by sekaterina | Oct 23, 2019 | Blog, Marketing Agency, Multichannel marketing, Small Business Marketing Blog |
Being an agency owner, I often come across the issue of my clients’ Social Networks’ health. Many of our clients had previously accepted connections requests on LinkedIn, friendships requests on Facebook and followers on Instagram who are neither qualified or relevant to their business.
Why is this an issue?
I strongly believe that the purpose of Social Networks management is to communicate with your prospects and customers effectively. Your networks are your most valuable business asset because it allows your messages to be delivered to the right audience, reduces your e-mail inbox spam and drives most valuable and qualified web traffic to your website.
Social Networks Management: Delivering your messages to your prospects and customers:
Social networks audiences are presenting unique opportunities for delivering your messages, information and offers to your prospects and customers. Comparing to any other marketing communication channels, correct Social Networks management presents the highest opportunity for engagement: up to 60% engagement, compared to e-mail (less than 1 %) and telemarketing (less than 5%).
And the best of all, these messages are delivered to your qualified recipients for free! Compare this to the cost of web marketing, Search Engine Optimization or advertising.
In addition, your social networks contacts are highly monetizable business assets. Yes! If you decide to sell your business, these contacts and the quality of your engagement with them will be measured in a high dollar value.
Social Networks Management reduces spam across all channels:
We are all irritated from the amount of spam coming off internet in a form of e-mail, voicemail and unwanted telemarketing. It makes our mailboxes clattered, make us miss valuable information, waking us up in a middle of the night and infuriate us by interrupting our meetings.
Why do we get so much spam? Look at the qualities of your networks! Did you know that your first LinkedIn connections have access to your contact information, which can be easily downloaded to Excel and imported to any CRM, dialer or other communication software?
So, if you would like to reduce spam-clean up your networks first.
Social Networks promote your website with Search Engines:
In is no secret that Search Engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are monitoring and constantly accessing your website traffic and its behaviour patterns on your website. If majority of your visitors are relevant to your business keywords and their time on your site is higher than your competition, Search Engines will promote you to the top of their pages. This mean a lot of new business for you! Do you know that #1 position in Google sites draw almost 85% of all traffic, #2 gets about 10%, and #3 all the rest? If you are lower than this – you pretty much get nothing at all. This is why companies invest thousands of dollars to their websites and SEO.
Your social networks’ referrals are the most valuable traffic, which also has the highest conversion rates. In addition, the ability of your website to generate sales leads is one of the most valuable business assets. If your site is on top of the search engines for your business keywords, you can sell it alone for tens of thousands of dollars.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, do not overlook your regular social networks management: clean up, engage, re-engage, segment and qualify your contacts, friends and followers. Remember, behind each of social media profile is a human being, a business professional, a potential customer, a source of referrals and new friendships for you. Clean up and segment your networks, introduce and re-introduce yourself multiple times, communicate informally, tell them about your business and ask questions. Please do not forget to measure and evaluate your KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators), to ensure that you are on the right track.
At Prospect Solutions, we help our customers with social networks management and lead generation. We manage our clients’ networks, run lead generation campaigns and report KPI’s. Can’t afford agency rates? No problem-we have comprehensive training and marketing temps’ programs.
by sekaterina | Apr 16, 2019 | Blog, Marketing Agency, Multichannel marketing, Small Business Marketing Blog |
SEO in 2019:
The importance of keywords, meta-data, and long-form content
Your website is one of your most important marketing pieces. It’s often the first place customers look to understand what you do, why you do it, and how you stand out from the competition. It’s important to create website content with your customers’ needs and questions at the forefront. You also want to write SEO content that will make it easy for your ideal customers to find your business. The rules of SEO are continually changing according to how we use and access information online. If you’re wondering what to do for SEO in 2019, well, keywords are still the best starting point. We break down what they are, and how to design your site to use them well. Remember, the ultimate goal of Search Engines is to provide searchers with the most relevant results. These tips are designed to help search engines do just that!
What do you want to be found for?
Whether you’re just creating your first business site or updating an existing one, a very important step is to sit down and think about SEO keywords before you begin. Taking time to understand exactly what you want to be found for can help you understand how to design and organize your website. If you’re not sure what your keywords are, a good place to start is taking a look at your competition – especially the competition that comes up in the top spots when you search. If your business is focused in a certain location, it’s often helpful to include the location in the keywords. Other keywords can center around specific services you offer that people might be searching for. Often, the more specific you can be, the less competition you’ll have on searches.
If you need help researching keywords, a good resource is typing something into google and scrolling down to the bottom of the page to see similar searches.
What is Meta-data and why is it important?
Every page on your site should have something called “metadata” included. Clear, well-written metadata that includes your keywords is extremely important for SEO. The metadata basically summarizes what your page is about for search engines, telling them which topics are the most important on the page. Metadata doesn’t appear on the page itself, but search engines read your meta-data in order to help provide the best results to searchers. The metadata on your site is split up into three key elements:
Meta-title
The meta title is the bolded first line that shows on google when someone finds your site. It also shows up on the top of your browser when you’re on the page and provides the default name for your page link when someone bookmarks it. Why is this important?
Because if you have a clear, well-written Meta-title that puts the most important keyword as early as possible in the sentence, it will help guide people to click on your site. Make sure your Meta-title is clear for the reader to get the most clicks.
Meta description
If you don’t add a meta-description to your site, search engines will typically show a short snippet from your page content – whatever is the most relevant to a user’s search. But that snippet, grabbed mid-paragraph, or cut-off, might not be very helpful to people. When you write a clear, easy to understand meta-description, you’re helping potential customers decide whether your content is relevant to their needs, so you want to make this one count! You also want to consider, what kind of content will help your customer, but also lead them to click for more information, so give a hint on the kind of helpful information they’ll find when they click through to your site.
Meta keywords
Adding meta keywords and/or key phrases tells google the key ideas that searchers will find on your web page. You want to identify keywords for every page of your site and list them in your meta keywords, separated with commas. Whatever keywords you specify, you’ll want to try to use them a minimum of 3 times on the page to make them count.
Using keywords on your web page.
Once you’ve identified your main keyword, and incorporated it into your meta-title and meta-data, you’ll want to make sure that you use it again, at least 3 times in your page content. It’s also a good idea to use it in Header tags, in bold, or in bulleted or numbered lists. All of these styles on your page have more importance than big blocks of text, so putting keywords in these sections will reinforce their importance to search engines.
You should also identify some secondary keywords or key-phrases. While you may not use all of your secondary keywords in your meta-data title and description, simply add them 3 times throughout a page.
The Value of Long-form content
While your general website might not always use long-form content, adding content that is around 2000 words long provides a lot of value for SEO in 2019. The reason for this is that search engines see long-form content as in-depth information that can answer searchers’ questions in one easy place. You can create long-form content on your blog, in help guides, and pdf downloadable resources. Creating long-form content is a great idea for your business, because it helps your clients, proves your expertise in your industry, and on top of that, gives your SEO a boost!
While there’s a lot more to the SEO in 2019, carefully considering and using keywords on your website, crafting good meta-data, and creating long-form content on your website will all help your SEO, and get more customers to your door.
If you need help with your SEO, we’re the experts! Learn more about Prospect Solutions’ SEO services.
by Ekaterina | Apr 2, 2019 | Blog, Lead Generation, Marketing Agency, Multichannel marketing, Small Business Marketing Blog, Social Media Marketing |
What is Corporate Brand Marketing?
Unlike Personal Brand Marketing, Corporate Brand Marketing is a way to market your company and establish brand reach, recognition, and loyalty. While your company may be your baby, it is a separate entity from yourself, and has its own family, history, voice, and traditions. Your brand’s personality goes far beyond the established corporate name under which you do business, and what your brand means, and stands for, affects your customers, your industry and your employees.
Corporate Brand Marketing communicates your brand to the world via your company website, social media pages, email, telephone, video, photography, colors, copywriting, etc. All of these elements come together to create a consistent feeling and message about your business, what you offer, how you work with partners and clients, and why people should choose you over the competition.
Corporate Brand Marketing also uses social media channels to help connect with clients and deliver great brand experiences, but it takes a different approach to using those tools, and integrates them with other channels to establish your brand and reach customers:
Corporate Brand Marketing on LinkedIn:
Your business page on LinkedIn can be used for a few different things. It helps establish the HR side of your brand, connecting to employees and sharing more about your corporate and work culture to attract excellent potential new hires. It’s also a great advertising platform, especially if your business is B2B-focused, and your target markets are using these channels. You can help reach and connect to customers through posts, but if you want to extend your reach, you can also use LinkedIn’s paid advertising and job-posting options.
Corporate Brand Marketing on Facebook:
Your Business Page on Facebook is also a great place to advertise to potential clients through Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and to share content from other platforms, like your blog, or website. You can use it to highlight current promotions, engage followers to sign up for newsletters, and much more. One of Facebook’s best features, however, is Messenger, which offers a direct chat option with clients. This means you can offer live conversation and customer support, and be available to customers on one of their most used platforms. You can also set up a chatbot in Messenger to help automate responses to specific keywords, making this communication process more seamless. It’s important to remember that your responsiveness as a brand is an important part of your brand personality, and building client trust and word-of-mouth. Facebook business pages also include options for online selling directly through Facebook. As social media platforms go, Facebook continues to be one of the most multi-featured, offering a variety of tools to support your business.
Corporate Brand Marketing on Twitter and Instagram:
Twitter and Instagram can also both be used for direct communication with clients, but they’re also great platforms to share branded content that establishes your company’s brand personality. Since Instagram does this through images, it should connect with your overall brand feel and colour scheme, and emphasize the visual aspects of your brand. In contrast, Twitter, is more about sharing ideas, and having online conversations, making it a great place to develop and share the voice of your brand personality. It’s also a visible platform for talking to clients, publicly showing how you respond to the customer.
Corporate Brand Marketing on You-Tube:
You-Tube is one of the most creative tools you can use for Corporate Brand Marketing, and often requires the most skill to get it right. You-Tube can be used for sharing your own corporate videos, or you can access You-Tube advertising options and put your ads in front of a wider audience. Corporate videos can showcase products, share corporate events, highlight company values, or demonstrate company culture to help hiring. Whatever they do, they need to do it well in order to engage your audience, so it’s worth investing, time, thought, and money in order to get the most out of branded company videos.
Email Marketing:
Setting up an ongoing e-newsletter is a great way to increase your brand reach, and connect with some of the most qualified contacts. Sending regular emails puts your brand directly in customers’ inboxes, and since customers actively sign up, you know they really want to receive it. E-mail marketing is a great tool to provide value to your customers though tips, expertise, promotions, brand stories, and more.
Blogging:
Your company blog is the place to establish the expertise of your brand, and provide added value to help your potential customers. Establishing a blog helps drive SEO to your website, but more importantly, it helps customers to move down the sales funnel, and/or become repeat customers, by providing information they need to make decisions about your brand, or to get the most out of your products or services. Creating ongoing blog content also supports all of your other social media platforms, as you can re-share this valuable information on a variety of channels. And if you have a sales team, blog content is a great resource for them to share when clients have questions.
The important thing with Corporate Brand Marketing is to create consistency throughout your social media posts, web content, visual and written messaging, and in the the way you do business. With so many online tools and platforms available, companies have a lot of power to establish the strength of their brand and reach clients. But at the same time, clients have a choice, and these very public and conversational channels allow customers to dialog with your company when they’re happy, and when they’re not. This means how you do business, how you communicate with customers, and how responsive your company is, all play important roles in your Corporate Brand Marketing, and brand image.
If you need help with your personal brand marketing or corporate brand marketing, get in touch!
by Ekaterina | Mar 15, 2019 | Blog, Lead Generation, Marketing Agency, Multichannel marketing, Small Business Marketing Blog, Social Media Marketing |
Happy Personal Brand Marketing Year!
2019 is well on it’s way! Welcome to the year of opportunities! At the start of a new year, we know most small business owners are looking for ways to build customers and contacts, and planning how to grow their business in the coming year. Being a business owner myself and managing a lead generation and digital marketing agency for over 15 years, I have the privilege to provide advice to my fellow business owners and entrepreneurs on which small business marketing tactics will help you achieve the business growth you’re looking for!
What is Personal Brand Marketing?
As the name suggests, personal brand marketing is all about the person (or people) who own and run a business, and how they network and build relationships with other business owners, clients and industry leaders. Personal Brand Marketing is about building direct, peer-to-peer personal connections with other business professionals. Through these real connections, business owners can introduce their companies to other business owners, and build trust with their prospects and customers. These days, business owners can build and nurture those direct personal relationships through a variety of social media platforms, maximizing their personal accounts to build and nurture ongoing relationships, and modern “word of mouth.” Here’s how you can use some of the most common online platforms to develop your personal brand marketing:
Build your personal network of peer relationships through LinkedIn, and get in the habit of sharing expertise through this platform. LinkedIn is a great place to maintain connections that you make in person at events, or you can seek and reach out to potential contacts who may be a good fit with your business. When adding new contacts, go directly to the person’s page, and write a personal message when you connect reminding them where you met, or telling them why a connection might be valuable for you both. LinkedIn also has groups for shared business interests, and for many industry organizations, so this is really your go-to-hub for b2b connections, business advice, hiring and more. And don’t forget to add your LinkedIn address to your business card!
Facebook Networking For Business:
Personal Networking on Facebook provides a variety of different opportunities for Personal Brand Marketing. You can invite fellow business owners to become your personal friends, and then request their help growing your business page following, and do the same for them. You can also look at joining existing groups that may be relevant to your business, or creating your own groups. Group participation is especially powerful, as any group messages you post notify group members directly, whereas the reach of your Business page posts depends on your advertising and/or post boosting investments. Making use of your existing personal networks, and working to expand them is a great way to get your personal relationships helping with your business growth.
Twitter For Business:
Twitter isn’t just for big corporations and famous Hollywood stars, it’s also for you, the small business owner! We recommend creating and managing a personal Twitter account to provide your followers with the real personality and passion behind your business. This is a great place to share your ideas and expertise, and have conversations with other business owners online. Twitter is also a top platform for journalists to hang out on, so if you’re looking to get a bit of publicity, it pays to explore which journalists write about topics related to your business, start following them and build a relationship. You can do this by commenting on relevant stories they post, and showcasing your knowledge. Building the right relationships with journalists will help you be top of mind the next time they’re looking for a topic expert on an article that relates to your business.
Instagram For Business:
As one of the most high-engagement online platforms currently in use, Instagram is an excellent place to build your personal brand, and share the real you that stands behind your business. And since Instagram is image-focused, many business partners find it easier to tell their story through great photos. A picture is worth 1000 words, and it’s a lot faster to create and share! To maximize Instagram for Personal Brand Marketing, make sure to direct message your followers thanking them for liking your images, and engage with their content regularly. These are just some of the tools you can use for Personal Brand Marketing. Overall what you need to remember about Personal Brand Marketing is that it’s direct, relationship-focused, and, well, personal! As long as you let your personal business passion shine, your friends, business connections, and potential customers are sure to notice, and feel excited to do business with you!
by sekaterina | Jul 30, 2018 | Blog, Lead Generation, Marketing Agency, Multichannel marketing |
LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman and associates in the late winter of 2002, and was launched in the summer of May 2003. Since its inception, LinkedIn has grown immensely as a social media platform for business professionals, while still retaining its core value of “Relationships Matter”. Here are some of the key ways LinkedIn can help you with your professional business growth.
Instant Potential Leads at Your Fingertips
LinkedIn has a tool called Sales Navigator that allows you to find endless B2B marketing prospects. The search engine has a large number of criteria options to help narrow down the perfect leads for your team. The criteria ranges from length of employment, to seniority, to industry targets, and more! More sales opportunities means the ability for more business growth, and the sales possibilities are endless with Sales Navigator.
Building Your Network
Building your professional network has never been easier thanks to LinkedIn. Industry professionals from all walks of life are on this social media platform, meaning the connection prospects are limitless. You gain access to someone’s connections as soon as you add them to your network. This allows your networking community to expand with every professional you add to your connections.
Industry Knowledge
With LinkedIn, it is so easy to stay up to date on all the nuances of your Industry. This is due to postings of blog and articles by industry professionals on a daily basis. Also, you also can see industry leaders and colleagues post on their personal profiles, which allows you to stay integrated in all the facets of your industry. This creates more business growth opportunities for you.
Endorsements and Recommendations
LinkedIn is also able to help you on a much more personal business level. Endorsements and Recommendations are great opportunities for business growth, as they can only be provided to you by people in your network. These tools are essential, as they help you build social trust within your industry. These written posts show up on your profile for everyone to see, helping you make more connections.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is an amazing tool that is free to use, with paid options available to increase your outreach and potential. It is also just one of the tools that Prospect Solutions Inc. uses to help you grow your business.
Click here to find out more about us and how to make your business achieve its maximum potential!
Recent Comments