Promotion

Content Is King and Keywords Are The Princes

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“Content creation and keyword research considered most effective SEO tactics”

I love getting the Marketing Sherpa Chart of the Week. Always interesting, visually presented information. This week’s article has a chart showing the result of one of their latest surveys. You can read the full article at the following link, but we have the chart right here.

Marketing Research Chart: To improve SEO effectiveness, content is king

Marketing Sherpa surveyed 1,500 search marketers about the effectiveness of their top SEO tactics. They reported that “More than half of CMOs report that content creation is a very effective tactic to improve their SEO rankings. Keyword research was close behind, with 43% finding this strategy very effective.”

Why are these two things more important than any of the other “tricks” to drive traffic? Read more…

Guest Post: Top 10 Tips for Building Trust and Getting Business

Your prospects won’t buy from you unless they trust you.

Read that again, because fully understanding that deceptively simple sentence is crucial to the bottom line of your business. If you can’t establish trust, you can’t make sales. Period.

So, how do you start building trust? Like this:

1. Offer great customer service. Whether you have a prospect contacting you for the first time with a pre-sale question or you have an existing customer needing help, you need to provide prompt, professional service.

2. Start a blog. A blog gives you an opportunity to interact with your prospects and customers. It also gives you an opportunity to show value to your prospective customers. When they see what kind of help you give away for free, they’ll be excited to become a paying customer.

Tip: Don’t yet have a blog? Go to WordPress.org and download the free files.

3. Interact with prospects on social media sites. Yet another way to build relationships (and trust) is by using social media sites, especially Facebook.com and Twitter.com. There you can interact one-on-one, as well as provide good information.

4. Use your prospect’s name. Using someone’s name helps build rapport. Online you can collect your prospect’s first name when he joins your newsletter list. Offline, be sure to ask for his name so that you can use it during your sales talk.

Tip: Don’t overuse someone’s name, as that can backfire and make them feel uncomfortable. Using it once or twice during an initial meeting should be enough.

5. Follow up with your prospects. The vast majority of people who come to your website or store are unlikely to ever return – that’s why you need to get their contact information so that you can follow up with them.

Usually this involves offering your prospects something valuable in exchange for their contact information.

Example: You can offer a free report on your website. Or if you have a bricks and mortar store, you can offer prospects a chance to win something in a contest. Just be sure in all cases that your prospects know you will be following up with them.

6. Show your value now. Don’t make the mistake of promising a lot of value in the future… but only once someone pays you money. Instead, show your value now using newsletters, a blog, social media and good customer service.

7. Be accessible. This one is of particular importance to those who have an online business. The bottom line is not to hide from your prospects. This means offering multiple ways for your prospects and customers to reach you. The more accessible you are, the easier it is for people to trust you.

8. Get personal. If your prospect or client mentions a special event (like an upcoming wedding or birth of a child), write this information down so that you can refer to it again. Then the next time you see this person (either in person or even online, like on Facebook), you can ask the person about the event. He’ll be impressed that you remembered – and your relationship will grow!

9. Give your prospects what they want. Here’s the key: Help your prospects even if it doesn’t directly benefit you.

Example: Recommend a product that doesn’t garner you a commission (maybe the product is even free). When the prospect sees that you really care about him and his problem, his trust in you will grow – and before you know it, he’ll be a loyal customer!

10. Be professional. Finally, maintain a professional appearance, whether through your own grooming, your brick and mortar store, your marketing materials or your website. First impressions count. And continued professionalism helps build trust.

Conclusion

You just learned 10 proven ways to build trust and generate more sales for your business.

To find out still more ways to grow your business, visit iBusinessOwner to discover the iBusiness Owner’s Manuals. Then ask yourself: How many of these strategies are you currently overlooking? And how much more money would you make if you employed them, starting today?

Finding Royalty Free and Totally Free Photos and Graphics

Graphics make a great draw for your site.

However, finding good graphics to use can sometimes be a problem. If you’ve taken a photo yourself or created some graphics, you can use them with abandon because they are yours. You own the copyright automatically.

Image via Wikipedia

That’s the crux of the issue: copyright. If you are serious about your business, you do not want to have anyone coming after you for copyright violations. So, if you haven’t taken the photos or created the graphics yourself, what do you do? Read more…

Rushing Thoughts and Voice Recognition Software

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I was sitting in a restaurant as I first started writing this. I found it interesting to sit there and write. In general the noises around me formed a constant background noise, but occasionally some voice stood out from the rest and caught my attention. It was as if the cacophony of sound was periodically interrupted by a spot of clarity.

My purpose in sitting there writing was to sort my thoughts. But as I listened to this cacophony of sound, a question occurred to me. Is that how it is with my internal state? A constant cacophony of ideas enjoying their own processes and designs? Each competing with the other for attention? As I think about it, I realize that is exactly what happens. That is why I need to have times such as this to attempt to order those various thoughts.

This cacophony of ideas circulates randomly in my head, or so it seems to me. And yet when someone asks me a question, the needed information immediately surfaces and so that I can meet their need. So there must be some order in there that I’m not aware of. Read more…

Outbound vs. Inbound Internet Marketing Strategies

Image via Wikipedia

Outbound marketing strategies push your message out to your target market. Inbound marketing strategies pulls your target market to you. Outbound feels intrusive. Inbound feels like a company cares.

With outbound marketing strategies, you get your message out through product focused advertising and promotions; sales efforts; organizational public and media relations; customer service and customer satisfaction. This is marketing as we have come to know it over the years. It is needed once contact has been made, but it is not the best way to attract customers. Read more…

7 Reasons To Use Lists in Press Releases

Want to create an attention-getting press release?

Make a list. And be sure to number it.

No. Don’t just fax off a list. You still need to follow the standard inverted pyramid style of press releases. You still need to include the 5 W’s and the H (who, what, when, why, how, where) at the top of the article. But after that introduction, you kick right into the list.

So, why do numbered lists work so well? Here are 7 reasons.

1.      Preview. Your top priority in creating your press release headline is clarity, giving a clear and concise description of the story. Including the word “list” not only provides this information, by making it a numbered list it also quantifies it.

2.      Attention. Read more…

5 Creative Ways to Get Email List Subscribers

One of the most productive things you can do for your business is to begin building a focused email list of interested clients and prospects by offering them something of value. To do this you need a way to capture their information and deliver what you promised them. The second part of this can be handled by technology. It’s the first part that needs some careful consideration. Here are a few ways to entice people to agree to join your mailing list.

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3 Ways Email Marketing Can Build Your Business

We’re all familiar with email, but did you know that you can use it to help build your business and get new clients? You can and it’s a lot simpler than you thought. With new tools called auto-responders, you can send messages to all of your clients at once or to people individually based on some action they take.

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Searching for Hungry Online Markets? Here’s How to Find Them

What is a hungry market? They are markets which buy a lot of stuff on a regular basis. As you can guess, THESE are the types of markets to get involved in because it's so much easier to sell our stuff to them! Finding hungry markets is the key to building a successful online business. Once we find a hungry market, it's simply case of selling them the products you already know they want – products you can easily source from the web. After that, the rest is history.

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Want to Sell Online? First Decide WHAT You Want to Sell

With the large number of people who shop online today, when considering starting an online business selling something one of the biggest questions that people face is the age-old "What should I sell?" It can be a real nightmare trying to figure out what to sell online, but the following tips should give you a good idea of what has the best potential to sell specifically online...

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