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30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #10 – Create a Custom Facebook URL

Dec 10 2010

Marketing Tip #10: Create A Custom Facebook URL in Two Minutes or Less

Creating a custom URL for your Facebook page makes it easy for customers to visit and remember the location of your Facebook page — and it’s better for search engine optimzation.  A customized URL also looks more professional than the assigned, indecipherable default URL that Facebook automatically assigns to you.

Creating a customized (or vanity) URL is simple and just takes a few minutes. Just follow these instructions: As the Administrator of your Business Page, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/. Using the drop down box, select the page you’d like to (re)name. You’ll need to check the availability of the name. After you’ve checked and created your name, click the save button and voila: your new, simplified Facebook  Page URL. It’s really that easy.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 10, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #9 – Earn More Facebook Fans

Dec 9 2010

Marketing Tip #9: Earn More Facebook Fans and Followers

Marketing Tips - Facebook SuggestIn case you haven’t heard, the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is 35 years and older. This makes Facebook THE social media website of choice for reaching a wide range of consumers — more than 500 million of them.

If you’re wondering what all these people are doing on Facebook, check out these Facebook statistics.

As a business — assuming you have a company Facebook page — there are actions you can take to earn more Facebook followers.

Here’s a simple one that you can do today:  “Suggest to Friends.”

To do so simply visit your company page and look for the “Suggest to Friends” button beneath your profile picture.

If you’ve got a great product — and we’re sure you do — your friends will be happy to take your suggestion and “like” your company. And when they do, the updates you make will post to your followers’ walls where each of their average of 130 friends or connections can see it.  Not only that, but your friends have the ability to suggest your company or product to their friends, and the chain continues.

Even if you’ve had a company page on Facebook for a long time, we recommend sending out invites every few months to new friends who may have joined your network.

So do it today:  Take a simple step to build fans and followers for your business.  And if you’re looking for social media marketing help, contact us.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 9, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #8 – Build a PPC Landing Page

Dec 8 2010

Marketing Tip #8: Build a PPC Landing Page

If you’re already running Pay Per Click campaigns you know how expensive each click can be. Well guess what? It gets even more expensive when you have landing pages that fail to convert.

What’s a landing page?  By definition, a landing page is actually any page that a site visitors “lands” upon. For most websites, this is the home page. But what we want  you to think about is building a landing page that is specific to the keyword or offer you’re making in your PPC campaign.  For example, let’s say you’ve purchased the keyword, “employment verification services.”  Rather than programming your PPC ad to direct people to your home page, why not create a specific landing page with a targeted offer that is directly relevant to employment verifications?  (follow that link to see a sample landing page.)

The goal of a landing page is to customize the content and offer on a particular page for a user who searched for your chosen keyword. Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes.  If you were looking for [blank], what sort of information would you hope to find?  Your landing page should have it!

With a landing page, you have the opportunity to measure specific results tied to a specific campaign and optimize those results over time, resulting in greater ROI on your PPC dollars.

So, give it a try.  Build a landing page today.  Need help?  Check out our landing page design www.sparkinboundmarketing.com services.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 8, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #7 – Install Google Analytics

Dec 7 2010

Install Google Analytics

We are still shocked and amazed at how many smart business and marketing people are still without Analytics installed on their websites.  Google Analytics is a free (yes – FREE!) analytics program that collects, analyzes, and reports on all sorts of useful statistics related to your website.

Google Analytics, call it “Analytics” for short, is extremely powerful for the advanced user but equally useful and informative for the beginning online marketer.  Use the data you gather to write better-targeted online ads and content, strengthen your marketing programs and campaigns, and boost conversions on your website.

To sign up, simply go to www.Google.com/analytics and establish a free account.  When you do, you’ll be given a snippet of code that will need to be installed on your website. Simply pass this code along to your web developer to install for you. Trust us, any developer with half a brain can install this code in about 10 minutes.

In the words of a first-grader, “it’s easy peezy lemon squeezy!”

So what are you waiting for?  Start analyzing your website with Google Analytics.  You might be surprised at what you’ll find.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 7, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #6 – Write a Blog Post

Dec 6 2010

Marketing Tip #6: Write a Blog Post – Today!

Remember Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote: “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Your goal should be to publish a blog post at least once a week.  If you haven’t done so this week, do it today!  The best way to attract new customers to your website is through fresh, relevant content that addresses the needs, wants, and desires of your prospects.  Make it fun, interesting, unique, and above all – make it happen.

Having trouble keeping up?  Ask about our blog writing service.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 6, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #5 – Start a Business Blog

Dec 5 2010

Marketing Tip #5: Start a Business Blog

Business blogs — like the one you’re reading now — offer many advantages to companies pursuing an inbound marketing approach. Done right, a business blog can position your company as a thought leader, boost your search engine rankings on important keywords, and turn interested prospects into sales leads.

The trick is, you can’t just build a blog and let it sit.  You’ve got to write, publish, share, promote, write, publish, share, promote, and keep that process going!

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when starting your business blog:

  • Host your blog on your own domain.
  • Design your blog to match your brand and your existing website. It should feel seamless.
  • Let visitors subscribe to receive automatic email updates of your latest blog posts. (This enables your blog to serve dual purpose as a newsletter, if you’d like.)
  • Find blog article topics through keyword research, Google Alerts, from conversations with customers, and from inside your organization.
  • Establish a consistent production schedule, and try to stick to it.
  • Assign a blog “owner” inside or outside the organization to keep the blog publishing on track.
  • Connect your blog to your social media profiles where you can share your latest posts and/or have them fed directly to your profile pages.

Certainly there is much more we can say about business blogs but we think you get the idea.  When thinking about 2011, put a business blog in your plans!

Need help? Explore our blog design services.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 5, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips In 30 Days: Tip #3 – Set Up Google Alerts

Dec 3 2010

Marketing Tip #3: Set Up Google Alerts

Do you know what people are writing or reporting about your business online? Do you stay up-to-date with the latest happenings in your industry? Are you aware of what your competitors are doing?

One simple way to stay informed with information and activity, as it happens, is with Google’s free online alerts.  Google Alerts is a simple tool that can keep you posted on just about any topic you can think of through email reporting.

Go to the Google Alerts web page and simply type in a keyword or phrase — your company name is a good place to start — then decide if you want to see everything that comes up or only the most important ‘mentions’ of that word or phrase, then decide how often you want to receive the updates (as-it-happens, daily, or weekly), provide your email address and you’re all set!  Google will email you results of blogs, news stories, and other web results that feature your keyword selections.

With Google Alerts you can respond quickly to news and conversations about your brand and better understand how your company, products, and competitors are viewed online.

So what are you waiting for? Do it now!

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 3, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips In 30 Days: Tip #2 – Do Keyword Research

Dec 2 2010

Marketing Tip #2: Do Your Keyword Research

Do you know the words and phrases people use when searching for products or services like the ones you offer?  Whether you’re selling cosmetics or consulting services, every business solves a problem, addresses a need, or fulfills a desire.  And every business has a set of “keywords” that are reflective of what people actually use when searching online to address those problems, needs, and desires.

The best part of all this?

You can find these keywords and phrases using simple keyword research tools that are readily available online.  Keyword research tools like SEObook Keyword Tool and Google AdWords Keyword Tool let you explore keywords on a variety of levels — for free.  Find keywords and determine how competitive it will be to rank high on those words.  Then make your final selections and start writing!  (More on what to do with your keywords in the coming “tips”.)

Stay tuned for more as we continue our 30 marketing tips in 30 days series.

Need help with your keyword research?  Let our experts do the job for you.  Request a Quote or Request a Meeting today!

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 2, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips In 30 Days: Tip #1 – Talk to Your Customers

Dec 1 2010
2011 is upon us and if you’re like most companies you’re in progress with plans and budgets for the coming year. So there’s no better time than the present (no pun intended) to gather some new marketing tips and put a marketing plan in place to reach your business goals in 2011.
Over the next 30 days, from now until January 1st, 2011, we will offer one new marketing tip a day to help catapult your business into a prosperous new year.  We hope these simple yet effective strategies will inspire you this season.

Marketing Tip #1:

Talk To Your Customers
Your current customers are your most important company asset. As such, it is important to maintain a pulse on their ever-changing needs and wants. Are you still meeting their needs as well as you once were? Is there something more you can offer in 2011 to make your customer relationships even stronger?
Our recommendation is to reach out and talk to your customers through phone interviews, email surveys, social media discussions, whatever it takes to reach those decision makers. Find out what they are happy with and even more importantly, what they are dissatisfied with.  (Don’t let little issues fester.) Uncover valuable information, such as what drives their purchasing decisions, what their expectations are, and if your products and services are measuring up. This
information can be extremely valuable and can help you decide where to spend your time, money, and resources in the year ahead.
Start now! We can help.  We offer online and offline customer research to aid your marketing strategy. Contact us for details.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 1, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

What are Business Blogs Good for Anyway?

Sep 13 2010

You’ve probably noticed that more and more businesses are hosting business blogs on their websites. Do these blogs serve a purpose? Can a business blog, for a non-marketing/communications business, really boost sales, or is a business blog simply the next online marketing fad?

Below we explain the purpose of business blogs and outline why this simple technique can help drive new traffic to your site and keep you connected with your current clients.

Learn how we can help you design and write a business blog.

Business blogs connect you with your customers.

Regardless of your business, your website serves the purpose of connecting your customers to you, and you to your customers, right? Ultimately, you have a website because you want to sell your products or services, and you’re most likely interested in reaching new customers, as well as having a forum to stay in touch with current customers, yes?

That’s where a blog comes in.

Blogs are a terrific way for you to control the dialogue, talk about your services, discuss new innovations and trends and bring a personal voice to your image. Business blogs allow customers to stay abreast on your industry information, and your clients will appreciate the advice and valuable information you’re offering.

Business blogs help drive new traffic to your site.

A surefire way to get picked up on Google and to boost your SEO presence, is to have other sites link to your own. A business blog offers a great linking tool—when you provide relevant information about your industry or products, and people read your posts, chances are, they’ll link to your site, or virally spread word about your blog’s information through social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Your interesting blog posts can therefore drive new traffic—potential customers—to your site, where they can learn about your services, in addition to reading your blog.

They give you credibility.

When you continuously provide valuable, usable, and relevant information—for free—to your current clients and future prospects, you raise your credibility. Showing that you are well-versed in your industry, proves you are a knowledgeable and trustworthy source. If customers have a question, they’ll know they can come to you for advice and guidance. You want your customers to trust you, and a business blog serves as a fantastic medium to build that trust.

Ultimately, a business blog is a perfect tool to proactively reach your customers and seek out new clients—it’s a simple, yet powerful solution.

Find out how we can help you start a business blog. We offer free consultations.

Posted by CristiSpahr on September 13, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

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