50 marketing tips in 50 minutes
TRANSCRIPT
50 Marketing Tips in 50 Minutes
Presented by:Michelle Glennie & Cheryl Strege
Social Media - LinkedIn
According to ROI Research Inc.’s June 2011 report, S-Net (The Impact of Social Media), nearly 60% say LinkedIn is the most important social network account. This is almost a 20% increase from 2010.
Tip # 1
Make sure you have 100% profile completeness on LinkedIn.
Value: This will increase your search-ability within the LinkedIn network.
Tip # 2
Create a company profile in LinkedIn.
Value: This makes your company searchable. Ask employees to update their profile to be associated with your company.
Tip # 3Add each product or service you provide under your company profile.
Value: This will increase your company’s visibility on your products and services. In addition you can ask for customer recommendations.
Tip # 4Poll your network on LinkedIn.
Value: This is a tool that is free if you only poll your network. Use this to poll your customers on industry trends or new product/ service ideas you may be considering in your company.
Create a group within LinkedIn just for your customers.
Value: This allows you to offer another benefit to your customers by giving them tips & tricks in addition to letting them know about events, webcasts or training opportunities you have coming up.
Tip # 5
Watch the questions that are being asked in the Answers tool.
Value: You can build your reputation as an industry expert. If your answers are selected as the “Best” you can earn Expert points.
Tip # 6
Tip # 7Add the Google Presentation feature to your LinkedIn profile.
Value: Post company overviews, sales and other informative presentations that you have done. This will build awareness for you and your company and highlight your specific expertise.
Tip # 8 Use the Events tool to promote your next meeting, training or customer event.
Value: You can generate excitement about your events in addition to informing your customers and prospects about all your company offers.
Know who is viewing your profile.
Value: Not only will you will see the traffic that your profile is getting, you will be able to see the types of people that are viewing it.
Tip # 9
Download the free LinkedIn Outlook Social Connector. On the homepage of LinkedIn scroll down to the bottom and click on Tools.
Value: The LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar allows you to quickly and easily build your LinkedIn network from within Microsoft Outlook.
Tip # 10
Tip # 11
Add downloads to your profile with Box.net Files feature.
Value: If prospects or clients are doing research about you, you are providing information about your company they can download.
Add your connections to Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to your email signature, website, and in other email campaigns.
Free Social Media Icons: http://dryicons.com/free-icons/
Value: This will show people where you are online and bring awareness to your profile on these sites.
Tip # 12
Blogging
Tip # 13When contributing to a blog, make sure you link relevant information back to your company’s website – the words you link in the blog should be listed somewhere on that web page.
Value: This can help improve your search rankings and drive traffic back to your website.
Tip # 14
Link to multiple pages within your website. • Home page• Product page• About us• Others that are relevant
Value: Google counts every link in your blog and increases your visibility and SEO.
Tip # 15
Recruit multiple bloggers - Effective blogs are updated frequently.
Value: This ensures your blog will be a compilation of multiple viewpoints and relevant expertise that attracts a variety of readers. Plus, each blogger’s writing style will incorporate keywords in different ways to attract search engines.
Tip # 16
Don’t pitch with every blog post, post content that will actually benefit others.
Stay Away from…“Buy Now!”
Or “Limited Time Offer!”
Value: Your readers will see your blog in a different light and will more likely be loyal.
Tip # 17
Always be on the lookout for new blog topics:• Keep a folder on your desktop for blog ideas• Sign up for Google Alerts:
http://www.google.com/alerts
Value: When you’re ready to actually write, you’ll have somewhere tangible to start.
Tip # 18
Make sure you have a keyword in mind (such as “business intelligence”) and have that keyword in the title, description, tags, body, and anchor text (the text that you click on in a link).
Value: This will enhance your SEO ranking. When people search for what you’re offering, they’re more likely to find you.
Tip # 19
Value: It will give readers a reason to come back if they know you are posting often. If you post only once a month or less, readers may forget you’re still around.
Post frequently! You do not want to send readers away by having old posts.
General Marketing
Tip # 20Try out Pixability to create a professionally done video for $795. They will send you a Flip camera, you shoot your footage and send it back to them, and they will give you back a professionally edited video. Visit: http://www.pixability.com/.
Value: A cost effective way to get a professional video of your company, customer or product.
Tip # 21
Set up a company YouTube site to post demos or customer testimonials.
Value: YouTube is one of the largest search engines – get your company noticed! You can also link these videos to your website.
Make sure the music you use in your videos is royalty free. Here is a list of sites to help you find the right music:– www.royaltyfreemusic.com– www.musicbakery.com– www.neosounds.com– www.beatsuite.com– www.audiomicro.com– www.musicloops.com– www.partnersinrhyme.com
Value: You do not get in trouble with copyright laws and you can find free or inexpensive music and sounds.
Tip # 22
Consider running a text message campaign with a provider like Cellit: www.cellit.com.
Value: You can use this at tradeshows to build your opt-in list, create contests and games, poll your customers, make important announcements, or even update the contact information you have in your CRM system..
Tip # 23
Tip # 24
Try out www.SalesSpider.com. It is a free social network site designed to help your business expand your network, connect with contracting and supplier opportunities, host and view webinars and videos, place free classified ads and gain free access to sales leads and business opportunities.
Value: This site has more than 770,000 members, 95% of the businesses using the site are U.S. based, and it is growing by approximately 25,000 new members each month. Try it out to generate some new business opportunities!
Tip # 25
If you market to Not-for-Profits, visit www2.guidestar.org to get a list of NFP organizations in your state. The cost per state is approximately $400.
Value: There is not a SIC code for NFP’s, but they have to file a 990 form with the IRS to claim they are a nonprofit. This gives you a good list to market to.
Tip # 26
Clone your best customer using InfoUSA’s Quick Customer Cloner. (www.infousa.com)
Value: Take advantage of this free tool to find prospects who are similar to your best customer.
Tip # 27Add to your direct marketing list by going to www.mailinglists.com. Use the search tool to find lists of potential buyers.
Value: This will help you build your list of prospects to market to.
Tip # 28Marketing to Canadian companies? Visit the Industry Canada website at www.ic.gc.ca and search on companies by categories or NAICS and get comprehensive details about each business.
Value: This is a cost effective way to learn about Canadian companies across industries, how the industries are performing, in addition to contact information
Tip # 29
Create an account on www.prlog.org to submit free online press releases for your company.
Value: In addition to free submission and distribution, this site also has tips on how to write a press release.
Tip # 30Use Optify (http://www.optify.net/b2b-marketing/visitor-tracking/) to know who has been visiting your website.
Value: You will understand who is visiting your site and can follow-up with them.
Tip # 31
Other Website Tracking Tools:- Use Leadlander (www.leadlander.com) to know
who has been visiting your website. - VisitorTrack is another option.
Your Website
Tip # 32
Use the Way Back Machine at www.archive.org to view the many revisions of your website.
Value: Use this to see your previous website designs. Let it help influence the growth and evolution of your current website.
Tip # 33
Performance of your website - You might design great sites, but you need to make sure that the site load time is reasonable.
Value: Making it quick and easy for your prospects and customers to browse your website improves the chances of them coming back.
Tip # 34
Fresh content on your website - There is nothing better than having fresh content on your site.
Value: Google searches for new content on the web. So refreshing your website with blogs or news increases your search engine optimization ranking. Use www.linkpopularity.com to check your standings.
Tip # 35
Use your navigation and side bars to call out important items you want your readers to notice. Add offers to every page!
Value: Increase clicks on what you want your readers to notice. Readers have a tendency to pay more attention and click on items in your navigation and side bar.
Put a “tell a friend” link on multiple pages of your website.
Value: This makes it easy and accessible for your fans to talk about you excessively. Don’t give them a chance to forget.
Tip # 36
Tip # 37
Make your Call to Action clear!Every page should have a clear CTA. It could be “download”, “subscribe”, “contact us”, “view”, etc. Value: Use action words to move the prospect along in the sales cycle. People want to be led.
Tip # 38Use the Google Wonder Wheel to help you find the right keywords for your web pages.
Value: This will give you a good starting point for your website. Evaluate with your team to determine if they bring the “right” prospects in.
Tip # 39
When setting up your Google Analytics, be sure toset a filter to exclude internal traffic from your ownIP address: www.google.com/analytics.
Value: You will get true analytics of external traffic that will not be tainted by internal company traffic.
Tip # 40
Use Hyperspin, www.hyperspin.com, to monitor your website and be alerted if it goes down. Free tool!
Value: You can quickly connect to your IT department or website host if your website goes down.
E-Mail Marketing
The three secrets to aneffective e-newsletter are: 1. Focus on the content2. Focus on relationships3. Be genuine
Value: Do this and you will be in the 5% of people that produce effective newsletters.
Tip # 41
Tip # 42Email Lists- Difficult to find “good” lists for purchase. (Jigsaw is an
option, also InsideView.)- Purchased lists are not generally opt-in so you run the
risk of being labeled a spammer. - Best list? Build your own through networking events,
tradeshows, Chamber meetings, blogging that you do, etc.
Value: List building is an ongoing, day-after-day activity. “Shortcuts” rarely produce the results you need.
Make sure you have a specific call-to-action in your email campaigns and be repetitive. Include it at the top of your email (“above the fold”) and again at the bottom.
Value: Readers will be more responsive if they know what they are supposed to do.
Tip # 43
Add a “Share This” or “Forward to a Friend” link within your newsletter or an RSS feed at the end of a newsletter article.
Value: A recent study done by Exact Target showed a 42% increase in the click rate when you have easy links like these for your readers.
Tip # 44
Tip # 45 Use numbers in your subject line to grab the
reader’s attention. For example:3 Quick Tips4 Seats Left
Value: Your email becomes more quantifiable and entices readers to open your email.
Tip # 46
Ask a question in the subject line of your email.
Value: Readers are more inclined to respond because questions force us to think and answer.
Tip # 47
Put 34 characters or less in an email subject line to get the highest click through rate.* Here is an example of 34 characters:
This is a 34 characters long subject line
Value: You get more readers opening your email!
*Source: Direct Marketing Association’s 2011 Statistical Fact Book
Tip # 48
Value: By not incorporating these words into your subject line your email is more likely to end up in your readers’ inbox.
Subject line words that can get caught up in SPAM filters are: Sale, Free, No Charge, Register Today, % Off, Affordable, Info You Requested.
Tip # 49Email addresses such as sales@ or mail@ can get caught in SPAM filters. Put the name of the most well known person in the “From” field for email campaigns.
Value: Your email is more likely to be read and not caught in SPAM filters or junk folders.
77% of emails from unknown sources are deleted without ever being opened. - eMarketer
Tip # 50
Go to http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx to see if your mail server has been blacklisted.
Value: If your server has been blacklisted this can prevent your emails from being delivered.
Questions?
You can contact us at:
Michelle Glennie [email protected]
Cheryl Strege [email protected]
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