Here're some truly great web marketing resources we came across this week that can help you kick some marketing ass! Curl up in your hammock, grab a beverage and your smartphone, and gain some knowledge this weekend!
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One of the biggest differentiating factors between web marketing (inbound) and radio, TV, newspaper, billboard, print, (outbound/interruption) etc... is the availability of EXACT data on how your marketing is performing. This can also pose a challenge though. With so much data available, it's easy to get lost in the weeds. For small businesses, just knowing 4 simple web marketing metrics will keep you well ahead of your peers when it comes to measuring performance and adjusting to improve. Are there many, many, many, many more metrics that you could/should measure? Absolutely! My point here is that most small businesses don't even know these 4 simple web marketing metrics for their efforts. Start here and customize/add to them over time. 1 - Organic Search Traffic To Your Site - SEO Traffic When we ask most small businesses how their search traffic is performing, most of them don't even know where to look to find that out. They know their site isn't performing for them, in that they ...
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Feeling guilty that you didn't read any web marketing resources this week? No worries, we've compiled some of our favorites to give you some weekend reading material. Enjoy! Google Will Now Detect if a Website Won’t Work on Your Device, Warn You Have you ever tried to view a website on your phone and found the experience to be really bad? Yes, you have, don't lie. Google is now helping it's Android brethren by giving you a warning in the search results to let you know if a site won't work right on your phone. For now, they are focused on flash sites. Don't be surprised if that extends to non-flash sites in the future. Responsive design anyone? Thanks to Kellex at Droid Life for the great update. Infographic - Smart Ways To Combine Content Marketing With SEO One of the great things about content marketing is that it doesn't live in a silo. It feeds so many other tactics!! It's great when you get more mileage from a time investment. This infographic shows all of the channels for content ...
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In my last post, I compared web marketing without content to fishing without bait. Everyone would agree that fishing without bait is not very smart. Everyone SHOULD agree that web marketing without content is not very smart.Let's assume that we can all agree that we need content to make web marketing effective. What's Your Bait? So what should you be using for bait? Ideally, your content would be a good mix of larger content assets like ebooks, webinars, and resource kits along with smaller content assets like blog posts, new pages on your site, videos and social media updates. If you're just getting started with content marketing, your first step HAS to be setting up a blog and writing a post at least once per week. We've discussed in the past that adding blog posts increases your SEO surface area and gives you the ability to speak directly to your best buyer with your own personal message. A blog is easy to setup and leads to the next fishing analogy... Social Media And Content Is ...
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As web marketers, we're constantly pushing the need to generate valuable content as a means to generate leads. While clients technically "get it", they are still reluctant when it comes to actually doing it. They may update their contact page when someone new gets hired or the history page when another year passes by, but the creation of value added, lead-generating content is simply not an area of ongoing focus. This is despite the fact that 9 out of 10 clients are looking to increase leads/sales/profits online.
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Here're some gems I came across this week that I hope you find useful as well! These are some great Web Marketing Resources! The Definition of CAC [In Under 100 Words] This is a really great, quick read on what Customer Acquisition Costs means. My guess is that most small businesses could deduce what it means, but don't know their own CAC. This is a good quick read to make sure you have a handle on what it is. Author: Sam Kusinitz Content Marketing Traits That are Crucial to Success [Infographic] This infographic by Michael Gerard of the Content Marketing forum gives a great visual rundown of skills that great content marketers have. Don't fret if you don't fit the bill yet. This can also serve as a to do list for mastering content marketing! Author: Micheal Gerard B2B Brands Near Top of LinkedIn's 'Most Influential' List This is a great, non-techie read about what makes the most influential brands on LinkedIN stand above the rest. The key, it seems has a lot to do with content! ...
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Quick, you have 5 seconds. Tell me the benefit TO ME of buying your product or service. Go...
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There are a ton of excellent web marketing resources online for succeeding as a web marketer. Here are 4 great reads I found this week: How To Write A Tweet: 8 Formulas To Get You Started This great post by Diana Urban, Director of Conversion Marketing at HubSpot, is a great "getting started" resource for small businesses. I know many of the SMBs that we meet know very little about Twitter and very rarely use it. That's unfortunate because it's often a much better platform for B2B companies than Facebook. Give it a read and start using Twitter more effectively. Why Your Business Needs A Google+ Page Too This post was a guest post on the always valuable Duct Tape Marketing Blog, by Diana Gomez (Diana's were great resources this week :)). In it, Diana discusses how Google designed Google+ Pages in part so that business owners can maximize Google's features for their own business purposes. Diana also gives tips on setting up your company page, getting listed professionally on Google Maps ...
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Like most things these days, you get what you pay for in time and/or money with web marketing. We get inquiries from time to time from solopreneurs with a good idea that needs marketed online, and they are often shocked to find out the volume of effort it will take to make their idea shine online. Particularly, the effort needed to reach enough eyes in a reasonable amount of time to start seeing a return. It's an inconvenient reality, but it is reality nonetheless. Sometimes these solopreneurs decide to use a self-service platform, or worse, the phone book company's online service to launch their web presence. We completely understand the need to conserve funds, but unfortunately, going this route commonly results in a waste of money and time, because the one size fits all solution does nothing for them. It doesn't focus on their specific target audience and a strategy to reach them. They don't do any real SEO. Some are at someone else's domain instead of the prospect's own, giving ...
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Which feels better? Being sold to or being educated? Which makes a car salesperson and buying experience more appealing and tolerable? When they ram paperwork with a sticker price offer in your face repeatedly, or when they spend as much time as possible with you to make sure you understand every aspect of the cars you're looking at? The answer is obvious in both scenarios. What kind of buyer is more likely to make a positive buying decision? An educated one, or a skeptical/defensive one?
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If you are executing digital marketing, congratulations! You are most likely already one step ahead of your competition, and making strides to meaningfully connect with prospects online. But, how do you know if you’re seeing continual success year over year, and improving your metrics?
Without the tools in place to analyze and benchmark your efforts, it is impossible to scale your online marketing and ensure continuous success.
