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Blogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business Forever

Blogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business Forever

In the early days of the internet, blogging was one of the most popular ways to share information and connect with others. Today, social media has taken over as the primary platform for online communication, and many people have questioned whether blogging is still relevant.

While it is true that social media has eclipsed blogging in terms of popularity, it is still a powerful tool that can help you reach your goals.

If you’re thinking it might be time to start blogging, but you’re not sure if it’s worth the time and effort, then we urge you to keep reading. Here are 6 blogging benefits that will change your business forever.

Boost search engine optimization

SEO is extremely important for any business operating on the web. Every time you write a blog post, more pages from your domain become indexed in search engines. This gives you another opportunity to be found by people.

Search engines don’t want to send users to abandoned websites with outdated content. By regularly publishing contents to your website, you stand a better chance of being found by your target audience.

Drive traffic to your website

Blogging is an inexpensive way to attract more potential customers and drive traffic to your website. Studies suggest that companies who blog get 67% more leads as compared to those who don’t. In order to do that, you first need to know your target audience and create contents that will be of value to them.

Position your brand as an industry leader

Blogging is especially beneficial for small businesses looking to gain credibility. Majority of people go online to because they want information. By providing fresh, valuable information in your blog posts, you can build trust and clout within your industry. Over time, people will come to you for informative, helpful content and will be seen as an industry leader.

Convert traffic into customers

Now that you have captured the attention of your target audience, you want them to keep coming back to your site. To do that, you need to provide them with fresh, interesting and informative content on a regular basis. Once you have built an audience of loyal and trusting readers, it will be a lot easier to sell to them. In fact, studies show that 67% of American buyers have made a purchase based on blog posts.

Building your personal brand

Blogs are a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world. You can blog about anything, from your personal life to your professional journey. And unlike social media, blogs allow you to control the narrative. You can decide what information you want to share, and how you want to share it. As a result, blogs can be a powerful tool for building your personal brand. In addition, blogs can help you to connect with like-minded people and create a sense of community.

Differentiate your brand from the competition

Blogs are a powerful tool that can help businesses to differentiate their brands from the competition. This is essential in business; it’s what sets you apart from the competition and drives customers to your door. When used effectively, blogs can provide insights into your company culture, values and vision. They can also be used to share news and announcements, showcase customer testimonials, and promote special offers.

In addition, a blog can help humanize your brand, making it more relatable and approachable. By sharing the story of your brand, you can connect with potential customers on a personal level and build trust. So if you’re looking to differentiate your brand from the competition, consider starting a blog. It could just be the thing that sets you apart and helps you attract more business.

Final thoughts

A blog can be a powerful asset for your business. It can help you drive traffic to your site, position yourself as an industry leader, and convert traffic into customers. If you need help starting a business blog, we’re here to help. We’ll work with you to create content that is relevant to your target audience and helps you achieve your marketing goals. Schedule a free consultation today to get started.

Blogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business Forever

Blogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business ForeverBlogging Benefits that Will Change Your Business Forever

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Tips to Boost Your Online Sales

Tips to Boost Your Online Sales

(Updated Post from 2016)

Increasing sales is undeniably the primary goal of many businesses, small and large. But the biggest challenge business owners face is how to increase traffic to their e-commerce store. Once you’ve accomplished that, your goal is to turn those visitors into paying customers.

Here are 4 simple things you can do to boost your online sales.

Post fresh content

Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean that you can relax and just wait for potential clients to visit your site. You also need to post fresh content to encourage visitors to return to your site. Having well-written content and product descriptions are important. The more they return, the more likely are they to buy your products and services.

Be honest in your sales copy

Honesty is crucial, not only in building trust in your brand; but also in improving your business’ reputation. Your goal is to show people that you are the best person to provide the products that will help solve their problems. But in order to do that, you need to add credibility to your copy. Be honest in your sales copy and include customer testimonials in your sales letter. It is through this process that people will come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. The golden rule – Know, Like, Trust.

Go social

Social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, sales, and customer satisfaction. Actively engage with prospective customers via social media. Talk to them. Answer their questions as quickly and as honestly as you can. Studies show that customers are more likely to purchase products if they receive fast and honest answers from the company.

Don’t forget about your customers once you get them to purchase your products. Send them an email, offer discounts or free shipping on their next purchase. The more attention you pay to them after they have bought something, the more likely are they to turn into repeat customers. Think relationships, not sales.

Offer fewer products

Most businesses create an extensive list of products and services, thinking they’ll get more sales if they have a little something for everyone. But the problem is that prospects will have a hard time deciding whether to buy or not when you have an exhaustive product list. Instead of trying to please everyone, you might want to streamline your products and offer one set of related products. Then, describe those products as best you can.

Also, buyers need to see the benefits of purchasing your products. Try to answer all doubts and questions your visitors may have about your products and really focus on one key set of benefits.

 

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5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time T

Today, I want to talk about five different things you can be doing right now with all this extra time we have on our hands.

Most of us are working from our home offices and trying to move our businesses from an offline to an online service, and that could be a little difficult. We’ve talked a little bit about different things that you can do to help make that transition a little bit easier. And today I just want to give you five more things that you, guys, can be doing at this time to stay top of mind with your patients and keep your marketing going.

Blogs

So, the first thing is the blogs. Usually, blogging is something that gets put on the back burner because we’re so busy. We don’t have the time to sit down and write blogs. Maybe we’re not natural writers, it’s not something we really enjoy doing. And I understand that I am not a natural writer. It’s hard for me to sit down and write a 3000-word blog post. One really cool tool that we have discovered, and we use all the time, is called Scribie. And I’ll put the link below.

This is great because it allows you to do a video recording, just like this, and you can send in the audio file or the video file to Scribie, and they do a transcription of that file. This is a great way because now that video that you did acts as two benefits. You have the video for YouTube, but then you have the content for your blog that’s going to help with your SEOs, so it’s serving dual purposes.

Now, the other thing, if you have an audio file or an audio recording on your phone or different device, then you are able to upload that MP4 file to Scribie as well.

We use Zoom to record the videos, and then we upload the audio file because, with Zoom, it provides you both the video and audio, so that’s perfect. And so I think MP4 is video and MP3 is the audio. So, if you’re just doing an audio recording on your phone, just then upload that MP3 file into Scribie, and it will transcribe your blog. And for fairly reasonable.

Most blog posts are under that $10 mark to transcribe, and then you need to edit them, make sure your grammar is correct, and then you can put them into your blog post and format them with your header tags and your images. This saves a lot of time. This is something that we’ve really been able to focus on, is doing one to two video blogs per week and really making sure that we’re working on that content strategy. That’s number one.

Telehealth

Number two is really considering implementing telehealth. We have recently done a blog on telehealth, and what it is, and how to implement it, but now this is becoming a little bit more of a normal thing. Y

Now that your patients can’t see you face-to-face in your office, telehealth is a great way for them to see you face-to-face via video, whether that is through Zoom or a different tool used for the health care industries. So, really thinking of how can you implement telehealth into your practice to be able to see your patients, continue the business, and make sure that you’re giving them that peace of mind.

Videos

I know you probably are so tired of us saying “videos, videos, videos,” but really right now, your audience, your patients, they’re turning to social media more now than ever, and it’s important that they see your face.

As their health care practitioner in whatever field that is, it’s important that they see you, that they hear you. That gives them peace of mind that things are going to be okay. And I’m not saying that every video you do needs to be around the topics of COVID-19 or whatever is going on, but I would just educate them. Maybe if you’re working with kids, you can do some different cooking, some different recipes that they can try. Since the kids are home, you can give some study tips, maybe some art tips, nutrition tips, things that your audience can find valuable. And that you get creative with your videos.

If your staff is working from home, maybe do a weekly behind the scenes, like “Hey, this is Nurse Becky and this is her dog, Sam,” or whatever it may be. Get creative with your videos, and really allow this time of vulnerability to be there for your patients. You can ask for videos from them, too. Have a contest of the most creative art project or recipe concoction, whatever that may be.

If you’re working with elders, maybe you’re putting out crossword puzzles or word searches, things to keep them active. And that’s where I feel videos are great. They’re building that relationship on a much deeper level.

Ads

People may be wanting to cut costs right now because of that uncertainty, which we understand. One thing that you do not want to cut right now is your marketing.

It’s so important to make sure that you have your Facebook ads running, you have your Google ads running. And maybe you cut back that budget a little bit, but you still are doing business as normal. And especially if you are starting to implement telehealth, that maybe something that you really want to put a little bit of ad spend behind to promote because now you’re able to reach more people and help even more people, rather than just the people in your demographic area or geographical area.

Facebook ad campaigns, you want to make sure you leave them on, that you’re re-marketing people. And that’s something that we can help you with. If you’re confused about how to get that setup or how that works for your practice, we’re more than happy to help you with that, but make sure you have your ads running.

Patient check-ins

Lastly, take this time and do some patient check-ins. Go through your charts. If you haven’t seen anyone in a while, or you have a client that may be a higher risk or you are worried about, just do a simple check-in. Maybe even handwritten notes. I know that sometimes it takes a little bit of extra time even if you put together a newsletter, and you had your patients the newsletter just updating them.

I think it’s really important to build relationships and community right now, and make sure that you are again staying top of mind because that’s what your patients need right now. And so just doing that patient check-in, whether it’s individual… And you may have thousands of patients, so checking in with each of them won’t work. But if you can do a newsletter, where it is individualized to them, and you could say “Go do a video,” but just letting them know that you’re thinking of them and that you’re here for them, and maybe giving them some tips that you can help them, you again maybe introducing the telehealth series and letting them know that that’s an option.

Final thoughts

So, think of your target market and how you can utilize this time in a different way to focus on your marketing and being able to reach more people.  We may have extra time on our hands and most of us are, like I said, working from home.

So If you need help with any of these things, we would love to schedule a consultation with you, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com, click on FREE consultation, and we will talk to you soon.

 

 

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

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Simple Ways to Generate Leads from Your Blog

Simple Ways to Generate Leads from Your Blogs

Your business’ blog can do a lot of different things. Blogging does more than let your followers know about upcoming events or recent news. Rather, it can help you develop better customer relationships, position your brand as an industry leader and generate leads.

If you’re not happy with the leads you’re getting from your business blog, then we urge you to keep reading. Use these lead generation tactics to drive more traffic and attract more high quality leads to your website.

Pen a killer headline

Make sure your title is interesting enough to capture the attention of your target audience and will compel them to click through and read your blog post.

Go social

Since you own a blog, you probably know how to write a blog post that that will generate leads. Now, your goal is to extend your reach to those people who know little about your business. Consider sharing your blog posts on social media so that people will come, learn something valuable and share them to their family and friends. This will help spread the word about your business.

Build a mobile-friendly site

A huge percentage of visitors use their tablets or mobile phones to access the internet. If they find it hard to read your blog posts or navigate your site through their mobile devices, they’ll leave even before they start reading your posts. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly or you’ll lose visitors.

Be consistent

Publish new content more frequently if you want people to visit your blog regularly. We know you’re busy, so you don’t have to write a blog every day. However, it is important that you keep up with your posting schedule.

Show up regularly and your readership will grow faster. You can’t expect people to return to your blog if you don’t have new content for them to read. Make sure you offer some valuable content to inspire them to keep coming back.

 

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How to Get People to Promote Your Business

How to Get People to Promote Your Brand

Start-ups and small businesses are always looking for ways to get maximum exposure for their business with limited budget. Value is the most important word when allocating budget for your marketing campaign. But what if you could find people who are willing to write about your products and promote them to their friends for free? Yes, it’s possible.

Getting your customers to promote your business will likely spur some level of success. Here are some tips on how to get people to promote your business.

Find loyal customers

Keep an eye out on people with a history of buying from you. Now, you want to find people who are committed to your brand and loyal to you in more ways than one, and make sure you remember their names. These people are more likely to help you spread the word out about your business than those who made a single purchase.

You won’t be able to turn every single customer into an advocate, so you need to find those people who believe in your brand. Not all people endorse products for money. Some people do it because they like the product or they believe in the company.

Offer awesome customer service

If you want to get people talking about your business, then you need to go above and beyond their expectations. Meeting their expectations is good as well, but chances are, they won’t be singing your praises either.

Build a relationship

When it comes to building advocates, you should aim for ongoing engagement. You cannot just push people to do you what you want if they don’t trust you, so focus on the relationship first. Spend more time engaging them. Reach out and always respond to your customers. The closer they feel to you, the happier they’ll be to tell others how amazing your products and services are.

Referral program

Studies show that 83% of customers are willing to refer a product or service to their family and friends, but only 29% actually do. It’s because most businesses do not ask them to.

Referrals are the best form of advertising. In fact, they are incredibly well equipped to market and sell your products and services. All you need to do is ask. Don’t forget to say thank you every time a successful referral is completed.

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3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business

3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business

As a business owner, you have probably considered using social media to help you get the word out about your business. Building a strong social media presence may take a lot of time and hard work, but the pay off can be incredible.

Social media can be extremely beneficial to companies of all sizes. Here’s how social media can help grow your business.

Reach new audience

Sharing content to thousands of people at once is one of the biggest benefits of social media. But instead of trying to reach everyone, you need to find the right people to engage with. Social media provides the perfect opportunity to help you reach your target audience. Plus, it is one of the fastest and least expensive ways to connect with your audience.

Identify who your target audience is, and then determine which social platforms they spend most of their time in. If you share really interesting and engaging content, you are likely to reach thousands and thousands of people in no time.

Create meaningful relationship with your customers

Social media encourages two-way communication. It’s not enough that you share your knowledge or provide some updates about your products, services and upcoming events; you also want to communicate with your fans and followers.

Social media allows you to communicate with your prospective and current customers. Once you have earned their trust and goodwill, they would be much more willing to recommend your products to their family and friends.

Customer service

Providing stellar customer service is likely already a top priority for your business. Since most customers want immediate response, many of them would post their questions or concerns via social media. If they do, it is important that you respond and address the issue in a timely manner.

If you acquire positive feedbacks, ask the customer if you can share it on your page. People will trust and appreciate you when people say good things about your business.

 

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How to Build a Strong Social Media Presence

How to Build a Strong Social Media PresenceSocial media marketing may seem like a fairly simple concept. All you have to do is to create an account on different social platforms and post updates every now and then. But the truth is, there’s a whole lot more that goes into building a social media presence and reaching your audience.

Whether you’re a large corporation seeking new ways to improve your online engagement or a new business trying to decide where to focus your social media efforts, there are a lot of ways to boost your social media presence.

Here are some steps you can take to help get you started.

Identify your audience

There are millions of active users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels. The first thing you need to do is to identify your target audience and determine which sites they use the most. This will help you narrow down your options and know where your focus will be.

Build a targeted community

As an entrepreneur starting or running your own business or a professional trying to build your online brand, you want to have a good social media presence. But in order to do that, you first need to develop a large following. That means followers and fans on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.

Engage with everyone

Social media should be less about you and more about your audience. It’s about making connections and having conversations.

Rather than focusing on your promotion, you want to use this opportunity to engage with people. Speak to them. Ask them to take part of the conversation, ask questions and encourage them to submit photos while using your product. People are likely to like, comment and share your content if you have established a relationship with them.

Produce valuable content

There are several types of content you can post on social media. You can post videos, blog posts, client or customer testimonials and others.

Aim for social updates that contain educational content rather than product-focused content. Make sure your Facebook posts, tweets and LinkedIn updates consist of engaging, useful and valuable content.

 

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Rules of Engagement for Facebook Group Administrators

RulesofFacebookforAdmins

Many of you have probably forgotten about Facebook groups, but it’s actually one of the best tools for engaging with your audience. It is also a great way to invite people with the same interest with you and get them to converse about the same topic.

How do you get the people in your group to become more engaged? Here are 4 ways to increase social engagement in your Facebook group.

Be active

As the administrator of the group, it is your responsibility to get the conversation cracking. Ask question that will encourage members to chime in and join in the discussion. If you’re not active in the group, then they won’t either. Also, make sure you post the type of content your members want to see.

Welcome new members

Much like a tourist visiting a new city, people would spend some time on your group, exploring what it has to offer. Unless they know they felt at home, they won’t want to stick around or engage with you and other members.

Create a welcome message for every 10 or more members who have joined your group. Include details like why the group exists and who the group is for. Let them know that they are welcome to post and share within the group.

Make it fun

If you want to keep people active in your community, then you need to give them a reason to keep coming back. You can ask members to share something that they like. Invite them to tap into a part of their lives that excites them and lightens them up. Another way is to host an exclusive giveaway to reward loyal customers.

Do not advertise your business on the group

Use your group as a platform to engage with your target audience and get to know them well. People don’t want to hear about your products. Rather, they want to participate in discussions that are related to a topic they are interested in. You want them to see your group as a place where they can learn, share and collaborate.

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Signs You Need to Outsource Your Digital Marketing

Online Marketing

As a founder of a growing company, you may feel that you need to do everything yourself to ensure that it is done right. We understand the buzz of excitement that keeps you going, even when you’re exhausted. We understand the passion you feel for what you do. But sometimes, outsourcing certain parts of your business is the way to go, especially if you have too much on your plate.

Here are some strong indicators that you need to outsource your digital marketing.

You don’t have the right skills

Many of you are probably familiar with social media marketing and search engine optimization. But the question is, do you know how to use them to grow your business? If not, consider getting professional help to harness the power of the internet and grow your business. Yes, you may have to spend money, but hiring an experienced marketer will help maximize the potential and profitability of your business.

You’re overexerted

As a small business owner, you have grown accustomed to doing everything on your own. As your business grows, you try to put in more hours hoping to tackle everything on your to-do list. After a few weeks, you show up to work feeling defeated because you know there is no way you you’ll be able to get all of those tasks done. You’re overexerted. It’s time to find someone who can help you manage your digital marketing.

You get a lot of traffic, but your sales are not increasing

If you’re not witnessing any growth in your sales, it isn’t always due to a poor sales force. In most cases, this is due to ineffective marketing. Maybe you should look into hiring an outside agency to help increase your sales and revenue.

An experienced marketer can help by looking at your current strategy, letting you know what you’re doing wrong and providing some suggestions on how to get your sales back on track.

 

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Online Advertising Strategies for Small Business Owners with Limited Budget

Online MarketingWith the huge amount of information online and online companies popping out of the woodwork, capturing the attention of your target audience can be a challenging task. This can be daunting, especially for small business owners. But the truth is that you don’t have to spend a huge sum of money in order to get the word out about your business.

Having a small marketing budget doesn’t mean you can’t generate results. Here are a few online advertising strategies that you can use, even on a shoestring budget.

Know your target audience

Figure out your target market first before you spend a dime on marketing. You are likely to waste your time and money if you start marketing before you have a clear customer profile. Ask yourself, who will be most interested in your products or services? Male or female? What is their age group? Once you have a thorough profile of your target audience, that’s the only time you can start with your marketing campaign.

Email marketing

Email marketing can help you earn more traffic and conversions as long as you’re willing to put in the time. However, people don’t just give their email address to anyone. So you’ll have to think of some strategies in order to get people to subscribe to your newsletters.

Social media marketing

It wouldn’t cost you anything to establish your brand on most social media platforms, but don’t be fooled into thinking that social media marketing is easy.

A solid content marketing is essential if you want your business to succeed. The most successful companies are the ones who post and share things that are interesting to their audience. You may not have a lot to offer in terms of discounts and giveaways to lure in new customers, but you have great contents to share.

Blog

Helping people before they need your help is an excellent marketing strategy. Not only will it help you get the attention of your target audience, it can help you build a relationship with them. Make sure that you provide them with useful tips, industry news and good content that is relevant to them.

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