Where to find your Web site links

We’re sure you’ve heard over and over again how people linking to your site can help increase your Web traffic.  However, there is a limit to the links.  You really don’t want to go overboard.  Better for you to have quality links over quantity.  It’s equally important for the links you post on your site.  According to this MSN article, “I’ve seen sites with 25 high-quality links outperform those with a thousand or more low-quality links,” professes Shari Thurow, a Chicago-area search marketer and the author of “Search Engine Visibility,” a 2003 book with a second edition published in August 2007. “Small businesses should focus on getting 20 high-quality links — all relevant to your business,” says Elisabeth Osmeloski, a former SearchEngineWatch.com editor who is now director of online media at travel site Zonder.com. 

So here’s some tips on getting those quality links!

1. Take your time in finding links.  Don’t add all the links in one day.  Spread them out over a period of time because it gives you time to do your research and find those that are high quality.

2. Don’t feel forced to reciprocate to a site that has posted your site on theirs.  If you don’t feel the quality is there, don’t add it. 

3. Check what links your competitors have.  And always check to see what other links a site features.

4. If you’re not sure, add the nofollow tag to the link.  By including the code rel=”nofollow” after a URL in any “href” link you include, you’re telling a search engine that you can’t vouch for the quality of that site.  Otherwise, the search engines hold you responsible for that link.

Some good places to obtain links include:

• Trade and professional organizations.  These have a lot of important content relating to your company’s business and industry.  If you are a paid member to a group, most often a link should be included from the organization’s page.  Make sure to contact them if not.
• Social networking sites in your industry.  If you have a Facebook fan page or LinkedIn profile, you can link to it.  But avoid the general social networking sites.  If you find a good one for your industry (more and more are popping up daily), try to contribute an article or information and include a link back to your site.  And think outside the box.  Real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia count as social networking for the real estate industry.
• Noncompeting sites in your industry.  Mortgage lenders should link to Realtors, real estate attorneys, home inspectors, etc.  And the same is true for those other small businesses. 

Some not-so-good places for links:

• Web rings
• Generic, free directories.  Oftentimes your e-mail address will be spammed and it’s not a reputable site for your industry
• Guestbooks

Just make sure to do your research prior to adding links or having your link appear on another’s site.  If you don’t trust the company, you can ask for your link to be removed, too.

Visit us online to get your Web site up and running!

Prepare your marketing for the holidays

Now could not be a better time to do your research and figure out what your customers are looking for this holiday season.  If you want it to be a successful season for your business, you’ll want to plan your marketing prior to the holidays.  It’s great to take advantage of this down time before the storm hits.  You’ll want to define your goals for this holiday season.  Is it to make more money?  Get past customers to spend more?  Obtain new customers?  That will also help you determine what kind of marketing you want to do.  Here are some tips from this article to use your e-mail marketing to your advantage this season.

1. Get a fresh lead on your market.  Go to your customers directly to find out what their plans are this holiday season.  If you’re a social networker, great.  Post questions on Facebook or Twitter for your customers to respond to.  Ask them what they’re planning on spending.  Ask them if they’re looking for specific gift ideas.  This will help you stock your items and know what a good price point is.  This is a great reason to get on Twitter and Facebook, too.  If you’re not, make sure to send out an e-mail to some past customers to find out these answers.  Send it via a survey for them to fill out.

2. Re-engage your current customers.  This is just a great way to get back in the minds of current/past customers.  You want them to make sure they remember you this season for their holiday shopping.  Ask customers what they use your products/services for or the best way they incorporated it into their business.  Publish the best ones in your next newsletter and award the “winner” with a free gift.  Ask them what they’re doing in their business, given the current economy.  Maybe you can work out a joint venture between your two businesses to be more profitable during the holidays. 

3. Refresh and expand your mailing list.  If you do have some down time, you might want to remove those addresses that are no longer valid.  Make sure that you’re still doing everything to gather new e-mails, whether it be from a Web site sign-up button or handing out your business card at networking events.  Have fans/friends sign up on your Facebook page.  That’s another way to drive business back to your Web site. 

With these tips, you’ll be sure to have a successful holiday season.  And always remember to reward referrals with handwritten thank you notes to the sender along with a small gift. 

If you’re ready to get your holiday marketing out, we can help!  Visit us online at http://www.completeresourceschicago.com

To Tweet or not to Tweet? What’s good for your business?

Can you believe that it’s only since the beginning of this year that Twitter has grown increasingly popular?  People were using it to update their friends and family members with 140-word messages (tweets) about what was going on.  A tweet is basically an instant message being broadcast publicly.  Now businesses have moved more to the Twitter mainstream.  According to this article, Starbucks posts new incentives and offers, Whole Foods invites customers to events and asks customers what they think.  So is Twitter right for your business?

First of all, you have to commit.  You can’t just tweet once every 5 months and hope for the best.  If you want to have active conversations with customers and they follow you, they’re going to expect to hear from you.  You don’t have to tweet multiple times a day, but a few times a week makes sense. If you’re billing clients for time and you’re tweeting all day long, you can have problems for that, too.

Twitter can be an easy way to broadcast a message about your company that followers, friends, and fans can replicate on other sites.  So word can get out a lot faster than just by you sending an e-mail message.  In fact, the application TweetLater lets you schedules tweets in the future like you would schedule an e-mail to go out at a certain time.  If you’re on Facebook, you can set Twitter up so that your tweets automatically appear as status updates on your Facebook page.  Now you’ve just killed two birds with one stone.

Author Chris Brogan wrote this article on 50 ideas of using Twitter for your business. Some of his great suggestions include using TwitterSearch to listen for your name or those of your competitor to find out what’s going on in your industry.  You could gain valuable insight that way.

Don’t oversell your business or yourself.  People get bored of that very quickly.  Instead, provide links to other useful sites.  Give tips on when to check back when you’ll post information on sales or how to earn something free.  Talk about non-business activities.  But don’t talk about how drunk you got at that last kegger.  Too much information for your customers.  Mention a charity event you attended instead.

Chris also recommends asking questions.  He thinks Twitter can be great for obtaining opinions.  Instead of tweeting about what you’re doing now, tweet about what you’re thinking about or what’s in the news.  He also mentions that Twitter and other social media sites do not replace direct marketing.  You could use a piece to publish your name or how to access you on those sites, but you still have to do direct marketing pieces for all of those people who don’t use Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.  Definitely view his article for more great tips.

So if you need help coming up with a direct marketing piece, be sure to visit us online.

E-mail marketing tips for new subscribers

 

It’s always great news when you get someone new to sign up for one of your e-newsletters online.  Whether it was a referral, someone who came across your Web site, or a friend or past client, you’re thrilled for the opportunity to sell your products or services to a new customer.  Now is your opportunity to nurture this relationship and make sure the customer is getting everything that he expects.  You don’t want to bombard him with e-mails, either.  Here are some tips for new subscribers, auto responders, and when you have to say good-bye.

New subscribers:

You definitely want to make a good first impression when you get someone new interested in your e-newsletter.  Once you have the new prospect’s e-mail address, send them a welcome e-mail with a personalized note.  You’ll also want to set the stage for what’s to come.  Tell them how often they’ll be hearing from you, the type of information you’ll be sending (coupons, newsletters, etc.), and who it’s going to be coming from so they can add it to their address book.  Otherwise, it could end up in their spam box or junk mail folder.

Send them the last e-mail that went out to customers so they’re not waiting a month (if that’s your frequency) for the next one.  And in your e-mail, include a link to past newsletters they can view online or other online discounts for subscribers.

Auto responders:

All auto responders should have a call to action without asking for someone’s business.  You can have a link in the e-mail for an online discount or free consultation with you about purchasing a home.  Some readers aren’t ready for the whole enchilada when they give you your e-mail address.  Keep these messages less frequent than those you send to your regular subscribers.  You don’t want to bombard them with information and prevent them from signing up.  A monthly e-mail is a good starting point. 

Opt-outs:

To make it easy for all your readers, make sure that every e-mail does offer the option of them being able to unsubscribe.  Make it as easy for them as possible so they don’t get frustrated.  If you get a few of these, use the information to help you determine what future customers are looking for from you.  Here are some tips on these.

1. You have 10 days by law remove an e-mail address from your list if it’s requested.  It’s best to do it as soon as possible, however.

2. Send them a friendly note that their unsubscribe request has been received.  Something along the lines of “We’re sorry to see you go but hope to see you again in the future.”  You can always leave a note on how to resubscribe when the time is right or if they unsubscribed by mistake.

3. Give these customers an opportunity to write why they unsubscribed.  You will learn so much from their comments.  If it’s because they were receiving too many e-mails from you, you might think about toning down the frequency.  If they didn’t feel your information was valuable, consider replacing some of your newsletter content. 

More tips for e-mail marketing can be found in this article.

If you’re ready to get your e-mail marketing messages out there, let us help! Visit our Web site to get started.

Make your Web site easy to find

As we’ve mentioned several times in the past, it’s so important these days to have a Web site that your clients have the ability to access. Whether you’re a Realtor or a small business owner, you want potential prospects and customers to be able to find out information about you online, and even order directly through it if they’re not local to your area.  However, these days, having a site isn’t enough.  You need to make it easy for your customers to find.  Don’t get lost in the “needle in the haystack” of all online postings.  Here are some tips to help make you stand out.

1. Make your site easy to find online.  You want your site to come to the top of the list when someone searches on a search engine.  This is called SEO, or search engine optimization.  You will come higher up on the list if the searches have keywords that match a lot of what is on your site.  This Google tool will help you choose popular keywords based on your site content.  Also look at keywords that your competitor uses. 

The other way you’re ranked is by having a lot of traffic through your site.  One way for the search engines to pick this up is if you have a lot of people with your site linked to theirs and vice versa.  Contact your affiliates to see if you can add their links on your site.  Make sure they agree to put yours on theirs, too. 

2. Register as many similar sites as possible.  You want to help your customers out who misspell your company name or put the wrong ending (.biz, .net, .org at the end of your Web address).  Try to register as many sites that are similar to yours as possible.  Try to obtain ones that are off by one letter or two.  That way, if somebody inputs the wrong information, they’ll still be directed back to your site.

3. Market your site offline.  Make sure it’s visible on everything you do, including in your e-mail signature, your letterhead, return address labels, etc.  Have you ever seen a commercial or an ad where they direct you back to the site for more info?  That’s what you want to do.  If you can afford to market it in the weekly paper or on the radio, by all means, do.  If not, make sure you find every free way to get it out there.  And remember, word of mouth is great free publicity!

4. Set up a fan page on Facebook or MySpace.  You can put your site information on there as well as advertise to all your friends and fans when a new product has come in, you have a new listing, or there’s important news in your industry.  This is also a great way to find out what your customers are looking for from you and reach hundreds or thousands of people at once with new information.

More tips on how to stand out can be found in this article. If you need help developing your Web site, or making it rank higher on the search engines, please visit us online.

Why blogging your business is worthwhile

As we’ve mentioned in the past, social networking is extremely important in this day and age to obtain new business and keep current clients.  With the onset of new technology, you want to reach the tech-savvy customers.  Another great marketing initiative is to start a blog for your business.  It’s estimated there are about 15.5 million active blogs (those updated within the past 90 days) with 1.3 to 1.5 million new active posts daily. 

What can this mean to you?  How can this benefit your business? 

1. Blogs are free!  What another great way to market your business at no cost to you (except for your time).  A lot of blogging sites are free (take WordPress for example).  It’s very easy to follow the tutorial to get started.  Consider devoting one or two days a week to writing your blog.  Make sure you schedule time for it.

2. You can engage your customers in a no-obligation, no-pressure way.  Talk about the best new products in your industry, trends, advice from industry experts, or even advertise your promotions through your blog.  Traditional marketing cannot be kept this up-to-date.  The other benefit is that you can post pictures and videos and even sound clips in your blog.  If you’re talking about new products, include photos.  If a recent industry leader gave a great presentation, include a clip.

3. You can learn of customers’ interests, needs, and wants by their comments to your blog.  This can help you develop new promotional ideas or products. 

4. Get an advantage over your competitors who don’t blog.  Lots of Realtors and small businesses say they don’t have the time to devote.  This will only put you ahead of everyone else.  If you don’t have time, hire someone to blog for you or ask a family member or employee. 

Use your blog to offer tips and links to other useful information.  Link them to products that you don’t sell but can make your product work better.  Offer them tips to get the most out of the products they buy from you.  Read a book that talks about the importance of your industry?  Review and recommend it on your blog.  Hopefully this can get other bloggers to link to your blog, giving it even more exposure and developing new business. 

Again, try to devote time at least weekly to your blog.  You want to make sure your information is relevant.  If you’re in the real estate industry, the market is constantly changing.  Readers won’t want to return if you only update every 6 months.  Let them know what’s happening now.

More great information on blogging for your business can be found here.

CompleteREsources Chicagois here to help you. We can create and update your blogs, put together your marketing pieces, handle your client invoicing, and even develop PowerPoint presentations. Send us an email at susan.kraut@sbcglobal.net for a quote!

Generate free publicity for your business

Anyone loves to hear the word FREE in this economy.  Whatever it takes to not have to spend a penny, right?  Well, if you’re trying to get your name and your business out there, and you want people to know who you are, you’ll want to take advantage of these tips, which offer some ways of obtaining free publicity.  Here’s some great ways to make yourself known, without spending a ton of money on a huge marketing campaign.

1. Learn how to write a press release and write one.  You’ll want a catchy headline and to make sure you cover the important information, such as who, what, where, when, why, and how.  When you open for the first time, you’ll want to send out a press release to your local media about the new business opening nearby.  But don’t think that’s the only time to get your information published.  If you’re offering a unique service or sale, write about that.  Maybe you’re the first one in the community to offer a 200% guarantee.  If the product doesn’t work, get your money back times two!  Find out what the most popular items sold around the holidays are and write a press release offering the top 10 items for your Christmas gifts.  Close down once a year and have your entire staff spend a day doing charity work.  The media loves this.  Or offer to donate one day of sales to a local charity.  View some more great ideas here.

2. Offer your knowledge to those in your community.  Local libraries love offering programs to their residents.  Realtors can conduct a seminar on how to find a bargain property.  Tax accountants can offer one on the most important information to know for tax season.  A hairdresser can do a demo of some more unique styling tips.  You can go through the library or even hand out flyers to your customers saying you’re offering a seminar or class for free and to pass the information around.  There’s another great reason for a press release!

3. Hand out business cards everywhere.  You’ve probably seen bulletin boards and local shops to put a business card.  It can’t hurt.  That’s another great area to post information on a class.  Start up a conversation with the person working out on the machine next to you at the gym.  Leave a business card with your tip for the waiter.  Getting an oil change?  Let the mechanic know what you do and hand them a card.  You never know when your services will come in handy. 

4. Barter products and services with another company or business.  Post information on your Web site about them, and make sure they do the same for you.  This way you’re both being advertised.  Develop relationships with others in a similar industry.  Realtors will want to suggest references for home inspectors, attorneys, and lenders for their clients to work with.  A marketing company will want to suggest someone who handles computer networking and Web site design.  Make sure that if you’re giving out referrals that you ask for them in return.

5. Get creative with your Web site.  Let customers send an e-card for free from your Web site to someone else.  That way your information is displayed and it won’t cost anyone money.  Of course, you’ll also want to offer an online newsletter that anyone can access.  Have online only coupons available that people can print and bring in for discounts.  Make an area that people can donate to the charity you’re going to be helping out throughout the year.

Some more great tips can be found here. We’d love to hear what other great tips you know of to generate free publicity. Please leave us a comment below. Also, make sure to visit our Web site here if you need marketing assistance or know someone who does.

Take advantage of every holiday to boost sales

If you’re sitting back with your heels up thinking that because it’s August, there’s no reason to promote your business with a holiday, think again.  In every business, you can’t consider Thanksgiving through New Year’s the only holidays to be running a promotion or a sale.  There’s so many more options out there.  Here’s a helpful list for your upcoming promotions.

August: It’s back to school time!  Just look at all the ads in the Sunday paper.  They’re heavily advertising and running promotions on new clothes for kids as well as school supplies.  If you’re a Realtor, advertise that by buying now, you can get into your new school district before school starts.  August is also a great time to prepare for any Labor Day sales since Labor Day is usually the first Monday in September.

October: Halloween is the obvious holiday.  But try to get creative with your marketing.  Have people come in costume and give prizes or discounts to the best one.  Ask for “treats” from clients to donate to a charity of your choosing. 

November: Help local families out by sponsoring Thanksgiving dinners to those in need.  Local newspapers love to write articles on these types of events, so it’s very likely that your business will get some free advertising to boot.  If you can’t sponsor entire families, see if customers will donate an extra $1 to a local food bank.  Or have $1 or $2 of every sale go toward purchasing meals for those in need.

February: Is not just about Valentine’s Day.  Consider doing something creative with Groundhog Day.  Will we be stuck with six more weeks of winter?  Offer something to beat the winter chills.  Is spring coming early?  Promote your products for the warm weather.  You can also do something with President’s Day.  Hand out American flags to customers or give discounts if they’re wearing red, white, or blue.

April: Consider an Easter egg hunt.  Hide eggs with discounts throughout your store and have the customer bring one they find to the register.  Open it at the checkout and see what the discount is.  You can also run promotions for April Fool’s Day and Earth Day.  Have money donated to the rain forest or for every $100 a customer spends, purchase a tree in their name.

The possibilities are endless.  Try to think outside the box and come up with some new ideas for those holidays that aren’t as popular.  You can look here for more tips. Leave us a comment with the best holiday promotions you’ve seen. We’d love to share them with our other readers. And visit us online for help getting your holiday sales advertised!

Make sure you schedule marketing time

We’ve talked the past few weeks about making sure your marketing messages were going to the right target, how to improve direct mail campaigns, certain mistakes not to make with your marketing.  While those are all important topics, it’s equally important to make sure you have time in your schedule to get your marketing done.  And we don’t just mean a few minutes on Tuesday and an hour on Friday afternoon if you get a chance.  You need to plan a schedule.  Just like anything else (an appointment with a client, a teleseminar on the housing market, etc.), you need to schedule time in your daily or weekly schedule to get your marketing done.

There’s two easy ways you can set this up.  The first is to break the activities up by working on a theme for each day of the week.  For example, Monday would be a day for communications.  This can be posting blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., catching up on e-mails for the past week, or creating a new telephone script.  Tuesday could be client day.  Meet with clients, schedule time to meet with clients, handle paperwork related to clients.  Other themes can be writing (blogs, newsletters, articles, ad copy), research (test new marketing, collect new e-mails for e-newsletter, develop new ideas, find articles for newsletters), administrative (paperwork, pay bills, create to-do list), Web site (new pages, collect new e-mails, respond to leads, add photos), etc.  You should have no problem breaking down your week into five days so everything can get done.  Then set time in your daily schedule to accomplish everything.  Try not to answer phone calls and e-mails throughout the entire day.  Block off two one hour periods (once in the morning and once in the afternoon).  It will help you to accomplish a lot more.

The other way to set up your schedule is to devote a day of the week to a particular marketing activity, rather than a theme.  For example, Mondays could be about sales.  You could spend that day working on e-mailing your lists about a new promotion, writing copy for your next direct mail piece about your monthly sale, or make every Monday a sale for your business.  One day could be about adding to your client database by collecting new e-mail addressesand contacting past clients for referrals.

However you choose to set up your schedule, the most important fact is that you have a schedule.  Don’t just say I’ll work on it in the hour you have free time.  Schedule it in there.  You’ve heard the saying, “It’s as important to work on your business as it is in your business.”  Make working ON your  business a priority.  Promise not to go home for the day until you’ve touched base with 5 past clients.  Jody Gabourie, the Marketing Plan Queen, offers more tips here. For help with your marketing pieces, please visit us online.

Don’t lose customers with these marketing mistakes

One quick mistake in your marketing message or delivery might not only make you lose a customer, but could keep you from gaining a new one.  These tips should help keep you on track to make more money, and not lose any!

1. Signing up customers to your newsletter without permission.  Do you ever hand someone your business card and then start receiving their e-mail mailings or newsletter?  It’s very common, and unfortunately, could break a customer relationship.  People want the option to opt-in to these mailings.  They don’t want to receive it without being asked first.  This is especially hard if you just meet someone.  You want to develop a relationship first.  You also want to have the freedom to look at their information and then determine if you want to be on a mailing list.  If you send these newsletters out, make sure you have a sign-up form on your Web site or in your e-mail.  And always ask permission when meeting someone new if you can add them to your list.  Don’t just assume they want to be on it.

2. Changing your message because you didn’t get enough sales.  It’s also very common to see an advertisement: 30% off everything until Wednesday!  Then Wednesday is crossed out and it says 30% off until Friday!  You’ll create a much more powerful message if you stick to your word.  If you didn’t get enough sales, save the promotion for a few weeks.  It creates a lot more urgency and shows your customers that you are willing to offer promotions.  You’ll seem desperate for business if you keep changing your current promotion.  It can make customers think you’re going out of business. 

3. Making everything urgent.  Sending out mailings that say “Urgent!” or “Open Immediately!”  This tactic can definitely work, but once is probably best.  If customers continue to see the same messages on all of your mailings, they’ll know it is just a tactic and probably put it right in the garbage bin.

4. Spending it all in one place.  Don’t blow your entire marketing budget on one expensive TV ad or national magazine appearance.  It could be great to get new customers, but once you’ve done that, what’s left for other marketing?  Make sure to evenly spend your marketing dollars and find the best ways to do that based on your customer profiles.  We blogged a few weeks back about sending clear messages to the right target group.  Don’t get all excited about a new advertising stream without researching it first and determining that it’s right for you and your business. 

5. Fixing what isn’t broken.  Some companies think changing their marketing pieces is necessary, even if they’re still getting great success with the same old pieces.  This isn’t necessary.  If it’s working, that’s fantastic.  Don’t just assume you need to change something because it hasn’t been done in a while.  Use test markets and get feedback before trying something new. 

You can find more common mistakes in this article. Visit us online for help designing your marketing piece!