Entries Tagged 'online marketing' ↓

The one great thing about internet marketing is that it offers numerous channels through which you can interact with customers and prospective customers.

Never before have you, your brand and your company been so exposed which is why how you present yourself online is so important.

The advent of social media means there are more ways to communicate than ever before. Once upon a time if someone wanted to speak to you, they had to pick up the phone. But now they can send a tweet, post on Facebook, comment on your blog or use one of the many internet forums.

There are many ways you can enhance your online reputation, but here are three simple steps you can take to make sure your company is always seen in a good light.

1. Thank you

‘Thank you’ simple but powerful.  When someone retweets you, comments on your blog or sends a new referral your way, make sure you thank them. It doesn’t take a lot of effort and will show you as someone genuine; someone they’d want to do business with.

It also pays to keep an eye on the web in general to see what people are saying about you. I use socialmention.com to keep track of what people are saying about me or my business. The alerts are simple to set up and can offer a great insight into how you are perceived as a brand online.

Again, should you receive any positive feedback or mentions, remember to make contact and say thank you.

2. Blog

Running a blog is a great way to add value to your business relationships. Through your posts you can provide information and tips to make your customers’ lives easier.

But however well written your blogs are if they are not covering topics people want to read about they will be ignored. For example if you are a holiday company don’t write about your special offers, instead write about the countries you go to, their cultures, their sights, their people – something that will inspire your reader to take a trip there to experience it for themselves.

As a freelance copywriter I use this blog to talk not only about copywriting but also about general marketing issues, social media, email marketing etc.; all topics that business owners find useful.

3. Benefits

Whenever writing about your products you must write about their benefits to your customers, but never lose sight of the fact that most people will buy from you because of who you are.

From my own experience, I will only buy from someone if I like them as a person. Why should I give someone my hard earned cash if they come across as arrogant or disinterested?

People will always buy from people so make sure you use your online marketing to connect with them. If your message resonates with them they are more likely to trust you; and with trust comes cash.

When wrapped up in marketing your business it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters – your customers. You’re so busy trying to come up with new blog ideas you forget that your customers still want that personal touch. Just because they can’t see you or shake your hand doesn’t mean they want to deal with a faceless company.

Go that step further and show your human side online.

Not everyone finds participating in social media easy.

The thought of communicating to an unknown crowd can be quite daunting; it can seem completely unnatural mainly because of the way we behaved as children.

Cast your mind back to your school days. At that time (for most of us) the thought of standing out and being different was abhorrent.

The last thing we wanted was to be singled out. We wanted to conform, be mainstream, blend into the crowd—no body wanted to be known as the ‘odd kid’.

But with social media being ‘odd’ helps.

Stand up and be noticed in social media

When using social media it is good to be different, to stand out from the crowd with a personality that shouts “Hey! Look at me”.

Social media is about being noticed, being something different from the norm – if you act ‘low key’ on line you’ll fade into the background like a beige cardigan. But if you become a character with real personality, people will stop and take notice of you.

But of course there is a big difference between being a personality and being completely fake. Remember there is a good chance that you may meet some of your online network at some point. If and when that happens they will expect to meet the person they know online. You’re going to look pretty stupid if you’ve been faking it.

As far as they’re concerned, if you lie about who you are why should they trust you in business?—so be careful.

Companies on social media

It’s all too common for businesses, when they dip their toe in the social media waters, to get it all wrong.

They believe that they must portray a very corporate image; everything must be very starched and business-like.

Why?

You are trying to convince people you are a great company to deal with so don’t be afraid to show a bit of personality.

Show you can be fun, chatty and approachable and people will engage with you, like you and do business with you.

At the end of the day, social media is a platform to show people who you are and what you do. By becoming a personality you bring a human voice to your business and that’s something people want. They don’t want to deal with a faceless corporation; they want to deal with people.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

When you market your business on the internet, success is all about traffic.

With traffic come customers.

With customers comes money.

So, if you want to be a success on line you need traffic and customers.

But how do you go about achieving that? What can you do to boost your traffic and persuade your traffic to buy from you?

Here are 4 ideas to help you.

1. Keywords

You know your market; you know what they’re searching for. So by using those keywords, you’ll attract more of your target market.

By incorporating the keywords within your SEO website content, articles and blogs you are increasing the chances of your content appearing within your market’s search results.

But make sure you use specific terms that are relevant to your products and services. A shed load of traffic is no use if it’s not looking for what you offer.

2. Video

Video marketing is very popular. People love to research and watch them online so make the most of it by incorporating them on your website.

Produce short videos displaying your products – they can be ‘how tos’ or video case studies about how people have benefited from your product.

3. Pictures

Selling online has one major disadvantage to selling in a shop—your customers can’t come in to your store and see what they are buying.

People don’t like ‘buying blind’ so remove that obstacle by adding pictures of your products to your website.

4. Email marketing

Email marketing gives you a way of maintaining regular contact with your customers and prospective customers.

You can use them to give tips, advice, news and special offers all of which will lead the reader back to your website and encourage them to buy.

These four simple ideas can make a huge difference to your traffic. If your website isn’t attracting visitors it won’t sell anything.

It could be the most beautiful website ever seen but unless it pulls in visitors and converts them into buying customers it’s not worth the money you paid for it.

Social media is the new black—everyone’s doing it (apparently), even the Queen’s now on Facebook.

But just because you’ve set up a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account doesn’t mean you’ll automatically attract followers and fans.

How you use social media tools will determine how effective they are. As a freelance copywriter I use social media a lot (especially Twitter – @sallyormond) which also means I come across a lot of people who are ‘using’ the tools albeit not very effectively.

In this post I want to run through 5 elements that may be causing you to repel more people than you attract.

1. Social Media

Social media is about conversations—2 way conversations. You are supposed to be communicating with people rather than broadcasting to them.

Remember, Twitter isn’t radio. You haven’t booked an air slot for your advertisements. If you constantly tweet about your products, services and offers people won’t want to follow you. Why should they?

2. Self promotion

On all forms of social media you have the option to put together a short biography. The purpose of this is so that potential fans or followers can find out who you are and whether they think you’ll be an interest person to engage with.

If your profile is blatant promotion and quite robotic it won’t inspire them to want to get to know you better. Write it from the heart and inject your personality—be human.

3. ‘Social’

It is called ‘social media’ for a reason—because it’s meant to be social. If you use Twitter for pure business how will people get to know you? They certainly won’t want to start a conversation with you.

By all means tweet about your business but intersperse them with chatty updates and engage others in conversation.

4. Follow me!

On Twitter don’t try and grow too quickly. If you suddenly amass 1000 people you’re following and you only have 46 followers, you’re just playing the numbers game.

Follow people you want to follow.  Don’t be seduced into believing you have to have thousands of followers. It’s more important to have quality followers who are actually interested in you.

5. Don’t be a wallflower

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, don’t just sit back and wait for someone to say hello.

Find people you want to follow and then engage them in conversation. Gradually you’ll gather more followers, have more conversations, gather more followers, have more conversations….

If you want to be part of the party you have to participate.

Social media is a great tool for business but it can also be fun. In fact it should be fun. It gives you the opportunity to chat and interact with people you would never normally meet. So give it a go.

If you want to join the army of business bloggers out there, you probably have a very pressing question on your mind:

“How do I get started?”

There are a number of things you have to think about before diving in.

For starters, why do you want to blog? If your answer is because everyone else is doing it, forget it.

If you are going to blog you must have a reason for doing so – to position yourself as an expert, to improve your customers’ experience, to help build links etc.

Socialmediaexaminer.com offers a great post outlining The 5 Pillars of Business Blogging Success. It shows that successful blogging is a lot more than just throwing random posts out into cyber space.

You must:

• Plan – why are you doing it? What do you want to get from it? Make sure you pay attention to your keywords. Have you defined your target audience?

• Have great content – your posts should be interesting. The language you use should be accessible to all. Pay attention to your headings. Don’t be overly self-promotional.

• Design – a great blog is more than just content. Think about how it looks, the functions it will have and what tools you’ll use to spread the word.

• Marketing – oh yes, you’ll have to market it if you want it to be successful.

• Engage – if you don’t engage with your audience, they won’t read.

There’s a lot to think about, isn’t there? Why not grab a coffee and have a read, it will help you decide whether you should be blogging or not. And if the answer is ‘yes’, how to get started