For example, Seth Godin doesn’t seem to worry about content that attracts Google or any other search engine. He doesn’t even seem to worry about attracting new visitors. He has an audience, and he relies on his audience to spread his blogs and his message. Let’s take a look at his blog The Easy Trap.

Godin’s Blogging Tactics:

1. Grab the reader’s attention – “The prospects that are the easiest to engage with online . . . are often the very people who will become your lowest-value customers.”

2. Draw the reader in by personalizing the attention grabber – “The person who’s the easiest to get a first date with might not be the person you want to marry.”

3. Help the connect with you by giving an example from your life – “When I was selling new media promotions . . .”

4. Tell why your example justifies the attention grabber – “The guy who bought what worked, the one in charge of the real budget–he wasn’t easy, but he was worth it…”

5. Challenge the norm – “Consider that the very ease that enabled that sale might be a sign that the long-term value of this customer is pretty low.”

6. Devalue the norm – “It’s easy to get the door answered . . . . It’s easy to get the tech-savvy hordes to sign . . . .”

7. Build a new norm – “Do the long-term trust-building work of earning a reputation.”

All of that is not to say there is only one effective blogging method. Though, just as there are a set of rules for engagement on social media called Social Media’s Connectivity Principle, there are blogging rules for attracting an audience, earning their trust, and fostering engagement.

If there wasn’t a similar set of rules, Seth’s blog wouldn’t have been retweeted more than 1,000 times. There are no keywords that would attract new users, but he demonstrates a set of blogging rules.

Blogging Tips:

1.  Provides original ideas

2. Show authority

3. Gain that audience’s trust

Godin’s aforementioned blog is about gaining loyal clients, but the last line can be applied to gaining loyal blog readers:

“But if all you’re doing is measuring the response rate of your initial pitches, you’re going to ring more doorbells, not do the long-term trust-building work of earning a reputation.”

Are you blogging to get higher rankings in the search engines or to earn a better reputation with your readers?

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

In my last blog about marketing online, I talked about the sales process and how a potential client moves from a place of non-interest to a “hot” lead. Today I’m going to talk about converting that potential client into buyer using video marketing strategies.

This can mean a lot of different things depending on who you are talking to. For most of the people I talk to, it means having a really long, really boring video on their home page. To others, it means having an “instagram-like” news feed of videos on the gallery page, while to others it is “not for my industry.” While it’s true that two of three of these approaches use video, it’s hardly marketable and not really a strategy at all.

The main components are:

1. Video

2. Marketing

3. Strategy

It seems like most businesses that are trying to attempt a video marketing campaign are missing one or more of those things. Worse yet, even more businesses are attempting to make one video (and poorly, I might add) and marketing them all over the place. While you may get some success out of that approach, it’s certainly got an expiration date.

At Videospot, our approach is proven and the techniques we use are reiterated by video marketing experts and SEO professionals across the globe. Our approach (and the approach you should take) requires a plan of attack and an execution strategy where many videos are produced and they are produced with an end in mind.

For example…

Before you begin your marketing campaign, you need to have an offer in place- a reason for people to take action: do they download an ebook? Sign up for a coupon? Join a membership site?

You’ve got to start with the end-in-mind.

Let’s say that you’ve got a webinar that you want them to download. So now, your videos need to be produced specifically to drive them to that webinar and you should create multiple videos each focused on a different yet relevant keyword to drive them to that sign-up form or landing page.

Read that last paragraph again, please.

Once you’ve got a series of short, relevant, videos each with a call-to-action (download my free webinar) and a link to an optimized landing page, you’ve got a real video marketing strategy that with a few tweaks and adjustments can challenge any major competitor.

If you haven’t already, that means you need to add language to the HTML of your website that tells Google how to categorize your site. The more and more search and social integrate, the more important it will become to make sure you tell search engines how to categorize your online content. It means the memes and pics you post on social media sites you consider shareable won’t be shareable according to the search engines unless you optimize them with the right language.

The more Web 3.0 becomes standard, the more standard it will become to add this code to your meta tags in order for your content to be considered shareable.

Microformats: These describe a specific type of information and is usually differentiated by the span or div tag

* Attributes called classes within these and other tags tell Google how to categorize them

* As a general rule of thumb, only content that is visible to the user should be marked up with Microformats, but geo-location and dates are examples of exceptions that can be marked up using value class patterns.

Microdata: These describe a specific type of item

* They use attributes like itemtype and itemprop to tell Google more information about an item

RDFa: These are usually attributes in XHTML tags

* These describe entities and properties using attributes like typeof

* Relationships between two entities can be shown by using the del attribute

So, how will this affect your shareable content? Simple. The more search and social integrate, the more you will need to tell search engines how to categorize those memes you post. For a complete list about structured data, visit Schema

Now, I know I gave you a ton of information, and perhaps you just don’t have the time or patience to understand how to use structured data. That’s why people like me, who often analogize search engine optimization to people as “playing chess with the Internet” exist. Web 2.0 is a jumbled mess, which no one can really define other than by examples of social media. Web 3.0 will require your online visibility to be categorized by a set of pre-defined Web standards.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

1. Awareness

2. Research

3. Comparing

4. Hot Lead

We call this the ARCH because, like archery, we are trying to “hit the bullseye” by moving our prospects to becoming a hot lead. In this blog, we’re going to talk about creating an offer that appeals to people at every level of the ARCH. This is important because you’ve got to provide value for a person whether they are at an introductory, intermediate, or advanced level in their experience with your company.

“But Owen,” you say. “I sell widgets and everyone needs a widget. The only question people have to ask is whether or not they need a blue widget or a purple widget.”

[insert facepalm]

Business owners (especially local entrepreneurs) have this feeling deep down inside that they have a totally unique product that no one else has ever heard of and it’s going to shoot them to stardom. I spoke with an attorney at my local networking group a few weeks ago and we talked about ghost writing. She told me:

“Well, I write all my own content. No one can write like me. I bring a very special angle to the table.”

It sounds like this attorney wants to be a content writer instead of a legal advocate. This mindset will devastate your ability to keep new prospects moving through your funnel because you’re spending your time creating content for 1 type of person- the person who understands everything about you and the minute differences between vendors. In other words, you’re writing to impress yourself.

You’re cooked! Finished! Move along people there is nothing more to see here!

The reality is that the only thing unique about your product (by and large) is your selling position- what we call your USP. So you must develop content around your USP and make it available to prospects searching for your product at every level. This will lead them to your BRAND and not another company’s BRAND.

So here are a few ideas of content offers that you can provide (and I suggest digging deep into your pockets and hiring a 3^rd party to do it for you).

Write an ebook
A checklist
An Infographic
A report
Record a video series
A Webinar
An audio book (a short one)
Create a DVD

Now, organize these ideas around the ARCH like this:

1. Awareness

   1. Ebook idea:

   2. Video series:

   3. Report

2. Research

   1. Ebook idea:

   2. Video series:

   3. Report:

3. Etc…

It’s no doubt that you’ll have your work cut out for you but you will at least have a plan from which you can start taking actionable…. Well, action.

For a full presentation on how you can start generating more qualified leads online, please click the link and view my on-demand webinar: The Top 5 Tips to Generating Leads Online.”

]]> http://seobridges.com/2013/03/online-lead-generation/feed/ 0 http://seobridges.com/2013/03/pinterest-analytics-alternatives-2/ http://seobridges.com/2013/03/pinterest-analytics-alternatives-2/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:15:11 +0000 ErickWrites http://seobridges.com/?p=3918 Pinterest introduced Pinterest analytics last week, but it’s only available for businesses and verified accounts that use their new look. They include metrics on photos posted directly from those websites.

Here is a list of what their metrics include:

• How many people saw those pins
• Most repinned, most clicked, and most recent pins
• Track number of pins and pinners collecting material from your site
• Repinners and repins your initial pins received
• Total impressions and reach of the network
• Referral traffic (in clicks and unique visitors) sent back to your site
• Analytics by preset time period
• Other pins of those who liked your pin

This may not seem like that much, and it’s not, but it is something for a social media site that just launched business profiles in November and raised its original revenue through Skimlinks affiliate marketing. Third party metrics platforms that offer analytics for Pinterest Analytics aren’t worried. Pinterest argues there’s not third-party analytics that can report on impressions and reach with the accuracy they can.

Here are some other sites that offer analytics for your Pinterest account and what those sites offer.

Curulate

• Tracks products users are pinning by pixel, color, size, and other measurements
• Uses these figure to find out which users are talking about your product and how
• Includes a contest promotion tool
• Shows your most popular pins and boards
• Analyzes of your competition
• Compare your performance to those of your competitors across several KPIs

Pinfluencer

• Offers promotional tools
• Shows top pins from website and boards
• Shows top pins driving clicks
• Gives engagement score by pin
• Shows number of pins and re-pins of unique content
• Shows Likes and comments
• Schedule pins

Pinalyzer

• Shows number of pins, number of followers, and number of boards
• Activity includes how many people your following and how many pictures you’ve Liked
• You can also receive suggestions of people to follow based on whom you follow
• Shows influence score

There is also another Pinterest analytics platform called Pinreach, but we won’t include that because it’s more like a Klout for Pinterest. Which one of these do you like, or would you suggest another analytics platform?

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

A website is a great tool, but it can cost thousands of dollars to have a professionally designed website built. You can build an online presence by starting a blog. WordPress and blogger (Blogspot) are two platforms you might want to consider using to start a blog before you build a website. And when it comes to SEO and social media, maintaining an online presence with a good blog is very important.

Here are some things to consider when trying to decide whether you want to blog with Blogspot (Blogger) or WordPress.

Blogspot

1. Google owns Blogspot, so they own your blog

2. Google can delete your blog without warning

3. Widgets can be placed anywhere on the page

4. Allows Flash and Java

5. Allows bloggers to add descriptive profile

6. Includes a place for robots.txt, meta-description, no-follow, and no-index

7. Does not trust guest blogging

8. Is more difficult to hack

WordPress

1. Allows you to edit comments

2. Has more templates, design options, and plugins

3. More SEO friendly

4. Spell check looks for cliches, passive voice, etc.

5. Allows bloggers to add tags

6. Has a button that allows you to copy and paste from a Word Doc

7. Plugins are available on WordPress

8. Es easier to update versions or switch to a new template

Blogspot is a much easier interface, so this might be more manageable for people setting up their first blog. If you are more serious about blogging, want others to be able to post as guest bloggers, or just want more control over your blog, you might want to consider a WordPress blog.

So, who wins? That depends on your goals. Do you want to turn your blog into a platform for guest bloggers? Do you want more design options? Do you want more control over where the widgets appear? Do you want to control of your content, instead of fearing your content might disappear?

These are all questions you should answer before you decide. Just remember every answer should lead you closer to your blogging goals.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

We have our “gurus” to thank for that.

Academics, speakers, and business coaches all across the inter-web have made “marketing strategy” a pliable term that means something different depending on whose ebook you’ve read or whose seminar you’ve attended. But one thing is for sure- you certainly can’t have a good marketing strategy unless you buy their course.


False.

Marketing strategy in its most basic sense simply refers to your internal process of generating leads, follow-up, and converting to sale. From advertising in Craigslist to running ads on the radio, every business has a marketing strategy whether they know it or not. However, a good marketing strategy that includes a variety of platforms and utilizes conversion tools will separate an average company for a marketplace dominator.

Marketing strategy refers any and all processes that assist the sales team in acquiring and retaining sales volume. This can refer to a number of different aspects of your organization:

Your hiring strategy

Your operations

Your website strategy

Your Social Media strategy

Are just a few. While your hiring and operations are advanced topics, this article will focus more on marketing in the traditional sense of lead generation.

A marketing strategy is all about pulling people from the general population and converting them into new customers. In order to do that, we must first understanding how the marketplace works and how conversion takes place.

NOTE: If you think that your customers just wake up one day and decide to buy from you because of your cat meme, you may want to sit down.

The picture below is an archery target and we use the acronym ARCH to describe the process of conversion.

The white area:

Represents the general population where the consumer has no foreseeable need for your product or service. But as circumstances change and different needs arise, the consumer will eventually move into the white area where the customer is now AWARE the he will need your product.

A: The black area:

Represents the section of the population that is aware that they will need your product or service at some point in the future. In this area, the customer begins to recognize his awareness and starts noticing the existence and variety of service providers.

R: The Blue area:

Once the consumer is aware of the variety of service providers, he begins to research the ins and outs of buying your product: what questions to ask, what accessories they’ll need, how long it lasts, what’s the industry guarantee, etc. In this stage, the consumer is seeking for the competence to hire someone competent.

C: The Red are

As the consumer becomes more savvy (thank you Google), he now begins to compare those service providers to each other: who has the better price, the better website, the better customer service, etc. It’s in this stage that the consumer is prepared to buy.

H: The Bullseye

Your consumer is now a hot lead and will respond to the marketing piece that most suits their needs or to the provider who acted as the largest benefactor in helping them achieve competence.

Bringing it all together:

Knowing then that this is how consumers make decisions, the goal of your marketing strategy should be to attract consumers at every level in the ARCH. You must be producing educational, informative, and entertaining, content that moves your consumer through the ARCH and to the bullseye where they are familiar (if not ingratiated) to your brand.

Your content should be span different formats and platforms so that you are reaching your prospect where they are. This includes:

Print

Blogs

Videos

Audio

In the next blog, we’ll talk about 2 formats that are very effective for attracting consumers to your website and capturing their contact data for future marketing campaigns.

If you can’t wait, check out my webinar The Top 5 Tips for Online Lead Generation and join the conversation on Twitter at #top5tips.

Along with setting up a blog and keeping the content on your site updated, these three sites are among the most powerful tools for SEO. Google no longer just looks for how many times a keyword is repeated on your site. They no longer only look at what you blog about. They also look at mentions of your business or website, and people create more buzz about authoritative sites.

Whether you’re a biomedical company that wants to set themselves up as an authority in your industry or your a used car dealership, you want to offer people useful information. You want to provide people with information they can use to make an informed decision.

Now it’s easy to think that you can accomplish that just with a blog, Facebook, and a few other social media tools. But it is becoming more and more popular for people to ask Google questions, and they’re is in the business of referring people to sites like those mentioned above.

Here are the basics of each one:

Yahoo! Answers

* Create a network of people you consider good resources of information

* Gain more exposure by earning points

* Users can vote for who they think provided the best answer

* Add questions to a private watch list

* Share a question on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Linkedin

Wikipedia

* Create or edit articles about various topics

* Create a watchlist

* Engage in forums

* Update material and remove unsourced material

Answers

* Search their reference desk for editors’ answers

* Engage in the community forum

* Edit answers

* Obtain access to coupons

In the game of SEO, it is important to set yourself apart as an expert in the field. How are you setting yourself apart from your competition?

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

Here are the basics of LSI:

1. Google compares search terms to several documents that have undergone LSI. It then return results that contain similar meanings to the search criteria even if the results don’t contain the specific word.
2. LSI uses dynamic clustering which compares new documents to existing document and sorts them according to their concepts
3. It relies on a mathematical formula and is independent of language, which allows Google to return relevant results in multiple languages
4. LSI also applies to numbers and random character strings, such as gene sequencing and other biological information
5. It is able to recognize misspelt words, as well as words in pictures and text converted from speech.
6. It also works with lists, notes, e-mail, and all other patterns in terms and concepts

Other ways LSI is used are discovering relationships in social networking (Facebook still hasn’t suggested I become friends with Kevin Bacon), online customer support, determining authorship of documents, filtering spam, and more. It also helps with eDiscovery in the preparation of litigation. This article I wrote about the Semantic Web might help you understand.

Of course, as search algorithms are updated to think more like humans, there continue to be drawbacks. There is difficulty in determining an optimal number of articles for categorization in order to assume a set of documents should be categorized according to that set of articles. There are also difficulties in interpretation from the mathematical formula that LSI uses to that of natural language. For instance, a search the words ‘car,’ ‘truck,’ and ‘flower,’ could return results with the word vehicle.

Right now, this does not happen with Google, but it could happen with Dynamic Clustering. Though, now, if you search the words ‘chair’ and ‘board,’ Google will return results about the position of the Chair of a Board. The searcher might want results about what kind of wood is best in making a chair. Depending on the size of the category, Google compares keywords to anywhere from 50 to 1,000 documents.

Soon, machines will think more like humans. Then, the problems with LSI will become less noticeable as humans begin to think more like machines.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

URL Shortener

Do you know the difference between URL shorteners? Did you know there is a difference between Bit.ly, Ht,ly, Ow.Ly, Goo.gl, and TinyURL? There are differences, and each one makes a difference. These lists aren’t exhaustive, but these are basic run-downs on the more popular shortening services:

|

1. Bit.ly

The low down

• Review past clicks
• Sort by date created, clicks, or title (A – Z/ Z – A)
• View number of links created
• View number of times that link was saved
• Links save it to Bit.ly
• Add notes
• Add links to Bundle (Bundle various Web pages)
• Make links private
• Email or share links on Twitter and/or Facebook

• Better for SEO and Pagerank
• See links in a dashboard

 

3. TinyURL

• Drag TinyURL! to your toolbar – Click it and create a TinyURL for any page
• You can append similar URLs to go to different pages on your site – Read More
• Hide affiliate links – Read More
• Enable previews – Read More

 

4. Hootsuite Shorteners

 

If you don’t use Hootsuite, it is a wonderful social media management tool. You might have seen the Ly and the Li. Ly is short for Lybia, and Li is short for Lichtenschtein. Hootsuite changed the ending to Li because they wanted to assure everyone they did not support the former Gadaffi regime.

 

Ow.Ly/Ow.Li

 

• This reveals a share bar, so people can retweet and share links
• Along with Twitter, readers can share links on Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Linkedin, Stumbleupon, Google Bookmarks, Technorati, slashdot, and more
• The share bar allows readers to see recent most popular Ht.Ly Tweets
•  Readers can also give a URL a + or – vote
• Search for recent Ht.Ly posts with the search feature in the share bar
• Readers can opt out of seeing the share bar by clicking the X button at the end
• If you don’t use Hootsuite, but you want to use the share bar, Click here

 

Ht.li or Ht.Ly