June 2010 Biz Talk Articles

Feature Article:

No More Excuses - You Need A Social Strategy!

If you’re like most small businesses, you already know you should have a presence on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You probably have lots of excuses, too, for why you just haven’t gotten around to setting up a social strategy; maybe you think it’s too much work, or maybe you think it’s just a fad, or maybe you think that social networking doesn’t really make a difference to your bottom line.

Well, if you’ve been waiting to see some evidence that social networking can work for your business, I’ve got good news for you (and bad news for your excuses). According to recent research reports (from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research), social marketing is not only good for promoting and marketing your business, but it can also directly impact sales, attract new customers, and strengthen customer loyalty.

What the Research Says

In the study, 67% of consumers who follow businesses on Twitter said they are more likely to purchase from those businesses after becoming a “follower”. Similarly, 51% of people who “Like” a business on Facebook said they would become customers of the businesses they “Like”. Considering the hundreds of millions of users that these social platforms have, that’s a lot of potential customers and new sales!

Since social networking is all about sharing information, it’s no surprise that the research also found 79% of Twitter followers and 60% of Facebook fans are more likely to recommend the businesses they follow to their own networks of friends and associates. That can result in significant referrals being spread through the social networks, with the potential for further sharing and referrals as information is then shared among additional personal networks.

The Message You're Sending to Customers

So how important is it for a small business to invest in a social networking strategy? Josh Mendelsohn, a vice president at Chadwick Martin Bailey, says “companies not actively engaging [in social networking] are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers, intentionally or unintentionally,” which further underscores the importance of creating an effective social marketing strategy for your business.

If your small business isn’t already using social networking to connect with customers, the sooner you get a strategy in place, the better. Your customers want you to be there, and frankly, they expect it. The reasons customers follow or “like” your business are varied; for instance, the study revealed that for women, receiving discounts and promotions was a top motivator (60% for Twitter users and 43% for Facebook). Men, on the other hand became followers on Twitter to be part of a like-minded community (32%), but “liked” businesses on Facebook to show others that they liked and/or supported the business (52%).

Additional reasons cited in the study included gaining access to exclusive content, being the first to know new information about a business, or resolving customer service issues. Whatever the reasons, it’s clear that having a presence on the social networks is becoming an expectation of your customers.

What’s Holding You Back?

Social networking provides your business with a huge opportunity to reach new customers and promote your business, and the data now shows that companies with a social marketing strategy are seeing increases is actual sales and new customers as a result of their social activity. So if your business still does not have a solid social marketing strategy in place, what’s holding you back?

Marketing Tips:

5 SEO Myths Busted

Want your website to be listed higher in the search engine ranking results? Unless your site is already sitting in the number one spot, I’m sure the answer is yes – who wouldn’t want that? But Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a complicated process, and there is so much mis-information and bad advice floating around, it can be difficult to know which tactics work, and which ones are nonsense.

Here is a list of five SEO myths that not only don’t work, they can get your website banned by the search engines if you use them!

1. "The more times I use a keyword on a web page, the better."
   
   This myth can definitely get you in trouble with the search engines! Of course you should use a keyword in the content of your web page, but using it to many times on the same page can get you flagged for keyword spamming. Although there is no definitive rule on how much is too much, it’s generally thought that a keyword should have a density between 2% and 6%.
   
   
2. "Using the meta keyword tag will boost my rankings."
   
   Wrong – the meta keyword tag is actually useless, and will not help your rankings one bit. There are other meta tags, however, like Title and Description, that are definitely used by the search engines in evaluating your web pages, but the keyword meta tag is not used at all for ranking web pages.
   
   
3. "Trading links or reciprocal links is a great way to build inbound links to my site."
   
   The search engines look for naturally occurring links coming from quality sites, and their algorithms are quite good at telling the difference between natural links and reciprocal and 3-way linking schemes. Build your inbound links naturally using standard techniques, because reciprocal links are discounted by the search engines, and link “buying” can get you banned altogether.
   
   
4. "Submitting my site to hundreds of search engines is a good way to improve my rankings."
   
   Not only is it unnecessary to submit your site to the search engines (the search engine spiders will discover your site on their own), submitting a site does not mean it will be listed in the search results. There are hundreds of factors that search engines consider when determining how to rank a site, but submission is not one of them.
   
   
5. "As the business owner, I’m the best person to choose the keywords I want to be listed for."
   
   Although it may be appropriate for an owner to help select the list of “seed words” to use in SEO (seed words are the terms used to start the keyword research), you definitely want real-time data to tell you which keywords will perform the best for your business! For instance, you may think customers search for “ABC widgets”, but the data may show you that searchers actually typed in “blue widgets” or “big blue widgets” and never once typed in “ABC widgets”. Why would you waste time and effort optimizing for a term that nobody ever searches on?

We all want our business websites to show up in the top of the search results, but be careful – what you think you know might actually end up hurting you!

Building Effective Web Sites:

3 Things You Didn't Know About Your Website

There may be lots of things you don’t know about your website, but there are three really important points that all small businesses should be aware of if they want to get great results from their websites.

1. Quality, relevant content on your website can make or break a sale.

It’s true – a report from IDG Research recently discovered that if a customer perceives the content on your website as being poor, it reduces your chance of closing the sale by 45%.

The importance of good, informative, well-organized content cannot be overstated; your customers and potential customers visit your website to learn about your products and services, and to be reassured that you are qualified to help them solve their problems. If your content is poor, or if there is not enough relevant content on your site to meet their needs, chances are that they will simply click over to the next site; probably to your competitor’s site.

Another bonus to having good, quality web content is that it gives the search engines plenty of relevant content to index, which is a key component to good search engine rankings.

2. A call-to-action on each page of your website helps boost conversions.

Each individual page on your website should be written to get your visitors to do something or take action; whether it’s to sign up for your email list, fill out an information request, buy a product, call for a quote, etc. A call-to-action is the way to let your visitors know what you want them to do – so don’t make them guess!

The more specific you can be with your call-to-action, the better. Using a simple “contact us” seems straightforward, but may not be enough to get a response. Take the guess work out of it as much as possible.

For instance, “contact us” could be changed to “click this link to request more information”, which takes visitors to an online form. “Call us” could be “Call us at 800-555-9846 and ask for John”. Let visitors know what to do, what they can expect, and when to take action, and your web conversions can improve almost instantly.

3. Your website is never really “finished”.

Your website is not a one-time project that can be completed and then forgotten about. Your website is a dynamic marketing asset for your business that must be updated, improved, and monitored over time to make sure it is working for your business and for your customers.

Often, small businesses will scramble to get a website put together, only to breathe a sigh of relief once it’s “completed” and goes live on the web. But that is only the beginning! Your web site is one of the most important, effective marketing tools your business has, but only if it changes and grows along with your business. Adding new content, adjusting search engine keywords, and showcasing new products or company news are just some of the things that any good business website must do in order to be successful and keep visitors engaged and coming back.

If your website is outdated, it will not be useful to your visitors, nor will it be useful to the search engines (and they won’t bother displaying your site in their search results). Visitors and search engines both require relevant, up-to-date, useful information, and there is certainly plenty of that on the web today already competing with your website. Make sure your site is regularly updated with fresh content, and that you keep up with current technology and user expectations (like web video, links to your social platforms, RSS feeds and web apps, etc.).

The More You Know

Your website can (and should!) be the central focus of your online marketing strategy. It is the place your existing customers return to when they need information, but it’s the first place new customers will look to “check you out” before doing business with you. Both will make many decisions based largely on what they find there.

So if you create a website that is 1) a quality resource for visitors, 2) provides the information and incentive needed to do business with you, and 3) is regularly updated with useful content, you will have created a true asset for your small business.

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