You must be prepared to involve with every one of the sorts of contacts provided in the previous paragraph – a process that is a lot easier stated than done. Inevitably, these contacts are individuals, so they are normally responsive to a specific method. Research the potential customers you speak to – and get a feeling of their priorities, individual preferences, and seniority within your company.

Additionally, understand the common measure that joins you – the company you work for. Know the ins and outs. Recognize the market and find out where the business stands compared to the competition. Do you have a feeling of the pain factors and can you deal with every one of these aspects when talking to someone you engage with around this? Longer sales cycles In 2023, greater than a 3rd (35%) of customers intended to make fewer purchases due to a possible economic crisis – and we expect this pattern to continue into 2024. As purses tighten, sales cycles lengthen. Customers take more time to make acquiring decisions and tend to increase the arguments during the process.

Rather than spreading yourself throughout numerous leads, focus your energy on involving yourself with potential customers, who are most likely to convert. By raising your communications with these leads, you will certainly use your time better and boost your opportunities of closing a sale.

Furthermore, take into consideration using adaptable pricing plans. Amongst sales representatives who offer freemium choices, a staggering 90% state, it is „really reliable“ at converting potential customers right into paying customers. Offering a complimentary device or widget, item trial, appointment, or service list can boost your exposure early in the sales procedure.

More consumers strategically … Brand Name Ambassador

Marketing-Experts have actually long thought that a good solution is the very best advertising and marketing.

A lot more especially: Faithful customers that share their favorable buying experience are a lot more relied on than advertisements. So why not utilize them to benefit your service? The secret to success is recognizing the most influential clients and turning them right into brand-name ambassadors. It indicates building a trusting relationship with your clients by not only guaranteeing an excellent level of service, yet also surpassing your expectations and providing included worth that fully fulfills your passions. It’s difficult, however it deserves it. Diese will absolutely result in an increased return on your advertising and marketing financial investments.

More consumers strategically … By creating your very own motivation program to urge the promotion of your brand name and offering multiple possibilities for such activities through social media sites and apps such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, your base of faithful clients will continuously expand without any unique initiative on your part. In the direction of a customer: First way of thinking Going forward, focusing on purchaser rate of interests will certainly have a greater effect on just how sales reps perform their sales efforts. When we think about the concept of „customer initially“, it redefines the paradigm. We need to take a closer consideration of just what buyers wish to purchase and how we decide to offer them what they want. It has to do with ending the old mindsets, especially the way we approach the customer to offer him the services or the product. The key to overcoming this obstacle is a more consultative, useful and compassionate strategy of selling. Steps such as energetic listening and discussions tailored to figure out the „why“ behind a purchase will certainly be essential in the future. Sales efforts can no longer go to the leading edge of a presentation.

You ought to prevent your possible Reach out to clients who wish to adapt to a buyer-first setting. Focus must be placed on elements such as thorough customer study and relationship building, to adjust to a globe where the customer has the power. Develop a connection with your customer first! „Be there before the sale!“ Acquaint on your own with concepts like customer-centric sales. Learn how to implement your sales efforts without pressing purchasers. Try to plan your initiatives around your prospects’ routines, not your own. Somehow, comprehend your purchasers’ special obstacles and put them first. Steps like those listed below supply them with the best opportunity to much better comprehend and adjust to a world in which the customer has disproportionate power. Brand names will certainly turn to micro-influencers Influencer Marketing has actually gotten on everybody’s lips for several years.

With the devices to develop their own audience, creators – YouTubers, bloggers, Instagrammers – have actually developed huge followings and achieved a condition on par with celebs from more conventional media like TV and Movie.

More consumers strategically … Micro-influencers

Micro-influencers with around 100,000 fans or less are now being taken seriously by brand names. While big-name-Influencers charge upwards of $10,000 per blog post, micro-Influencers typically cost a lot less: a few hundred dollars to absolutely nothing more than a cost-free gift of their product.

Micro-influencers likewise tend to have actually an extra involved target market about their total number than bigger influencers. Often the average interaction rate of 5 % doubles for mega-influencers. In 2024, brand names will create lasting relationships with relevant micro-influencers as part of their influencer advertising, to build bigger areas and raise consumer counting and loyalty. Make the most of chances to connect with YouTubers and influencers.

Lay the foundation for an effective business year now, act, and demand your custom-made project strategy now.

Read also Part I. – Draw in much more consumers strategically and smartly.

More consumers strategically and smartly … According to a study of over 1,000 sales professionals, one of the biggest challenges facing sales reps was attracting attention from competitors; 26% of participants said it was a major issue. Differentiation is an essential issue in virtually every field, and sales is no exception.

Salesmen are among the most crucial players when it comes to differentiating their company from the competition. Firms are characterized by their certain value, and at its core, sales is the process of communicating that worth as effectively as feasible. And when your sector is flooded with a selection of alternatives that all offer the exact same basic purpose, this procedure can become complex and aggravating. Resolving this difficulty begins with figuring out worth via understanding—recognizing exactly how your product and services work, what sector you remain in, your buyer personalities, who your straight rivals are, and just how they’re trying to stand out from others.

Naturally, that’s a great deal to track, and creating that understanding is easier said than done, but you require all of it if you want to develop an effective value suggestion. Know the functions of your offering and the benefits that come with it, inside and out.
Research the companies in the sector you serve completely to determine typical discomfort points. Talk with your existing customers about why you picked your option. Develop a solid picture of the prospect who might purchase from you and adapt it as your landscape changes. Comprehend your rivals as long as it is feasible. What do they provide that they don’t? Where are you stronger? Where are you weak? Do you have functions you don’t have? Do you charge a more affordable rate? The special value your business can provide forms the basis for your distinction.

If you wish to stick out from your competitors, you need to understand what makes your company unique. If you can do that and sell on that basis, you’ll be in a solid position to stick out from your competitors. Find clients! For 49% of marketing professionals, the main goal around sales is to enhance client acquisition, as B2B research-based marketing company Ascend2 exposed in its 2020 digital marketing report. It’s a local business myth that customers just appear. The process of acquiring brand-new consumers can be costly and specifically testing for smaller companies that do not have the exact same budget (and heavyweight) as larger businesses.

More consumers strategically and smartly …

Mid-sized organizations, small company proprietors, self-employed individuals, and aiming business owners have numerous means to bring in brand-new customers without being a household name. Initially, place yourself on your own as a specialist in your industry by producing a blog and uploading helpful content that demonstrates your understanding to potential customers. Second, maximize your local business web site for online search engine optimization to boost website traffic and conversion.

Along with utilizing the best methods, like enhancing page speed and creating a boosted customer experience, you also wish to track your success by keeping track of the right key efficiency indicators (KPIs). To blog! Blog writing isn’t disappearing anytime quickly. Not only does material advertising help raise brand reliability and boost conversions, but it is also one of the most typical methods for customers to uncover brand-new brand names. 77% of people check out blogs frequently, and 56% have acquired something from a brand name after checking out one or more blog posts.

Furthermore, brand names have their own blog sites, so they are not at the mercy of transforming algorithms or social media fads. They offer a regular center for academic, enjoyable, and interesting web content that keeps consumers on the website and loyal. Brand names can develop entire blogging microsites as part of their content marketing approach. Visitors can search for essays, suggestions, and podcast episodes as part of the purchasing experience. That creates trust. Content is king! Quality and creativity are very important.

Every online electronic source becomes an asset for your company. Both consumers and services seek original web content from brand names when making choices. Material advertising continues to be crucial to the success of a business. Simply creating articles to generate leads and website traffic may not be enough.

Companies need to begin establishing material centers and embracing numerous web content techniques to stay pertinent.

The content must provide high-quality information that piques the interest of your customers. Video clip material remains to preponderate, with brief video clip web content seeing a significant increase in appeal as a result of its effectiveness, surpassing infographics and articles.

The quick growth of short-form video clips aligns well with the fast-moving focus period of online target markets across varied demographics.
Go for a variety of content with videos, white papers, and other rich media to involve your audience.

By creating and purchasing a well-organized content center, your search engine optimization method can expand and be affordable in the long term.

More consumers strategically and smartly … Social media!

Social media for communication, branding, and advertising. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and numerous social networks with videos, podcasts, and prominent social media sites as marketing platforms will boost sales. When a service or product is promoted on any of the above platforms, client views and exposure boost.

Businesses and consumers alike are ending up being more open concerning social media sites and increasingly accepting of various kinds of material. This subsequently makes marketing an item’s brand name simpler because of the mass reach of these platforms.
Influencers who succeed on social networks will certainly be a good selection, as there is something to match every organization. From mega-influencers with a million followers to nano-influencers with just a thousand followers, companies can look to target influencers that are the best market for their target social networking platform.

User-generated content (UGC), Tik Tok effects, Instagram filters, and branded hashtags are simply a couple of ways companies are getting entailed. The popularity of such content is anticipated to increase as it drives engagement and increases understanding of services.
Amazon SG has actually done a terrific brand name influence project utilizing TikTok as a medium and its branded hashtag challenge, UnboxAmazonPrimeSG. The result? Amazon SG got to 9 hundred thousand individuals with its Unbox AmazonPrimeSG Branded Hashtag Challenge and garnered almost four million overall unique video sights, with more than 8 thousand overall video clips developed for the obstacle.

Lay the foundation for an effective business year now, act, and demand your custom-made project strategy now.

Read also Part II. – Draw in much more consumers strategically and smartly.

Viral e-Book…

E-books, or electronic books, are HTML or PDF-based files that are distributed and presented in a downloadable file. This file does not require any special software installation and will open on your reader’s desktop simply by clicking on it.

E-books are fully interactive and can contain almost anything that a standard web page can contain, e.g., links, graphics, forms, JavaScript, and videos.

Creating an e-book to use as a viral marketing tool is a smart way to increase traffic, leads, and sales!

Viral e-Book…
E-books are great marketing tools.

Offering a high-quality free e-book on your website is a great way to get your visitors coming back to your website, thereby also keeping your products and services in the spotlight of your future customers. So they can buy from you as soon as you are ready.

This can be achieved by including links to more information on your website in your e-book and, in the process, providing your readers with special offers (for e-book readers).

The key to publishing an effective free ebook is choosing a topic that will be of interest to your prospective customers. Include multiple links to your website and your products or services in your e-book.

Viral e-Book…
Increase the distribution of your e-book.

While giving your visitors your ebook for free to get repeat traffic is a good marketing strategy, it’s also a great strategy to allow your visitors to distribute your ebook.

If your ebook is good, here is an example of how powerful it can be:

10 of your visitors download your e-book.
These 10 visitors are giving away or distributing 3 e-books each, for a total of 30.
These 30 each give away/distribute three e-books – a total of 90
These 90 each give away/distribute three e-books, for a total of 270.
These 270 each give away/distribute three e-books – a total of 810
These 810 each give away/distribute three e-books – a total of 2430
7290 of these 2430 are giving away/distributing three e-books each.
     …

Ensure that your e-book can be freely distributed by your readers by telling them they are free to do so.

Here’s some sample text to include in your e-book to help its distribution go viral: “This e-book may be freely distributed, used as a free bonus that you may sell, included in membership sites and packages, and used as an incentive to attract new subscribers to your publication.”

The key to using this technique effectively is to create a quality e-book that contains information that will be of interest to your prospective customers—information that will absolutely delight your readers. Information that is of value to them, that they would even pay for, and that they absolutely want to get their hands on!

Please remember that you should not write a cheap little ebook of little or no value filled with ads and expect it to be successful. Your e-book MUST look good and professional, so good in fact that your readers would buy it, to be used as a viral marketing tool!

E-books can be powerful online tools for internet marketing and are predestined for viral marketing! By creating a small, high-quality e-book of in-demand information, you can create an ongoing promotional tool that will work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for years to come. Your e-book can be viewed by millions of internet users simply by gifting it.

If you also want a viral e-book as a sales magnet for your company, then talk to us!

With that claimed, let’s take a look at what makes electronic books so essential and special.

Digital publications, e-books are part of the on-line globe.

They are a reliable tool for the exchange of marketing details, ideas, and techniques, as well as expertise. The variety of people accessing the Internet is increasing every day.

Which means that the direct presence of your e-book as a digital publication gradually enhances. It’s evident why electronic self-publishing has really become so popular so rapidly.

I really hope the posting sector has no intention of tossing the published word into the dustbin of history. If they were to go away, printed books, which have their own merits, as well as the globe, would be poorer.

With that said, let’s have a look at what makes electronic books special as well as so vital.
Digital Books: Electronic books have unique abilities and high qualities that other mediums do not have.

E-books are relatively easy to generate. All you require is a terrific idea, the capacity to create it or hire an author, and the ideal software application.

In addition, electronic books are disseminated swiftly and easily online. Due to this adaptability, electronic books can expand and also transform as swiftly as feasible.
Electronic books are additionally offered promptly. You don’t have to go to a bookstore or sift through unrestricted titles in an online book shop.

All you have to do is download the e-book of your interest from a website, and voila! It jumps onto your computer or tablet computer and can be reviewed.

Digital publications are interactive. This is among the most certain and unique qualities that e-books offer.

They can include studies that need to be completed, order forms for customers to purchase your products or goods, audios and videos that draw your site visitors into the electronic world of your publication, as well as straight links to relevant sites. The possibilities are almost endless.

E-books have a certain sustainability that media like TV and radio spots don’t have. These areas are broadcast once and can then be repeated several times.

Digital publications remain on your computer for as long as you want, and they can be reviewed and reread whenever you desire.

E-Books … An additional superb attribute is that electronic books have no barriers with regard to print.

All electronic books need an author and an optimal software application. Recognize your market, write your book, promote it on your web site and also on social media, and, with the appropriate advertising skills, your electronic book will certainly reach your designated audience.

You have imaginative control over your digital book. You do not need to jeopardize anything if you do not want to.
Just how to make use of publications for advertising and marketing, advertising as well as promotion

There are many ways to utilize electronic books to advertise your business and also drive high-quality internet traffic to your web site. Once published on your site, you can turn your electronic book right into an everyday online program that will drive your clients to check out the next phase. You can use them as a free gift for buying or sending a study.

Put your electronic book on disc, and you have an awesome sales brochure as well. Strike a bargain with your competitors by including this disc straight into your sales plans for your clients.

The most effective marketing items are those that are unique. Obtain your publication’s copyright, and you’ll promptly have an effective advertising vehicle that you and only you can provide to your possible customers. Individuals need to visit your internet site to get your e-book, which improves the circulation of high-quality web traffic and the possibility for leads as well as sales produced.

Ensure your electronic book stays up-to-date. Revitalize it gel-wise as well as adapt it to the current market realities. Include instructions and special hints and pointers to reveal to your potential customers exactly how your items or remedies can improve their lives. By keeping your electronic book up-to-date, you can continue to take advantage of your publication years after it was first created.

One more noteworthy benefit of e-books is that you can explore their advertising and marketing chances without spending any money at all.

If essential, this allows you to establish the reach and effect of your eBook and also make changes. With electronic books, you can collect information about your market and customer routines, as well as motivations, in real time at no added price. You will certainly receive vital advertising information that you can use in several locations of your company.

Use your digital book to discover the particular objectives and issues that exist in your specific market. Find out how you can solve these problems as well as release a digital publication with these important details. This boosts your market reach, and you will be perceived by your future clients as a qualified and trustworthy resource. This increases your earnings, your record, and the value of your firm.

Using electronic books helps minimize the costs for the individual production of different advertising materials. You can use a single electronic book to draw in brand-new leads as well as target new write-ups to your existing consumers.

Few mediums have this sort of versatility as well as the additional capability to expand. Think of your digital book as a tool that weaves an attractive as well as thoughtful web. The more you develop this device, the more prospective customers you will certainly reach in this way.

There are many ways to make use of e-books to advertise your business and drive high-quality web traffic to your internet site. Individuals certainly need to see your site to download your publication, which increases online website traffic and also the chance for lead generation and also sales.

By staying up-to-date with brand-new fads and strategies, you can continue to monetize your electronic book years after it was initially released.

There are countless ways to use e-books to advertise your organization and drive top-quality internet traffic to your website. Once released on your website, you can turn your electronic book into an everyday online training course that will drive your customers to review the next chapter. People need to visit your internet site to get your electronic book, which improves the circulation of top-quality web traffic and also the capacity for leads as well as sales produced.

By keeping your electronic book up-to-date, you can continue to benefit from your publication years after it was first generated.

With electronic books, you can collect details concerning your market and consumer habits as well as motivations over time at no additional cost.

If you also want a viral e-book as a sales magnet for your company, then talk to us!

So, as Google continues to enforce their hold in search engine superiority, the site owners should also try to do their best to make sure they don’t get on its bad side. That’s why with the dawn of the new year, it’s time to make some new SEO adaptations as well.

These are the things you should look out for in your SEO strategies for 2015.

Broad Keywords Don’t Cut It Anymore

Using general one-word keywords have resulted in great traffics for sites that have successfully opted for them, however, the strategy of using them is slowly getting unconventional. They rank slow and take a lot of time, effort and money to do so. Now, long-tail keyword phrases are becoming the favored ones as they get the attention of the right traffic for one’s site. Ranking up these keywords will be much easier as they will obviously have lesser competition compared to short-tailed keywords.

Doing your research for the best keyword phrase before picking one will always be the optimal marketing strategy. Plan your moves ahead and try to determine which keywords will your consumers likely use when searching for your business niche.

ROI Metrics > Keyword Rankings

While showing up on the top of the rankings for relevant search queries does sound nice for your business, it won’t do anything good unless you get some cash flowing in. Focusing your efforts solely on strengthening your keyword rankings is a foolhardy move – instead, you should avert your efforts to determining how your return on investments are going. If anything else, knowing how many inbound links, leads and sales you’ve gained on your latest marketing efforts would definitely be better than hearing a report on how you’re doing on your keyword rankings.

Trying Out Other Search Engines

When it comes to search engine providers, Google is King. However, that doesn’t mean the others should just be tossed aside. There’s Yahoo and Bing to name a few major players in this game as well. The decision of Firefox to use Yahoo instead of Google as their default search engine speaks volumes of how the search engine industry might be undergoing an upheaval – this is further followed by the expiration of Google’s contract with Safari as well.

So while Google should remain as your main search engine focus, making sure your site is also visible on other search engines would also be very beneficial for you.

Organic Link Building

One truth that remained unchanged ever since SEO was introduced was the importance of links. On the first stages, a lot marketers and site owners alike managed to exploit these links to put their sites to the top of Google’s SERPs, but that only made Google pissed. When they released Panda, these unethical and downright spammy linkbuilding strategies also made their exit. Blackhat SEO still utilize the use of this, but if you’re discovered by Google, consider your site ranking gone.

What one needs to do is to build links naturally. Create posts and post them on popular sites or create great content for your viewers to link back to you. There are a lot of methods out there that you can use to those links honestly without having to get on Google’s bad side

Social Media Application

Facebook and Twitter aren’t simply sites where people interact with one another. These platforms have also become quite efficient tools when it comes to marketing. However, most of these netizens have finally wised up to various marketing strategies in social media. What you need to do this time is to make your approaches up close and personal.

Try to get to know your viewers and readers and interact with them. Don’t just shoot up some random post from your site and expect them to read all about it. Your social media outlets aren’t just a means to share your content easily – it’s an effective tool to get to know your clients better by interacting with them.

Google will continue to apply the necessary changes it sees fit in order to provide the best experience for their users so that they, in turn, will continue using them. And along with those changes, how we see and apply SEO will constantly change as well.

About the author:

Ruben Licera Jr is a new media enthusiast and has written several articles on internet marketing specifically web design, search engine optimization and social media management. You can follow him via Google+ and Twitter .

Whether through lack of content, ideas or time (or all that at a time), many brands on the social network decide to give up or abandon it in favor of more platforms generating benefits, such as may be a Facebook or Twitter.

But the app, which now has 300 million active users worldwide can prove to be a showcase of the DNA of a brand, allowing it to sublimate its products / services and create its own visual identity so instant and creative, to the delight of its customers and / or clients!

When we know more than 46% of its users follow brands, we can understand the interest and the need to read the following 20 tips. So here we go!

20 tips to optimize your use of Instagram:

• – Publish Single & exclusive content: own your brand and and make sure that users will not see your content on other social networks or your competitors, for example.

• – Your post must create the emotion for the user, to allow them to spent a time for their “preferred” brand that they could not live without you! (Well said like that, it may impress, but the idea is there)

• – Think “timeless” do not add time indicators, users must be able to identify your vision no matter what time of day it is!
• – Focus on one item: useless to capture everything dwell instead on an item you want to promote to your subscribers. One you want to make them remember!
• – Crop your photos: center the elements and play with symmetries. These are very popular on “Insta”!

• – Edit photos (sparingly) in addition to the filters, many settings are available in post-production (brightness, contrast, shadows, etc.) and you will get a unique look and quality, but do not overdo it, your subscribers might not like it!

• – Avoid glare: some textures, such as shop windows for example, reflect the opposite view and disturb the final rendering. Try to take your photos in simple, natural environments.

• – Do not rely on managers: some proposed frameworks can distract the user from the content of your photo, avoid them whenever possible.
• – Be concise: Limit descriptions of your photos 4-5 lines maximum.
• – Do not add any text or logo on your photos (point).

• – Add hashtags: they generate 12.6% more engagement, but do not overdo it! We must stay consistent and not try at all costs to benefit from the popularity of a “word-pound” that had no connection with your content.
• – Hire your customers: the pictures showing consumers using your products receive 30% more engagement, a bargain! But do not forget to ask permission to owners of pictures before re-published with the account of your brand.
• – Choose a fairly broad term-back: you will get 29% of “likes” and more!
• – Prefer publications on Wednesday (+ 1% of commitment) and Sunday (+ 6% of commitment).

• – Post in the mornings: photos generate maximum commitment in the morning between 6 am and 11 am, depending Over-Graph.

• – Choose wisely your filters: for example, the filter “Mayfair” gives rise 2% more engagement with the filter “Toaster”…
• – Show your face: the pictures containing faces get more commitment and comments than others!

• – See life in blue: publications where the blue color dominates are very popular and earn 24% of “likes” and more!
• – Step into the light: the light shots get 25% of “likes” and more.
• – Choose images rather than videos: these are less efficient than 26%. The question is whether the new Instagram of the week (auto loop playback videos in the news wire) will change the situation…

Bonus: You can get inspiration from these eight successful brands on Instagram (And no, there are no Starbucks and Coca-Cola)!

• @urbanoutfitters
• @jumpman23
• @redbull
• @hermes
• @natgeo
• @gopro
• @nike
• @dior

Authors bio:

Stephen E. Karsch was born and raised in Bern, Switzerland. Stephen is a technology geek and loves everything about tech, high tech, computers and programming. He graduated from Bern University of Applied Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in Business Information Technology. You can get in touch with Stephen on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.

As a core markup language, HTML5 has been used by web designers across the globe. The growing urge for including multimedia into websites has encouraged web designing professionals to use HTML5 programming language.

The sole reason behind using HTML5 is to design websites that are easily readable by humans and consistently understood by all internet-enabled devices including web browsers, parsers etc. HTML5 came into the limelight when handling media via plugins had become a tedious job.

With the inception of HTML tags and elements, it has been convenient for web designers to build websites that are compatible with all major web browsers including Apple, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc.

If you’re a web designing expert looking ahead to design a HTML5 website, there’s a range of tags and elements you need to be aware of. My aim behind writing this post is to make you familiar with some brand new HTML5 tags which you can’t miss out. So, let’s dive into these tags, demonstrating the function of each one individually.

1. The all-new HTML5 Form Input Types and Attributes

Recently, HTML5 has introduced 13 new input types and attributes for the already existing <form> and <input> tags.

Here, you need to remember that not all web browsers fully support HTML5’s new types and attributes. Some impressive features added to this amazing HTML5 form include the built-in placeholder, innovative input types and browser-based validation.

Here’s an example of the brand new HTML5 Form containing input types including email, url and number and HTML input attributes including required, pattern, min, max and placeholder.

<form id=”myform”>

Name: <input name=”name” required placeholder=”Your name” pattern=”[A-z]{7}” />

<br/>

Email: <input type=”email” name=”email” required placeholder=”email@inwebson.com”/>

<br/>

URL: <input type=”url” name=”url” placeholder=”Homepage URL”/>

<br/>

Age: <input type=”number” name=”age” min=”18″ max=”99″ />

<br/>

Description: <textarea name=”desc” placeholder=”Describe yourself here…”></textarea>

<br/>

<input type=”submit” value=”Submit” />

</form>

2. Brand new HTML5 Audio and Video support

Unlike the hassles associated with using a third-party plugin for embedding an audio or video file, HTML5 now brings you a new way to embed media using the <audio> and <video> tags. The only downside of this HTML5 feature is that currently it is being supported only by limited number of web browsers. Here’s an example of how using the <audio> and <video> tags can let you embed media files, without the need for installing any plugins:

Case1- When we intend to embed an audio file

<audio controls="controls">

   <source src="audio.mp3" type="audio/mp3" />

   <source src="audio.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />

   Your browser does not support the <audio> tag.

</audio>

Case 2- When we intend to embed a video file

<video controls="controls" width="400" height="300">

   <source src="movie.mp4" type="audio/mp4" />

   <source src="media.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />

   Your browser does not support the <video> tag.

</audio>

3. HTML5 Local Storage

The storage of web browser's cookies has always posed major challenges. HTML5 has introduced two new methods of storing data in the user's web browser. These methods are named as localStorage and sesssionStorage, explained below:

• localStorage- This method allows you to store data with no time limit. In other words, you can access the data at anytime and via any window/tab even if the web browser has just been restarted.

<script>

   localStorage.variableName = "value";

   alert(localStorage.variableName);

   localStorage.removeItem("variableName");

   alert(localStorage.variableName);

</script>

• sessionStorage- This method allows you to store the data just for a single session. In other words, the data gets deleted each time the user closes his/her browser window.

<script>

   sessionStorage.variableName = "value";

   alert(sessionStorage.variableName);

   sessionStorage.removeItem("variableName");

   alert(sessionStorage.variableName);

</script>

4. HTML5'S contenteditable attribute

Web designers have always been keen on adding content editing feature into their websites. HTML5 understands this concern of web designing experts and has hence come up with a trendy attribute called contenteditable. If paired with the HTML5 local storage feature, contenteditable attribute can turn to be much more useful. Here's the declaration code associated with HTML5's conteneditable attribute:

<div contenteditable="true">

   Any content here will be editable...

</div>

5. HTML5 Canvas

2D shapes, animations and graphics have become the most sought-after elements on a web page. With HTML5, you can choose to include the same with the help of JavaScript. Below is the HTML code that displays a simple HTML5 Canvas declaration:

<canvas id="myCanvas" width="200" height="200"></canvas>

 <script>

   var c=document.getElementById("myCanvas");

   var ctx=c.getContext("2d");

   ctx.fillStyle="#0000FF";

   ctx.fillRect(0,0,150,150);

</script>

Summing Up

This was just a hand-picked collection of tags and elements introduced by HTML5. There's a lot more that the markup language has got in store for you. It's up to you to explore the same for affirming 100% success in all your web designing ventures.

Thanks for reading. Please take out a few minutes to jot down your views/opinions/suggestions(if any) using the comments box below.

Authors Bio:Sarah Parker is an experienced PSD to WordPress service provider, and a web designer. She loves to share her thoughts on web design and web development trends.  Get in touch with Megan on Google+ and Twitter.

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But these government agencies often struggle with social networking, similar to the medical and financial industries, they are bound by a completely different set of rules and regulations than the average business. Yet still, there are some notable successes when developing smart strategies for content marketing success.

Here are some examples of how our local, State and Federal governments are teaming up to keep us informed and well-educated, from sea to shining sea, during some very difficult times:

Major Construction Ordeal in San Francisco

Many years after repairs were made to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge following the devastating damage from the Loma Prieta Earthquake, a massive project was launched to replace a huge, unsafe section of the bridge. The eastern span replacement was the largest public works project in California history, with an estimated cost at over $6.4 billion dollars, it took over eleven years to complete, eventually making it the widest bridge in the world.

This “Bay” bridge carries one-third of traffic from all the California state owned bridges combined and the resulting gridlock, traffic jams, temporary closures and detours were challenging to say the least. Although the bridge re-opened in 2013, during the decade long construction and transition, the City of San Francisco teamed up with CalTrans, Bay Area Toll Authority, California Transportation Commission, local news services and social media to keep the public informed during this harrowing process. Although minor repairs continue, it is a beautiful site on the SF Bay, comparable to many other great bridges in our nation.

The First Lady’s Nationwide Campaign

Mrs. Michelle Obama has been very busy promoting her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity and endorsing her platform for a more active, health-conscious, future for our nation’s children. Initially, upon launch back in 2010, she was quoted as saying, “The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake.”

The First Lady has been effectively utilizing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote a healthier, more active lifestyle for our children. Posting recipes, videos and pictures from her campaign across multiple channels, Mrs. Obama has also gained celebrity endorsements from famous chefs, comedians and actors across the nation.

Federal Assistance

Our federal government is often there to lend a helping hand, especially during times of tragedy, but there are also over 120 agencies listed on the fed’s website that show their connection to social media, everything from agriculture to The White House. Here our nation’s citizens and small businesses can get assistance from a variety of different branches of our government and see which social media platforms they are utilizing:

• Consumer Financial Protection
• Consumer Product Safety
• Energy Efficiency
• Federal Housing Financing
• Medicare and Medicaid
• Minority Business Development
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Small Business Administration
• Veterans Health and Benefits

While awards are commonly given for big government contracts, perhaps the City by the Bay and our First Lady are worthy of consideration for their achievements with a different kind of recognition. They have both overcome tremendous challenges using content marketing and social media to reach their important audience and ultimately their goals.

Authors Bio:

Megan Ritter is a proud graduate of Marketing from The University of California. Since then she has been working at various Marketing agencies while always submitting informative articles on websites, drawing from her research and experience. Get in touch with Megan on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

If you are a content marketing, sales or marketing professional here are the top three findings to take away from their research:

1. You should call your leads very fast. When Software Advice called a called a lead within 5 seconds, their odds of qualifying them were 29 percent higher than if they called within 5 minutes.

2. The best time of the week to reach buyers is from Tuesday to Thursday. Leads that come during this time of the week were qualified by Software Advice at twice their average qualification rate of other business days.

3. Don’t forgot about the holidays. Their report also found that the week before Christmas is surprisingly active for qualification and conversion rates. There were also many other holidays that had surprisingly active sales opportunities.

As B2B Buyers increasingly research their purchases on the Web, it will become even more important for companies to understand their online behavior. Software Advice’s findings show that calling your sales leads right away can significantly improve your company’s ability to qualify online leads. It is also important for marketing and sales professionals to remember that there are specific times of the year, week and day where you are likely to have more conversions and qualifications. This is important to remember because you should plan your inside sales team’s schedule to maximize your website’s conversions and turn them into qualified leads.

According to Derek Singleton, the author of the report, “Of course, it’s also important to understand that not every buyer deserves a call right away. If a buyer contacts you indirectly—by completing a form to download a whitepaper, access video content, or view other gated material—then you should consider nurturing, rather than calling, the lead. As inside sales and marketing professionals continue to compete for the attention of B2B buyers on the Web, understanding their online behavior will be critical to success.”

To help showcase the key findings of their research, they decided to team up with Salesforce to develop this infographic below:

Use It Everywhere

One of the most important features of Evernote is its ability for use on all devices. Write notes from your desktop or laptop at the office and access them on your smartphone while out with a client with ease and convenience. Fortunately, Evernote is compatible with both Mac and PC operating systems, allowing for an even broader base of users and further functionality.

 Image Courtesy of Mike Atherton of Flickr.com

Keep Your Notes Organized

Many times, people create numerous notes on a project or client that they need to keep long-term. Instead of trying to sort through a mass of paper or locate a random file on the computer, you can create and store those notes in Evernote. Separate each client or project into its own Notebook to help you stay organized and quickly retrieve the information you want.

You can take it a step further and organize your notebooks into what is called a Stack. Say you want to create a list of customers, you could put each one in their own notebook and put all of the notebooks for one sales representative in a stack. The sales rep would leave notes about, contacting the potential customer as well as when an order is placed.

Make It Easy to Find

By giving your notes Tags, you can make it easy to find the information when you do a search. Search by client name, project type, or various other options based on the tags you use. Not only can you use this when you write notes, but it is also helpful when you embed non-written content. One of the most important benefits of Evernote is that you can include PDFs, webpages, images, even audio: whatever format your media is in, Evernote more than likely supports it.

Collaborate

One of the main requirements of any app designed for businesses is that you can share your information with others, whether employees, vendors, or even customers. First, it is important to note that once you download the application to your device, you will have immediate access to all of your notes. In addition, Evernote automatically synchronizes your data every 30 minutes so that everything is updated.

You can also select certain notebooks to share with others, as Premium members can even allow others to edit their notes. For the basic membership, it is a read-only version.

Other Features

While Evernote is not a mainstream inventory control system, online retail sites like Shopify or even pop up stores can keep track of their various products with this app. Use it for basic pricing and even add photos of your most popular items to create a handy portfolio.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.com

Want to give someone access to information from an email? Simply email it to Evernote and it will become a note. Need to keep receipts for business? Just scan it or take a photo of the receipt and save it to your Evernote account. You can also follow this procedure for business cards you receive from seminars and networking events.

Evernote is a great way for small businesses and brand new companies alike to stay organized without spending a lot of money on fancy software programs. It’s simple and user-friendly while providing many of the basic functions a business person would need to thrive and succeed!

When it comes to choosing the most reliable, and state of the art Content Management system, all fingers point to Joomla – and for a cluster of reasons.

A highly diversified blogging platform, Joomla helps website administrators boil their websites with the most hot and happening features to have made their way into the CMS realm.

This power-packed CMS has managed to zoom past the other incredible CMSes, riding on its undiluted fuel of brilliance and adaptability.

When we say adaptability, we refer to the even so unpredictable trends and user demands when it comes to hosting a website on a CMS. The website owners come with a diversified set of requirements for their endeavor and it is not quite possible to catch up if you belong to a herd of website managers who do not use Joomla.

For the Joomla-powered websites however, it is a breeze to stay attuned to the latest in the blogging world and meet the requirements with absolute élan.

Let’s look at why Joomla is a choicest CMS despite the availability of some amazing alternatives:

It is Hassle-Free

A feature that towers above everything else is the user-friendliness of any tool – be it on the Internet, or be it a household item. Sophistication of a particular tool takes a backseat to how simply it can be adopted by the users. If the users of any tool find the adorned up features too hard to understand and handle, there is every possibility they would bounce off to some other alternatives.

This holds true to the last thread with CMSes as well. If the CMS of your website is built such that the addition of new features to it makes things complicated with your website to an extent that the visitors of the site find it extremely hard to navigate through it smoothly, you aren’t helping the numbers in any way. But when your website is hosted on Joomla, you have one less thing to worry about.

With clear-cut tools that are easy to use and apply, Joomla creates an interface that is advanced, and at the same time, does not encrypt things for the users. You do not need to be an expert to set up your website on Joomla. It has some straightforward procedures that are also self-explanatory, thus helping the novices to easily create their own blog.

Versatility Unrivalled

Everyone loves versatile websites. A website that gives visitors great many options to choose from, and interactive layout which facilitates easy navigation is most likely to stay at the top of their minds. With the intuitive Joomla tools and extensions, you can lend your website an incredible structure and layout, and adorn it with state-of-the-art design.

The visual appeal of the website can be enriched using the plugins that are specifically developed to reboot the website’s designs. You also are provided a huge suite of widgets so as to give you ample option in terms of the segregations you want to create on each page. the SEO Joomla features make it all the more worthy.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness is a boon to any website. Unless a website is mobile-ready and compatible with all the browsers, it is of little value on the Internet. the Joomla themes are developed keeping this in mind. Any Jomla site is compatible across different browsers and do not throw up compatibility or loading time issues while opening them on mobile devices either.

The responsive websites are thus lapped up with greater confidence, and helps you improve traffic to your website to a good extent.

A Joomla website comes with these benefits, and some more. Choose wisely.

Author Bio:

Edward Jones is a web developer by profession and a writer by hobby and works for OSSMedia Ltd. a Custom Joomla Development company. He loves sharing information regarding wordpress, Majento, Drupal and Joomla development tips & tricks. If you are looking for Joomla Programmers then just get in touch with him. Connect with Edward Jones on Twitter and Facebook.

The conventional ways to advertise the offerings of companies had become obsolete, to say the least. We needed a fresh approach that would reboot our stratagem and generate a curiosity and interest among our customers one more time. And this is what social media helped us to achieve, ever so seamlessly.

But with all said and done, there are a number of goof-ups that brands unintentionally fall prey to, which fail to bring in the results. While some page owners complain that their page and the corresponding posts fail to get as many likes and shares as they would want, others have complains of an altogether different, but much too common, nature. They are worried about that fact that even though they get some incredible response from their followers on social media in the form of Likes, Shares, Retweets, etc. they do not see much improvement in the sales.

Simply put, the number of hits on their social media accounts do not translate into buyers, and that is something that bothers them – justifiably so.

So, how do they go past these barriers, which in the first place, they don’t know the cause for being there? However, when your social media marketing endeavors is not bringing the desirable results for you, or for that matter, failing to make any impact, it is most likely that the problem lies within your strategies around it. Here are the 3 mistakes you might be making:

Being Too Fancy, Too Funny

Let’s say, if you are managing the page of a Cola brand, you have a target audience that mostly consists of youth. So, posting fancy and funny stuff might just do the trick. But when you are managing the Facebook page of a multinational automobile brand, there has to be more sophistication on the page. You can’t post jokes around Rajnikanth or Justin Bieber and expect more people turning up at your counter to buy cars. Posting funny stuff isn’t bad, but you should make it more attuned to the taste of your audience, which aren’t there just to like and share your posts.

They may have joined you on social media to keep themselves updated with the latest offerings and services by you. Make it a point that at least twice in a week you post something that creates a brand recall value.

Not Interacting with the Followers

Wasn’t that the purpose of the whole exercise? To create a platform that helps your customers interact with you in a more amicable environment? So, why are blatantly ignoring their comments when they enquire about certain products? Once you have created a brand page, you need to ensure that you get involved in one to one conversations and reply to each comment that pertains to your services and products. By doing this, you are only making your customers feel more welcomed. Otherwise, you aren’t making full use of the platform.

Doing Excessive Promotion

So, there is another extreme end of the spectrum. At this end, there are page managers who keep bombarding their followers with the strictly product-oriented posts. Agreed, that was the intention, but when every posts of yours is centered on product promotion, and there is no fun at all, the Unlikes will soon start pouring in. So, try to be on a balanced ground.

Drive these 3 mistakes out of your social media marketing stratagem and you just might have the results you are looking for.

About the auhor:

Maria Mincey is a PHP Development expert who seamlessly delivers focus in her writings. She works for Xicom Technologies, a Offshore PHP Development Company. You can connect with Maria on LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook  and Twitter.

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Since then, the site has continued to grow steadily. And I’m still amazed at the conversion statistics. Currently, the squeeze page converts at 67% and the video sales letter at 8.2%.

If you’re struggling to convert browsers into buyers, here’s the exact strategy I’m using. It works in any niche, but it’s particularly effective in competitive, popular niches like weight loss, make money online and relationship advice.

First Off, Your Product And Market Are Everything

Without a doubt, the #1 factor in my success so far is the product and market. The reality is, people in the “make money online” niche are ready and willing to spend money on products they like. Case studies are generally popular in most markets, but especially so in the internet marketing sphere.

If you have lots of traffic but very few conversions, I would take a good long look at your niche and product or service. Ask yourself honestly, “Are there enough interested buyers around?”

If you’re not sure, I highly recommend paying a visit to the ClickBank marketplace to find out. Simply find the category you’re involved in and see if there’s lots of products with a decent gravity (more than 20-30). If there are, you’re in a good niche; if not, that’s your basic problem.

Ignore The Crowd

The single most important factor in improving your conversion rate is your sales letter. If it works, you have a license to print money. If not, again, you’re fighting a losing battle.

The good news is, it’s very easy to get a sales letter or video to convert, but the key is to go against the grain. Most internet marketers copy each other and that simply doesn’t work anymore.

This is the simple process I use that works very well:

First off, I interrupt the same old, same old. Most people expect to hear a long boring sales pitch or a hyped up motivational success story. So I do the exact opposite. I get straight to the point and reveal exactly what my product does, and more importantly, who it can help and who it can’t.

I’m honest about my intentions. I have no idea why most marketers “hide” the sale until later in the sales funnel, when all you have to do is let people know that you’re in business to make money. Everyone knows that anyway, and it makes it a lot easier to ask for the sale.

Authority, customer advocacy and hope are my most powerful weapons. I’m not afraid to assert myself as a leader, let people know that I have their best interests at heart (because I actually do) and inspire them to take action.

My product is unique, different and interesting. If you’re just another “me too”, it’s very difficult to stand out in today’s marketplace. That’s why I created a case study; instead of teaching people how to make money online, like most people do, I’m just showing what works.

Finally, I use an ultimatum. This strategy is controversial, but it works. I force people to make a decision by giving them a deadline to buy. If they remain indecisive or on the fence when the time limit expires, I simply take them off my list.

The Real Money Is Made On The Back End

Membership sales have steadily grown since launching The Million Dollar Case Study, and it’s nice to have a regular, passive income, but the real profits come from coaching fees.

The truth is, your front end offer very rarely makes much money, especially if you’re paying for traffic. So the key is to offer a high ticket product or service on the back end to make up the difference.

As long as you’re providing genuine value to your customers, and you’re being open, upfront and honest about your expertise and how you can help them, it’s a fantastic way to earn a living.

One Other Thing – I’m Passionate About My Niche

I’m a firm believer in selling products and services you care about, that you’d personally buy yourself. If you’re not successful online, that’s something you should definitely think about.

In the past I’ve sold products in the weight loss and search engine optimization niches. They sold well, but it was always difficult to motivate myself during the tough times.

Once I started doing what I loved, and selling products and services I believed in, it made my job a lot easier. And besides, your customers can pick up on your enthusiasm, so I believe this is one of the most important factors in determining your conversion rate.

And That’s It

As you can see, it’s not hard. If target the right market and sell what people buy, that’s 90% of the battle. Of course, split testing different elements on your page is important (headline, sub headline, benefits, testimonials, the call to action button and so on), but at the end of the day, if no one wants your products or services, you’re fighting a losing battle.

About the author:

Marcus Maclean is the founder & CEO of The Million Dollar Case Study, a live, video case study detailing exactly how he’s building a brand new million dollar membership website from scratch. To watch the case study unfold.

He is also a professional launch jacker. Connect with Marcus Maclean on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus.

]]> https://inblurbs.com/blog/conversion-case-study-how-i-made-7115-from-85-unique-visitors/feed/ 1 https://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-drive-more-facebook-traffic-to-your-website/ https://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-drive-more-facebook-traffic-to-your-website/#comments Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:34:46 +0000 http://inblurbs.com/?p=6067 Continue reading "How to Drive More Facebook Traffic to Your Website"

The overwhelming majority of brands operating on Facebook don’t actually use Facebook to sell their products and/or services.

They use the site primarily to build up an interested audience, to drive brand awareness and reach, and to get hordes of people into their sales funnel.

Facebook is basically a complex advertisement in this sense, and the actual selling takes place offsite. Because of this, many social media marketers are constantly looking for ways to use Facebook to drive traffic back to their main website.

Some are building tremendous Facebook followings, with tons of fans and plenty of engagement, but they’re still having trouble getting people to follow the brand outside of the network.

Here are a few tips to help you drive Facebook traffic directly to your website.

Tips for Using Facebook to Drive Your Website Traffic

1: You Have to Present It!

Believe it or not, some people marketing on Facebook don’t think to include a link to their site in the material they release. Sure, they’ll link to their site in their page’s “About” section, or they’ll mention it in a roundabout way in some other location on the site. But when it comes to actually backlinking the site inside of some update, they neglect to do so. So the first step in getting Facebook traffic to your site is to provide your audience with the destination. This isn’t going to solve the issue by itself, but it’s important that you present people with the destination you want them to reach.

2: Post About Your Site

Maybe you’ve been posting backlinks to your website yet still can’t get traffic there. That’s always a big issue on Facebook, mostly because people need to know a little bit about the destination before they click. At this point in the Internet’s tenure, too many Trojans have been downloaded by too many users for everyone to simply click a link they don’t recognize. So earn some trust and build some interest by actually posting about your site. Have you updated the pages over there? Leave a post about it on Facebook. Perhaps you’ve decided to launch new products, to post new reviews, etc. Write about it in social media and inform people about your site.

3: Make Linked Content More Engaging

Another great way to get people to actually click-through when they see that site link is to create content that’s much more engaging. Content that people Like, comment on and share is also content that people are going to click-through in higher rates. This is where you need to get interesting. Don’t focus on just a little bit of print, like “Click this link.” Be creative. Post video clips, infographics, share other people’s content, ask questions, link inside of polls and quizzes, and get people interested in what they’re reading.

4: Throw Out Some Teasers

The teaser is always a fantastic way to generate traffic. Many people have a deep-seated need to find out what’s on the other side of that classic “knock-knock” line or to shout out “two bits!” after hearing “shave and a haircut.” The teasers really get people going. A question as simple as “Was this a good use of my time?” or “Is it worth the money?” can get people scratching their heads and ready to find out what those teaser questions are about. Or you could go another route and give half of a story, with the line “Here’s how you find out more,” or something along those lines. Tease, and they will come.

5: Be Generous With Your Promotions

Facebook is unique in that you can host a wide range of contests and promotions directly from the site, not needing anything else but perhaps a mass mailer to deal with all the responders. However, Facebook is also used best as an advertising tool. In other words, you can use the social network to inform people about a contest, but you can host it from your main website. This is going to draw a lot of people over. Just make sure that you’re giving them something worth visiting on the other end. Make sure you’re offering the goods and are providing fresh, relevant content to your audience. You want repeat traffic, not just one-time clickers.

As long as you can cater to an audience and strike up some interest on Facebook, you can drive this traffic directly to your website. It just takes a little effort. Make sure you’re including your links, information about your site, and that you’re providing people with a reason to actually visit. If you can do those simple things, Facebook can become one of the main sources of your site traffic.

 

About the author: 

Simon Campbell, a writer from a Facebook ad campaign tool – Qwaya. He loves to write different topics about social media and participates in some communities and forums. You can connect with Simon on  Twitter.

 

 

 

 

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The good news is that it doesn’t take a lot of work to make sure you’re doing the best job possible.

We have collected a list of the five critical steps you need to create a lead generation strategy that will work wonders for you and allow you to excel no matter what industry you’re working in. Keep reading if you want to learn how to make sure you see results.

Photo credits: CreateNWE – European Project

Creating a Lead Generation Strategy

Here’s a look at five specific steps you need to take to increase your lead generation numbers and get better results no matter what industry you’re in currently.

1. Identify Target Market – The first step you want to take is to clearly identify your target market. Who are you going after? This can be further subdivided into smaller groups of people – and should be – but you want to start with a general overview of your target.

2. Build Your List – After you know who you’re targeting, you’ll want to come up with a list of leads from various sources. This may entail researching online or learning about potential leads from people in your network.

3. Offer Value – Before you approach people, it’s a good idea to think about how you’re going to be offering them value. If you skip this step, you’re going to find that it’s harder to get people interested in your pitch. Take the time to really think about how you can offer your different targets real value for their time or money.

4. Create the Offers – Next, you want to make sure you come up with several different ways of pitching your offer depending on who you’re talking to on your list of potential targets. Having this information before you start trying to generate leads can make all the difference in the world. If you want to avoid wasting time, this is something that needs to be done.

5. Target Demographic – Knowing as much as you can about your target demographic is important. For example, if you’re trying to generate leads for a six sigma green belt training class, you’re going to want to make sure you target the right people. In most cases, they’re going to fall into an age range that will make it easier to identify and target them online.

By using the five step process listed above, you’re going to have a lot better chance of actually converting leads into sales, which should be your main goal in the first place. No matter what industry you’re in, taking the time to come up with a proper lead generation strategy beforehand is essential for your success. If you have any tips or advice to add, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you do to increase your chances of converting leads whether they’re cold or hot.

Blogging

The functionality and relevancy of the blogging platform has grown to the point where it is so closely interconnected with internet retail and affiliate marketing, that it’s entirely possible for a well-built and maintained blog to become a full-time job, or even a company.

Darren Rowse of Problogger and Brian Clarke of Copyblogger are two excellent examples, as they’ve taken their websites and developed them into massively successful and influential blogs.

How did they do it?

If you find anyone who tells you that getting into blogging full-time is easy or fast, they’re absolutely lying to you. Blogging is a slow burn, requiring that you have the means to support yourself while you build your base of content.

We’re talking years, not months, and guys like Brian and Darren are testaments to that, having started their journeys over a decade ago before blogging was really even heard of or widely regarded as it is today. That’s not to say that it can’t be done or shouldn’t be attempted; but it does take work and consistency. Yet those who are able to support themselves while building a valuable base of content and designing a website without getting bored and giving up, have a tremendously rewarding light waiting for them at the end of their tunnel.

Let’s put it in simpler terms. Problogger and Copyblogger have seen success with a fairly basic formula that includes the following strategies:

• Write high-quality and valuable content.

• Be genuinely interested and devoted to your writing (don’t just do it to get something posted).

• Take the time to design a clean and easily navigated website.

• Be consistent and dedicated to your blog like you would a 9 to 5 job.

These are come of the primary ways that bloggers, Darren and Brian, made a name for themselves through media content.

You, on the other hand, might be wondering what you can do on a more practical level to take your blog from hobby status, to a genuine profit-turner, worthy of a 9 to 5 schedule.

How can I make it?

First, let’s look at a broad truth about professional blogging. You’ll have an extremely difficult time making it in the blogging world if you’re always focused on making money. The internet simply presents too many shortcuts and too many ways to quickly produce content to fight that temptation. Instead, you need to be interested in the topic you’re writing about and genuinely concerned with providing knowledge, you deem valuable, to people. So do your best to keep the dollar signs out of your eyes and focus your energy on writing helpful material. Once you’ve got that mindset down, the following areas are proven techniques for building both your site’s reputation and your own reputation as a writer and expert within your niche.

Image courtesy of Shuttershock.com

Social Media Presence

More than just posting your articles on a bunch of social media accounts, this needs to be an area where you’re active and engaged; not just with your followers, but with other professionals in your area of expertise as well.

If you’re impatient and looking to gain more traffic immediately, there is always the option of boosting your posts online.

Guest Blogging

Aside from writing and publishing on your own site, try to network with other bloggers in your field of interest and pitch guest posts to them. This is a great way to get traffic and gain exposure for your material with an established audience.

Forums, Commenting and Reviewing

This is a tedious, though effective strategy.

Simply go to the places online where people who are interested in your topic like to hang out. Forums and other online communities are great places to answer (or ask) questions and even do research on what people are interested in learning or hearing about.

Stay Focused and Don’t Lose Sight

The most likely cause of your downfall as a blogger will be a simple loss of focus and interest in what you’re doing. If you can stay focused and fight the boredom with writing so often and on such a regular basis, you stand a far better chance of succeeding than most of the people who start blogs now a days.

So don’t fret, you have variety of options to gain exposure for the world to hear your voice!

Camille McClane is a blogger and web entrepreneur who enjoys writing on social media, online marketing and blogging trends. She hopes you enjoy this article and wishes you nothing but success in your online business endeavors! Connect with Camille  here on Google+ or Facebook.

Take the time to choose a photo

Whatever you do, don’t skip the photo. Ever go on to a dating site or craigslist to look for some furniture? Odds are you will only click on those posts that have a photo. You want to know what you’re in for. The same goes for blogging. Readers want to know what they are going to read, and your photo will do that for them, if chosen correctly.

Make it relevant

A picture of a cute dog might elicit interest, but if your article is about Internet security, then you lost your audience. Those interested in dogs will make a note to never read your blog, and internet security people will shake their head and wonder why they should read your blog at all.

If your goal is to get your blog read and shared, you need to have a professional and accurate representation of your subject. Consider photos not as decoration, but as visual aids to increase your audiences understanding. The University of Alabama at Birmingham reveals that visual aids, “help you to reach your objectives by providing emphasis to whatever is being said.”

Here are some tips and pointers to find and use the right photo that works for you and will get you more shares:

1. Does it look professional? (not blurry or out of focus)
2. Does it appear well composed? (there is balance in the photo)
3. Does it directly relate to your article? (I.e. a picture of a beach with a blog about a beach vacation)
4. Does the photo enhance your blog? If you are writing steps to complete a project, do you have photos of each step? Does it capture reader interest?

Finding a photo that works for your blog

1. Search through Creative Commons. These photos generally require you to note the name of the photographer.
2. Utilize high volume resources like iStockphoto.
3. Consider reading photography articles and learning more about what’s out there, and how to use images.
4. Use a photo of your own that can be used without too much editing.

Keep it simple

And, as a final note: Make sure to post your photos in a size appropriate for your blog. If you don’t compress your photo, it can take a long time for a large photo to load. This will cause readers to get impatient if they have to wait to read your blog and see your photos. Peer 1 Hosting reports that the “optimal load time for a web page was four seconds before users started moving on.

First question:

What is a WCM solution and how does it differ from a CMS? A WCM is a solution that makes it easy for your employees to make changes to your website, while offering templates and other features to maintain consistency.

There are fine points of difference between a WCM and CMS, but most solution providers offer a combination of both: every CMS has most of the features that you’d find in any WCM product.

Another important question: do you really need a WCM? Let’s take a quick look at the features and facilities offered by most WCM solutions to try and answer this question.

• WYSIWYG editor
• Drag-and-drop editing
• Authoring templates
• Collaboration capability
• Scheduled publishing
• Security and workflow controls
• Site navigation and URL customization
• Previewing and pre-rendering
• Staging for separating content locally
• Access control and permission for different users

Digital marketing and web analytics features

If you feel that these features will help you better manage your ecommerce store or business website, you need a WCM solution. The core function of a web CMS is to enable users with little technical knowledge to administer websites. Most WCM products have templates that simplify this task.

For example, Microsoft’s Sitecore or Sitefinity CMS come equipped with all the features that you’d find in a WCM solutions and a CMS.

Now, let’s take a look at what points you must consider while shopping for a WCMS (web content management system).

# 1. Central Features and Functionality

Let the choice of the WCMS be dictated by your wants. For instance, if you have a nice ecommerce website selling only a dozen types of products, you may not require too much customization with text or images. In such a case, a simple WordPress solution may be more than enough for your needs.

On the other hand, if you are managing a website with thousands of service or product pages – where you have different structure for different kinds of pages – you may have to invest in a high-end WCMS that offers more features. Other features like digital marketing, versioning, multi-website support and support for different languages also come into play in case of complex websites.

# 2. Communication and Collaboration

For large business organizations that have a large number of stakeholders, the following questions are significant:

• Will your employees use the WCMS to collaborate and create documents?
• Do you need a feature that enables a number of people to work on a document at the same time or at different times?
• Do your sales people need a feature that allows them to communicate with different departments, employees and customers?
• Will you be using it for email marketing? Do you need a feature that allows you to segment recoupments?

If you need all these facilities, you will have to shop for a system that provides modules for in-depth collaboration and communication.

# 3. Asset Management

While most web CMSes will have fantastic features of editing information, many of them do not offer enough facility for managing assets. If you are running a website that has a large number of images and other files, you need powerful asset management features. If the system is not designed to handle large quantity of web assets, it can lead to a lot of time waste and heartburn. Check what features a web CMS has for managing and displaying PDFs, images and other kinds of files.

#4. Access Control, Roles and Permissions

For smaller business, where just a couple of people are in charge of implementing web changes, there is no need for access control, but if dozens of people contribute to the website and make changes, you need to set up clear roles and permissions. So, it becomes imperative to choose a web content management system that simplifies the process of assigning roles and permissions to different sets of users.

#5. What kind of web content management system do I need?

The answer to this question will be clear after you have found an answer to the above questions. The most popular open-source systems –WordPress, Joomla, Drupal – pack a lot of punch, and these are good enough for most small business. However, if you are running a large ecommerce website, or require an enterprise-level solution, you may need to give it a little more thought.

You have two broad options 1) customize an open-source software and make sure that it is capable of fulfilling all your needs, or 2) Choose a propriety solutions that is most suitable to your existing website and your specific requirements (you may need customization here too). For instance, if you have an ASP.NET website and most of your employees are conversant only with MS tools and technologies, you might choose to go for Sitecore or Sitefinity CMS that offer a gentler learning curve.

Bottom Line

As you can see by looking at the above points, your choice of web CMS will be dictated by what your website and your employees need. If you are unsure of what is the right choice, it may be a good idea to consult your IT manager, or take advice from a friend whose business is already using a WCMS. After you have all the information in hand, it will be easier for your decide whether you want a simple a proprietary off-the-shelf web CMS, an open-source solution or a customized solution.

About the author:

Kinjal is working as a digital marketer and blogger with 5 years of experience. She is full time employee with Cygnet Infotech expert in delivering complete ecommerce solution. She is always happy to share her passion for ecommerce and mobile technologies. Follow Kinjal on Twitter @adeshara_kinjal or connect with her on Google+, Facebook or Linkedin
 

Photo credits: Thos Ballantyne

Search engine optimization has been around since the very early days of the world wide web. Having said that, it’s gone through many changes over the years. In fact, SEO in 2014 may be unlike anything that has come before. While the basics still apply – like quality over quantity – there are a lot of other things that are necessary in order to compete. Rather than another boring 2014 predictions post, we thought we’d get out the time machine and make some long range predictions for the SEO industry.

SEO in 2050

This is not your grandfather’s SEO by any means. Here’s a peek at some of what might be happening in the SEO world in 2050 and beyond.

• SEO Robots – While ‘bots exist online now, in the future Google and other companies will likely let real life robots loose into the world. Whether it’s their car that drives itself or something else they invent with all the robotics companies they’re buying up quickly, there’s a good chance that Google’s index will start to invade the “real world” before 2050.

• Real Names – Anonymity on the web – truly being anonymous – is becoming more difficult with each passing year. By 2050, there’s a good chance that the only SEO that will work will be tied to a verifiable human. Perhaps Google’s army of robots will actually come to your house to make sure you are who you say you are online – and then rank you appropriately.

• SEO Hobbyists – In the very early days of search engine optimization, it was easy for anyone who spent a little time studying to be able to see results on their own. That has changed over the years, however. Today, many SEO professionals have concentrated on one single area. The era of a jack of all trades SEO approach is over as it takes a team of dedicated people to get anything done.

• Search Engine Wars – By 2050, there’s a good chance that the search engine wars will finally be over, with one company – probably Google – being the sole survivor. By this time, Google may have swallowed Microsoft and other companies to become a massive monopoly on a scale never before seen on the planet. Sound crazy? Wait and see what happens. Remember Demolition Man.

No one can know the future for certain, but it’s a lot of fun to make predictions – especially so far into the future. We’d like to get your input as well – something that will be very important for SEO in 2050. So leave your thoughts below and share your predictions with the rest of us. Depending on how old you are currently, you may be around long enough to come back in 36 years to see if we were correct or not.

When it comes to SEO, business professionals like Leonard Albanese are constantly learning about new methods and techniques. This helps him and others make sure their professional image online isn’t tarnished at all.

Site Speed Matters

Google and other search engine ranking algorithms put a heavy emphasis on how fast your site loads, according to WBS online. If you have a web host that simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to deliver sites to visitors as quickly as possible, you get a penalty in the search rankings. In addition, the bounce rate of your visitors increases, since many visitors are not going to wait long for your website to load when they have the entire Internet to explore. When you select your web host, look at their site uptime guarantees, as extended downtime does your search engine ranking no favors.

Your server location plays another factor in search engine optimization, primarily if you’re targeting your site at a completely different country than your server is located in, said blogger and entrepreneur John Chow. While putting your website on an overseas server may be appealing for legality reasons, it may cost you in search engine rankings if you’re trying to target customers in your domestic market. Look into the physical locations of any data center before you make a hosting decision.

A related problem with site uptime comes from how loaded down your server is. Virtual server hosting is an excellent optimal choice for many businesses, especially those starting out with smaller sites. But, if you load down your website with every script that looks interesting you’re going to take a performance hit. This may not make your site completely inaccessible, but it may stop key elements of your site from loading correctly.

Connecting via Content Delivery Networks

If you have an issue with large media files loading quickly, consider a content delivery network. A CDN is a system of distributed network servers that deliver webpages and content to a user. This is based on the geographical location of the user, the webpage’s origin and what the content delivery server is. Content delivery network providers focus on hosting large images, videos and other media that may overload a typical web hosting package. Instead of hoping that your web server has the bandwidth to handle your massive video trailers, use a content delivery network service to reduce your load times and increase the speed and delivery of your content.

The Value of Website Redirects

When you change a server script or otherwise alter the flow of your website, you may have URLs that no longer work within your linking structure. If these are older pages, it’s possible that they have good page rank and you don’t want to get rid of them completely. You want to use a 301 redirect to properly inform Google that the content has moved and the address that it has moved to.

Backup Everything

Once you have all of these effects in place, do not forget to back up all your hard work. A personal cloud storage base can keep your information secure. Online backup services like Sugarsync or JustCloud.com can sync all of your files and create automatic backups. According to a Sugarsync review, it’s compatible with PC, Mac, Linux and has mobile access. Assess your needs before choosing a cloud storage system. Reading reviews of different cloud providers can give you a better idea of what you might need.

About the author:

Richard Johnson is a veteran with over 8 years of service and multiple combat tours. He has multiple degrees in business and marketing from Arizona State University. Currently he is taking some time away from work to raise his kids and enjoy the outdoors.

Many marketers begin to panic, and maybe for good reason. There’s a lot of time and money tied up in the site, and you can never be sure if it’s just down for a few minutes or if it will be down for days or weeks. However, there’s a lesson to be learned from the basic user out there. Don’t fly into a panic. Just bide your time and do other things. Here are a few things you can try if you find a Facebook crash in the future.

How to Handle Business When Facebook is Down

1: Vent Via Social Media

Take your frustrations to social media and use the downtime to your advantage. For instance, if you have a Twitter following, the odds are great that many of them also use Facebook and are also frustrated that it’s down. You don’t have to bash or curse the site, but you can float some tweets out there gauging the atmosphere and voicing your personal dislike of the situation. “What do you guys think about the Facebook crash?” There will probably be trending hashtags you can use, if you’re not creating them yourself, like, for example, “#FacebooksDead” or “#ConstantCrash.”

2: Track Your Data

Instead of twiddling your thumbs as if your collective hopes and dreams are tied up in one social media site, take this opportunity to perform some analytics checks and see if you need to tweak anything when the site comes back online. Take a loot at how your campaign is going, how your ads have been performing, and other key aspects of your campaign. You have a chance here to come back stronger.

3: Try Your Facebook Material on an Alternative Outlet

The reason some marketers get very angry and end up in a panic is that they had plans to use Facebook that instant but can’t now because it’s down. For instance, they may have created a new detailed post that they were sure would draw engagement. If this is a situation you find yourself in, you can wait for Facebook to come back, or you could try your luck with an alternate outlet. You might be able to draw more buzz and engagement by releasing the material elsewhere. At least think about releasing it in another location first.

4: Plan Your Reentry

When Facebook is down, you also have a good opportunity to take your time to plan your reentry. Using the tip above and assuming you had a great post ready to be launched, rethink your approach. You could create a lot of buzz by being the first page your fans see with an entertaining post about Facebook’s crash. For instance, creating a poll about how aggravated people are or something along those lines can really draw a big crowd ready to engage.

5: Speak to Your Fans Personally

If you have the contact information of some of your fans, like their email addresses or mobile information, you could send out a quick message to them and use Facebook’s status as a great talking point to start an ongoing dialogue. It also endears you more to your fans by showing a real side and a real interest in social media interactions. Facebook being down doesn’t have to be a waste in any fashion.

Facebook has great up time, solid servers, and they’re usually able to handle even the biggest updates while the site is still functioning. However, every site experiences crashes and downtime, and Facebook will be no exception in the future. So if you ever manage to encounter a crash, just remember not to panic. Use the time to engage with fans in a different way.

About the author: 

Simon Campbell, a writer from a Facebook ad campaign tool – Qwaya. He loves to write different topics about social media and participates in some communities and forums. You can connect with Simon on  Twitter.

Photo Credits: webseoanalytics

Blogging is the latest tool these days that has added certain benefits to the business and brand promotions when it comes to make large audience and promote a brand, blogging is used in different styles and forms. Professional business blogs to small micro blogs are used to attract users to a business. If you have started a business and created a company, then you must start with your own blog. Either you can start blogging yourself or you can hire a professional. In both cases a blogger should know few things before he starts. Check below these core aspects of blogging that can boost your business.

Things to remember for a successful blog:

When you plan to start a blog, focus on these points for making a large user engaging audience and make your internet presence possible.

• The first thing is to focus on your audience. Keeping in mind the right audience, is very important for bloggers. You can’t write a post for all the internet users. You have to focus on your niche. For example if you own a company of Automotives, then you should focus on the audience that has an interest in buying these Automotives and they like to listen news and offers from your company. Keep you content enriched with the latest updates about your company offers in your blogs.

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Photo Credits : davidhallsocailmedia

• The second core factor of blogging is to write meaningful content with a high quality. No need to write long articles that are of no use. Only write user engaging content for a targeted audience. Content is the key to success in every internet marketing strategy and blogging is a good strategy that can lead your business successful.

• A third factor is to eliminate all types of jargon from the blogs. Experts follow the same rule to promote their business. The CEO of Albanese company “Leonard Albanese” followed the same rule when he started blogging. He focused on audience and wrote useful content, free from jargon and users started following their updates and become their loyal customers.

• Keep your mind active and charged while writing content for blogging. If is not good to write in a bad mood or a down situation that will leave a bad impact on the audience. Do not write blogs when you are in hard mind state. Relax first and then start your writing.

Photo Credits: thesparksleagency

• Updating a blog regularly is a key for blogging success and those blogs that are not updated, do not make a large interactive audience. You can only attract people when you post regular updates on your blogs and it is also suggested by the experts that 2 to 3 times blogging in a week is good, otherwise you will overcrowd your blogs with too many posts.

These are simple facts that every blogger should know. Apart from this, there are tips and strategies that are written for the specific blogs. You can follow these tips for your particular blog style.

About the author:

Adam Prattler is a consultant for search engine optimization ny and has been working since the last 6 years. With a degree in engineering and a graduation in design, he believes he has the ability to look at from every aspect, be it technology, content or design. You can connect with Adam on LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook  and Twitter.

The social media and other network are all agog with the discussion centered on B2B inbound marketing. Is B2B inbound marketing all that attractive? Is the hype about the lower cost leading to high quality sales justified? How do inbound and outbound marketing differ from each other when they are compared with each other?

Decline of outbound Marketing

With exploration of the market by electronic media growing by leaps and bounds, the traditional outbound marketing is only to be expected to see a decline. Consumers are not all that naive any more. The tendency these days is to get onto the internet to diligently pick up relevant information about anything they want to buy. They are more or less not impressed by the outbound marketing techniques even if they are genuinely innovative. In short, consumers are wiser than the marketers.

The most perfect example to this, which clearly defines that the concept has seeped into every age group would be of my friend’s grandfather. The family was planning on buying an LED TV. The grandfather was the first to go through the various options within their budget while scrolling through various blogs on his tablet. After spending an hour on analysis he came up with a very strong surety of buying Panasonic tx-l60dt65b LED TV . To be honest, I could not have expected this off a 70 year old man and definitely cements the importance of strategy for every age group as well.

If you thought that they stop at reading about the product in the manufacturer’s website and do not do anything more before buying, you could not be more wrong. They read reviews, even write them, and ask the peers on and offline before making the purchase.

The overkill of email marketing and telemarketing that inundated the cyberspace has produced an averse to things that are being marketed by these methods. Advertising, whether in electronic or print media, are looked at cynically. Is it any wonder that B2B outbound marketing is seeing a slide down?

Enter Inbound Marketing

If outbound marketing had lost its sheen, it could not be that it would not be replaced by an alternative method of marketing. Inbound marketing had taken its place. Increasingly, outbound marketing does not even get a mention in discussions on marketing. The points that are taken up for consideration talk only of pull marketing and its effectiveness. The ways to deliver the various elements is the next agenda in talks.  Is it any wonder then that hype is perceived here?

The Independence of Buyers

Inbound marketing puts to use the delivery of useful, engaging and valuable information to the target audience. It lets the recipient of the information decide for himself of what to purchase.  The trick works best when the prospect does not feel that he had been deliberately driven to read the ad. A strategically placed ad subtly makes its point to find a favor from the reader. Sales pitch is rather absent and in its place information that looks and feels helpful is put out.

Keeping Privacy Intact

Inbound marketing is utilized to inform as well as build credibility which shall come into the mind of the consumer when he is about to make a purchase. The element of invasion that marks the outbound marketing is not discernible in inbound marketing. The reader immediately feels a relief that his privacy is not being invaded.

Inbound marketing may at times call for a training schedule for the staff that are to be taught the new marketing techniques in place of outbound marketing they were employing till then.

Adam Prattler is a consultant for search engine optimization ny and has been working since the last 6 years. With a degree in engineering and a graduation in design, he believes he has the ability to look at from every aspect, be it technology, content or design. You can connect with Adama on LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook  and Twitter.

Content marketing professionals are continually trying to find the most effective strategies for reaching their target audiences, building brand authority and establishing a strong presence on the Web.

Many digital marketers rely on tactics like search engine optimization (SEO), traditional blog posts, articles, case-studies, videos and Podcasts to disseminate their messaging and earn the attention of their potential customers. The purpose of these tactics is to provide your audience with useful information that they could not find elsewhere.

However, with so many organizations turning to content marketing, it has been increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the curve and keep the attention of your target audiences.

One creative way to avoid this growing problem is to conduct your own high-quality primary research. This strategy takes effort and time, but it could be the determining factor that raises your brand’s authority over that of your competitor. By conducting original market research, you have a way to provide unique information that is relevant to your customers and is not available elsewhere. This primary research not only has the potential to earn social shares and links, it also holds the promise of building your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness within your market.

Janna Finch, Managing Editor at Software Advice, a company that researches marketing software applications and trends, recently published an article that provides four quality examples of companies who have successfully implemented this strategy. Here is a short summary of Finch’s report:

“2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study”

Silverpop is one of the premier marketing automation platforms on the market. It helps marketers personalize their mobile, email and social interactions with their customers. Silverpop is already considered one of the most authoritative and trustworthy brands in its market, but its “2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” helped solidify its leadership. This report analyzed all the email correspondence sent by 2,787 brands in 40 countries. The report looks at important email marketing metrics like click-through rates, open rates, message sizes and list churn metrics.

Silverpop not only calculated the averages, their team also included mean, median and quartile states by industry and region. This breakdown of their data made it easy for marketers to benchmark their own performance. By publishing an in-depth study on key marketing metrics, Silverpop is providing a clear signal to their customers that its brand is an authority in the market, and that it can be trusted. The company’s report also earned a great detail of social and Web exposure. The report was linked to 206 times on 48 different domains.

“2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey”

For over a decade, Moz.com has been an authority on all things SEO. Their customers have come to expect high-quality research and content on a regular basis. Moz recently undertook a primary research project to help maintain its reputation and leadership in the SEO community. The team at Moz surveyed more than 120 search marketers and collected their responses on more than 80 search engine ranking factors. This survey helped build a comprehensive picture of what characteristics were most likely (or not likely) to affect the ranking of a URL on a search engine results page.

Moz presented its findings in easy-to-read graphs with filtering features that help digital marketers easily digest their research, and share their findings. They also provided easy-to-understand written summaries to further make the survey easily accessible. Moz’s report was well-executed and provides digital marketers with content they could not easily find on their own. This made it an extremely popular report that was shared extensively over the Web and social media. The Moz report earned 693 links from 199 different root domains, and more than 3,000 social shares. This level of coverage helped reinforce Moz’s authority with search marketers, and helped keep the brand at the top of its market.

“2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey Results”

Adobe helps digital marketers measure and optimize their content at every step of the process. It is essential that its brand distinguish itself as a leader in the marketing industry. Adobe’s report “2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey Results” is a great example of how their team used primary research to build their brand’s authority.

The report analyzed the responses from over 1,858 digital markets from North America, Asia and Europe. Their report highlights what digital markets think are essential to achieving success in their field. Adobe’s findings were consolidated into easy-to-read graphs and narrative summaries.

This survey was spread extensively on the Web and social media, which helped promote the brand’s authority and trustworthiness. According to a LinkedIn case study, Adobe’s report had a profound impact on its reputation with marketers. The case study found that after reviewing the report, marketing professionals were “50 percent more likely to agree that Adobe is shaping the future of digital marketing.” This case study provides great evidence that primary research can be an effective branding tool, and can help raise your company’s market leadership above the competition.

These three examples help showcase how primary research is an effective content marketing and branding tool at the disposal of marketing professionals. Undertaking a high-quality primary research project is not an easy task, but it could be what separates your brand from the rest of the pack.

Have you ever used primary research to build your brand’s authority and trustworthiness? Please leave a comment below and share your experience with us.

Keyword Discovery

This is the first tool in our list. Keyword Discovery allows you to pull data from the most popular search engines and discover the best keywords. You can see the historical trends of these words and find out how effective they were. It is among the most useful tools for keyword research.

Google AdWords Tool

Here is another very useful tool. This fantastic Keyword Research Tool gives you the great opportunity to discover the most effective and currently popular keywords. You can write a certain keyword into the search bar and see a list of other popular keywords that are related to yours. This can be very useful if you want to brodaen your keyword research.

WordStream’s Keyword Tool

This great tool is suitable not only for making your SEO keyword research, but also for your PPC research. With WordStream’s Tool you can easily write some certain groups of keywords and it will immediately give you some useful suggestions. And the best part is that it is completely free!

YouTube Keyword Research Tool

Here is our last suggestion. Did you know that after Google, YouTube is the second biggest search engine? Millions of people all over the world use YouTube to watch, upload, comment and share videos. If you are a really good marketer, then you definitely know that YouTube can become a really big part of your marketing strategy. YouTube Keyword Tool is similar to the previous ones. It can give you plenty of useful information about the best keywords. It can give some really creative and functional ideas on how for your video marketing.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is freelance blogger and writer. Her current interests include finance.

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

 

 

 

• ‘Add to cart’ buttons – These buttons are very commonly used in e-commerce websites. Very typical for this type of buttons is the use of simple wordings such as ‘Add to cart’ and ‘Buy Now’ as well as the use of icons (in most cases a cart or a bag);
• ‘Download’ buttons – It is pretty clear what these buttons are all about;
• ‘Learn More’ buttons – Such buttons are usually linked to another page of the same website, tempting visitors to look for some further information on the topic they are interested in;
• ‘Signup’ buttons – Once again, the title explains their main functions.

Of course, there are plenty of other types of ‘call to action’ buttons, but these four are considered as the most common ones. So, if you want to optimize your website by adding such buttons to its overall layout, the first thing that you will have to do is consider the best type for you. Are you trying to sell your products? Do you offer some other type of web services, that require a website registration? All this matters when it comes to creating ‘call to action’ buttons.

Tips on how to create effective ‘call to action’ buttons!

1. Make it big!

The size of your call to action button has to be considered very carefully. It has to be notable and big (in fact, the biggest on the webpage). However, be careful not to overcrowd the page. Otherwise you will achieve just the opposite effect.

2.

Make it colourful

The colour of the button is another very important thing. It has to stand by so perhaps the best solution is to choose some contrasting colour to the background. Of course, you will have to consider it according to the overall colour scheme of the page. Otherwise it can spoil its good look.

3.

Keep it clear and simple

Once you have chosen the basic colour and size characteristics of your ‘call to action’ button, you will have to consider the word (or phrase) that you will place inside of them. Remember – simplicity is the key to success. Try to choose something, which will be both attractive to your visitors and will give them enough information.

4.

Whitespace

This is our last tip. Whitespace is an essential element when comes to making your button notable. Especially if it is small or pale coloured. It works as a frame for the eyes, separating the button from the main colour of the background.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is passionate freelance blogger keen on topics about technologies, Internet and blogging. She currently maintains the site of Sparklingcarpets and she loves her love.

On one hand, advertising is any paid form of promotion of an organization, product, service or idea of a particular sponsor or advertiser. At first, advertising was mainly established in the print media, such as newspapers and magazines and then on the television and radio media. However, in the last few years, the advertising has been pretty much focused on the Internet, which on the other hand was turned in an entirely different environment used by advertisers when looking for new potential customers.

These changes occurred as a result of technology development, which led to a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet for the purposes of advertising. Internet advertising is rapidly evolving in the last few years. Some recent research have shown that in the next few years online advertising will develop three times faster than traditional media advertising.

We must confess that the Internet provides almost inexhaustible resources of opportunities when used as an advertising environment. This means that you can use different approach in order to send a specific message to your target groups. That is the reason why more and more companies have been recently transferring a great part of their budget to online advertising and marketing.

What are the advantages of Internet advertising?

Internet advertising combines different aspects that make it so popular and successful:

• it is easily handled;
• it gives you the opportunity to determine exactly which target groups you are going to attack;
• you can send more concrete messages to your potential and current customers;
• it gives you more rapidly growing audience;
• you can be more accurate when measuring the results;
• it usually gives great results.

Internet advertising also combines the advantages of the TV and print ads and even gives you the opportunity to have an extremely high-quality graphic image. Unlike TV, radio and print ads, online ads provide users with great variety of ways to learn more about the certain product or service you offer. In addition, online advertising is more informative also for the advertisers because they know exactly where they money go.

What are the main types of Internet advertisements?

Web banners

Web banners are the oldest type of Internet advertisements. The very first banner ads were released on the Internet at the end of 1994. Web banners are most commonly promotional images in GIF, JPEG or PNG format that are usually placed on a certain website. When a user clicks on some of these banners, they are transferred to the advertiser’s website, where there is more detailed information about the product or the service that are being advertised. Web banners may be either static or animated.

Text links

Text links are usually a slogan or a name of a certain organization that contains a hyperlink to the advertiser’s website. This is actually one of the cheapest forms of online advertising, which is also extremely efficient. However, when you are planning to use this type of Internet advertising you need to carefully select the websites where you are going to put some advertising text links of your company.

E-mail footers

These are advertising messages that are added in the bottom of every e-mail you send.

Paid articles or publications

These articles and publications can be a description or your company or an interview with its manager or one of the specialists working for you. The publications can also be a news or interesting information that will be useful to your current and potential customers.

Google AdWords

Google is undoubtedly one of the most efficient and popular search engines on the Internet. This is actually the type of advertisement that currently brings bigger profits to advertisers who have tried it. The advertisements on Google are called Google AdWords and give great variety of opportunities.

There is a simple truth, which is that advertisers must go where their potential customers are in order to have success. More and more people go online and have accounts on some social networks. The Internet is the new environment that helps business develop and improve, which gives advertisers the opportunity to make their companies more popular and also show some innovative, original and useful products to a larger auditorium.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is passionate writer and blogger. She works a part time job at company which offers quality end oftenancy cleaning. In her spare time she loves to read and write articles for different blogs.

The same is true for the other way around – if your site appears on the first page of a search engine, then you will definitely start getting more visitors and consequently your chance of improving your financial state will grow exponentially.

That’s why many people try to optimize their sites according the requirements of search engines. This process is known as SEO (search engine optimization) and is becoming significantly more complex as search algorithms develop and become more complicated. However, performing SEO means walking on a thin ice.

Search engines want to display only relevant and organic content and they hate it when people try to deceive them. You can easily bury your site if you get too many black points. There are three popular mistakes people tend to make when looking for a shortcut to the first page and we will explore them below.

#3. Spinning Articles

Article spinning is the process of writing the same article over and over again, but using different words. It’s an SEO technique that used to be more successful in the past but with the last few updates, search engines have started catching up to the deception. Realistically speaking, spinning articles means you are betting on quantity instead of quality. None of the articles are truly unique and original.

The problem is that search engines want to present new and fresh content and they abhor the use recycled texts. Of course, you can still hope to run a popular website and bet on quantity instead of quality but you can be sure that your hopes will never become reality.

What you need to do is use truly unique and original content. The more diverse it is, the better. After all, how much time readers spend on your site matters as well, and you can be sure that nobody would spend more than a few minutes on a site that has 500 almost identical articles.

#2. Keyword Bloating

The only thing worse than a poorly written, spun article, is a poorly written, spun article bloated with keywords. You can’t use the same word over and over again in the hopes that your site will rank better, because it won’t. If your content is bad, no matter how much you try to artificially inflate it won’t be beneficial. You’re hurting your site more than you are helping it rank. Keywords need to be used organically, naturally.

#1. Irrelevant Anchor Texts

It’s honestly surprising to me how people can get this one wrong but it happens more often than not. Using a good anchor text is crucial for your links. Anchor text is the name you give the clickable hyperlink text on your website. I’m sure you’ve read different texts on a variety of topics and you’ve seen “click here” on numerous occasions. “Click here” is your anchor text in this case and it’s a terrible one.

If you want to make people browse your site some more, you always need to create smart, original and engaging anchor texts. You want people to stay on your site as much as possible, not bore them to death and make them leave. Even if they like the content they’ve just read “click here for more” is hardly attractive, so the person is very likely to leave.

Those are the three most common ways in which people unintentionally deviate from the established rules. If you manage to avoid those mistakes, then you will be well on your way to the first page of search engines. Keep in mind that SEO is dynamic field what is true today might not be accurate tomorrow so don’t forget to keep an eye on changes and new updates.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is keen on business, marketing and technology. 

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

For those of you that are unfamiliar, content marketing is the process of generating high-quality online content with the goal of building trust and community among your brand’s target audience, and to establish your brand as an industry thought leader.

A content marketer combines the investigative and content production skills traditionally held by journalists with the outreach skills and promotion skills of PR professionals. This is what Holly Regan of Software Advice recently referred to as the convergence of PR and journalism. This convergence is forcing PR specialists to expand their skill sets and implement new tactics.

In years past, PR professionals relied heavily on producing a press release, developing a pitch, and reaching out to big media outlets. However, the growth of digital content and content marketing has revolutionized how a PR professional can promote a product or brand. Nowadays, shares, tweets, “likes,” links and blog posts can actually be more effective than pitching a big media reporter. Using these digital media strategies allows PR professionals and content marketers directly reach their target audience.

Matt Braun, Director of Public Relations at Hanson Dodge Creative, says: “Organizations now use Twitter to break news versus a press release…and it’s forced people like me to use tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs as vehicles by which we can get others to publicize products and clients.”

As more companies develop content marketing strategies, they will also need PR professionals who can do more than plan an event and pitch a reporter. These companies will need people who can effectively use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, social media networks, Google Analytics, and email outreach to reach their target audiences.

Is the Growth in Content Marketing Driving Demand for PR Specialists?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of PR specialist and manager jobs rose by nearly 63 percent between 2000 and 2010, and is expected to rise another 21 percent between 2010 and 2020.

However, we wanted to find out how the growth in PR jobs compared to the rising trend of content marketing. To develop a more accurate picture we decided to search through New York City’s Craiglist page and look for the most common job titles in PR and content marketing. Here’s what we found:

Clearly demand for content marketers is growing. The question you should be asking yourself is how can a PR professional capitalize on this growing trend?

Five Tips for PR Specialists in the Age of Content Marketing

Here are five tips for PR specialists who are looking to capitalize on the growth of content marketing:

1. Reach your audience directly. The days of rocking out a press release, pitching a bid media report, and calling it a job well done are over. PR specialists must now learn how to directly speak to their target audience from digital platforms like blogs and social media networks.
2. Develop new skills. Nowadays, PR professionals need to know more than how plan an event and send out a press release. It is imperative that you diversify your arsenal by developing skills in disciplines like: SEO, graphic design and digital marketing.
3. Sing your own song. PR professionals are usually good storytellers. It is time for you to start using your expertise and skills to develop your own content strategies, such as social profiles and blogs.
4. Be ready for anything and everything. Real-time digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook, have forced PR professionals to be ready for anything at all times. That means you should have “post ready” materials ready to go before you reach out.
5. Think beyond the press release. In the past, many PR professionals relied on sending out a press release and pitching a big media reporter to generate high-quality coverage. With the rise of digital marketing, you now need to figure out new ways to engage your audience like, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or blog.

PR professionals, if you plan to ride this wave of content marketing opportunity, make sure you skills and tactics are up-to-date.

About the author:

Ashley Verrill is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at ashleyverrill[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads.

Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.

Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?

Inbound marketing offers you a strategic and smart approach to be and to stay several steps ahead of your competition.

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

With inbound marketing businesses “earn” their way to the customer and his loyalty, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes: Content creation like blogging, video, photo, whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, press releases, comments in social media and other blogs and forums, Social media two way communication, lead generation, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

How can Inbound Marketing help you?

A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales

Infographic: Inbound Marketing Rising

TOP 42 Reasons to Jumstart your Inbound Marketing NOW!

2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.

3. 48% of marketers will increase spend on inbound marketing in 2013.

4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.

5. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads.

6. 17% of marketers say traditional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.

7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of marketing.

8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.

9. 34% of businesses cannot or don’t calculate overall inbound ROI in 2013.

10. Adopting a marketing/sales agreement saves companies with more than 200 employees $195.84 per new customer.

11. Only 24% of companies have a formal process for marketing/sales handoffs.

12. Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for inbound marketing.

13. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.

14. The average website conversion rate is 10%.

15. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.

16. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.

17. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.

18. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.

19. Inbound marketers plan to hire an average of 9.3 people this year.

20. Only 18% of marketers are purely focused on developing quality content in 2013.

21. 25% of marketers cite reaching the right audience as their top priority for 2013.

22. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.

23. 50% of marketers consider their companies primarily customer-focused.

24. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.

25. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound strategies.

26. Only 41% of nonprofits report adopting inbound tactics for 2013.

27. Just 21% of enterprises assimilate inbound marketing with their overall marketing strategy.

28. 47% of CEOs and CMOs ignore formal marketing/sales agreement development.

29. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.

30. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.

31. Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.

32. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.

33. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.

34. 27% of marketers report that both social media and email marketing produce the lowest total average lead costs.

35. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.

36. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.

37. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.

38. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.

39. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.

40. 41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.

41. 41% of CEOs report inbound delivered measurable ROI.

42. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.

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