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How Can I Market My Business Online?

As a startup business, it is understandable that you don’t have a wad of cash to market your business. But that does not necessarily mean that you can’t get your brand out there.

The internet is teeming with marketing platforms that would not require you to spend a ridiculous amount of money. If you want to maximize your success, you need to take advantage of the power of the internet and learn how to promote your business online.

This week, we’ll give you some pointers on how to get the word out about your business and start driving sales.

Optimize your company’s website

In the world of constant Googling, search engine optimization cannot be underestimated. The idea here is to write your website’s content in such a way that it would appear in major search engines such as Bing and Google.

Embrace social media

Today, virtually every business, whether big or small, has accounts on different social media platforms.

Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people who are familiar with your business. Use social media to create more awareness for your company and to present a more personal side of your business. You can also post updates from time to time to keep your fans posted on your business happenings.

Start a blog

Blogging is a great way to boost your site’s ranking in search engines and drive traffic to your website. This is particularly important if you are running an online business.

For this to be effective, you have to write blog posts frequently and provide your audience with relevant information. As you continue to provide valuable information and solutions to your target market’s problems, you’ll soon become a trusted source of information. Once they see you as an industry expert, they are more likely to buy from you.

When you grow, hire a pro

When you’re starting out, it is natural that you want to oversee every single aspect of your business, including online marketing. But as your business grows, you might want to hire a professional to take over the marketing side of your business. After all, these people have the skills, knowledge and experience to help you reach and connect with your target audience and generate new leads.

January 27, 2015/by Caitlin McDonald

Advertising, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Measuring Social Media Success

Everyone wants to be liked on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social networking platforms. However, these likes won’t do you much good if they don’t add to your company’s bottom line.

As with any marketing activity you do, it is important to measure the success of your social engagement. This should be done to help you determine what is effective, what is not and what you can do to get better results.

Here are some tips you might want to take note of to determine whether or not your social media strategy works.

More than just likes

Albert Einstein once said, “not everything that counts cannot be counted, and not everything that cannot be counted counts”. While this statement was uttered a long time ago, it’s surprising how relevant this is today.

Instead of just counting the number of likes you get, track down the number of comments and shares that have been made on each of your post. The more people share and comment on your post, the more likely is it to get in front of your target audience.

Website traffic

Using Google Analytics to track the number of website traffic and conversion that comes from your social media accounts is a great way of measuring your social media success.

When you share your content through any of the social media platforms, this allows you to capture leads and drive people to your site. Through Google Analytics, you can determine the number of shares and clicks you got from a particular channel such as Twitter and Facebook. Increase in traffic means people are interested in your products, services and your company as well.

Keep track of your followers

Social media is a numbers game. So, if you want to drive sales, size does matter. Keep an eye on the number of followers you gain and keep.

One of the biggest rewards of customer engagement is customer retention. Your retention rate will play an important role in the success of your business. Mind you, a huge percentage of sales come from repeat customers.

January 20, 2015/by Caitlin McDonald

Facebook, Internet Marketing, Social Media

4 Ways to Use Facebook Groups for Your Business

Since business owners have discovered that they could make fans through their Facebook page and market through a broader group of consumers, many of them have slowly abandoned the Facebook groups and focused their time on managing their page.

With so many changes taking place on the said platform, business owners have assumed that groups are no longer effective. But as soon as they abandoned the groups, they seem to forget about the “social” in social media. They focused on paid advertisement, limiting the interaction between the company and it audience.

So how do you use Facebook groups for your business? Here are 4 ways.

Exchange ideas with group members

When thinking of creating a group, one of the main reasons should be to keep in touch with your audience.

While a business page allows a company to broadcast new products, services or content, Facebook groups is a good place to ask questions or start a conversation with actual customers without posting a sales pitch.

Gather people of like interest

We do like to converse with people with the same interest as ours, right?

Through Facebook groups, you can gather people of like interest together. Here, you can ask questions, tell stories and offer advice to others. As the conversation evolves and as you start building a relationship with the group members, they might consider inviting some of their friends to the group.

Provide customer support

For small businesses that are still not capable of hiring people and offer customer support round-the-clock, having an active Facebook group is advantageous as it gives customers a place to share, collaborate and connect with others. Here, people can offer support and advice to fellow customers, even if you’re not online.

Create a secret group

A secret group provides you the chance to interact with your loyal customers. Here, you can give them exclusive updates to your newest products or services. Plus, it gives an incentive to customers who have supported your company through the years.

January 13, 2015/by Caitlin McDonald

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media

4 Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List

While email marketing is an old, unsexy technology, the savviest of entrepreneurs have no intention of giving it up anytime soon. This is because email marketing provides a direct line of communication and has a tendency to turn leads into sales.

Contacts are the lifeblood of any email marketing campaign. That said, growing your mailing list should be a priority.

In this article, we’ll walk you through what you need to do to build a quality email list. Read on and start building a list of people who will want to hear from you.

Make your sign-up forms easy to find

You can use your website to generate more contacts by adding a subscription form where your visitors can sign up. Be sure to place the form at the top of the page to make it easier for people sign up. Survey revealed that sites that place sign up boxes as part of their top banner perform better as compared to those located at the footer area.

Social network

Another way to build your list is by using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Due to the viral nature of Facebook, it pays to add a subscription form on your page. Be sure to include a sign up link to your email list on the “About” section of your page. For an added boost, you can also add it on your personal account and tell your family and friends about it.

Word of mouth

The best marketers for your products or services are the people who are already using them. For subscribers who have been on your list for a very long time, a discount or a small incentive would get them talking. Encourage them to share your list with their family and friends.

Tell subscribers what they’ll get

As a marketer, you need to answer the question most people ask: Why would I subscribe to your email list if I can just follow you on Facebook?

To urge people to subscribe to your newsletters, let them know that you offer subscriber-only content. Also, don’t forget to mention how often they’ll be receiving emails. Setting expectations upfront helps reduce unsubscribe rates.

December 30, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Things You Shouldn’t Be Doing on Your Company’s Social Media Accounts

Social media marketing is essential for small businesses, but is considered as a double-edged sword. Use it the right way and you can attract potential clients and grow your business. Use it the wrong way, and it will definitely hurt your business and could easily wind up alienating much of your audience.

If you are running an active campaign for your company on social media, make sure you never do these things.

Yelping back at customers

Every single feedback given by your customers can be of value to your company’s growth and development. If a customer gave you a negative review, you need to deal with it in a professional manner and learn from it.

Of course, it is natural that you want to defend yourself, but make sure to do it calmly. Also, say sorry and admit that you have done something wrong. There has to be some reason why the complaint was made in the first place. Yelping back at customers is definitely a no-no.

Sharing political views

What you share on social media is a reflection of who you are and your business. So, you have to be very careful what you share.

While a bit of controversy may be beneficial for your business, sharing your political views on your company’s profile is a recipe for disaster. Politics tend to stir up controversy rather than discussion.

Borrowing other people’s content

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your site, but writing your own content may take time. So you have decided to copy and paste articles from another site.

Search engines know that you have copied someone else’s content, and this can get you in trouble.

Angry statuses or comments

It is never a good idea to write an angry comment or status about someone else. As much as you think that you are entitled to say whatever you want on your own page, remember that people are watching what you write on social media. This can spark a backlash that will surely melt your reputation to a sticky puddle.

December 24, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Social Media, Video Marketing

Visual Content in Social Media

In today’s technological world, visual marketing is becoming a very popular trend. Marketers have begun to use visual marketing to their advantage through social media. Strengthen your business by catching the eye of your consumer with visual content. Below are a list of the most popular social media platforms for visual marketing and how to use it effectively:

Twitter:

What many people don’t know is that Twitter is not limited to 140 characteristics to get a message across. In fact, you can add up to four images in just one tweet, making Twitter a great platform for using visual content. This is a great way to showcase an event or tell a story that would be difficult to do with only one picture. Using an inforgraphic is also a great way to add visuals to the message you’re trying to get across through twitter. Some tools to create infographics are Visualize, Easel.ly, and Piktochart. Videos are also a great way to catch the attention of your consumer. Time-lapse videos in particular are a great way to tell a story or show a product in just a short amount of time. The Hyperlapse app allows you to create time-lapse videos in a simple manner. Once you’re done with your video, you can upload it to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Instagram:

With Instagram, it’s more about the quality of your photos than how many you’re posting. With each Instagram, it is crucial to make sure they are capturing your consumers’ eye in a creative way that will make them want to learn more about your business. The 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by the Social Media Examiner found that over time, marketers with more experience prefer Instagram when it comes to visual content marketing. Using hashtags can have a huge impact on your growth. But, knowing the right words to hashtag is crucial in making sure you’re reaching your target market. There are many tools that help you find the perfect hashtags to use. Webstagram helps you find find the most popular hashtags and with the search feature you can find more relevant hashtags to your post. Also, using Populagram can help you find the popular hashtags, filters and people which you can follow to stay on top of Instagram community.

Facebook:

Facebook can be used for visual marketing in a variety of ways. What makes Facebook so great is that you aren’t as limited when posting content as you would be on other social media platforms. A great feature of Facebook is that you can upload video directly to your posts. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income recently did an experiment comparing views and engagement of natively embedded Facebook video versus embedded YouTube video and he found that Facebook performs better overall. Facebook is also a powerful tool for graphics. You can create a graphic and then upload it to Facebook including the post URL in your caption, or you can share a link directly to Facebook. No matter which way you choose to use it, Facebook is a MUST for businesses who are trying to reach their consumers through visual marketing.

December 19, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Boundless Internet Marketing Solutions, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Habits of Successful Social Media Managers

The number of tasks a social media manager is expected to do can be quite overwhelming. Not only are they expected to engage with current and new followers, they also update several social media profiles everyday, monitor the effectiveness of their social media campaign and more.

While every social media manager would approach his or her job differently, successful social media managers share a few habits. Focus on these habits to reach new levels of social media success.

Reciprocate

Genuinely strive to help others succeed on social media. This attitude will help you build camaraderie, it will also help you stay on top of the game.

When you like or follow someone, they are more likely to reciprocate the gesture and like or follow you back as well. Alternatively, when someone shares your content, do the same for them.

Work with your team

As much as you would like to handle things on your own, you can’t do it alone. Do yourself a favor and build a team consisting of loyal and trustworthy people.

Collaborate with your team and harness a relationship that encourages partnership. This will help you build a strong social media presence and reach your business goals.

Prioritize

Prioritize your week’s plan based on priority rather than urgency.

Every business needs leads, traffic and sales in order to thrive. While having thousands of twitter followers can be beneficial to your brand, it would be a good idea to start by creating a webpage where you can create leads and connect it with your social media account.

Quick on your feet

A lot of things are happening on social media. Most of the time, it is happening pretty fast. Here, you have to be quick on your feet as you are not always given the luxury to take your time.

Negative comments, for instance, requires some quick, critical thinking. You should act quickly and know how to address the issue in order to avoid any negative repercussions.

Unplug

Some social media managers run ragged in an attempt to keep up with the “always on” medium. That said, you need to give your mind a break from time to time.

This may sound counterintuitive, considering that you don’t want to be inactive on your accounts for too long. However, unplugging at least once a week can help you recharge your social media spirit.

December 17, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Staying On Top of Your Social Media Marketing Plan This Holiday Season

The holiday season is among us again which means we all feel the urge to kick back and relax with our families, get cozy by the fire, and wind down from the hard work we put in this year. But, while it may be difficult to stay focused around this time, the social media world is busier than ever! Now is the time to crack down and strengthen your business, reach more consumers, and get your name out there. With over 1 billion monthly active Facebook users and 255 million active Twitter users, the holiday consumers are turning towards social media platforms for information and incentives on what they plan to purchase this season. That is why right NOW is the time for you to steer your efforts toward creating a strategic holiday marketing plan for social media. Below are some tips on how your business can make the most out of this holiday season:

1. Develop A Campaign Strategy:

If you’ve been using social media for your business, chances are you’ve been focusing more on getting the straight facts about your business out there and less on creativity. The holiday season is a perfect time for you to transform your campaign in to something that can grasp your audience. Incorporating some creativity into your business campaign will ensure that your posts are getting noticed by your market and are staying fresh and relevant. Each season offers new ideas and trends, especially this season, and it is important to stay on top of that with switching up your campaign for this next month. Since now is the time for your business to be in the social media spotlight, incorporating creativity into your marketing strategy will strengthen your image and grasp your consumer’s attention.

2. Make Customer Service a Priority:

One in three social media users now prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the phone. Especially during the holidays, questions will be rolling in about your products, prices, shipping, etc., and it is crucial to be ready and available to your customers. Ensuring that your consumer is satisfied should be your top priority this time of year. Twitter is a great example of a social media platform that makes it easy to address your customer’s needs. Use Twitter to invite people to ask any questions they have regarding your business and products. Also make sure you are paying close attention to what people are saying about your products and how frequently they are talking. Doing this not only benchmarks progress for the 2015 holidays, but it also provides insight that can help shape your strategy in the new year.

3. Host Contests and Sweepstakes:

Creating a contest or a sweepstakes on your social media platforms is a great way to spread awareness about your brand and to engage your audience. People love to win prizes around the holidays, so why not take advantage of this season with a contest or sweepstakes? This is also the busiest time of year and people are pressed for time, so ensure that there is a valuable prize for your contestants so that they don’t feel their time is being wasted. Selecting a prize that is relevant to your target market is crucial to make sure you are attracting the right people. Asking participants to upload photos, videos, or text-based entries are a fast, fun, and easy way for people to get involved with your contest or sweepstakes. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are great platforms for your participants to get creative and take part in your contest.

December 12, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Advertising, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Advantages of Online Video Advertising

In the hopes of being successful in the world of online marketing, companies and organizations utilize different strategies. Video marketing is one of them.

Today, online videos are considered to be one of the most popular forms of advertising. In fact, a lot of businesses are using online videos as a part of their promotional strategies in order to stay ahead of the competition and keep up with the fast paced trend.

Still not convinced? Here are 4 reasons why you should advertise with videos online.

People love videos

People are getting more into viewing and sharing videos via Youtube, Facebook and other social networking sites. They just can’t look away.

Everybody is watching videos. Youtube alone has more than 4 million views per day. That said, you need to make promos, ads or video blogs, whatever format best reaches your target audience.

Feature your product’s functionality

Videos are an effective form of advertising as you can vividly show your audience, not just how your product looks like, but also how it performs.

Through this format, you can easily instruct and educate your current and potential customers about your products or services.

Stay ahead of the competition

Most people don’t have time or are too lazy to go through lengthy articles. They would rather spend a couple of minutes watching a video just to get the answers they need.

Users like to see something new and different, and videos can help you deliver. If you wish to stand out from your competitors, you need to create curiosity and offer information in a different way.

Capture interest of users

Videos are a great story-teller. By creating an engaging and compelling video, you can get people to cry, laugh, get mad or excited. This enhances user experience, making them want to come back for more.

December 10, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Twitter

Twitter and the Power of the Hashtag

As Social Media sites are growing, so is the use of the hashtag. If you didn’t already know, a hashtag is a word or a group of words after the # sign. Whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc., hashtags are popping every everywhere. On Twitter especially, the hashtag has proven to be an extremely powerful tool for marketing businesses. But, how do we use this strategy properly? Hashtagging can either help you reach your target market and expand your business, or it could be a waste of your time. It is crucial to learn the power of this social media marketing tool and how to use it properly. Here are some useful tips:

Tip#1: Defining Your Brand

The first major step to using Twitter and hashtags effectively is defining your brand or business in a few specific words. Twitter is one of the most widely used social media sources, so you want to make sure your posts are being seen by the right people. Your central business tag should be a word that is unique to your business. You can make it your company name or a tagline that people will know about your business. For example, Red Bull uses #givesyouwings which is their company slogan. Doing this will help your business become recognized.

Tip #2: Use Trending Hashtags

It is also important to understand trending hashtags. A trending hashtag is a topic that has become very popular. Keeping an eye out for trending hashtags that have to do with your business is a great way for your posts to get noticed. This can help your post be seen by a large audience, but still focuses on your business. Your content can be seen by more than just your followers, so it’s important to get yourself out there by using a trending hashtag. Trends on Twitter can be found on the left hand side of your computer Twitter feed.

Tip #3: Use Content Tags Properly

Lastly, using the right content hashtags is another crucial step for your business success on Twitter. These tags are not branded, and aren’t necessarily popular or trending, they are just simply unique to your business. Using these enable you to get seen by your consumers who are searching for those specific hashtags. One of the biggest mistakes people make when using hashtags is not being specific enough to your business. For example, using #food if you run a catering business will end up working against your favor. Millions of people a day use #food and that is never an acknowledgeable hashtag for a business. Instead, using something more specific like #foodcatering will get your post noticed by your consumer. Finding common hashtags by checking out what tags are being used by your followers and your competition is a great way to make sure you’re using them effectively.

December 5, 2014/by Caitlin McDonald

Twitter and the Power of the Hashtag

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