Looking to begin email marketing and wondering how to start?

1. Manage inhouse or hire outside help. First, decide if you have the resources to manage email marketing inhouse. You may be surprised at how easy and user-friendly ... << MORE >>

You can easily take on social media improvements in small steps. These improvements ideally come after you've outlined your purpose for social media, stated your goals, and created an editorial calendar.

To continually optimize your business page, try implementing improvements on a daily or weekly basis. In just a matter of weeks, you'll be far ahead of many competing businesses.

Turn your facebook profile picture into a display ad. ... << MORE >>

Create engagement on your facebook business page with the questionnaire tool provided by facebook. << MORE >>

New to QR codes? 

LinkedIn just launched their own sharing button, making it that much easier to accelerate your content across LinkedIn networks.

It's super easy to get the script. Just follow the directions and the script automatically populates. And then paste into your website as I did mine just this morning:

LinkedIn also has a new feature for adding your published work and any patents to a new section on your profile. On your profile page, look for the orange "New..." right below your LinkedIn URL. Once you click on "Add sections," follow the simple directions. (I didn't see any way to add multiple entries at once.)

If you want to install the "View My Profile on LinkedIn" button, check out how to do this in my blog "How to Put View My Profile on LinkedIn Button on Website or Blog."

Happy Marketing!
Teresa

Writing or speaking to a person's "pain" is becoming easier and more interesting through online listening. Online listening is putting an ear toward reviews, social conversations, and testimonials, discovering more of what people need and want from you by their gripes and their praise. This goldmine of information is just clicks away.

Here are some popular review sites in addition to what you find on social media channels:

• Google Hotpot
  
• Citysearch
• Yelp! Local
• Yahoo Local
• Brownbook
• Kudzu 

Gather and embrace online reviews, social conversations, and website testimonials before working out your message to prospects or customers.  Begin by gathering several reviews, mentions, and testimonials written about your company, both off- and online.  If those are scarce or you want to dig even deeper (recommended), search for reviews and testimonials written about your competitors.

Copy and paste each review, mention, or testimonial onto your page and begin looking for themes of:

1. Praise (happy person sharing how they were helped, what they liked, etc.)
2. Problems (unhappy person sharing what they didn't like, what was lacking, etc.)

Circle or highlight the most repetitious praises or problems; common themes will emerge.

You'll gain more information of what people want and don't want from you and what they like and don't like about your company, products, or services. Equally important, you'll find out what terms they are using--their language. Divide these words and phrases into columns of problems and praises, and you're looking at a helpful glimpse into what's relevant to your customers and prospects from their perspective.

Incorporate their words and phrases into your writing and conversations; you'll soon be speaking customer-speak, not corporate-speak. And that's a first step toward building and strengthening relationships.

Happy Marketing!
Teresa

If you'd like to place a LinkedIn button on your site so that visitors can view your profile on LinkedIn, follow these easy steps:

1. Sign in to your LinkedIn account
2. In upper right corner to the left of your name above search bar, click on the arrow to bring up a dropdown menu. (see Image I)
3. Click on "Settings"
4. In left column under Settings in next screen, click on "Public Profile" (see Image II)
5. In the next screen, just below Public Profile heading, look for "Promote your profile with customized buttons"; click on "customized buttons" (See Image III)
6. This brings you to a screen full of button choices with your unique script to the right. This script is customized to your LinkedIn address ONLY! (See Image IV)
7. Copy the script that correlates with the button of your choosing and paste the code.

Step 4: Image II Step 5: Image III Step 6:  Image IV www.AcostaAgency.com button example Note: If you are placing buttons on a 3rd party's site or blog, you must use code unique to their login ID. Happy Marketing!

Keywords are to your website as a foundation is to your home.

The core element of search engine optimization (SEO) is keywords in content and incoming links. Search engines find, index, categorize, and rank based on web content.  Optimizing web content makes it easier for search engines to do their job.

Before you put content on your website, make sure you're keenly aware of what keywords you are aiming to rank for in search results. Once you build your foundation of keywords, it'll be easier for you to create relevant content for each page of your website, including page titles, headings, and meta descriptions.

1. Start out by using Google's free keyword tool.  Select keywords from the list that have high traffic and are the least competitive.  These will be easier for you to rank for. Next, search on the keywords you selected to see what page you show on in search results for that keyword, if at all.  You'll get a good feel for what you're up against when you find out where you show up in organic search for terms that you think will bring potential customers to your site.
2. Select 1 - 3 keywords (a keyword can be a phrase, aka "long-tailed) for each page then theme that page's content around those related keywords. Use your keywords in your page title (make sure you have a page title) and heading. Sprinkle your keywords for that page throughout the content, but make sure your writing flows naturally and does not look like you stuck keywords in just to have them in there.  What helps me is to create my heading and write naturally from that and then go back and insert keywords into places that make sense.  This way my writing doesn't appear forced.

It's important to not duplicate keywords on other pages in your website, or you'll be competing with yourself in ranking for those keywords. Using themed keywords relevant to each page's product or service also serves to keep your writing focused, a plus for site users as it's important to keep their attention focused on what brought them there in the first place. Avoid distracting users with irrelevant offers or unrelated content. Think of this type of writing as driving down a tunnel versus the wide open highway.

Keyword Takeaways:

• Keywords used in content and internal text links,
• Relevant content is reachable by search engines,
• Content is added often and periodically,
• Keywords used in Alt Text for images,
• Keyword content is organized logically--themes, categories,
• Quantity of quality sites linking in (relevant and authoritative),
• Monitor on a regular basis; adjust continually.

Happy Marketing!

The Summer Solstice offers a chance to start anew, which is why I'm blogging after a long hiatus. Nope. I'm not a bear, but thought I'd act like one when it came to blogging in temperatures below 72 degrees.

And now that I'm out of my home office den, I decided to recommit myself to blogging in order to share my marketing experiences plus a lot of the useful information that comes in front of my radar. One of my favorite resources is Hubspot.com. I'm a big fan of Hubspot's and they don't pay me to say so. They are content rich when it comes to educating people on how to bring in more business. I'd like to share some best practices revealed in their video on How To Blog Effectively for Business.

My top 5 takeaways:

1. Before writing, always ask "What value is this going to create for readers?";
2. Respond to any comments on your blog and address the person by first name;
3. Create a Blogroll as a resource for readers. (Links to other relevant bloggers);
4. Use your full name plus a photo to make it more personal as well as transparent;
5. Label your blog with keyword tags;
6. Notice what topics stimulate comments and give readers more of what they like.

How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101)

Happy Marketing!

At a new position in advertising sales for a community newspaper, I inherited a small but established territory where my mission was to expand the customer base. I was directed to go after new business and focus on increasing what had become a stagnant territory.

At first blush, I decided to focus on the current customer base, evaluating ad histories and seeing where improvements could be made. I ran ad histories and noticed that many of the advertisers had been running the same ad week after week or alternating weeks for months. Many would change their ad only when the New Year came along. When I queried their goals, I was told by many that it was an "image" ad, an ad running to keep their company name in front of the local readership.

I strongly advised small businesses selling locally to not run image ads. What I picked up from experience and from industry reading is that image ads really are for the big guys, corporations that have the budgets to spend on image advertising. And I don't think they're that useful even for larger companies. Why waste expensive space when you could entertain and ask for an action?

The average small business person is best served by running ads with a benefit headline and a call to action. After a reader views the same ad once or twice, their eyes usually glaze over thereafter.

I encouraged several clients to start changing their ads, advertising services or products that needed some buoying up, putting in special offers or just highlighting a particular item. A restaurant started changing out specials on a consistent basis, which I coordinated with other local publications. The results were immediate and favorable.  Business grew. The feedback I received  was that many of the restaurant's recurring customers commented on the new ads, some even saying "it was about time." New customers came in drawn by the special of that week. The readers wanted something new and different. Giving it to them got results.

The current customer base in my territory ended up spending more money with the newspaper as they saw more results. Some ran more often; others switched from black and white to color; others increased ad sizes.

Always look at your current customer base before going off to spend money on prospecting that will cost more to convert in the first place. If you can increase a customer's business, your business will increase. Customers are often your best referral source, too. You already have an established relationship with your customers; just make it a better one.