Why Your Business Can’t Survive Without a Winning Local SEO Strategy
It doesn’t matter how great of a location you have, how slick your website looks or if you are the best at what you do, if you don’t have your local SEO game turned on.

Today consumers are turning to the internet whether from their homes, iPads or smartphones in the street to decide where to shop and buy. If you aren’t showing up at the top of local search results on Google or coming up at the command of Apple’s SIRI you soon might as well not exist.

Good local SEO means attracting the most web traffic, highly targeted prospects, higher conversions and the ability to direct foot traffic to your location on short notice for fast results.

If you want to grow your local business you need to learn the best local SEO tactics.

The Secrets of Local SEO
Winning at local SEO isn’t as easy as you might think. Getting to the top for a day is one thing, especially for lousy keywords. Staying on top and closing real business can be quite another.

If you’ve already done a little research on local SEO you already know that keyword selection plays a big part. However, this doesn’t always just mean ‘your industry’ and ‘your state’ (for example ‘SEO Michigan’).

Another major element of great local SEO is making sure your web assets are optimized for the mobile web. This means your website looks good and runs smooth on the most popular mobile devices and is fully optimized, with addresses and phone numbers for location based searches.

One of the most important and most overlooked, core parts of a complete local online marketing strategy is the use of citations.

What’s a Citation and how do they Work in Your Favor?
Local citations help search engines confirm your location and improve your search rankings.

Citations are mentions of your business with your address and local phone number online. However, not all citations are created equal. Citations need to be congruent and be in the right categories. Who makes the citations matters, as it does if there are links to them. Is it on an authority site, a local blog which is highly trusted by Google or from social users who have likely really experienced your business for themselves?

Places you may want to begin building citations include:

• Superpages
• Yelp
• Google & Yahoo Places
• InfoUSA
• Yellow Pages
• Merchant Circle
• City Search
• Foursquare
• Local and industry specific directories
• Local and industry blogs

Make sure that the street address and phone number you list on these sites is also listed on your website. A local address and website is a critical item to have listed on your website. Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the need to develop your local SEO and stay wired into the latest and most effective strategies.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Online Business Information Correct?
2. Best Posts for Small Businesses
3. Small Business Online Marketing

View the original post Local SEO Secrets to Supersize Your Small Business Profits or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

Stay at home moms everywhere are kicking CEOs and even medium to large businesses’ back sides at marketing on the internet every single day.

You thought they were just gossiping on their mobile devices? It turns out they are perhaps responsible for selling or at least directing many millions of dollars’ worth of products and services every year.

The sick part is they are mostly doing it for fun.

That’s while managers across the country are cringing at their numbers and afraid to report in the boardroom.

Of course many are in it for the money too and who can blame them, with an estimated 23 million women writing or reading blogs a week and spending on blog advertising expected to hit almost $1 billion dollars this year. It isn’t just blogging they are winning at either; they are killing it on social media sites like Facebook too.

The real question is why they are so successful and what can you learn or copy from them?

For a start, look at their fan bases and readership. @TheMommyBlog has almost 6,000 Twitter followers and most female Facebook users have friend lists that far outweigh the guys. This is especially true when you compare these numbers to your average entrepreneur or small business owner. One report recently put each Facebook user being worth 30,000 other connections. How many friends and likes do you have?

So how are they able to gain so many more connections so much faster than many big companies who have full-time marketing teams and more importantly how are they able to have so much influence?

Women share more, they interact, comment, share and use their personal branding to build bigger followings and sell by making recommendations. However, above all they are authentically passionate in what they say and passion persuades.

So perhaps it is wiser to market through your first line of connections, not at them and let more personality shine through on your social media but above all else be active and get real conversations going.

Just because your wife is kicking your behind at social media marketing and has more friends than you, doesn’t mean you should shut the doors of your business nor cut off her phone out of jealousy.

You just need the right strategy to win at blogging and Facebook or to at least hire someone who really understands the psychology of what makes social prospects tick and the cash register “cha-ching”!

No related posts.

View the original post How Mommy Bloggers are Kicking CEOs Butts Every Day or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

Where are they all going wrong?

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners on tight budgets have taken it upon themselves to become one man bands on the Internet superhighway. Trying to learn and master all aspects of online marketing while attempting to turn their winning ideas into profitable ventures can be a real challenge.

Recent stats show 98% of businesses failing within the first few years while the media highlights new overnight success stories every day. So why are some pulling in masses of traffic and customers online while the rest burn their working capital and the midnight oil 7 days a week trying to get a handful of leads from the web?

There is a lot that solo entrepreneurs and business owners can do to improve their search engine rankings themselves and it can be an exciting and fun new adventure to go on. Unfortunately most are simply duped by the wrong SEO advice.

There is enough bad SEO information out there to keep you reading for the next 90 years. If you’re lucky you may find a few great golden nuggets but much of the information online is simply outdated. Did you know Google changes the way it ranks sites more than 500 times a year? That’s more than one a day. Besides this there is a ton of junk out there and certainly a good amount of information purposely meant to mislead competitors like you.

Perhaps the biggest threat to those attempting their own search engine optimization is poor keyword selection. If you’ve got the wrong keywords you are done before you get started and all of your marketing money is just going down the drain.

Good keyword selection software involves a lot more than a search using Google Adwords. You have to know how to use it. Going after the phrases with the most monthly search volume isn’t always the answer. You need keywords you can really afford to compete with and those which bring real customers who will buy. Put yourself in your prospects shoes, think ‘long-tail’, and watch for sweet spots among trends. If you want local foot traffic, you had better optimize by location too.

For all of the 4 Hour Work Week fans and offshore outsourcing experimenters out there, if you haven’t already, you will soon find out that even if you set up your own small army of data entry clones the management can be a killer. Stop and think about the real bottom line for a minute. Where is your time best spent and how much are you wasting on marketing versus doing what you are best at? Why do you think trends are coming full circle and U.S. businesses are bringing their marketing back onshore and using one stop shops who can handle their SEO and social media for them?

If you are determined to do your own SEO at least consult a pro and make sure you are wired into the daily changes which can affect your rankings, traffic and revenues or even get you banned by the search engines.

No related posts.

View the original post How DIY SEO is Bankrupting U.S. Startups or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

Facebook’s timeline has a foremost principle – to increase engagement between fans and page owners. Keeping this goal in mind, Facebook has rolled out many changes in timeline. Here are tips on how to build your brand’s timeline page:

1. Cover Photo – The most noticeable feature of timeline is the cover photo. Facebook recommends brands to use an image that captures the essence of the brand. Choose an image (dimensions of 851×315 px) that is easily identifiable with your brand. You cannot use a photo which gives out contact details or has a call-to-action like “like us or share our page”.



2. Profile Picture – This is the where you should put your brand’s logo image. Unlike the previous version of fan pages, the display size of the profile picture cannot be varied.
3. Message Button – This allows users to send direct messages to the brand. It will be interesting to see how fans and profile managers handle this new feature.

 



4. About Section – The about section should have details about your business, contact details and links to your website. A snippet of the about page is located just below the profile picture. The page admin can add additional info of the brand by clicking on the “about” link.
5. Custom Applications – Customize your profile by adding upto 12 tabs to your profile. The tabs can contain apps, photos, videos, no. of likes, map etc. The icons have the dimension of 107x70px. You can select the order of display of the tabs. Since so many changes have been rolled out at once, it is difficult to predict how the user functionality will turn out. Ask your app developer to refer to Facebook guidelines before developing custom applications for your profile.

 



6. Friend Activity – This section displays all the friends of the user who have liked the page. This not only helps build confidence, but also creates a personal connects with the user.

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7. Posts – All posts are displayed in rectangular boxes. Images and videos can be seamlessly added to each and every post. This is the essence of timeline. All posts look like rectangular boxes. Each “post box” has a like button, share and comment box.

   Posts in timeline can even be “highlighted” to cover the entire breadth of the profile page.

 

8. Milestones – Last but not the least, Facebook has introduced the concept of milestones. With this feature, organizations will be able to post stories dating from 1000 A.D till present day! Many organizations have used this feature to create an online diary of the all major events of the brand. They have added posts with photographs, videos and press releases dating back to day the brand was founded.

It is evident that this is a big step by Facebook. Facebook as a company has been phenomenal in the last few years. It is changing the way we use the internet. With this latest update, brands and customers have got the opportunity to be social like never before.

Related posts:

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3. Current Facebook Fan Page Changes Affecting You

View the original post How To Build Your Facebook Business Timeline or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

What is A/B Testing?

Before we show you how it can increase your bottom line, let’s establish the definition of A/B Testing.  The term refers to marketing testing wherein a control sample is contrasted against another variable sample.  Two of anything – a campaign, advertisement, landing page, email or direct mail, status update or virtually anything else – can be tested against each other.  Even general things like colors, designs, GUIs and navigation panels can benefit from being selected via this technique.

Other terms that may be used interchangeably with A/B Testing include: Bucket Testing, Split Testing, Multivariate Testing and Multi-variable Testing.

Allowing a Marketing Firm to Apply A/B Testing to Your Website, Social Media and Ad Copy

There is a distinct difference between allowing a digital marketing firm to apply this special technique to your website, social media and ad copy versus going it alone?  Naturally, you alone can do something as simple as run two similar ads and see which one performs better.  This is only a baby step in contrast with how in-depth A/B Testing can be within the comprehensive and intricate workings of a digital marketing firm.

There are numerous, nearly limitless ways that the firm could be applying multivariate methodologies.  And most likely their approach will achieve more profound results due to their high level of marketing knowledge.

Effective A/B Testing

One of the best ways to test the effectiveness of something is to isolate it.  Two landing pages that are identical other than their background or text color would constitute a proper A/B test.  If more than one variable is tested simultaneously within the same test, it becomes difficult if not impossible to pinpoint which variables account for the performance difference between the control group and the test group.  There are many other ways that your digital marketing firm can ensure that they are setting up these tests properly.

Marketing Experience Matters in Ensuring A/B Testing Efficiency

The marketing experience of an established firm makes a huge difference in how effective the tests are.  Your effort to run two ads, as in the original example above, could be less effective than a digital marketing company’s effort to conduct the same type of test.  This is because a qualified and practiced internet marketing company knows exactly how to write ad copy, after having done so for thousands upon thousands of other companies in the past.

Both ads run by the marketing company in a multi-variable test could be well-structured, strategic ads that perform well overall, just one better than the other.  The two ads you run could fall flat, and the test could be a waste of ad budget.  The agency’s broad understanding of tests they have run for all of their clients works to your advantage.  Unless you yourself have worked in marketing for a number of years, you simply do not have this asset in your arsenal.

The Importance of Monitoring

Your digital marketing company can run countless A/B tests at once – and apply the methodology to every aspect of your business model, marketing efforts and advertising campaigns.  Again, this is something that you could do also.  But, how would you monitor all of that data?

How many tests give an accurate sampling?  How long does it take to make a determination on what is working and what isn’t?  These are questions whose answers are closely linked to the conscious and responsive monitoring of multivariate test data.  They are also answered more easily by an experienced marketing firm who possesses many tools and analytics to measure, report and display performance and sales metrics.

Jared Pomranky

Related posts:

1. Conversion Rate Optimization for More Business
2. Conversion Optimization: Your Internet Marketing Missing Link
3. Reasons to Hire an Internet Marketing Firm

View the original post How A/B Testing Can Multiply Your Conversion Rate or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

Increased Traffic and Sales
The first goal of your internet marketing agency is to increase your web traffic and ultimately your sales.  Many webmasters make the mistake of thinking that if they can increase traffic, sales will naturally occur as a byproduct.  There is little truth to this notion, or at the very least it is incomplete.  The truth of it is that your traffic is only valuable when it is targeted and is followed up with tried and true techniques to drive sales.

An internet marketing firm that is qualified and experienced excels in this area with flying colors.  You can expect an increase in relevant traffic featuring visitors who are squarely in the center of your core demographic.  But more importantly, you will see sales numbers beyond what you may have even anticipated when you work with a competent firm for an extended period of time (6 months or more).

Branding
Creating a public image is an intangible, but by no means entirely abstract.  There are recognized techniques that can brand your business, and some of those techniques can convert sales simultaneously.  PPC is a perfect example of this.  Pay per Click advertising is powerful when done correctly but is quite easy to do incorrectly.  An internet marketing firm can help ensure that your ad copy and placement are calculated and keep your cost-per-click to a minimum.  They can also ensure that your visitors’ initial response clicks are followed up with a substantial clickthrough rate.

Branding comprises elements like brand strategy, brand naming, brand launch planning, brand positioning/repositioning, brand messaging, logos, corporate identity, design of graphical user interface (GUI), website design, slogans and more.  As you can see, this alone makes the investment in firm enlistment worthwhile.

An Internet Marketing Firm is specialized in their Trade
Your promotions team in-house may be familiar with a few marketing techniques, but they are by no means an experienced firm that has marketed and tested campaign strategies for thousands of clients.  Internet marketing is what a specialized firm does day-in and day-out.

An internet marketing firm can apply the latest bleeding-edge techniques using tools your in-house team may be simply unaware of.  A standalone firm can meld SEO, SMO, LSO and PPC into one cohesive campaign.  They can use analytics and other metrics to improve your performance in ways you never thought possible.  They can also report to you with detailed statistics on the progress of your marketing on an ongoing basis.

An Internet Marketing Firm Cares About Your ROI
How does an internet marketing firm stay in business?  Obviously, they have to execute measures that constitute major returns on your marketing investment.  Otherwise, the firm knows you’ll bounce.  To prevent that, they will be actively pursuing Conversion Optimization to make sure your website visitors do not bounce (via Bounce Rate reduction) before making a purchase or performing other desired actions.

Internet marketers can ensure your visitors become increasingly likely to make a purchase and become loyal customers for you.  They do so using compelling content, savvy methodology, and other proven approaches.

The Comprehensive Package Offered by an Internet Marketing Firm Spells Major Results for You
They can also tend to your email marketing, social media, interactive marketing, web design and web development.  An internet marketing firm can build and monitor every aspect of your branding, sales, and even assist in developing a marketing budget and achieving ROI.  In effect, they greatly multiply the strength of your business model.

Related posts:

1. Conversion Optimization: Your Internet Marketing Missing Link
2. Internet Marketing Triple Threat: SEO, SMO, PPC
3. How the Classic “AIDA” Method Applies to Modern Internet Marketing

View the original post Reasons to Hire an Internet Marketing Firm or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

Most social networks and communities online don’t make it easy to create mass marketing schemes.  They do this to protect the integrity of their own business model and keep their users happy.  However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot create a buzz on Facebook; it simply means you will have to work within the company’s constraints.  That means interacting politely and no spamming.

Create a Facebook Fan Page

Facebook certainly encourages companies, organizations, brands, products, artists, bands, fields of entertainment, communities, and causes to have a presence on the site.  You can make your own page at www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.  Choose the respective category and get started.

Make sure to upload a picture and fill out the page with company details.  Include a short bio and a link to your site in the “About” section.  Your longer business description can be placed in the “Edit Info” section.  Include an email address and other contact information.  The process is painless and straightforward, and these two sections can be updated at any time.

Note that once you choose a category and name for your Facebook page, however, these details cannot be changed in the future.  You could create an entirely new page if you change your mind, but that also means you would have to start rebuilding your Facebook customer base from scratch.  Choose carefully!

Promote Your Facebook Page Everywhere
Put a link or Facebook icon everywhere you exist online: on your website, your other social networks, and even if you advertisements.  Send out emails to all of your personal and professional contacts and ask them to connect to your business Facebook.

If you use Facebook email on your personal profile to do so, make sure to do so gradually, as the company has placed limits on the amount of outgoing mail that can be sent daily.  Certainly do not automate the process with software, though a copy/paste method isn’t a bad idea.

Use the name of each person at the opening of your messages to make it personal.  You can even send emails one at a time to each contact you have and mention your Facebook profile “in passing” rather than appearing self-promotional.

Keep a Daily Buzz Going

Activity on your page via status updates will show that your business is indeed active and gives the impression you are legitimate.  Remember that that does not mean you need to self-promote constantly.  If you do, your updates will get “hidden” in users’ news feeds.

Try, instead, to post status updates that are interesting, genuine and useful – and remember they do not need to be all about your company.  In fact, it’s best if they appear neutral and non-promotional the majority of the time.  This way, when you do choose to send out a promotional link, you will have credibility and people will take it seriously.  Otherwise, they’ll begin to tune you out.

Promote with Discretion
Naturally, at some point you will mention what you do and try to make a sale or two.  But you can be subtle about this.  Link people to another page that has an interesting story but also has links embedded that lead to your site.  Mention the benefits of company and its products and services as part of a broader message.  People are more likely to react in a community environment when they feel that they are not being marketed to directly.

Too busy to keep it updated?  Have a business partner take care of this task, or ask a staff member or your internet marketing company to maintain your Facebook page.  It may cost you a little, but the returns will be there.  A Facebook buzz presents great value in both branding and direct response.

Pay Attention to Fan Page “Insights”
Facebook as a company wants businesses to entertain their users.  It is understood that if your content is useful to Facebook users, they will keep coming back to use the social network.  They will also reward you with business either immediately or in the future.

To make it possible to please your audience, Facebook provides “Insights” which allows you to see the amount of feedback and impressions your posts are generating.  Pay attention to these statistics as they will better allow you to gauge what kind of content is desired within your niche and gradually evolve your posts accordingly.

Jared Pomranky

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1. Facebook Fan Pages Updated to iFrame
2. Internet Marketing Triple Threat: SEO, SMO, PPC
3. Don’t SEO Your Facebook Fan Page

View the original post Integrating Facebook Into Your Internet Marketing Strategy or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

A substantial level of added exposure is very possible via Twitter.  Perhaps you have a company profile there, but haven’t done much with it.  Let’s change all that, starting now.  Follow these easy tips to start taking advantage of the free marketing potential of Twitter.

Create and Design Your twitter Profile

Reserve and Protect Your Name
It is advisable to create at least one profile on Twitter bearing the name of your company, before someone else does.  (Keep in mind that the character limit for screen names is 15.)  Even if you plan on using additional accounts for each member of your staff, you do not want to find yourself fighting a trademark battle against some other Twitter user who reserves your company name as a screen name before get the chance.  Try to come up with a screen name that is as similar as possible to your real company name.  This will help people find your company on Twitter if and when they search you.

Make It Look Official and Professional
Once your name is established, one of the best ways to make your business look professional is to create a background for your profile and upload a picture.  For your primary company account, you should use the company logo as your picture.  Creating a generic page at first is ok as Twitter provides a few nice backgrounds, but you should definitely customize your profile as soon as possible.  It makes you look like a more legitimate company and allows your company to stand out.

Make an Impression
The bio on your page gives Twitter users an introduction to what your company is about.  Make this impression count, as it could serve as reinforcement for an existing brand but may also be a first impression for some visitors to your Twitter.  Be sure to include a link to your website and other networks.  It also lends credibility to list a valid contact email address and phone number.

Cross-Promote Your Twitter Page

Mention Your Twitter on Other Networks
Your business should, naturally, have a presence on other networks like Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn.  In your tweets, you’ll want to mention these from time to time.  On the flip side, be sure to mention (and link to) your Twitter page everywhere.

Include a Twitter Link in All Communications
Link people to your Twitter in the email signature of your conventional emails and social network mail, the signature at the end of your blog posts, and anywhere else you post contact information.  This can multiply your Twitter following over time.

Interacting with the Twitter Community

Now that you have laid the groundwork, it’s time to interact.

Tweet Regularly and Caringly
Be an active Twitter user or assign an update schedule to someone on your staff.  You can also have your digital marketing company take this on.  As with all online communities, keep a caring community mindset and don’t simply self-promote and show only concern for your company’s self-interests.  Doing that anywhere is a quick way to alienate potential leads.  Allow your tweets to have useful information and links pertaining to your industry.  You can link to your landing pages with a headline that doesn’t look promotional.

Making Use of Hashtags
One of the most powerful aspects of Twitter interactions is the use of hashtags.  Hashtags start with a “#” sign as their prefix, such as “#exampletopic.”  Using existing hashtags that pertain to your industry will allow you to connect quickly with an audience (and hence gain exposure).

Hashtags also allow you to stay updated on a variety of topics and trends on Twitter.  Keep tabs on what topics are trending on Twitter daily, and see what you can do to jump on the bandwagon.  Come up with a useful non-promotional response and others following the topic make discover you “in passing,” by virtue of the hashtag discussion.  This is a free and quick way to nudge your way into the online “town square” and start a buzz.

Jared Pomranky

Related posts:

1. twitter for Business: How to Make it Effective
2. Social Media Tips For Business Success

View the original post Tips to Create an Active Twitter Following for Your Business or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

3 Reasons to Use YouTube to Market Your Products and Services:

Reason #1: YouTube is a Leading Search Engine and So Much More
One of the foremost reasons you should be marketing via this unique and popular website can be summed up in a simple statement: YouTube recently surpassed internet giant Yahoo and became the 2^nd most popular search engine in the world (hot on the heels of its parent company, Google).  You could stop there and would have justification enough to tap into this marvelous resource.

But there’s more.  YouTube is far more than a search engine.  It is a community, a social network, a form of media (essentially on par with television in terms of prospective influence), and a venerable platform for dialog on a universal spectrum of subject matter.

Reason #2: YouTube Offers Free Marketing Opportunities, Plus Revenue Sharing
When internet users are thinking of a product, service, or field of interest, YouTube is often the first place they look.  Think about the potential that fact represents for you as a webmaster and business owner: for free, you can place your product in front of the mass market online.  That’s big!

Furthermore, if your videos go viral, you can enjoy substantial income via revenue sharing with YouTube.  That means this video sharing site could help you to turn a profit regardless of how much traffic your video directs to your website –  all this, before you ever even make a sales conversion.

Reason #3: YouTube Can Multiply Your Sales Conversion Rate (CR) and Word-of-Mouth Exposure
The last but certainly not least potent advantage introduced through YouTube marketing is that it can help drive an immeasurable number of visitors to your actual site.  If your video is properly injected with call-to-action, benefit-based content and relevant subject matter, YouTube has afforded you the opportunity to draw in some of your hottest leads and increase your Conversion Rate (CR) by leaps and bounds.

The video sharing site also helps to institute a viral word-of-mouth effect off-site (on social networks like facebook, twitter and Google+) and off-line in the “real world” in internet users’ homes and places of business.

3 Methods to Promote Your Business via YouTube

Method #1: Create Genuinely Good Video Content
You or your marketing agent can help you to create something genuinely well-produced and interesting to share with the YouTube audience.  That can be something funny, informative, unique, even controversial, or anything useful and captivating to a relevant niche audience.

Be certain to make sure that your content is relevant to your field.  It is also vital that your content explains the benefits involved with what you offer (if even in a subtle way) and makes users feel the need to visit your site for more information.

Present benefits and call to action but avoid imparting too much of a promotional tone.  Always consider the platform: YouTube users are generally there to learn or be entertained – not to be directly marketed to.  Teach and entertain them properly and they will be drawn to your offerings as a sheer byproduct.

Method #2: Email and Post Links to Your Videos
It may seem overly simple, but you should email everyone in your personal contacts list and your professional mailing list when you create a YouTube video you think has real potential to go viral.  Be cautious and selective to maintain credibility.  Construct a headline (subject line) that makes your video sound earth-shattering or enticing.

Remember that you are more likely to garner views to multiple videos by the same viewer if that person subscribes to your YouTube channel, so let them willingly do that.  Those on your company mailing list are fine to send regular links to, but don’t overdo it.  And obviously don’t saturate your friends and family with your video links.

Create a business presence on every major social network, like Google+, facebook and twitter.  Obviously, you should promote your YouTube videos daily on these networks by posting links with a strong headline.  And, if you can afford to, you may even want to consider paid marketing and advertising for your videos.

Method #3: Interaction with Other YouTube Content
Interact with other YouTube users by replying to comments, commenting on other users’ videos (especially those within your industry or customer base), and by directly emailing other users through their YouTube channels.

You should also request to be friends with as many other users as the site will allow, and again, stick to relevant users when you send out requests.  If these friend requests foster warm leads, those users could subscribe to your videos and may even start linking others to your content.  Ask and remind people to subscribe, at every turn.

Bear in mind that “going viral” is not strictly linked with some magical phenomenon that cannot be traced back to an initial set of conscious actions on the part of the content creator.  By doing the groundwork and creating the early buzz about your video, and doing so strategically, you can actually play an active role in directly sparking your own viral video firestorm.

Jared Pomranky

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1. Video Sitemaps For More Traffic
2. Internet Marketing Triple Threat: SEO, SMO, PPC

View the original post YouTube Marketing 101 or our main blog site Detroit SEO Web Design

AIDA is an acronym that stands for:

• Attention (or Awareness)
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Let’s have a look at each one, and see how it applies to internet marketing.

1. Attention (Awareness)
Getting the attention of your potential customers can be done in several ways online.  One is through SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.  This is a process, usually executed by an SEO firm, where content is created and optimized to help your website reach the top 10 (preferably top 3 results) on major search engines like Google.  There is a systematic approach these experts can use to make that happen for you, and it truly works when applied properly.

Another way to garner attention is to run advertisements.  PPC ads get you immediate attention and help generate warm sales leads.  Running pay Per Impression (PPM) and having a presence on social media networks including professional networks like LinkedIn and social networks like facebook, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter speak more to the term “Awareness,” but also relate to Attention.  Generally, these steps help you to build and maintain Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) and are usually considered forms of branding.

2. Interest
How do you create interest in your products and services online?  One way is to ensure that your images and multimedia are eye-catching and capable of keeping the attention going.  If interest is not generated within the first few sentences, or the first few seconds, of any content you place online, you are doing a disservice to yourself, and your Bounce Rate (BR) will reflect it.

Interest is fueled by presenting a common problem or need and the associated emotions that go along with it.  If your audience identifies with what you communicate, you will have a follower.  This could be a twitter follower, someone who “Likes” your company’s Facebook page, one who frequents your website, or one who subscribes to your blog or YouTube profile.

3. Desire
Now that you have the online attention and interest of internet users, how do you bolster an intense desire for your particular products or services?  This is where communicating benefits becomes quintessential.  Emotion-based marketing and benefit-driven marketing are closely related.  Truly, they are both emotionally related.

The initial emotion is past or present tense, a feeling of identification, introduced by bringing to mind a memory of a need or problem.  This makes the end user feel that understand what they are going through, and gets them on your side.

Benefits are emotions based in the future tense, introduced by inspiring the individual to envision an improved version of their life approaching, as a result of a need being met or problem being removed.  By quickly and clearly eliciting these emotions, you are generating a strong desire for your offerings – especially if you make the connection between that future vision with your products or services.

4. Action
Finally, you must cause your visitors to take action.  That includes things like clicking links, downloading a free e-book, subscribing, making a purchase, or making a connection on a social network.  Most people won’t automatically follow or “Like” your company online, and most of them won’t buy from you just because you have something that you have convinced them they want or need it.  You must do more.

First of all, action is known as “call to action,” meaning that you enunciate the action you want your visitors to take and place that proposition plainly in front of them (without being annoying of course—please do not use pop-up windows!).

Use bolded headings, graphics, colors, headings, and other attention-getting elements to announce your call to action.  And with your call to action, make sure the question “what do I get?” is answered.  That is, you should always blend brief benefit verbiage in with your call to action, whenever possible, even if you have already stated your benefits ad nauseam.

Jared Pomranky

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Triple Threat: SEO, SMO, PPC
2. Integrating Facebook Into Your Internet Marketing Strategy
3. Conversion Optimization: Your Internet Marketing Missing Link

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