townsend.bunksite.com

Author: Guest Author

A Quick Guide to Using the Internet to Your Advantage
Small businesses have come a long way, thanks to the Internet. Now we all have websites touting our products and services, and we have more ways than ever to connect with our potential and existing clients. But there’s always room for improvement, isn’t there? If you’re not fully using the Internet to gain momentum for your business, you’re missing out on potential sales.

Be Smart About SEO

In case you weren’t aware, Google has made a lot of changes in the past year that affect how marketers use keywords and SEO. What that means for you is that you have to use keywords in a natural way (instead of shoving them in every sentence and sounding like a robot).

Be cautious about how you use anchor text, too. Here are some tips to help you stay in Google’s good graces:
- Rather than hyperlinking a generic word or phrase, such as “click here” or “page,” focus on specific words or phrases for your anchor text, as we’ve done throughout this post.
- Experts recommend using your brand name for about 30% of your inbound anchor links.
- Keep your links relevant to the overall theme of your site. Don’t link to a pet shop if your site is about accounting software or Google might see it as too out of the blue and penalize you.
Make Your Site Warm and Inviting

There’s nothing worse than going to a site that’s cluttered or has boxes popping up everywhere. If your website is your welcome mat for potential customers, you want it to be inviting, right? You do that in several ways:
- Simplify navigation.
- Make sure all links go where they should.
- Make the checkout process as simple as possible.
- Ask for minimal info for email subscribers or customers (just an email address vs. address and phone).
Be the Go-To Expert

Right now, the hottest tool for marketing online is content marketing. That comes in the form of blog content, white papers, ebooks, videos, infographics…the list goes on and on. Remember your goal with content marketing: to be helpful to your target audience. Your focus should be on useful content that answers a question or solves a problem for someone. The bonus is that it makes your company look like the leader in your industry.

Diversify the kinds of content you produce to attract different types of people:
- How to and advice-based blog posts should be short and scannable.
- White papers go more in depth on a given subject, and can be used as bait to get people to sign up for your emails.
- Videos attract people who learn through audio and visual imagery.
- Infographics draw in potential customers who prefer graphical representations of data, rather than only words.
Use Different Platforms

You’re no longer tethered to your desktop; you likely have a laptop, smartphone, and tablet that you also use to access the Internet, so use that to your advantage. Look for software that also offers a mobile option, like accounting software or a CRM web app, so that you can handle your business no matter where you are.

And here’s another content marketing tip: you can also use a CRM system to track and manage your assets for your content marketing. If you’ve ever missed a day publishing on your blog, you know how important it is to stay organized as far as who’s publishing what, and when.

Get Your Head in the Clouds

Another benefit the Internet has brought small businesses is cloud storage. Now you don’t have to worry about what happens if your computer is destroyed in a fire; all your files should be backed up in the cloud. That includes:
- Contracts and agreements.
- Client data.
- Articles, spreadsheets, and presentations.
It’s exciting that every day, technology brings us more ways to grow our businesses. Be open to what’s out there, and find the tools that work best for your business.

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, an Internet marketing firm specializing in marketing communications, copywriting and blog posts. She’s also the founder of How to Create a Press Release, a free resource for business owners. She’s written three books: DIY Press Releases: Your Guide to Becoming Your Own PR Consultant, 101 Entrepreneur Tips and Internet Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs, and contributes to several sites, including ChamberofCommerce.com, The Marketing Eggspert Blog, CorpNet, Small Business Trends, and BizLaunch. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.

Contact one of our experts to learn how you can enhance your current marketing strategies.
December 20, 2013
Local U New Orleans: 14 Things You’ll Want to Know
About a month ago, my team and I attended Local U –
an online marketing seminar held at Tulane University. It was an extremely valuable, very energizing half-day! Various industry leaders in local SEO have dedicated their time and resources to helping small businesses learn the basics. It was more than worth the price of admission!

Not only did I take away a lot of valuable information, but I’ve already started thinking about how I can apply the topics discussed to help Audubon improve our online presence. I’m excited to put a plan into action and work with my team to make the website even better.

Below are my top takeaways from the day. If Local U is coming to your city, I highly recommend attending.

Takeaways:
1. Does your website answer the top 10 most frequently asked questions that you hear from customers in your physical space/store?
2. Is your NAP (business name, address, phone number) easy to find on every page?
  This tiger needs a nap! Too bad this type of nap won’t help your local presence!
3. Remove all Marketing Speak.
4. Are you consistently blogging? (Tip: Top 10 FAQs make excellent blog post topics.)
5. Are you building links on your site to other reputable sites? Links are gold! Search engines move from link to link.
6. Content is not just text. Content is photos, graphics, video, reviews.
7. Future of online marketing is customer reviews. Do you have a review process built into your sales process – to both encourage reviews and deal with negative reviews?
8. When asked what do you do on Google, 46% say read customer reviews. Reviews are social proof.
9. If you are not talking about something on your site, you cannot rank in search for it! Create pages for what you want to rank for.
  It’s important to add enticing photos and videos. Who wouldn’t love to look at cute pictures of animals all day?
10. There is no single Google search results page. 50-200 different algorithms at work at any given time and results are personalized. We are all seeing slightly different results.
11. Rank for what you are best at, be specific!
12. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. What will users find there about you?
13. You cannot own or control Facebook. You can own and control your website. Your website is most important, at the heart of all your online marketing.
14. Emails must be readable on all devices. 42% of all mails are opened on a mobile device.
Lani McWilliams is the Director of Member Services & Ecommerce at Audubon Nature Institute. Audubon Nature Institute is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the wonders of nature and educating their visitors about the natural world.
June 25, 2013
Guest Post & Infographic: 6 Ways You Can Use Google+ to Build Authority

Kaila Strong is an Account Manager at Vertical Measures.

Internet Marketing Infographic by Vertical Measures

Knowing how to build website authority is essential both in terms of increasing traffic and maximizing sales. With the emerging popularity of Google+, just about anyone with a Google profile can utilize the platform to help with building awareness for their website or brand. In addition, with the evolution of Google Pages you can also help build the authority of your website and connect with your customers too!

Here are just a few ways you can use Google + to build your websites authority and connect on the platform.

Google+ Button

Haven’t added the Google+ button to your site yet? Do it! The social network is growing in popularity and should be around for a little while – at least we hope. Allow your site visitors to +1 your content such as blog posts, video, white papers, and even your products. Anywhere you think someone might want to give you props via +1 you should place a button.

Additionally, use Google+ to start sharing your content with like-minded folks. Build up your circles and share your posts to get +1’s too. Share others content and ask others to share yours. Google has access to this information and can see if you naturally receive +1’s on good content. Worth mentioning, many are saying that a +1 on content can get it indexed and cached by the search engine giant much faster.

Google Pages

The announcement that Google now allows businesses to have Google+ pages certainly thrilled many around the web. Share breaking news, updates, promotions, links, photos, and even talk face-to-face with your customers via Google+ Hangouts just like you would do with your personal profile.

First, build your Google+ page and fill out all the important areas. Add photos, video, and fill out the About section. Add a link to your website (do-follow!), and update your status messages regularly. Add profiles to your circle and encourage others to add you to their circle. Add a Google+ Page badge to your site with a link to your profile. Monitor how well your Page is doing through the use of Google Analytics and Google+ search.

Engage

Continue to engage on your Google+ business Page and from your personal profile as well. You might even go so far as making it a company policy to get all employees on Google+ by the end of the year. Encourage your staff to participate on your branded page and with others in your industry to connect with new people. Building up a community on social platforms isn’t an easy task, but with the help of your staff you can do so collectively. You’ll find that over time your community will naturally share your content, +1 your posts, and help increase the authority of your website all at the same time.

As Google + matures and grows in popularity so will the ability you have as marketers to drive engagement and authority for your brand. See how Google + fits into the building authority process? The infographic below shows you just how important diversifying efforts are to building authority.

Examining Ripples

One interesting feature of Google+ are Ripples. “Google+ Ripples creates an interactive graphic of the public shares of any public post on Google+ to show you how a post has rippled through the network.” You’re able to see who publicly shared the post, the comments they’ve made, how the post was shared over time, and statistics on how the post was shared. Use Ripples to examine the who, what, where, when, and why of viral posts. Attempt to emulate the messages that receive the most engagement. Here’s a list of 10 amazing Google+ Ripples to get started.

Extending Network

Use Google+ to extend your network. Sure, not all your friends and connections will be on Google+ but quite a few of them will be – especially those “in the know”. Look to connect with others through the use of Huddles or examine Ripples to see who the influencers are within Google+. Add those folks to your circles and reach out to them, working to add them to your inner circle. Build up your brands authority by being connected with these folks, or your own authority for being in their circles.

Optimize Page

Don’t forget to optimize your profile and business page. The meta description of your business page is your intro, headline, and name, so make sure to fill them in appropriately. Optimize your Google+ personal profile too with these easy-to-follow tips.

These are just a few ways to utilize Google+ to your advantage and work to build authority. As you can see in the Infographic below, using Google+ is just one of the ways you can build authority.

November 21, 2011
Places You Don’t Want to Check-In on Foursquare

1. The Strip Club Strip clubs and cabarets may be suitable for groups of men celebrating a birthday or a bachelor party; however, it’s never ever the proudest moment – you’d best stay incognito.

2. A New Jersey Nets’ Game Being a true sports fan that sticks with your team through the highs and lows is very respectable; however, when your team posts only 12 wins in an 82 game season, you’re going to want to separate yourself from the train-wreck. If you’re supporting your Nets, it’s in your best interest to do so in private.

P.S. Don’t check in to the Nets on Gowalla either.

3. The Sperm Bank Whether you’re trying to make a buck or simply spread your seed to anyone that’ll take it, checking in from a sperm bank is simply too much information and will never shine too brightly upon your reputation. Good luck living that one down!

4. A Justin Bieber Concert Because I’m confident that no young girls between 8 and 15 are reading this, I can say this with confidence: you should not check-in from a Justin Bieber concert! Sure he can sing and dance well enough but I repeat, as a self-respecting adult, you should not check-in from a Justin Bieber concert.

5. A Plastic Surgery Clinic Considering it’s always the big scandal when a celebrity secretly gets plastic surgery, it’s pretty clear that the plastic surgery clinic is not a place of great pride. If plastic surgery of any kind is on your agenda, you should keep it to yourself and away from your Foursquare app.

6. The Porn Shop Although, as consenting adults, you are more than welcome to occasionally visit the “adult book store” (in the interest of spicing up your love life), you’ll want to keep it between you, your lover and the cashier – the world wide web doesn’t need to know.

7. Donald Trump’s Hair Salon Who knows if Donald Trump actually owns a hair salon or not; however, if you ever find yourself in a barber’s chair next to him, you’re in the wrong place. To maintain any street-cred with your crew, never find yourself checking-in from the same salon where Donald Trump gets his classic haircut.

8. Wal-Mart Yes, the bargains are unbeatable but there is that certain stigma that causes us to never be fully proud of admitting we stepped foot in a Wal-Mart. Considering the Grade-A characters that waltz through their doors, deep down we probably fear being lumped into the same social group as the oddly shaped couple in the Looney Tunes t-shirts. When at Wal-Mart, don’t check-in.

9. Jail Who knows what you did to deserve a night or more in jail but you’re only given one phone call for a reason – it’s not a proud moment and only those closest to you, that love you unconditionally should be notified of your incarceration.

10. The Welfare Office We all fall upon hard times and some of us even turn to the government to see us through but if you’re standing in the welfare line and checking-in on foursquare, your priorities might be in need of some adjustment. Welfare isn’t fully shameful but owning a high-tech gadget while claiming your check surely is.

11. An Adult Theater Watching porn at home is your own business but when you chose to go out in public and watch XXX movies amongst the other scattered perverts at the local skin-a-max theater, getting caught is your own problem.

12. Waffle House Much like the Wal-Mart, even though we’ve all found ourselves in a Waffle House at one point in our lives, there is a certain shame that it carries with it. With nicknames such as the Awful Waffle and the Awful House, it may taste great in a drunken haze but it’s a personal experience that doesn’t need to be shared beyond your booth.

August 2, 2010