Twitter Marketing Strategies That Work

 

 

 

 

Twitter is one of the most important sites to use in any Internet marketing campaign. To strengthen your Internet marketing, it is crucial to understand the latest and greatest strategies to use in your marketing campaigns, especially those that work for Twitter. To stay ahead of the Internet marketing game, use these tips on your Twitter account regularly.

1. Focus On What’s Important

A major problem social media marketers might run into is not being focused and precise. You must keep in mind that your followers like your brand and want to read your updates because they are in your target market and are interested in the topics you tweet about.

Don’t tweet mindlessly; tweet about the things you know your consumers are interested in and the things that complement what your brand represents. Having targeted, precise tweets will keep your brand focused on reaching those who are most interested in what you have to offer.

2. Be A Professional

On Twitter, being able to write snappy headlines is key. You only get 140 characters to tweet, so it better be meaningful and interesting in order to excite followers. Your content should be quality and attention grabbing, so that traffic to your site will continue to grow.

Don’t worry about how many followers you have. It’s better to have a fewer number of followers that are followers who are clearly in your target market. Your tweets should address those real customers who enjoy visiting your site and are likely to retweet your posts, which will then lead to new consumers who also share the same interests.

3. Communicate With Your Followers

Remember, Twitter is a SOCIAL media; therefore you must be social for it to work for your company. Twitter is about connecting, sharing and communicating. If you interact with your followers, you will get to know them better and as a result, you will be able to create tweets that you know your followers will be interested in and appreciate.

Start commenting and asking questions to your followers about things that are relevant to your brand, and that you know they’re interested in. Then take it a step further and try interacting with your followers’ followers as well, so you give your brand more exposure to others who could become potential customers.

These tips are easy ways to help make the most out of your Twitter account. They must be part of your Internet marketing campaign in order to see results. Twitter is hugely important in increasing traffic, so use it efficiently and your campaign will be successful!

 

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The Top Five Online Marketing Sins

 

 

 

It’s now a well-known fact that online marketing is an important part of any business plan. Online marketing offers a wide variety of tools and tactics to use in order to expand your business and connect with new consumers. While managing all of the various aspects of online marketing can be difficult, it’s a responsibility that must be handled carefully in order to see results!

With that said, take a look at these five major online marketing mistakes and steer clear of them so you can carry out successful marketing practices!

1. Not Optimizing Your Landing Page For Conversions

A major goal of online marketing is to get people to land on a specific page on their website. However, even with all their efforts to direct people to that page, the business may be missing out on a lot of prospective consumers if it is not optimized for conversions.

Think about making your contact information prominently displayed at the top of your page, or make sure that there’s a clear call to action that will direct visitors to do want you’d like them do to, such as call your business or fill out an informational form. Also, you should have the most important information clearly made available at the top of your website, so visitors don’t have to scroll down or spend time searching for what they’re looking for.

2. Not Targeting Your Online Marketing Locally

Small businesses tend to be made up of mainly local customers. Therefore, if you are investing in online marketing without targeting it locally, you’ll end up paying more to target national keywords and ultimately miss out on reaching customers who are searching for local business.

If you locally target with your online marketing strategy, you’ll see a greater ROI and be able to reach those consumers who are looking for local businesses more effectively.

3. Failing To Train Staff On Lead Handling

A major mistake many businesses make in their marketing efforts is focusing mostly on the front end of the marketing funnel. As a result, they miss out on the most vital component of the marketing process: deciding what happens to a lead after they show an interest in your business.

A costly element in marketing is figuring out how your staff handles the leads you get. Keep in mind that every lead counts! After all, you are investing a lot into generating leads, so you should properly train your staff on how they should respond to a consumer request and how they should answer phone calls.

4. Neglecting to Track Your Online Advertising

The main benefit of online advertising is the ability to track it! You should be tracking the clicks you get to your landing page or website, and also monitoring what happens after the click. Look at whether customers respond by calling, filling out a form, or leaving your page after they’ve clicked. There are lots of great online marketing tools that allow you to track this and more so you are able to see how effective your campaigns are and optimize them based on what seems to be working the best.

5. Not Claiming Your Google Place Page

A Google Place Page is a great tool that allows your business to show up in desktop and mobile searches to local customers searching for a business. For no charge at all, you can claim your Google Place Page so you have better control over what gets listed about your business. You will also get a valuable space on Google for important business keywords in organic searches.

While there are other mistakes that can be made with online marketing, by making sure your online marketing efforts don’t commit any of these five online marketing sins, your business will nail some of the most important concepts of online marketing!

 

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The Top Five Online Marketing Sins

 

 

 

It’s now a well-known fact that online marketing is an important part of any business plan. Online marketing offers a wide variety of tools and tactics to use in order to expand your business and connect with new consumers. While managing all of the various aspects of online marketing can be difficult, it’s a responsibility that must be handled carefully in order to see results!

With that said, take a look at these five major online marketing mistakes and steer clear of them so you can carry out successful marketing practices!

1. Not Optimizing Your Landing Page For Conversions

A major goal of online marketing is to get people to land on a specific page on their website. However, even with all their efforts to direct people to that page, the business may be missing out on a lot of prospective consumers if it is not optimized for conversions.

Think about making your contact information prominently displayed at the top of your page, or make sure that there’s a clear call to action that will direct visitors to do want you’d like them do to, such as call your business or fill out an informational form. Also, you should have the most important information clearly made available at the top of your website, so visitors don’t have to scroll down or spend time searching for what they’re looking for.

2. Not Targeting Your Online Marketing Locally

Small businesses tend to be made up of mainly local customers. Therefore, if you are investing in online marketing without targeting it locally, you’ll end up paying more to target national keywords and ultimately miss out on reaching customers who are searching for local business.

If you locally target with your online marketing strategy, you’ll see a greater ROI and be able to reach those consumers who are looking for local businesses more effectively.

3. Failing To Train Staff On Lead Handling

A major mistake many businesses make in their marketing efforts is focusing mostly on the front end of the marketing funnel. As a result, they miss out on the most vital component of the marketing process: deciding what happens to a lead after they show an interest in your business.

A costly element in marketing is figuring out how your staff handles the leads you get. Keep in mind that every lead counts! After all, you are investing a lot into generating leads, so you should properly train your staff on how they should respond to a consumer request and how they should answer phone calls.

4. Neglecting to Track Your Online Advertising

The main benefit of online advertising is the ability to track it! You should be tracking the clicks you get to your landing page or website, and also monitoring what happens after the click. Look at whether customers respond by calling, filling out a form, or leaving your page after they’ve clicked. There are lots of great online marketing tools that allow you to track this and more so you are able to see how effective your campaigns are and optimize them based on what seems to be working the best.

5. Not Claiming Your Google Place Page

A Google Place Page is a great tool that allows your business to show up in desktop and mobile searches to local customers searching for a business. For no charge at all, you can claim your Google Place Page so you have better control over what gets listed about your business. You will also get a valuable space on Google for important business keywords in organic searches.

While there are other mistakes that can be made with online marketing, by making sure your online marketing efforts don’t commit any of these five online marketing sins, your business will nail some of the most important concepts of online marketing!

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Marketing With Pinterest

 

 

The social media site Pinterest has over 11.7 million visitors a month now, and about 17.8 million registered users! It has become one of the most popular social media sites for a few main reasons.

The visually appealing aspect of the site draws in viewers and keeps their attention. The fact that users sign into the site using their Facebook or Twitter account allows them to be automatically integrated into their existing social network sites. So, sharing across social media sites is already built into Pinterest. The site has a clean and simple interface, so people are able to use it easily, with little confusion.

However, compared to other leading social media sites, Pinterest does not offer as many discovery methods. It can take a little effort to trace a pin to the user who initially pinned it, making it somewhat harder to directly engage with fellow users. Pinterest also does not yet have a way of recommending or directing pinners to other pinners or boards based on activity. This can be a little inconvenient for brands trying to build and grow an audience.

Another key aspect of Pinterest is that its demographics are quite unique compared to those of Twitter or Facebook. Half of all Pinterest users are parents, and 68.2% are women. Facebook and Twitter have a more evenly split gendered audience. This means that for brands with a predominately female target market, Pinterest might be the best sight to utilize to engage with fans.

For companies who have passionate followers across several platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you can bet that those followers will also engage with your brand on Pinterest. Pinterest can be a great site to engage on a personal level with followers because you share your own, personal interests with your users. While the site clearly helps build relationships, it is not so efficient in “selling” products to followers. But, remember that engaging, not selling, is the ultimate goal of social media!

Pinterest is also a great platform in terms of sharing. You can easily post pictures from your own site, or pin images from other sites. A “Pin It” button can be installed on the Safari browser, making sharing images and information across the web easier than ever. You can also place a Pinterest button that links to your Pinterest account on your website or blog. Facebook even allows you to add a Pinterest tab onto your timeline.

The fact that fans can pin your images onto their own boards is another way that fans engage directly with your brand. You can use the “Pin It” button next to images on websites that you would like to share with your fans. This provides a chance to make viral connections, as followers of your fans will see their pins.

Additionally, there are a few apps available to help you to build a community on Pinterest. The app, Shareasimage, converts text found on the web into an image that can be shared on Pinterest. The app also works for Facebook and Twitter. Another app, Url2pin.it, lets users “screenshot” a picture of a website then share it on Pinterest. This could be a great way to share interesting sites with your fans, or it could be used as a promotional tool for your own site.

Pinterest is a site that truly models the purpose of social media: to be social! The site does not sell; it shares. Sharing with your consumers is how you must market with social media in order to gain brand loyalty and expand your fan base!

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Marketing With Pinterest

 

 

The social media site Pinterest has over 11.7 million visitors a month now, and about 17.8 million registered users! It has become one of the most popular social media sites for a few main reasons.

The visually appealing aspect of the site draws in viewers and keeps their attention. The fact that users sign into the site using their Facebook or Twitter account allows them to be automatically integrated into their existing social network sites. So, sharing across social media sites is already built into Pinterest. The site has a clean and simple interface, so people are able to use it easily, with little confusion.

However, compared to other leading social media sites, Pinterest does not offer as many discovery methods. It can take a little effort to trace a pin to the user who initially pinned it, making it somewhat harder to directly engage with fellow users. Pinterest also does not yet have a way of recommending or directing pinners to other pinners or boards based on activity. This can be a little inconvenient for brands trying to build and grow an audience.

Another key aspect of Pinterest is that its demographics are quite unique compared to those of Twitter or Facebook. Half of all Pinterest users are parents, and 68.2% are women. Facebook and Twitter have a more evenly split gendered audience. This means that for brands with a predominately female target market, Pinterest might be the best sight to utilize to engage with fans.

For companies who have passionate followers across several platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you can bet that those followers will also engage with your brand on Pinterest. Pinterest can be a great site to engage on a personal level with followers because you share your own, personal interests with your users. While the site clearly helps build relationships, it is not so efficient in “selling” products to followers. But, remember that engaging, not selling, is the ultimate goal of social media!

Pinterest is also a great platform in terms of sharing. You can easily post pictures from your own site, or pin images from other sites. A “Pin It” button can be installed on the Safari browser, making sharing images and information across the web easier than ever. You can also place a Pinterest button that links to your Pinterest account on your website or blog. Facebook even allows you to add a Pinterest tab onto your timeline.

The fact that fans can pin your images onto their own boards is another way that fans engage directly with your brand. You can use the “Pin It” button next to images on websites that you would like to share with your fans. This provides a chance to make viral connections, as followers of your fans will see their pins.

Additionally, there are a few apps available to help you to build a community on Pinterest. The app, Shareasimage, converts text found on the web into an image that can be shared on Pinterest. The app also works for Facebook and Twitter. Another app, Url2pin.it, lets users “screenshot” a picture of a website then share it on Pinterest. This could be a great way to share interesting sites with your fans, or it could be used as a promotional tool for your own site.

Pinterest is a site that truly models the purpose of social media: to be social! The site does not sell; it shares. Sharing with your consumers is how you must market with social media in order to gain brand loyalty and expand your fan base!

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Avoid Harming Your Social Media With Poor Web Design!

 

 

 

Lots of companies today are putting in a lot of time and effort to create their business’s social media platforms. They are creating engaging campaigns, producing quality content and making a true effort to communicate with consumers.

But, after creating a strong social media presence, you MUST have an equally strong website that is easy for consumers to navigate otherwise all your social effort could be lost. Consumers who are initially interested in your brand after engaging in your social media platforms will be turned-off by your brand if your website rubs them the wrong way.

Too many companies get too focused on elaborate web design, and in the end their website can end up being too flashy, hard to navigate and confusing. Try to avoid these issues by creating a simple design strategy to compliment your social media efforts.

One of the major mistakes when designing websites is that there is no distinct call to action. Before making your site, ask yourself, What do you want consumers to do once they come to your site? Do you want them to contact you? Buy from you? Ask for more information? After you address these questions, then you have a set purpose in mind and you can design your website around that purpose to get the results you want.

Another mistake is confusing navigation. You do not want your potential consumers to arrive at your site and end up wasting time trying to find what they’re looking for. You want your site to be easy for users to navigate. Design it so that they are able to conveniently go back and forth from their location. Set up your site as if it’s a department store: you want clear signs shown obviously so users can see exactly where it is they want to go.

Additionally, you want to try out different browsers before settling on one. You might find a browser that looks great in Internet Explorer, but consider how it will look in other applications like Safari or Chrome. Before choosing your website design, test it out in a variety of different browsers so it is appealing to users no matter what application they’re utilizing.

Poor readability is another common issue with website design. Green and orange may be your company’s colors, but they might not read so well on the Internet. Make sure your visitors are able to read the text on your site by avoiding clashing colors. Also make sure that the size of the text is not too big or too small. If you have text that’s placed over images, check that the text is still readable.

The final mistake made when designing websites is enabling too much Flash. Websites that highlight important information with Flash elements are likely to run into several issues. One of these issues is that the design ends up being harder to read. Flash elements also slow down the load time of your site and consumers might end up leaving the site before it’s fully loaded. It’s also important to know that Flash is not good for SEO. Anything in Flash will not be indexed in search engines.

By avoiding these common web design mistakes, consumers enticed by your company’s social media will be more likely to stay interested in your brand by creating a well though out website. A simply designed website will be attractive to consumers and traffic to your site will ultimately increase!

 

 

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Avoid Harming Your Social Media With Poor Web Design!

 

 

 

Lots of companies today are putting in a lot of time and effort to create their business’s social media platforms. They are creating engaging campaigns, producing quality content and making a true effort to communicate with consumers.

But, after creating a strong social media presence, you MUST have an equally strong website that is easy for consumers to navigate otherwise all your social effort could be lost. Consumers who are initially interested in your brand after engaging in your social media platforms will be turned-off by your brand if your website rubs them the wrong way.

Too many companies get too focused on elaborate web design, and in the end their website can end up being too flashy, hard to navigate and confusing. Try to avoid these issues by creating a simple design strategy to compliment your social media efforts.

One of the major mistakes when designing websites is that there is no distinct call to action. Before making your site, ask yourself, What do you want consumers to do once they come to your site? Do you want them to contact you? Buy from you? Ask for more information? After you address these questions, then you have a set purpose in mind and you can design your website around that purpose to get the results you want.

Another mistake is confusing navigation. You do not want your potential consumers to arrive at your site and end up wasting time trying to find what they’re looking for. You want your site to be easy for users to navigate. Design it so that they are able to conveniently go back and forth from their location. Set up your site as if it’s a department store: you want clear signs shown obviously so users can see exactly where it is they want to go.

Additionally, you want to try out different browsers before settling on one. You might find a browser that looks great in Internet Explorer, but consider how it will look in other applications like Safari or Chrome. Before choosing your website design, test it out in a variety of different browsers so it is appealing to users no matter what application they’re utilizing.

Poor readability is another common issue with website design. Green and orange may be your company’s colors, but they might not read so well on the Internet. Make sure your visitors are able to read the text on your site by avoiding clashing colors. Also make sure that the size of the text is not too big or too small. If you have text that’s placed over images, check that the text is still readable.

The final mistake made when designing websites is enabling too much Flash. Websites that highlight important information with Flash elements are likely to run into several issues. One of these issues is that the design ends up being harder to read. Flash elements also slow down the load time of your site and consumers might end up leaving the site before it’s fully loaded. It’s also important to know that Flash is not good for SEO. Anything in Flash will not be indexed in search engines.

By avoiding these common web design mistakes, consumers enticed by your company’s social media will be more likely to stay interested in your brand by creating a well though out website. A simply designed website will be attractive to consumers and traffic to your site will ultimately increase!

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LivingSocial Research Shows Online Marketing Helps Restaurants Attract Customers

 

 

 

 

New research from the National Restaurant Association found that restaurants are increasingly using online and email marketing to give customers personalized offers. This electronic use of marketing channels has been proven to complement traditional marketing techniques, resulting in a hugely successful marketing mix.

The daily deal site, LivingSocial funded this research, which evaluated current practices in the marketing world used by restaurant operators and the consumer perceptions of a variety of marketing tools.

According to Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of the National Restaurant Association, James Balda, “Finding the right marketing mix is crucial to success in the restaurant industry. Our new research outlines the challenges and opportunities o both offline and online marketing to help restaurant operators find the ‘sweet spot’ for promotions by identifying what consumers respond to and how various messaging vehicles are perceived.”

Some of the major findings from this research include:

-Restaurants using online marketing tools tend to be viewed as more popular and modern to consumers. In return, restaurant operators feel that websites, TV ads, social media, emails, and daily deals to be very effective in gaining new consumers.

-Restaurant operators and consumers agree that savings provided through customized messages are very important for business.

-95% of restaurant operators find savings offers to be a crucial marketing tool.

-78% of restaurant operators perceive daily deals as an effective way to increase revenue for their restaurants. And 69% of customers claimed that emails from daily deal providers motivate them to check out that featured restaurant from that daily deal.

-40% of restaurant operators claimed they plan to partner with a daily deal provider within the next year.

-87% of consumers would order from or go to a restaurant if given a savings offer.

-Consumers are likely to go to a restaurant if they received personalized marketing messages that referenced previous restaurant patronage, permitted reservations, and identified them by name.

-84% of restaurant operators feel that restaurant-specific marketing emails are an effective way to increase revenue for their restaurant, and 78% of consumers feel that an email from a restaurant would entice them to go to that restaurant.

-Online marketing can boost a restaurant’s brand image and bring in new customers.

With this interesting information, it is clear that the use of LivingSocial and other daily deal sites, or simple email offers, may be a great way for your business to take online marketing to the next level and see an increase in revenue and customers!

/0 Comments/by
,

LivingSocial Research Shows Online Marketing Helps Restaurants Attract Customers

 

 

 

 

New research from the National Restaurant Association found that restaurants are increasingly using online and email marketing to give customers personalized offers. This electronic use of marketing channels has been proven to complement traditional marketing techniques, resulting in a hugely successful marketing mix.

The daily deal site, LivingSocial funded this research, which evaluated current practices in the marketing world used by restaurant operators and the consumer perceptions of a variety of marketing tools.

According to Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of the National Restaurant Association, James Balda, “Finding the right marketing mix is crucial to success in the restaurant industry. Our new research outlines the challenges and opportunities o both offline and online marketing to help restaurant operators find the ‘sweet spot’ for promotions by identifying what consumers respond to and how various messaging vehicles are perceived.”

Some of the major findings from this research include:

-Restaurants using online marketing tools tend to be viewed as more popular and modern to consumers. In return, restaurant operators feel that websites, TV ads, social media, emails, and daily deals to be very effective in gaining new consumers.

-Restaurant operators and consumers agree that savings provided through customized messages are very important for business.

-95% of restaurant operators find savings offers to be a crucial marketing tool.

-78% of restaurant operators perceive daily deals as an effective way to increase revenue for their restaurants. And 69% of customers claimed that emails from daily deal providers motivate them to check out that featured restaurant from that daily deal.

-40% of restaurant operators claimed they plan to partner with a daily deal provider within the next year.

-87% of consumers would order from or go to a restaurant if given a savings offer.

-Consumers are likely to go to a restaurant if they received personalized marketing messages that referenced previous restaurant patronage, permitted reservations, and identified them by name.

-84% of restaurant operators feel that restaurant-specific marketing emails are an effective way to increase revenue for their restaurant, and 78% of consumers feel that an email from a restaurant would entice them to go to that restaurant.

-Online marketing can boost a restaurant’s brand image and bring in new customers.

With this interesting information, it is clear that the use of LivingSocial and other daily deal sites, or simple email offers, may be a great way for your business to take online marketing to the next level and see an increase in revenue and customers!

 

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Using Hubspot to Measure Your Social Media Marketing

 

 

 

 

Hubspot, an inbound marketing company based in Boston, has developed a comprehensive suite of marketing automation software tools to assist companies in managing their online marketing efforts efficiently.

Hubspot provides an all-in-one solution to connect your business to prospective consumers who may be interested in your product or service, helps drive leads, and ultimately increases sales. By creating multiple tools to integrate your online marketing with your social media, Hubspot is making company’s online experience easier than ever.

The helpful analytic tools that Hubspot provides users with lets companies measure the results of their online marketing AND social media marketing-one of the unique benefits to Hubspot.

Many businesses are new to social media and are just starting to realize the importance of the tool in online marketing. And because social media is a digital medium, it is very easily measurable.

There are several major marketing analytic tools to use on your social media accounts. Important analytics include measuring your social media reach, how your audience views your brand, how much traffic your social media is driving, as well as the number of sales and leads your traffic is generating.

You can use Hubspot to measure these important metrics so you can effectively measure your social media marketing efforts.

1. Social Media Reach

The larger your social media audience, the greater your social media reach. That is why it’s critical to track the number of people on your social media channels who are engaging with your brand. If your company has a broad social reach, you will be able to pump up your brand’s content and messaging.

You can measure all the various interactions among all your social media channels with Hubspot’s software, from your YouTube video views, to you’re your Facebook “Likes” and blog comments. Then, this data is integrated into real-time graphs that you can download into Excel.

You will find how to modify your content in order to reach your target audience by analyzing your social media reach.

2. Social Media Traffic

One of the main reasons companies use social media marketing is to drive traffic to their website. This leads to generating more visitors, leads and sales.

 

You can track the percentage of visitors to your sites that come from your social media channels with Hubspot’s software, which records the referring sources within your web analytics platform.

3. Social Media Conversions

Conversion is the ultimate goal of social media. Hubspot’s platform lets you analyze the percentage of visitors from your social media sites that convert to leads and sales. This tool is completely necessary when measuring your social media’s overall value.

Track visitor-to-customer, visitor-to-lead, and lead-to-customer conversion rates across all of your social media platforms then compare it to your conversion metrics from your other marketing channels. This allows you to accurately measure your social media ROI. Give Hubspot a try and if its analytic program is right for your business!

 

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