Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to get word of mouth working for you

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Word of mouth is powerful. A prospective client, for example, will expect YOU to say how great your product or service is, but when Bob or Sue tells their buddy how brilliant you are, that REALLY has an impact!

With websites and blogs, word of mouth can also be an extremely powerful way to get your message to a wider audience. However, to benefit from it, you need to do 2 things:

1. Avoid generic content

Thanks to “Social Media Guru’s” telling bloggers they need to blog as often as possible, there’s a lot of generic content ‘out there’.

However, when you think of the articles, websites or blogs that YOU have recently shared with people, they will be the ones that stood out in some way.  That was what made them worth sharing!  Maybe it was an article that made you laugh out loud or a blog post that made you think about something in a different way. Maybe it was a powerful piece of advice or some information that gave you an answer you had been searching for.

What it probably wasn’t, was one of those awful, generic posts that get written when someone follows their Social Media Guru’s list of “50 things to blog about!”

Focus on quality, not frequency. I often blog just once or twice a week, because I will only write when I have something to share, which I believe is of value.  I refuse to blog just to feed Google or fill someones RSS reader with crap.

As a direct result, this blog already has over 11,000 inbound links and an amazingly high number of readers / comments for a 4 month old blog!

2. Make it easy to share your work

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to share your content. If you look at the bottom of this post, you will see the ‘sharethis‘ link. With one click of that link, you can share this post with your friends via all the major social bookmarking websites. You can also ‘tweet‘ this post from there and even email it to a friend. I now get a stack of new readers from social bookmarking sites, often over 2,000 a day.  By the way, I have no connection with the people who make sharethis, I just use it and like it.

I hope you found this useful – if you did, share it!

Convert your readers into clients!

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Would you like to convert more of your readers into paying clients or customers?  If you would, then this post might be just what you are looking for!  That’s because I am about to tell you one of the most common reasons that sites have poor conversion rates and also, how to fix it.

Convert readers into clients

In order for a site to convert readers into clients or customers (herein called clients) it first needs to be attracting the correct profile of readers.  You might be the best widget maker in the business, but if your site doesn’t attract people that are interested in buying widgets, it’s never going to convert.  When people think about attracting the right profile of people to their sites, they usually think exclusively of SEO.  So, they get their site’s optimized for the key words and phrases that they believe their target client profile will be looking for.

So far, so good!

However, in many cases, the site owner then shoots themselves in the foot by writing content for their site, which is written for totally the wrong audience!  For example, web designers often have blogs that are filled with posts about the latest coding tricks or the most useful piece of specialist design software.

Here’s the challenge with that approach: The only people interested in those subjects are their fellow web designers. NOT prospective clients!

Keyword density

Not only is that kind of content only going to appeal to fellow web designers, it’s also going to miss many of the words or phrases required, to help them attract the right search engine traffic.  Part of the process Google uses, when determining what words to rank your site for, is something called keyword density.  This is the number of times keywords are repeated within a page of text, in relation to the other words.  When you write your web pages or blog posts for the wrong audience, your keyword density will score too high for the wrong terms and too low for the correct terms.  As a result, your search engine traffic could be largely from the wrong profile of people.

I just saw a web hosting provider’s website, packed from page to page with technical specs, hardware combinations, buzz words and industry slang; rather than messages that their prospective clients will be interested in.  They should be primarily speaking about how their services will help businesses to maintain a fast, reliable online presence.  The software and hardware they use is important, but it needs to be worked into that message.  They should be clearly stating the commercial benefits of using their services and giving people a call to action.

The marketing value of focused copy writing

If you are reading this blog post, there’s an extremely high probability that you are a business owner.  Moreover, you probably own a small to medium-sized business too.  That’s because 100% of the material here is written for business owners.  As a result, this blog ranks highly on search engines for many phrases and terms relevant to business owners, who want to improve their marketing.  Equally, people share the posts here with business owners via social networking sites, because my posts are all written for my prospective client profile; which are small business owners.

So, if you want to convert more of your readers into clients, start off my making sure that you are actually writing for the correct profile of readers.  This means writing in their language, about topics they are interested in and likely to be looking for; such as common challenges within their industry and how you can help them.

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Just because Bob can, does not mean he should!

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One of the great things about being in business today, is that we can get an idea, write it down, click a mouse button and get it in front of thousands of people in seconds.  Better still, we can reach all these people for little more than the cost of our time.  However, instant communications also present us with a challenge.

The marketing challenge of free, instant communications

Not that long ago, it would cost a small business owner a lot of money, to send a traditional mail shot via the postal service to a few thousand people.  It would take ages to print out all those letters and even the ink was expensive.  Then you had to fold them, stuff them into envelopes and either stick a stamp on each envelope or frank each one.  Because the cost in both time and money was so significant, people thought long and hard about what they wrote and who they sent those letters to.  Every letter needed to count, when you were paying hundreds or maybe thousands for each mail shot!

Today, Bob can write an email during his coffee break and send it to his list, with the click of a mouse button.  It will cost him nothing and take seconds.

As a result of this shift, you and I now find our email inboxes and social media streams, regularly littered with a lot of low value crap, from people like Bob.

Of course, the smartest business owners and marketers out there, are even more focused on the quality of their messages today than they were a decade ago.  They know that in order to stand out in a world full of “Bobs”, their messages have to be professionally crafted.  They also ensure that they only send their messages to people who are interested and who have given them permission to get in touch.

While people like Bob are filling the marketplace with low quality, badly targeted messages and getting added to an ever increasing number of blacklists, the savvy business owners and entrepreneurs are taking a different, less common route.  They are focusing on value first, volume second.  For them, quality comes before quantity.  They send the right message, to the right people. It’s such a simple concept, yet it’s becoming increasingly rare.

Just because there’s little financial cost attached to sending emails or using social media sites, doesn’t mean we won’t end up paying a hefty price for using them ineffectively.  If we get it wrong, we risk simultaneously damaging our reputation and missing out on an avalanche of new business and opportunities.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Blogging perfection?

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Are you interested in improving the regularity and value of your blogging?  If you are, you might find this post extremely useful!

I was recently asked how long I spent, writing my blog posts.  The answer I gave was that it usually takes me between 20 to 30 minutes; occasionally a little longer.  The guy who asked me, said that he often spends a couple of hours writing a single post.  This is something I hear about a great deal – people who love the idea of blogging, but who find it takes too long to produce great content regularly.  This makes it very hard to build a substantial readership or develop a community around the blog’s readers.

Blog posts do not need to be perfect

I’ve spoken with dozens of bloggers, who are only able to publish a post a handful of times a month or so, and in almost every case, their problem is that they are seeking perfection from every post.  The challenge with the perfectionist-blogger’s mindset, is that it stifles their creativity.  It clogs up momentum.  In my opinion, it also makes the blogger seem less natural or personable too – which is a BIG mistake, if you want your readers to identify with you as a person!

One of the great things about writing a blog, is that errors can not only be fixed (if you wish;) they often open up great debates in your blog’s comment section.  Yes, you should always strive to make what you write as good, valuable and clear as possible, but ultimately, you need to give yourself permission to be human.  This means allowing yourself the freedom to be just 99% right, occasionally ;)

A blog post or a special report?

Another reason why many people find it takes them so long to write their blog posts, is that they write such LONG posts.  Some of these posts are so detailed, that they read more like special reports, than blog posts.  Now, for those people, who are happy with blogging less often and writing GREAT, long, detailed posts – this is perfect.  However, if you blog (like I do) as a way to market your services and you want people to regularly get involved with your blog and contribute – you may want to think about shorter, punchier posts.

I know that many people struggle with brevity.  Some find it hard to make their points in few words, others feel that the length of a post is a key determinate of that post’s value.  I can tell you from experience, that most popular posts on this blog, are usually the shorter ones!

Your blogging tips

I know that many of you are bloggers and I would LOVE to hear your tips, for producing great quality, regular content.  It would be great if you could share your ideas here, with your fellow readers and myself!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Google, link exchanges and you!

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Do you get emails from people you don’t know, asking you to do link exchanges with them?  If you do, before you decide to do the exchange, please consider the following very carefully.

Link Exchanges: A brief overview

The reason people want you to exchange links with them is simple: The more links pointing to a site, the higher it will rank with Google and Co.

In fact, the number (and quality) of links pointing to your site, is the single most important part of your SEO (search engine optimization).  So, SEO companies regularly send emails to thousands of people asking for links, hoping to increase the number and quality of links that point to their customer’s websites and blogs.  Usually, the higher your Google Page Rank, the more requests you will get.

Link exchanges: The risks

Link exchanges and the old “Switcheroo”: Increasingly, people are building what look like regular websites and asking for link exchanges.  Then, after a set number have been gathered, the site is transformed into a scam site.

This switch tactic is starting to gather pace and as I will explain in a moment, it’s not a good idea for you to link to sites, which Google considers “spammy”, as they call it. If you HAVE already offered links to people you do not know, it might be worth checking their site out again.

Link exchanges into bad neighbourhoods: Linking to the wrong kind of sites can also see YOUR site penalised (see below.)  Bad neighbourhoods exist on the Internet, just like they do in the off-line world.  In online terms, a bad neighbourhood is a site that is considered by the search engines to be spammy or dubious in some way.

Google does not like link exchanges: If you want to attract visitors from Google, you need to know that Google considers link exchange schemes as a violation of their guidelines and that they will penalise sites, which they believe are involved in them.  You can learn about Google’s policy on link exchanges here – Along with a link that you can use to resubmit your site, if you are already being penalised.

Why is Google so strict on these exchanges?  It sees them as a way of deliberately trying to manipulate their page ranking system.  This system is how they deliver search results, and those results are what keep people using Google – and allows Google to make the BIG advertising bucks!

Legitimate linking?

The general consensus is you should link to people, when appropriate for what YOU want to achieve.  If you want to share other sites, posts, articles or online resources – link to them.

Where do I stand on this?

I get link exchange emails at least half a dozen times every day and I delete them.

Why?

Because I refuse to associate my name or reputation with someone I don’t know.  I don’t really care what Google thinks about my blog, but I DO care passionately about the 15 years I have spent building my business and my brand and I won’t risk negatively impacting that.

Ultimately, you need to do what you believe is right for what YOU want to achieve.  I just think it’s useful to have some additional info, so the next time you get a link exchange request, you can make the right judgement for YOU – NOT the other guy!

Don’t get a bad name!

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If you are starting a new business or launching a new product or service, it’s really important to get the name right.  Sadly, it’s very easy to get it wrong and end up wasting a lot of time and money trying to unpick the mess!

So, here are 3 tips to help you get it right first time:

Choose a name that’s attractive and positive

The name should create an attractive, positive image in the mind of those who hear or read it.  This is because people think in pictures.  We hear a word and BOOM – We build a mental picture.  For example, it’s hard to think of the word elephant, without seeing the image of an elephant in our mind.

So, pick a name that creates the kind of image that your target market will be attracted to.

Choose a name that’s easy to spell

If you give your business a name that’s hard to spell and people go looking for it on a search engine, there’s a real possibility they will not find you.

Famously, a search engine launched last year with 33 million dollars of investment behind it, which was called cool dot com (but spelt cuil.com.)  One of the many reasons given for its failure, is that people were hearing all the buzz about cool.com, when they should have been going to cuil.com.

The bottom line here, is that a tricky to spell name creates unnecessary additional barriers between you and people looking for your services.

Think about the URL

It makes sense to pick a name, which has a version of it’s URL available – so you end up with a relevant website address.  There are also some huge SEO benefits from picking your name / URL wisely.

Here’s a quote from a post I wrote about the importance of getting the right URL for your business:

“By including the words marketing blog in the URL of this blog, almost every link that points here also includes those 2 words.  This means there are thousands of links, which point here and tell Google that this is a marketing blog.  As a result, anyone searching for marketing blog or marketing blogs etc on Google, will find this blog on page one; even though there are over 100 MILLION results listed.“