you want, do not engage SEO until you do.
(4) SEO is not static and optimization is competitive. You may be on the first page today but your competitors aren't necessarily going to sit still forever. You could be bumped at any time. So if you're not prepared to maintain an ongoing and strategic SEO effort - no matter what the competition does - then save your money.
(5) Search engine "secrets" are just that - secret. The search engines aren't telling them and anybody that claims to know the secrets is just guessing. It doesn't mean they can't help but it's not as if they have some special advantage. Impossible.
(6) Frankly, from the search engine point-of-view, if your site doesn't have enough useful and relevant content to be on the first page, ethical SEO notwithstanding, eventually it won't be. This is the objective of the search engines and there's little likelihood that the SEO "expert" pitching you is going to out-think Google, Yahoo!, Bing and others in the long run.
Is Doing SEO Yourself An Option?
It's almost always worth taking a first crack at SEO yourself. Often only a little effort can make a significant difference. If you do want to make the effort, invest a few dollars in a do-it-yourself SEO guide and try to adhere to the following minimum suggestions:
(1) focus on keywords that are realistic. You're not likely to get a good placement with a keyword like "real estate" but you might get first page with a keyword like "Hill street real estate";
(2) make sure your keyword is mentioned in the link to your page. Instead of saying "click HERE" make sure the text for the link says something like "for more information about HILL STREET REAL ESTATE";
(3) Make sure your keyword is mentioned in your page title, your keyword list, your page content, bolded page content;
(4) For every keyword you're interested in, make sure you have an appropriate page to focus on it (and that it complies with #1, #2, and #3 above)
(5) Register with search engine webmaster accounts so that you can submit your site to them quickly and efficiently (search for "google webmaster", "bing webmaster", or "yahoo webmaster" to find the details).
Don't Forget Links
Lastly, if you going to make an initial stab yourself, understand that quality links to your site are a vital factor in your ultimate placement. The more the merrier. To get a headstart on building links to your site, do the following:
(1) enroll in all relevant local or regional directories - (search "free directories" to find lists of these); many will be free, some will want nominal fees or backlinks. You decide.
(2) Ensure that any press releases and announcements you make refer to your site and specific pages within it.
(3) Post pages of your site to delicious.com or to digg.com and to similar bookmarking sites.
(4) Ask local friends and business acquaintances if they will exchange links with you.
(5) On the other hand, DO NOT sign up for paid links without the guidance of someone experienced in Internet marketing.
Do these things sound particularly difficult? No.
And well worth taking a stab at by yourself. From there you can decide whether to pay for SEO services from a 3rd-party is desirable or worth the cost.
No Matter What You Do...
You need to think in terms of what kind of return you are going to get on your investment. The calculation is simple: Divide the total SEO cost (yours or a 3rd-party's) by the number of orders/sales you've received as a result of the effort. Then compare that cost-per-sale against your margin-per-sale. If you have margin left over, you're in the right territory. If you don't, you've got a problem.
The bottom line is that when you talk with any SEO service provider, you must think in terms of ROI. Not in terms of "secrets" or first pages or top spots, but ROI. (Note: it is theoretically possible to be on the 3rd page and still get a positive ROI - not likely, but possible) If the ROI doesn't work, then search engine optimization may not be for you and other Internet marketing methods might yield better results and a better ROI.
About the Author:
Kurt D. Lynn offers business consulting services for growing businesses in the U.S. and Canada. For more information or more articles, check out his blog at http://www.klynnbusinessconsulting.com/blog
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Marketing Tip: A Google Adwords Strategy That Makes More Cents
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
My online associates frequently give me a hard time, trying to convince me that I give away far too much free information... They tell me that I should keep more of my more profitable strategies to myself -- well, at least between us anyway... LOL
When I share many of my online marketing strategies with my business associates, they pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am... A few weeks later, they always report back that the new tip or strategy that I had shared with them is working and now making them money...
I will be honest... I do keep some of the best stuff for my own use... But, I am a giving person, and I do share a lot of what I learn...
Many people would prefer that I share only with them... But, if I were really to keep the information to myself, I don't think that I will be sharing those strategies with my online acquaintances either...
The Real Reason I Share My Cutting Edge Strategies In Public
You may be shocked at what I am ready to tell you now...
I share these things with the public to build my reputation as a purveyor of excellent information...
I do not worry that my technique will soon produce fewer profits for me and my online associates...
What? Me worry?
I am not the least bit concerned that the gold nugget that I am going to share with you today will lose its effectiveness, over time, because I told it...
Why should I worry?
The truth is that I know that better than 99% of the people that I share this information with will read it, tell themselves that it is a brilliant idea and strategy, and then they will never do a darn thing with it...
"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink..."
I know from past experience that I can give away all of my best ideas and most people will never do anything with them...
My favorite success adage is that "You cannot push a rope..."
Google External Keyword Tool
I am going to show you by example how this works...
It starts with the Google External Keyword Tool, which can be found at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Just type Google External Keyword Tool into Google, and it is usually the first search result...
There is a link in the upper right hand side of the page that reads "Previous Interface"... Click on that link...
When the old interface loads, insert a keyword into the keyword box and the captcha, then hit Submit...
In the old interface, there is a drop down box, just above the suggested keywords and to the right... Click the down arrow and load the column, "Show Estimated Avg CPC"...
In the new interface, add your base keywords and hit Search... When the keyword suggestions are given, click the box that says Columns in the upper right hand side of the results... Then check the box that says, Estimated Avg. CPC and hit Save...
Once you have all of the necessary columns loaded into the search results, you are going to pay close attention to two columns of data:
1. Estimated Avg CPC; and
2. Local Search Volume or Global Search Volume.
What To Look At In The Keyword Search Results
I picked "flowers" as my initial keyword query...
The most expensive Avg CPC (Cost Per Click) is "flower delivery" at $9.02 per click... The second most expensive is "flowers" at $6.20 per click...
The phrase "flower delivery" generated approximately 1.2 million search queries in June of 2010... "flowers" generated the highest search volume, with 37 million search queries...
A Better Google Adwords Strategy
Here is where things start getting exciting... Although it is kind of tough to get excited by facts and figures...
Between "flowers" and "flower delivery", there are another six keyword queries in the Monthly Search Volume column...
Here are those search phrases:
1. florist - 7.5 million queries - Avg CPC $3.43
2. floral - 7.5 million queries - Avg CPC $2.07
3. bouquet - 4 million queries - Avg CPC $0.87
4. florists - 2.75 million queries - Avg CPC $4.31
5. bouquets - 1.5 million queries - Avg CPC $1.23
6. wedding flowers - 1.2 million queries - Avg CPC $1.23
Has it hit you yet?
Let me lay it out for you...
These six keywords by themselves generate an average search volume of 24 million searches a month... Granted, it is not the same volume as "flowers" by itself, but it is close to that number...
AND the average CPC on the set of six is $2.17...
Are you with me yet?
For what people pay to get the click for the word "flowers" by itself, you could rank for six different keywords and get nearly three times as many clicks for the same amount of money...
Against the most expensive keyword in the bunch, "flower delivery", you can get exposed to nearly 20 times as many people and be able to get four times as many clicks for the same money invested...
Let The Silly People Wrestle Over The More Expensive Adwords
Those marketers who think that paying $6.20 and $9.02 for each click on "flowers" and "flower delivery", respectively, are going to make less money on sales conversions than you will, because they are paying 2.85 to 4.15 times more than you are for their traffic...
Let the silly people fight over those high traffic and high value keywords; let them flush their profits down the toilet, while you get that "less valuable" traffic that may convert at a smaller percentage, but will still generate more profits than the big keywords...
In my buddy's case, he is in a market where people are paying $13 per click on the top three keyword queries... I advised him of this technique, and now he is paying an average of 25 cents a click to get access to a volume of search queries that combined is five times larger than the search volume for the top three search queries...
Not only does my buddy laugh hysterically when he pays his Adwords bill, but he laughs like Santa Claus, "Ho, Ho, Ho..." whenever he balances his books at the end of the month...
He laughs every month, nearly as hard as my wife does, when I tell her that the reason she married me was that I was the best looking guy she had ever dated...
I can hear her laughter echoing in my head right now... Make it stop...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Copyright © 2010 Marty Bradfield
My online associates frequently give me a hard time, trying to convince me that I give away far too much free information... They tell me that I should keep more of my more profitable strategies to myself -- well, at least between us anyway... LOL
When I share many of my online marketing strategies with my business associates, they pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am... A few weeks later, they always report back that the new tip or strategy that I had shared with them is working and now making them money...
I will be honest... I do keep some of the best stuff for my own use... But, I am a giving person, and I do share a lot of what I learn...
Many people would prefer that I share only with them... But, if I were really to keep the information to myself, I don't think that I will be sharing those strategies with my online acquaintances either...
The Real Reason I Share My Cutting Edge Strategies In Public
You may be shocked at what I am ready to tell you now...
I share these things with the public to build my reputation as a purveyor of excellent information...
I do not worry that my technique will soon produce fewer profits for me and my online associates...
What? Me worry?
I am not the least bit concerned that the gold nugget that I am going to share with you today will lose its effectiveness, over time, because I told it...
Why should I worry?
The truth is that I know that better than 99% of the people that I share this information with will read it, tell themselves that it is a brilliant idea and strategy, and then they will never do a darn thing with it...
"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink..."
I know from past experience that I can give away all of my best ideas and most people will never do anything with them...
My favorite success adage is that "You cannot push a rope..."
Google External Keyword Tool
I am going to show you by example how this works...
It starts with the Google External Keyword Tool, which can be found at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Just type Google External Keyword Tool into Google, and it is usually the first search result...
There is a link in the upper right hand side of the page that reads "Previous Interface"... Click on that link...
When the old interface loads, insert a keyword into the keyword box and the captcha, then hit Submit...
In the old interface, there is a drop down box, just above the suggested keywords and to the right... Click the down arrow and load the column, "Show Estimated Avg CPC"...
In the new interface, add your base keywords and hit Search... When the keyword suggestions are given, click the box that says Columns in the upper right hand side of the results... Then check the box that says, Estimated Avg. CPC and hit Save...
Once you have all of the necessary columns loaded into the search results, you are going to pay close attention to two columns of data:
1. Estimated Avg CPC; and
2. Local Search Volume or Global Search Volume.
What To Look At In The Keyword Search Results
I picked "flowers" as my initial keyword query...
The most expensive Avg CPC (Cost Per Click) is "flower delivery" at $9.02 per click... The second most expensive is "flowers" at $6.20 per click...
The phrase "flower delivery" generated approximately 1.2 million search queries in June of 2010... "flowers" generated the highest search volume, with 37 million search queries...
A Better Google Adwords Strategy
Here is where things start getting exciting... Although it is kind of tough to get excited by facts and figures...
Between "flowers" and "flower delivery", there are another six keyword queries in the Monthly Search Volume column...
Here are those search phrases:
1. florist - 7.5 million queries - Avg CPC $3.43
2. floral - 7.5 million queries - Avg CPC $2.07
3. bouquet - 4 million queries - Avg CPC $0.87
4. florists - 2.75 million queries - Avg CPC $4.31
5. bouquets - 1.5 million queries - Avg CPC $1.23
6. wedding flowers - 1.2 million queries - Avg CPC $1.23
Has it hit you yet?
Let me lay it out for you...
These six keywords by themselves generate an average search volume of 24 million searches a month... Granted, it is not the same volume as "flowers" by itself, but it is close to that number...
AND the average CPC on the set of six is $2.17...
Are you with me yet?
For what people pay to get the click for the word "flowers" by itself, you could rank for six different keywords and get nearly three times as many clicks for the same amount of money...
Against the most expensive keyword in the bunch, "flower delivery", you can get exposed to nearly 20 times as many people and be able to get four times as many clicks for the same money invested...
Let The Silly People Wrestle Over The More Expensive Adwords
Those marketers who think that paying $6.20 and $9.02 for each click on "flowers" and "flower delivery", respectively, are going to make less money on sales conversions than you will, because they are paying 2.85 to 4.15 times more than you are for their traffic...
Let the silly people fight over those high traffic and high value keywords; let them flush their profits down the toilet, while you get that "less valuable" traffic that may convert at a smaller percentage, but will still generate more profits than the big keywords...
In my buddy's case, he is in a market where people are paying $13 per click on the top three keyword queries... I advised him of this technique, and now he is paying an average of 25 cents a click to get access to a volume of search queries that combined is five times larger than the search volume for the top three search queries...
Not only does my buddy laugh hysterically when he pays his Adwords bill, but he laughs like Santa Claus, "Ho, Ho, Ho..." whenever he balances his books at the end of the month...
He laughs every month, nearly as hard as my wife does, when I tell her that the reason she married me was that I was the best looking guy she had ever dated...
I can hear her laughter echoing in my head right now... Make it stop...
About the Author:
We teach the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by professional online marketers, to develop lead generation systems and new businesses. Our Online Marketing Bootcamp training is geared for new online marketers, network marketers and offline business people looking to go online. http://www.BestBusinessNetwork.com/OMB/ Author: Marty Bradfield
Online Brand Management - Deliver the Best of Your Brand with an Online Newsletter
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Many organizations are replacing their hard copy, dead-tree-edition newsletter with an email publication. Emailed newsletters have the benefit of requiring fewer resources, going out faster, reaching a wider audience with less effort and being easier to correct if a mistake slips in. However, many of them end up being ignored just as much as their physical counterpart.
Every interaction designed for a brand, whether print, online or face-to-face, should be something that advances the brand's purpose. If the audience's reaction to anything you send out is 'what was the point of that?' - or worse, no reaction at all - something has gone wrong. There are, thankfully, several tips available for making sure that even a newsletter can have the desired effect and reach audiences with the message you want them to get.
Tip #1 - Have a Clear Purpose, and Stick to it
Your organization has a purpose, and your brand has a purpose. It therefore follows that whatever you publish under the aegis of either should support that purpose. The most important thing to remember about your audience is that they are people. It is quite likely that they have jobs, interests and activities entirely unrelated to anything you wish to send them. In general, people are quite good at discerning what things are worthwhile and speak to their interests vs. things which are a waste of their time. The quickest way for your newsletter to enter the latter category is for it to be pointless.
When putting together a plan to launch or publish a newsletter, stop and ask yourself what purpose it needs to accomplish. If you can't answer in less than 10 seconds, it is time to re-evaluate. Make sure that the newsletter provides strong content related to your primary goal as a brand and understand exactly why the newsletter is needed to get this content to the audience.
Tip # 2 - Combine Sign-up With Registration
People are also creatures of habit, and will often keep on features simply because they're offered. Make sure that the signup form for your organization automatically includes the email newsletter as part of the package, so that registering signs the audience up for the newsletter as a matter of course. If they dislike it, they can choose to opt out later, of course, but having it in front of them from the beginning means it is more likely to get to them, and thus they are more likely to read it at least once.
Tip # 3 - Protect Yourself from the Spam Patrol
Spam protection is a huge deal on the web at the moment. It isn't just a matter of disliking clutter or being irritated at receiving the same mindless emails again and again, either. Many spam messages contain viruses, malware, adware, spyware (and probably other 'wares' that haven't been named yet, but are sure to be). Spam filters protect against these threats, and are native to most email clients now. Actual security suites like AVG or Norton provide even more aggressive email monitoring, and many newsletters find themselves getting censored out in the mess.
Take some common sense steps to keep your newsletter from this fate. Make sure your title isn't too generic. Including words like "Free" or "As Seen On" are sure to trigger most filters. Put a dynamic, creative title in the subject line instead. Don't overuse HTML in the body of the email, as this can also trigger a spam filter. Avoid writing in all caps, and other mistakes. Common spam-triggering mistakes can be easily researched on the web, and a little research can go a long way in getting your email to its destination.
Tip #4 - Brand Yourself
Remember that integration is the key to all branding success. Put your brand or organization name at the beginning of your subject header. Always take the opportunity to cement your content with your brand, so that people associate the two instinctively.
This, of course, ties back strongly to having a clear and valuable purpose for your newsletter. People associate negative impressions even more strongly than they associate positive ones. Put out content you are proud to put your name on… or don't bother.
Tip #5 - Be Welcoming and Inviting
When someone signs up for your email newsletter, send them an email congratulating them for this. Let them know about the newsletter's purpose and schedule of delivery, and thank them for their interest in your product. This reinforces in the customer's mind that the newsletter is a feature they can look forward to, rather than surprising them with it sometime later, when the act of signing up has gone out of their head.
In the welcome letter, consider inviting them to sign up for a paid product. This could be an expanded service offered by your site, or it could be your signature product. Don't dominate the letter with it, because a sales pitch isn't always welcome. Simply make it a matter of mention, to further associate your brand with your product.
A Last Word
Always consider the option of not publishing a newsletter for a particular period. If nothing has happened that would warrant a newsletter, don't send one because you 'have to.' Never send a letter out of habit or out of course, but always for a purpose. Forcing the issue is one of the surest ways to get your newsletter disregarded and trashed.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
Many organizations are replacing their hard copy, dead-tree-edition newsletter with an email publication. Emailed newsletters have the benefit of requiring fewer resources, going out faster, reaching a wider audience with less effort and being easier to correct if a mistake slips in. However, many of them end up being ignored just as much as their physical counterpart.
Every interaction designed for a brand, whether print, online or face-to-face, should be something that advances the brand's purpose. If the audience's reaction to anything you send out is 'what was the point of that?' - or worse, no reaction at all - something has gone wrong. There are, thankfully, several tips available for making sure that even a newsletter can have the desired effect and reach audiences with the message you want them to get.
Tip #1 - Have a Clear Purpose, and Stick to it
Your organization has a purpose, and your brand has a purpose. It therefore follows that whatever you publish under the aegis of either should support that purpose. The most important thing to remember about your audience is that they are people. It is quite likely that they have jobs, interests and activities entirely unrelated to anything you wish to send them. In general, people are quite good at discerning what things are worthwhile and speak to their interests vs. things which are a waste of their time. The quickest way for your newsletter to enter the latter category is for it to be pointless.
When putting together a plan to launch or publish a newsletter, stop and ask yourself what purpose it needs to accomplish. If you can't answer in less than 10 seconds, it is time to re-evaluate. Make sure that the newsletter provides strong content related to your primary goal as a brand and understand exactly why the newsletter is needed to get this content to the audience.
Tip # 2 - Combine Sign-up With Registration
People are also creatures of habit, and will often keep on features simply because they're offered. Make sure that the signup form for your organization automatically includes the email newsletter as part of the package, so that registering signs the audience up for the newsletter as a matter of course. If they dislike it, they can choose to opt out later, of course, but having it in front of them from the beginning means it is more likely to get to them, and thus they are more likely to read it at least once.
Tip # 3 - Protect Yourself from the Spam Patrol
Spam protection is a huge deal on the web at the moment. It isn't just a matter of disliking clutter or being irritated at receiving the same mindless emails again and again, either. Many spam messages contain viruses, malware, adware, spyware (and probably other 'wares' that haven't been named yet, but are sure to be). Spam filters protect against these threats, and are native to most email clients now. Actual security suites like AVG or Norton provide even more aggressive email monitoring, and many newsletters find themselves getting censored out in the mess.
Take some common sense steps to keep your newsletter from this fate. Make sure your title isn't too generic. Including words like "Free" or "As Seen On" are sure to trigger most filters. Put a dynamic, creative title in the subject line instead. Don't overuse HTML in the body of the email, as this can also trigger a spam filter. Avoid writing in all caps, and other mistakes. Common spam-triggering mistakes can be easily researched on the web, and a little research can go a long way in getting your email to its destination.
Tip #4 - Brand Yourself
Remember that integration is the key to all branding success. Put your brand or organization name at the beginning of your subject header. Always take the opportunity to cement your content with your brand, so that people associate the two instinctively.
This, of course, ties back strongly to having a clear and valuable purpose for your newsletter. People associate negative impressions even more strongly than they associate positive ones. Put out content you are proud to put your name on… or don't bother.
Tip #5 - Be Welcoming and Inviting
When someone signs up for your email newsletter, send them an email congratulating them for this. Let them know about the newsletter's purpose and schedule of delivery, and thank them for their interest in your product. This reinforces in the customer's mind that the newsletter is a feature they can look forward to, rather than surprising them with it sometime later, when the act of signing up has gone out of their head.
In the welcome letter, consider inviting them to sign up for a paid product. This could be an expanded service offered by your site, or it could be your signature product. Don't dominate the letter with it, because a sales pitch isn't always welcome. Simply make it a matter of mention, to further associate your brand with your product.
A Last Word
Always consider the option of not publishing a newsletter for a particular period. If nothing has happened that would warrant a newsletter, don't send one because you 'have to.' Never send a letter out of habit or out of course, but always for a purpose. Forcing the issue is one of the surest ways to get your newsletter disregarded and trashed.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
Online Brand Management - Follow the Tweeter
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
No one with any degree of sanity can safely dismiss the impact of Twitter. Everyone of note is using it, as are about half the people who aren't of note. Most of the latter category are either watching the people who are of note, or doing their best to become one of them. Other social media services may have equal popularity, but none has changed the fundamental way people communicate as much as this little service that forces them to compress their thoughts into 140 characters or less.
Follow Me!
One of the most useful features of Twitter is the 'follow' function. Following someone on Twitter means his or her posts automatically go to your homepage. You can further customize this by creating lists, which will affect which timeline various users will appear in.
However, remember that your homepage is visible to everyone who has the link, whether they're following you or not. Just having your link lets them see who you're following, and who's following you in particular. In the effort to establish a proper awareness of a brand, the company one keeps is exceedingly important. As a result, learning to manage both the following and followed by functions on your Twitter account is extremely important to a web branding effort.
Whom to Follow
Choosing whom to follow can seem like a simple task, and at the heart of things it genuinely is. For a private account, you follow who strikes your interests and leave it at that. For a brand-driven account, however, a bit of selectivity is important.
First, choose accounts that synch with the key interests of your brand. One of the keys to good brand management is focus. Everyone your account follows will have their messages displayed, so it pays to make sure those messages are bringing up information that reminds people about what you want them to think of.
Second, it is vital that you choose accounts that post actively. Twitter is a short message service, not a traditional blog. The content is too minimal for you to rely on slow posters, so before you put someone on follow make sure they are inclined to post on a regular basis. Content is still everything, after all.
Third, limit the accounts your brand is following based on your audience. Following two hundred others might keep your feed going very steadily, but it also means your audience could miss important messages in the scrollover. Be selective; don't jam the channel with so many data - no matter how vital - that it all becomes noise. Force yourself to choose only the most relevant options. The emphasis on quality over quantity will prove invaluable in the highly critical realms of the web.
When NOT to Follow
It might sound a bit mercenary, but it is important to be relentlessly critical of the feeds you are following. The web is a judgmental place, and despite the stereotypical depictions in the media it is also a place with an exceptionally long memory. As a case in point, during Ron Paul's most recent presidential campaign, articles from a magazine he edited years ago were brought into evidence. The web is like this with everything.
If someone your feed is following posts something that goes against your brand image, block them. It can be as innocuous as a difference of opinion, or as outrageous as a racially insensitive remark, but be assured someone somewhere has a record. Post about it, and put up a notification as to your decision. Cover your bases, instead of giving the benefit of the doubt.
Presenting the Picture
Of course, there are occasions when you might want to follow someone whose image contradicts your own. There is no hard and fast rule, after all. Remember, for example, that you can compose lists that display users in managed groups. This is a valuable tool that can create the all-important context necessary for good brand management and promotion.
For example, consider a brand that promotes environmental awareness and social activism. It might be odd to see them following a blog from a petrol company, but the list they put this company in makes all the difference. This list might be, for speculation purposes, a watchdog collection of all the major industrial concerns in an area. When the companies promote a new initiative or claim they're helping the local environment in their tweets, the watchdogs can post a Twitter link to a news article linking them to dangerous practices, and so forth.
So despite the above rule of caution in association, it is equally important to remember that no rule is ironclad. Do what the situation warrants, adapting your techniques to the moment available.
Policing the Audience
The composite of who follows your feed says as much about your group as the composite of whom you're following. A little pruning is often in order. Yes, sometimes the following list can be so large as to make it difficult to manage. Stephen Fry, a famous English comedian, has 1.5 million people following his account.
Still, pay at least some attention to the 'followed by' feed. Randomly select one or two every day to see what they're saying. This is a great way to get aware of what kind of perception you have in the web community, and to do something about it, if need be. Additionally, if you happen to come across a troublemaker you'd rather not have associated with your account, well, so much the better.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
No one with any degree of sanity can safely dismiss the impact of Twitter. Everyone of note is using it, as are about half the people who aren't of note. Most of the latter category are either watching the people who are of note, or doing their best to become one of them. Other social media services may have equal popularity, but none has changed the fundamental way people communicate as much as this little service that forces them to compress their thoughts into 140 characters or less.
Follow Me!
One of the most useful features of Twitter is the 'follow' function. Following someone on Twitter means his or her posts automatically go to your homepage. You can further customize this by creating lists, which will affect which timeline various users will appear in.
However, remember that your homepage is visible to everyone who has the link, whether they're following you or not. Just having your link lets them see who you're following, and who's following you in particular. In the effort to establish a proper awareness of a brand, the company one keeps is exceedingly important. As a result, learning to manage both the following and followed by functions on your Twitter account is extremely important to a web branding effort.
Whom to Follow
Choosing whom to follow can seem like a simple task, and at the heart of things it genuinely is. For a private account, you follow who strikes your interests and leave it at that. For a brand-driven account, however, a bit of selectivity is important.
First, choose accounts that synch with the key interests of your brand. One of the keys to good brand management is focus. Everyone your account follows will have their messages displayed, so it pays to make sure those messages are bringing up information that reminds people about what you want them to think of.
Second, it is vital that you choose accounts that post actively. Twitter is a short message service, not a traditional blog. The content is too minimal for you to rely on slow posters, so before you put someone on follow make sure they are inclined to post on a regular basis. Content is still everything, after all.
Third, limit the accounts your brand is following based on your audience. Following two hundred others might keep your feed going very steadily, but it also means your audience could miss important messages in the scrollover. Be selective; don't jam the channel with so many data - no matter how vital - that it all becomes noise. Force yourself to choose only the most relevant options. The emphasis on quality over quantity will prove invaluable in the highly critical realms of the web.
When NOT to Follow
It might sound a bit mercenary, but it is important to be relentlessly critical of the feeds you are following. The web is a judgmental place, and despite the stereotypical depictions in the media it is also a place with an exceptionally long memory. As a case in point, during Ron Paul's most recent presidential campaign, articles from a magazine he edited years ago were brought into evidence. The web is like this with everything.
If someone your feed is following posts something that goes against your brand image, block them. It can be as innocuous as a difference of opinion, or as outrageous as a racially insensitive remark, but be assured someone somewhere has a record. Post about it, and put up a notification as to your decision. Cover your bases, instead of giving the benefit of the doubt.
Presenting the Picture
Of course, there are occasions when you might want to follow someone whose image contradicts your own. There is no hard and fast rule, after all. Remember, for example, that you can compose lists that display users in managed groups. This is a valuable tool that can create the all-important context necessary for good brand management and promotion.
For example, consider a brand that promotes environmental awareness and social activism. It might be odd to see them following a blog from a petrol company, but the list they put this company in makes all the difference. This list might be, for speculation purposes, a watchdog collection of all the major industrial concerns in an area. When the companies promote a new initiative or claim they're helping the local environment in their tweets, the watchdogs can post a Twitter link to a news article linking them to dangerous practices, and so forth.
So despite the above rule of caution in association, it is equally important to remember that no rule is ironclad. Do what the situation warrants, adapting your techniques to the moment available.
Policing the Audience
The composite of who follows your feed says as much about your group as the composite of whom you're following. A little pruning is often in order. Yes, sometimes the following list can be so large as to make it difficult to manage. Stephen Fry, a famous English comedian, has 1.5 million people following his account.
Still, pay at least some attention to the 'followed by' feed. Randomly select one or two every day to see what they're saying. This is a great way to get aware of what kind of perception you have in the web community, and to do something about it, if need be. Additionally, if you happen to come across a troublemaker you'd rather not have associated with your account, well, so much the better.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/
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