Archive for category Web Hints

Beyond their success in business and entrepreneurship, Seth Godin, Steve Jobs, and Charles Saatchi have one thing in common: their belief that marketing is an art. All three invest thousands of hours into their marketing efforts by crafting advertisements and creative pieces that go beyond converting viewers into measurable customers. Their marketing skills rest in a strange belief that creativity is the driving force behind purchases and their creative ability has pushed them into some of the advertising and business world’s most important positions.

The new wave of internet marketers, however, believe in a very different marketing religion. Their god is numbers or, more specifically, measurable data in terms of customer value and the conversion rates. It is a system that is foreign to creative advertisers, yet one that is incredibly useful for new entrepreneurs, metrics-driven businesspeople, and low-budget marketers.

The social media arena is where the two types of thinkers clash as creativity is a requirement for social media success. This is because the entire domain is interactive, personal, and built on conversation. That effectively leaves those without a dedicated and personal effort without a presence at all. At the same time, the social media world requires measurement. In this arena, marketers who run campaigns without tracking, analysis, and calculation end up wasting time and generating little income in return.

These two tips, tactics, and strategies are designed to bridge the gap between art-driven advertising and action-driven social media marketing. Whether you take a holistic approach to marketing or a distinctly mathematical style, applying these two tactics to your social media marketing efforts will help you learn what works, assess and revise what does not, and scale your efforts to new heights of profitability.

Calculating Expenses:

Social media may be free, but that does not mean it offers better value than paid marketing channels. The common assumption that failing to chase social media is “leaving money on the table” just is not true. Thousands of companies give up on social media campaigns not because they are not profitable, but because they are significantly less profitable than paid marketing channels, all the while costing an equal amount of time.

Assess your social media campaigns not just on invested cash and results generated, but on the amount of time which could have been spent elsewhere. Calculate your effective hourly earnings for social media efforts, and consider how it could improve with a change of strategy.

Gauging Opt-in Value:

There is no scientific strategy for gauging the value of an opt-in subscriber. However, there are several holistic ways to gain an understanding of how valuable your audience could be. The first is to test their interest in your products, services, and opportunities. Put out a simple five-page guide with a sales price of just one dollar.

It sounds strange, but the introduction of a small amount of money can drastically change the way an audience interacts with you. Monitor who buys the inexpensive product and prioritize them in the future, not because they spent money, but because they showed that they have always had intentions of spending money with you. This simple binary-style categorization can be hugely useful for estimating how valuable, action-oriented, and likely to purchase your audience could be.

Blogging for business has become quite the trend among entrepreneurs these days. Whether they’re running an online business or a traditional offline business, many business owners today are maintaining a blog where they can promote their products and services. However, it takes much more than just having a blog to grow a business. As a business owner, you need to create your blog posts in such a way that you’re targeting a specific group of people — those people who are most likely to buy your products and services.

Every single day, the Internet is surfed by millions of people from all over the world. If you simply throw your blog posts out there without a particular target audience in mind, there’s a low chance that your blog traffic will actually convert to sales. In other words, your efforts will practically all be in vain. In order to maximize the business potential of your blog, the first thing you have to do before you even post anything is to identify your target market. Figure out what kind of people will be most likely to patronize your products and services. This process can be made easier by answering some very basic questions, such as the following:

1. What is the average age of your target market? Are you planning to sell to children, teens, adults or the elderly?
2. What gender are your products designed for? Are you leaning more towards the male target market or the female target market?
3. What is the economic status of your prospective customer? Are you addressing the needs of the lower-income bracket, the middle class, or the wealthier members of society?
4. What is the location of your preferred client? Are you running a local business, with customers limited to a particular town or city? Are you hoping to attract clients from all over the world?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better idea of who your potential customers will be like. You’ll be able to design your blog and produce blog posts in a way that’s more appealing and attractive to your target market. However, these questions are still very general. If you want to further narrow down your target market, you can break your target market into smaller categories using the following classifications:

1. Needs – Target people who have similar needs in terms of accomplishments, belonging, and self-actualization.
2. Objectives – Focus on people who are working towards a particular goal.
3. Personalities – Target people with like traits, such as those who are carefree, or those who are very serious, and so on.
4. Fears – Focus on people based on their fears like growing old, losing their job, or getting sick.

By narrowing down your target market in this way, it will be much easier to write posts that address their needs, wants, and desires. It will also be easier to convince them to take a look at your products because you already know at least part of their personalities and their way of thinking. The more your target market can relate to your blog, the more they will be likely to purchase your products and services. So the best way to maximize the business power of your blog is to first know your target market and then use your blog entries to communicate with them your business.

A blog is a power tool for any business. Most businesses are not sure how to use it correctly though. It’s much simpler than you think if you know where to start. First off, search engines love blogs because they are filled with great content. Each blog entry is counted as one web page which is why it’s important to optimize each title and post with SEO keywords that pertains to your post.

Make sure to list your blog with blog directories. Blog Catalog is a popular blog directory where you can get many visitors in one day. It only takes a couple of days for your blog to be approved but is a good place to start listing your blog. Most blog directories ask that you add their small banner or text link to your blog in exchange to be added to their blog directory. It’s a fair price to pay when you can get free traffic your way. There are many niche blog directories as well online. Always list your blog with blog directories that offer your readership market.

Do make sure your blog has an RSS feeder. Feedburner can create one for your blog for free. With your blog RSS feed, you will want to submit these feeds to RSS directories. When submitting your blog and RSS feed to directories, make sure you try to submit to the big directories like Technorati, Yahoo and MSN. You can find many RSS directories by doing a simple Google search.

Ping your blog. Each time you create a post, you can ping your blog at ping sites with an optional choice of adding your RSS feed. It pings your blog to other services that you can select to let them know that you have updated you blog.

Ping-o-matic is one of the easiest ping websites to navigate for beginners.

Get involved with other blogs. Do this by visiting blogs that have the same market readership as your own. Leave comments with links back to your own blog. Make sure you are using an eye-catching profile avatar alongside it. When your readers leave you comments, do interact with your readers by leaving your responses on your blog comment section. Remember, you are forming a blog community within your own blog and readers like to see an interactive blog writer.

Adding links to your blog will create more traffic coming back and forth. This is called a blogroll where it is very important to link with those in the same industry. Don’t forget to add a subscription link and box for your readers to subscribe so they don’t miss anything you have to blog about. Have it easily accessible on a top column space and after each post so they can easily subscribe. Once you gain a reader, you don’t want to lose them.

There are many different ways to get your website noticed. You can hand out business cards, advertise in newspapers, email every contact you have and spread the word by any means you can think of. When you have tried every option, the one that will still yield most results is getting your site listed and indexed by search engines. This means your site is available throughout the world, and not simply among the set of people you have emailed or reached through a particular newspaper. The only small remaining detail is to ensure the public find your website before the other 3.5 million similar sites listed in their query. To do this, you need to build your site with appropriate keywords woven into the fabric of every page.

What are keywords? When a user enters a query in a search engine, the words entered are known as keywords. They are the only way the search engine can find websites that are relevant to your needs, and so you need to focus on them as a key component of your website. The search engines will index the words on your website, and store them in a database as being associated with your site. When a user searches with a set of keywords, these are matched to those in the database, and related websites are listed as search results. It is therefore very important that you identify the keywords you want your website to be found under.

To identify keywords appropriate for your website, use all available options and get a consensus. Common sense is a good starting point. List the words and phrases that you would use if you were searching for your site content. Next, to get a more objective view ask friends and relatives what terms they would use, being careful not to lead them by including the terms in your question. A third option is to use some of the third-party online tools that will suggest appropriate keywords. Some of these are subscription site where you pay a monthly or annual fee for access to the information; however some are supported by advertising and are free to users. A fourth source of keyword suggestions is the set of search engines you are submitting your site to. They are providing more and more tools for webmasters, and you should use these to tailor and develop your website content where possible.

When you have identified the keywords that are relevant to your site content, they should be used at every appropriate opportunity within the site. It is very important that you don’t ‘stuff’ your pages with keywords, but use them in a natural way within the page text. Search engine will know if you are trying to trick them by abusing keywords, and you will do long-term damage to your site’s search ranking if you try to beat the system.

Keywords should also be used in the structure of your website where possible in addition to including them in page content. Folder names, file names, and image names should contain keywords. This means that each path followed is keyword-rich. Within the pages, hyperlinks, title tags, description tags, header tags and comments should include keywords. This process will leave the search engines in no doubt that your website is relevant to those words listed in a query when a match occurs.

The important underlying principle here is that keywords should be used within your website enthusiastically, but naturally. Over-use will cause problems, but consistent reference to the keywords throughout your website will give good results in search engine listings. Honest content and structure will pay more in the long run that the short term benefit of abusing the system.

One of the biggest challenges for new marketers is deciding where to allow two-way conversation with customers and where to focus on a more direct marketing message. Thanks to new tools like Twitter and RSS, marketing has become more and more about conversation, and less about direct messaging. We at Appleton Creative, are huge advocates of having a dialogue with your target market. This guide is designed to help you navigate through a marketing world that’s packed with two-way messages, decide where to best focus your marketing efforts, and assist you in managing your marketing campaign effectively.

Twitter is a very effective public relations tool. You have immediate access to your target market, a highly valuable following of potential customers, brand evangelists and enthusiasts. Thousands of marketers have tried direct marketing on Twitter and seen their efforts fail, either due to a lack of trust or a lack of interest. As a result, you should focus your Twitter efforts on public relations. Build your following there, direct them towards more profitable sections of your empire, and let them build word-of-mouth feedback for you.

The exception is for product launches and special occasions. This is where social media will come in handy for press releases. Have you got a new informational product launching in a week? Why not alert your Twitter followers first? The upside to announcing on Twitter is that in addition to the scale of an email campaign, you get the incredible viral capabilities of a social network. Harvest followers on Twitter, communicate with them directly, and only market on special occasions, product launches or exclusive offers.

See that divide? The two-way conversation should be reserved for building your brand and producing conversation, and the one-way messages are optimum for launching products, direct marketing and awareness building. Appleton Creative urges you to use your online influence to build interest in your products, get your followers discussing them, and use your direct influence to make product launches ultra-profitable.

Another incredibly effective tool for direct promotion is a company blog, or even individual product blogs. Combined with an RSS feed and a dedicated audience, your blog can be used as an effective secondary income source. Direct your Twitter followers towards your blog for important announcements and information, use their presence to boost your advertising rates, and at the same time syndicate product information, customer testimonials and opt-in opportunities. The key to linking your blog and Twitter account is to make the transition completely seamless. Minimize the divide and make sure that you offer consistent value on both platforms.

As always, these marketing forms take time and effort to truly succeed. While the old myth of “build it and they will come” seems to be strong in social media communities, the reality is that there’s still work to do. However, once you’ve built that following, it begins to grow itself. Hit the tipping point, constantly provide value to your followers, and watch as your product launches go off without a hitch. Market aggressively and watch as your followers run. Social media, whether for PR or direct marketing, requires a steady hand, patience and strategy. With active dedication and effort you’ll be able to build a massive marketing asset, a strong PR presence, and a promotional avenue that’s second to none.

To learn more about what you have read, please feel free to reach out to the Appleton Creative Team.

As huge advocates for brand standards, we at Appleton Creative, wanted to share some insight.
Social media marketing offers a chance to put the power of the Internet behind your business! Extend communications to new online customers through visual imagery. We can often use videos and images to enhance your social media marketing campaign. With the power of our in-house video team, and through well-conceived images, you can provide different messages about your company without engaging in a direct marketing ploy, especially if you post graphic content where consumers search for information. Here are 4 ways to introduce corporate imagery to the public through interactive websites.

1. Prominently display an image of your product, company name, office, or building in photos you post on social media profiles, forums, and websites. Keep in mind these photos should consist of an independent theme. For example, take a picture of employees volunteering in a local beach cleanup wearing their company t-shirts. We often film and post our crew, at events sponsored by Appleton Creative.

2. Join community and non-profit social networks where you can post a company image and a photo album. For example, if you join a community group that educates children about careers, you can post an image of a person standing outside your building or in front of a company vehicle with the company logo clearly displayed.

3. Another option we offer at Appleton Creative is to use a website like YouTube to post a video on a topic that interests your target consumers. When a video gets emailed to thousands or millions of Internet users, it becomes viral. You can create a link to your informational video on other websites. In the video, a visual representation of your business should not detract from the presentation.

4. Local community events offer opportunities to supplement social media marketing with person-to-person marketing. Host a career day at your business location or take your marketing material with you to a local elementary, middle, or high school career day. Appleton Creative annually hosts youth groups and visits local community organizations in support of education. At a community event, give out promotional items with your corporate website hyperlink, Twitter or Facebook profile name, or other website address to new people. When they visit one of your online locations, you will have a chance to earn their business and grow your tribe!

Appleton Creative is happy to help apply our knowledge of traditional marketing to the broad appeal of meeting your new clients online. Through strategically placed photos and videos posted just about anywhere you visit on social media websites, you can inform web consumers about your company. Then they can click on your corporate website and read engaging content about how your company can meet their needs.

For the past several months, we have seen the Twitter phenomenon sweep the world in quite an impressive way. In just a very short time, this social networking site that also doubles as a micro-blog has become one of the most popular sites on the Internet. One of the reasons for Twitter’s appeal is its simple and straightforward approach. For starters, account registration is free completely hassle-free. Once you are registered, you can start searching for other Twitter users to follow and invite them to follow you as well.

Most people who use Twitter do so in order to keep in touch with friends and family. They send updates, called tweets, to let people know what they are up to, as well as receive tweets from users they have chosen to follow. However, many people are also using Twitter for more than personal purposes. For business owners, Twitter has become an essential tool for promoting their products and services online.

Although the basic processes of sending tweets and following users are the same, there are a few things you have to do differently if you are planning to use your Twitter account for business purposes. For one thing, you want to be visible to a wider group of followers and not be restricted to people you already know personally. A great way to do this is with the use of @replies.

An @reply simply means affixing the “@” sign before a user’s name and inserting that before your reply. In order to make the most of @replies on Twitter, you have to use Twitter’s search feature regularly. Find tweets related to products or services you are offering and respond to users who posted related tweets by using @replies.

For example, let’s say you are running a party-planning business. Search for tweets of people posting questions on how to prepare for upcoming birthdays or special events. You can respond to a user who posted by sending her an @reply containing a link to your business website or blog. Your response can be something along the lines of, “@busymom for birthday or party planning tips and professional advice, check out <your url here>” Since the user asked a question, you will essentially be just answering her and your post won’t be considered as unsolicited advice.

This is why @replies are very useful. Instead of simply advertising your products or services to strangers out of the blue, which a lot of people don’t really appreciate, you will actually be providing them a solution to a problem they do have. With the @replies, you will also be addressing the user who posted the question directly, making it less of an advertisement and more of a helpful gesture.

Another advantage of using @replies is you don’t necessarily have to be someone’s follower in order to send her @replies. On the contrary, you can even use these @replies to further expand your contact list on Twitter. The more @replies you post, the more people will be able to see you. If they find your @replies or tweets to be quite interesting or relevant to their issues, they may even choose to follow you on Twitter.

Since Twitter is a rapidly growing website with more than two million users, the opportunities of reaching potential clients is limitless. If you use the features of the site properly, you can expand your business tremendously in no time at all.

If you have any further questions or need help with your Twitter Marketing plan, call Appleton Creative at 407.246.0092

Google Adwords is a great way to advertise your products or business online. Google will post ads in a relevant search depending on the amount that is paid for a particular search term. Popular terms can be expensive, such as ten or eleven cents; however, less popular terms can be as little as two or three cents. Google uses a PPC system, or pay per click. This means that Google charges a certain amount of money per click on each ad determined by the keywords used in the search. Google Adwords supports a number of countries and languages, so it is possible to advertise to a wide range of potential customers.

The first step in creating an Adwords account is to create an ad and determine specific keywords for it. This is the most important part of the process and the chosen keywords will play a great part in determining whether the ad will succeed or fail. These keywords will signal Google to display the ad whenever a potential customer uses one of the keywords in a search. This is a simple idea; however, Google has also set up a tool to help with keywords. Google Trends is a great way to research the keywords that would be best for a certain ad.

The second step is to bid on the keywords. The highest bid per keyword will be placed first in the results, followed by the second, and so on. Google does not charge when an ad is displayed, only for the clicks on the ad. Choosing a budget for the ad will prevent costs from rising dramatically. There is no minimum budget. Google will simply display your ad until the price of the added clicks equals the amount of the budget. Then, since this budget is based on a day to day basis, Google will display the ad the following day until the budget is maxed again.

Due to the fact that Google is making a profit off of the Adwords program, the process of setting up an Adwords account is quite simple. However, for the campaign to succeed, there are a few main rules to follow:

• Conduct as much research into the keywords as possible. Check the campaign every day for statistics on keywords and make changes accordingly.
• Write compelling advertisements that will draw particular customers to your site.
• Create attractive and inventive landing pages for your campaign. Explain to viewers why they should use the products or services that are being advertised.
• Use negative keywords to prevent your ad from appearing to people who are not looking for your specific services. For example, a site selling cosmetics may use the negative keyword ‘surgery’ to prevent the site from coming up in a search for ‘cosmetic surgery.’

Once a campaign is begun, it is the advertiser’s responsibility to oversee it and control it. If the basic principles listed above are followed, then there is no reason why a campaign would not be successful.

Good luck with your campaign and if you need any help, please call us at 407.246.0092.