Done. Now what? That is the most common advice for improving website traffic. The problem is that it isn’t clear enough to be useful. That statement should read, “Put a blog on your website. Use it well and use it often”. Unfortunately, that is the part that is too frequently left out. Now that we have modified the statement to more accurately reflect the work that is required to gain the implied value of a blog on your website, how many of you think you’ve got what it takes to write successful blog posts? Probably fewer than we had with the first statement.

Blogging (and writing) isn’t for everyone

It takes a lot of time and dedication to make a blog successful. The most successful blogs are the ones that stemmed from the author’s passion. Something they loved so much they wanted to share it with everyone and talk about it all the time. Most business blogs lack that enthusiasm. If you lack the undying love for the topic of your business’ blog, then you need someone who has the enthusiasm, or has the skill in writing to make it feel like they have it.

The value of having a full-time blogger or writer on staff

Believe it or not, blogging is a time-sensitive duty. Getting posts written and published by a set time each day (or week) requires focus. Moreover, it requires planning. By having a full-time writer in house, you’ll be able to have an editorial calendar in advance. You’ll also need someone who has a firm grasp of content strategy. Your blog needs to have well-defined boundaries in order to be successful. Just buying a bunch of pre-written blog posts from a content producer won’t do the trick. Having a full-time blogger who plans content ahead of time means you’ll (ideally) have posts ready to be published instead of having to worry about coming up with new posts at the last minute or publishing them sporadically as you get ideas.

Another major benefit of having a full-time writer is that you’ll also have a full-time promoter. Those blogs and articles don’t read themselves! A good blogger or content manager will spend time promoting their content to make sure that it is exposed to the maximum number of potential readers. This means sharing via social media as well as posting to forums and other websites.

The real reason for having a blog (and why you need a full-time writer)

Your blog is there to draw people to your site that are interested in whatever it is that you do. The content you put out must appeal to this audience. You need to know what matters to them, what interests them, and how to communicate with them effectively. You are attracting visitors (via this blog content) with the intent of selling them on your products or services, or to convince them to take some other specified action. For that reason, you need an experienced marketer and salesperson — in addition to a good writer.

One more benefit of having a content and blog writer

The other reason blogs are given so much importance in online marketing is because they can heavily influence search results. For this reason your blog writer is going to need just one more skill set. They need to understand basic SEO. Page titles, headers, links, images and alt image tags… there’s more than a little expertise needed to make your blog posts show up in search results. Once you’ve found the right person, you should see your site traffic and the number of qualified leads increase. It’s not a guarantee and it may not work that way for every business, but for most companies with an online presence, it’s hard to replace the value of a full-time blogger or content creator.

Share/Bookmark

If you own a car lot and that car lot has a website, there’s a number of tools available for you to improve your visibility on the web. These days, any time anyone has a need for something, they go to a search engine first. By employing some of these simple items, you can improve the chances that your website is the one that shows up first. Not all of these are changes that a layperson can make, but your webmaster ought to be able to employ the more technical items without any trouble. Most larger car lots will have someone dedicated to this function, but if you are a smaller car lot, or an independent car lot selling new or used cars, then you can usually find someone to implement these changes for a small fee at a local marketing firm that specializes in digital and/or online marketing.

If they are searching for a car, help them find it

Most of these tips fall under the banner of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This means that these changes will make it easier for search engines (and thus your visitors and potential customers) to find content on your website. We’ve discussed how to make improvements to car dealership websites before, but we’ve got a few more tips for you this time around.

Website images for car dealerships

First, let’s talk about images. If you have any hope of getting someone from their home computer or smartphone to your car lot, you need pictures. Websites that sell things but don’t use images don’t do as well as sites that do use images. However, you need to be smart about implementing these images. Here’s some steps to get the most out of using car and truck images on your site:

• The name of the image file should describe what’s in the image. Let’s say that it’s a picture of a 1999 Ford F-150. Then save that picture as 99_Ford_F150.jpeg or, 99FordF150.jpeg. If you have multiple cars of the same make and model on your lot, then add the car color to the file name as well to prevent confusion. 

• Use Alt image descriptions. This one is for those who are more experienced with adding content to websites. Your alt image description should offer a very brief description about what’s in the picture. Keep it simple and informative, but very very short. 4-6 words maximum.

• Share website images on social media. Sharing on social media can improve your search results and helps get your inventory out in front of potential customers.

 Other site-improving tips for car dealers

Think about what matters to the customer. If they are looking at that Ford F-150, then provide them a link to the safety ratings or other pertinent info. Links in the text of your website that direct to useful, relevant information can improve how your website ranks in search results.

Make it easy to contact you. Include your company’s contact information in the header of your site. This way it can be seen from every page that a visitor might view.

Keep a blog and write posts on questions that car shoppers often ask. This is something else that people looking to buy a car will type into a search engine. You can turn their questions to your advantage by having content on your site that answers that question. This will draw the customer in to your site where they are more likely to view your inventory.

Update your site often. This sounds like a no-brainer, but customers get very annoyed when a car they see on your site isn’t on your lot anymore.

Other online marketing options

Is your website already in top shape? Consider using paid search or pay-per-click ads. As these are more advanced online marketing tools, I’d recommend consulting a professional agency or a freelance agent to assist you with this. It’s a great way to generate new leads and is less expensive than buying TV or radio ads.

Share/Bookmark

A good professional bio is a sharp and succinct way of telling the world who you are. It relays important information about you and allows you to shape others perception of you from reading this short, simple, and (ideally) effective bit of copy. While you’re more likely to get the best results by using a professional copywriter or technical writer (think business writing or resume writing). You can find basic tips on writing a professional bio from a number of different places on the web, but if you are writing for your website or online profiles, you’re going to need to make some adjustments.

Professional Bios for Online Use

Traditionally, a professional bio is written like a story version of your resume. That won’t do online. Aside from the fact that most social media site profiles won’t give you enough space for that much copy, users on your website won’t take the time to read a professional bio that is more than 200 words in length. If you plan on creating a professional bio for online use, then you have to keep it short and sweet.

Key Items to Include in Professional Bios

If you’re posting your professional bio online, here’s a short list of items to include to help you keep it short, relevant, and informative.

• Your Name
• Your Company (if used somewhere other than your company website)
• Your Current Title
• Last two positions relevant to current position, or a sentence explaining that you have X years of experience in Y industry, followed by two to three accomplishments in your field (depending on length — Remember: keep it short!)
• A Professional Photo of Yourself

Your Professional Bio on Social Media Sites

In most cases, social media sites will prompt you for information with a variety of fields. Still, there’s room there for you to take advantage of what little freedom they allow. When posting your professional bio on social networking sites, be sure to include a link to your business’ website. There’s usually some space in the body of your profile or in your About Me section. For the sites that do give you a little room to ramble, don’t give in to the temptation. Short and sweet will serve you well.

Do More with your Online Bio

A well-written online bio can be implemented in a number of ways to achieve several different goals. You can promote your business, find a new job, or make yourself available for professional networking. It’s all about making yourself easy to find and then promoting the aspects of yourself that you think are valuable to others.

Share/Bookmark

I’ve been surprised at how many people (in all sorts of roles ranging from project manager to CEO or President) are unable to tell if they really need a copywriter for a project. Is it because they are unsure of what a copywriter does? Or do they think that copywriters (who generally charge less than, say, digital marketing strategists) will get them where they want to go for a lower price? I haven’t found the answer just yet, but the confusion over whether potential employers actually need a copywriter persists. So, to help everyone out, let’s talk about how to determine if you need to hire a copywriter.

I Need A Good Writer

If this is your primary thought, then you definitely need to hire a copywriter. The copywriter’s primary goal is to take that shapeless mass of information you want to convey to your audience and distill it down to something they can read, understand, and communicate to others. They are masters of using your brand’s voice to communicate clearly and effectively. In just a few short words they can turn that landing page of yours into a masterful sales funnel. A good digital copywriter (they are a specialized breed of copywriter) can even help you improve your on-page SEO and help you build SEO content for launching a new site.

I Need A Person With A Varied Skill Set

This is where it gets sticky. I’ve seen numerous job ads and creative briefs that are seeking an individual who is both a “copywriter” and a designer. These ads then go on to list requirements that indicate they are looking for a skilled and experienced digital artist or graphic designer… who can also write complex, technically efficient, and engaging copy. It’s not that these people don’t exist, they do. But they won’t go for that 18-22 dollars per hour you’re offering. That is a $50/hr skill set at the very least. What you are asking in this scenario is the equivalent of an MIT software engineer who also happens to be a practicing heart surgeon. They aren’t mutually exclusive, but that combination of skills is far from natural.

In the event you find yourself needing such diverse skills, then its time to consider freelancers. If a project consists more of one task than the other, then hire full time the person needed for the larger portion of work and then hire a freelancer to handle the few tasks that are outside his or her skill set.

I Don’t Need A Copywriter

People who say this are typically wrong. They either assign writing tasks to someone who is not a trained writer or they take them on themselves, which is usually the same thing. From formatting and grammar to creativity, writing isn’t something that just anyone can do. This is especially true if you want your writing to achieve a specific result. When it comes to website copy and blog posts, the text on the page conveys to your audience who you are and what kind of work you do. Typos and grammar mistakes chip away at their trust in your brand, so it’s important to get it right. Regardless of what your writing needs are, there is a copywriter out there who can help you and it’s worth your time to talk to them to find out how.

Share/Bookmark

From Mainstream to Social Media, NBC Olympics Coverage Dampens Mood

The approach to this years’ London Olympic Games coverage has been unique, but the execution is leaving something to be desired. In the U.S., NBC’s coverage plan has taken a novel approach in that they are leveraging all of their networks (MSNBC, Bravo, etc.) to bring you the viewer more events. Even better, you can watch Olympic events live online. Oh, but they failed to mention one key fact: you have to have a cable subscription first. Yes, they verify it. Even then, there seem to be some issues. Some cable subscribers don’t get MSNBC in their package and so can’t watch events aired on that channel, or that channel’s live feed. The programming schedule has also been wrong on more than a few occasions.

The BBC has 23 sports channels dedicated to Olympic coverage… with no commercials.

But that’s just the tip of the iceburg.

That Annoying Tape Delay Thing

Tape delay happens every year, but this is the first year that Twitter will play a major part in sharing results. What NBC failed to consider was that you can’t offer a tape delay for an event that is being tweeted live. It makes even less sense to allow people to watch an event on tape delay online, where you are posting the event’s results on your main page where viewers encounter it prior to getting a chance to watch the event. Half the fun is getting caught up in the moment and hoping that our team pulls out the win. Once we know the results, we don’t really care. Your tape delay is fairly useless.

NBC, You’re the Worst, Stop Talking

When we do finally get coverage of some event, it’s fairly ruined by cutaways to Matt Lauer, Ryan Seacrest, and Meredith Viera. Can we get some professional sports announcers here? And what happened to Bob Costas? Didn’t he used to have informative things to say about sports?

Matt and Meredith’s comments during the opening ceremony were especially embarrassing. Like when you’re watching a movie and your stodgy parents make snide remarks about how inappropriately the Bond girl is dressed. They’re clearly people you couldn’t go see a foreign film with.

The talking does occasionally pause long enough for us to see an event. However, you’ll get to see just one heat, or just the Americans… it’s almost like we’re the only one’s competing (which one might make a case for if so many of our athletes weren’t bombing it — men’s gymnastics, we’re looking at you). Once we’re through with showing the Americans, then its back to Bob, Matt, and Meredith or a slew of commercials. It’s like the Superbowl, but all they want to show you is highlights from the dominant team, the pregame show, and only the most boring ads.

It’s So Bad, It’s Trending: #NBCfail

To get the full scoop on just how badly NBC is flubbing it’s Olympics coverage, just check out the hashtag #NBCfail on Twitter. Oh yes, it’s a thing. Due to how frequently it’s being tweeted, you can catch some of the early tweets in this awesome article. It seems that many Americans are disappointed in the quality of NBC’s broadcast of the events, and the limited available coverage of what should be America’s opportunity to support it’s brightest and best athletes and to foster a sense of national pride. Instead, we’re all complaining on the internet.

NBC’s take on the bad PR?

“We are quite aware of the chatter on Twitter about the Olympics and we embrace it.”

Share/Bookmark

It seems like it should go without saying. However, there are many companies out there who are neglecting their social media profiles despite the fact that social media is ( or rather, would be) one of their key outlets for reaching their audiences. Social media is where your customers are and as I’ve heard just about every ad and marketing agency say, “You should be there too”. However, many of them aren’t taking their own advice and their social media profiles are hollow shells with little to no interaction with their potential clients.

Social Media Can’t Be Ignored By Those Offering Social Media Services

It’s upsetting to see ad and marketing agencies offer social media services when they don’t actively engage in social media themselves. If you want to know how effectively a company’s social media marketing service is, look no further than their own accounts and profiles. Lack of activity, inconsistency in messaging, little or no original content, and lack of engagement with their audience can be key indicators that you should go someplace else for social media services. Any company that doesn’t actively maintain their own social media can’t begin to tell you how to manage yours. If you look at their content and are unsure of who they are trying to reach or what message they are attempting to convey, then signs point to them having a poor grip on social media.

Don’t Leave It To The Intern

It’s typical for ad and marketing agencies to hire college students to do menial office tasks. It’s also becoming common for businesses to let these interns run the company Twitter and Facebook accounts. You couldn’t make a bigger mistake. Just because they use social media doesn’t mean they know how to use it for business purposes. Would a marketing company let an intern run a campaign solo? Would an ad agency let an intern manage a client’s account? That’s the level of responsibility associated with running a company social media profile. Moreover, that job is a full-time effort that requires planning, networking, and creativity. (Here’s a little more on that topic).

Take Your Own Advice

To all the ad and marketing and digital services firms out there that are so quick to dole out advice and sell services related to social media: Lead by example. If you want real success, you’ll find it by developing the proper skills and processes associated with running your own accounts. You’ll make discoveries and will have the thought processes in place to make the necessary creative leaps to rise above your competition. But you won’t get any of that with dry, scheduled tweets, push marketing, and one or two Facebook posts a month. If that sounds like your agency, maybe it’s time to reevaluate the role of social media in your company.

Share/Bookmark

Google + has been growing, little by little. At first, it was a ghost town and, to be honest, a bit of a disappointment. Then word started getting around that Google + Your World was going to influence search results, so a good many SEO savvy individuals and agencies jumped on board. They created profiles which they posted to regularly for the first week or two, then occasionally for the next month, before dropping the whole thing. Some of the more creative, non-mac users out there continued to use it.

Next, Google rehashed the appearance (mainly the UI) of G+, a lot of previous users dropped by to check it out. It was a marked improvement which was discussed briefly by all the interactive and new media types. Then it was once again dropped. Now Google adds “Local” to the mix, effectively integrating the former Google Places into G+.

Google Local ties it all together

Do They Know What They Are Doing?

At first, Google seemed to only have a vague idea about how to execute G+. However, we saw the concept grow to its present state which includes Local. Local promises to be the thing that starts to tie it all together and will bring an influx of very desperately needed users.

Why Should We Care?

Isn’t this going to flop like the last couple of tries? Not likely. Google has brought in all of the features of Google Places, including reviews, links to websites, pictures of the company or business, links, and more. More importantly, the interface is something that Yelp and Urbanspoon wish they’d thought of. It’s clean, sharp, easy to navigate, and because it is now tied in with G+, is perfectly integrated into Google’s search.  As business owners and individuals who will likely use these new profile pages, we care because Google is actually making something better.

What’s Missing?

For most of us, not much. It’s going to take a little time before Google Plus is widely adopted by the average user. However, the people who should be taking note are ad and marketing agencies. The implications this has for SEO, brand management, reputation management and more are not fully fleshed out and it’s going to be a race to see who can set the standards for utilizing this new feature to it’s fullest potential.  As I tried to add users to my circles, I noticed that a lot of the larger agencies that are active on Twitter or LinkedIn don’t have profiles on G+, despite the fact that many of their employees do. It will be interesting to see which agencies come out on top and figure out how best to leverage G+ for the benefit of their customers. For now, I’d recommend hopping on G+, putting together a profile or page if you don’t already have one, and laying claim to your Google Local listing if you are a business. Pay close attention here, the social media landscape may be on the verge of a huge shift in Google’s favor, particularly from a marketing perspective.

Share/Bookmark

Already this year we’ve seen game developers taking novel approaches to game sales. I wrote just a few months ago about one developer who used crowdsourced funding to meet the start-up costs of developing a video game. This time, a developer is using a series of top-selling, critically acclaimed video games to simultaneously help charity and prolong sales of games that have been out for some time.

Video Game Developers Leverage Their Art to Raise Funds For Charity and Themselves.

Pay-What-You-Want Model Keeps Money Rolling In

When it comes to video games, new products are constantly being released that often make older products obsolete. However, there are games that leave such a lasting impression on players, that are so much fun to play, that they stay popular long after their release. Unfortunately, maintaining the price of the game can often drive sales down. Games that sell big their first year are often the subject of drastic price cuts, making them more affordable and moving more copies. The pay-what-you-want model offers gamers the opportunity to play games they love, without having to spend a lot of money. In these tough economic times, this is how small, independent game designers are building quality, trusted brands: by giving players what they want at a price they can afford.

Giving Back… Twice.

It’s great to be able to play a game you love and not have to pay a lot to do so. It’s even better if your purchase of that game also supports a charitable cause. The two have definitely been linked before, but now a site called HumbleBundle.com offers an additional feature: a sliding scale.  Contributors can choose how much they want to pay for a game or group of games, then decide who gets what cut of the donation by moving a sliding scale. HumbleBundle.com also offers a variety of trusted payment methods including Paypal and Amazon Payments. The best part is that the package of games being offered is expected to change periodically, offering an ongoing spring of revenue for developers and charities alike. A timer on the site counts down the days remaining on the current package of games being offered. One might expect that this revenue stream might be rather small, given that donations have the potential to be very small. It’s proving to be quite the opposite. So far the site has raised $2.7M with only 353,000 purchases. The highest purchase to date is an incredible $7424.42. This model suggests that there is something to be gained from pairing pleasure with social responsibility on the web. Oh, and it seems to do wonders for the brands involved, too.

Share/Bookmark

I sincerely hope this is some sort of prank. I was reading the articles that appear in my LinkedIn feed this morning, one of which was about Microsoft launching their new social media platform. I was two paragraphs into the piece and was reading about some of its key features when I decided I just had to see it for myself. So naturally, I signed up to check this thing out first hand. What I found made my jaw hit the floor. This will surely go down as one of the biggest blunders in recent internet history.

Where to start? It’s all so bad.

First, let’s talk about the interface. so.cl looks like it was cloned from the already useless G+ network.  The layout is identical, but some of the names have been changed to protect Microsoft from copyright infringement suits. It is more colorful and vibrant looking that G+, but that’s like repainting a broken chair. Microsoft took the liberty of copying the video “Hangouts” from G+,  calling them “Video Parties”.  There’s an area in the top right hand corner of your UI reserved for these and if you aren’t currently using it, you’ll get an ever-changing display of current video parties. Here’s the alarming part: the current video parties all seem to be pop music videos and Eastern European pornography. Yes. Pornography. I wish I were kidding, but this will set us up for the next section I want to address.

No Privacy Whatsoever

This is what made me scratch my head and say, “Hmm, I probably should delete this account right now”. A key feature of so.cl is that it displays users’ searches at the top of everyone’s homepage via something that looks like a banner ad. Here’s the extra awesome part: It displays your user profile picture at the left of the ad, images related to your search the rest of the way across and at the bottom it reads, “So and So searched for ‘crayons’”. Seems harmless enough, until you remember that porn is the most searched thing on the internet. This banner displays some sort of porn-related search at least once per every three or four displays. One user figured out how terrible this is and apparently is conducting a ton of phony searches to point out the problem. While many of them are pornographic in nature, one of them was “Why is Justin Bieber so fabulous?”.  Thanks buddy, and I have no idea why.

The Homepage of so.cl

Something else I noticed in the 20 minutes or so I was toying around on the site is that this site will give you up as a total idiot. Some of the searches that appeared were sadly revealing. Searches like, “How to make tea”, and “Where is China” will let everyone know you don’t know anything. I thought that certainly such a revealing feature must be able to be controlled by the end user. Sadly, it is not. There is currently no way for users to disable this feature or filter it in any way. As a matter of fact, the privacy controls were unbelievably limited, but I guess Microsoft wanted to see how much they could get away with at once. I’d imagine that a more comprehensive privacy control will come in pieces later on.

Intended Use, Potential Use, And Plugging The Holes

Privacy invasion issues aside, this site and its features could work well for businesses if Microsoft ever finds a way to appropriately filter that search feature. I see a great opportunity for social media marketing and search marketing, but the trick is going to be getting users on the site who are individuals and not just businesses. It also seems that instead of trying to create a unique platform all their own, Microsoft is choosing to just fix what others deem is wrong with Google Plus. In short, Microsoft has clearly taken the same approach to this website that they take to all of their products: They made sure it could mostly function and then sent it out into the world to be tested, assuming end users would find all the bugs, report them, and then Microsoft could address them in a later version. Good job Microsoft, you aren’t even trying anymore.

Share/Bookmark

Get More From Your Marketing Budget

Not everyone has a large marketing budget these days. In fact, many small businesses these days try to get by the best they can without an actual marketing budget. However, in these uncertain economic times, it is imperative to set money aside for promotion of one’s business in order to keep that business growing.  Here’s a couple of clever, simple, and affordable marketing tactics to help keep small to medium-sized businesses in the game.

Craigslist – It’s not just for junk sales and handymen.

Actually, Craigslist can be a real goldmine for smaller companies and solo contractors. It’s where your target audience is doing business and you should be where they can find you. Don’t get lost in the shuffle though. Craigslist is a busy place and due to the formatting of the entire website, posts tend to blend together. When writing your post, you need to be focused on crafting a brief but informative ad that tells viewers who you are, what you do, where you are located, and how they can get in touch with you. Equally important is a visual. If you sell physical goods or if you have a physical location, include well-lit, high quality pictures. If neither of these apply, consider posting your logo. Either way, you’ll need to include a link to your website as well.  Another important thing to remember is your keywords. Be sure to include keywords that your customers would use to search for things you provide. That way, when your potential clients search Craigslist for something you sell, they’ll find you.

Good, Old-Fashioned Marketing Collateral

Sometimes its as simple as updating a brochure or creating a rack card. If you already have marketing collateral, maybe it’s time to have a pro look it over and see if it can be updated or improved. Sometimes a simple change can make a big difference.

Business Listings

Whether it’s a classified ad in your local paper or an online directory listing, business listings and classifieds are a great way of promoting your business.  Obviously, certain types of businesses will find more success with this than others, but it’s a great and affordable (often free) option for marketing your business. Remember to include as much info about your business in your listing or posts as possible.

Get A Little Help

Not everyone is savvy enough to handle these items on their own and others may just prefer that someone with a little more experience than themselves handle the task.  If you’d like help promoting your business or would like to learn about other what other affordable marketing options are available to you, feel free to contact us and get started promoting your business.

Share/Bookmark