Tried and True Email Marketing Strategies That Build Success

If you do not fully understand the principles involved, one of the best ways to design a truly effective email marketing campaign is to hire someone with a proven track record in promoting business through email marketing.

Publishing and distributing e-newsletters is another example of an email marketing strategy that can be highly effective. The bulk of an e-newsletter should be quality content such as featured articles, short articles containing helpful tips, or product reviews and features. Graphic elements may be graphics can direct traffic to your website or other websites.

Your e-newsletters should contain a soft-sell sales approach. It is essential not to make the sales pitch blatant or pushy as this may result in the e-newsletter being considered spam.

Your e-newsletter should contain a Call to Action urging the readers to purchase or visit your website for more information.

Regardless of the email marketing method you decide on, one of the most important strategies is to evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing regularly. This is critical because elements of your email marketing campaign that are not working should be weeded out. Likewise, aspects of your marketing campaign that are showing a high degree of success should be utilized more often.

For example, if you notice a spike in sales or website traffic each time you issue an e-newsletter, it might be worthwhile to begin issuing e-newsletters more often.

If you’d like to learn more about creating and implementing a highly-successful email marketin campaign, we are here to help. Just call us at 928.486.5185 or send us an email.

Here are a few other article I’ve written about email marketing that I think will be helpful to you.

• Email Marketing Blunders That Sabotage Your Success
• Create the Perfect Email Marketing Campaign
• Top Ten Email Marketing Challenges and How to Overcome Them
• 3 Content Creation Tips You Can Utilize With AI

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Blogs. What are they good for? Blogs are actually fantastic whether you are running a business website or you are simply using blogs for fun. In terms of business, blogs can prove to be a supplemental form of advertisement and you will find them to be a unique device that you can use to keep in contact with your clients. Further, in terms of personal use, blogs are definitely an excellent way to stay in touch with your family and friends, even if they are across the globe. Best of all, blogs can often be established for free.

Blogs are still quite popular and appear all over the Internet. In fact, the more people realize the great benefits that they can get from using blogs, the more people will be using them. Blogs not only serve as personal journals, but they also serve as business supplements. People love communicating with others by using blogs and allowing others to comment on their postings.

Blogs are regularly updated which means that they have fresh content on them all the time. This makes them appealing to visitors and search engines alike. Every new posting means new content. When you update your blogs daily or weekly you will see them grow rather quickly. With fresh content, you can improve your search engine ranking. Whether you use the blog alone, or you used it to accompany an already existing website, your fresh content can be used to draw more and more traffic to either your blog or your website, or both.

Additionally, you can add links to your blog and start a link exchange campaign. In doing so, you will see your page ranking increase in search engines because SE algorithms frequently focus on the number of links that are pointing to your website. The more external links that recommend your site or blogs, the easier your site or blogs are to find in big search engines like Google.

Blogs can be used to freely advertise your products or services. Blogs can serve as free web space for you to use to advertise your business. Blogs are also great for providing existing clients with updated information about new products and services you may be offering. Want your clients to share their feelings about your products and services? You can use blogs to receive and share client testimonials. There really is no end to the benefits one can derive from using blogs.

What is equally fantastic about blogs is that there are ways that you can create blogs for free. Sites like Blogger, owned by Google, allow you to establish a blog free of charge. Moreover, there are a variety of layouts, fonts, and templates to choose from and Blogger even allows you to post images. Finally, sites like Blogger give you the opportunity to archive your postings so that visits can return to them again and again. WordPress.com is another excellent resource with tons of themes and plugins.

Finally, creating blogs can be simple and fun for everyone. Friends can create clubs and use blogs to establish them, friends and family can share photographs and sentiments, and finally, personal expression can be satisfied when creating blogs. In fact, if you have a particular passion, why not share that passion with the world by starting one or more blogs? Communicate with people from all over the world that share the same passions that you do!

If you find yourself out of time, we can do the writing of original content and promote the posts for you. Complete the form below to get started.

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To get more free traffic and improve your organic reach from Facebook you must increase the amount of engagement that you get with your posts. This includes commenting, liking, and sharing your posts. Clicking links and tagging you in other posts also helps you to improve your organic reach.

When your posts have a lot of engagement this will help to get them increased exposure in the news feeds of your audience. Getting more shares and likes will help you reach the extended network of your audience.

• Tip #1 – Post at the right time – When you add your posts at the time your audience is the most active, you significantly increase your chances of getting more shares, likes and comments. There is data driven research to help you identify the best social media posting times so that you can align your posting schedule with these. Go to Google and search for “best times to post on Facebook”. You will see the results of data-driven research that you can use.

• Tip #2 – Post Fan-Centric Content – Find current content that will engage your audience. A good way to do this is to ask yourself some questions:
  • What real-world events can I use?
  • What facts or statistics will interest my audience?
  • How can you make your audience laugh?
• Making posts about yourself or your business is not going to drive much engagement. Use an 80/20 rule here – 80% of your content is for your audience and 20% is about promotion.

• Tips #3 – Identify Your Popular Posts – Identify which of your posts were the most popular with your audience. See what type and format of content really resonate with them.
• Learn all that you can from your successful posts so that you recreate engagement with your future posts. Did you use an appealing meme? Did you answer a specific question in detail? Did you show your audience how to do something useful?

• Tip #4 – Make Your Visuals Pop – The vast majority of content on Facebook is image based. The types of images that you use in your posts are going to make a significant difference to your engagement levels. People tend to scroll down their news feed a lot and if they see an interesting image they will stop to take a closer look.

• Tip #5 – Make Responding to Comments a Priority – Research has shown that businesses that respond to comments on their posts have a lot more success on Facebook than those that don’t. Four hours is a reasonable time for a comment response and will meet the expectations of a Facebook audience. Replying to the comments that you receive on your posts shows that you care about your audience and you are listening to what they have to say. When you respond promptly, you will encourage more of your audience to leave comments on future posts. You can set up a chatbot to respond fast for you if you want.

• Tip #6 – Align Your Website Content With What Works Well on Facebook – If you know that a certain type of content creates a great deal of engagement, add this type of content to your website or blog. To replicate this on your site does not mean that you have to compromise on quality. Use titles for your posts that pique the interest of your site visitors.

• Tips #7 – Use a Compelling CTA in Your Posts – You need to tell your audience that you really want to hear from them and that their opinion matters. One of the best forms of CTA is to ask a question in your post. Plan for a sequence of posts where you will pick the brains of your audience.

• Tip #8 – Use Video – Posting videos to Facebook provides an opportunity to drive free traffic. Facebook users consume over 8 billion videos each day. Users would rather watch a short video than read a lot of text. Don’t upload your videos to YouTube and then post the links to Facebook. You will get far more views if you upload the video to Facebook itself.
• You can also drive engagement by using Facebook Live. Users really like live content and you can get significantly higher numbers of views and traffic.

• Tip #9 – Make Your Posts Short – If you need to explain something in detail, create a brief post and a link to your website where more information is available. When Mobile Facebook “scrollers” see a really long post from you, they are likely going to avoid it. Even desktop users will not appreciate long Facebook posts.

• Here are some good examples of short posts that are likely to get a high level of engagement:
  • Asking your audience a quick question
  • Providing a quote or interesting statistics from an article that users can click through to read the full article
  • Images that contain witty and snappy statements

• Tip #10 – Know What Your Audience Wants – Facebook Insights can provide you with the information that you need to understand your audience. This powerful resource can provide you with a lot of detail which you can use to connect better with your audience in the future.

• Tip # 11 – Ask Your Audience a Question – Facebook users like responding to questions. It’s human nature to provide an answer when you are asked a question. When you ask the right questions, you will find that your audience responds with a lot of comments.

• Tip #12 – Facebook Stories – When you create good Facebook Stories, you will build a stronger desire within your audience to see more of your content. There is evidence from Facebook that shows a high percentage of users became more interested in a business or individual after seeing their stories.
• Increasing your engagement is the best way to get more free traffic from Facebook. Implement these techniques today and watch your traffic and engagement levels improve.

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5 Easy Steps to Grow Your YouTube Channel
YouTube has become one of the most visited websites online with more than 1.9 billion active users per month, and second only to parent company Google in terms of daily searches on the site. On the surface, you might see YouTube as a place to watch music videos, tune into a favorite vlogger, or stream video games online, but it is so much more than that. YouTube is an untapped goldmine for people to make money online quickly.

If you’re looking for ways to grow your YouTube channel for your business, here are five easy steps to reach your goal.

Have a Purpose
You need to have a clear objective and purpose for starting a YouTube channel. It takes more time to grow YouTube channels compared to other social media platforms, but knowing why you want to create video content can help you stay on track when things don’t seem to be moving forward. It is imperative that you know your purpose for starting a YouTube channel if you want to find success.

Optimize Your Video Descriptions and Titles
As the second largest search engine, the best way for your videos to be found on the platform is to make sure that your descriptions and titles are SEO optimized. Determine the best keywords to use that are relevant to your industry and make sure to include them in your descriptions and titles. You also want to look at what currently exists and what the top-ranking titles are in your industry.

Use VidIQ and TubeBuddy for Your Video Tags
Just like with your descriptions, you want to make sure that all of your videos use keywords as their tags. This will help to improve the discoverability of your videos. Two tools that can help you with this process are TubeBuddy and VidIQ. Both tools will provide you with recommendations for tags that you can insert into your videos as well as show you how your video ranks for set tags.

Use How-To Videos to Teach Your Audience
There are two reasons why people find themselves on YouTube, to be educated and entertained. Rather than producing the same boring videos demonstrating your products or sharing your insight, why not create How-To videos to help educate your audience. Think about what you can teach your audience and develop videos around your skills.

Outsource What You Can’t Do
If you don’t know how to edit video, or you don’t have the equipment you need to produce high-quality videos, outsource the work to someone who does. If you need content, consider hiring someone who can shoot and edit videos for you and bring them in once a week. It can be a lot cheaper than you think and will save you the time and frustration from doing it yourself.

YouTube has become a powerful tool for small businesses. Following these five easy steps can help you grow your YouTube channel and find success.

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Online success, including social media campaigns, hinges on the strength of its content. This content includes writing, images, and video. It’s what visitors to your website and social media pages will see and make a decision about future visits.

What makes great content? How do we make sure our content will compel our visitors to return time and time again?

• Great Content is Well Written – Great content needs to be easy to read, is entertaining, and comes across as professional. Use proper English, double-check for typos, and make sure your spelling is correct. Grammarly is a free online tool that helps you compose clear, properly spelled, and typo-free content.
• Today’s visitors don’t want to read copius amounts of text. Focus on clearly getting your message across in as few words as possible.

• Create Content with a USP – A USP is a “unique selling proposition“. In other words, it needs to be different from other content on the web. If you sell real estate, for example, your audience has hundreds of other sites where they can find the exact same information. Make your content objectively different. Make it stand out in a unique way. Show your audience that you and your style are different than your competitor by covering a subject in a different way. Find a new angle on an old subject.

• Improve Lives with Your Content – Use your content to improve the lives of your readers. Make them feel they have learned something and are better off for reading your content. Make your content entertaining, informative, and interesting.

To answer the question, “Is content still king?“, I would emphatically have to say, “yes“! Digital marketing creates many avenues for promoting your business. However, making sure your content is well-written, has a unique selling proposition, and improves the lives of your readers, is of utmost importance for your success.

If you have any questions or need help with your content and marketing, please contact us.

You may also enjoy reading:

Wondering Why Website Content is So Important?

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There are tons of articles written about how to get traffic to your website. That’s a start. But getting those visitors to return to your website is equally, if not more, important.

Repeat traffic helps with ad impressions, metrics, and search engine ranking. It’s worth even more when it comes to sales and conversions. Repeat visitors are more likely to come back to your website because they find value in your brand.

Quality and Value

The key to quality and high-value content is good content marketing. It’s likely your visitors will find your website by searching on Google. If their experience on your website is positive, they will start recognizing the brand and know where to find you on their return visit.

Well-optimized website content will score high in the search engine rankings. This helps bring visitors to your site through search terms.

Voice Activated Searches

According to SEJ Search Engine Journal, leading research firms are predicting that somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all searches will be conducted via voice by 2020.

To optimize your website for voice-activated searches:

• Optimize your business listing
• Speed up your website
• Focus on asking and answering questions
• Test your search on various devices and see what results are generated

Tips to Follow

Use these quick tips to help gain repeat traffic:

• Develop a strong and recognizable brand
• Frequently and consistently post quality content.
• Include your brand in the SEO title
• Create a sense of community
• Incentivize return visits
• Encourage your social media following to visit your website

When it comes to social media be seen everywhere. Have a strong brand on every platform and post to all of them as frequently as you can. Social media provides a way to stay in touch with your visitors even after they’ve left your site. It’s a great way to continually draw them back to your website.

By doing these things, your visitors will remember your site, find it easily, and return often.

Another interesting post:

Google Voice Search: A Game Changer

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Knowing where your traffic is coming from is vital to increasing it.  There are tons of tools online that will show you where your website traffic is coming from, what they looked at and how long they stayed on your site.  To learn more about your entire digital marketing campaigns, Google still remains the best resource.

3 Free Google Tools to Track Your Website Traffic

Google Analytics – This is the most recognizable of Google tools.  It gives you a detailed analysis of your website.  Analyze where your traffic is coming from, what keywords are used to find your site and what pages your visitors are most interested in.

Google Analytics is easy to install and provides a wealth of information for marketing your business.  The dashboard has been improved to give you an “at a glance” picture of how your site is performing.

Google Webmaster Tools – Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics make a great combo.  In addition to identifying where your traffic is coming from, webmaster tools also provides a clearer picture of your site’s health, site optimization and site settings.

Google provides tutorials for Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Trends – Google Trends is another great tool for finding traffic sources and staying on top of trending keywords.  This helps you decide which trending keywords will fit your website or social media networking sites.  Google Trends will show you if the keywords you’re using are getting traffic.

Why do I prefer Google tools?  

#1 reason is that it’s a Google product.  They know what they’re looking for in order for your site to rank higher in the search engines.

#2 reason is that they offer free tutorials to teach us how to use their tools to rank higher in the search engines.

#3 reason is that most of their tools are free.  There are many services that will help you with your SEO for a fee.  Google does this without charge.

Try these 3 free Google tools.  See how they improve your marketing performance and website traffic.

Get even more ideas for getting website traffic by downloading my free e-list of 101 Free Website Traffic Ideas.

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Question:  What tools do you use to increase your site’s performance and ranking?

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Building your website traffic doesn’t take a lot of money; but it does take some time.  It’s the only way you’re going to get people to see what you have to offer.  It also establishes credibility and trust.

I’ve written several post about ways to increase your website traffic.  Here’s three of them.

• How to Increase Website Rankings 
• Get Better Website Traffic Using Social Media 
• How to Use Your Blog to Drive More Traffic to Your Website

Here’s five more things you can do to increase traffic to your website that won’t cost you anything but time.

Get out There!  Find and join social media groups where your target market hangs out.  Start your own group and invite targeted people to join.  Make it open to the public;a place where you will share blog posts, ask and answer questions and encourage your members to participate.

Have You Heard? – The acronym, HARO, stands for  Help a Reporter Out.  This is a great place to help you find or become a source for journalists and others in the media.  Guest blog for market-related websites.  Your post could be picked up through syndication and could go viral.  I wrote a post for a company who provides services to Realtors® and it was picked up by an international online magazine.

Keep it Simple – Take advantage of the signature line on your email, newsletters, marketing materials and business cards.  Sounds simple enough, but it’s often overlooked as a valuable resource for building website traffic.  Your signature should include name, email address, phone number, social media links and your web address.  When possible, link the text and icons.

Don’t be Afraid of Your Competition – I know that sounds counter intuitive, but your competition can be a great resource for building your website traffic.  Invite them to like your social media pages.  This gives you access to their followers through your posts.  Their followers will then be able to like and share your posts and page.

Is Your Website Ready for Prime Time? – Check your website for broken links and misspelled words.  Optimize your site for search engines. It should take no more than 3 -4 seconds to load.  Slow loading sites are seen by far fewer visitors than ones that load quickly.  Create an introduction video for your homepage.  Add videos throughout your site.  Videos increase interest and lowers your bounce rate.  This is good for SEO.

These five tips will help you build traffic to your website.  Having a great website with information targeted for your market will keep them interested and engaged.

Want more tips to increase website traffic?  Complete the form below and I will email it to you right away.

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Some people wonder whether social media is a viable method to increase website traffic.  They take a few minutes each day to view their feed, add comments and post a couple of memes or photos.  They may or may not see significant success.  Granted, there’s a lot more to reaching your end goal of getting prospective clients than posting and commenting.  However, grabbing social media attention is the first tier of a successful social media funnel.

I believe it was in the ’60s when a shampoo commercial talked about telling two friends, who told two friends and so on and so on…Social media marketing works much the same way.  When you post interesting information, your following will share with others and they, in turn, will share with their friends.  This is what helps you get free website traffic.

Here’s five free ways you increase website traffic using social media.

• Facebook Page – Your business page is separate from your personal page.  Increase your website traffic by posting regularly.  Post information that will be viewed as valuable by your target market.  Direct people back to your website where they can find additional information.  Posts should contain a variety of topics and should not be used as your personal billboard for advertising your business.

• Twitter – Love it or hate it, Twitter is a great way to build a following.  In 140 characters, you can offer something of value with the link leading back to your website or landing page. Interlinking your feeds helps build better exposure.  Link your Facebook feed to your Twitter account.  Link your Twitter feed to your website.

• Tumblr – This social networking site is a great tool to increase free website traffic to your website.  This blogging site makes it easy for you and others to share your posts with links back to your site.  Everyone who sees your post can easily share your content.  In turn, your followers will continue to grow.

• Pinterest – In one of my previous posts, “Pinterest is More Powerful Than Grandma“, I provided strategies for using Pinterest to build your website traffic and increase your online exposure.  When done right, this fast-growing social network will provide tons of free traffic.  Optimize your boards and pins and include your website’s URL and your location.

• Google+ – This social networking site makes it easy to publish content with links back to your website.  It has a vast reach and a huge following.  Did I mention it was GOOGLE?  Unlike the previous four social networking sites, Google+ is more business-related than personal.  It’s a perfect place for providing valuable information that includes a link back to your website.

If you haven’t started driving free website traffic back to your website and blog, choose on the social networking sites above and get started today.  It’s fun, easy and can be very profitable.  It’s the first step in your social media marketing sales funnel.  Without it, the other levels of your funnel simply won’t work.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.  ~Mark Twain.

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