More Than A Few Words

What started as a  joke turned in to an interesting social media experiment when we decided to use kittens in our seminar marketing campaign.  The results surprised us, and I shared them during a presentation at the Fall Social Media Dames Conference. 

Business is still about relationships.  And when it comes to the internet those relationships are measured by who links to you and to whom do you link.   While Google no longer puts the same weight on links that it once did, links from high quality sites will still bring search authority and better yet, real visitors to your site.   

Let's face it, today your website visitors have a shorter attention span than ever before. So how do you keep readers interested long enough to digest your message? This week we will take a quick look at ways to create content to be consumed quickly.    For more on this topic check out our blog post on this same topic. http://www.roundpeg.biz/2014/11/write-people-short-attention-spans/

Some of your marketing effort should be focused on people who are right on the verge of a purchase, and have made their intentions known. Do you have systems in place to make sure they jump towards the big “Purchase Now” button.

One of the most surprising events in the social media community in 2014  was a decision by Copy Blogger to close down their Facebook page. With more than 38,000 fans this seemed like a strange move for a social media/content company.    They did not make the decision lightly, but as they looked at the interaction on their social media pages, they realized their community did not want to interact with them on Facebook.  A smart decision for them with many great implications for small business owners.    Even now, almost three years later this there are lots of good lessons for any company thinking about jumping into social media and a big way.   More than a few words is a production of Roundpeg, a social media firm in Indianapolis 

When a prospective customer comes to your website or enters your physical retail store your primary  objective is to interest them in something you have to sell or share. This week we talk about ways you can do just that. 

It is a hard thing to accept, but no matter how cool your product is there are people out there who don't want it.  Instead of wasting time trying to get the attention of people who don't want to buy, use marketing resources wisely to attract people who do.    Download our Target Marketing Guidebook to learn more    http://www.roundpeg.biz/everyone-customer/  

Most customers are not ready to buy right away.  You need to move them from Just Browsing, to Interested,to On the Fence, to Hooked.  This week we talk about what to do when someone is in the "hooked category. 

Don't assume your customers know what you really offer.  Ask questions and confirm the order. 

From high touch to high tech here are some of our favorite suggestions on how to grow your email list.  This week we share some of our favorite tips.  And if the show has left you wanting more, you can download our compete list of 50 tips. 

This is a recording of Lorraine talking with Erin Sparks of Edge of the Web Radio about User Generated Content. 

When you're busy (which, let's face it, is always), it's so easy to let a week slide by without writing any new content for your blog or responding to content sent over by your marketing company. It's understandable, but in order to have great content marketing, you've got to be consistent. In this week's marketing podcast, we discuss how to keep up with content marketing even when life's crazy. 

More than just marketing hype, your brand position statement is about creating an impression of your company in the mind of your prospective customer.  It is the basis on which all your other marketing should be built.  A positioning statement contains the following elements: Description of the target customer Benefits sought by the target customer to solve a specific problem Your unique solution   This week we kick around examples of good and bad position statements.  

What is content marketing?   It is information you share with prospects which help them reach a buying decision without overtly selling.  Content can be video, audio, pictures, eBooks, blog posts, email or social media update.     Using any of these formats you mission is to maintain an informative tone, while still leading the most qualified prospects to the decision they need to work with you. 

Some "experts" are seeing the recent declines in the time people are spending on Facebook as a clear signal that Facebook is dying.   I think their predictions are a bit premature.  Facebook is still huge social media platform so don't count them out yet.   This week we talk about some of the changes in demographics and user behavior, the addition of hastags, the over use of ads and most importantly, what all these changes mean to small business owners.