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A Mobile Marketing Crash Course for Small Business Owners

2011/08/01 By 1 Comment

Unless you live in the Land of Nod, you most certainly must recognize the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, and Adroid-powered smartphones over the past 2-3 years. As a business owner, you have to be wondering how this is impacting your business, and where all this is headed?

To help answer these and other important questions about mobile marketing, I have out together an article series that addresses the primary tenants of mobile marketing from the SMB perspective.

In this series, we explore the following topics:

  1. Why Text Message Marketing is Important
  2. What is SMS Software and Why Do I Need It?
  3. Bar codes, QR Codes, Tags and Why Should I Care?
  4. Mobile Marketing With Mobile Apps; Are Apps Right For Your Business?
  5. How to Improve Your ROI with Mobile Website Marketing
  6. What’s Best for Your SMB: A Mobile Website or Mobile App?

This blog series was also put together in the form of a White Paper which dives into these issues and offers solutions for small business owners, which you can download free by clicking on the button below.

These are important issues that depending on your type of business, your size, and of course your business marketing objectives, you will need to respond to in some way shape or form. The series and the white paper are meant to give you a real-world way of looking at these issues and offer practical ways to approach each of the these mobile marketing strategies for your SMB.

 

Filed Under: Marketing, Mobile, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Importance of Having a Good Vision Document for Your Business

2011/06/23 By 3 Comments

Courtesy of Health Matter 4 All Blog

A few weeks ago I was putting together a blog post for a new project of which I am a part. The piece was written by one of the other project contributors and it was my job get it up to the blog. It was about the importance of smart goal setting and the author was sharing how the practice of setting goals and ways to achieve them directly impacted his ability to achieve those stated goals. And this got me thinking…I haven’t set goals for my business in a while, if ever.

The first thing I decided to do before setting some new goals was to dig up the original vision document I had created for my business when I first started it back in March 2007. I hadn’t reviewed it in a while and felt that it would make sense for me to re-visit this before setting some new business goals. Problem was, I could not find the document.

This bothered me and so I booted up my old PC that I had used a lot more back then and started digging through my backup drive to hopefully locate the file, which I did luckily. After reading it a few times, I am happy to report that with the exception of a few things I am very much in synch with my original company vision. I can’t think of anything that needs to be changed and I really like how it is laid out. So I thought I might share it here verbatim as a resource for others to consider in need of creating your own vision doc.

So here it is, exactly how I have it. The only thing to note is that the company name used has changed from Webtwologies to AutoConversion…

Webtwologies – Prepare Your Business for Tomorrow’s Web

Vision
Webtwologies is an IT consulting firm that produces forward-thinking solutions and marketing strategies for small- to medium-sized businesses. Our commitment to industry is for the betterment of society with the idea in mind that we are always stewards of a Higher Purpose.

Strategy
Our strategy is to provide progressive Web 2.0 solutions couple with digital marketing concepts to establish new customers and/or retain existing ones for YOUR business.

Opportunity
Our opportunity lies within businesses that would benefit from a dynamic web solution for internal and/or external purposes and that are committed tio investing into a digital marketing strategy that strives to meet their own core objectives.

Mission
Our corporate mission is to provide information, tools, and resources that give people the ability ti be constructive and to prosper. We strive to establish and maintain a product that lives on through the ages.

Key Objectives

  1. To build relationships with people and businesses through a sense of humility and service.
  2. To always be forward-thinking and innovative.
  3. To always be open and ready for change.

Keys to Success

  1. Build customers for life!
  2. Use technology as an accelerator, not a trailblazer.
  3. A commitment for constant improvement in all areas of business and our lives.

So that is it. That was my original vision doc.

You can see that I distinguished between some core concepts that can vary from person to person and business to business. You should also be able to see that it defines the who, what, why, and how but it leaves off the “when” and it also does not have specific goals stated in it. I don’t recall ever stating clear set goals int he 4.5 years I have had this business, let alone how I could achieve them. Granted I have set tasks and projects that needed to be accomplished but I never laid out cornet goals such as sales numbers to hit, lead counts, revenue goals, etc.

Maybe one of the things I need to add to this document belongs in the Keys to Success section: Regularly set clear goals, define a plan to achieve them, and be accountable for doing so. This by the way is precisely what the aforementioned blog post is about that I referenced while opening up this post. It’s called Four Principals to Achieving Your Goals and it is the Practical Coaching Tip for May’s edition on the Business Vision Network blog, which is the project I mentioned as well. In the post, author Chris LaGarde demonstrates not only the importance of setting goals (Affirmation) but also the importance of Accountability, Tracking, and Action.

If you are lacking in defined goals, or lacking in your ability to achieve the ones you have set, then click on over to Chris’ post. Likewise if you need to create yourself a vision doc for your business then by all means feel free to use what I have offered here as a starting point to get things rolling. And of course if you have some feedback or input to offer me or others viewing this post, your comments are certainly welcome.

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How to tell if your blog or website has been hacked by spammers

2011/05/25 By Leave a Comment

This post was derived almost verbatim from Axandra.com in their Weekly SEO News.

Apparently, spammers have found a new way to get higher rankings on Google. The trick involves hacked websites and the canonical tag. Is your website at risk? What can you do to avoid this?

What exactly has happened?

In an online forum, webmasters reported a new spam method. Hackers inserted the canonical tag on websites of other people:

“I came across a website with canonical tags setup on all of their pages and they were pointing to a spam site. I suspect someone hacked in and changed the canonical tags to siphon link juice.

Now that cross cross-domain canonical tags are supported I would not be surprised if this becomes more common. The canonical tag is a small line of code that is easy to overlook despite its large implications.”

Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed this in a Twitter tweet: “A recent spam trend is hacking websites to insert rel=canonical pointing to hacker’s site. If U suspect hacking, check 4 it.”

Why is this a problem?

The original purpose of the rel=canonical tag is to help website owners eliminate self-created duplicate content. The canonical tag tells search engine spiders the original source of a file.

For example, a search engine robot might visit the web page “www.example.com/page4.htm”. If that page contains the tag
then search engines will show original page.com in the search results instead of example.com.

If hackers add the canonical tag to your web pages and point it to another website then your website content will help another website to get high rankings while your own website will lose all of its rankings.

How to check if your website is exploited

Open a page of your website in your browser and select “View HTML source” in your browser. If you can see a rel=canonical tag that points to an unknown domain in the head section of your page then your website has been hacked.

Unfortunately, hackers might have changed your web server so that it only shows the canonical tag to Google’s indexing robot. In that case, you have to check how Google sees your web pages:

  1. Download and install iBusinessPromoter (IBP).
  2. Select “Tools > Search engine spider simulator”
  3. Select Google’s spider.
  4. Check the HTML source in the spider simulator report for the canonical tag.

This works with the free demo version of iBusinessPromoter. You do not have to buy IBP to check your web pages with the spider simulator.

Google is aware of the problem. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find out if a webmaster intentionally inserted a canonical tag to a website or if the tag was inserted by a hacker. Further information about the canonical tag can be found in the news below.

Read original contents at Axandra.com.

Filed Under: SEO, Tips

Keep the Strategy Horse in front of the Marketing Cart

2011/05/06 By Leave a Comment

This post is courtesy of Yawp! Creative Marketing Founder Jason Stigora, who I have had the pleasure of getting to know the past several months in a workshop series offered by Business Vision Network.

Some of the most common requests I receive from business owners are, “I need a Web site!” or “I need a brochure!” Now, to be sure, Web sites and brochures are valuable marketing tools. However, when I ask, “Why do you need these marketing tools?” it strikes me how many business owners respond, “Because I don’t have one yet.”

My friends, “Because I don’t have one yet.” is the first sign you need to rethink how you’re spending your marketing budget. Before you start building that Web site or writing that brochure, you will be well served to spend time defining how your marketing assets will be tactfully used to engage your target audience or ideal buyer.

To that end, here’s a practical marketing tip for you: Always connect your marketing assets back to a strategy.

“Marketing strategy” can be an elusive concept for some business owners, so allow me to break it down. Simply put, a marketing strategy is a structured series of customer touches planned over a set period of time for the purpose of identifying sales opportunities or raising brand awareness. That’s it. If you add more to it, you may be in jeopardy of over complicating your strategy.

A basic marketing strategy is simple enough to build. Start by defining each customer’s touch point and when it will happen. Each marketing touch should be a clear action–a phone call, a press release, an email, a letter, an advertisement, or maybe even a customized direct mail package. Next, define the “offer” that will be attached to each touch-a brochure, a BrainsharkTM presentation, a case study, a newsletter, a link to your Web site, or a clever giveaway. These are your marketing assets.

Finally, map the marketing touches on a calendar so you can see when you’ll need each marketing asset. Once you’ve got this basic strategy pulled together, you’re ready to start building some creative deliverables.

So, my recommendation to you is to spend a few hours this month focusing on developing a marketing strategy to help generate your sales leads or build brand awareness. Your strategy will help you drive the creative development of your marketing collateral arsenal. The payoff is you’ll most certainly get better response rates if you have a strong offer for each scheduled customer touch-not to mention, your brochures won’t sit on the shelf if you define their purpose before spending time creating them.

Filed Under: Marketing, Tips

SEO Tips for YouTube Video Marketing

2010/11/09 By 1 Comment

An effective strategy for any internet marketing company, video marketing is becoming very popular, and for good reason.  YouTube is currently the second largest Search Engine on the internet (behind Google) and is the #3 website in the world.  With millions of visitors a day, it’s rife with marketing possibilities, allowing companies to advertise their businesses and gain clients through video marketing.  The question is: How do you attract visitors to you video?

YouTube is unable to scan your video for keywords; according to YouTube’s blog, ““Our algorithms are good, but they can only read, they can’t watch your videos.  So in order to properly classify your video and index it for search, we need your help.”  That being said, the most effective way to attract visitors is to create keyword-specific META information (Title, description, keywords).

Much like optimizing a website Title, YouTube video titles should include frequently-searched phrases yet be specific enough to describe your video.  To find these keyword phrases, try YouTube’s keyword finder, with looks suspiciously like Google’s keyword finder.  This similarity is not surprising, because YouTube utilizes Google’s algorithm.

Descriptions may be as long as 5000 characters; however, when optimizing this you should keep in mind that only the first 120 characters, give or take a few, show up in Google snippets (descriptions on Search Engine Results Pages).  So it’s important to fit as many keywords as possible in the first 120 characters, without keyword stuffing.

While Google has admitted they do not use META keyword data to determine results, it’s still a good idea to include targeted keyword phrases, as YouTube and other search engines may still use the keywords META.

All that being said, the best thing you can do to draw traffic to your video is to create a good video.  A good video and keyword-targetted META information can cause a traffic explosion.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Tips Tagged With: , , ,

How to do SEO for a website using Google Instant

2010/09/14 By Leave a Comment

The following information comes from our affiliate partner Axandra, a leader in search engine marketing and purveyors of IBP, Axandra’s SEO software of which we are affiliate referrers. If you click any of the links in this post you will be taken to Axandra’s website and should you make a purchase we will receive credit for the referral. If you do that let us know. We appreciate your business.

What is Google Instant?

Google Instant, which we posted on late last week when it was officially announced, is Google’s new way to display search results while the user is typing the query. Google tries to complete the query during the input.

For example, when you enter “bike h” then Google will display the results for the keyword “bike helmets” because Google thinks that this is the most likely query.

Google Instant will not display the search results for the keywords “bike h”, which are totally different. If you want to get the results for “bike h”, you have to click the search button.

What does this mean for your website?

It’s very likely that the search behavior of searchers will change. Until now, people had to think to refine their queries. With Google Instant, surfers get suggestions while they are typing and many of them will select one of the suggestions.

That means that some search terms will get many more searches than before while the number of searches for other terms will decrease.

How to get more visitors with Google Instant search

Google Instant automatically completes the search query of a user while typing. Google uses the keywords of Google Suggest to complete the query.

That means that the keywords that Google Suggest uses will get even more traffic than before. For that reason, your web pages should be optimized for the keywords that Google suggests.

To find the keywords that Google Suggest offers for your keywords, do the following:

1. Download IBP and open the keyword manager in IBP.

2. Select “Google Suggest” as the source for keyword suggestions and enter your main keywords.

IBP will return the Google Suggest keyword suggestions. Repeat this with your main keywords to get a comprehensive list. The number of searches for the keywords does not matter because Google Instant counts this differently.

After collecting your keyword list, optimize as many different pages of your website for as many of these keywords as possible. IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer will tell you how to change your web pages so that Google will display them in the top 10 results for these keywords.

This is a very important step! If you don’t optimize your web pages for these keywords, you’ll miss a lot of traffic!

Do not change pages for which you already have high rankings. Optimize new pages of your website for new keywords. The more pages of your website you optimize, the better.

Google Instant is not a new ranking algorithm. It is just a new way in which Google displays the search results. Some keywords will now get fewer impressions, some keywords will get more impressions.

It’s important that you adapt to the change. IBP will help you to change your web pages so that they get the maximum number of visitors through Google Instant.


Filed Under: Marketing, Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Google Caffeine is live: what you need to know

2010/06/15 By Leave a Comment

Get top 10 listings with AxandraLast week, Google announced that their new web indexing system “Caffeine” is live on all Google pages. What does this mean for your website and do you have to change anything on your pages?

Google Caffeine is the name for the new method that Google uses to index web pages. In contrast to Google’s old method, Caffeine can index new web pages faster:

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.”

Google changed they way in which they index the web because they want to show new pages more quickly in the search results.

What is the difference between the old system and Google Caffeine?

Google’s previous system updated the search index in batches.

“Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks.

To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.”

With Google Caffeine, Google’s search index is updated continually:

“With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index.”

That means that new pages will be displayed in Google’s search results sooner if they are relevant to the search query.

Caffeine is not a ranking algorithm update. It does not change the way Google ranks web pages so you don’t need to do anything different from the way you do things now. Caffeine just means that new pages will be shown much quicker on Google’s result pages.

To get your own website on Google’s first result page, analyze the web pages that currently have top 10 rankings on Google. The pages that now have a top 10 ranking on Google have done everything right to please Google’s latest ranking algorithm.

Analyze the top ranked pages and check how and where they use their keywords. Also check which web pages link to the top ranked pages and how they link to the top ranked pages.

Doing this is a lot of work if you do it manually. For that reason, we suggest the Top 10 Optimizer by Axandra. The Top 10 Optimizer automatically analyzes the web pages that currently have high rankings for your keywords and it compares them to your own website.

You will also get detailed instructions on how to change the content of your web pages and the links to your site so that your site will be listed in Google’s top 10 results.

For questions or assistance with Google page rankings or with Axandra’s Top 10 Optimizer call us at 888-875-6812.

Filed Under: Marketing, Tips Tagged With: , ,

How to build a text-based website for mobile use

2010/05/17 By Leave a Comment

In February 2010 we looked at how to use the text-based coupon codes in the CMP Mobile system. Prior to that we looked at the key components of the CMP Mobile system. These included how to create a group, create a keyword campaign, set an auto responder, and more. This month CMP Mobile is back with a third demonstration on the basics of their text-messaging system.

In this final demonstration in the series that began in January 2010, Guest Presenter Brian Collins will be showing us:

  • Why mobile sites are important today
  • How to create a mobile website within the CMP Mobile system
  • How to generate a URL for your mobile site
  • How to shorten the URL to insert into text message campaign
  • How to insert url in text message campaign

By the end we will have created a mobile website on the fly that you will be able to view on your mobile phone. Webinar attendees will have an opportunity to test the mobile system live by opting in to receive this link to the mobile web page from their phone so if you can not text while on a call with your mobile phone then you will want to call in using a different phone so you can participate in the live demo. For questions about this please contact us.

SPECIAL: Text AUTOBURST to 41513 from your mobile and show up for this web cast and receive a free mobile website for your business for 30 days.

To register for this free event use the button below. If you are already registered with the AC Mobile series then you would have already received an email notification from GoToWebinar about it and there is no need to re-register.

Likewise if you have an interest in subjects like this and can not make this particular webinar, you can view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars. We do record our webinars and make them available for viewing on our Viddler channel and on our new website www.AutoBurstWebTV.com.

Click here to register for the AC Spotlight Webinar Series

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi. Thank You.

Filed Under: Tips, Videos Tagged With: , , ,

5 Tips To Attract, Engage and Sign Your Ideal Client

2010/05/03 By Leave a Comment

Working with your ideal client is an important practice to take in your business for many reasons. For one, it allows you to narrow down your service offerings for a specific clientele, and effectively turns you into an expert for your day to day tasks. It also allows you to focus your marketing efforts to a smaller group of people, and makes it easier for you to convert prospects into sales.

This is important when you conduct business online – the more focused your marketing efforts are, the better your conversion rate will be when you speak with prospective clients.

Tracey D’Aviero is a Virtual Assistant who has recently launched an eight-week training program called Your VA Mentor, which prepares new virtual assistants to go out into their target industry with confidence, to find and attract their ideal clients. Tracey will be offering tips on how to attract, engage and sign your ideal client at our next AC Spotlight webinar where you will learn:

  • How to identify your ideal client
  • Why it’s important to figure out what they need
  • Where to find them online
  • How to engage them and get them to sign the deal

Please join us this Thursday May 6 at 11:30am EST. We will begin with a brief orientation of the AC Webinar series and registration process before handing the controls over to Tracey for her presentation which should last about 30-40 minutes.

To register for this free event use the button below. If you are already registered with the AC Spotlight series series then there is no need to re-register. Likewise if you have an interest in subjects like this and can not make this particular webinar, you can view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars. We do record our webinars and make them available for viewing on our Viddler channel and on our new website www.AutoBurstWebTV.com.

Click here to register for the AC Spotlight Webinar Series

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi.

Filed Under: Tips, Videos Tagged With: ,

How to add admin users to individual blogs on WPMU

2010/04/27 By Leave a Comment

If you work with WordPress MU (WPMU) then you know that you have a few options when issuing user accounts to people. This video tutorial shows how to add users to individual blogs as admins versus adding them as a Site Admin which would grant access to all blogs on your WPMU install.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.

A Site Admin has access and ability to do everything and anything on your WPMU install and you can set any user as a Site Admin that requires this access. But this should be few and far between. Most users only require access to one of in some instances multiple sites, not all.

To make users a Site Admin, go to the Options area under the Site Admin section in the left side bar when logged in. If you do not see this section then you are not a Site Admin and you will need to contact a Site Admin for that WPMU install.

To make users an admin for one or more individual blogs, simply go into the Backend of the desired blog(s) and go into the Users section. Here click the “Add New” link and you will be prompted to enter the person’s username and email address.

If the username you enter does not exist then WP will add that user. If it does exist then it will add that user to this blog with the role you specify. (Note that the email address associated with the username must match. If they don’t then WP will not add the user).

If the username you enter does not exist then WP will add the new user account, so long as the email address you enter does not exist either.

Setting this user to Administrator does not make him or her a Site Admin. It only makes him or her an admin for that particular blog.

The check box for sending confirmation email is not checked by default but I recommend you check it. If you do not then a confirmation email will be sent to this user requiring him or her to click a verification link before he/she can access the site. Checking this box simply adds the user with the role you specify.

So that’s it. It may seem confusing at first but once you go through it a couple times it makes more sense. The important thing to note is that you can make people admin users to individual blogs on the same WPMU install without having to grant them access to your entire WPMU site.

For questions or assistance please contact us at AC Assist.

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