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Characteristics of a Great Content

office-594132_640There is a surplus of information on the internet today. In fact, about 2 million blog posts are published every day. Along with that, 70,000 hours of Youtube videos are uploaded and about 290 billion emails are sent on a daily basis. The problem is that most of these contents result in a waste of time, energy and resources.

How do you go about creating content that stands out and captures the attention of your target audience?

While there is no specific way in creating great content, there are a few characteristics that most successful content shares. Keep these things in mind when creating contents for your prospects and clients.

Relevant

When starting out with content marketing, most companies create contents that are centered on their products and services. While there is nothing wrong in wanting to showcase your products and services, you first have to focus on content that your customers care about.

Your content has to resonate with your prospects and existing clients. Otherwise, those contents will just get lost among all other noise.

Provides value

Writing great content is a choice. You can produce high quality content or you can take the easy path and produce junk.

People are searching for information that will educate them, inform them and he6lp them solve a problem. If your content is entertaining, informative and interesting enough, people will be happy to share your content. Add to that, it will get the attention of industry stakeholders and position your company as an educator or expert.

Original

Creating original content will get you great results. Google rewards sites with original, high quality content. On the other hand, it penalizes sites with duplicate content. Original content will help your site get more exposure and improve your site’s ranking.

Easily consumed            

When people use a search engine, they’re not just looking for answers – they want fast answers. In fact, one study revealed that 79% of web users scan contents rather than read them in detail.

Make your posts easier to read by keeping each paragraph short, preferably 3-4 sentences each. Bulleted lists are also very helpful. They are easily scannable and make it easier for users to find the information they need.

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Signs It’s Time to Outsource Your Online Marketing

BIMS_9.1As a business owner, you want to oversee every aspect of the business. But as the business grows, you will then realize that you can’t do everything on your own. You need to delegate tasks so you can focus on things you do best. Knowing when to hire people is an important part of building a successful business.

In this blog post, we’ll give you 4 reasons why you should outsource your online marketing. Read on and find out if it’s time for you invest in the services of offsite experts.

You don’t have the right skills

At some point in time, you’ll be facing certain challenges you can’t solve on your own. Rather than spending countless hours trying to come up with an effective marketing plan, it might be best to pay someone else to handle the marketing side of your business so you can focus on providing quality service to customers and make more money.

You’re not producing enough fresh content

If you want people to find your website, you need a steady supply of fresh, quality content. But if writing isn’t your forte and you find yourself putting off the task until a few hours before the deadline, why torture yourself? Let an online marketing agency do the work for you while you sit back and enjoy the results.

You’ve reached a plateau

You’ve seen some promising results in the past, but after a few months, you realized that you’re not getting promising results.  Keep in mind that it is a fast-changing environment and you need to keep up in order to succeed. Outsourcing will help you keep up with the rising demands of your marketing.

You seem to be running behind

This is common, especially for small business with only a handful of employees. Your business is growing fast and their workload is starting to become heavy. Eventually, you’ll find that all your projects get pushed against tight deadlines and you seem to be running behind on projects and campaigns, it may be time to consider bringing in a new team.

 

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Social Media Trends That Are Bad For Your Brand

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Social media marketing can be comparable to traditional media marketing. The only difference is that it is a lot faster. Trends waxes and wanes in hyper speed, going from cool to super lame in a matter of days or weeks. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay relevant.

Here’s a list of social media trends that can hurt your brand. Read on to find out which trend you should finally put to rest.

Facebook exclusive

Facebook may be one of the most popular social media channels today, but focusing your marketing efforts on Facebook is certainly not a good idea. Why? It’s because it has the most competition and advertising can be more expensive.

Focusing on one platform is like advertising on TV alone, and not using radio, print, billboards and any other channels to reach your audience.

Live blogging

During the SuperBowl event last year, a lot of people were active online, chatting and posting about the event as it happens. Some businesses took the opportunity to engage with their audience by posting something about the said event. If the brand is about sports, then this is justifiable. But if not, then there’s no sense talking about the SuperBowl.

Try focusing in topics that would be of interest to your target audience. They’re expecting you to provide them with content about specific topics, not some general world news.

Half-baked story

Social media is a great place to keep up with breaking news. We strongly advise that you check your facts first before sharing stories on your blog or business page. Do your research and make sure that the news is from a reliable source.

Sharing half-baked stories will affect your brand in a negative way. The last thing you want is for people to see you as an unreliable source.

Ignoring LinkedIn

If you’re not on LinkedIn, then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to get more branding for your business. LinkedIn is the best social media platform for business owners and executives to be in. Here, you can expand your network and meet people in the same industry.

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Social Media Marketing Tactics You’re Wasting Your Time On

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A few years ago, social media was considered as a new and unchartered territory. But with the popularity of social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, business owners knew that they needed to cope up in order to stay relevant.

If you want your business to stay afloat and thrive, be sure to avoid these social media marketing tactics.

Buying Facebook fans

Having thousands of followers may help validate your business’ social proof, but you also have to understand that social media sites have algorithms that are designed to track and analyze interaction and engagement. Buying fans will reduce the amount of organic reach you do get.

Instead of paying for fake followers, you might want to focus on building genuine relationship with your target audience.

Spamming your audience

Posting one content after another is a great strategy if you want to turn off your followers. Create a regular posting schedule and space out posts and tweets for optimal sharing times. Also, make sure you have a solid content strategy each time you post.

You are always selling

The best content tells stories – stories that tell how you help your customers, what you can offer them and what it’s like to do business your company. But if all you write about is how awesome your products are, it’s not story telling. You call it advertising. We guarantee you your fans and followers won’t like it.

Creating accounts on too many platforms

If you think it’s wise to be everywhere; you’re wrong. Many companies create accounts on different social media platforms, despite their ability to engage with their followers and post quality content.

When users visit your profile and only finds 10 status posts or tweets within the past year, they may think that you don’t care or you’re disorganized. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Keep your focus on one platform at a time, and then branch out from there.

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Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List


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A mailing list is the preferred method of communication and cultivating long-term relationships with customers of smart and creative business owners. In fact, it is one of the most heavily used channels of communication to date.

As a marketer, it is your job to add fresh contacts to your email list on a regular basis. How exactly do you do that? We have heaps of ideas that can help you grow your email list. Read on to grow your audience, generate more leads and bring more business.

Make it easy to subscribe

Keep your offers upfront and be sure to include call-to-action buttons on about every page of your website. Don’t make people dig around your site. Put those sign up forms where visitors can easily see them.

Collect email addresses at in-person events

Collect email address at events such as educational panels, hackathons, conferences, meet ups etc. Just having a sign up form at events isn’t enough. You should train your people to collect email addresses at registration. Be sure to send them a welcome email that confirms their opt-in to your list.

Use social media

Promote an offer that requires an email submission on your Facebook page. Make it easy for people to join your list by adding a sign up form to your Facebook page. You can also create twitter campaign to promote one of your lead generation offers to your followers.

Give away something valuable

Think of building your email list as an exchange. Potential customers give you their email address, and in return, you provide them with something that is of value to them.

Everyone likes free stuff. So be sure to attach something valuable to your email sign up form. It can be an ebook, early access to new features, private blog content, video, cheat sheet etc. This is a surefire way to pique people’s interest and get them to sign the form.

 

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How to Create a Great First Impression Online

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Most of you know that first impressions are a big deal. You only get one chance to make a good impression so you have to make it right.

Living in the digital world, our first encounters with other people are often via social media, blog posts or email. And once you capture the attention of the public, the first thing they’re going to do is to run a Google search on you. The pressure is on. So where do you start?

Here are 4 simple ways to make a good first impression online.

Know your audience

Successful brands start out by getting to know their audience before they try to appeal to them. Consider the interest and needs of your target audience. Focus on people who are most likely to buy your products instead of appealing to the masses. This will yield better results and end up saving a lot of money in the process.

Be informational rather than promotional

A lot of business owner think that they need to do something flashy just to capture the attention of their target audience. But in order to stand out, you need to provide them with quality content, content that will appeal to your target audience. Let’s take Wikipedia as an example. Wikipedia is one of the least flashy sites on the Web, but it is also one of the most trusted. So, if you really want to stand out, provide people with informative and quality content rather than just showcasing your products on a regular basis.

Get your personal life out of the public eye

We often use social media channels to communicate with our family and friends. But now that you’re running a business, be sure to use a separate account when talking to potential clients and customers. Remember, people will be watching you. So you might as well get your personal life out of the public eye.

Don’t forget to clean up your social media profile once in a while. While it’s normal to have fun sometimes, you don’t want people to have a negative perception of you.

Your website

Apparently, you only have 3 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. If you want them to stay, you need to take into account the design and usability of your website. Mind you, people are going to close the window or start looking at other sites if they don’t like what they see or don’t know what to do. Make sure that your content is easy to access and your site is easy to navigate.

 

 

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Reasons Why Visitors Leave Your Website

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Increasing web traffic is hard enough. Capturing their attention and enticing them to stay longer, not to mention subscribe, sign up for your newsletters or buy, is even more difficult. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, most users stick around for less than 59 seconds. That means if you don’t get their attention and provide them what they want fast, you lose them permanently.

The question is, what makes them press the back button shortly after visiting your website? Let’s take a look at some of major reasons why users leave a website and what you can do about it.

Poor first impression

Your website is the house of your business. People visit it if they want to learn more about your products and services or want to have an idea about what your business is all about.

If the impression is good, then you might be welcoming a new set of loyal customers. But if you have a crappy site, people might not consider doing business with your company even if you have great products.

Slow loading

The attention span of the modern web surfer is limited. They don’t have time to wait for a slow website to finish loading.

If they are interested or really need to visit your site, they might wait. But if they have just clicked the link on impulse and they’re just curious to see what the site is all about, they are more likely to leave.

Too much distraction

Your website should guide your visitors step-by-step until such time that they are ready to buy. Having lots of information on your homepage will just confuse visitors. Do not bombard your visitors with too many options.  You’re just making it difficult for them to know how to proceed.

Too many ads

Suffocating your visitors with ads that flash, pop or fill the entire screen will only serve to enrage them. They are annoying and can drive users into leaving a website and never return. Ads can also kill webpage load time because of all the extra JavaScript files they have to call.

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How to Improve the Visibility of Your LinkedIn Profile

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In today’s corporate world, you’re not somebody until you can be found in LinkedIn. As more and more professionals and business owners create an account on this site, getting noticed requires a deep well of connections and some site-specific SEO magic.

If you have already created a profile on LinkedIn, you might want to revisit it and refresh your presence. Here are some tips to improve your visibility and get the most out of the world’s largest professional networking site.

Fill out your profile completely

When other users land on your page, they’ll see a box that displays your profile highlights. If you are a business owner or a professional, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to build a relationship with potential clients, customers and partners. This is your chance to make a great impression. So, make sure that the information in your profile box is complete, up-to-date and optimized.

Include relevant search keywords

If you want people to find you, you need to apply effective SEO techniques. This is especially important on the “Headline” field. Instead of just describing your current position, it would be best if you could optimize your job title slightly and include relevant keywords.

Expand your network

LinkedIn is the perfect platform for connecting with colleagues. So go ahead and connect with people, especially those who share your professional interests and qualifications. It’s also a good idea to connect with your past clients, managers, co-workers and other colleagues. You can further improve your LinkedIn search presence by doing this step.

Be an active participant

Like major search engines, LinkedIn rewards users who actively engage with others. Joining and participating in groups is beneficial as it not only helps in expanding your network, it also improves your profile’s SEO.

LinkedIn allows users to join up to 50 groups, but if you do, you’ll have a difficult time keeping up with all the conversations. Focus on 3 to 5 groups and make it a point to participate in group discussions. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on opportunities to build influence.

 

 

 

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Low Cost Ways to Market Your Business


BIMS_4.28.2“Making money costs money”. While there is some truth to it, you do not necessarily have to spend a fortune just to get the word out about your business.

Marketing your business is not all about spending money. It’s about coming up with creative ideas and implementing them properly. So the question is, how do you promote your business and get your name in front of potential customers while working on a shoestring budget?

Here are 3 low cost yet high impact methods to advertise your and promote your business.

Social media

Social media is undoubtedly the one of the most affordable and effective ways to engage with yours customers. Millions of people from all over the world are using social media on a daily basis. So, you should include that on your marketing strategies.

An effective social media marketing starts with defining who your best prospects are and creating contents that anticipates their needs. Establishing strong relationship with your customer base is also important.

Search engines

Creating a website can be comparable to building a house. Your family and friends won’t know you’re building one unless you tell them. Also, they’ll never find it unless you give them the address. The same goes with your website.

You can’t expect people to visit your website unless they know it actually exists. Submit your website to search engines. Also, use keywords and key phrases that your customers will be searching for so it will be easier for them to find you.

Content is king

Everyone knows this, but I’d be neglectful if I do not include this on the list. I cannot stress enough the importance of creating great content. If writing isn’t your strong point, you can always hire someone to do the writing for you.

Write articles that demonstrate your expertise in your field. To increase your reach, you can submit these articles to websites that accept guest posts. Be sure that your name and business name is included in the article.

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