- Better than nothing (is harder than you think): http://bit.ly/cFiMEs
Archive for March, 2010
Everything you need to know to start blogging
This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 30, 2010 @ 9:21 am
So you’re thinking of starting a company blog or you’ve heard about blogging but you’re not sure where to start? This post should provide a good starting place:
Why blogging?
- Positioning - Blogging helps position you/your company as an expert. This is especially true with B2B businesses. Most websites say the same kind of things, a blog helps set your company apart allowing you to prove you know what you’re talking about within your industry
- Search engine ranking – Using keywords in your blog titles and posts is a good way to improve your search engine ranking. A well written, useful post will naturally attract users and be placed highly on search engines. Regular posting also encourages search engines to spider your site more often, which means your content is listed faster. Added to this the more pages your site has the more weight you have in Google
- Increased links – If your blog posts are interesting and relevant, people are more likely to link to them
- Generating repeat traffic – If you blog regularly and allow users to subscribe either by email or RSS, it can be a great way of keeping users coming back
- Keep customers up to date – New developments and company news can be broadcast quickly and easily
What do I need to know to start?
Now that you’ve decided to start blogging how do you get started?
We recommend using wordpress.org as your blogging platform. This is free but needs someone technical to set it up. There are free web-based platforms like wordpress.com and blogger however these are not hosted on your website meaning you will not get the search engine benefits of using a blog that’s integrated with your website. If you need some help with this you can always give us a call.
After that it’s simple; start writing. You should aim to blog at least once a week, more if you have time. Keep a list of blogging ideas you have and try different things.
Use your website, Twitter and other social media to promote your blog posts.
What can I blog about?
- Hints and tips to make you look like an expert
- How to guides and tutorials
- Lists such as 10 ways to do x
- News from your organisation
- Reviews of books, videos, software
- Links to useful resources
- Predictions like what’s going to be hot in 2010
- Ask your customers questions and have a discussion with them
- Interviews with influential people in your industry or even your company
- Case studies that demonstrate how a customer can benefit from your product or service
- Multimedia posts, videos and pictures
- Events you are holding, exhibiting at or attending
- Commentary on a news topic
For more information on blogs and Social Media check out our Social Media in a Box proposition.
How to generate leads with landing pages
This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 24, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
Do you want a quick, hassle free way of generating leads from your website? Then look no further than using landing pages.
Landing pages are simple one page websites with the sole purpose of getting people to fill in a form. Typically the visitor would exchange their email address and basic contact details for something free.
That something free could be a trial of your product or it could be some information; a free guide, ebook or white paper, in fact anything that would provide value to the customer.
Creating landing pages and what to do with them
Landing pages are separate from your website; they should have no navigation to distract people. It should simply give people information and then include a form. There’s an example of a Xander Marketing landing page here, and an example of one of our client’s here.
Once set up you can use Google AdWords to drive traffic to your landing page, making sure you set conversion tracking up so you know how much each lead has cost. You can split test landing pages and experiment over time.
What do you do with the leads?
Once your landing page is set up, you’re getting traffic and people are exchanging their contact details for something free; what do you do next? You could call each person up, if they’ve signed up for a free trial of your product this may work well. Or you could nurture the leads – send them a series of emails which over time would give them more information, educate them about your business or maybe send them special offers. You can use an email marketing programme to do this automatically for you. Once warmed up people will be very receptive to a phone call.
So, now you should have a way to develop a constant stream of leads. If you want to chat about landing pages and lead generation, or want help in setting up your own lead generation campaign get in touch.
The cost of free marketing
This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the March 29, 2010 @ 3:05 pm
Free marketing is every businesses dream right? Building up a following on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like increases your brand awareness and is a good way of promoting your products and services.
Updating your website regularly helps with search engines and keeps your customers engaged. Traditional marketing such as direct mail can be quickly designed in house and best of all they all cost virtually nothing to do.
But have you ever taken a moment to work out how much time is spent growing this following; how often are you tweeting? And are these tweets sitting there at the forefront of your mind or do you need to take a minute or two to come up with something relevant that will hopefully encourage your followers to your site?
Is your website updater someone with a bit of techy knowledge and your designer an employee with an art a level?
What about your blog; whether you write it yourself or get a member of your team to do it, how much of your or their day is taken up drafting, proofing and publishing these pearls of wisdom?
And over a year???
Now have a quick think about your hourly rate. If a client needed your services for an hour, a day, a week, what would you charge them? The time spent on free marketing could actually be costing you more than you realise. Do your team’s skills lie in marketing or do they lie in what your business actually does?
By outsourcing your marketing to a company who really knows what they’re doing you can get on with what you do best; running your business and making money, saving money at the same time.
Free Marketing Treat – try before you buy marketing
This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the May 20, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
Click here to choose your Free Marketing Treat»
Are you thinking of getting some outside support for your marketing? Are you dazed by the minefield or suppliers or unsure where to start looking?
You wouldn’t buy a car before taking it for a test drive; so why do the same with your marketing? If you’re thinking of outsourcing some of your marketing this is the perfect opportunity to try an agency.
10 Treats that add value to your business
You have a choice of 10 treats that can really add value to your business. We don’t have time to offer a Treat for every business and therefore we’re only looking for serious businesses that really want to make the most from their marketing.
Click here to choose your Free Marketing Treat»
For businesses serious about marketing only
How can we do that? We ask one thing…if you’d like a Treat from us, some free marketing, then if you think we’ve done a good job with your Treat we’d like you to commit to having a meeting with us to discuss your marketing as a whole.
As a caveat you need to have at least £3,000 that you could spend on marketing in the next year. You don’t have to spend it with us; it’s just if you have at least that amount of money and are interested in a meeting to explore your options further you’re showing that you’re serious about marketing.
