10 Tips for Content Marketing Like a Rock Star |  |
- 10 Tips for Content Marketing Like a Rock Star
- New FTC Rules Specify How to Disclose Sponsored Tweets
- Know Thyself: How Self-Awareness Impacts Your Sales
- Ecommerce Entrepreneurs: How Google AdWords Can Help You
- How To Improve Your Operating Performance Through Information Technology
- Marketing to Women: Why Content Marketing Is the Best Strategy
| 10 Tips for Content Marketing Like a Rock Star Posted: 22 Mar 2013 02:00 AM PDT
Content marketing is on the rise. Seventy percent of businesses surveyed in a recent Econsultancy/Responsys Marketing Budgets 2013 Report said they intended to spend more this year on content marketing efforts. That puts content marketing ahead of both search engine optimization and email marketing in terms of spending planned by the majority of companies in 2013, the report says. The results are validation for online small business owners and entrepreneurs who for years have been using content marketing as a cost effective way of building their brands and getting their messages out. But it also means stiffer competition from here on in as businesses begin to focus on content marketing as a core strategy for reaching customers. Below are 10 tips for staying ahead of the competition by content marketing like a rock star in 2013. 10 Tips for Content MarketingGreat content, like any other great achievement, is often a work in progress. Here Andrew Delamarter gives us a brief overview of what a great content marketing strategy should look like and provides us with a checklist to see how far our own efforts are from perfection. Search Engine Watch Content marketing should not exist in a vacuum, writes Ben Barone-Nugent, senior digital writer & content strategist at the TBWA agency. Instead, it should be one part of an overall experience created for your customer, including great user experience, attentive channel monitoring, and a solid overall digital strategy. The Guardian Content marketing does not yield immediate results, says blogger Beth Hayden. Think of the posts in a blog as a “sideways sales letter,” she says. Instead of a 4,000 word sales letter to a customer in an effort to make an immediate sale, your blog should be about writing many 1,000 word posts over years and having customers or readers enter in at various places in the sales process. Copyblogger An estimated 91 percent of B2B marketers and 86 percent of B2C marketers already use content marketing to generate leads and with good reason. Those who create keyword rich content from blog posts to articles to YouTube videos consistently top search results. But to do content marketing well, you must first understand how an effective campaign works. Entrepreneur You may not think of the content you create as a business asset, but that is exactly how you should be viewing the content you create regularly for your audience and customers. Like any other asset, your content marketing can be damaged to the point where it cannot benefit your business as it should. Here Jeff Gordon explains some mistakes to avoid. BuyerZone Rock stars may like to break the rules occasionally, but they, too, live by a code. They understand the importance of their audience and will go to great lengths to meet their expectations. Today, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way content marketers connect with their audiences, says content marketing expert Matt Kumin. Marketing Daily Content comes in all forms. One of those that we think of less often is the online presentations posted on the popular site SlideShare. SlideShare attracts 60 million visitors and 130 page views monthly, making it one of the 200 most visited sites in the world. Here’s what we can learn about quality content from SlideShare. Forbes In this post, content creator Amie Marse talks about the importance of knowing your audience, in this case, women. It’s important for content marketers to know and understand their audience and prospective customers in order to create appropriate content. The type of audience might also determine the kind of content you create. Small Business Trends Understand the Creation Process One of the hardest parts for some small business owners is understanding what content really is and how to create it, says Rachel Parker of Resonance Content Marketing in this podcast interview. But content marketing is both simpler and more complicated than most small business owners and marketers realize. Jontus Media Content marketing continues to grow in importance, so sooner or later expect some backlash, says Frank Strong. For those business owners and entrepreneurs who worry this is simply a fad, don’t. Content marketing may be in the spotlight at the moment, but it is also here to stay. Sword and the Script Rock Star Photo via Shutterstock The post 10 Tips for Content Marketing Like a Rock Star appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| New FTC Rules Specify How to Disclose Sponsored Tweets Posted: 21 Mar 2013 04:00 PM PDT The Federal Trade Commission has recently updated its rules for online advertising. The focus in the new rules is on short social media messages, such as Twitter tweets, as well as ads appearing on small mobile screens. The FTC’s rules give specific guidelines on when and how to disclose sponsored tweets or paid ads. One key recommendation in the new rules: use the word “Ad” in tweets when a tweet is sponsored, as these example tweets from the FTC document demonstrate:
Social Media and Small Mobile Screens Change The RulesIn a statement announcing its updated guidelines entitled “Dot Com Disclosures,” the FTC said the rules take into account “the expanding use of smartphones with small screens and the rise of social media marketing.” The FTC’s updated rules reflect an evolving marketplace. The use of social media and smaller mobile screens have made messages smaller — in the case of Twitter, as small as 140 characters. And some celebrities and others are paid for the social messages they post. The FTC says, “consumer protection laws apply equally to marketers across all mediums, whether delivered on a desktop computer, a mobile device, or more traditional media such as television, radio, or print.” With the new guidelines the FTC wants to reduce false or misleading claims made through ads that are masked as social media posts. The rules aim to keep businesses compliant with disclosure laws, which require people to clearly show that a message is sponsored and that the poster is being paid to send that message. Even though sites like Facebook and Twitter offer paid advertising messages as part of their business models, some brands approach individual account holders to promote their products through a Facebook post or a Twitter tweet. Unlike official sponsored messages, if individual account holders put up their tweets of Facebook posts for sale, the nature of a message as a paid ad may not be clear. Forbes reported in January on a deal between Samsung and The Associated Press for the media giant to Tweet “Sponsored” messages that advertised the tech company’s presence at the Consumer Electronics Show. AP’s Tweets began: “SPONSORED MESSAGE:” and that would be compliant with the FTC’s updated guidelines, even if it bristles executives at Twitter. What The New Rules RequireThe new rules reinforce that ads must be disclosed, and disclosures must be “clear and conspicuous” — regardless of where or how they appear. The FTC update discourages hiding a disclosure for a sponsored tweet or “space-constrained” message behind a hyperlink. Someone seeing that tweet on its own may not follow the link and see that disclosure. The agency is also against disclosures made in a message separate from the one containing the ad message. An example of this would be a disclosure that someone is a paid spokesperson in one tweet, then a separate tweet containing a product endorsement without a disclosure. Even just three characters "Ad:" will satisfy the FTC's new rules on these messages, according to a Wall Street Journal take on the release. The FTC guidelines have extensive detail. They consist of 22 pages, with another 26 pages of specific examples, including screenshots of how to disclose sponsored tweets and how to display ads on mobile screens. According to the FTC document, “The ultimate test is not the size of the font or the location of the disclosure, although they are important considerations; the ultimate test is whether the information intended to be disclosed is actually conveyed to consumers.” Here are the full guidelines: The post New FTC Rules Specify How to Disclose Sponsored Tweets appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Know Thyself: How Self-Awareness Impacts Your Sales Posted: 21 Mar 2013 02:00 PM PDT
Sales is about relationship building. Gone are the days of explaining, cajoling and persuading people to buy what you have to sell. With competition greater than it's ever been, salespeople are well served to pay attention to themselves, how they are feeling, what they need and how they interact in order to succeed. This awareness will help them in their relationship building. Self-Awareness Sales Techniques: Positively Impact SalesEmotional AwarenessThere are a couple of aspects of self-awareness to consider. The first is emotional awareness. Emotional awareness is understanding how you are feeling and how those feelings are translating into actions. An example of this is how you feel as you prepare to cold call. If you are uncomfortable with the process, that discomfort can be relayed to the prospect on the other end of the phone. Having an awareness of that discomfort helps you reset your emotional state so your performance isn't impacted negatively. Self-AssessmentThis is where self-assessment comes in. It's important to do a gut check before any interactions with prospects or clients. How are you feeling? What can you do with those feelings? Self-assessment also includes understanding your strengths and challenges. Dr. Phil says we can't change what we don't acknowledge. Knowing where you are is the first step in adjusting and educating yourself. Self-ConfidenceAnother part of self-awareness is self-confidence. Self-confidence is when you have a certainty about your worth and capabilities. You can see how awareness and assessment help you get to this state. Having self-confidence in sales allows you to make those cold calls and go on those sales appointments. You are sure of what you know and how you conduct yourself, so you are comfortable with the prospect. Self-confidence is critically important in sales for two reasons:
Remember that they don't know you yet. They don't know that your self-confidence is in question. All they see is discomfort. Their translation of that can be very dangerous to your goals. Self-TalkSelf-talk is a key element of self-awareness. Going through the process of self-talk before a sales call or before picking up the phone can mean the difference between winning or losing the sale. This is the place where you reconfirm your confidence—not only in yourself but in your product or service. Doing some self-talk after an appointment can be equally valuable. In this case you walk yourself through the call and assess how you did, what you learned, and where you ended up. This awareness before, during and after your interactions with prospects and clients will help you stay on top of your game. Your success will increase because you will be present and engaged at every step. Self-Awareness Photo via Shutterstock The post Know Thyself: How Self-Awareness Impacts Your Sales appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Ecommerce Entrepreneurs: How Google AdWords Can Help You Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT
How about using Google AdWords to advertise your products? This can be one of the most cost-effective approaches for marketing your eCommerce store. All it requires is the constant monitoring of your campaign. You have to keep yourself up to date with upcoming and latest trends and development in the market. Does that sound tricky and difficult to you? Then read this thoroughly and learn the easiest tactics to handle your AdWords campaign, which will ultimately help you to turn potential customers into real ones. How Google AdWords Can Help YouFirst and foremost, it’s important to learn how Google AdWords Conversion Tracking can help you with your e-commerce deals. Ostensibly, you are using Google AdWords to increase traffic for your eCommerce business. For that, a portion of your marketing budget is spent on clicks per week. On the other hand, you also have to maintain your cost after utilizing your daily budget through your campaign setting. Now, at the end of the week, you have much of the information you need, such as how many clicks you have received on your ads, the final calculation of the sale and the estimates of what you have spent on each click. However, there’s still a problem. You don’t know how many of these clicks are actually getting translated into sales on your site. Oops! You probably haven’t thought about it, right? You must be thinking that if there's no way to track the value and return of these clicks, then why would you spend money on pay per click ads? Well, there’s a solution in the form of a powerful tool called AdWords Conversion Tracking (Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Guide PDF) , which helps you track ROI (return on investment) based on the number of clicks on your ads. Most importantly, it lets you know whether a click leads to a sale or an action on your website. Conversion and Keyword TrackingBy this time you must be curious enough to learn why conversion tracking is important. With conversion tracking you can track specific keywords leading to a conversion as well the value of a conversion at a keyword level. To begin with, let’s see how conversion tracking functions. Conversion tracking requires you to insert a code snippet on the landing page where the visitor lands after a conversion. This page can be either a 'thank you for signing up in the newsletter' or 'thank you for shopping with us' landing page. Google AdWords provides you with the code you need to insert on the related pages of your website. For instance, if you want to track the sale of a party wear dress, you would insert the code snippet on the page the customer lands on after purchasing the dress. Here, is an example of when a click translates to a conversion:
Understanding the keyword matching concept is important in order to successfully run the Google AdWords campaign. The right keyword is one of the primary factors for your eCommerce store as well as for the Google AdWords campaign. Keyword matching is simple. Google points out which keyword searches are the most appropriate for your ad. Keyword CategoriesThere are a few categories of Google AdWords keyword matches. How are these categories best utilized to increase your sales? Exact match: Exact match helps you to run your campaign in an economical manner. Your ad will be displayed according to the exact term you have specified without any variants. It targets only those who are looking for the definite product you are offering. For example, if you specify the keyword" red dress" the exact match keyword will only show ads on that specific word and nothing else. Broad match: The keywords specified to broad match will show ads on a wide array of variation of that particular keyword. The variation may include abbreviations, singular plural forms, or may be acronyms. For example, if you specify the keyword ' dress' to the ad group, your ad will also be displayed to someone who is looking for 'short dress' or 'black dress' or may be completely irrelevant as 'skirts.' You can receive a wide set of data concerning to the keywords the customers are using to find you. Phrase match: A phrase match keyword allows your ad to show for those keyword searches that match your keywords as well as words before or after it. For example, the keyword is 'red dresses.” Anyone who is searching for 'party wear red dress' is also eligible to view your ad. However, those looking for 'red gown' cannot view your ad. If you have not started using Google AdWords for your eCommerce store, by this time, (I am sure) you will not give a second thought to it. It is worth spending your money on AdWords to drive traffic and prosper in your eCommerce business. The post Ecommerce Entrepreneurs: How Google AdWords Can Help You appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| How To Improve Your Operating Performance Through Information Technology Posted: 21 Mar 2013 08:02 AM PDT
These days, every business and every department is looking for better performance. Let's look at 3 strategies to improve the company operating performance, through technology options available today: 1. Your organization will be more efficient if IT takes the time to understand what end users really want and need. Studies often show a gap between what business people consider important, and what the IT department considers important. Some of that is due to the business staffers and executives not understanding the technical side of how things work. For instance, IT professionals would – quite rightly – rank network security and data encryption as critical needs. Business users tend to rank those issues as lower priorities, most likely because they don't understand all the implications. On the other hand, the IT department may think it is important to give access to enterprise applications on mobile devices, without knowing whether business users even plan to use them that way. But it's clear that end users help drive technology choices in a company, simply by virtue of how they choose to use computing devices. A perfect example is the BYOD (bring your own device to work) movement. It wasn't that long ago that the IT department ruled with an iron first when it came to choosing which computer devices could be used for company business. Those days are gone. According to one study, only 15% of companies now expressly prohibit using BYOD devices. IT departments are realizing that rather than fighting against the tide, it's a better use of company time and resources to implement tools to manage BYOD devices, and protect the network from intrusion through such devices via malware or when stolen or lost. It’s all a question of where and how you use your limited resources. Your IT choices can have a powerful effect on your company performance and ability to grow. Set your priorities carefully. 2. Investigate new options, such as for Ethernet private lines and dedicated Internet connectivity to help balance speed and security, with costs. The choice isn't just installing and maintaining your own dedicated network to handle internal computing needs. Today, various configurations and options on the market, such as Ethernet private lines and dedicated Internet, can bring you security, assured connectivity, greater bandwidth, and faster network speed. These options also tend to be easier to scale up to accommodate growth. Often the ability to add more capacity is available with a phone call – instead of purchasing more capital equipment, hiring staff to handle it, and so on. You can tap into these options as a service by paying a monthly fee, while minimizing the need for on-premises equipment to run your network and the staff to maintain it. So many more options are available today to smaller businesses – ones that even a few years ago only large enterprises could afford. 3. Calculate the bigger picture when considering benefits, costs and return-on-investment for IT needs. Let's take the example of a VOIP phone system in your business. Consider what's involved with getting service. If the system goes down, are you relegated to calling the provider only to discover that the provider was a small reseller, and doesn't have the staff to send someone on premises until late the next day? How long can you afford to be without a working phone system? How much business will you lose during that time? Those kinds of costs are as real as money spent on monthly fees. And not only do interruptions involve cost, but they can set your business growth plans back. Consider the impression it leaves with clients and customers when you are unreachable by phone, especially if it happens repeatedly or for an extended period. And while you're scrambling to address an IT crisis, team attention is distracted and drawn away from growth of the business. The key thing is: look at the overall picture of how information technology supports and furthers the business. Simply looking at out-of-pocket costs can hinder your business in the long run. Likewise, doing things "the way we always did it" is limiting. Take the time to investigate all available options and evaluate:
Finally, consider services as an extension of your internal team. It's not a question of either doing everything internally versus using external services completely. Today, think of external services as a menu of options you can choose to add to your overall IT mix.
The post How To Improve Your Operating Performance Through Information Technology appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Marketing to Women: Why Content Marketing Is the Best Strategy Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:00 AM PDT
But it turns out that the trusted "strategy" when marketing to women is actually something akin to "slap a pink bow on it and call it a day." Although most efforts when marketing to women fall painfully short of creative (and effective), it turns out that content marketing is actually the perfect strategy for reaching the female demographic. Marketing to Women: What Women WantPink is Ineffective and Sometimes InsultingAt the heart of content marketing is the idea that communicating deeply with potential customers and clients is beneficial to sales, and that well-educated consumers tend to be more loyal. Well, pink marketing can do the exact opposite of that. It turns out that something like 90% of women feel like businesses and marketers don't understand the needs of the female demographic. Why is that? Understandably, women, like any other consumers, want information about the products and services that they're spending their hard-earned cash on. Women don't particularly care if something is pink. More important factors in women's purchasing decisions include things like information about multiple functionality, features and pricing, as well as stuff like size and weight. Enter Content MarketingIf giving potential clients and customers more information sounds familiar, it's probably because you're already thinking about content marketing. Women want information, not color schemes. In fact, Jack Morton, a brand experience agency, put together a guide to marketing towards women last year, seen below, that recommends providing education and information as the number one way to market to women. Another guide on marketing to women, this one by the Outdoor Foundation, highlights transparency as a big way to get women's business. What better way might you supply more insight into the workings of your business than by writing about it (or paying somebody else to write about it for you)? The Bottom LineIf you want to reach out to a female audience, "pink and frilly" is not the way to go. But blogs, eBooks and guides? They're absolutely perfect for giving women the information that they want when they're making a purchasing decision. A Woman Photo via Shutterstock The post Marketing to Women: Why Content Marketing Is the Best Strategy appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
As an eCommerce entrepreneur, are you looking for a popular platform to advertise your campaign? Are you really struggling to target your audience? Well, in today's world, nothing is impossible.
You might think that marketers would have developed a highly evolved strategy to sell products and services to a demographic that makes up just over half of the Earth's population.| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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