Interview Local Businesses on Your Blog
Find local businesses (not a direct competitor) and invite them to participate in an interview on your site where they can share information about their service. Email them a brief list of interview questions then publish their responses directly to your blog with a short introduction that describes what they do. Afterwards, ask them if they would mind linking to the interview from their website. Often they will be happy to reciprocate since you just helped to promote their business.

Interview Local Bloggers
No matter where you are located there are probably bloggers who live in your area including sports bloggers, mommy bloggers, and even farm bloggers. You can ask these bloggers if they would participate in an interview on your site to discuss local topics like favorite things to do in your town or favorite restaurants. Not only is this great content for your visitors, but you can ask if they would mention the interview on their blog.

Sponsor a Local Organization
There are probably several local organizations or non-profits in your area who have a website. This can include a school PTA website, youth sports team, or club. If the organization has a website they will often link to their sponsor’s websites. You can find these opportunities by using the following search query in Google: Seattle site:.org inurl:sponsors

Request Links from Business Partners or Vendors
If you work with other local businesses who provide you services, ask them if they can link to you from their website. If you would recommend the company, you can approach this from an angle of offering to provide a testimonial for their website. If they publish your testimonial, ask if they will include a link to your business.

Organize an Event
Events can be a great marketing tactic that can also help your site earn some links. Kane Jamison wrote an excellent article about this titled “The Complete Guide to Link Building with Local Events“. Local news websites often have a section dedicated to local events and you can submit your event to earn a link. Some city websites also allow you to submit events that can be posted on their website like this one at Seattle.gov.

Create an Awesome List
My wife works in apartment management and I created a list of the Top 16 Things to Do in Kent, WA. It usually ranks #1 or #2 in Google for “things to do in Kent, WA” and attracts visitors who may be new to the area. It hasn’t been linked to from other sites yet, but it has potential to attract natural links by being the best resource on things to do in the local area.

Write a Guest Article on a Local Blog
Depending on your area there may be some local blogs that cover local events and news. You could offer to write an informative article on a local topic. I contacted the blog iLoveKent.net and asked if I could write an article for them about upcoming summer festivals in the area. They were happy to publish my article titled “5 Great Summer Festivals Near Kent in 2012” and they linked to my wife’s apartment website.

Submit Your Site to Powerful Directories
There are some authoritative directories that can provide your local business with a helpful link. One warning on directories is that not all directories pass link value. The ones that are more likely to pass link value are highly trusted directories like the Better Business Bureau or niche directories like your local Chamber of Commerce. A side benefit of submitting to the BBB is that you can put their badge on your website which makes your site look more trustworthy to potential customers. Avoid directories that will accept any site since this can do more harm than good.

Examples of powerful directories:
Better Business Bureau
Yahoo Directory
Business.com
Best of the Web
Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Get a Listing on Local Directories
Local directories don’t always provide a followed link. Often they will add a “no-follow” attribute to the link to tell Google that it shouldn’t count as an editorially given link. Although the link itself probably doesn’t improve your search rankings there are several benefits to submitting to local directories. One is that your business listing is considered by Google as a local citation, which is a factor that Google considers in its local search ranking algorithm. A local citation is essentially a mention of your business name, address, phone number together. A great resource for finding local directories to submit to is GetListed.org.

Local directories include:
Yelp
SuperPages
Citysearch
Yp.com

Charles Sipe is an online marketing specialist in Seattle, Washington. You can follow him on Twitter at @charlessipe. He can be contacted at csipe84(at)gmail.com.

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But really? The truth is, I’m probably most definitely better off without an RSS reader. It’s not that I’m a consumption addict (or am I?), but it can be argued that I’m not nearly as thoughtful or tactical in my reading habits as I should be (admitting that there’s a problem is the first step, right?). Over the years I’ve gathered feeds and have done little in terms of maintenance to cut out the garbage and assure that only the best material sticks around. To this extent, an RSS reader can quickly transform from what was once a massive productivity tool, to a magnet for distraction. Most articles, most blogs, most news sources, hurt more than they help. Is reading another Huffington Post or TechCrunch article going to make me a stronger marketer or programmer, a better person, or give me the ability to make my clients happier? Maybe, but probably not.

Information vs. Entertainment, There’s a Difference

Too much RSS consumption, just like too much television, is obviously detrimental. How much is too much? Hard to say, that’s best determined on an individual basis, but it’s my non scientific observation that those who work in and / or tend to internet marketing always seem to error on the side of over-consumption  It’s not just possible, but very likely that a culture of digital indulgence has become the norm.

Tami Baribeau says it best:

“I’m a product of internet culture. I spend much of my days and evenings reading the web. I have a staple set of 10 or so websites that I check multiple times throughout the day. I follow RSS feeds and aggregate sites, combing over Hacker News and Reddit and Google Reader. I am always plugged in to Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and when something new happens in the world (as impacting as a celebrity death or national tragedy or as silly as another spat between game journalists on Twitter) then I am one of the firsts to know (and retweet). I’ve been told that my name is synonymous with the internet. It’s not synonymous with the ‘real life’ though.”

A lot of ink has been spilled on this topic already, but the death of Google Reader makes for as fitting time as any to step back and think about poorly chosen habits vs. smarts habits and quality information vs. junk information.

Earning Attention the Hard Way

I’m dedicated to a life of learning and never want to stop taking in books, blogs, podcasts, videos, lectures, or any other resource that proves itself as a valuable medium for education and personal enrichment. Despite this, there’s still a delicate balance to be made. Time and attention is finite and thus should be allocated appropriately. I want everyone who is generous enough to take out time of their day to check out something I create, be it here on Sparkplug Digital, or elsewhere, to come away with something new and useful, no matter how small it may be. Finding a replacement reader shouldn’t be difficult – that’s the easy part, but setting a precedent for what is and what isn’t worthy of attention… ah, now that’s where the real challenge is. If there’s a lesson to be had in Google Reader’s death it’s one of caution. Always consume with caution.

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I should I know, I was one of these characters. I took a job out of highschool as a rep for a company that promised to get clients to the top of Google by marking up and reselling monthly AdWords packages. The pitch was simple, “Hello, would you like to be on Google? … Great! It’ll only cost $299 a month. What credit card would you like to use today?” Maybe I was naive (OK, it was a stupid decision), but I thought it might be fun. Unsurprisingly after a week I began hating myself and loathed having to get up in the morning. Each rep was making 70 to 100 blind cold calls a day and not one customer ever felt happy to hear from us. 50% of those who bought ended up canceling their order within the first 5 hours. I’m sure there are worse companies to work for, but I can’t think of many. After two weeks I left without giving notice and vowed to never do sales again if it meant crossing the line on what I thought was ethical behavior. Remember the golden rule? Treat others how you want to be treated, as in don’t sell to others in the same way you hate being sold to.

Sleazeball sales tactics aside, it’s unfathomable and unreasonable for most companies to eliminate their sales force and set in systems for outbound prospecting. Sales is the engine that makes the whole thing run. Make no mistake, I can live without marketing and PR, bookkeeping, and tech people, I’ll find a way, but throw out sales and the ship is sunk. Recruit a good sales team and you’ve got the building blocks for a successful company. NOTHING happens without sales of some kind, so any talk of eliminating or replacing it altogether is utter rubbish and can’t be taken seriously.

However, is it time to rethink and change how sales is conducted in relation to inbound marketing? Heck yes it is. I’m a fan of how online consultancy Software Advice framed the debate recently with one of their Google+ hangouts, the synopsis being that inbound lead generation is still experiencing heavy growth and has ushered in a new school of thinking based in permission marketing and sales.

“As the Web continues to empower B2B buyers, we’re likely to see a continued shift toward inbound marketing. But using intelligent, data-driven calling to generate leads shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.” – Derek Singleton

Cold calling will always be around, get used to it, but from a marketing perspective there’s still much to be done in terms of humanizing the process. Maybe it’s cliché, but isn’t sales supposed to be a conversation, one in which both parties are communicating wants and needs, setting expectations, and finding middle ground? A give and take where both sides walk out ahead? It’s a bit romantic to think that sales and online marketing can join forces when each have different objectives, however at the end of the day it’s still all about moving the needle. The question here is what can be done to eliminate friction and make sure that leads are overqualified, even to the extent that a sales call borders on being enjoyable. Years ago I’d do anything for just one warm conversation as opposed to a frustrated, rushed, and chaotic one. Today I’m of the opinion that nobody, on either end of the line, should have to settle for the latter. If that’s not the case, maybe it’s time for a change of scenery or a shakeup in how business is done. Do you sleep well at night? I know I do.

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Making Video Part of Your SEO Content Strategy

Companies of all different sizes are adding video to their marketing plans in the form of vlogs, online advertisements, or noncommercial additional content. Today’s searchers are seeking out branded videos and it’s up to search engine optimizations (SEO) to make the most of the trend.

Marketers need to remember that the process isn’t as simple as recording, uploading and pressing ‘play.’ They should actively optimize everything for maximum SEO potential using the equation: applying SEO basics + knowing your goals + doing it well = SEO video success.

Apply SEO basics

There’s no reason to be intimidated by videos. Search engines rely on the content surrounding a video, the number and sources of inbound links, and its community engagement so it’s important to do a few things.

First, incorporate keywords into the title, surrounding text and tags. Then, post multiple hosting sites, and allow for interactions such as comments, rating and voting, sharing, video responses, embedding and more. Finally, pursue links in the same way you would for text articles.

Know your goals

It’s a good idea to lay out your goals before production begins. One way to stay focused on those intentions is to bookend your video with information.

This means that the viewer in the first five seconds should know who you are and how to find you and at the end, you should include a call to action, such as “watch the next video,” “subscribe to our blog,” or “visit our website.”  This action can be enabled when using YouTube by inserting a video annotation with links to direct viewers where to go.

Remember that even when promoting a specific product, it’s important that a video is entertaining, original, and useful to the viewer, or otherwise they will click away, or not share the video with their friends.

Set up a way to measure success after you know your goals. Use analytics to see whether your traffic increased, or your subscribers went up directly after you released the video. Being able to see if your video is working will help you know whether to keep exploring your current method or try a new approach.

Do it well

Try applying the following blogging and copy-writing principles to video editing:

1. Watch for typos. Make time for the editing process to avoid mistakes in your video.
2. Check your syntax. Check that your video makes sense. Every scene should lead into the next and the editing should be clean.
3. Stay current. Avoid fads and pre-packaged graphics because they may have worn out their worth by the time your video is uploaded. Do check to see what others have done that is similar and work from that.
4. Use what you can. It’s fine if you don’t have the highest quality equipment. Use the equipment you have creatively and work from the ground up.
5. Tie your form to your content. Think of the best ways to get your message across to your viewers.  Is this a how-to? How about an interview? Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Of course there’s more than one way to achieve success using video for online marketing. Try out these ideas and find what works best for you.

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Content marketing has been around for as long as the consumer internet has, but perhaps unlike any other year, 2012 felt like a definitive, elephant in the room, here I am, stop ignoring me, breakthrough period. People who never spoke of it before, at least not in public, began talking and writing about it. Marketing conferences, professional consultants, digital agencies, and top marketing blogs, many of which rarely mentioned content marketing a couple years ago, began putting increased emphasis on the topic in 2012.

OK, but are we better off?

Maybe. It depends where you look. There are some organizations and people who are doing excellent work (42Floors, Treehouse, and Buffer, are all standouts in my book), but such examples are still the exception rather than the norm. When it comes to producing quality content: webinars, blog posts, ebooks, informative landing pages; many of us our still wandering around in the dark. Not to discredit those who are at minimum at least making some type of an attempt, overall however most of us can still significantly step up our game a notch or two.

Content 1st, Marketing 2nd.

When it comes the outlook for content marketing in 2013, I’m an optimist. The glass is half full, it’s a new year, and I’d like to see everyone succeed, however I know everything worth while takes work. The biggest challenge ahead I believe, is the actual content itself, never mind the marketing of said content. In the spring of 2011, right after Panda, the folks at Google published a post outlining what makes a high quality site a high quality site. Among the questions for site owners were:

Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

How much quality control is done on content?

If this doesn’t dispel any and all doubts about creating valuable content, nothing else likely will. The best advice in 2013 for site owners, SEOs, or really anyone who wants more traffic, is to invest time and resource into web copy that resonates with people. Fortunately or unfortunately, the jig is up on other routes. Eventually content quality will have to be addressed. If 2012 wasn’t the year, 2013 makes for a great time to start.

P.S. Not sure where to start? Here’s some recommended reading.

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Duplicate content is what search engines impose when they find large amounts of text that have been copied from other sites

Duplicate homepages can be credited as individual pages. The sites http://www.homepage.com or http://homepage.com need to be one or the other to ensure your homepage is getting the praise it deserves. Creating many versions of the same article to distribute to sites and networks is one popular link building technique. But, sometimes search engines can see correlations between the original and the copies and discount those included links..

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Hear that? It’s the sound of dollars, tons of dollars, being shifted from old, traditional (boring) advertising and marketing channels towards social media. Oh how sweet it is.

A couple years ago (2007 – 2008ish) if felt like those who “got it” were in the small minority. Then, things started to change. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and eventually platforms like Pinterest, Foursquare, and Instagram, became household names. Today it’s as if everyone (save for a few ignorant holdouts) wants a part of the action. There isn’t an executive Fortune 500 marketing or PR team on the planet that hasn’t been briefed on the topic. Almost overnight it’s as if every other television and billboard ad has a #hashtag stamped onto it, like a sort of self proclaimed badge of honor. A number of companies, big and small, are finding incredible success, while others are still floundering. That’s just business, but hey at least there’s a clear sign of effort and investment.

So this is it – Social Media Has Had the Last Laugh?

Not quite…

Just being in social isn’t enough. It never was, but now the truth has become blatantly obvious. There’s too many credible examples to ignore, ex: General Motors struggles, while Ford continues to execute at a high level.

It’s the same story for small business and startups alike. I’d need more than two hands to count the number of local restaurants in Seattle that I’ve come across who are using social media, but are 100% clueless when it comes to strategy. I’m in a nice mood today so I won’t name any of the embarrassing examples, but on the reverse I can give huge credit to places such as Taco Time (300+ locations) and Canlis (just 1 location, but famous for their use of social media) who are doing great work.

Difficulty and Deception

Anyone can get in the game, but delivering positive ROI to justify considerable investment is tough, real tough, with social. If I sound like a naysayer, it’s because, well… I am one. I’m not a skeptic, because it can work, however there’s still a strong majority of marketers, both newbs and veterans – traditional and digital practitioners alike, who have grossly underestimated what it takes to excel.

My advice? Be active in social, put a little Facebook URL on your business cards, rally up some type of online following, etc… do whatever you think you need to do.

But if that’s not enough, as in you’d like to use social media to meet a real business objective and aren’t satisfied with playing on the level of the majority, be mindful that to find success it’s going to take a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, and a hell of a lot of patience. Social media won’t save you or your business, but put in the effort, give it some considerable thought, and your chances of making it worthwhile are much greater than just shooting from the hip and being active just because everyone else is.

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Never heard of it? It’s when a startup gives up on innovation, throws in the towel on creative thinking, and says “me too” to whatever everyone else is doing. If unchecked for too long the side effects become nearly irreversible.

Symptoms to watch out for

Do you find yourself not just watching the competition, but excessively imitating their every move?

Competitor A has a Pinterest account –  quick! let’s create one, spend hours every week pinning random garbage, and soon we’ll be just as awesome.

Competitor B has an iPhone, iPad, Facebook, (insert name of platform here) app – quick! let’s pay a freelance developer $1000 to build one so we can seize the opportunity.

Competitor C has X amount of inbound links, Twitter followers, or positive reviews – quick! let’s make it a top priority to have just as much, if not more.

Competitor D is blogging 5 times a week and has just released an incredible infographic – quick! let’s work 20 extra hours a week, stock up on energy drinks, ignore our families, and try and do the same.

Treatment

Warning: Treating me too syndrome isn’t always easy, especially if an ignorant coworker / founder is calling the shots, however if you catch it early enough it *might* be curable.

Step 1. Get back to your unique value proposition

What makes you unique? What does your startup do that nobody else can, or in what way are you different than all of the competition? Is it outstanding customer service, or incredible value for the price? Maybe it’s minimal design or a compelling, feels good, giving back to the world type of mantra. Whatever it is, narrow in on it and let it guide you on what to do next.

Step 2. Advocate for quality

It doesn’t matter what marketing campaign or big branding move you want to pull if it ends up bombing. Take some time, have a plan, and execute to your teams fullest capabilities. If this means spending a couple thousand (thousands, not hundreds) on a whitepaper, then so be it. If this means working with some fresh talent to better express your ideas, then so be it. Make sure that whatever you do, be it small or big, is of high quality.

Step 3. Stop copying the giants

Airbnb can work up plenty of jaw dropping marketing initiatives, because well… they’ve got a super talented staff and over 100 million in funding to pull from. You and me though, our startups are just babies (maybe not, but probably). The game is much different. To stand out you can’t just simply copy the competition, it’s not going to be enough. Stick to what works, but never be afraid to experiment with new tactics.

Always play to win

Saying me too is a giveaway that you’re following and not leading. Playing for 2nd or 3rd or the N’th position in a crowded market can still be rewarding, but there’s nothing like being out front. If you’re not playing to win, it’s likely that you’re not going to.

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How do you decide what tactics to use for your business? It’s a good idea to try checking in on your competitors in your industry and see what they’re using. For instance, set up Google Alerts for each of the companies you want to keep your eye on.

When Google finds something new as it travels through the Internet it will e-mail and let you know. Set up a spreadsheet for each competitor that includes tabs for links, blogs, directories, industry publications and other facts about each. You can easily see how companies are talking about your competition and find other marketing opportunities.

As a small business owner you also want to be sure that your business is mentioned in the right places online. Get your competitors saved as search terms and like Google Alerts you will receive e-mails from Social Mention detailing who is talking about your competition, what they are saying and whether the sentiment is good or bad. You may also want to check out Icerocket, Addict-o-matic, Seesmic, or TweetDeck to be kept up to date.

Another idea is to use Open Site Explorer to get details about the sites that link to your competition. Other options are the SEOmoz tools: Competitive Link (Link Analysis), Research Tool, Keyword Analysis and Crawl Test.

If you are running or thinking of running a PPC campaign for your business then you should think about getting SpyFu. This allows you to download keywords that your competitors are using and borrow and improve ideas for your own successful campaigns.

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1. Look at Referring Traffic From Google Analytics
If you are getting traffic from other sites then they must be linking to you. You can periodically check your Google Analytics for all the sites that are sending you visitors. Then scan the list for sites that you didn’t know were linking to you.

2. Use Multiple Third Party Link Tools like Majestic SEO and Open Site Explorer
SEO tools that index the Internet’s links are very helpful in finding the sites that link to you. SEOMoz and Majestic SEO index billions of webpages and provide significantly more link data than Google provides. These are both paid tools, although Majestic SEO allows you to check your own site’s links for free if you sign up for a free account. It is a good idea to use both because each tool can find links that the other tool has missed.

3. Look in Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools allows users to see a portion of your inbound links that it knows about. Additionally, Bing Webmaster Tools recently released a beta version of their link tool called Link Explorer. It shows a list of links to your site and can also show a list of links to other websites as well.

4. Search in Google for your URL
Although this doesn’t work perfectly, if you search in Google for your URL the search results will include webpages with a link to your site. You can narrow your search to within the last week or month by clicking on “Show Search Tools” on the left side of the search results page.

Then look for webpages that show up. Some of these pages (often a good portion) will have a link to your site. You can also check the source code to see if they have your URL on the page by right clicking and selecting view page source and then using Control+F to search for your URL.

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