Category: Get Found Online

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How to attract 55 percent more customers with proven inbound marketing system

inbound-marketing-lead-generationToday customers no matter if the are B2C or B2B are overwhelmed with information and offers. This makes it very hard for a business to stand out and to get found online for their future customers.

The increasing competition and the decreasing marketing budget make the recent situation and the future outlook more difficult.

Businesses who want to be and to stay successful need to rethink and to reposition their strategies.

It is not enough anymore to be there. Moreover when you are there, but not where your target audience is around than you are nowhere!

What makes a business to stand out of the crowd and secure their share of the market in the long term?

Like anything humans do there are several ways to achieve goals. One thing is try and error. This takes time and can consume a lot of budget. The other thing is to do it like you have done in the past, because it worked “in the past”. But what worked in the past is not necessarily working in the future. Or you use a proven system which has demonstrated thousands of times that it works and is able to bring in positive ROI.

Such proven marketing system is inbound marketing.

What’s inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

What’s does inbound marketing help me to do?

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

What does inbound marketing consists of?

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

The MIT Sloan Institute found out that businesses which use inbound marketing are more successful than businesses which do not.

Additional studies have proven that inbound marketing:

  • A. Saves up to 62% of your marketing budget
  • B. Makes a business stand out of their competition
  • C. Helps to generate a massive amount of business leads
  • D. Helps to get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
  • E. Helps to increase customers and sales

 

To jumpstart your own inbound marketing system just starts with a corporate blog and publish remarkable and share worthy content. Distribute this published content on the internet and in social media. Measure your results, improve your doings and you are on your track to success.

Infographic: Inbound Marketing

inbound-vs-outbound-infographic

Just to do it smarter you can save a lot of time and money when you use HubSpot to make you an inbound marketing rock star. They helped over 4000 companies to improve their revenue through HubSpot inbound marketing software.

Video: HubSpot

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SEO goes mobile and you should embrace this trend of location based marketing

The use of mobile devices is increasingly growing. Tablets and smart phones have become state of the art technology around the globe. People are consuming video, audio, social media, games, news, books and periodicals on the run.

By the growing use and demand of mobile apps people become more dependent of them. Popular services like Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon and other are using apps to stay in touch with their audience.

As their audience is actively using their apps when they are on the road the chance decrease that they separately open their browser to research on Google for products or serivces. They will use their location based services and the recently activated apps to discover, products, services, locations, deals and things they are interested in.

People are about three hours online on their mobile devices compared with one hour from their pc.

The more people research this way, the more the search engine research will decrease.

This trend is creating a growing demand for businesses to be visible in these services and their apps as well. Also to think about to produce own mobile apps to be and to stay connected to their audience.

What can a business do to participate from I call it “Mobile SEO”?

1st Register with all important location based services like Yelp, Foursquare, Neer, Loopt and SCVNGR. Engage here with your audience, build and customize these digital outposts.

2nd Be active in social media sites like Facebook, Linked, Twitter and others important to your audience.

3rd Jump start your mobile marketing the smart way. Collect the mobile phone numbers from your customers. Establish a database where you store all important information about them to later have the ability to custom tailor personalized messages to reach them the right and human way. Look out for a two SMS marketing software which enables you to do and to control your messages.


4th Get even smarter and develop your own mobile app for your audience. To get ideas look through the industries and get inspired how others have done it.

Infographic: Mobile Marketing

mobile-marketing-infographic

—-Tell me, does this also work for you?

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How to get more traffic and business leads with Google +1

get more traffic,business leads,Google +1,social media seoToday it is crucial to be active in social media to make your business more visible and this is no secret.

As major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are indexing social media content the chances increase for businesses to get found online when they publish remarkable content and distribute this content to social media where it can be shared and commented.

With the last step to start +1 button and Google profiles and pages for companies Google has opened a other opportunity for businesses to get their content indexed and improve their SEO the social media way.

When visitors of your content click the +1 button than anybody in their network can see what they like including their profile picture next to the +1 vote. Also its the same way with published content on Google profile and business pages.

When you have already shared your published content like blog articles, pictures, video, etc. on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others then you get a further powerful opportunity with the +1 button which you should use to become more visible.

How can you start to use Google + profile and page for your business?

A. If you have a Gmail account than go and register your Google+ profile and complete it. Insert all necessary information and customize your profile. Take care to use long tail keywords in your description.

B. When you are done with your personal Google plus profile than establish a Google business page. Insert all necessary information about your business. Take care to use long tail keywords in your description her as well.

C. Now let your friends know about your Google+ presence and invite them to your circles.

D. To step into conversation publish your content, information in your updates and ask for opinion. Comment on others updates and share them through the +1 button.

Your action and activities will drive awareness of you and your business and hopefully lead interested people to your blog, website and your offers.

Furthermore you got an additional chance to improve your visibility in the search engines through social SEO.

 

Infographic: Google+ VS. Facebook

social media seo

 —What do you think and how do you use Google + ?

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15 Ways to SMART Mobile Inbound Marketing for Restaurants

mobile restaurant marketing, sms marketing, local marketingThere are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 4.5 billion Own a mobile phone.

Gartner Group predicts, that by 2013 the number one way people will access the internet will be through their mobile devices.

70% of all mobile searches are acted upon within an hour vs. 30% of all traditional searches.

With mobile marketing you deliver your message directly to your customer. It’s like you spoken directly to him and he listen carefully what you say.

There is no question, if you are not active mobile than you miss large opportunities to make customers aware of your business. Take action before your competitor does.

Infographic: How Online Marketing Drives Offline Success

 

local marketing for restaurants

 

Domino’s iPad App: Makes & Delivers Custom Pizza

Starbucks Cup Magic

 

Custom iPhone Application for Restaurants

 

Presentation: Mobile Trends and Strategies

 

Infographic: Dining and Restaurant Reservation Trends

restaurant mobile marketing, restaurant apps

15 things you can do to empower mobile restaurant marketing:

  • 1. First of all, claim your business in the appropriate social media platforms and location-based applications.
  • 2. Mobilize your website and start using mobile media for your business.
  • 3. Start collecting mobile phone numbers from your customers and organize them in a database so you later send personalized SMS to them, to inform them about specials and news.
  • 4. Use QR Codes for promotions.
  • 5. Reward your first-time visitors
  • 6. Change deals often to stay attractive.
  • 7. Promote group check-ins. The more in a group, the better the deal
  • 8. Interact with customers. Make them accomplish a small task (Origami napkin) to redeem
  • 9. Promote to those checking-in nearby
  • 10. Encourage interactivity
  • 11. Keep yourself updated about mobile media and trends.
  • 12. Design a Smart Phone app for your business. (like the one from Starbucks or Domino’s)
  • 13. Run a mobile ad campaign
  • 14. Measure your results
  • 15. Improve what you do and repeat.

 

—What do you think?

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hubspot image Inbound Marketing the Easy Solution to get endless Business Leads

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How to use Inbound Marketing for your Coffee Bar

coffee shop, coffee barCoffee shops or coffee bars are not only places where you can buy a cup of fresh brew coffee but more some kind of social places to meet friends to sit together and chat.

More over coffee bars have become place where business people do meetings and also sit there with their notebook and do their work.

Coffee bars are also a great business and the only sector of gastronomy worldwide which is increasingly growing year over year.

Entrepreneurs can make good money when they operate a coffee shop or build a coffee chain like Starbucks and others worldwide have done. Here is a list of coffeehouse chains.

All successful businesses have one thing in common, they have great marketing and they care about their customers and coffee shops are no exemption.

As the coffee shop business offer great opportunities to make big money it also deserves special attention in different areas.

I do not now go to explain the different coffee beans now. I am talking about the opportunity which inbound marketing offer to a coffee shop.

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

To get customers your audience need to know that you exist and what you have to offer. So you need to get found!

When you start a new coffee bar it can make sense to use Groupon for the first six months to helps boost your revenue. But when the first six month are over you need to have a creative mindset to attract new customers and keep the actual coming back to you.

You should make your coffee shop visible on Google Places so people can find you and the best thing is, they can rate you and leave a comment. You also can encourage them to do this by rewarding them for comments and ratings.

You should also register in your local web based yellow pages. As search engines index content of yellow pages your information gets indexed as well.

Foursquare, Yelp and other rating sites which also target your area could be a got bet also.

Start your own blog where you write about the things your audience is interested in, share these articles on the web and in social media and ask for comments and suggestions.

Build social media outposts in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and related forums and participate in the discussions and groups there.

Look what big coffee shop chains do but do not try to copy them look through other industries how they do marketing to get inspired for yours and your customer loyalty program.

You need to build your own business DNA your unique brand and this goal you can only achieve when you do your thing.

Business-Social-Media

-Let me know what you think. I am looking forward to your comment.

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How to gain a competitive position for B2B with Mobile accessibility

mobile marketingMashable reported that LinkedIn has about 131 million users and that 13% of them access LinkedIn through mobile devices.

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network worldwide and has grown for about 63% compared with the last year.

An increasing number of professionals B2B are researching through their mobile devices. The mobile activity is increasing in B2B.

Millennial Media found out that Smartphone’s are responsible for 68% of website impressions. Also Millennial Media found out that mobile-social action Mix Up 39% month over month.

mobile marketing

Studies show that people surf on websites for about three hours from their mobile devices compared with one hour from their personal computer. Studies also show that actually about 260 million mobile devices are in use globally and this number is growing in a strong pace.

mobile website optimization

There is no question that growth in the B2C sector is much higher than in B2B. But keep in mind; consumers are also employed in companies can also be future B2B client. But only when you give the opportunity to know you and your company, means to offer a way to access your company information from a mobile device.

Now the question occurs how companies who are B2B oriented embrace these facts and how they plan to tune their marketing to stay competitive by simply being accessible through mobile devices, being accessible mobile for actual and future customers who research from their mobile devices for products and services your business also has to offer?

There are several indicators to keep an eye on the mobile marketing way.

  • 1. The mobile marketing spending is increasing.
  • 2. Smartphone’s have become state of the art and are dominating the mobile world.
  • 3. Tablet pc demand is also increasing.
  • 4. Mobile website optimization becomes more important.
  • 5. Location based mobile marketing has become a powerful way to connect with customers.
  • 6. Customers demand accessibility of information’s when they want and where they want.

 

Mobile usage is increasing and marketers must understand how their target audience is researching for information on the web. And they should create content to meet the needs of consumers which research the mobile way

Some stats:

  • – It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message. (Source: CTIA.org)
  • – There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs. (Source: Jupiter)

 

Infographic: Mobile Marketing B2B

mobile web, mobile marketing, mobile websites

— How do you deal with the increasing damand of customers to access your website on mobile devices? I am looking forward to your comment.

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Social Media can be thread to your reputation

why-reputation-managementCompanies engage increasingly in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other forums and platforms. They go to step into conversation with their audience to offer better service and support and to strengthen the band between actual and future customers.

Social media is a great way to grow brand awareness for the business and to expand the reach to get more customers. But social media can also be a trap for those who are not familiar with managing their reputation online.

Everything a company is communicating on the web and in social media can travel a far way and have an impact on the reputation of the brand.

On social media people are talking about your last blog article, your service, products, about you and your brand. With or without your involvement.

As content which is published on social media also can be indexed by the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing the chances are great that also the content you have distributed will appear in the search engines search results too.

For you it is important to know where you or your brand name has been mentioned so you can respond. Therefore your best strategy to keep a good reputation is also to be active where your target audience is talking about you. So you can respond professionally and show your opinion.

You should care about your online reputation as the web has a wider reach than small town gossip. Future business and future contacts will be influenced by what the people find about you on the web.

Your behavior on the web and what other say about you will affect your future for sure.

To keep a good reputation you need to take care of the WHAT, WHERE and the HOW.

WHAT do you publish on the web and in social media?

You should avoid do praise your products too much. Do not make the mistake to use social media as a distribution channel and overload your audience with dump sales pitches.

WHERE do you publish your content?

Publish content topics where they belong and where they are appreciated. Therefore you need to listen carefully to your audience and give them the information they demand.

HOW do you communicate?

Always communicate in a professional and friendly way. Try to be helpful and show expertise and avoid sounding like schoolmasterly.

How you present yourself on the web can win you business and respect. To achieve this you should take the time to establish a good digital branding and biography.

Infographic: Reputation Management

reputation management

–How do you protect your reputation on the web? Let me know what you think. I am looking forward to your comment.

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IBM Study reveals that social media is the Marketing Priority worldwide

Social Media brand messageA recent IBM study shows that 82% of CMOs worldwide are planning increase their technology investment in social media within the next three to five years.

These are interesting data. As social media evolves and more businesses jumping o this bandwagon it looks for me that three to five years are not an appropriate time frame to step into conversation with existing and future customers.

The more companies engage in social media two way communications the thinner the air becomes for those who start later. Those who come late will experience a massive uphill battle to gain positions which their competitors already have secured.

Companies which like to position their business to gain a competitive advantage need to act now, and not to wait three to five years.

Moreover companies who decide to take action within the next five years will be under risk to vanish from the customer radar and sink.

As social media is evolving at a very quick pace businesses also need to evolve to stay on track.

Content creation is the key to get found on the web. Your audience is researching o the web fist. If your audience can’t find you when they research for products or services which you also have to offer than you will lose potential business.

The three big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are indexing content form social media. So if you are in social media your chances increase to get found on the web.

What can you do to position your business today?

If you want to do business in the next five years and beyond you should take the opportunity to jump into social media as a valuable communication channel.

A. Register the most important social media networks for your brand as they are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare and any other sites or forums where your target audience is around.

B. Complete and customize your profiles there to have a social media branding to get recognized by your audience.

C. Listen to the social media conversation and contribute if you feel you have something valuable and helpful to say.

D. Start a corporate blog where you write about topics which your audience is interested in. Share your articles in your social media channels and ask your audience about their opinion.

E. Train you staff to become your brand ambassadors on the web and I social media and give them the freedom to decide how to communicate by establishing clear social media policy.

F. Measure your doings and check out what is working and what is not working. The things which work for your business you should intensify and the thing which do not work the way you have expected you should cut back.

G. Set realistic goals! Be realistic with your social media engagement. Rome wasn’t built in a day as well. Be patient as any strategy needs time to breathe to show up results and social media marketing a blogging are no exceptions.

Infographic: The ROI of Social Media

–How about you? What are your experiences with sociel media? I am looking forward to your comment below.

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Your competitor has increased his Internet marketing budget by 11 percent

increase_budget_for_social_media_marketingTraditional media budget are increasingly shifted to Internet/ Digital marketing! It is more than possible that also your competition is increasing their internet marketing and digital budgets. How about you?

Do you have an Internet/ Digital marketing strategy yet? Are you active in social media and do you actually have strong relations to your target audience?

According to Q3 2011 research from media buying solutions provider STRATA, companies are becoming just as focused on digital media as they are on spot TV.

If you take a closer look to these numbers below, than you can see that the trend is changing! The old school media like spot TV has lost 10% within nine months while the Internet/ Digital gain 11% of budget in the same time.

What does it mean to you? Yes, they shifted their budgets to Internet/ Digital and put a little bit more on top!

  • Spot TV                      Q1 2011 45% – Q2 2011 41% – Q3 2011 35%. This is a decrease of 10% within nine months.
  • Internet/ Digital Q1 2011 23% – Q2 2011 24% – Q3 2011 34%. This is an increase of 11% within nine months.

 

More and more companies shift their budgets to Internet/ Digital to increase reach and decrease marketing costs.

While Internet/ Digital marketing can be measured more reliable, the companies get the opportunity to exactly learn about the road their marketing dollars travel and to improve their marketing to get the best possible results.

As the competition increases the efforts to get seen from the target audience also increase. Companies who want to gain the competitive edge need to build strong relationships with their audience and show them they care.

As increasingly companies discover the power of internet and digital marketing, the air for errors, bad customer service or bad products becomes thinner.

Businesses who want to stay on the top of the game need to listen and to react in real-time. They need to be, thoughtful and accessible 24/7.

What can you do to stay on top of the game?

Do not look around what your competition is doing! Play your own game and walk your own way. Watch out to other industries to get ideas and inspiration o how to step into conversation with your audience.

Use your creativity to attract the attention of you audience. For example, you can do instructional video and post it on Youtube and your website and then share it in social media and ask for the opinion of your network. You can do a blog and you should be actively listening in social media.

Do not try to sell! Just be there, be helpful and show expertise. Then you will attract the right people to your offers automatically.

Measure what you do! If you have no numbers than you dependent on luck and guessing and this you should avoid. To make strong decisions you need strong data.

More important sources:

Agencies Report Clients Still Increasing Focus on Digital

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Studies: 65 percent of customers expect companies to be active on social media

social media marketingNew studies show that up to 65 percent of today’s consumers expect a brand to listen and to respond on questions, comments and complaints in social media.

With the massive increase of social media brands have also discovered these communication channels to get in touch with their audience. They communicate with existing and future customers, respond to questions and complaints and solve support requests in social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites.

Studies show that companies can increase brand value and customer satisfaction by up to 35% when they are actively engage and communicate with their audience on social media.

Sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn cumulate a total of more than one billion users! It seems that any person on the globe is active in one or more social networks. As the numbers of internet usage increase the numbers of social media use increase as well.

Customers appreciate when brands take time to listen and to respond to them in social media.

Seven business advantages of social media engagement:

  • 1. Increase customer perception in the marketplace.
  • 2. Build long term relationship with customers and partners.
  • 3. Can respond to customers in real-time.
  • 4. Taylor products and marketing campaigns based on customer preferences.
  • 5. React and resolve on negative buzz in real-time.
  • 6. Decreasing costs of marketing.
  • 7. Improved time to market for products and services.

 

By being active in social media company’s show that they care about their customers and that they are interested in their opinion. By taking this opportunity of interaction companies can be a massive step ahead of their competition.

Companies who hesitate or simply do not care to step into social media conversation simply show one thing, that they do not care about their customers.

As we are in times where information is under your fingertips any business can use social media to get in touch with their audience. And if companies hesitate to start alone and by them self there is a ton of skilled help out there to help them to get their social media marketing up and running, training their staff and implement working process to profit from social media marketing.

Companies which use social media actively to communicate with their audience are more successful than companies who do not.

David Meerman Scott made an analysis for his new book “Real-Time Marketing & PR” and discovered that companies which utilize social media actively in their business have on average 5% higher share prices on the stock exchange. Companies who do not use social media for business have on average 3% lower share prices.

It pays out to be active in social media!

social brand messaging

Start today to make social media marketing your catalyst for growth.

–How are your experiences with social media marketing for your business?

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Why you should love ugly Tweets and bad Facebook comments

i-love-social-mediaWhen businesses are thinking of to get into Twitter, and set up a Facebook business page they often are afraid what people can say about them. Maybe they could complain and other will see this and they could lose business and reputation.

But the opposite is the fact!

You should be thankful for everybody who is complaining on Twitter and Facebook. This gives you the opportunity to get in touch and to explain your position.

You better should be worried about the people who do not complain but turn away disappointed from your business and you don’t know why and how to reach them to get the issue fixed.

To simplify social media and to make it work by 100 % for your business you should include all people which work in you company to showcase what they do and to communicate with your customers.

This can be done trough a corporate network of blogs where anybody can write about any topic he or she interested in, independent from the company topics. The same way IBM already does.

You can also motivate the whole staff to Tweet and to get the word out about the company, news, events other interesting topics. The same way like Zappos does.

Activities like a corporate network of blogs, Twitter and Facebook can show a human site of our business and motivate future customers to get in touch with you. The recent customers can become “evangelist” for your business and become your most valuable asset in social media marketing!

To benefit from this tremendous business potential which social media offer to you, you should change your thinking and turn away from the dogma that you have to and must control any communication of your employees!

You need to have effective social media policies in place, train your staff and the most important TRUST your employees and show them that you are willing to hand over control to them.

You also need to ensure yourself that anybody in the company understands the responsibility which accompanies this strategic move! A great way is to establish a self reacting control based on trust where everybody is looking what the colleagues are doing to prevent mistakes.

If anybody misuse trust, than it works like in any other company and business where employees misuse good will. Say good bye to this one and go ahead to work with them who understand and are trustworthy.

Ask your employees to give 100 %, care the same way and take responsibility as you do. Leave them space to make their own decisions. And the one who don’t want to, fire them and look out for people who want!

infographic_brand-storytelling

Here are some ways you can deal with ugly messages in social media:

  • 1. Put the truth out for everybody to see it.
  • 2. Communicate with the person which puts up the negative comment.
  • 3. Be thankful for every customer which gives you a negative comment. He still wants to talk with you!
  • 4. Listen to your customers.
  • 5. Treat your customers ALWAYS with respect.
  • 6. Try to satisfy realistic requests.
  • 7. Show that you care, step back and express regret.
  • 8. Try to offer an alternative.
  • 9. Get into debate and state your point of view.
  • 10. Keep the conversation objective, polite, civil and honest.

As your conversation will stay online forever, anybody can see it and track how you have responded. This can rule about the way how the people perceive you and your business in the future. Keep this in mind!

—How do you deal with ugly Tweets and bad Facebook comments? I am looking forward to your comment.

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9 Ways How Chief Marketing Officers can Harness Social Media

social media for businessAn IBM study found study found out that about 26 % of chief marketing officers track blogs and only 40 % follow any online communications. And the most shocking is that about 82 % still rely on traditional “old school” market research to plan their marketing strategies.

As social media is two way communication and offer tremendous opportunities for companies to get in touch with their audience this seem like somebody has not activated the phone or fax while somebody is scared of communication!

Companies like Coca-Cola, Nike, DELL, and Starbucks, only to mention a few shows how important social media and the conversation is which is taking place there. Companies which engage their target audience in social media show them that they care and are willing to listen what their audience is talking!

As a business which is active in social media you get direct feedback for your product and the chance to improve and evolve them that way your audience wants to buy them.

Companies which embrace social media and the opportunity to step into conversation will be the winners, there is no question!

Studies prove that companies which transform their communication skills to social media gain more trust and strengthen their brand.

Here are some simple steps how companies can step into social media conversation!

1.) Create a social media policy. There are a lot of examples only which you can use to get ideas.

2.) Get active and build a corporate blog where you publish information about the topics your audience cares of.

3.) Spread those blog articles in social media like Twitter, Facebook and also in LinkedIn if you are B2B focused.

4.) Listen to the conversation in social media networks and if you have something beneficial to contribute do it, if not listen further.

5.) As you are in conversation keep the water cooking and ask open questions, ask for recommendations and critics and answer your audiences’ questions.

6.) Be always honest! Do not even try to hold something back.

7.) Be authentic! People forgive mistakes but they not forgive to be ripped so easily!

8.) When you get critics than deal with it in a professional way! Critics and complaints are great to step into discussion and show your point and to show that you care and are willing to improve your products and services.

9.) Measure your doings to learn where the social media conversation is leading your business.

As social media is no trend it will not vanish and Chief Marketing Officers should very quickly embrace this powerful communication channel.

b2b-social-media-marketing-infographic

If you still believe your audience is not in social media than prove this by doing research there for your industries top key words or for your competitors and you will see by yourself if other companies have already take action there to get in touch, maybe with your recent customers.

—What have been your experiences with social media for your company? I am looking forward to your feedback.

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Marketers struggle to harness social media – survey

 

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Is Google+ a good bet for your business?

google vs facebookWhen Google+ was launched some people had the opinion that it will destroy Facebook in a short time period. Within the first weeks which have been running under invitation only to get an Google+ account, Google+ as been able to register more than ten million users.

Some observer had the opinion that a big exodus from Facebook to G+ will happen and maybe Facebook had the same in mind when they begun to close loopholes to expert contacts to Google+.

But this has not happen. Sure users which use Facebook are also on G+ now but no exodus took place.

The last estimations about the number of G+ users go in a range of 40 million and up. With its 750 million and daily growing base of global users Facebook does not need to be scared of G+ yet.

Imagine you went several years back and had the chance to register with Facebook when they had about 40 million users. Can you imagine how big your possible network could grow and how far would be your brands range globally?

This is your chance now to turn the wheel of time several years back and get into the game. Probably this will be your last chance to become part of massively growing social network for the next ten years. Position your business now, before you competitor does!

google plus profile dragan mestrovic

G+ actually offer personal profiles only but is also experimenting with company profiles similar as Facebook Pages.

The best thing what you can do as a business person or marketer is to register a personal profile with G+ which is now open for everybody and help your employees and coworkers to do the same.

G+ is ruled by the social networking rules too!

Build relationships and communicate in a professional and beneficial way to your Circles! This will help you to increase the number of connection and when the day has come that you can register your business page on G+ than you hopefully have a large and influential audience with which you maintain good relationships. This could jumpstart your G+ Business Page in a very powerful way.

To take action now can make huge a difference for your business. As G+ and social media are no secrets anymore, simply any business is tried to get a share of the cake.

Businesses that wait will be left behind and have to fight an uphill battle reach a reasonable position, but will never overtaking those who came first. That’s for sure!

Here are some simple tips for you to take advantage of G+ NOW!

  • 1. Go to Google and register a G+.
  • 2. Complete your profile and upload a personal picture.
  • 3. Research who of your business partners and other connections is actually on G+ and invite them.
  • 4. Place the G+ widget on your website and blog so your visitors can use this as an opportunity to connect with from there.
  • 5. Look daily through your STREAM and see if you can contribute to your Circles news or if there are interesting information which you could share.
  • 6. When some of your Circles comment your info than this are you weak up call to start the conversation. Ask some open question.
  • 7. If you operate your own corporate or personal blog you could share your latest post in your STREAM.

 

And as you are waiting for the G+ Business Page to come you have the opportunity to get into G+, build your circles, expand your reach and set you and your business in advanced position. And this all with no pressure or any deadlines!

googleplus_facebook_infographic_small

–How about you, how do use G+ actually? I am looking forward to your comment.

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SHOCKING: How to Destroy your Business Reputation? BUY leads!

buy business leadsToday as I went through LinkedIn a group got my attention. It was the group about Online Lead Generation which I am a member of and where I contribute if there is a topic where I can help?

But today I went through the posts and I thought OMG, they are talking about buying leads. The word “Business Suicide” went through my brain.

Especially one provider caught my attention and I went to look into his background. This provider claimed to „generate thousands of real time leads in just about every vertical”!

Puhh I thought, this is a tough proposition and let’s see what’s behind them! I checked his website and guess what?

  • – An Alexa Rank of only 2,170,186 (means about 5 -10 unique visitors daily)
  • – 13 Google Indexed Pages (lesser pages means, lesser chances to get indexed and found on the search engines)
  • – Only 92 Backlinks (Qualified back links are one of the SEO strategies to get found, the more the better)
  • – No Corporate Blog (content marketing through blogging is the key to get found and to get leads)
  • – No presence in social media: no Facebook Business Page and no Twitter (43 percent of all online consumers are social media fans or followers, if you are not there you are missing them)
  • No Web DNA…. (maybe a ghost 😉 )

 

I asked him two question, I am curious if I will get any educated answer.

  • Q: How did you establish a business relationship to those leads?
  • Q: Why should those leads do business with the people who buy those leads from you?

 

Disussion Update

linkedin buy leads discussion

If you like to follow this discussion on LinkedIn, you can find it here.

Why did I done this you might ask?

Simple answer: I was shocked by that proposition made there and more shocked me that businesses believe this kind of fairytales and put their business on risk without to know what they are doing!

To buy leads is a waste of time and money and WILL harm the reputation of your business FOR SURE!

When you buy leads it is the same like you open the yellow pages and start cold calling from A-Z.

The people you reach do not know YOU, they did not requested to be contacted from YOU and they did not explained an interest in YOUR products and services previously!

By buying those leads – their addresses and bother those people you only show one thing, that your business has no USP and your products and services have no value for them.

You ask why?

If it would be the opposite you wouldn’t be dependent on paid leads! Instead of you would generate leads and customers automatically!

Boooom. You don’t like what I say!

So before you think about to pay for addresses, you should ask yourself why do you need to buy them and why do you not generate enough recommendations and leads from your existing customers actually?

To purchase leads is only a drip onto the hot stone. This will not solve your long-term issue and will not bring you closer to your business goals.

The opposite is the fact: The longer you depend on bought leads the more your chances will decrease to gain a competitive advantage!

Believe it or not you will loose business in the long term!

Stop buying leads and start build relationships. Build trust and credibility through content publishing (blogging) and two way conversations in social media. This is where you can generate highly valuable target leads with an PROVEN up to 55% conversion rate.

Start inbound marketing strategy by starting your own corporate blog ASAP!

69% of Businesses Attribute Blogging to Increased Leads [Data]

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

Inbound marketing can help you to:

  • A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget.
  • B. Stand out of your competition.
  • C. Generate a massive amount of leads.
  • D. Get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates.
  • E. Increase your customers and sales.

 

“Get seen and you get visited! “

Content-Marketing-Infographic

 

— How about you? How are your experiences with bought leads?

 

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